Ice Volcanoes on Ceres

Speaking of an extended Dawn mission orbiting Ceres, scientists are not wondering why Ceres does not have more craters.  Could it be ice volcanoes?  Data from the Dawn mission may offer clues.

Simone Marchi, a senior research scientist at the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado, stated:

We concluded that a significant population of large craters on Ceres has been obliterated beyond recognition over geological time scales, which is likely the result of Ceres' peculiar composition and internal evolution...Whatever the process or processes were, this obliteration of large craters must have occurred over several hundred millions of years.

Maybe it does make sense for Dawn to stick around a learn a little more about this fascinating dwarf planet buried in the asteroid belt.

This video from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory shares even more details. 

A Sad 30 Year Anniversary

This week marks the 30th anniversary of the Challenger Shuttle disaster - January 28, 1986.  Seven crew members lost their lives when the shuttle broke apart about a minute into its ascent.  Their names will forever stand as a testament to the price we will be asked to pay as we reach for the stars:

- Gregory Jarvis,
- Christa McAuliffe,
- Ronald McNair,
- Ellison Onizuka,
- Judith Resnik,
- Dick Scobee, and
- Michael J. Smith.

As Ronald Reagan stated on that tragic day,

There's a coincidence today. On this day three hundred and ninety years ago, the great explorer Sir Francis Drake died aboard ship off the coast of Panama. In his lifetime the great frontiers were the oceans, and a historian later said, "He lived by the sea, died on it, and was buried in it." Well, today, we can say of the Challenger crew: Their dedication was, like Drake's, complete.

Extended NASA Missions

Earlier this month NASA extended nine space missions via the 2016 Senior Review of Operating Missions, which area provided below in alphabetical order:

-Dawn;

-Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO);

-Mars Atmospere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN); 

-Mars Odyssey orbiter;

-Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO);

-New Horizons;

-the Opportunity and Curiosity Mars rovers; and

-support for the European Space Agency’s Mars Express mission.

That is quite an investment in Mars, but let's not forget ongoing missions as well such as Cassini around Saturn and Juno orbiting Jupiter. 

Unfortunely, Dawn is done exploring the asteroir belt. While a visit to another asteroid (145 Adeona) was proposed, the panel decided to keep the spacecraft in orbit around Ceres to learn more about the dwarf planet. 

Luckily, New Horizons will continue to explore the outer reaches of the solar system. The panel approved a mission to Kuiper Belt Object MU69 by 2019. So the exploration continues. 

Star Trek Discovery

This weekend at Comic-Con Star Trek fans saw the first clip for the new CBS series Discovery.  The 13-part series is expected to premiere next January. 

It is an interesting teaser given the hidden USS Discovery and accompanying war-like music. Why is the ship in hiding? It is not clear and CBS is remaining quiet.

With a new Star Trek movie appearing last week, fans should be happy everywhere and particularly at Comic-Con. Given the multitude of movies and television iterations, no one can question Gene Roddenberry spoke for more than one generation. 

Who Needs Dismal Conventions?

I cannot say anything from this week's convention in Cleveland provided a path forward or a hopeful future. With that in mind, I was happy to hear next week's convention in Philadelphia will include former astronaut Mark Kelly and his wife former congresswoman Gabrielle Gifford, a victim gun violence.

This is a family that has seen its highs and lows, be it orbiting this blue marble to battling gun laws back here on Earth. They both lead an organization called Americans for Responsible Solutions.  The mission of this organization is to:

...encourage elected officials to stand up for solutions to prevent gun violence and protect responsible gun ownership by communicating directly with the constituents that elect them.

We need more signs of responsible leadership this summer. I also hope we can hear more from explorers, inventors, and others who create that future. It is important we offer the next generation hope and show them the way.

SpaceX Lands the Falcon Again

Yesterday morning SpaceX had another successful landing following the launch of the CRS-9 mission aboard the Dragon to the International Space Station.  The Falcon 9 rocket successfully returned to Cape Canaveral and landed back onto the launch pad.  You can see the video here.  An impressive feat no matter how many times you see it. 

The image above shows both the launching and landing of the Falcon 9 in one image.  The credit for that shot goes to Ken Kremer at kenkremer.com.  

Great image: Juno's Insertion

This impressive image is a digital painting created by Mathias Verhasselt depicting Juno during its orbital insertion burn over Jupiter.  You can find an assortment of similarly fascinating images at the Bruce Murray Space Image Library on The Planetary Society's website. 

Space Quotes: The Boring Moon?

"After two revolutions of the moon, it became clear that it was kind of boring. On Earth, you have rivers, oceans, continents, highlands and mountains, but the moon looks like one beat-up, sand-blasted ball with hole upon hole."

--Astronaut Bill Anders, who served on Apollo 8 during its lunar orbit in1968.  You can find the rest of his quote and a number of additional astronaut quotes in this Forbes magazine article.  

Great Image: Juno Approaching Jupiter

NASA has released the first images showing the Juno spacecraft's view of Jupiter and its surroundings. The picture, taken July 10, shows Jupiter and three of its moons, including Europa. Hopefully, we will visit Europa in the near future as a separate mission. 

As with the early images from the Pluto mission last year, this is just the start of some great images. 

Chinese ET Search

China’s Aperture Spherical Telescope will be up and running in September. The 500-meter-wide device is the largest of its kind and will add more resources to the ongoing search for extraterrestrial life. The next largest telescope of this type is Puerto Rico's Arecibo Observatory, which is 300 meters in diameter.

Of course, the new telescope can also do more things such as neutral hydrogen, faint pulsars, and low frequency gravitational waves.

Even better is China's plan to make the telescope available to world scientists in a few years. This makes it a world scientific asset.

You can read more here.

Light Show on Jupiter

Good news! The Juno spacecraft is safely in orbit around Jupiter. 

The image above is a composite from the Hubble Space Telescope showing the gas giants amazing auroras just prior to Juno's arrival.

I expect we will learn much more about the unique properties of Jupiter as Juno starts its research mission. 

Stay tuned.

Something to Ponder on the Fourth of July

The Wall Street Journal had an enlightening article this weekend titled "Fleeing the Czars, Defying Gravity: A Fourth of July Immigrant Tale."  It leads up to the career of astronaut Jeffrey Hoffman, pictured above, who was part of the missions to keep the Hubble Space Telescope operating properly.  Hoffman retired from NASA in 1997 and is now a professor of aeronautics and astronautics at MIT. You can read more about his career here.

Great Image: The Solar System's Smaller Worlds

The image above recently posted by The Planetary Society is labeled "Every round object in the solar system under 10,000 kilometers in diameter, to scale." This impressive collection represents 2 planets, 18 or 19 moons, 1 or 2 asteroids, and 87 "trans-Neptunian" objects. 

You can see how the moons Ganymede and Titan outside Mercury, and our own Moon exceeds the size of Pluto.

The image below shows the objects we have already visited, including the recently explored Ceres and Pluto. We are making great progress in our explorations of the solar system. 

Image Credit: Montage by Emily Lakdawalla. Data from NASA / JPL, JHUAPL/SwRI, SSI, and UCLA / MPS / DLR / IDA, processed by Gordan Ugarkovic, Ted Stryk, Bjorn Jonsson, Roman Tkachenko, and Emily Lakdawalla.

The UK and ESA

You may be wondering if the United Kingdom's departure from the European Union (EU) dooms its involvement with the European Space Agency (ESA).  According to Space News, the answer is no.

First, the ESA is not an EU organization. And second, other non-EU countries are already members, including Norway and Switzerland. 

So whatever you think of the recent British vote, it should not hamper the country's space efforts. 

Starship USS Enterprise at the Smithsonian

Star Trek fans wil be happy to know the original USS Enterprise from the 1960s series has been refurbished and has its own display at the Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC (rather than sitting in the gift shop). 

The 11-foot, 200-pound, spacecraft has arrived just in time as movies and now a TV series keep the crew in our thoughts.

And here are a few interesting pieces of trivia from a recent NPR article: (1) the spacecraft is green not gray to improve the camera shots against a blue screen and (2) only one side of the spacecraft was competed since that was sufficient for filming. I know, it's like learning the Millenium Falcon is really pink. 

Time for a road trip. 

A Grander Canyon on Charon

Images from NASA's New Horizons mission indicate Pluto's moon Charon has a 430 mile long canyon named Argo Chasma (the section shown above measures 185 miles). This canyon is also estimated to be about 5.5 miles deep.

Earth's Grand Canyon is only 280 miles long and about 1 mile deep by comparison, representing a much shorter and shallower scar on a much larger world. However, the Valles Marineris is 2,500 miles long and 4.3 miles deep, so Mars still represents a much longer scar. And the longest canyons in the solar system are found in Earth's rift valleys. But none of this takes away from Charon's significant scar given its small size. 

Heinlein Prize Awarded to Bezos

The Heinlein Prize, given for progress in commercial space, was awarded to Jeff Bezos on June 21st. Mr. Bezos is the third winner of the prize, following Dr. Peter Diamandis and Elon Musk. The prize is awarded every five years.

The prize announcement stated:

Under Bezos’ leadership, Blue Origin developed a number of technology firsts that are driving U.S. space competitiveness. The reusable BE-3, a liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen engine, is now being used in Blue Origin’s New Shepard spacecraft. New Shepard is the first rocket ever to fly above the Karman line into space and then land vertically upon the Earth. Furthermore, it has done so multiple times with the same rocket hardware – not even removing the engine between flights. In late 2014, Blue Origin reached a commercial agreement with a private launch company to develop the BE-4 engine which could be used to power the next generation of U.S. launch vehicles.

In response to receiving the award, Mr. Bezos stated:

Robert Heinlein inspired millions with his visionary—and incredibly entertaining—stories...Heinlein foresaw a thriving future with humans throughout the solar system. We won’t stop working to make that vision come true.

Let's hope that many others are following in the awardees' steps to push us into space.

Chinese Space Station Open for Business

"The United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA) and the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA) have agreed to work together to develop the space capabilities of United Nations Member States via opportunities on-board China’s future space station...Under the agreements, UNOOSA and CMSA will work together to enable United Nations Member States, particularly developing countries, to conduct space experiments on-board China’s space station, as well as to provide flight opportunities for astronauts and payload engineers."

--Press statement by UNOOSA posted June 16, 2016. This will become more relevant as the United States and its partners start to wind down the International Space Station and end the program by 2024.

Fire Prevention in Space

This week NASA has set fire to a Cygnus space capsule after it departed from the International Space Station as part of its SAFFIRE mission (or Spacecraft Fire Experiment). The space agency hopes to learn more about fire safety in space.

Yes, 4,000 pounds of dirty laundry are burning in space. Okay, it's not the whole craft since more experiments will be conducted with the same spacecraft.

Speaking of the mission, David Urban, SAFFIRE’s principal investigator, stared:

In spacecraft, we’ve never had the opportunity to burn anything larger than approximately an index card…We really don’t know what the fate of a fire is. So our building of future spacecraft is based on one-G understanding and extrapolation of very small, short-duration experiments.

Better now as an experiment than later as an event.

Boarding the BEAM

Bigelow has posted a number of photos of its Bigelow Expandable Activity Module (BEAM), including an astronaut's entry of the module on the International Space Station last week. Take a look.

Picture Quote:  "NASA astronaut Jeff Williams successfully entered the BEAM, the first human rated expandable structure in space."