Space News March 2015

Ceres from Dawn February 12th Showing “Bright Spots” NASA's Dawn spacecraft has returned new images captured on approach to its historic orbit insertion at the dwarf planet Ceres. Dawn will be the first mission to successfully visit a dwarf planet when it enters orbit around Ceres on Friday, March 6th.

Latest “Selfie” from Curiousity A sweeping view of the "Pahrump Hills" outcrop on Mars surrounds the rover in Curiosity's latest self-portrait. The selfie scene is assembled from dozens of images taken by the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) camera on the rover's robotic arm.

NASA's Curiosity Mars rover used its drill on Tuesday, Feb NASA's Curiosity Mars rover used its drill on Tuesday, Feb. 24th to collect sample powder from inside a rock target called "Telegraph Peak. This hole, with a diameter slightly smaller than a U.S. dime is the 3rd to be drilled in Curiosity’s 30 months on Mars. Current interest is the geological ratios between Si, Al and Mg which may give clues to ancient water leaching of minerals in the area.

2014 - a Busy Year for NASA On Feb. 27, 2014, NASA and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency launched the Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) Core Observatory into space from Japan. GPM and the other new missions are making observations and providing new insights into global rain and snowfall, atmospheric carbon dioxide, ocean winds, clouds and tiny airborne particles called aerosols. NASA now has 20 Earth-observing space missions in operation

SMAP 24th February Mission controllers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, today sent commands to unfurl the 20-foot-wide (6-meter) reflector antenna on NASA's new Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) observatory, launched 31st January. NASA's Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) mission will produce high-resolution global maps of soil moisture to track water availability around our planet and guide policy decisions. SMAP will help scientists understand the links in Earth's water, energy and carbon cycles, help reduce uncertainties in predicting weather and climate, and enhance our ability to monitor and predict natural hazards such as floods and droughts.

CASSIOPE (CAScade, Smallsat and IOnospheric Polar Explorer) is a made-in-Canada small satellite from the Canadian Space Agency. You probably rely on a smart phone or other device with a Global Positioning System (GPS) module for guidance. You may not realize that, especially at high latitudes on our planet, signals travelling between GPS satellites and your device can get distorted in Earth's upper atmosphere. Researchers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California, in collaboration with the University of New Brunswick in Canada, are studying irregularities in the ionosphere about 217 miles (350 kilometers) above the ground. They want to explore the near-Earth plasma and find out how big plasma irregularities need to be to interfere with signals broadcast by GPS

ESA’s IXV Spaceplane, launched on a Vega rocket on 11 February 2015, is on its way to Europe for detailed study in Italy.  The Intermediate eXperimental Vehicle flew a flawless re-entry and splashed down in the Pacific Ocean just west of the Galapagos islands. It lifted off at 13:40 GMT (14:40 CET, 10:40 local time) on 11 February from Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana atop a Vega rocket. It separated from Vega at an altitude of 340 km and continued up to 412 km. Re-entering from this suborbital path, it recorded a vast amount of data from more than 300 advanced and conventional sensors.

Improved Vision for the James Webb Space Telescope Key science elements of the James Webb Space Telescope have been upgraded ahead of the observatory’s launch in 2018. It has a 6.5 metre diameter telescope and four state-of-the-art science instruments optimised for infrared observations. Europe has led the development of two of the instruments. Extensive testing has been carried out over the last year…

Ideas for next month ?? michael@held.org.uk