25-May-2017: Juno Spacecraft Reveals Spectacular Cyclones At Jupiter's Poles
NASA's Juno spacecraft has spotted giant cyclones swirling at Jupiter's north and south poles.
Juno arrived at Jupiter last summer. It's the first spacecraft to get a close-up look at the planet's poles. It's in an orbit that takes it skimming close to the cloud tops of the gas giant once every 53 days. After each close pass, the spacecraft sends a trove of data back to Earth.
Scientists weren't expecting to see cyclones at the poles. Ultimately, scientists will want to understand how these cyclones change over time and whether they form differently in the north and south poles.
There's some startling new data about the spectacular auroras at the poles of Jupiter — which are like the Northern Lights on Earth but much more dazzling. These auroras are caused by energetic particles streaming along Jupiter's magnetic field lines, and there should be strong electrical currents associated with all those streaming particles.
Juno also revealed that Jupiter’s magnetic field is 10 times stronger than the strongest magnetic field on Earth and twice as strong as anticipated, exceeding researchers’ expectations.
Also, the early data are suggesting the presence of a core in Jupiter, which was always considered to be a gas giant. More data should help provide a more precise understanding than fuzzy.
Another surprise from Juno is the concentration of ammonia in Jupiter's atmosphere. Scientists thought ammonia was most likely distributed evenly throughout the atmosphere. The data show there's more ammonia near the equator than there is at other latitudes.
Juno is expected to make about two dozen more close passes over Jupiter's poles, so there'll likely be more puzzles to come.
3-Feb-2017: Juno Spacecraft Makes Its Fourth Flyby Over Jupiter
NASA’s Juno spacecraft made its fourth flyby over Jupiter’s mysterious cloud tops.
At the time of closest approach, Juno will be about 2,670 miles (4,300 kilometers) above the planet’s cloud tops and traveling at a speed of about 129,000 mph (57.8 kilometers per second) relative to the gas giant. All of Juno’s eight science instruments, including the Jovian Infrared Auroral Mapper (JIRAM) instrument, will be on and collecting data during the flyby.
The Juno science team continues to analyze returns from previous flybys. Revelations include that Jupiter’s magnetic fields and aurora are bigger and more powerful than originally thought and that the belts and zones that give the gas giant’s cloud top its distinctive look extend deep into the planet’s interior. Peer-reviewed papers with more in-depth science results from Juno’s first three flybys are expected to be published within the next few months. Also, JunoCam, the first interplanetary outreach camera, is now being guided with the assistance from the public — people can participate by voting for what features on Jupiter should be imaged during each flyby.
Juno is currently in a 53-day orbit period around Jupiter as the team evaluates options for performing a maneuver to get the spacecraft into a shorter orbit period. While the initial plan was for the mission was to have 14-day orbits during this time, Juno can reveal amazing details about Jupiter even if it stays in the longer orbits for the duration of the mission.
Juno was launched in 2011 on a mission to study Jupiter’s composition and evolution. It’s the first spacecraft to orbit Jupiter since Galileo. Juno spacecraft successfully entered Jupiter’s orbit recently, after a five year journey. Juno launched on August 5, 2011, from Cape Canaveral, Florida, and arrived at Jupiter on July 4, 2016. During its mission of exploration, Juno soars low over the planet’s cloud tops — as close as about 2,600 miles (4,100 kilometers). During these flybys, Juno is probing beneath the obscuring cloud cover of Jupiter and studying its auroras to learn more about the planet’s origins, structure, atmosphere and magnetosphere.
The primary goals of the $1.1 billion mission are to find out whether Jupiter has a solid core, and whether there is water in the planet’s atmosphere — something that may not only provide vital clues to how the planet formed and evolved, but also to how the solar system we live in came into existence. At the end of its mission, Juno will dive into Jupiter’s atmosphere and burn up — a “deorbit” manoeuver that is necessary to ensure that it does not crash into and contaminate the Jovian moons Europa, Ganymede and Calisto.
The Juno spacecraft – named after the Roman goddess and wife of Jupiter – is packed with nine instruments capable of peering into the planet’s heart. It will fly 2,600 miles above the cloud tops – 3,000 miles closer to the surface than any other mission has ever achieved. Juno became the first spacecraft to cruise this far out into the solar system powered solely by the sun, beating Europe’s Rosetta spacecraft. A trio of massive solar wings sticks out from Juno like blades from a windmill, generating 500 watts of power to run its nine instruments. Juno, built by Lockheed Martin, is an armored spacecraft – its computer and electronics are locked in a titanium vault to shield them from harmful radiation. Even so, Juno is expected to get blasted with radiation equal to more than 100 million dental X-rays during the mission.
11-May-2017: China tests 'Lunar Palace'
Chinese students will live in a laboratory simulating a lunar-like environment for up to 200 days as Beijing prepares for its long-term goal of putting humans on the moon. Four postgraduate students from the capital's astronautics research university Beihang entered the 160-square-metre (1,720-square-foot) cabin—dubbed the "Yuegong-1", or "Lunar Palace".
The volunteers will live in the sealed lab to simulate a long-term, self-contained space mission with no input from the outside world. Human waste will be treated with a bio-fermentation process, and experimental crops and vegetables grown with the help of food and waste byproducts. The cabin represents the "world's most advanced closed-loop life-support technology so far.
China does not expect to land its first astronauts on the moon for at least another decade, but the project seeks to help the country prepare lunar explorers for longer stays on the surface. Two men and two women entered the lab for an initial stay of 60 days. They will then be relieved by another group of four, who will stay 200 days, before returning for an additional 105.
The "Lunar Palace" has two plant cultivation modules and a living cabin: 42 square metres containing four bed cubicles, a common room, a bathroom, a waste-treatment room and a room for raising animals. A successful 105-day trial was conducted in 2014.
The Lunar Palace is the world's third bioregenerative life-support base, and the first developed in China. It is the only such facility to involve animals and microorganisms as well as plants and humans, its chief designer Liu Hong called it "the first of its kind."
China is pouring billions into its military-run space programme and working to catch up with the United States and Europe, with hopes to have a crewed outpost by 2022. Beijing sees the programme as symbolizing the country's progress and a marker of its rising global stature, but so far China has largely replicated activities that the US and Soviet Union pioneered decades ago.
Last month, China's first cargo spacecraft, Tianzhou-1, successfully completed docking with an orbiting space lab.
7-May-2017: South Asian Satellite to boost regional communication
India’s successful launch of the first-ever South Asia Satellite (SAS) to boost communication and improve disaster links among its six neighbours has “opened up new horizons of engagement” in the region and helped it carve a unique place for itself in space diplomacy.
Projecting the 2,230-kg communication spacecraft as India's "priceless gift" to its neighbours, Prime Minister Modi said the "unprecedented" development sends out a message that "even sky is not the limit when it comes to regional cooperation".
Termed India's technology largesse from the sky to the peoples of the region, the satellite will prove to be a boon in the entire region’s progress. It is also expected to cement bonds among Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal and Sri Lanka.
The successful launch by ISRO was celebrated jointly through a video conference by Modi, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, Bhutanese Prime Minister Thering Tobgay, Maldivian President Abdulla Yameen, Nepalese Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal and Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena.
Pakistan is not a part of the project as it had refused to accept India's "invaluable gift", proposed by Modi soon after he became the Prime Minister in 2014. The initial proposal to name it as “SAARC Satellite” was changed to South Asia Satellite following Pakistan’s refusal. The satellite’s footprint, extending all over South Asia, is for use by neighbours. Globally, the gift has perhaps no precedent.
The 2,230-kg communication spacecraft, with a mission life of 12 years, will support effective communication, broadcasting and Internet services in a region that is geographically challenging, economically lagging with limited technological resources.
The SAS or GSAT-9 is a geosynchronous communications and meteorology satellite. It will provide significant capability to each of the participating countries in terms of DTH (direct-to-home), besides linking the countries for disaster information transfer. It will help them in better governance, better banking and education in remote areas, more predictable weather forecasting and efficient natural resource mapping, linking people with top-end medical services through telemedicine and quick response to natural disasters. Its benefits also include deeper IT connectivity and fostering people-to-people contact.
The satellite has 12 Ku band transponders which the six nations can utilise to increase communications. Each South Asian country will get access to one transponder through which it will be able to beam its own programming, besides common “South Asian programming”. The countries will have to develop their own ground infrastructure. India is willing to extend assistance and knowhow.
The project cost India nearly RS 450 crore, with the satellite itself costing Rs 235 crore. This was GSLV’s 11th launch. The SAS is orbiting the Earth in its Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit (GTO). In the coming days, the satellite orbit will be raised to the final circular Geostationary Orbit (GSO) by firing the satellite's Liquid Apogee Motor (LAM) in stages. It will be commissioned into service after the completion of orbit-raising operations and the satellite’s positioning in its designated slot in the GSO following in-orbit testing of its payloads.
The successful run of India’s premier space agency, ISRO, continues. The launch has added yet another feather to ISRO’s cap. India created space history and broke record by launching 104 satellites from a single rocket in one go in mid-February, this year. So far, ISRO has ferried 226 satellites into orbit, including 180 from abroad. ISRO is attempting to increase its capacity to deliver by scaling up the frequency of launches to 12 per year from the seven, currently, by building more satellites and lowering the cost of access to space.
India’s second moon landing mission Chandrayaan-2, a fully Indian affair, is slated to hit the skies in early 2018.
5-May-2017: GSLV Successfully Launches South Asia Satellite
India's Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV-F09) successfully launched the 2230 kg South |Asia Satellite (GSAT-9) into its planned Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit (GTO). Today’s launch of GSLV was its eleventh and took place from the Second Launch Pad at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre SHAR (SDSC SHAR), Sriharikota, the spaceport of India. This is the fourth consecutive success achieved by GSLV carrying indigenously developed Cryogenic Upper Stage. In its oval shaped GTO, the South Asia Satellite is now orbiting the Earth with a perigee (nearest point to Earth) of 169 km and an apogee (farthest point to Earth) of 36,105 km with an orbital inclination of 20.65 deg with respect to the equator.
Few seconds before the launch countdown reached zero, the four liquid propellant strap-on motors of GSLV-F09, each carrying 42 tons of liquid propellants, were ignited. At count zero and after confirming the normal performance of all the four strap-on motors, the 139 ton solid propellant first stage core motor was ignited and GSLV lifted off at 16:57 IST. The major phases of the flight occurred as scheduled. About seventeen minutes after lift-off, South Asia Satellite was successfully placed in GTO. .
Soon after separation from GSLV, the two solar arrays of the satellite were automatically deployed in quick succession and the Master Control Facility (MCF) at Hassan in Karnataka assumed control of the satellite. .
South Asia Satellite is a communication satellite built by ISRO to provide a variety of communication services over the South Asian region. For this, it is equipped with Ku-band transponders.
Following the successful launch, the Honorable Prime Minister of India, Mr. Narendra Modi addressed along with the South Asian leaders. He congratulated ISRO and remarked that today was a historic day for South Asia and a day without precedence. The Prime Minister recalled that two years ago India made a promise to extend the advanced space technology for the cause of growth and prosperity of the people of South Asia and felt that the successful launch of South Asia Satellite today marks a fulfilment of that.
In the coming days, the satellite orbit will be raised from its present GTO to the final circular Geostationary Orbit (GSO) by firing the satellite's Liquid Apogee Motor (LAM) in stages. The South Asia Satellite will be commissioned into service after the completion of orbit raising operations and the satellite’s positioning in its designated slot in the GSO following in-orbit testing of its payloads.