Great Image: Glaciers From Space

The spectacular image above was taken by one of the European Space Agency's Copernicus Sentinel satellites.  Here is ESA's explanation of what we are seeing:

The Upsala Glacier in Argentina’s Los Glaciares National Park is pictured in this Sentinel-2A image from 22 January 2016. 

The park was named a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1981 and is the largest in the country, covering an area of over 7000 sq km. 

Many glaciers in the national park and in the wider Patagonian Ice Field have been retreating during the last 50 years because of rising temperatures. Upsala Glacier has retreated more than 3 km in the past 15 years. 

Glaciers are the largest reservoirs of freshwater on our planet, and their melting or growing is one of the best indicators of climate change. Satellite data can help to monitor changes in glacier mass and, subsequently, their contribution to rising sea levels.  

Taking a closer look at the terminus of the Upsala Glacier, we can see how icebergs have broken off and are floating in the water of the upper reaches of Lake Argentino. The lake’s unique colour is attributed to ‘glacier milk’ – suspended fine sediment produced by the abrasion of glaciers rubbing against rock. 

The darker lines following the flow of the glacier are moraines: accumulations of rock, soil and other debris – including glacial milk – that have been deposited by the glacier.

And speaking of the Copernicus Sentinel satellites, ESA has a scare the other day when a small piece of space debris hit a Sentinel 1-A satellite.  The before and after pictures are provided below.  Fortunately, the satellite continued with normal operations.  The debris was thought to be only about 1 millimeter in size.  ESA's Head of Space Debris Office Holger Krag noted:

Such hits, caused by particles of millimetre size, are not unexpected...These very small objects are not trackable from the ground, because only objects greater than about 5 cm can usually be tracked and, thus, avoided by manoeuvring the satellites.

ESA, Europa, and the Moon

So now the European Space Agency wants to join NASA on its trip to Europa.  That is good for international cooperation and funding since ESA may contribute about $550 million related to a separate probe.  NASA already has about $2 billion in funding for the mission.  Alvaro Gimenez, ESA’s director of science and robotic exploration. stated:

We are ready and interested...As I said to my colleague in the U.S., we cannot allow Americans to go to Europa without Europeans. We have to be part of it. We think that it is natural, but certainly we will not lead, so we have to wait.

I am surprised since ESA has its own plans for Europa via the JUpiter ICy moons Explorer (JUICE).  Both the NASA mission and JUICE are slated for 2022.  It could make sense for ESA to contribute to the NASA mission and vice versa to double the chances that the two space agencies will get a craft to Europa.

That does not mean both space agencies see eye-to-eye on all future missions, particularly manned missions.  While NASA seems to be aiming for manned missions to Mars, the European Space Agency (ESA) is gunning for the occupation of the Moon.  In this video, Destination: Moon, ESA discusses how we have explored only a part of the Moon, highlights the need to determine how much water is really below the surface, points out the advantages of a telescope outside of Earth's interference, and recommends an international Moon base similar to the arrangement in Antarctica.

While many in the United States would say "been there, done that," ESA makes a convincing argument that more can be learned about the Moon and thereby the Earth.  This would be much better than our decades in low-Earth orbit, but not as sexy as Mars.  Maybe ESA could lead the lunar mission while NASA focuses on Mars.  Of course, with Russia and China also planning manned missions to the Moon, I expect the United States might feel left out.  But we can still be there, if only "leading from behind," with some of our heavy-lift rockets and hard-earned expertise. It has been a long time since we had astronauts on the Moon and a permanent mission sounds like a good idea for everyone involved.

Update: To be fair, ESA contributed about $470 million to the Orion service module, indicating plenty of support for a manned Mars mission. It appears ESA is hoping such support may provide a spot for a European astronaut on the trip to Mars. That is cheaper and smarter than funding a separate mission. 

Great Image: Kissing Stars May End Badly

This is more of a "great artist image" of two kissing stars imagined from observations by the European Space Agency (ESO) Very Large Telescope in Chile. The expected outcome of this amazing duo is either one large star or one big black hole. 

ESA noted:

The double star system VFTS 352 is located about 160,000 light-years away in the Tarantula Nebula. This remarkable region is the most active nursery of new stars in the nearby Universe and new observations from ESO’s VLT have revealed that this pair of young stars is among the most extreme and strangest yet found...VFTS 352 is composed of two very hot, bright and massive stars that orbit each other in little more than a day. The centres of the stars are separated by just 12 million kilometres.  In fact, the stars are so close that their surfaces overlap and a bridge has formed between them. 

The Beagle Has Landed!

Earlier today on the Beagle2 website, this was still the concluding entry on the mission: 

Beagle 2 was due to land on Mars on 25th December 2003. The spacecraft was successfully ejected from Mars Express on 19th December 2003. Nothing has been heard from Beagle 2 and the mission is presumed lost.

Well, now we know that the United Kingdom's Beagle 2 Mars Lander (model shown below) made it to the surface of Mars.  As shown in the NASA image above from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO), the lander, parachute, and cover were all located close together.  NASA noted:

 Analysis of the images indicates what appears to be a partially deployed configuration, with what is thought to be the rear cover with its pilot/drogue chute (still attached) and main parachute close by. Due to the small size of Beagle 2 (less than 7 feet, or 2 meters across for the deployed lander) it is right at the limit of detection of HiRISE, the highest-resolution camera orbiting Mars. The targets are within the expected landing area at a distance of about three miles (five kilometers) from its center.

 A European Space Agency press release expressed relief that the Beagle's story was now known: 

"We are very happy to learn that Beagle-2 touched down on Mars. The dedication of the various teams in studying high-resolution images in order to find the lander is inspiring,” says Alvaro Giménez, ESA’s Director of Science and Robotic Exploration. 

“Not knowing what happened to Beagle-2 remained a nagging worry. Understanding now that Beagle-2 made it all the way down to the surface is excellent news,” adds Rudolf Schmidt, ESA’s Mars Express project manager at the time.

The Beagle2 website has an interesting Q&A on the chances of a rover stumbling upon it:

Is there any chance that NASA's rovers can go and find Beagle 2? Beagle 2 has landed in the Isidis Planitia basin (about 90 degrees East, 10 degrees North). Spirit has landed in the Gusev Crater (about 175 degrees East, 15 degrees South). Opportunity is due to land on the Meridiani Planum (about 354 degrees East, 2 degrees South). In Earth terms this is approximately equivalent to Beagle 2 being in Sri Lanka (in the Indian Ocean), Spirit being in Fiji (in the Pacific Ocean) and Opportunity being south of Ghana (in the South Atlantic Ocean). Mars is about half the diameter of Earth, but even with these figures you can get an idea of how far apart the landing sites are. The NASA rovers can travel up to about a kilometre (0.6 miles) at an average rate of about 1 cm/sec (approximately 0.036 kmph or 0.02 mph), so contact with Beagle 2 would not be remotely possible.

Although NASA could not help with the rovers, but it certainly helped with the MRO. 
 

Top Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona/University of Leicester. The image was taken in 2014 by NASA's MRO's HiRISE camera.

Bottom Image Credit:  Beagle 2 website.  All rights reserved Beagle 2.

Philae: The Little Ship that Could

The European Space Agency's (ESA) little Philae has gone to sleep for the moment on the surface of Comet 67p, but the very fact it is on the back of this monster rock 300 million mile away as it careens towards the sun is nothing but amazing.  After a bumpy landing and bad placement on the comet's surface, the lander's batteries slowed died due to a lack of solar energy.  Luckily, the lander had already sent back the data it was supposed to measure for ESA scientists to analyze.  ESA's mission website stated:

From now on, no contact will be possible unless sufficient sunlight falls on the solar panels to generate enough power to wake it up. The possibility that this may happen later in the mission was boosted when mission controllers sent commands to rotate the lander’s main body with its fixed solar panels. This should have exposed more panel area to sunlight.

In the meantime, Rosetta will continue to continue to orbit the comet and send back more data on the comet for continued analysis. The adventure continues.

Top Image:  Panoramic shot from Philae from the surface of Comet 67p. The three feet of Philae’s landing gear can be seen in some of the frames.
Bottom Image:  Philae's scientific instruments.
Image Credit:  ESA

Rosetta's Mission to a Comet

Above is an amazing shot of the comet being pursued by the European Space Agency's (ESA) Rosetta spacecraft.  This image was taken earlier this month from about 65 miles away.  After 10 years, the Rosetta mission is finally on target to orbit the comet before landing on it in November of this year.  This will be the first ever landing on a comet and provide all of us with a greater understanding of whether comets seeded life in our solar system. 

You can follow the mission via the ESA website or NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.  ESA has also put together a fun story on its website for kids following the mission. 

Image Credits:  ESA/Rosetta/NAVCAM (coment) and ESA (cartoon)

Mars News: New Rover and More

Earlier this month, NASA announced plans to send a new rover to Mars as well as other initiatives designed to better understand Mars and prepare for a human mission.  Here is the key part of NASA's Mars announcement:  

On Dec. 4, NASA announced plans for a robust multi-year Mars program, including a new robotic science rover based on the Curiosity design set to launch in 2020. The planned portfolio includes the Curiosity and Opportunity rovers; two NASA spacecraft and contributions to one European spacecraft currently orbiting Mars; the 2013 launch of the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN (MAVEN) orbiter to study the Martian upper atmosphere; the Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport (InSight) mission, which will take the first look into the deep interior of Mars; and participation in ESA's 2016 and 2018 ExoMars missions, including providing "Electra" telecommunication radios to ESA's 2016 mission and a critical element of the premier astrobiology instrument on the 2018 ExoMars rover. With InSight, there will be a total of seven NASA missions operating or being planned to study and explore our Earth-like neighbor. 

The 2020 mission will constitute another step toward being responsive to high-priority science goals and the president's challenge of sending humans to Mars orbit in the 2030s. 

What is interesting is that the "multi-year" plan discusses putting human in "orbit" around Mars in the 2030s.  I cannot imagine we would send humans all that way just to take pictures from above.  I think robotic missions can do that just as well.  We need humans on the surface. 

I was also surprised to see NASA contributions to ExoMars after the space agency pulled out of the mission earlier this year because of funding difficulties.  Maybe NASA found funds, since it now has plans to support ExoMars and build another Mars rover, though the ExoMars mission was to include an orbiter and rover.  Here is what NASA originally planned to do, which can still be found on its website here:

The ExoMars/Trace Gas Orbiter mission was a joint mission proposed by the European Space Agency (ESA) and NASA. This mission was proposed as the first in a series of joint missions to Mars for ESA and NASA. The two space agencies signed the Mars Exploration Joint Initiative agreement in 2009. Under the former proposed plan, NASA would have supplied the launch vehicle, four science instruments, and a communications system. This joint mission is not currently in NASA’s Mars Exploration Program plans. See information on ESA’s ExoMars mission: http://exploration.esa.int/.

 After NASA has walked away from ExoMars, our European friends reached out to Russia for support.  Under a new agreement, Roscosmos with provide the European Space Agency with two launch vehicles.  The Voice of Russia shared more:   

The Naples meeting was crucial for Russian space research as it was to approve the ExoMars mission deal between ESA and Russia’s Roskosmos space agency. The project has been approved and the deal will be sealed November 27.

Thus, Russia got another chance to explore Mars, five years after the Phobos mission failure. The first phase of the ExoMars mission is planned for 2016 and Russia’s Academy of Sciences has already begun research to design equipment for the Trace Gas Orbiter robotic orbit carrier which includes ACS spectrometers and the FREND neutron detector to study water distribution on the Mars surface. It also includes the EDL demonstrator module to exploit the entry descent and landing. Russia is also expected to contribute its Proton carrier rocket to the project.

The second ExoMars phase will be the launch of the Pasteur rover scheduled for 2018. Russia is providing a carrier rocket and a landing platform with research equipment as well as two gadgets for the rover.