'SPACE' in News

NASA Plans Deep Space Outpost Near Moon

 One of the leading projects proposed by NASA for the agency’s next mission is the construction of a spacecraft which would hover above the far side of the moon in a location known as the Earth-Moon Lagrange Point 2, an area where the combined gravities of the Earth and moon reach equilibrium.

< The Lagrange points for the Earth-moon system. NASA is evaluating an early mission with a small station placed at Earth-moon L2

“Placing a spacecraft at the Earth-Moon Lagrange point beyond the moon as a test area for human access to deep space is the best near-term option to develop required flight experience and mitigate risk,” a recent NASA report concludes.

The crew of such an outpost could run missions like the study of nearby asteroids or the sending of robots to the moon with the aim of collecting rocks and bringing them back. The outpost could also be a potential gateway for manned missions to Mars or one of its moons. A purpose would be finally given to the Orion space capsule and the Space Launch System rocket which are currently being developed.

The funding of the project remains one of the major concerns. Due to deficit reduction initiatives across the US federal government, it is unlikely that NASA can get more in coming years than its current budget of $17.7 billion. Strong White House backing would be required to convince Congress to finance building of the outpost.

A second concern is astronaut safety. How NASA would address the dangers of deep space and radiation is not known. Neither do we know how astronauts could be rescued if something goes wrong. Orbiting at 446,000 km from Earth, the outpost would be far more remote than the International Space Station and it would take days to get back to Earth.

A first flight of NASA’s Space Launch System is planned for 2017. According to NASA planning documents, the construction of the outpost could begin two years later in 2019.

NASA Commercial Crew Partner 'Blue Origin' Completes Rocket Engine Thrust Chamber Test

NASA’s Commercial Crew Program (CCP) partner Blue Origin has successfully fired the thrust chamber assembly for its new 100,000 pound thrust BE-3 liquid oxygen, liquid hydrogen rocket engine. As part of Blue’s Reusable Booster System (RBS), the engines are designed eventually to launch the biconic-shaped Space Vehicle the company is developing. 

The test was part of Blue Origin’s work supporting its funded Space Act Agreement with NASA during Commercial Crew Development Round 2 (CCDev2). CCDev2 continues to bring spacecraft and launch vehicle designs forward to develop a U.S. commercial crew space transportation capability that ultimately could become available for the government and other customers. 

“Blue Origin continues to be extremely innovative as it develops a crew-capable vehicle for suborbital and orbital flights,” said Ed Mango, CCP manager. “We’re thrilled the company’s engine test fire was met with success.” 

The test took place early this month on the E-1 test stand at NASA’s Stennis Space Center near Bay St. Louis, Miss. Blue Origin engineers successfully completed the test by powering the thrust chamber to its full power level. 

“We are very excited to have demonstrated a new class of high-performance hydrogen engines,” said Rob Meyerson, president and program manager of Blue Origin. “Access to the Stennis test facility and its talented operations team was instrumental in conducting full-power testing of this new thrust chamber.” 

As part of CCDev2, Blue Origin also completed a system requirements review of its spacecraft. During the review, engineers and technical experts representing NASA, the Federal Aviation Administration and the company assessed the spacecraft’s ability to meet safety and mission requirements to low-Earth orbit. That review also included results from more than 100 wind tunnel tests of the vehicle’s aerodynamic design, stability during flight and cross-range maneuverability. 

All of NASA’s industry partners, including Blue Origin, continue to meet their established milestones in developing commercial crew transportation capabilities. 

While NASA works with U.S. industry partners to develop commercial spaceflight capabilities, the agency also is developing the Orion spacecraft and the Space Launch System (SLS), a crew capsule and heavy-lift rocket to provide an entirely new capability for human exploration. Designed to be flexible for launching spacecraft for crew and cargo missions, SLS and Orion will expand human presence beyond low-Earth orbit and enable new missions of exploration into the solar system. 

For more information about NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, please visit ...

http://www.nasa.gov/commercialcrew

 Preventing the Invasion of Space Germs: Yesterday and Today

 As  prospects of a Mars sample return mission or even a manned mission to Mars are becoming increasingly realistic, the danger of biologic invasions from space or, on the other hand, the danger of contaminating other celestial bodies with terrestrial microbes attracts more of the scientific community’s attention.

   

< Apollo 11 crew arriving in a mobile quarantine facility

There is obviously reason to worry. There are many examples from the past when a microbe, plant, bug or mammal, virtually innocent in its original habitat, caused havoc when transferred to another continent: Think about rabbits in Australia, or recently, a germ decimating the population of North American bats. Or remember the case of the indigenous inhabitants of America who suffered extremely after encountering European diseases such as smallpox or measles.

Let’s try to imagine what would have happened, if such a newcomer into an ecosystem hadn’t represented a species coming “only” from another continent. What if it is was a completely alien organism from a different planet? NASA scientists and administrators were considering this threat as early as they started to think  seriously about a Moon landing.

Special suits were designed prevent potential  > microbes from spreading

The Office of Planetary Protection (OPR) was established in 1967, as a reaction to the United Nations Treaty on Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space, Including the Moon and Other Bodies. This treaty binds the party countries to avoid any harmful contamination of other celestial bodies while pursuing exploration.

As no one really knew what type of microbes or bacteria could be found out there, the precautionary approach was more than recommended.  What if the Apollo astronauts returned infected by some incurable and highly contagious space fever? Or what if, on the contrary, they infected the unspoiled lunar biosphere with dangerous earthly streptococcus? It would have been impossible to learn anything about the original life on Moon, had all the collected data been modified by the contaminants.

Several governmental agencies worked closely with NASA and decided that in case any harmful microorganism was brought back to Earth, it would most probably demonstrate itself within 21 days. The resulting solution was simple – a three week’s quarantine for the returning astronauts accompanied by regular medical check-ups.

But what to do with the landing module after its splash down in the Pacific? How to prevent the germs from spreading before it is transported to NASA? A super high-tech – for its time – bio container was created called the Mobile Quarantine Facility (MQF). It was carried aboard the USS Hornet Naval Aircraft Carrier to the site of the splashdown. The astronauts inside the module were supposed to put on special Biological Isolation Garments made from special material that prevented microorganisms from their bodies from entering the atmosphere. The astronauts were to breath through special respirators while waiting for the landing module to be lifted by a helicopter onto the Hornet and inside the Mobile Quarantine Facility.

Before leaving the landing module, the crew had to go through a sodium-hypochlorite shower and the module’s hatch was disinfected with betadine.  After that, all the equipment the crew and the module had touched was cleaned and sunk. Even the helicopter that had transported the crew aboard the Hornet was locked into quarantine.

For the whole duration of the journey from the middle of the Pacific to Houston, the astronauts were not allowed to leave the Mobile Quarantine Facility for a single moment. It was large enough for an even bigger crew. It had a built-in lounge, kitchenette, and bedrooms. Strong negative internal pressure and an ultra modern filtration system prevented airborn particles from inside the facility from spreading around. Also stored and hermetically sealed was all the biological waste.

Upon arriving at Houston, the crew would move into another specially designed habitat – the Lunar Research Laboratory. There, they would spend another 21 days, living in an area of 7700 square meters. Together with the astronauts, all the support staff including doctors, cooks and engineers lived for these three weeks inside the facility. In case an outbreak of a space disease had taken place, the astronauts would have been treated inside the facility.

As no biological material was found, the later lunar missions didn’t require such a strict regime. Today, missions are classified into six categories according to the risks of either bringing biological material to another celestial body or bringing any sort of contaminants back.

Astronomers Uncover a Surprising Trend In Galaxy Evolution

WASHINGTON -- A comprehensive study of hundreds of galaxies observed by the Keck telescopes in Hawaii and NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has revealed an unexpected pattern of change that extends back 8 billion years, or more than half the age of the universe.

"Astronomers thought disk galaxies in the nearby universe had settled into their present form by about 8 billion years ago, with little additional development since," said Susan Kassin, an astronomer at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Centre in Greenbelt, Md., and the study's lead researcher. "The trend we've observed instead shows the opposite, that galaxies were steadily changing over this time period."

Today, star-forming galaxies take the form of orderly disk-shaped systems, such as the Andromeda Galaxy or the Milky Way, where rotation dominates over other internal motions. The most distant blue galaxies in the study tend to be very different, exhibiting disorganised motions in multiple directions. There is a steady shift toward greater organisation to the present time as the disorganised motions dissipate and rotation speeds increase. These galaxies are gradually settling into well-behaved disks.

Blue galaxies -- their colour indicates stars are forming within them -- show less disorganised motions and ever-faster rotation speeds the closer they are observed to the present. This trend holds true for galaxies of all masses, but the most massive systems always show the highest level of organisation.

Researchers say the distant blue galaxies they studied are gradually transforming into rotating disk galaxies like our own Milky Way.

"Previous studies removed galaxies that did not look like the well-ordered rotating disks now common in the universe today," said co-author Benjamin Weiner, an astronomer at the University of Arizona in Tucson. "By neglecting them, these studies examined only those rare galaxies in the distant universe that are well-behaved and concluded that galaxies didn't change."

Rather than limit their sample to certain galaxy types, the researchers instead looked at all galaxies with emission lines bright enough to be used for determining internal motions. Emission lines are the discrete wavelengths of radiation characteristically emitted by the gas within a galaxy. They are revealed when a galaxy's light is separated into its component colours. These emission lines also carry information about the galaxy's internal motions and distance.

The team studied a sample of 544 blue galaxies from the Deep Extragalactic Evolutionary Probe 2 (DEEP2) Redshift Survey, a project that employs Hubble and the twin 10-meter telescopes at the W. M. Keck Observatory in Hawaii. Located between 2 billion and 8 billion light-years away, the galaxies have stellar masses ranging from about 0.3 percent to 100 percent of the mass of our home galaxy.

A paper describing these findings will be published Oct. 20 in The Astrophysical Journal.

The Milky Way galaxy must have gone through the same rough-and-tumble evolution as the galaxies in the DEEP2 sample, and gradually settled into its present state as the sun and solar system were being formed.

In the past 8 billion years, the number of mergers between galaxies large and small has decreased sharply. So has the overall rate of star formation and disruptions of supernova explosions associated with star formation. Scientists speculate these factors may play a role in creating the evolutionary trend they observe.

Now that astronomers see this pattern, they can adjust computer simulations of galaxy evolution until these models are able to replicate the observed trend. This will guide scientists to the physical processes most responsible for it.

The DEEP2 survey is led by Lick Observatory at the University of California at Santa Cruz in collaboration with the University of California at Berkeley, the University of Hawaii at Manoa, Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Md., the University of Chicago and the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.

The Hubble Space Telescope is a project of international cooperation between NASA and the European Space Agency. NASA's Goddard Space Flight Centre in Greenbelt, Md., manages the telescope. The Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) in Baltimore, Md., conducts Hubble science operations. STScI is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc. in Washington.

For images and video related to this story, please visit:

http://go.nasa.gov/V4QJRU

For more information about NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/hubble

Russia may build rocket to destroy Earth-threatening asteroids

                          

MOSCOW, Oct. 19 (Xinhua) -- Russia could start building a space rocket capable of destroying asteroids threatening the Earth, chief of rocket and space corporation Energia said Friday.

"There are three large asteroids, including Apophis, whose orbits cross the Earth's orbit and which could hit the Earth in the next several decades," Vitaly Lopota told the state newspaper Rossiyskaya Gazeta.

To change the orbit of a small planet of Apophis' size, a 70-ton rocket was needed to "tow" an asteroid away from Earth or to destroy it with a thermonuclear blast, Lopota said.

Apophis was discovered in 2004. It will approach the Earth dangerously close, at about 30,000 km, which is less than one-tenth of the Moon's distance from Earth, in 2029. Experts calculate impact of a collision between Apophis and the Earth will be equal to a 1,700-Megaton explosion.

Lopota said existing Russian rocket carriers with RD-171 engines could be redesigned to produce a rocket capable of destroying an asteroid. Energia was ready to build such a rocket within three to five years, he said.

Currently, RD-171 engines made by NPO Energomash have been used on Zenit-3SL missiles employed in the Russia-Ukraine-Norway-U.S. joint project Sea Launch.

"We call them Tsar Engines, which no other country possesses," Lopota said, referring to Russian artifacts, the Tsar Cannon and Tsar Bell, which were the world's largest in their time.

Rover eyes 'man-made' objects in Martian dirt

< Part of the small pit created when NASA's Mars rover Curiosity collected its second scoop of Martian soil at a sandy patch called 'Rocknest'. The bright particle of interest is at the centre of the image.

LOS ANGELES: NASA's Mars rover has swallowed its first scoopful of dirt from the Red Planet's surface – and found some bright-coloured objects that experts briefly thought might be man-made, the U.S. space agency said. In an update on Curiosity's two-and-a-half month-old mission, NASA said its Chemistry and Mineralogy (CheMin) instrument, deep in the car-sized rover's belly, will analyse the soil to learn more about its make-up.

Some experts wondered if one of the bright-coloured objects – seen on a photo of a scoop hole in the Martian soil – could be man-made, like an object seen earlier this month thought to be plastic from the rover itself.

Strong consensus particle is Martian

"We began to see some bright flecks in the scoop areas," Curiosity's project scientist told reporters in Pasadena, California, adding: "The science team started calling them schmutz."

Some suggested they could be man-made, but following discussions between scientists and engineers, there was a "strong consensus" that they were indigenous to Mars.

This conclusion was backed by the fact that the objects were left visible at the bottom of holes left by the rover's scoop, meaning they were normally underneath the planet's surface.

"We can't rule out that they're something man-made but we don't think that they are," he said.

A major milestone

Last week, NASA determined that a bright object observed on the ground near the robot several days previously was a bit of plastic that may have dropped from the rover itself, and did not jeopardize the rover's operations.

"The rover team's assessment is that the bright object is something from the rover, not Martian material," the mission said at the time. "It appears to be a shred of plastic material, likely benign."

But for the scientists, the first use of the CheMin device, to analyse the mineral make-up of the Red Planet's soil – is a major milestone.

"We are crossing a significant threshold for this mission by using CheMin on its first sample," said Curiosity's project scientist, John Grotzinger of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.

"This instrument gives us a more definitive mineral-identifying method than ever before used on Mars: X-ray diffraction. Confidently identifying minerals is important because minerals record the environmental conditions under which they form."

Curiosity is on a two-year, $2.5 billion mission to investigate whether it is possible to live on Mars and to learn whether conditions there might have been able to support life in the past.

Falcon 9, Delta 4 Investigation Boards Formed

On October 4, 2012 the launch of a GPS satellite aboard a United Launch Alliance (ULA) Delta 4 rocket experienced low thrust in its upper stage, requiring compensation using reserve fuel to put the satellite in its proper orbit. On October 7, 2012 a Falcon 9 rocket carrying the Dragon cargo ship to ISS experienced loss of one of its nine engines, resulting in incorrect insertion of its secondary payload, an experimental satellite from Orbcomm. Now, investigation boards into both incidents have been formed.

ULA is conducting its own investigation into the Delta 4 anomaly, of course, but it seems the US Air Force, which relies heavily on ULA launch vehicles, was a bit concerned and launched its own investigation. Until the issue is resolved, ULA is holding off on an October 25, 2012 Atlas 5 launch using the same  RL-10 upper stage. The October 25 launch is supposed to carry the next prototype of the super-secret X-37B space plane. This will be the third orbital test of the X-37B. The last X-37B mission lasted 468 days, well beyond its designed flight duration of 270 days. The Air Force is not releasing the expected duration of this flight.

Meanwhile, following several days of public silence regarding the cause of an engine failure on Falcon 9′s October 7 launch, SpaceX has announced formation of a joint investigation board with NASA to get to the bottom of the issue. SpaceX is scheduled to launch a second supply mission to ISS on January 18, 2013 hopefully leaving plenty of time to get the engine anomaly straightened out. No further word has been released after SpaceX’s initial statement fingered a localised pressure issue that caused the engine to be shut off and its fairing to detach. It was this fairing that is presumed to have caused the debris seen in a slow motion video of the launch that led some to believe the engine had exploded.

'SPACE' in News

Scientists Developing Ways to Mitigate Dust for Future Explorers

One of the challenges in exploring the moon or planets is dust kicked up by engines during landing or activity on these distant worlds. Scientists in the Electrostatics and Surface Physics Laboratory at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida are developing ways to mitigate this problem. 

Electrodynamic dust shield, or EDS, technology is based on concepts originally developed by NASA as early as 1967 and later by the University of Tokyo. In 2003, NASA, in collaboration with the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, started development of the EDS for dust particle removal from solar panels to be used on future missions to Mars. 

Dr. Carlos Calle, lead scientist in Kennedy's Electrostatics and Surface Physics Lab, is developing instrumentation to deal with the problem of electrostatic dust phenomena during future planetary exploration missions. 

"Our laboratory is now developing an electrodynamic dust shield to prevent debris from accumulating on various surfaces," Calle said. 

Long-term testing is planned for an experiment being developed for launch to the International Space Station aboard a SpaceX Dragon resupply mission in 2015.  Read More

Engineers Test Rotor Landing for Capsule

A team of researchers brought a pair of scale model space capsules to the Vehicle Assembly Building at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida to try out a rotor system that could be used in place of parachutes on returning spacecraft.

The design would give a capsule the stability and control of a helicopter, but would not be powered. Instead, the wind passing over the rotors as the capsule descends would make the blades turn, a process called auto-rotation that has been proven repeatedly on helicopters but never tried on spacecraft.

"The purpose of the testing we're doing here is to study how to get the rotor starting to spin," said Jeff Hagen, an engineer at Johnson Space Center in Houston. "We're trying to build as much of that story as we can."

With team members spread out at different levels of the VAB, Jim Meehan stood at the 16th level of the cavernous VAB, about halfway up to where the two-pound model capsule hung on a line 480 feet above the concrete floor. Holding a helicopter radio-control unit, he remotely changed the rotors' pitch and slowed the fall four times as the unpowered craft landed on a stack of foam.

"It's like running four separate tests in one drop," said Meehan, an engineer at Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala.

The intent is to give real spacecraft a soft landing with enough control that they could touch down anywhere in the world, whether it be a runway or the top of a building. In other words, wherever a helicopter could land, a spacecraft could land, too.

"You can land gently and you can land where you want, you don't have to land out in the ocean," Meehan said. "Compared to a parachute, you get a soft landing and you get a targeted landing."

The rotor concept also fits nicely with spent rocket boosters, Hagen said. Instead of throwing away the stage and its valuable engines, rotors could be built into the booster frame and unfurled as the stage descends to Earth. Just as with the capsule, the stage would be controllable the whole way down and would land softly to save the all-important engines. Read More

New Book ....

"Breaking the Mishap Chain: Human Factors Lessons Learned from Aerospace Accidents and Incidents in Research, Flight Test, and Development"
By Peter W. Merlin, Gregg A. Bendrick, and Dwight A. Holland 

This volume contains a collection of case studies of mishaps involving experimental aircraft, aerospace vehicles, and spacecraft in which human factors played a significant role. In all cases the engineers involved, the leaders and managers, and the operators (i.e., pilots and astronauts) were supremely qualified and by all accounts superior performers. Such accidents and incidents rarely resulted from a single cause but were the outcome of a chain of events in which altering at least one element might have prevented disaster. As such, this work is most certainly not an anthology of blame. It is offered as a learning tool so that future organizations, programs, and projects may not be destined to repeat the mistakes of the past. These lessons were learned at high material and personal costs and should not be lost to the pages of history. 

› Download: EPUB | MOBI | PDF

Mobile Launcher Platforms Prepped for New Generation

NASA's trio of mobile launcher platforms (MLP) are being revamped to serve a variety of next-generation launch vehicles. The huge steel structures, which acted as launch bases for the Apollo/Saturn program and every space shuttle mission, will serve as the platforms that launch the next American-made vehicles to space.

Essentially a large steel box measuring 160 by 135 feet, a platform's surface features wide openings that align with a space-bound vehicle's engines and direct the blast into the flame trench below. Propellant lines and other utilities run throughout the structure. The two-story interior contains a variety of communications devices, control cabinets and other ground support equipment.

Throughout the past year, Kennedy Space Center's Ground Systems Development and Operations (GSDO) program has overseen the removal of much of the hardware used to support shuttle launches, making it available to the new 355-foot-tall mobile launcher in development for the agency's Space Launch System (SLS), a rocket that will launch NASA's Orion spacecraft and provide an entirely new capability for human exploration beyond Earth orbit.

"We're removing a lot of components -- cryogenic, pneumatic, mechanical, electrical, controls-type stuff for reuse on the new SLS mobile launcher as a cost savings," explained John Rigney, GSDO lead architect. "But at the same time, we wanted to keep the MLPs ready for any commercial entities that want to use them."

To accomplish this, the program carefully decided what hardware should be removed from the platforms in order to ensure two would remain available. Read More

Proton returns to flight with successful Intelsat launch

Oct 15 6:22 AM ET (1022 GMT) - Two months after a launch failure, the Proton rocket returned to flight Sunday with the successful launch of a communications satellite for Intelsat. The Proton M rocket lifted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome at 4:37 am EDT (0837 GMT, 2:37 pm local time) Sunday carrying the Intelsat 23 satellite. The rocket's Breeze M upper stage released the satellite into a near-geosynchronous orbit nine and a half hours later. Intelsat 23, built by Orbital Sciences Corporation, weighed 2,700 kilograms at launch and carries a payload of C and Ku-band transponders. Intelsat will use the spacecraft to replace the aging Intelsat 707 spacecraft at 53 degrees west in GEO. The launch was the first for the Proton since the August 6 failure of a Russian government Proton launch carrying Russian and Indonesian satellites; a problem with the Breeze M upper stage placed the satellites into the wrong orbits. Related Links:  Spaceflight Now article

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'SPACE' in News

October 10, 2012

SPACEX DRAGON SUCCESSFULLY ATTACHES TO SPACE STATION

Hawthorne, CA -- For the second time this year, a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft is at the 
International Space Station. Expedition 33 crew members Akihiko Hoshide and Sunita Williams today grappled Dragon and attached it to the station, completing a critical stage of the SpaceX CRS-1 cargo resupply mission.

Hoshide used the station’s robotic arm to capture Dragon and guide it to the station’s Harmony module, and then Expedition 33 Commander Williams installed Dragon to Harmony’s common berthing mechanism, enabling it to be bolted in place for an expected 18-day stay at the station.

Upon capture, Expedition 33 Commander Sunita Williams of NASA remarked, “Looks like we’ve tamed the Dragon.”

Grappling was complete at 6:56AM ET, and at 9:03AM ET Dragon was attached to the space station.

“This is a big moment in the course of this mission and for commercial spaceflight,” said SpaceX CEO and Chief Technical Officer Elon Musk. “We are pleased that Dragon is now ready to deliver its cargo to the International Space Station.”

Next, the station crew will pressurize the vestibule between the station and Dragon and open the hatch that leads to the forward bulkhead of the spacecraft. The crew will then begin unloading Dragon’s cargo, which includes crew supplies, vehicle hardware, experiments, and an ultra-cold freezer for storing scientific samples.

The mission, designated SpaceX CRS-1, is the first of at least 12 that SpaceX will perform under NASA’s $1.6 billion Commercial Resupply Services contract. Only SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft is capable of both carrying significant amounts of cargo to the station and returning cargo to Earth.

Dragon is expected to be released from the space station on October 28 with return cargo that will include used station hardware and more than a ton of scientific samples. Splashdown and recovery in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of southern California will follow the same day.

While Dragon Survives, One Satellite Failed After Engine Anomaly

Falcon 9 Engine Loss Still Under Investigation

 While the Dragon capsule was able to survive an engine failure with the Falcon 9 rocket on Sunday, news broke that a satellite aboard a secondary payload suffered from the event.

SpaceX launched its Falcon 9 rocket on Sunday, with both the Dragon capsule and Orbcomm‘s prototype OG2 communication satellite onboard.

During launch, one of the rocket’s nine Merlin engines lost pressure and suddenly shutdown, leaving its secondary mission in jeopardy.

The Dragon capsule jettisoned from the rocket, and was able to dock with the International Space Station on Wednesday morning, however, the satellite didn’t have the same successful outcome.

Orbcomm said in a statement that the satellite was deployed in the wrong orbit, missing its mark by possibly between 200 to 300 miles, according to Jonathan’s Space Report as reprinted by Reuters.

The company said an analysis has begun to determine if the satellite can use its onboard propulsion system to boost its orbit.

The initial plan for the satellite was for it to launch into orbit after leaving Earth’s atmosphere on the back of the Falcon 9, but the OG2 missed its target because of the engine loss.

The satellite was the first of 18 OG2 satellites that will be carried into space aboard a Falcon 9 rocket.

Orbcomm said they are currently in contact with the satellite to see if they can get it to rise in orbit.

Falcon 9 was able to complete its primary mission of getting the Dragon capsule at a place where it could resupply the International Space Station.

Early Wednesday morning, Expedition 33 Commander Suni Williams used the station’s Canadarm2 robotic arm to snag the Dragon and place it in its docking port.

Dragon is scheduled to spend 18 days attached to the station, during which the crew will unload 882 pounds of crew supplies, science research and hardware from the cargo craft and reload it with 1,673 pounds of cargo for return to Earth.

Dragon will be detached from the Harmony module on October 28, and will be released by ISS for a splashdown in the Pacific Ocean.

This was the first official resupply mission SpaceX has been contracted out to do. Dragon will have 11 more to do after this mission.

http://www.redorbit.com/news/space/1112710518/spacex-falcon-orbcomm-orbit-101012/

Watch the engine failure in this slow motion video released by SpaceX after the launch.

Capturing a Spacewalk Moment

Cosmonaut Oleg Kotov took this photograph of a fellow spacewalker snapping

photos during one of his three extravehicular activities. Kotov flew on

International Space Station Expedition 15 as Flight Engineer and Expedition 23

as Commander. In 2013, he is scheduled to command Expedition 38.

 Adjusting to Sol Takes Toll on Mars Rovers' Teams

It accounts for no more than 39 minutes and 35 seconds but the difference between the terrestrial “day” and the Martian “sol” can really mess up human circadian rhythms. It is like skipping one time zone every day, leading to a permanent need to adjust to a feeling of mild jet lag. As everyone who ever experienced jet lag knows, deviating from the internal clock usually leads to sleepiness and impairs the ability to concentrate and think clearly.

As NASA’s Curiosity rover continues its journey over the Red Planet’s surface, this adjustment to space jet lag is exactly what the operations team in NASA’s JPL are going through. The mission requires them to steer the rover in the real Martian time making it impossible to follow a 24 hour schedule. The results of a study conducted on the engineers operating the previous Martian lander Phoenix could help with this challenge.

The research was conducted by the Brigham and Women’s Hospital scientists and results were published in the September issue of the journal Sleep. “Our study investigated the effectiveness of a pilot program to educate the mission personnel on how to reset their body clocks more quickly and how to improve their sleep, alertness and performance,” explained Steven W. Lockley, neuroscientist and senior investigator.

Status of Solar System Exploration

Ever lose track of what's going on with all those exploratory missions roaming around the solar system? Here's a graphical refresher of exploratory probes as of October 2012:

Next Generation Canadarm Unveiled

The mini Next Generation Canadarm prototype, 
suitable for orbital refueling 

After three years of development, prototypes of the Next Generation Canadarm were unveiled on September 27 by MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates (MDA). The robotic arms were commisioned by the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) for $53.1 million.

The prototypes are terrestrial models, not ready for deployment to space. One of the arms is the same length as the International Space Station’s Canadarm 2, 15 meters, but is lighter and can be telescoped for storage or launch. Another prototype is 2.58 meters, a miniature unit modelled on the station’s Dextre robotic manipulator, suitable for refueling satellites and handling tools.

The NGC project initially began with the idea of once again supplying NASA with a robotic arm, this time for its new Orion spacecraft. MDA provided the four units of the original Canadarm that flew on the Space Shuttles, as well as the second generation Canadarm2 that grapples cargo ships and assists with spacewalks on ISS. There is some thought that CSA may leverage the NGC to launch its astronauts on NASA’s Orion. “Canada used its contribution of robotic arms for the shuttle and the International Space Station in terms of a swap, if you will, of Canadian technology for the placing of Canadian astronauts on those missions,” said Anthony Salloum, space adviser for the think tank Rideau Institute at the project’s launch. It seems clear that the Canadian Space Agency has something similar in mind for the NGC. 

But the agency and MDA are also looking beyond NASA this time. They see commercial potential for a robotic arm that can assist in refueling of orbital spacecraft and possibly a lunar lander mission in Canada’s future – or they did before CSA’s budget was slashed this year. Where funding priorities for the agency will now fall, and how the new Canadarm fits into that picture, remain to be seen.

Researchers Say X-Rays From Dead Stars May Guide Future Spacecraft

 The European Space Agency (ESA) has commissioned a research team, including scientists from the National Physical Laboratory (NPL) and the University of Leicester, to investigate the possibility of using dead stars to navigate in deep space. If it is found to be feasible, this technique could revolutionize the way spacecraft navigate in the outer Solar System and beyond.

Currently, spacecraft navigation relies on radio transmissions between the craft and a network of ground-stations on Earth. The craft has to wait for instruction from Earth for guidance, which can take from hours to days depending on how far out the spacecraft is. The time delay affects the craft’s ability to react rapidly, and the infrastructure on the ground is expensive and difficult to maintain because of the large size of the radio antennas.

The research team is exploring the use of the X-rays from pulsars to allow spacecraft to navigate autonomously. Highly compact, pulsars are rapidly rotating neutron stars that emit intense eletromagnetic radiation. The radiation is observed as pulses, similar to the rotating light of a lighthouse or an airport beacon. Because the pulses can be highly regular, they are suitable sources for navigation using a technique similar to GPS.

“Using on-board X-ray detectors, spacecraft could measure the times of pulses received from pulsars to determine the position and motion of the craft. The University of Leicester will use their experience in X-ray astronomy to come-up with potential designs of the device and NPL will develop timing and navigation algorithms to determine the potential accuracy of this technique. Funding received from ESA will allow us to investigate the feasibility of using these dead stars and the potential navigation performance that could be derived,” explained Setnam Shemar, who is leading the project on behalf of NPL’s Time and Frequency team.

Only a limited number of spacecraft can be supported by traditional forms of ground-based space navigation, as only one set of measurements can be processed at any given time. This new technique could potentially allow a greater number of complex space missions to operate simultaneously in deep space.

ESA’s technical strategy for the future will be advised by the results of this investigation. If the technique is successful, pulsar navigation could reduce the costs and limitations associated with ground-based space navigation in the long-term. This, in turn, might eventually enable us to navigate beyond the outer Solar System.

The Most Stunning Photos of Mars The World
Has Ever Seen

NASA has released a new panorama from its Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity, showing the terrain where the robot spent the four-month Martian winter.

While scooping its first samples of Martian soil, NASA’s Curiosity rover captured this image, which shows what seems to be a small, seemingly metallic sliver or chip of… something… resting on the ground. Is it a piece of the rover? Or some other discarded fleck of the MSL descent mechanisms? Or perhaps an exotic Martian pebble of some sort? Nobody knows for sure yet, but needless to say the soil samples have taken a back seat to this new finding for the time being.

The full-circle scene combines 817 images shot by the panoramic camera (Pancam). You can download the complete image and learn more about the expedition on NASA’s website