Tag: space

A Soyuz spacecraft carrying cosmonaut Gennady Padalka, the European Space Agency’s Andreas Mogensen and Kazakhstan’s Aidyn Aimbetov lands in Kazakhstan on Sept. 11, 2015. Credit: NASA TV

Three astronauts returned to Earth from the International Space Station Friday evening (Sept. 11), taking the orbiting lab’s population back down to its normal level of six crewmembers.

A Russian Soyuz spacecraft carrying cosmonaut Gennady Padalka, European Space Agency astronaut Andreas Mogensen and Kazakhstan’s Aidyn Aimbetov touched down safely on the Kazakh steppes at 8:51 p.m. EDT on Friday (0051 GMT Saturday), 3.5 hours after departing the space station.

The landing marked the end of a quick mission for Mogensen and Aimbetov, who had arrived at the $100 billion orbiting complex just last Friday (Sept. 4). Padalka, on the other hand, had been aboard for the usual 6-month stint.

Padalka came up in March with fellow cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko and NASA’s Scott Kelly, both of whom are now halfway through an unprecedented yearlong orbital mission. Researchers are studying how Kornienko and Kelly adapt physiologically and psychologically to long-duration spaceflight, in an attempt to pave the way for crewed journeys to Mars and other distant destinations.

The 12-month mission necessitated the temporarily crowded conditions on the space station. Soyuz capsules are certified to remain in space for just 6 months, so the vehicle that brought Padalka, Kornienko and Kelly up cannot be used to take the latter two down next March. Mogensen and Aimbetov therefore launched to the orbiting lab — along with cosmonaut Sergey Volkov, who is staying aboard until next March — primarily to provide Kornienko and Kelly with a vehicle that will take them home.

Incidentally, Aimbetov was not originally scheduled to go to space this month. His spot on the brief mission was supposed to be filled by English singer Sarah Brightman, who was reportedly prepared to pay about $50 million for her orbital experience. But Brightman backed out in May, citing personal reasons.

The people still aboard the International Space Station in addition to Kornienko, Kelly and Volkov are NASA astronaut Kjell Lindgren, Japan’s Kimiya Yui and cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko.

Follow Mike Wall on Twitter @michaeldwall and Google+. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook or Google+. Originally published on Space.com.

Graduate student Jean Paul Santos holds the 4×4 prototype antenna that may help Mars rovers speak directly to Earth, bypassing the orbiter that currently serves as a middleman. Credit: UCLA

Talking to rovers on the surface of Mars could become much easier, thanks to a new type of antenna that would send messages directly between the robotic explorers and Earth.

Currently, robotic rovers on the surface of Mars communicate with Earth by first relaying messages to a satellite orbiting the Red Planet; but the new antenna would cut out the middle-man and allow rovers to communicate directly with scientists back home. The new antenna design would also dramatically increase the available communication time between Red Planet rovers and Earth, according to a statement from the University of California at Los Angeles.

The new design could be a major boost for future missions, such as NASA’s Mars 2020 rover, scheduled to begin its journey to Mars in 2020. [‪NASA’s Mars Rover 2020 Mission in Pictures]

The new design combines many small antennas, known as antenna elements, into a larger single antenna, using a unique geometry. The new instrument can transmit and receive signals with greater power than current rover antennas are capable of, the statement said.

“NASA has a potential need for augmented direct-to-Earth (DTE) X-band radio communications for the Mars 2020 mission and for future missions,” Yahya Rahmat-Samii, one of the designers of the new antenna system, told Space.com by email.

Rahmat-Samii is a professor of electrical engineering at UCLA’s Antenna Research, Analysis and Measurement Laboratory (ARAM). Rahmat-Samii has worked on initial antennae designs for a number of NASA space missions, including the Cassini probe, the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) and others.

Can you hear me now?

Rovers on the surface of the Red Planet today use indirect or relay communications methods. Information is transmitted to an orbiter and then passed on to Earth. NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO), launched in 2005, currently fields transmissions from rovers and sends them back to scientists on the ground. NASA’s Mars Odyssey spacecraft serves as a backup communication link. Launched in 2002, Odyssey is currently the longest-running Mars mission.

If the long-lasting orbiters expire before NASA’s Opportunity and Curiosity rovers, then the rovers will be unable to connect with Earth, essentially putting them out of commission. Although NASA plans to launch a third rover, Mars 2020, to the Red Planet in the near future, no new orbiter is in the works.

Rovers carrying the new antenna could communicate directly with Earth when the rover and  Earth are within line-of-sight. An onboard mechanical system would allow the arm holding the antenna to pivot in the appropriate direction. While present-day rovers can only speak to Earth twice a day for about 15 minutes each, the new design could dramatically increase communication time.

“Depending on the relative orbital position of Earth and Mars, it could be as long as several hours,” Rahmat-Samii said.

Rahmat-Samii and two of his graduate students, along with engineers from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, developed the new antenna design using a new type of element originally built at ARAM for personal communication. The team devised an optimized version of the element and combined them in a 4 by 4 group as a prototype design, which they then tested.

Known as a circularly polarized half E-shaped patch antenna element, the hardware sends and receives radio communications in a configuration that reduces the effects of atmospheric gas and particles, allowing the communications to travel through the atmosphere with minimal interference.

“The unique antenna characteristics of this element made it a great choice for Mars rover [direct to Earth] antenna,” Rahmat-Samii said.

Rovers traveling to Mars would require a larger final antenna, composed of four rows made up of four of the original elements, for a total of 256 antenna elements. The full antenna, which would be just a little bit larger than a standard chessboard, packs more communication power in a tighter space than bulky dish antennas, with the added bonus of being easier to store during flight. It was designed to work within the stringent power and design constraints of Mars rovers such as NASA’s Mars 2020.

Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on Space.com.

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Matt Damon, as Ares III astronaut Mark Watney in “The Martian,” wears Under Armour sportswear to train. Credit: 20th Century Fox

There is now a new way to dress like an astronaut, or at least a fictional future Mars crew member, thanks to a joint marketing promotion between the movie “The Martian” and the sports outfitter Under Armour.

A new teaser video released online on Wednesday (Sept. 9) not only advertised the 20th Century Fox film opening in theaters on Oct. 2, but also Under Armour’s apparel as the choice of the film’s NASA astronauts.

In the minute and 15 second-long clip, actor Matt Damon, as Ares 3 crew member Mark Watney, is seen undergoing physical training for his journey to Mars while dressed in Under Armour’s basewear, including compression leggings and shirt. Close-up shots focus in on the company’s logo and a slide at the video’s end identifies Under Armour as the “Official Training Partner of the Ares Program.” [See Photos from Ridley Scott’s ‘The Martian’]

“As brands go, I can’t think of a better partner for this mission,” said Watney in an Under Armour release dated Sep. 9, 2035, blurring the line between the film and reality. “Their mantra of hard work and accomplishment speaks to everything it means to become an astronaut.”

In addition to the clothing seen in the short video, Under Armour is now selling “official mission gear” to “show your support for the crew of the Hermes,” the spacecraft from “The Martian.” The new offerings include shirts bearing the Ares 3 mission patch and logotype from the movie.

The product placement comes as the result of a different partnership, this one between RSA Films, the commercial production company founded by “Martian” director Ridley Scott, and movie ad agency Wild Card. Together as 3AM, the venture specializes in creating integrated content by tapping into the early stages of film development.

Sports outfitter Under Armour is now selling “mission gear” from “The Martian,” including t-shirts like the above.
Credit: Under Armour

For “The Martian,” 3AM developed a series of viral videos that present the Ares 3 mission as if it was preparing to launch today. Previously posted clips have provided a tour of the Hermes and a look at the crew’s isolation training, as well as an episode of National Geographic’s StarTalk, hosted by real-life astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson.

For the new Under Armour clip, 3AM imagined how a Mars crew might fit into today’s pop culture.

“We asked ourselves what it would look like if we took the pop culture appeal of Apollo and Mercury-era astronauts and infused that world with today’s hyper-connected social media culture,” Chris Eyerman, creative director at 3AM, told Fast Company’s Co.Create. “We would probably see these astronauts being sponsored by brands.”

The Under Armour t-shirts are the first “Martian” branded products to be announced. The film, based on a book by Andy Weir of the same title, follows Watney (Damon) after he is stranded on Mars and struggles to survive. The star-studded cast includes Jessica Chastain as the leader of the Ares 3 mission and Jeff Daniels as NASA’s director.

For more about the Ares 3 mission gear, see Under Armour’s website at: underarmour.com.

Watch Matt Watney (Matt Damon) train for Mars in Under Armour apparel at collectSPACE.

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Credit: NRAO

This view of Mercury is made up of hundreds of images taken by NASA’s MESSENGER spacecraft during its first flyby of the planet in 2008. New data suggest that Mercury, the closest planet to the sun, completes a rotation on its axis 9 seconds more quickly than previously thought. Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington/DLR

Mercury is a spinning faster than scientists had thought: New research shows that the planet completes a rotation on its axis roughly 9 seconds more quickly than scientists previously charted — and that data will help scientists understand more about the planet’s molten core.

Mercury is a rocky planet only slightly larger than Earth’s moon. Based on the data collected from NASA’s MESSENGER spacecraft, scientists think most of Mercury contains a molten core that takes up 70 percent of the planet’s mass. The newly measured rotation rate can be used to help calculate the proportions of solid and liquid within, even as researchers begin to understand its cause.

“One possible explanation for Mercury’s faster rotation is that Jupiter influences its orbit,” study participant Alexander Stark, of the German Space Agency (DLR) Institute of Planetary Research, said in a statement. “As a result, its distance from the sun varies, which, in turn, affects the planet’s rotation speed.” [Planet Mercury: Simple Facts, Tough Quiz]

Mercury is the closest planet to the sun. Because of tidal forces exerted by the star’s gravity, Mercury has a 59-day rotation period that represents a 3:2 ratio with its 88-day orbit around the sun — for every three times it rotates, it orbits the sun twice. This ratio is unique among planets in the solar system.

MESSENGER (Mercury Surface, Space Environment, Geochemistry and Ranging) was the first orbital mission around Mercury; after flying by the planet a couple of times, it remained there taking measurements between 2011 and 2015. 

While it was there, MESSENGER was also the first spacecraft to detect slight irregularities as Mercury moved around its orbit. By measuring the irregularities, scientists can deduce the size and density of the core, as well as map the planet more accurately.

MESSENGER measured the altitude of the surface by timing the reflection of laser pulses off of the planet. These data were then compared with terrain models based on photos taken by the spacecraft.

In addition to providing more information about Mercury’s core, the rotation speed allows researchers to make highly accurate maps of the planet’s surface — which officials say will help with future missions to Mercury. In 2017, the European Space Agency plans to launch the BepiColombo mission to further examine the planet’s surface and internal structure.

Follow Elizabeth Howell @howellspace, or Space.com @Spacedotcom. We’re also on Facebook and Google+. Original article on Space.com .

SpaceX has thrown open the hatch to its Crew Dragon spacecraft, revealing a sleek black and white interior for the capsule it is building to fly astronauts to the International Space Station and other destinations.

“Step inside Crew Dragon,” SpaceX invited on a new page of its website on Thursday (Sept. 10).

“Dragon made history in 2012 when it became the first commercial [uncrewed] spacecraft to deliver cargo to the space station,” SpaceX wrote on its website. “But Dragon was also designed from the beginning to carry people, and today SpaceX is finalizing the necessary refinements to make that a reality.” [Take a Video Tour Inside SpaceX’s Crew Dragon Spacecraft]

Images and video newly-released by the company show that the tan leather and mirrored metal surfaces previously unveiled as part of Crew Dragon’s debut in May 2014 have now been replaced by black bucket seats and stark white walls.

SpaceX designed its Crew Dragon manned space capsule to be an enjoyable ride.
Credit: SpaceX

“Crew Dragon was designed to be an enjoyable ride. With four windows, passengers can take in views of Earth, the Moon, and the wider Solar System right from their seats, which are made from the highest-grade carbon fiber and Alcantara cloth,” SpaceX described.

The spacecraft’s only punch of color — other than from its windows — is from the flat panel displays of the capsule’s forward-mounted control panel.

“Crew Dragon’s displays will provide real-time information on the state of the spacecraft’s capabilities, anything from Dragon’s position in space, to possible destinations, to the environment on board,” SpaceX stated.

The Crew Dragon’s environmental control and life support system will “provide a comfortable and safe environment” for its passengers, added the Hawthorne, California-based company. “During their trip, astronauts on board can set the spacecraft’s interior temperature to between 65 and 80 degrees Fahrenheit.”

SpaceX’s Crew Dragon displays will provide real-time information on the state of the spacecraft’s capabilities.
Credit: SpaceX

The fully autonomous Crew Dragon is one of two privately designed spacecraft NASA has contracted to begin flying its astronauts to the space station beginning in 2017. The other, Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner, is also equipped with a primarily black and white cabin, punctuated by the glow of “Boeing Sky Interior” blue LED lighting, as the aerospace company has deployed on its passenger jetliners.

SpaceX, which earlier this year tested the Crew Dragon’s emergency escape system, is planning another abort test in 2017, preceded by a test flight without astronauts to the space station. The company’s first Crew Dragon to fly with NASA astronauts aboard will follow the in-flight abort test, prior to SpaceX starting to fly operational missions to the orbiting outpost in the next two to three years.

Step into SpaceX’s Crew Dragon: watch a video tour inside the capsule at collectSPACE.

Follow collectSPACE.com on Facebook and on Twitter at @collectSPACE. Copyright 2014 collectSPACE.com. All rights reserved.