22-Apr-2017: Tiangong-2: China's first cargo spacecraft docks with orbiting space lab
China’s first cargo spacecraft docked successfully with the Tiangong-2 space lab marking a major step towards Beijing’s goal of establishing a permanently manned space station by 2022.
President Xi Jinping has prioritized advancing China’s space programme to strengthen national security.
The Tianzhou-1 cargo resupply spacecraft made the automated docking process with the orbiting space lab after it had taken off from the Wenchang satellite launch centre in the southern island province of Hainan.
The Tiangong-2 space laboratory, or Heavenly Palace 2, was home to two astronauts for a month last October in China’s longest ever manned space mission.
The cargo spacecraft mission provides an “important technological basis” to build a Chinese space station. It can reportedly carry six tonnes of goods, two tonnes of fuel and can fly unmanned for three months.
Despite the advances in China’s space programme for military, commercial and scientific purposes, it still lags behind the United States and Russia.
In late 2013, China’s Jade Rabbit rover landed on the Moon to great national fanfare, but ran into severe technical difficulties.
The US Defense Department has highlighted China’s increasing space capabilities, saying it was pursuing activities aimed at preventing other nations from using space-based assets in a crisis.
China insists it has only peaceful ambitions in space, but has tested anti-satellite missiles.
28-Mar-2017: Sands of Titan are electrically charged
An experiment showed that, particles covering the surface of Titan are “electrically charged”. It explains an odd phenomenon, prevailing winds on Titan blow from east to west across the moon’s surface, but sandy dunes nearly 300 feet tall seem to form in the opposite direction.
Electrostatic forces increase frictional thresholds and makes the grains so sticky and cohesive that only heavy winds can move them. The prevailing winds aren’t strong enough to shape the dunes.
The non-silicate, granular materials can hold their electrostatic charges for days, weeks or months at a time under low-gravity conditions.
Titan’s atmosphere is composed of 98 per cent nitrogen.
The Earth sand does pick up electrical charge when it is moved, but the charges are smaller and dissipate quickly. That is one reason why you need water to keep sand together when building a sand castle. Not so with Titan, according to the experiment results.
10-Mar-2017: Europa Clipper mission to investigate Jupiter's icy moon Europa
The moniker harkens back to the clipper ships that sailed across the oceans of Earth in the 19th century. Clipper ships were streamlined, three-masted sailing vessels renowned for their grace and swiftness. These ships rapidly shuttled tea and other goods back and forth across the Atlantic Ocean and around the globe.
In the grand tradition of these classic ships, the Europa Clipper spacecraft would sail past Europa at a rapid cadence, as frequently as every two weeks, providing many opportunities to investigate the moon up close. The prime mission plan includes 40 to 45 flybys, during which the spacecraft would image the moon's icy surface at high resolution and investigate its composition and the structure of its interior and icy shell.
Europa has long been a high priority for exploration because it holds a salty liquid water ocean beneath its icy crust. The ultimate aim of Europa Clipper is to determine if Europa is habitable, possessing all three of the ingredients necessary for life: liquid water, chemical ingredients, and energy sources sufficient to enable biology.
During each orbit, the spacecraft will spend only a short time within the challenging radiation environment near Europa. It speeds past, gathers a huge amount of science data, then sails on out of there.
The mission is being planned for launch in the 2020s, arriving in the Jupiter system after a journey of several years.