1. Space News Update - August 29, 2017 - In the News Departments Story 1:
NASA's Next Mars Mission to Investigate Interior of Red Planet
Story 2:
Best Ever Image of a Star’s Surface and Atmosphere
Story 3: NASA’s Asteroid Sample Return Mission Successfully Adjusts Course
Departments
The Night Sky
ISS Sighting Opportunities
NASA-TV Highlights
Space Calendar
Food for Thought
Space Image of the Week

2. NASA's Next Mars Mission to Investigate Interior of Red Planet
In this computer graphic, NASA's Voyager 1 probe, moving toward upper left, nears the edge of the sun's influence, flying through a region of space dominated by a "magnetic highway" that helps mediate the flow of particles into and out of the solar system. The region includes particles from the sun's southern hemisphere that have been forced northward by the pressure of the interstellar wind. Voyager 1 is expected to cross the boundary into interstellar space sometime within the next few years if not sooner. (Credit: NASA)

3. Best Ever Image of a Star’s Surface and Atmosphere

4. NASA’s Asteroid Sample Return Mission Successfully Adjusts Course

5. Waxing further, the Moon passes over Scorpius and Saturn
The Night Sky
Tuesday, August 29
First-quarter Moon (exact at 4:13 a.m. EDT on this date). By evening, can you see that the Moon is just a trace more than half lit? After dark it forms a triangle with Saturn to its left and Antares a greater distance below it.
Wednesday, August 30
Now the Moon forms a diagonal line with Saturn and Antares to its lower right. Antares appears about three times as far from the Moon as Saturn does, as shown here.
Thursday, August 31
The wide W pattern of Cassiopeia is tilting up in the northeast after dark. Look below the W's last segment on the lower left, by a little farther than the segment's length, for an enhanced spot of the Milky Way's glow if you have a dark enough sky. Binoculars will show this to be the Perseus Double Cluster — even through a fair amount of light pollution.
Venus and the Beehive: Just before the first light of dawn on Friday morning (in other words, about 90 minutes before your local sunrise), spot Venus shining brightly low in the east- northeast. Binoculars will show the Beehive star cluster only about 1° to its left.
Friday, Sept. 1
At nightfall, the waxing gibbous Moon is about equally distant from Saturn, well off to its right, and Altair, high to its upper left.
Waxing further, the Moon passes over Scorpius and Saturn
Sky & Telescope

6. ISS Sighting Opportunities
ISS For Denver:
Date
Visible
Max Height
Appears
Disappears
Wed Aug 30, 6:04 AM
1 min
17°
11° above S
17° above S
Thu Aug 31, 5:13 AM
3 min
13°
10° above SSE
11° above ESE
Fri Sep 1, 5:55 AM
4 min
66°
10° above SW
43° above ENE
Sighting information for other cities can be found at NASA’s Satellite Sighting Information

7. NASA-TV Highlights (all times Eastern Time Zone)
MAVEN Launch November 18, 2013
NASA
MAVEN Launch November 18, 2013
NASA
MAVEN Launch November 18, 2013
NASA
NASA-TV Highlights
(all times Eastern Time Zone)
Wednesday, August 30
1 p.m. - ISS Expedition 52 Multi-Center In-Flight News Conference with NASA Flight Engineer Peggy Whitson (all channels)
4 p.m. - Coverage of the RS-25 Rocket Engine Test Firing – SSC (All Channels) (all channels)
Thursday, August 31
11:30 a.m. - ISS Expedition 52 In-Flight Educational Event with the Centaurus High School in Lafayette, Colorado and NASA Flight Engineer Jack Fischer of NASA (Starts at 11:40 a.m.) (all channels)
12 p.m.- Video File of the ISS Expedition Crew First Soyuz Fit Check in Baikonur, Kazakhstan and Qualification Training at the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Star City, Russia (Recorded on August 28, 30 and 31; Misurkin, Vande Hei, Acaba) (all channels)
Friday, September 1
2:30 p.m. - ISS Expedition 52/53 Change of Command Ceremony (Yurchikhin hands over ISS Command to Bresnik) (all channels)
4 p.m. - Replay of the ISS Expedition Crew News Conference at the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Star City, Russia (Misurkin, Vande Hei, Acaba) (all channels)
4:30 p.m. - Video File of the ISS Expedition Crew’s Ceremonial Visit to the Gagarin Museum at the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center and Visit to Red Square and the Kremlin in Moscow (Misurkin, Vande Hei, Acaba) (starts at 4:45 p.m.) (all channels)
Saturday, September 2
2 p.m. - ISS Expedition 52 Farewells and Hatch Closure Coverage (Yurchikhin, Whitson, Fischer); hatch closure scheduled at appx. 2:40 p.m. ET) (Starts at 2:15 p.m.) (all channels)
Tue May 30, 9:16 PM
1 min
14°
14° above N
10° above NNE
Tue May 30, 10:53 PM
< 1 min
10°
10° above N
Wed May 31, 00:30 AM
18°
18° above N
Wed May 31, 10:01 PM
Wed May 31, 11:38 PM
2 min
15°
14° above NE
Thu Jun 1, 9:09 PM
11°
11° above N
Thu Jun 1, 10:45 PM
12°
12° above N
10° above NE
Fri Jun 2, 00:20 AM
17°
10° above NW
17° above NNW
Watch NASA TV online by going to the NASA website

8. Space Calendar Aug PSLV Launch JPL Space Calendar
Aug 29 - Comet 236P/LINEAR Closest Approach To Earth (1.074 AU)
Aug 29 - Apollo Asteroid 3752 Camillo Closest Approach To Earth (0.557 AU)
Aug 29 - Asteroid Garneau Closest Approach To Earth (1.764 AU)
Aug 29 - Centaur Object 7066 Nessus At Opposition ( AU)
Aug 29 - Kuiper Belt Object (2004 PG115) At Opposition ( AU)
Aug rd International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) and United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA) Aerospace Symposium, Vienna, Austria
Aug 30 - Apollo Asteroid 2017 QN1 Near-Earth Flyby (0.014 AU)
Aug 30 - Apollo Asteroid 2017 QP2 Near-Earth Flyby (0.026 AU)
Aug 30 - Aten Asteroid 2100 Ra-Shalom Closest Approach To Earth (1.211 AU)
Aug 30 - Asteroid 2575 Bulgaria Closest Approach To Earth (1.215 AU)
Aug 30 - Asteroid 87 Sylvia (2 Moons) Closest Approach To Earth (2.176 AU)
Aug 30 - Symposium: Beyond WIMP Dark Matter (DaMaSC IV), Pasadena, California
Aug Space Technology & Investment Forum, San Francisco, California
Aug th Group on Earth Observations (GEO) Programme Board Meeting, Geneva, Switzerland
Aug 30-Sep 01 - Meeting: The Science of Gaia and Future Challenges, Lund, Sweden
Aug 30-Sep 02 - Conference: Shedding Light on the Dark Universe with Extremely Large Telescopes, Lanzhou, China
Aug 31 - IRNSS 1H PSLV Launch
Aug 31 - Comet P/2008 T4 (Hill) At Opposition (2.124 AU)
Aug 31 - Dwarf Planet Ceres Occults TYC (7.9 Magnitude Star)
Aug 31 - Aten Asteroid 2017 QQ1 Near-Earth Flyby (0.012 AU)
Aug 31 - Apollo Asteroid 2017 PQ24 Near-Earth Flyby (0.088 AU)
Aug 31 - Asteroid 5040 Rabinowitz Closest Approach To Earth (0.889 AU)
Aug 31 - Asteroid 2864 Soderblom Closest Approach To Earth (2.137 AU)
Aug 31 - Centaur Object 944 Hidalgo At Opposition (3.287 AU)
Aug 31 - Kuiper Belt Object 2003 QX113 At Opposition ( AU)
Aug 31-Sep 01 - Fundamentals of Life in the Universe Symposium, Groningen, The Netherlands
JPL Space Calendar

9. New Technique Puts Exoplanets on the Scale
Food for Thought
MU Study Finds that Gravity, ‘Mechanical Loading’ are Key to Cartilage Development

10. Hubble's Twisted Galaxy Image Credit: NASA/Hubble/ESA
Space Image of the Week
Hubble's Twisted Galaxy
Image Credit: NASA/Hubble/ESA