Photo of the Day: Kanto and Nagoya areas of Japan at night

Check out the fantasic night photo of Japan from JAXA astronaut Satoshi Furukawa aboard the ISS.  The photo is of the Kanto and Nagoya areas.

Photo of the Day: Stars Adorn Orion's Sword

This image for NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope focuses on an active stellar nursery near the sword in the constellation Orion.  Thousands of young stars and developing protostars are imaged here. Many will turn out like our sun. Some are even more massive. These massive stars light up the Orion nebula, which is seen here as the bright region near the center of the image.

NASA - Stars Adorn Orion's Sword

Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Photo of the Day: Vesta equatorial troughs and dark material

The DAWN image team has released this photo of Vesta's equatorial region.

"This Dawn FC (framing camera) image shows the equatorial troughs of Vesta running obliquely across the image. These troughs occur around most of Vesta’s equatorial region and are one of its most striking features. They both overlie and are overlain by impact craters. A large linear structure seems to cut across these troughs in the bottom left side of the image. Also distinctive is the dark material which is associated with the troughs, impact craters (right side of image) and the dark hill (center of image). This dark hill remains dark from many different viewing angles in a selection of images, so its dark appearance is not just due to shadowing effects. Many possible formation mechanisms for this dark hill are currently under investigation."

Dawn Mission: News & Events > Equatorial troughs and dark material :

A Tour of NASA's Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA)

I enjoyed a tour of NASA's Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFOA), which was on display at Moffett Field near San Francisco this weekend.  The aircraft is a Boeing 747SP modified to carry a telescope in its fuselage. SOFIA is a joint project of NASA and the German Aerospace Center (DLR)

The heart of SOFIA is a 2.5 meter (100 inch) Bent Cassegrain/Nasmyth telescope built in Germany.  It needs to be flown to high altitude, above most of the infrared absorbing water vapor in the atmosphere, to function.  The telescope can collect data at infrared wavelengths between 0.3 and 1600 microns. It's hoped that the lower limit will be pushed to 1.5 microns soon. Peering perpendicular to the direction of flight the telescope has a range of motion of + 15 to + 70 degrees above the horizon and can move about + or - 3 degrees fore and aft to correct for the motion of the aircraft.

Interchangeable instruments can be mounted to the telescope.  One of these is the Faint Object Infrared Camera for the SOFIA Telescope (FORCAST). FORCAST is a mid-infrared camera that records images at infrared wavelengths of 5 to 40 microns that are used to study celestial objects such as planets and star forming regions.

FORCAST being installed in SOFIA - NASA

George Gull, a Cornell University research support specialist and now lead engineer for the FORCAST infrared camera talked with me a few minutes about SOFIA and FORCAST.  

First, he said, the research flights are marathons, normally lasting 10 hours.  The aircraft inatally climbs to 35,000 feet, instruments are adjusted and observations made.  As fuel burns off, reducing the weight of the aircraft, SOFIA will climb to 39,000 feet, instruments are readjusted and more observations made. Finally the aircraft climbs to 45,000 feet and the cycle is repeated.

Secondly, the FORCAST instrument is cooled to 3 degrees kelvin by liquid helium and can detect temperatures as low as about 30 degrees kelvin, which means it can see very faint infrared sources.  

Thanks Mr. Gull for taking the time to speak so enthusiastically to that continuous line of visitors. It was the highlight of my day.  That's him wearing the blue shirt in the photo by the way. 

SOFIA's flightplans are carefully designed to maximize observing time.  Area's of the sky move out of view as the earth rotates or the aircraft turns.  Careful planning can mean up to 8 hours observing time on a single flight. A planned future flight path from New Zealand to Australia will allow SOFIA to keep the center of our Milky Way Galaxy in view for 10 continuous hours. 

One of the major advantages of SOFIA over ground based observatories is that it can move to where the action is.  This was demonstrated recently when the aircraft flew 1800 miles out over the Pacific Ocean from its base in Southern California to position itself in the center of the dwarf planet Pluto's shadow's as it eclipsed a distant star. It was the only observatory capable of doing so.

I also got a chance to talk to one of the pilots and asked him how the aircraft behaved when the door opened.  He said the aerodynamics of the door were so well designed that there was no difference in the planes handling characteristics. 

Here are some fun facts about the 747SP that became SOFIA:

• It was delevered to Pan American Airlines in May of 1977 and christened "Clipper Lindbergh" by Anne Morrow Lindbergh on the 50th year anniversary of Charles A Lindbergh's solo flight across the Atlantic.
• In 1986 it was sold to United Airlines after the bankruptcy of Pan Am. 
• In 1989 the above mentioned George Gull, just happened to notice the "Clipper Lindbergh" insignia on his plane when he flew from Hong Kong to San Francisco, so he was actually the first member of the team to fly on the aircraft.
• In 1995 it was retired and stored at the Las Vegas airport. 
• NASA bought the aircraft in 1997 and moved it to Waco Texas for modification and installation of the telescope.  
• It remained in Waco until the heavly modified plane finally flew again in 2007.  It's test pilot was former NASA astronaut Gordon Fullerton, who was 71 at the time.
• And in a real touch of class by NASA, SOFIA was rechristened "Clipper Lindbergh" by Charles Lindbergh's grandson Eric Lindbergh in May of 2007.
• On 5/25/2010 SOFIA made its "first light flight." 

Russian Sample Return mission to Martian Moon Phobos aims for November Liftoff

Russian Sample Return mission to Martian Moon Phobos aims for November Liftoff:

"In just over 3 weeks’ time, Russia plans to launch a bold mission to Mars whose objective, if successful , is to land on the Martian Moon Phobos and return a cargo of precious soil samples back to Earth about three years later."

Space Station probably won't have to evacuated

A panel of experts told U.S. lawmakers on October 12 that the International Space Station likely won't have to be evacuated due to the failure of a Soyuz rocket launching a Progress cargo craft to the orbiting lab.

A Russian investigating commission pinpointed the likely problem as contamination in fuel lines in the third stage of the Soyuz.  An independent NASA team agrees with that assessment.

The finding clears the way for another progress launch on October 30 and a crewed Soyuz launch on November 14.  The current three person crew on the ISS is scheduled to return to earth on November 22. That time frame would keep the orbiting outpost staffed, giving the new three-person crew about five days to learn the ropes from the departing space flyers.

If that launch gets delayed, the station would be completely de-staffed for the first time in more than a decade. But that wouldn't spell disaster for the orbiting lab, the panelists said.  The station can be flown remotely from Mission Control for a time.

Source: Fox News:

Photo of the Day: Crescent moons below Saturn's rings

Saturn's moons Enceladus and Tethys adorn Saturn's rings in this image from the Cassini spacecraft.

Enceladus (313 miles, or 504 kilometers across) appears just below the rings here, near the center of the image. Tethys (660 miles, or 1,062 kilometers across) is near the bottom center of the image. Tethys is closer to Cassini than is Enceladus.

Image credit: NASA/JPL

Watch Opportunity's drive to Endeavor Crater

NASA's remaining Mars rover Opportunity has spent most of the last three years driving from Victoria crater, which is near it's landing site, to Endeavor crater, over 13 miles away. At the end of each drive an image of the horizon was recorded. Those images have now been assembled into a video.

Japan's Venus probe's engine exploded

The latest test performed on Japans Akatsuki Venus probe indicate that it's "main engine combustion chamber no longer exists." This means the engine probably exploded on December 6, 2010 as the spacecraft was preforming it's critical Venus orbit insertion burn, causing it to fly past Venus.

The thrusters were supposed to fire for 12 minutes, but an unexpected pressure drop in the fuel line caused them to fail after only 2.5 minutes, JAXA officials have said.

Currently the Japanese Space Agency is planning to make another attempt at Venus orbit insertion in 2015, the next time the probe will pass the planet.  The missing main engine means that the attempt will have to be made with Akatsuki's RCS thrusters.

Photo of the Day: ISS flying over aurora

This amazing photo was found on the Fragile Oasis Facebook page. The caption reads: 


"Good evening #FromSpace and @Astro_Aggie/Mike Fossum, current commander of the International Space Station, and a sensational space photographer. Enjoy!"

Mars Science Laboratory mated to heat shield

Mars Science Laboratory mated to heatshield

Now in final preparations for launch, the Mars Science Laboratory, already attached to it's back shell and proplussion package, has now been mated to it's heat shield.

The operation was performed by technicians at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

The heat shield and the spacecraft's back shell form an aeroshell that encapsulates and protects the rover from the intense heat it will experience during the final leg of the trip to Mars-the friction-filled descent through the Martian atmosphere.

The mission is scheduled for launch from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station during the period from Nov. 25 to Dec. 18. Arrival at Gale Crater on Mars is expected in August 2012.

After arrival, the Curiosity rover will investigate whether the landing region has had environmental conditions favorable for supporting microbial life and favorable for preserving clues about whether life existed."

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