What's Up for August 2012

Curiosity lands on the surface of Mars while Saturn, Mars and the bright star Spica form a trio almost all month long.

Nasa Outburst

Outburst
NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory has discovered an extraordinary outburst by a black hole in the spiral galaxy M83, located about 15 million light years from Earth. Using Chandra, astronomers found a new ultraluminous X-ray source, or ULX. These objects give off more X-rays than most normal binary systems in which a companion star is in orbit around a neutron star or black hole.

The Return of the Rings!

Now that Cassini has gone off on a new trajectory taking it above and below the equatorial plane of Saturn, we’re back to getting some fantastic views of the rings — the likes of which haven’t been seen in over two and a half years!


The image above shows portions of the thin, ropy F ring and the outer A ring, which is split by the 202-mile (325-km) -wide Encke gap. The shepherd moon Pan can be seen cruising along in the gap along with several thin ringlets. Near the A ring’s outer edge is a narrower space called the Keeler gap — this is the home of the smaller shepherd moon Daphnis, which isn’t visible here (but is one of my personal favorites!)

The scalloped pattern on the inner edge of the Encke gap downstream from Pan and a spiral pattern moving inwards from that edge are created by the 12.5-mile-wide (20-km-wide) moon’s gravitational influence.

Other features that have returned for an encore performance are the so-called propellers, spiral sprays of icy ring material created by tiny micro-moons within the rings. Individually too small to discern (less than half a mile in diameter) these propeller moons kick up large clumps of reflective ring particles with their gravity as they travel through the rings, revealing their positions.



The three images above show a propeller within the A ring. Nicknamed “Sikorsky” after Russian-American aviator Igor Sikorsky, the entire structure is about 30 miles (50 km) across and is one of the more well-studied propellers.

Scientists are eager to understand the interactions of propellers in Saturn’s rings as they may hold a key to the evolution of similar systems, such as solar systems forming from disks of matter.

“One of the main contributing factors to the enormous success we on the Cassini mission have enjoyed in the exploration of Saturn is the capability to view the planet and the bodies around it from a variety of directions,” Cassini Imaging Team Leader Carolyn Porco wrote earlier today. “Setting the spacecraft high into orbit above Saturn’s equator provides us direct views of the equatorial and middle latitudes on the planet and its moons, while guiding it to high inclination above the equator plane affords the opportunity to view the polar regions of these bodies and be treated to vertigo-inducing shots of the planet’s glorious rings.”

AR1515 Finally Releases X-class Solar Flare

This movie shows the July 6, 2012 X1.1 flare in the 171 Angstrom wavelength as captured by NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO). The source region, Sunspot AR1515, has been shooting M-class flares almost daily for the last week.

New NASA spaceship arrives in Florida for test flight

First two test flights will not include crew
* Goal is to reach asteroid by 2025, then head to Mars

By Irene Klotz
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla., July 2 (Reuters) - An Orion space capsule being developed to fly astronauts to asteroids, the moon and eventually to Mars arrived at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida for a 2014 test flight, NASA said on Monday.

The spacecraft, built by Lockheed-Martin is targeted for launch aboard an unmanned Delta 4 Heavy rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, adjacent to the NASA spaceport.

Though designed to carry a crew of four, Orion will make its first two flights unmanned.

“"It's not a PowerPoint chart. It's a real spacecraft," Kennedy Space Center director Bob Cabana said during a ceremony Monday marking the capsule's arrival.

The 2014 launch is intended to test Orion's heat shield, parachutes and other systems.

It is expected to reach about 3,450 miles (5,552 km) above Earth - more than 10 times beyond where the International Space Station flies - then slam back into the planet's atmosphere with 84 percent of the force that a spaceship returning from the moon would have.

"“It's really going to stress the heat shield, which is exactly what we're trying to do," said NASA program manager Mark Geyer.

A second test flight in 2017 using NASA's planned heavy-lift Space Launch System rocket, is intended to put an unmanned Orion capsule around the moon. The third test flight, targeted for 2021, is expected to include astronauts.

By 2025, NASA intends to send astronauts to explore a near-Earth asteroid and then head on to Mars in the 2030s.

Humans have not flown beyond a few hundred miles above Earth since 1972 when the Apollo missions to the moon ended.

With the retirement of the space shuttles last summer, NASA is dependent on Russia to fly crews to the space station, a $100 billion project of 15 countries that orbits about 240 miles (386 km) above the planet.

In hopes of breaking Russia's monopoly, NASA is partnering with four companies interested in developing spaceships to fly government astronauts, as well as private researchers and tourists to the station and other planned outposts in orbits close to Earth.

A new round of partnership agreements is expected to be announced this month, said NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden.

The Obama administration's budget request for the deep-space Orion capsule and NASA's heavy-lift, shuttle-derived rocket is $2.3 billion for the year beginning Oct. 1. It also requested $830 million for the Commercial Crew program.

Legislators are leaning toward increasing the amount spent on the government program and shaving about $300 million off NASA's investment in commercial spaceships.

The Delta 4 rocket which will be used for Orion's second test flight is made by United Launch Alliance, a partnership of Lockheed-Martin and Boeing. Boeing also is the prime contractor for the Space Launch System core stage, which consists of a modified space shuttle fuel tank.

Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne, a division of United Technologies Corp is developing the rocket's J-2X upper stage.

ATK is manufacturing a variant of the shuttle's solid-fuel booster rockets for the heavy-lift follow-on program.