SANTA CLARA, Calif. -- The NASA Ames Research Center is known for establishing innovative partnerships and Pete Worden, the former Air Force general who serves as the Center’s director, is known as a maverick. Still, the latest joint venture to come to light has caught even some longtime NASA observers by surprise.
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San Quentin Prison Inmates Build Tiny Satellite Parts for NASA
If NASA's Mars Curiosity rover lands successfully, it will look for signs of habitability. The rover will also keep an eye on the weather.
When NASA's next Mars rover, Curiosity, arrives at the Red Planet next month, it will help pave the way for the humans that might one day follow.
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In addition to looking for signs of current and past habitability to extraterrestrial life, the rover, due to land Aug. 6, will learn more about whether Mars could be habitable for humans particularly in terms of its weather. The continuous record of Martian weather and radiation Curiosity plans to collect will help future forecasters tell humans should we choose to go how best to protect themselves in the harsh environment, experts say.
That's why NASA's Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate paid to include a radiation detector onboard the car-size Curiosity, the centerpiece of the Mars Science Laboratory mission, which is run by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
When we were designing Curiosity, we were going to use it for our habitability investigations as well, said Ashwin Vasavada, MSL's deputy project scientist. But it really is paid for and intended to understand the environment humans will experience on Mars.
The $2.5 billion rover launched Nov. 26, 2011. It is designed to work for at least two years on Mars.
Curiosity will sample the Martian environment every hour through two main instruments: a meteorology station and a radiation detector. The instruments will run even when the rover is sleeping, during the Martian night, to provide a continual stream of data. [Mars Rover Curiosity's Landing Site: Gale Crater (Infographic)]
The Radiation Assessment Detector (RAD), in fact, began running during Curiosity's eight-month journey to Mars. Radiation from the sun and galactic cosmic rays occur throughout the solar system, meaning that humans would be exposed to elevated radiation from the moment they leave Earth's cradling magnetic field. Understanding how much radiation would bombard the spacecraft is the first step to learning how we can shield humans against it.
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A NASA report describing an "unprecedented" instance of ice melting in Greenland has sparked a new debate about global warming and has elicited accusations that the space agency has become politicized where climate science is concerned.
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If NASA's Mars Curiosity rover lands successfully, it will look for signs of habitability. The rover will also keep an eye on the weather.
When NASA's next Mars rover, Curiosity, arrives at the Red Planet next month, it will help pave the way for the humans that might one day follow.
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Click Here for your FREE 30 DAYS of The Christian Science Monitor Weekly Digital Edition
In addition to looking for signs of current and past habitability to extraterrestrial life, the rover, due to land Aug. 6, will learn more about whether Mars could be habitable for humans particularly in terms of its weather. The continuous record of Martian weather and radiation Curiosity plans to collect will help future forecasters tell humans should we choose to go how best to protect themselves in the harsh environment, experts say.
That's why NASA's Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate paid to include a radiation detector onboard the car-size Curiosity, the centerpiece of the Mars Science Laboratory mission, which is run by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
When we were designing Curiosity, we were going to use it for our habitability investigations as well, said Ashwin Vasavada, MSL's deputy project scientist. But it really is paid for and intended to understand the environment humans will experience on Mars.
The $2.5 billion rover launched Nov. 26, 2011. It is designed to work for at least two years on Mars.
Curiosity will sample the Martian environment every hour through two main instruments: a meteorology station and a radiation detector. The instruments will run even when the rover is sleeping, during the Martian night, to provide a continual stream of data. [Mars Rover Curiosity's Landing Site: Gale Crater (Infographic)]
The Radiation Assessment Detector (RAD), in fact, began running during Curiosity's eight-month journey to Mars. Radiation from the sun and galactic cosmic rays occur throughout the solar system, meaning that humans would be exposed to elevated radiation from the moment they leave Earth's cradling magnetic field. Understanding how much radiation would bombard the spacecraft is the first step to learning how we can shield humans against it.
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NASA is sending synthetic 'Martian' rocks to eight cities in its national 'Get Curious'campaign to promote the Curiosity Mars Rover, which is scheduled to touch down on the Red Planet on Aug. 6.
A set of synthetic Mars rocks will be making a national tour next week to promote the upcoming landing of NASA's giant new rover on the Red Planet.
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The tour is part of a campaign called "Get Curious" that was created to honor the new Curiosity Mars rover, the main element of the Mars Science Laboratory mission, which is due to land on our neighboring world Aug. 6. The $2.5 billion rover is designed to spend at least two years on Mars searching for clues that Mars may have been habitable to life at some point.
"Get Curious" will send large boulders manufactured to look like Martian rocks to eight U.S. cities between July 26 and Aug. 9. No rocks have ever been brought back to Earth from the Red Planet, but these large synthetic constructions are designed to resemble the real thing as closely as possible.
The rocks will visit Atlanta; Austin, Texas; Boston; Detroit; Columbus, Ohio; Houston; Indianapolis; and Orlando.
"We are excited that Columbus was designated a 'Mars City,' and that COSI can be a part of the 'Get Curious' campaign," said Joshua Sarver, senior director of experience design and production at the Center of Science and Industry (COSI), the stop location in Columbus, in a statement. "We continually think of ways to captivate our visitors at COSI, and we think the Mars rock in front of the center will attract a lot of attention and pique interest. We are pleased to be able to show our support for the Curiosity rover landing and continue to help raise awareness for scientific discovery and space exploration."
Each ersatz Mars rock will be emblazoned with the URL http://www.GetCurious.com and a QR code plaque directing people to the campaign's website. The project is sponsored by Explore Mars, a Mars exploration outreach nonprofit, and rocket company United Launch Alliance, which built the Atlas V-541 rocket that launched Curiosity toward Mars in November 2011.
"We at Explore Mars look forward to celebrating the Curiosity landing with not only the space community, but also the general public," said Chris Carberry, executive director of Explore Mars. "This mission will give us insights into whether Mars has, or ever had, conditions favorable to microbial life as well as the possibilities of future human exploration on Mars. We hope this and other space exploration initiatives will inspire Americans of all ages to reach further and dream bigger." [Photos: How Curiosity's Nail-Biting Landing Works]
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A NASA telescope snapped the best-ever images of the sun's million-degree outer atmosphere during a brief spaceflight this month, agency officials say.
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NASA's next-generation rocket, a behemoth of a booster expected to launch astronauts deeper into space than ever before, has passed a major design milestone, space agency officials announced Wednesday (July 25).
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The three-mile-tall Mount Sharp is an inviting target for investigation by NASA's one-ton Mars rover, which is scheduled to touch down on the Red Planet on Aug. 5.
The towering mountain that NASA's next Mars rover will explore after landing on the Red Planet next month remains mysterious to scientists, who say there's nothing quite like it here on Earth.
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Mount Sharp rises 3 miles (5 kilometers) from the center of Mars' huge Gale Crater, where the car-sizeCuriosity roverwill touch down on the night of Aug. 5. Curiosity scientists are eager to study the mountain, whose many layers preserve a record of the Red Planet's changing environmental conditions going back perhaps a billion years or more.
Curiosity's rovings could also help the team understand howMount Sharpformed, because they're not entirely sure.
"In one go, you have flat-lying strata that are 5 kilometers thick. There's nothing like that on Earth," said Curiosity lead scientist John Grotzinger, of Caltech in Pasadena. "We don't really know what's going on there." [Curiosity - The SUV of Mars Rovers]
The 1-ton Curiosity rover is the centerpiece of NASA's $2.5 billion Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) mission, which launched in late November. MSL's main goal is to determine if theGale Craterarea is, or ever was, capable of supporting microbial life.
To get at this question, Curiosity will investigate the different layers of Mount Sharp, which is taller than any peak in the continental United States.
Life as we know it depends on liquid water. So the rover will probably spend a lot of time poking around Mount Sharp's lower reaches, whereMars-orbiting spacecraft have spotted signs of minerals that form in the presence of water, such as clays and sulfates.
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NASA's Curiosity rover to explore bizarre Martian mountain (+video)
The three-mile-tall Mount Sharp is an inviting target for investigation by NASA's one-ton Mars rover, which is scheduled to touch down on the Red Planet on Aug. 5.
The towering mountain that NASA's next Mars rover will explore after landing on the Red Planet next month remains mysterious to scientists, who say there's nothing quite like it here on Earth.
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Click Here for your FREE 30 DAYS of The Christian Science Monitor Weekly Digital Edition
Mount Sharp rises 3 miles (5 kilometers) from the center of Mars' huge Gale Crater, where the car-sizeCuriosity roverwill touch down on the night of Aug. 5. Curiosity scientists are eager to study the mountain, whose many layers preserve a record of the Red Planet's changing environmental conditions going back perhaps a billion years or more.
Curiosity's rovings could also help the team understand howMount Sharpformed, because they're not entirely sure.
"In one go, you have flat-lying strata that are 5 kilometers thick. There's nothing like that on Earth," said Curiosity lead scientist John Grotzinger, of Caltech in Pasadena. "We don't really know what's going on there." [Curiosity - The SUV of Mars Rovers]
The 1-ton Curiosity rover is the centerpiece of NASA's $2.5 billion Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) mission, which launched in late November. MSL's main goal is to determine if theGale Craterarea is, or ever was, capable of supporting microbial life.
To get at this question, Curiosity will investigate the different layers of Mount Sharp, which is taller than any peak in the continental United States.
Life as we know it depends on liquid water. So the rover will probably spend a lot of time poking around Mount Sharp's lower reaches, whereMars-orbiting spacecraft have spotted signs of minerals that form in the presence of water, such as clays and sulfates.
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NASA's Mars Odyssey spacecraft passes above Mars' south pole in this artist's concept illustration. Credit: NASA
PASADENA, Calif., July 25 (UPI) -- NASA says it has adjusted the orbit of its Mars Odyssey spacecraft to provide a more prompt confirmation of the August landing of the Curiosity rover.
The Mars Science Laboratory spacecraft carrying Curiosity can send limited information directly to Earth, but before the landing, Earth will set below the martian horizon from the descending spacecraft's perspective, ending that direct route of communication, the space agency reported Wednesday.
Re-positioning Odyssey will help to speed up the indirect communication process, scientists said, noting that without the orbital adjustment Odyssey would have arrived over the landing area about 2 minutes after Curiosity's scheduled landing.
"Information we are receiving indicates the maneuver has completed as planned," said Mars Odyssey Project Manager Gaylon McSmith of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "Odyssey has been working at Mars longer than any other spacecraft, so it is appropriate that it has a special role in supporting the newest arrival."
Two other Mars orbiters, NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and the European Space Agency's Mars Express, will also receive radio transmissions from the Mars Science Laboratory during its descent but will be recording information for later playback, NASA said.
Only Odyssey can relay the information immediately, the agency said.
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WASHINGTON -- The rocket that will launch humans farther into space than ever before passed a major NASA review Wednesday. The Space Launch System (SLS) Program completed a combined System Requirements Review and System Definition Review, which set requirements of the overall launch vehicle system. SLS now moves ahead to its preliminary design phase.
The SLS will launch NASA's Orion spacecraft and other payloads, and provide an entirely new capability for human exploration beyond low Earth orbit.
These NASA reviews set technical, performance, cost and schedule requirements to provide on-time development of the heavy-lift rocket. As part of the process, an independent review board comprised of technical experts from across NASA evaluated SLS Program documents describing vehicle specifications, budget and schedule. The board confirmed SLS is ready to move from concept development to preliminary design.
"This new heavy-lift launch vehicle will make it possible for explorers to reach beyond our current limits, to nearby asteroids, Mars and its moons, and to destinations even farther across our solar system," said William Gerstenmaier, associate administrator for the Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "The in-depth assessment confirmed the basic vehicle concepts of the SLS, allowing the team to move forward and start more detailed engineering design."
The reviews also confirmed the SLS system architecture and integration with the Orion spacecraft, managed by NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, and the Ground Systems Development and Operations Program, which manage the operations and launch facilities at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
"This is a pivotal moment for this program and for NASA," said SLS Program Manager Todd May. "This has been a whirlwind experience from a design standpoint. Reaching this key development point in such a short period of time, while following the strict protocol and design standards set by NASA for human spaceflight is a testament to the team's commitment to delivering the nation's next heavy-lift launch vehicle."
SLS reached this major milestone less than 10 months after the program's inception. The combination of the two assessments represents a fundamentally different way of conducting NASA program reviews. The SLS team is streamlining processes to provide the nation with a safe, affordable and sustainable heavy-lift launch vehicle capability. The next major program milestone is the preliminary design review, targeted for late next year.
The first test flight of NASA's Space Launch System, which will feature a configuration for a 70-metric-ton (77-ton) lift capacity, is scheduled for 2017. As SLS evolves, a three-stage launch vehicle configuration will provide a lift capability of 130 metric tons (143 tons) to enable missions beyond low Earth orbit and support deep space exploration.
NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., manages the SLS program. Across the country NASA and its industry partners continue to make progress on SLS hardware that will be integrated into the final design. The RS-25 core stage and J-2X upper-stage rocket engine in development by Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne of Canoga Park, Calif., for the future two-stage SLS, will be tested at NASA's Stennis Space Center in Mississippi. The prime contractor for the five-segment solid rocket boosters, ATK of Brigham City, Utah, has begun processing its first SLS boosters in preparation for an initial qualification test next year, ahead of their use for the first two exploration missions. The Boeing Co. in Huntsville is designing the SLS core stage, to be built at NASA's Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans and tested at Stennis before being shipped to Kennedy.
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NASA'S Space Launch System Passes Major Agency Review, Moves to Preliminary Design
NASA scientists say that the Mars Curiosity rover's audacious August 5landing plan, which involves a hypersonic parachute, retrorockets, and a hovering 'sky crane' system is exactly what is needed for the $2.5 billion rover.
Many have been fretting about the seemingly implausible, risky landing strategy of the new Mars rover Curiosity set to arrive on the Red Planet next month, but engineers say the worry is overblown.
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Curiosity, the Mini Cooper-size centerpiece of NASA's Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) mission, is due to be lowered onto the Martian surface by a hovering Sky Crane holding it up via tethers. Despite the audacity of the concept, many aerospace engineers say the plan is solid.
"I agree it looks scary, it looks risky, but it's technically sound," said Georgia Institute of Technology professor Bobby Braun, who served as NASA chief technologist from 2010-2011. Braun was not part of the engineering team, based at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., that designed the Curiosity landing system. "In my view, it's not risky, it's actually the right way to land the system they're trying to land."
The new $2.5 billion rover is designed to analyze samples of Mars rock for signs that our planetary neighbor is, or ever was, habitable to life. Weighing in at 1 ton, Curiosity is too heavy to land with the assistance of cushioning airbags, like NASA's previous two Mars rovers, Spirit and Opportunity.
Instead, parachutes will slow the MSL descent stage toward Mars at first. Then, the descent stage will use rocket engines to dampen its speed further. Finally, at about 115 feet (35 meters) above the surface, the Sky Crane system will lower Curiosity, wheels-down, toward the ground, attached to nylon tethers. The rover is designed to be gently settled on the surface, after which the Sky Crane will detach and fly off to land a distance away. [How Curiosity's Nail-Biting Landing Works (Pictures)]
The plan requires a large number of sophisticated parts to work impeccably, and is utterly different than any previous mechanism used to land a machine on another planet, prompting some to charge that it's a scheme Rube Goldberg would have approved.
"A lot of people seem skeptical of it. I'm not," said Stephen Gorevan, chairman of New York City robotics firm Honeybee Robotics, which built Curiosity's internal Sample Manipulation System, but wasn't involved with the landing strategy. "I just think, the thing has been so tested. I see the electromechanical elements, I'm an engineer, I see at least each individual element of the scheme seems very reliable to me. It's new, it's daring, but I see it working."
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Mars rover's crazy-looking landing plan is technically sound, says NASA (+video)
Separately, NASA officials declined to estimate the odds for a successful landing next month.
Just before the attempt to land the Mars Science Laboratory carrying Curiosity on Aug. 6, mission managers said Earth will be positioned below the Martian horizon as the spacecraft descends toward its landing site near Gale Crater. While the spacecraft can send limited data as it approaches the thin Martian atmosphere, the repositioned Odyssey spacecraft that has been orbiting Mars since 2001 is now in a better position to relay confirmation of a landing back to NASA controllers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL, Pasadena, Calif.).
Without the repositioning maneuver on Tuesday (July 24), NASA officials said Odyssey would have arrived over Curiositys landing site about two minutes after a sky crane tries to lower it to the surface. A six second thruster burn moved Odyssey about six minutes ahead to align its orbital pass with the planned landing site.
Mission managers previously reported that Odyssey had unexpectedly entered a safe mode on July 11, raising concerns about how long it would take to receive confirmation of a landing. The issue has since been resolved, and NASA said Odyssey is now operating normally.
Confirmation of Curiositys scheduled landing on Mars is expected to reach Earth at 1:31 a.m. eastern time on Aug. 6. Two other spacecraft NASAs Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and the European Space Agencys Mars Express will record radio transmission for later playback. Only Odyssey will be in a position to relay information in near real time, NASA said.
In preparation for the risky landing attempt that marks the first time a sky crane will be used to lower the SUV-sized rover to the surface, mission managers also said they had completed a week-long process of rebooting and configuring the spacecrafts two redundant main computers. The uplink included spacecraft configuration parameters for entering the Martian atmosphere, descent, landing and surface operations.
Earlier this week, engineers began configuring Curiositys navigation system in advance of the landing attempt. That step involved configuration of two inertial measurement units on the spacecrafts descent stage.
Given the unprecedented size and weight of the Curiosity rover, NASA engineers were forced to come up with a risky sky crane technique to land on Mars. Onboard computers will be required to automatically execute a series of complex commands during the approximately seven minutes it will take for the spacecraft carrying Curiosity to descend through the atmosphere to the Martian surface.
Ask if mission planners had calculated the chances for success, JPL spokesman Guy Webster replied: No. Important risks are the unknowns, which resist calculating. Related story:
Video: '7 minutes of terror' for next Mars probe
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NASA announced the 11-year-old Mars Odyssey, which recently suffered a malfunction, has been successfully positioned to provide confirmation of Curiosity's August 5landing.
NASA has successfully moved one of its Mars-orbiting spacecraft into a new position to provide prompt confirmation of the upcoming Aug. 5 landing of the new Curiosity rover on the Red Planet.
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The 11-year-oldMars Odyssey probe performed a six-second thruster burn Tuesday (July 24) that nudged it six minutes ahead in its orbit, NASA officials said. The manuever placed Odyssey in a prime spot to receive signals from the Curiosity rover when it streaks toward the Martian surface, and to relay news of the rover's landing back to Earth.
"Information we are receiving indicates the maneuver has completed as planned," Mars Odyssey project manager Gaylon McSmith, of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., said in a statement. "Odyssey has been working at Mars longer than any other spacecraft, so it is appropriate that it has a special role in supporting the newest arrival."
The move marks something of a comeback for Odyssey, which in early June suffered a malfunction on one of its reaction wheels, instruments that help control the probe's orientation in space. The glitch caused Odyssey to go into a precautionary safe mode on July 11, which in turn affected its orbit.
As a result, officials weren't sure whether Odyssey would be in the right spot during the 1-ton Curiosity rover's touchdown. Without the corrective engine burn, Odyssey would have arrived over Curiosity's landing site the enormous Gale Crater about two minutes after the rover touched down, officials said.
Curiosity, the centerpiece of NASA's $2.5 billion Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) mission, will investigate whether the Gale area is, or ever was, capable of supporting microbial life.
Its landing is inspiring perhaps more nervousness than most other planetary touchdowns. Because Curiosity is so big, MSL engineers had to devise a new landing method for the rover. They settled on a rocket-powered sky crane, which will lower Curiosity to the Martian surface on cables before flying off and intentionally crash-landing a short distance away. [How Curiosity's Nail-Biting Landing Works (Pictures)]
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Odyssey successfully positioned for new Mars Rover's landing, NASA says
NASA has successfully moved one of its Mars-orbiting spacecraft into a new position to provide prompt confirmation of the upcoming Aug. 5 landing of the new Curiosity rover on the Red Planet.
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July 25, 2012 - Using NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope, astronomers have found evidence of planet two-thirds size of Earth, which leads experts to believe telescope can be used to help discover potentially habitable, terrestrial-sized worlds. Object is called UCF-1.01 and is 33 light years away. Finding is published in paper, "Identifying nearby small planets such as UCF-1.01 may one day lead to their characterization using future instruments," accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal. NASA NASA Ames Reseach Center Moffett Field, CA, 94035 USA Press release date: July 18, 2012
WASHINGTON - Astronomers using NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope have detected what they believe is a planet two-thirds the size of Earth. The exoplanet candidate, called UCF-1.01, is located a mere 33 light-years away, making it possibly the nearest world to our solar system that is smaller than our home planet.
Exoplanets circle stars beyond our sun. Only a handful smaller than Earth have been found so far. Spitzer has performed transit studies on known exoplanets, but UCF-1.01 is the first ever identified with the telescope, pointing to a possible role for Spitzer in helping discover potentially habitable, terrestrial-sized worlds.
"We have found strong evidence for a very small, very hot and very near planet with the help of the Spitzer Space Telescope," said Kevin Stevenson from the University of Central Florida in Orlando. Stevenson is lead author of the paper, which has been accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal. "Identifying nearby small planets such as UCF-1.01 may one day lead to their characterization using future instruments."
The hot new planet candidate was found unexpectedly in Spitzer observations. Stevenson and his colleagues were studying the Neptune-sized exoplanet GJ 436b, already known to exist around the red-dwarf star GJ 436. In the Spitzer data, the astronomers noticed slight dips in the amount of infrared light streaming from the star, separate from the dips caused by GJ 436b. A review of Spitzer archival data showed the dips were periodic, suggesting a second planet might be blocking out a small fraction of the star's light.
This technique, used by a number of observatories including NASA's Kepler space telescope, relies on transits to detect exoplanets. The duration of a transit and the small decrease in the amount of light registered reveals basic properties of an exoplanet, such as its size and distance from its star. In UCF-1.01's case, its diameter would be approximately 5,200 miles (8,400 kilometers), or two-thirds that of Earth. UCF-1.01 would revolve quite tightly around GJ 436, at about seven times the distance of the Earth from the moon, with its "year" lasting only 1.4 Earth days. Given this proximity to its star, far closer than the planet Mercury is to our sun, the exoplanet's surface temperature would be more than 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit (almost 600 degrees Celsius).
If the roasted, diminutive planet candidate ever had an atmosphere, it almost surely has evaporated. UCF-1.01 might therefore resemble a cratered, mostly geologically dead world like Mercury. Paper co-author Joseph Harrington, also of the University of Central Florida and principal investigator of the research, suggested another possibility; that the extreme heat of orbiting so close to GJ 436 has melted the exoplanet's surface.
"The planet could even be covered in magma," Harrington said.
In addition to UCF-1.01, Stevenson and his colleagues noticed hints of a third planet, dubbed UCF-1.02, orbiting GJ 436. Spitzer has observed evidence of the two new planets several times each. However, even the most sensitive instruments are unable to measure exoplanet masses as small as UCF-1.01 and UCF-1.02, which are perhaps only one-third the mass of the Earth. Because knowing the mass is required for confirming a discovery, the paper authors are cautiously calling both bodies exoplanet candidates for now.
Of the approximately 1,800 stars identified by Kepler as candidates for having planetary systems, just three are verified to contain sub-Earth-sized exoplanets. Of these, only one exoplanet is thought to be smaller than the Spitzer candidates, with a radius similar to Mars, or 57 percent that of Earth.
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NASA's Spitzer Finds Evidence for an Exoplanet Smaller Than Earth
NASA's Mars Odyssey spacecraft has successfully adjusted its orbital location to be in a better position to provide prompt confirmation of the August landing of the Curiosity rover.
The Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) spacecraft carrying Curiosity can send limited information directly to Earth as it enters Mars' atmosphere. Before the landing, Earth will set below the Martian horizon from the descending spacecraft's perspective, ending that direct route of communication. Odyssey will help to speed up the indirect communication process.
NASA reported during a July 16 news conference that Odyssey, which originally was planned to provide a near-real-time communication link with Curiosity, had entered safe mode July 11. This situation would have affected communication operations, but not the rover's landing. Without a repositioning maneuver, Odyssey would have arrived over the landing area about two minutes after Curiosity landed.
A spacecraft thruster burn Tuesday lasting about six seconds has nudged Odyssey about six minutes ahead in its orbit. Odyssey now is operating normally, and confirmation of Curiosity's landing is expected to reach Earth at about 10:31 p.m. PDT Aug. 5, as originally planned.
"Information we are receiving indicates the maneuver has been completed as planned," said Gaylon McSmith, Mars Odyssey project manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), in Pasadena, Calif. "Odyssey has been working at Mars longer than any other spacecraft, so it is appropriate that it has a special role in supporting the newest arrival."
Two other Mars orbiters, NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) and the European Space Agency's Mars Express, also will be in position to receive radio transmissions from MSL during its descent. However, they will be recording information for later playback. Only Odyssey can relay information immediately.
Odyssey arrived at Mars in 2001. In addition to its own scientific observations, it has served as a communications relay for NASA's Spirit and Opportunity Mars rovers and the Phoenix lander. Spirit and Phoenix are no longer operational. Odyssey and MRO will provide communication relays for Curiosity during the rover's two-year prime mission.
Odyssey and MSL, with its Curiosity rover, are managed by JPL for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. Curiosity was designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The Odyssey spacecraft is operated by JPL and Lockheed Martin in Denver. Lockheed Martin Space Systems in Denver built Odyssey.
For more information about Mars Odyssey, visit: http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/odyssey
For information about the Curiosity landing and other NASA Mars missions, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/mars
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NASA Mars Odyssey Repositioned to Relay Mars Science Laboratory Landing Data
NASA scientists say that the Mars Curiosity rover's audacious August 5landing plan, which involves a hypersonic parachute, retrorockets, and a hovering 'sky crane' system is exactly what is needed for the $2.5 billion rover.
Many have been fretting about the seemingly implausible, risky landing strategy of the new Mars rover Curiosity set to arrive on the Red Planet next month, but engineers say the worry is overblown.
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Curiosity, the Mini Cooper-size centerpiece of NASA's Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) mission, is due to be lowered onto the Martian surface by a hovering Sky Crane holding it up via tethers. Despite the audacity of the concept, many aerospace engineers say the plan is solid.
"I agree it looks scary, it looks risky, but it's technically sound," said Georgia Institute of Technology professor Bobby Braun, who served as NASA chief technologist from 2010-2011. Braun was not part of the engineering team, based at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., that designed the Curiosity landing system. "In my view, it's not risky, it's actually the right way to land the system they're trying to land."
The new $2.5 billion rover is designed to analyze samples of Mars rock for signs that our planetary neighbor is, or ever was, habitable to life. Weighing in at 1 ton, Curiosity is too heavy to land with the assistance of cushioning airbags, like NASA's previous two Mars rovers, Spirit and Opportunity.
Instead, parachutes will slow the MSL descent stage toward Mars at first. Then, the descent stage will use rocket engines to dampen its speed further. Finally, at about 115 feet (35 meters) above the surface, the Sky Crane system will lower Curiosity, wheels-down, toward the ground, attached to nylon tethers. The rover is designed to be gently settled on the surface, after which the Sky Crane will detach and fly off to land a distance away. [How Curiosity's Nail-Biting Landing Works (Pictures)]
The plan requires a large number of sophisticated parts to work impeccably, and is utterly different than any previous mechanism used to land a machine on another planet, prompting some to charge that it's a scheme Rube Goldberg would have approved.
"A lot of people seem skeptical of it. I'm not," said Stephen Gorevan, chairman of New York City robotics firm Honeybee Robotics, which built Curiosity's internal Sample Manipulation System, but wasn't involved with the landing strategy. "I just think, the thing has been so tested. I see the electromechanical elements, I'm an engineer, I see at least each individual element of the scheme seems very reliable to me. It's new, it's daring, but I see it working."
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Mars rover's crazy-looking landing plan is technically sound, says NASA
July 24, 2012
Lee Rannals for redOrbit.com Your Universe Online
A new NASA supercomputer will help take the space agency into a new chapter of discovery through enhanced Landsat observations.
NASA is making the NEX facility available to the research community for further research and development after extensive development and testing.
The new facility is a virtual laboratory that will allow scientists to tackle Earth science challenges with global high-resolution satellite observations.
Because of the large volume of high-resolution Landsat data, scientists who wanted to study the planet as a whole prior to NEX needed to invest tremendous amounts of time and effort to develop high-end computational methods rather than focus on important scientific problems, Tsengdar Lee, high-end computing program manager at NASA Headquarters in Washington, said in a press release. NEX greatly simplifies researchers access to and analysis of high-resolution data like Landsat.
The new facility will contain a large collection of global data sets and analysis tools from NASA, according to the space agency. Some of the data will include surface weather records, topography, soils, land cover and global climate simulations.
Scientists can fit Landsat scenes together like a jigsaw puzzle to create snapshots of global vegetation patterns that contain over a half-trillion pixels in less than 10 hours, according to NASA.
The science community is under increasing pressure not only to study recent and projected changes in climate that likely impact our global environment and natural resources, but also to design solutions to mitigate, or cope, with the likely impacts, Rama Nemani, a senior Earth scientist at NASAs Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, California, said in a press release. We want to change the research paradigm by bringing large data holdings and supercomputing capabilities together, so researchers have everything they need in one place.
NEX combines Earth-system modeling, remote-sensing data from NASA and other agencies, and a scientific social networking platform to deliver a complete research environment.
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NASA Supercomputer Facility To Provide Enhanced Landsat Data
23-07-2012 08:59 The Landsat program is the longest continuous global record of Earth observations from space -- ever. On July 23, 1972 NASA launched the first satellite in this program, then known as ERTS, the Earth Resources Technology Satellite and later renamed Landsat 1. In honor of today (Monday, July 23, 2012) being the 40th birthday of Landsat, NASA edited together selections of an archive video from 1973 about the ERTS launch. Featured in this 1973 video was a senior geologist at NASA, Nicholas Short, and at Dartmouth College, Robert Simpson and David Lindgren. NASA and the US Department of the Interior through the US Geological Survey (USGS) jointly manage Landsat, and the USGS preserves a 40-year archive of Landsat images that is freely available over the Internet. The next Landsat satellite, now known as the Landsat Data Continuity Mission (LDCM) and later to be called Landsat 8, is scheduled for launch in 2013. This video is public domain and can be downloaded at: Like our videos? Subscribe to NASA's Goddard Shorts HD podcast: Or find NASA Goddard Space Flight Center on Facebook: Or find us on Twitter:
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