Nasa scientists have given more details about their Mars mission which is searching for life beyond Earth.
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NASA has big plans for future Mars rover
FARNBOROUGH, England A possible rover mission to Mars within the next eight years may rely on a larger parachutes, atomic clocks and inflatable decelerators, NASA's Mars exploration chief says.
With a large NASA rover only weeks away from arriving at the Red Planet, NASA's Doug McCuistion outlined ideas for another, far less expensive Martian mission in 2018 or 2020.
The inflatable decelerators, also known as ballutes, and big parachutes would help the spacecraft reduce its speed through the Martian atmosphere, while the atomic clocks would improve its landing accuracy, McCuistion announced Tuesday (July 10) at the Farnborough International Airshow here.
NASA expects to have up to $800 million to spend on the mission. That's a far cry from the $2.5 billion the agency is spending on its 1-ton Curiosity rover, which is due to land on the Red Planet Aug. 5.
"That price point [$800 million] is frankly around the point of a Discovery mission," McCuistion told SPACE.com. "Those missions tend to be characterized by simple systems, not too challenging." [ The Best (And Worst) Mars Landings in History ]
McCuisition added that he likely wont have the budget to fund the ballutes, parachutes and atomic clocks. Instead, NASAs Office of the Chief Technologist probably would pay for them.
For its Mars missions NASA is still using parachutes based on the design of the 1970s Viking landers. Those old-school chutes are 69 feet (21 meters) wide; the 2018 or 2020 mission would employ a 98-foot-wide (30 m) chute with a design that produces far more drag.
Working within the budget The lower price tag for a 2018 or 2020 mission reflects NASA's efforts to find a way forward in tough fiscal times. President Barack Obama's proposed 2013 federal budget, which was released in February, slashes NASA planetary science funding by 20 percent, with much of that coming out of the Mars program.
The cuts led NASA to withdraw from the European Space Agency-led ExoMars mission, which aims to send an orbiter and rover to the Red Planet in 2016 and 2018, respectively.
In response to its new budget situation, NASA asked scientists for ideas on how to explore Mars on the cheap. The most promising of these proposals were presented at a workshop at the Lunar and Planetary Institute in Houston in late June.
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NASA's Car-sized Rover Nears Daring Landing on Mars
WASHINGTON -- NASA's most advanced planetary rover is on a precise course for an early August landing beside a Martian mountain to begin two years of unprecedented scientific detective work. However, getting the Curiosity rover to the surface of Mars will not be easy.
"The Curiosity landing is the hardest NASA mission ever attempted in the history of robotic planetary exploration," said John Grunsfeld, associate administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "While the challenge is great, the team's skill and determination give me high confidence in a successful landing."
The Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) mission is a precursor mission for future human mission to Mars. President Obama has set a challenge to reach the Red Planet in the 2030s.
To achieve the precision needed for landing safely inside Gale Crater, the spacecraft will fly like a wing in the upper atmosphere instead of dropping like a rock. To land the 1-ton rover, an air-bag method used on previous Mars rovers will not work. Mission engineers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, Calif., designed a "sky crane" method for the final several seconds of the flight. A backpack with retro-rockets controlling descent speed will lower the rover on three nylon cords just before touchdown.
During a critical period lasting only about seven minutes, the MSL spacecraft carrying Curiosity must decelerate from about 13,200 mph (about 5,900 meters per second) to allow the rover to land on the surface at about 1.7 mph (three-fourths of a meter per second).
Curiosity is scheduled to land at approximately 1:31 a.m. EDT Aug. 6
(10:31 p.m. PDT Aug. 5).
"Those seven minutes are the most challenging part of this entire mission," said Pete Theisinger, JPL's MSL project manager. "For the landing to succeed, hundreds of events will need to go right, many with split-second timing and all controlled autonomously by the spacecraft. We've done all we can think of to succeed. We expect to get Curiosity safely onto the ground, but there is no guarantee. The risks are real."
During the initial weeks after the actual landing, JPL mission controllers will put the rover through a series of checkouts and activities to characterize its performance on Mars while gradually ramping up scientific investigations. Curiosity then will begin investigating whether an area with a wet history inside Mars' Gale Crater ever has offered an environment favorable for microbial life.
"Earlier missions have found that ancient Mars had wet environments,"
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NASA's Mars rover may be in for blind landing
CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - NASA's new Mars rover is heading for a risky do-or-die touchdown next month to assess conditions for life on the planet, but the U.S. space agency may not know for hours whether it arrived safely, managers said on Monday. That's because the satellite that NASA was counting on for real-time coverage of the Mars Science Laboratory's descent into Gale Crater ...
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Is Huge Mars Rover NASA's Last Big Mission to Red Planet?
Despite NASA's tough budget situation, the 1-ton rover streaking toward an Aug. 5 landing on Mars is unlikely to be the space agency's last big, ambitious Red Planet mission.
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NASA issues 'Mars Rover Landing' for Xbox
NASA revealed a new video game Monday, one that celebrates the Aug. 5 landing of its huge Curiosity rover on the surface of Mars.
The game, called "Mars Rover Landing," is produced in collaboration with Microsoft and plays on the Xbox 360 system using the Kinect motion sensor. It's available free of charge in the Xbox Live Marketplace and Kinect Central, officials said.
"Mars Rover Landing" allows players to take control of Curiosity's spacecraft as it streaks through the Red Planet's atmosphere on a harrowing journey that mission engineers have dubbed " seven minutes of terror."
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Science editor Alan Boyle's blog: The pawprint of a cosmic cat comes into sharper focus in this week's featured picture from the European Southern Observatory.
At the end, a rocket-powered sky crane lowers the rover to the Martian surface on cables, then flies off to crash-land intentionally a safe distance away.
"Families can get a taste of the daring that's involved in this, just landing this mission on the surface," Doug McCuistion, director of NASA's Mars Exploration Program, told reporters today. "It's going to be very similar to the way the team actually is going to do that." [ The Best (And Worst) Mars Landings in History ]
The game is an outreach vehicle, McCuistion added, an attempt to raise awareness of Curiosity's mission and NASA's planetary exploration endeavors in a more general sense.
The 1-ton Curiosity rover is the centerpiece of NASA's $2.5 billion Mars Science Laboratory mission. It blasted off in late November and is on schedule to touch down at Mars' Gale Crater on the night of Aug. 5.
Curiosity's main goal is to determine if the Gale Crater area is, or ever was, capable of supporting microbial life. The rover sports 10 difference science instruments to help it in this task, including a rock-zapping laser and gear that can detect organic compounds the carbon-containing building blocks of life as we know it.
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NASA Unveils Free 'Mars Rover Landing' Game for Xbox Live
NASA revealed a new video game today (July 16), one that celebrates the Aug. 5 landing of its huge Curiosity rover on the surface of Mars.
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NASA Announement for Partnering Opportunities for Delivery of NASA Content To The Public
Synopsis - Jul 13, 2012
General Information
Solicitation Number: NNH12NG001O Posted Date: Jul 13, 2012 FedBizOpps Posted Date: Jul 13, 2012 Recovery and Reinvestment Act Action: No FedGrants Posted Date: Jul 13, 2012 Application Due Date Explanation: Responses to this announcement are due by 5 p.m. EST on August 3, 2012. Classification Code: A -- Research and Development NAICS Code: 518210
Grant Specific Information
Funding Instrument Type: Other CFDA Number: 43.009 Cost Sharing or Matching Required: No Estimated Total Program Funding: not available Expected Number of Awards: not available Ceiling Amount: none Floor Amount: none Funding Activity: Other (O) We will be awarding Space Act Agreements from this announcement not contracts or grants and there will be no funding provided. Eligible Applicants: 99 - Unrestricted Unrestricted Link to Full Announcement: http://www.nasa.gov/news/highlights/partnership.html
Contracting Office Address
NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center, NASA Headquarters Acquisition Branch, Code 210.H, Greenbelt, MD 20771
Description
STATEMENT OF PURPOSE
NASA is releasing this announcement to identify potential partners who may benefit from the delivery of the Agency's web videos, both live and on-demand, and other web content to support increased public access and awareness of NASA activities.
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NASA Announement for Partnering Opportunities for Delivery of NASA Content To The Public
Soyuz Crew Primed for Launch on This Week @ NASA – Video
13-07-2012 14:43 At the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, Expedition 32/33 Soyuz Commander Yuri Malenchenko, NASA Flight Engineer Suni Williams and Flight Engineer Aki Hoshide of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency participated in a variety of activities in preparation for their launch to the International Space Station. Meanwhile, onboard the ISS, the other three members of Expedition 32, Commander Gennady Padalka, NASA astronaut Joe Acaba and Cosmonaut Sergei Revin -- continue their daily activities as they await the Soyuz crew and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's HTV-3 transfer vehicle scheduled to arrive there later this month. Also, when the Curiosity rover sets off from its landing site near Gale Crater to explore the Martian surface, it might encounter some sand dunes. Project engineers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory have prepared for that possibility by putting a test rover through the paces here on Earth, the Cassini spacecraft has spotted signs that a change of seasons may be coming on Saturn's largest moon Titan, Deputy Administrator Lori Garver participates in a workshop focused on Innovation in Manufacturing, Celebrating Telstar I, Inspiring Inquisitive Minds and more!
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Space Launch System Advanced Booster Proposals Selected By NASA
July 15, 2012
Image Caption: Artist concept shows NASA's Space Launch System rising from a launchpad. Credit: NASA/MSFC
redOrbit Staff & Wire Reports Your Universe Online
NASA reports that it has selected six proposals to improve the cost, dependability and performance of an advanced booster for the Space Launch System (SLS), a heavy-lift rocket that will provide an entirely new capability for human exploration beyond low Earth orbit.
For the next phase, engineering demonstrations and risk reduction concepts for SLS will be developed by the awardees. Individual awards will vary with a total NASA investment of as much as $200 million.
The initial SLS heavy-lift rocket begins with the proven hardware, technology and capabilities we have today and will evolve over time to a more capable launch vehicle through competitive opportunities, said William Gerstenmaier, associate administrator for the Human Exploration Operations Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington.
While the SLS team is making swift progress on the initial configuration and building a solid baseline, we also are looking ahead to enhance and upgrade future configurations of the heavy lift vehicle. We want to build a system that will be upgradable and used for decades, Gerstenmaier added.
Designed to be easily used for launching spacecraft, including NASAs Orion multipurpose vehicle, for crew and cargo missions SLS will enable NASA to meet the presidents goal of sending humans to an asteroid by 2025 and to Mars in the 2030s. The initial SLS design will use two five-segment solid rocket boosters close to the solid rocket boosters that helped power the space shuttle to orbit. The evolved SLS vehicle will require an advanced booster with significant increase in thrust from any existing U.S. liquid or solid boosters.
According to NASA, proposals selected for contract negotiations are:
Subscale Composite Tank Set, Northrop Grumman Systems Corporation Aerospace Systems
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Space Launch System Advanced Booster Proposals Selected By NASA
Dramatic Solar Flare Frozen In Time By Nasa
Nasa scientists have captured images of a dramatic solar flare - a massive release of energy from the Sun.
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NASA holds celebration of space station launch
CLEVELAND (AP) — NASA invited the public to celebrate in northeast Ohio with a broadcast of astronaut and Cleveland native Sunita Williams taking off for the International Space Station.
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NASA Tests Robotic Gas Station Attendant for Outer Space
Satellites use solar energy to power their electronics, but they rely on gas to maintain orbit or change position. Once tapped out, dead satellites become space junk, which threatens new orbital ventures. To prevent this, NASA is testing the feasibility of using robots to fuel and repair satellites on the fly or tow them to a new job site.
A giant pair of robotic arms will demonstrate how the refueling might work. Photo: NASA
In August, NASA will be asking Dextre, a two-armed robot torso built by the Canadian Space Agency and housed on the International Space Station, to use a variety of tools to reach a simulated sealed fuel tank and fill er up. Engineers on the ground in Houston will control the maneuvers, which are the most intricate ever done by a robot in space. After NASA completes these proof-of-concept tests, Reed says, the agency will encourage private companies to take up the technique. Hopefully a few will step up and offer roadside assistance in space.
Image: NASA
Video: Alexa Inkeles
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NASA Cribs with Astronaut Mike Fincke – Video
12-07-2012 15:41 In this video produced by students in NASA's Cooperative Education Program, astronaut Mike Fincke gives a tour of the International Space Station crib at Johnson Space Center in Houston. The Cooperative Education Program provides students with opportunities to combine academic studies with on-the-job training and work on exciting NASA projects. It is designed to train and develop students for the possibility of full time employment at NASA upon graduation.
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NASA | Big Sunspot 1520 Releases X1.4 Class Flare – Video
13-07-2012 10:53 An X1.4 class flare erupted from the center of the sun, peaking on July 12, 2012 at 12:52 PM EDT. It erupted from Active Region 1520 which rotated into view on July 6. This video uses SDO AIA footage in 131(teal), 171(gold) and 335 (blue) angstrom wavelengths. Each wavelength shows different temperature plasma in the sun's atmosphere. 171 shows 600000 Kelvin plasma, 335 shows 2.5 million Kelvin plasma, and 131 shows 10 million Kelvin plasma. The final shot is a composite of 171 and 335 angstrom footage. 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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NASA Offers Glimpse Into Aug. 5 Mars Rover Landing on Monday
NASA will hold a press conference Monday (July 16) to discuss the latest the Aug. 5 landing plan for its huge Mars rover Curiosity, the largest rover ever sent to the Red Planet, and you can follow the briefing live online.
The Mars rover press conference begins at 1 p.m. EDT (1700 GMT, 10 a.m. PDT) Monday at NASA's headquarters in Washington, D.C., and will be webcast live on NASA TV for the public to follow along.
The press briefing will "discuss the upcoming August landing of the most advanced robot ever sent to another world," NASA officials said in a statement. "A new public-engagement collaboration based on the mission also will be debuted."
Internet viewers will be able watch the NASA briefing on the Mars Science Laboratory mission and Curiosity rover on NASA TV channel, as well as participate in a moderated chat via Ustream.
NASA's webcast can be accessed here: http://www.nasa.gov/ntv
The Ustream chat can be found here: http://www.ustream.tv/nasajpl
The car-size Curiosity rover is the centerpiece of NASA's $2.5 billion Mars Science Laboratory mission to determine if Mars has ever harbored conditions favorable for primitive life. The mission is overseen by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., The Curiosity rover launched in November 2011 and will land at 10:31 p.m. PDT on Aug. 5 (1:30 a.m. EDT/0530 GMT on Aug. 6).
Several NASA scientists will be on hand for NASA's Monday briefing about the rover mission. They include:
No planet is more steeped in myth and misconception than Mars. This quiz will reveal how much you really know about some of the goofiest claims about the red planet.
NASA'sMars rover Curiosity is the most ambitious robot ever sent to the Red Planet. The rover carries a suite of 10 experiments to study the Martian surface and atmosphere, including a laser to determine chemical properties and a sample analysis laboratory for on-site analysis.
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NASA Offers Glimpse Into Aug. 5 Mars Rover Landing on Monday
NASA SDO – X1.4 Solar Flare, July 12, 2012 – Video
12-07-2012 19:48 Today's X1.4-class solar flare released a Type O Coronal Mass Ejection, traveling at approx. 1400 km/s. It is traveling Earth bound but and its impact will create some geomagnetic storms, currently estimated between G2 and G4 levels. That could produce aurorae as far South as Northern California and Alabama and central UK/ Europe. Credit: NASA SDO
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At NASA, the next great airplane design is taking flight
Could this be the next great aircraft design? Within 10 years, a full-sized version of the hybrid wing body may offer big boosts in range, fuel efficiency, and quiet flight.
The X-48C, as seen in a warehouse at NASA Dryden Flight Research Center. The plane is a prototype of what could be the next great aircraft design.
EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif.--If you want to know what the future of airplane design looks like, you might have to make your way out to the middle of the Mojave Desert.
Tucked away inside a nondescript warehouse building at NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center here, NASA, the U.S. Air Force, Boeing, and Cranfield Aerospace are working on an entirely new kind of plane, one which they hope could someday revolutionize aviation.
Known as a hybrid wing body, the plane design, which NASA describes as "a cross between a conventional plane and a flying wing design," is thought to offer long-term benefits in fuel efficiency, fuel capacity, and noise.
Since 2007, the team behind the X-48 project has been working on getting its prototype in the air. Over 92 flights, the X-48B -- an 8.5 percent scale model of an eventual full-size plane -- demonstrated many of the desired features of the design, explained Norm Princen, Boeing's chief engineer on the project.
But now, the team has retired the X-48B and is getting ready to start flying a new version of the design, the X-48C. And with this plane, they've implemented some fairly significant changes. The B-version of the plane was a blended-wing design featuring three engines and winglet vertical tails. The C-version, which has yet to take flight, has evolved to be even more efficient, Princen said, and because its engines are moved forward in such a way that shields them, is even quieter than its predecessor. "The engines are above aft center," he explained, "to make sound bounce up or to the side."
Though it looks radically different than today's aircraft, Princen said the idea is that to a pilot, the X-48 would seem very much like a standard transport plane, though it would probably offer a fuel efficiency improvement of between 20 percent and 30 percent. Although it's not yet known exactly what it's purpose would be, the thought is the X-48 would be useful as a tanker, as a command-and-control or transport plane, as a bomber, or as a commercial jetliner. However, because it has no windows outside the cockpit, there's some concern that passengers would be uncomfortable flying on it. To that end, there's some thought that a full-size version could include "virtual" windows, Princen explained. Still, the U.S. Air Force is likely to be the initial customer of the plane.
I've stopped by to see the X-48C as part of Road Trip 2012. The plane, given its small size, is a bit of a surprise. But Princen explained that a full-size version of the X-48 -- which may be about ten years away -- is likely to have a wingspan of at least 240 feet and be able to fly up to 11,000 nautical miles. Today, however, the X-48C, which should be getting airborne soon, has a top altitude of about 10,000 feet and can stay aloft for just 35 minutes.
Princen and his team expect to fly the X-48C about 20 times, gathering data, and trying to figure out what size the next prototype should be. But rather than being remotely-controlled as the B- and C-versions have been, the next iteration will be human-piloted and will have full capabilities in terms of altitude and range, he said. It is likely to be at least four years before that next version is ready, Princen added.
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'Seven Minutes of Terror': NASA's Viral Video
At NASA they've called it "Seven Minutes of Terror" -- the white-knuckle moments as the new Curiosity rover, scheduled to land on Mars on the night of Aug. 5, goes tearing into the Martian atmosphere and, engineers hope, lands safely seven minutes later.
NASA made a computer-animated video of the landing sequence, and found it has a hit on its hands. With almost a month to go until landing, the video has been viewed more than half a million times on YouTube alone, and it's appeared on countless other websites as well.
"We've got literally seven minutes to get from the top of the atmosphere to the surface of Mars -- going from 13,000 miles an hour to zero, in perfect sequence, perfect choreography, perfect timing," said Tom Rivellini, a NASA engineer who appears in the video.
NASA has been very good at visualizing its robotic missions, and, in fact, did similar videos (with the same title) for previous Mars landings in 2004 and 2008. But none went viral the way Curiosity's has.
The Curiosity rover, known originally as Mars Science Laboratory, is about the size of an SUV. Behind schedule and over budget, it was a decade in the making and has cost $2.5 billion. The nickname Curiosity came from a schoolchild who won a NASA contest to pick something memorable.
Because of its size, Curiosity cannot just fly to Mars and come to a stop. It enters the Martian atmosphere encased in a heat shield, then lets out a parachute, then fires retro rockets, then is lowered by cables from a landing stage and finally -- if it hasn't left a $2.5 billion crater in the Martian soil -- sends a signal that it's safely down.
And all this has to happen automatically. Mars will be 150 million miles from Earth on Aug. 5 -- so distant that radio commands from Earth, travelling at the speed of light, would take 14 minutes to get there.
NASA has tried to play down expectations that Curiosity could find life on Mars. But if there ever were living microbes, the rover probably has the equipment to see signs that they were there.
An earlier rover, Opportunity, is still functioning after eight years on the Martian surface. It found geological evidence that scientists say shows Mars was once warm and wet, with pools of briny water that dried up eons ago.
NASA would like to expand on that find, which is why it has sent the larger and more ambitious Curiosity rover.
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NASA Commercial Partner SpaceX Completes Dragon Design Review
NASA partner Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) has completed an important design review of the crewed version of its Dragon spacecraft. The concept baseline review presented NASA with the primary and secondary design elements of its Dragon capsule designed to carry astronauts into low Earth orbit, including the International Space Station.
SpaceX is one of several companies working to develop crew transportation capabilities under the Commercial Crew Development Round 2 (CCDev2) agreement with NASA's Commercial Crew Program (CCP). Through CCDev2, NASA is helping the private sector develop and test new spacecraft and rockets with the goal of making commercial human spaceflight services available to commercial and government customers.
In the June 14 review conducted at the company's headquarters in Hawthorne, Calif., SpaceX provided details about each phase of a potential crewed mission. This included how the company plans to modify its launch pads to support such missions, Dragon's docking capabilities, the weight and power requirements for the spacecraft, and prospective ground landing sites and techniques. The company also outlined crew living arrangements, such as environmental control and life support equipment, displays and controls.
"SpaceX has made significant progress on its crew transportation capabilities," NASA CCP Manager Ed Mango said. "We commend the SpaceX team on its diligence in meeting its CCDev2 goals to mature the company's technology as this nation continues to build a real capability for America's commercial spaceflight needs."
Safety was a key focus of the review. The SpaceX team presented NASA with analyses on how its SuperDraco launch abort system would perform if an emergency were to occur during launch or ascent. The review also outlined plans for getting astronauts away from danger quickly and safely on the way to low Earth orbit, in space and during the return home.
"The successful conclusion of the concept baseline review places SpaceX exactly where we want to be -- ready to move on to the next phase and on target to fly people into space aboard Dragon by the middle of the decade," said SpaceX CEO and Chief Designer Elon Musk.
All of NASA's industry partners, including SpaceX, continue to meet their established milestones in developing commercial crew transportation capabilities under CCDev2.
While NASA works with U.S. industry to develop commercial spaceflight capabilities to low Earth orbit, the agency also is developing the Orion spacecraft and Space Launch System (SLS), a crew capsule and heavy-lift rocket, to provide an entirely new capability for human exploration of deep space. Designed to be flexible for launching crew and cargo missions, Orion and SLS will expand human presence beyond Earth and enable new missions of exploration across the solar system.
For more information about NASA's Commercial Crew Program, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/commercialcrew
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NASA Commercial Partner SpaceX Completes Dragon Design Review