NASA - STS-129 Mission patch.

Wed, 25 Nov

Space shuttle Atlantis and its seven-astronaut crew undocked from the International Space Station at 4:53 a.m. EST. Pilot Barry Wilmore piloted Atlantis during its flyaround of the station.

Image above: Space shuttle Atlantis flies around the International Space Station after undocking. Photo credit: NASA TV
Tuesday at 10 a.m., European Space Agency astronaut Frank De Winne handed over command of the station to NASA astronaut Jeff Williams. De Winne and Expedition 21 Flight Engineers Roman Romanenko and Robert Thirsk are scheduled to leave the station for return to Earth in a Soyuz capsule on Nov. 30.
Waste Water Dump Flow Reduction Not Expected to be Issue

During a purge of the space shuttle waste water tank Wednesday morning, Mission Control noticed a reduction in the flow from the nozzle that vents the waste water into space. This has occurred on past shuttle missions and is not expected to be an issue. Capsule Communicator Stan Love told Atlantis Commander Charles Hobaugh it is likely no further waste dumps will be necessary before Friday’s planned landing.

As a precaution, to determine if there is ice on the outside of the nozzle, a robotic arm camera may be used to view the nozzle during a planned pause in the “late inspection” survey. There are heaters at the waste water dump nozzle to prevent water from freezing and flight controllers believe ice formation is unlikely, due to the nozzle temperatures they are measuring.

The waste water system stores waste from the crew cabin humidity separator and from the crew. The tank is located below the crew compartment middeck floor, and the dump nozzle is on the left side of the shuttle.

NASA is providing continuous television and Internet coverage of Atlantis' mission. NASA Television features live mission events, daily mission status news conferences and 24-hour commentary. For NASA TV streaming video, downlink and schedule information, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/ntv

NASA's Web coverage of STS-129 includes mission information, interactive features, news conference images, graphics and videos. Mission coverage, including the latest NASA TV schedule, is available on the main space shuttle Web site at: http://www.nasa.gov/shuttle

For more information about the space station, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/station

Images, Videos, Text, Credits: NASA / MCC.

Greeting, Orbiter.ch

ISS - Expedition 21 Mission patch.

Nov. 24, 2009

NASA Television will air the events surrounding the landing of three International Space Station crew members who will return to Earth Dec. 1. The space travelers have lived and worked aboard the space station for the past six months. NASA TV coverage will include the broadcast of farewells aboard the orbiting laboratory, hatch closure and undocking on Nov. 30, and the deorbit burn and landing on Dec. 1.


Frank De Winne of the European Space Agency, Russian cosmonaut and Soyuz Commander Roman Romanenko and Flight Engineer Bob Thirsk of the Canadian Space Agency will undock their Soyuz spacecraft from the station at 9:53 p.m. CST Nov. 30. They will land in Kazakhstan at about 1:16 a.m. (1:16 p.m. Kazakhstan time) on Dec. 1. The three men spent 188 days in space, including 186 days aboard the station, following their Soyuz launch on May 27 from Baikonur, Kazakhstan.


Image above: Expedition 21 crew members pose for a crew portrait. Pictured on the front row are European Space Agency astronaut Frank De Winne (center), commander; NASA astronaut Nicole Stott and Russian cosmonaut Roman Romanenko, both flight engineers. Pictured on the back row (from the left) are Russian cosmonaut Maxim Suraev, NASA astronaut Jeffrey Williams and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Robert Thirsk, all flight engineers.

NASA's Jeff Williams took over command of the station on Nov. 24 from De Winne, who served as the first European Space Agency commander of the complex. Williams also will lead the new Expedition 22 crew along with Russian cosmonaut Maxim Suraev. Expedition 22 begins with the undocking of the Soyuz Monday evening. It will be the first time the station has been tended by only two crew members since July 2006. Oleg Kotov of the Russian Federal Space Agency, NASA's Timothy J. Creamer and Soichi Noguchi of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Space Agency, are set to launch in another Soyuz vehicle from Kazakhstan on Dec. 21 and join Expedition 22 on the station on Dec. 23.

Upcoming NASA TV Soyuz landing programming events (all times CST):

Monday, Nov. 30:
-- 6:30 p.m. Farewells and Hatch Closure (hatch closure scheduled at 6:53 p.m.)
-- 9:30 p.m. Undocking (undocking scheduled at 9:53 p.m.)

Tuesday, Dec. 1:
-- 12 a.m.  Deorbit burn and landing (deorbit burn scheduled at 12:25 a.m.; landing scheduled at 1:16 a.m.)

For NASA TV streaming video, downlink and schedule information, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/ntv

For more about the space station, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/station

Images, Text, Credit: NASA / ESA / ROSCOSMOS.

Greeting, Orbiter.ch

 
NASA - STS-129 Mission patch / ISS - Expedition 21 Mission patch.

Wed, 25 Nov 2009

Space shuttle Atlantis and International Space Station crew members closed the hatches linking their two spacecraft at 1:12 p.m. EST Tuesday in preparation for the shuttle’s undocking and return home.


Image above: The bright sun greets the International Space Station in this Nov. 22 image, taken from the Russian section of the orbital outpost and photographed by the STS-129 crew.

STS-129 Commander Charles Hobaugh, Pilot Barry Wilmore and Mission Specialists Leland Melvin, Randy Bresnik, Mike Foreman, Robert Satcher Jr. and Nicole Stott used their first hour separated from the station crew to get ready for undocking. They checked out rendezvous tools and set up a centerline camera. Undocking is scheduled for 4:53 a.m. Wednesday. Atlantis’ first landing opportunity is at Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 9:44 a.m. Friday.


Image above: The STS-129 and Expedition 21 crew members bid farewell. Photo credit: NASA TV.

Stott is returning to Earth after more than 90 days in space, including 87 days on the station, 80 of them as a member of the Expedition 20 and 21 crews.
At 10 a.m., shortly after a joint crew photo, European Space Agency astronaut Frank De Winne handed over command of the station to NASA astronaut Jeff Williams. De Winne and Expedition 21 Flight Engineers Roman Romanenko and Robert Thirsk are scheduled to leave the station for return to Earth in a Soyuz capsule on Nov. 30.


Image above: On flight day four of the STS-129 mission, a member of the crew photographed the aft section of space shuttle Atlantis through a window from aboard the International Space Station.

On Sunday, Bresnik told the flight controllers his new daughter, Abigail Mae Bresnik, had been born in Houston at 11:04 p.m. CST Saturday. He said his wife Rebecca and new daughter, 6 pounds, 13 ounces and 20 inches long, were doing well. Bresnik got the news by private phone patch through mission control shortly after the crew was awakened.

NASA is providing continuous television and Internet coverage of Atlantis' mission. NASA Television features live mission events, daily mission status news conferences and 24-hour commentary. For NASA TV streaming video, downlink and schedule information, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/ntv

NASA's Web coverage of STS-129 includes mission information, interactive features, news conference images, graphics and videos. Mission coverage, including the latest NASA TV schedule, is available on the main space shuttle Web site at: http://www.nasa.gov/shuttle

For more information about the space station, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/station

Images, Video, Text, Credits: NASA / MCC.

Best regard, Orbiter.ch

CERN - European Organization for Nuclear Research logo.

Geneva, 23 November 2009 (Switzerland)

Today the LHC circulated two beams simultaneously for the first time, allowing the operators to test the synchronization of the beams and giving the experiments their first chance to look for proton-proton collisions. With just one bunch of particles circulating in each direction, the beams can be made to cross in up to two places in the ring. From early in the afternoon, the beams were made to cross at points 1 and 5, home to the ATLAS and CMS detectors, both of which were on the look out for collisions. Later, beams crossed at points 2 and 8, ALICE and LHCb.

“It’s a great achievement to have come this far in so short a time,” said CERN1Director General Rolf Heuer. “But we need to keep a sense of perspective – there’s still much to do before we can start the LHC physics programme.”


Beams were first tuned to produce collisions in the ATLAS detector, which recorded its first candidate for collisions at 14:22 this afternoon. Later, the beams were optimised for CMS. In the evening, ALICE had the first optimization, followed by LHCb.


“This is great news, the start of a fantastic era of physics and hopefully discoveries after 20 years' work by the international community to build a machine and detectors of unprecedented complexity and performance," said ATLAS spokesperson, Fabiola Gianotti.


“The events so far mark the start of the second half of this incredible voyage of discovery of the secrets of nature,” said CMS spokesperson Tejinder Virdee.


“It was standing room only in the ALICE control room and cheers erupted with the first collisions” said ALICE spokesperson Jurgen Schukraft. “This is simply tremendous.”

“The tracks we’re seeing are beautiful,” said LHCb spokesperson Andrei Golutvin, “we’re all ready for serious data taking in a few days time.”
These developments come just three days after the LHC restart, demonstrating the excellent performance of the beam control system. Since the start-up, the operators have been circulating beams around the ring alternately in one direction and then the other at the injection energy of 450 GeV. The beam lifetime has gradually been increased to 10 hours, and today beams have been circulating simultaneously in both directions, still at the injection energy.

Next on the schedule is an intense commissioning phase aimed at increasing the beam intensity and accelerating the beams. All being well, by Christmas, the LHC should reach 1.2 TeV per beam, and have provided good quantities of collision data for the experiments’ calibrations.
Notes for editors:

CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, is the world's leading laboratory for particle physics. It has its headquarters in Geneva. At present, its Member States are Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. India, Israel, Japan, the Russian Federation, the United States of America, Turkey, the European Commission and UNESCO have Observer status.

For more informations about the CERN, visit: http://public.web.cern.ch/public/

Images, Videos, Text, Credit: CERN.

Greeting, Orbiter.ch

 
NASA - STS-129 Mission patch / ISS - Expedition 21 Mission patch.

Mon, 23 Nov 2009

Spacewalkers Robert Satcher Jr. and Randy Bresnik completed a five hour, 42 minute spacewalk at 2:06 p.m. EST. The pair completed all the primary jobs they were assigned and all the “get ahead” work that was added to their timeline.


Image above: Astronaut Randy Bresnik is pictured near the base of the Orbiter Boom Sensor System on the starboard side of the cargo bay of the space shuttle Atlantis.

Mission Specialists Randy Bresnik and Robert Satcher Jr. wrapped up a 5-hour, 42-minute spacewalk at 2:06 p.m. EST. During this third and final STS-129 spacewalk, the two astronauts transferred an oxygen filled High Pressure Gas Tank (HPGT) from the EXPRESS Logistics Carrier 2, or ELC2, located on the starboard truss, to a spot on the outside of the Quest Airlock. The tank will be used to replenish atmosphere lost when spacewalkers enter and exit the station.


Image above: Mission Specialists Robert Satcher Jr. and Randy Bresnik work outside of the International Space Station during the final spacewalk of the STS-129 mission. Photo credit: NASA TV.
While Satcher completed installation of the HPGT, Bresnik installed the seventh Materials International Space Station Experiment, or MISSE 7. This is the most advanced of the MISSE payloads to date and will be the first to receive power directly from the station and use the station’s communication system to send commands and downlink real-time data.
At the conclusion of the spacewalk, Bresnik thanked everyone for their support and commented, "I got to see my little girl for the first time yesterday, and I know there was many myriad of people across a lot of disciplines at JSC and the hospital staff that worked to make that happen."

› Listen to Bresnik's comments: http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/podcasting/bresnik_daughter.html


Image above: Astronaut Mike Foreman performed tasks on the exterior of the International Space Station during the second spacewalk of the STS-129 mission.

On Sunday, Bresnik told the flight controllers his new daughter, Abigail Mae Bresnik, had been born in Houston at 11:04 p.m. CST Saturday. He said his wife Rebecca and new daughter, 6 pounds, 13 ounces and 20 inches long, were doing well. Bresnik got the news by private phone patch through mission control shortly after the crew was awakened.
This was the final STS-129 spacewalk, the 230th conducted by U.S. astronauts, and the second for both Satcher and Bresnik. It was the 136th in support of International Space Station assembly and maintenance, totaling 849 hours, 18 minutes. It was the 108th spacewalk out of the space station, totaling 662 hours, 3 minutes.

The three STS-129 spacewalks totaled 18 hours, 27 minutes. Mike Foreman now has completed five spacewalks between STS-123 and STS-129 totaling 32 hours, 19 minutes and placing him 28th on the all-time list. Satcher’s two spacewalks totaled 12 hours, 19 minutes. Bresnik’s two spacewalks totaled 11 hours, 50 minutes.

NASA Television airs a Mission Status Briefing at 3:30 p.m. with STS-129 Lead Space Station Flight Director Brian Smith and STS-129 Lead Spacewalk Officer Sarah Kazukiewicz Korona.

NASA is providing continuous television and Internet coverage of Atlantis' mission. NASA Television features live mission events, daily mission status news conferences and 24-hour commentary. For NASA TV streaming video, downlink and schedule information, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/ntv

NASA's Web coverage of STS-129 includes mission information, interactive features, news conference images, graphics and videos. Mission coverage, including the latest NASA TV schedule, is available on the main space shuttle Web site at: http://www.nasa.gov/shuttle

For more information about the space station, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/station

Images, Videos, Text, Credits: NASA / MCC.

Best regard, Orbiter.ch

 
NASA - STS-129 Mission patch / ISS - Expedition 21 Mission patch.

Sun, 22 Nov 2009

Mission Specialist Randy Bresnik called down at 5:14 a.m. CST to announce the birth of his daughter. Abigail Mae Bresnik, weighing six pounds, 13 ounces and measuring 20 inches long, arrived at 11:04 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 21 in Houston. Bresnik reported his wife Rebecca and baby are doing well. He also thanked the flight control team and flight surgeon for their support and assistance.


Image above: (From left to right) STS-129 Mission Specialists Robert Satcher Jr., Nicole Stott and Leland Melvin participate in an in-flight media interview. Photo credit: NASA TV 

Bresnik was informed of his daughter's birth through a phone patch to Atlantis from the Mission Control Center and the hospital after he woke up. Bresnik was also tied in through the station’s IP Phone to Dr. Smith Johnston, the STS-129 Flight Surgeon following his spacewalk Saturday evening during his wife’s labor until he needed to go to bed.

A videoconference is planned Sunday, Nov. 22, and photos and some video of the baby will be uplinked to Bresnik. No other information will be available until after Bresnik and the STS-129 crew return to Earth. He and Rebecca offered this final word of thanks: "We are sending a big thank you to all of the people who have supported NASA and us for this mission and our special occasion."

› Read the Pre-flight Interview with Randy and Rebecca Bresnik: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/shuttlemissions/sts129/baby_bresnik.html

The six-member crew of Atlantis will have a half day to relax before getting ready for Monday’s third and final spacewalk.

In the early afternoon, Mission Specialists Robert Satcher Jr. and Randy Bresnik will prepare spacesuits and tools and review the updated procedures for that third spacewalk. The spacewalk was replanned overnight after Bresnik and Foreman were able to get ahead on tasks during Saturday’s spacewalk, including deploying a third payload attach system.

Tonight Satcher and Bresnik will spend the night in the Quest airlock to prepare for Monday’s spacewalk.

NASA is providing continuous television and Internet coverage of Atlantis' mission. NASA Television features live mission events, daily mission status news conferences and 24-hour commentary. For NASA TV streaming video, downlink and schedule information, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/ntv

NASA's Web coverage of STS-129 includes mission information, interactive features, news conference images, graphics and videos. Mission coverage, including the latest NASA TV schedule, is available on the main space shuttle Web site at: http://www.nasa.gov/shuttle

For more information about the space station, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/station

Image, Text, Credit: NASA / MCC.

Best regard, Orbiter.ch

ESA logo.

21 November 2009

Twelve years of design, development and hard work have come to fruition with the formal handover of Node 3 from ESA to NASA on 20 November 2009. The ceremony took place in the Space Station Processing Facility at NASA's Kennedy Space Center, Florida, USA.


The ceremony was attended by Bernardo Patti International Space Station Programme Manager in ESA's Directorate of Human Spaceflight, NASA's International Space Station Programme Manager Michael Suffredini, Robert Cabana, NASA's Director of the Kennedy Space Center, William Dowdell, NASA's Deputy for Operations for ISS and Spacecraft Processing, Secondino Brondolo, Head of the Space Infrastructure at Thales Alenia Space Italy and selected media organisations. 
 
Launch in February 2010
 
Node 3, one of the three ISS interconnecting modules, will now undergo final activities for a February 2010 launch on Space Shuttle Endeavour together with the European-built Cupola Observation Module, which is already attached to Node 3.

"Node 3 and Cupola are Europe's final major hardware contributions to the ISS," said Mr Patti. "Once attached to the ISS in February next year, more than one-third of the pressurised ISS elements will have been built in Europe. The ISS is now almost complete and since we were able to add our European Columbus laboratory last year, our scientific and technological utilisation programme is at full swing and we are looking forward to its results."

Cupola to provide stunning view of Earth during robotic control work
 
Following the associated remarks and speeches, Mr Patti and Mr Suffredini concluded the handover with the official signing of the Transfer of Ownership agreement for Node 3.


The handover of Node 3 completes the final major element of the barter agreement between ESA and NASA signed in Turin on 8 October 1997 under which ESA provided Nodes 2 and 3 plus additional equipment and know-how in return for transportation of the European Columbus Laboratory to the ISS by Space Shuttle. Both Node 2 and the Columbus laboratory have been performing successfully in orbit as key elements of the ISS since October 2007 and February 2008 respectively.

"Node 3, which follows in the footsteps of Node 2 and Columbus is generally recognised as the most complex pressurised element of the station by the ISS community," says Philippe Deloo, ESA's Project Manager for the Nodes and Cupola.

"Under ESA's management, Italian company Thales Alenia Space did an outstanding job with Node 3 in showcasing the capabilities in Europe to develop and build space technology. From its early design, this master piece of engineering has now evolved into an extremely complex Space Station module which will accommodate vital environmental support and life support systems for the Station’s crew."
 
Tranquility to provide crucial life support and crew conditioning resources
 
Node 3, which was named Tranquility by NASA, will house a variety of systems and equipment covering oxygen generation, air purification and water recovery, as well as avionics equipment to control Node 3; a treadmill and a resistive exercise device to act as conditioning and exercise equipment for the ISS crew; and a Waste and Hygiene Compartment. In addition one of Node 3's docking ports will be used as the connecting point for the Cupola observation module.

The Cupola has already been at the Kennedy Space Center since 2004, with its ownership transferred to NASA in 2005. Following Node 3's arrival at the Kennedy Space Center in May 2009, the two European-built ISS elements were mated together in their launch configuration on 1 September 2009.


Once on orbit, Node 3 will be connected to the left-hand docking port of the Unity Node 1. Hereafter the Cupola observation module will be moved to the Earth-facing port of Node 3 to provide a robotic control tower for the ISS with a stunning view of Earth for the Station's crew.

"Node 3 and the Cupola are the final elements of a very challenging assembly phase, which has been a great learning experience for all partners," said Simonetta Di Pippo, ESA Director of Human Spaceflight.

"The fact that these modules with such important features were built in Europe says a lot about our industrial know-how and our ability to contribute to this great international project. By having developed several ISS modules and by completing its assembly in the months to come, we will open a new era of cooperation, utilisation and exploration that will take humankind back to the Moon and beyond to other destinations while continuing to exploit the enormous possibilities in low Earth orbit."

Images, Text, Credit: ESA.

Greeting, Orbiter.ch

 
NASA - STS-129 Mission patch / ISS - Expedition 21 Mission patch.

Sat, 21 Nov 2009

STS-129 Mission Specialists Mike Foreman and Randy Bresnik wrapped up a successful six-hour, eight-minute spacewalk after completing their scheduled tasks ahead of schedule. Official end of the spacewalk was at 3:39 p.m. EST. It was the second of the three scheduled during Atlantis’ visit to the International Space Station.


The start was a little later than planned, about 9:30 a.m., because a false depressurization alarm had sounded on the station at 9:53 p.m. Friday, interrupting the crews’ sleep and the spacewalkers’ campout in the Quest airlock. The spacewalkers completed the process of reducing the nitrogen in their blood by exercising while breathing oxygen.


Image above: Mission Specialists Mike Foreman and Randy Bresnik work outside the International Space Station during the second spacewalk of the STS-129 mission. Photo credit: NASA TV 

Foreman and Bresnik installed an antenna assembly on a Columbus module handrail, relocated the station’s floating potential measurement unit to the Port 1 truss and deployed a second Payload Attachment System (PAS) on the upper part of the Starboard 3 (S3) truss.


After completing the installation of a wireless video system on S3 an hour ahead of schedule, the spacewalkers had time to perform a get-ahead task. Foreman and Bresnik deployed a third PAS, this one on the Earth-facing side of S3. This task, originally schedule for the mission’s third spacewalk, was accomplished smoothly and quickly.

Just before the beginning of the Saturday spacewalk, Express Logistics Carrier 2 was installed on S3 by the station’s robotic arm, operated by Mission Specialists Leland Melvin and Nicole Stott. It holds almost 10,000 pounds of large spares for the station, including an attitude-control gyroscope, a high-pressure oxygen tank and a pump module.
A sister cargo carrier, ELC 1, also came to the station on Atlantis and was installed Thursday.

NASA is providing continuous television and Internet coverage of Atlantis' mission. NASA Television features live mission events, daily mission status news conferences and 24-hour commentary. For NASA TV streaming video, downlink and schedule information, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/ntv

NASA's Web coverage of STS-129 includes mission information, interactive features, news conference images, graphics and videos. Mission coverage, including the latest NASA TV schedule, is available on the main space shuttle Web site at: http://www.nasa.gov/shuttle

For more information about the space station, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/station

Images, Video, Text, Credits: NASA / MCC.

Best regard, Orbiter.ch

 
NASA - STS-129 Mission patch / ISS - Expedition 21 Mission patch.

Fri, 20 Nov 2009

False depressurization caution alarms sounded on the International Space Station last night just after 8:30 p.m. EST waking the shuttle and station crew. The flight control teams on the ground were able to determine there was no depressurization occurring. The crew was never in any danger and ventilation fans were shutoff as a precaution. That shutoff kicked up dust that resulted in a fire alarm in the European Columbus laboratory also sounding.

By 9:15 p.m., the flight control teams in Houston were working to bring the station back into its normal configuration, and Atlantis’ crew was told it could go back to sleep. The space station crew members were required to stay up a bit longer as the station’s ventilation system was reactivated. That work took a little over an hour, after which the station crew was able to resume its sleep period as well. Flight control teams are looking into the cause of the initial false alarm.

The day’s tasks will be unaffected by the night’s activities. The crew will be focusing on preparations for Saturday’s spacewalk. These tasks include recharging batteries, switching out Mission Specialist Robert Satcher’s spacesuit for that of Mission Specialist Randy Bresnik and reviewing procedures before Bresnik and Mission Specialist Mike Foreman begin their overnight campout in the Quest Airlock.

In addition, the space shuttle’s robotic arm will be used to grab onto the second cargo pallet of spare equipment brought up by Atlantis in advance of its transfer to the space station on Saturday.


Image above: STS-129 Pilot Barry Wilmore (left) and Commander Charles Hobaugh answer questions from the media. Photo credit: NASA TV 

Unity Node Outfitting Complete

Inside the International Space Station’s Unity node, crew members have been routing a slew of cables, hoses and fluid lines to prepare for the arrival of the Tranquility node next year. The two-day task of outfitting Unity was completed shortly after 3 p.m. EST.

NASA is providing continuous television and Internet coverage of Atlantis' mission. NASA Television features live mission events, daily mission status news conferences and 24-hour commentary. For NASA TV streaming video, downlink and schedule information, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/ntv

NASA's Web coverage of STS-129 includes mission information, interactive features, news conference images, graphics and videos. Mission coverage, including the latest NASA TV schedule, is available on the main space shuttle Web site at: http://www.nasa.gov/shuttle

For more information about the space station, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/station

Images, Text, Credit: NASA / MCC.

Greeting, Orbiter.ch

NASA - Mars Exploration Rover-A (MER) Spirit Mission patch.

11.20.09


She's a Fighter: NASA's Mars Expedition Rover Spirit landed on the Martian surface on Jan. 4, 2004, three weeks before her sister rover Opportunity touched down. The mission was planned to last three months, but five years later both robots continue to explore Mars. However, Spirit has had the hardest time; she's lost the functionality of one wheel, she's suffering bouts of amnesia and she's currently stuck in a sand trap.

Image: Synthetic image of Spirit on the flank of "Husband Hill" using an actual photograph taken by the rover in 2005 (NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornell)


Robots Spying On Robots: The High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) on board NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) captured this birds-eye view of Spirit on June 13, 2009. The large pale circular shape is known as Home Plate, a low plateau inside Gusev Crater.

Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona


The Invisible Hazard: On April 7, Spirit used her navigation camera to image the path ahead as she rolled up a slope near Home Plate. On May 1, rover drivers announced that one of Spirit's wheels had broken through a crusty dark layer of regolith and become embedded in a bright powder next to a location dubbed "Rock Garden." Since becoming stuck in the sand, the area next to Rock Garden has been aptly named "Troy."

Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech


That Sinking Feeling: On April 26, Spirit's wheel appeared to be sitting safely atop the problematic sand trap. Unfortunately, attempts to extricate the wheel failed and it began to sink. Although this is bad, NASA scientists have used this opportunity to study the material exposed in the wheel ditch for signs of past water on the Red Planet. "This has been very much like your car breaking down right next to Disney Land," said Mars rover driver Scott Maxwell in a recent Free Spirit update.

Image: A comparison of the rover wheel before and after it became embedded in the powdery regolith (NASA/JPL-Caltech)


Stormy Weather: Still jammed in Troy throughout August, Spirit's panoramic camera (Pancam) captured images of an incoming dust storm. The resulting blockage of sunlight caused a reduction of power in the rover's system, curtailing some operations.

Image: The central portion of the panorama shows the long ditch dug into the regolith by Spirit's jammed wheel before she became immobilized (NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornell University)


Virtual Reality: NASA scientists have developed a computer simulation of the Mars rover stuck in the sand trap. With the help of this model, it is hoped a safe plan can be executed to get Spirit back on the road.

Image: The embedded rover wheel is simulated, providing an intimate view of the problem Spirit is facing (NASA/JPL-Caltech)

Spirit's Great Escape?


Nov. 14, 2009 -- On Monday, NASA will begin relaying commands to the beached Mars Exploration Rover (MER) Spirit in a last-ditch attempt to free the robot from a sand trap it's been stuck in since April.

So what's the plan? After exhausting all escape plan possibilities with an identical rover in a simulated Mars sand box at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., MER project manager John Callas told Discovery News correspondent Irene Klotz that there isn't a clear solution to Spirit's predicament.

Over the coming weeks, or even months, NASA will command Spirit to slowly inch forward, but the outcome of this strategy is far from clear.

To make matters worse, there is a looming time restraint on the MER team. Winter is fast approaching and NASA must position Spirit's solar panels at just the right angle to collect the dimming sunlight as the Martian nights draw in.

Image: Spirit using its robotic arm to survey its surroundings on Oct. 19 (NASA/JPL-Caltech)
Text, Video, Credits: NASA / JPL-Caltech / DiscoveryNews.

Greeting, Orbiter.ch

NASA - STS-129 Mission patch.

Thu, 19 Nov 2009

Mission Specialists Mike Foreman and Robert Satcher completed the first spacewalk of the STS-129 mission.


The 6-hour, 37-minute spacewalk wrapped up at 4:01 p.m. EST. Foreman and Satcher installed a spare S-band antenna structural assembly brought up in Atlantis’ cargo bay. The equipment is being stored on the Z1 segment of the station’s truss system, and to get it there Satcher rode the station’s robotic arm, driven by Mission Specialist Leland Melvin, Commander Charles Hobaugh and Pilot Barry Wilmore.
Foreman next installed a set of cables along the Destiny laboratory for the station’s future space-to-ground antenna and swapped out a handrail on the Unity node with a bracket that will be used to route an ammonia cable to the Tranquility node when it arrives next year. Meanwhile Robert Satcher lubricated the latching snares on the station’s mobile base system.
The spacewalkers also deployed the outboard Payload Attach System (PAS) on the Earth-facing side of the Starboard 3 truss. The PAS will allow future missions to store spare parts to the station’s truss segment for future use.
Meanwhile, inside the station, further work is going on to prepare the station for the arrival of the Tranquility node. Station Commander Frank De Winne and Flight Engineer Jeff Williams are working at the port hatch of the Harmony node to rewire data, power and cooling lines and air flow connections that will be connected to Tranquility. De Winne and Williams will continue working on the project over several days during the STS-129 mission.
NASA's Web coverage of STS-129 includes mission information, interactive features, news conference images, graphics and videos. Mission coverage, including the latest NASA TV schedule, is available on the main space shuttle Web site at: http://www.nasa.gov/shuttle

Images, Videos, Text, Credit: NASA / MCC.

Best regard, Orbiter.ch

Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) logo.

November 19, 2009

ESA - SMOS Mission logo.

19 November 2009

The MIRAS instrument on ESA's SMOS satellite, launched earlier this month, has been switched on and is operating normally. MIRAS will map soil moisture and ocean salinity to improve our understanding of the role these two key variables play in regulating Earth’s water cycle.

"Following the switch-on, MIRAS is working beautifully well with all key subsystems, including all of the receivers, the optical fibres and the correlator unit, in perfect functioning condition," said ESA’s Manuel Martin-Neira, SMOS Instrument Principal Engineer. "We have been able to produce reasonable test data even without in-orbit calibration."

MIRAS (Microwave Imaging Radiometer using Aperture Synthesis) is an L-band radiometer with 69 receivers mounted on three deployed arms to measure the radiation coming from Earth.

In order to measure accurately, the receivers must be within a +/-3°C temperature range of each other, with the optimal operating temperature at 22°C. Heaters are installed on the satellite to achieve the temperature needed.

Switching on the instrument begins with activating the central payload computer, which controls many of the instrument’s subsystems and gives instructions to the distributed command and monitoring modes on each arm.


To assess the electrical performance of the instrument after switch-on while limiting the consumption of heater power, the physical temperature for start up was set to 10°C.

"The active thermal control is now in operation and is keeping the instrument well within the expected temperature range," Mr Martin-Neira said. "Tomorrow we expect to assess the payload at the final 22°C temperature."

The central payload computer also controls the 'mass memory', which collects all the science data from the receivers and sends them to receiving stations on the ground. The high-speed downlink, which transmits the data to the ground station, was switched on, and data have been transmitted to ESA’s European Space Astronomy Centre (ESAC), in Villafranca, Spain. The data acquisition and processing systems located at ESAC are also working well, and the first test of the product generation system has been successful.

"With the critical launch and early orbit phase completed, the engineers can now evaluate the quality of the downlinks and concentrate on the calibration of the instrument," SMOS Project Manager Achim Hahne said.


Data provided by MIRAS will be important for weather and climate modelling, water resource management, agriculture planning, ocean currents and circulation studies and forecasting hazardous events such as floods.

"We are very happy that we have received the first data from MIRAS, which we expect to make very strong contributions to scientists' understanding of Earth's water cycle," said Guillermo Buenadicha, SMOS Payload Operations Engineer at ESAC.

"We are now looking forward to analysing the first data and to start testing the processing systems in the ground station," SMOS Mission Manager Susanne Mecklenburg said.

The SMOS (Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity) Earth Explorer satellite and ESA's Proba-2 were launched into orbit together from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in northern Russia on 2 November.

Images, Animation, Text, Credit: ESA / ESAC.

Greeting, Orbiter.ch

NASA - COBE Mission logo.

11.17.09

NASA's Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE) satellite rocketed into Earth orbit on Nov. 18, 1989, and quickly revolutionized our understanding of the early cosmos. Developed and built at Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., COBE precisely measured and mapped the oldest light in the universe -- the cosmic microwave background.

COBE showed that the radiation's spectrum agrees exactly with predictions based on the Big Bang theory. And COBE's map of slight hot and cold spots within this background let scientists glimpse the roots of cosmic structure we see around us today. In essence, COBE produced the first "baby picture" of the universe.


For these results, COBE scientists John Mather, at Goddard, and George Smoot, at the University of California, Berkeley, shared the 2006 Nobel Prize in physics. The mission ushered cosmologists into a new era of precision measurements, paving the way for deeper exploration of the microwave background by NASA's ongoing WMAP mission and the European Space Agency's new Planck satellite.


Temperature of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) radiation spectrum as determined with the COBE satellite during the full four years of the Differential Microwave Radiometer (DMR) observation. The plane of the Milky Way Galaxy is horizontal across the middle of each picture.

This map shows the 53 GHz channel

    * (top) prior to dipole subtraction;
    * (middle) after dipole subtraction (due to the solar system movement);
    * (bottom) after subtraction of a model of the Galactic emission.


Temperature of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) radiation spectrum as determined with the COBE satellite during the first two years of the Differential Microwave Radiometer (DMR) observation. The plane of the Milky Way Galaxy is horizontal across the middle of each picture.

    * (top) uncorrected;
    * (middle) corrected for the dipole term due to our peculiar velocity;
    * (bottom) further corrected to remove the contribution of our galaxy.

Note: This map is based on data collected over the two first years of the four-year COBE mission. Therefore, it has been superseded by the four-year map.

The cosmic microwave background radiation is a remnant of the Big Bang. These minute temperature variations (depicted here as varying shades of blue and purple) are linked to slight density variations in the early universe. These variations are believed to have given rise to the structures that populate the universe today: clusters of galaxies, as well as vast, empty regions. This image, representing data collected between 1990 and 1992, received much publicity at the time. It was later superseded by a more accurate four-year COBE map.

› View COBE sky map images: http://lambda.gsfc.nasa.gov/product/cobe/dmr_image.cfm

› Read about WMAP, successor mission to COBE: http://map.gsfc.nasa.gov/

› View interactive presentation from Dr. Mather: http://www.nasa.gov/externalflash/mather/

› NASA Scientist Shares Nobel Prize for Physics - 2006: http://www.nasa.gov/vision/universe/starsgalaxies/nobel_prize_mather.html

Images, Text, Credits: NASA / Goddard Space Flight Center, Francis Reddy.

Best regard, Orbiter.ch

JAXA logo.

November 18, 2009 (JST)

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) would like to announce that Astronaut Akihiko Hoshide has been selected as a crew member for the 32nd/33rd Expedition Mission at the International Space Station (ISS). Once there, he will engage in space activities mainly for space environment utilization, including scientific experiments coordinated by Japanese scientists and international partners at the ISS.


Astronaut Hoshide is currently continuing his astronaut training after achieving success with the 1J mission on the space shuttle Discovery (STS-124 mission, June 2008.) He is also contributing to ISS operations as a Capsule Communicator (CAPCOM) at the NASA mission Control Center, communicating with crew on board the ISS.

Period of stay at the ISS: About 6 months from early summer 2012

Transportation means to the ISS: Launch and return by Soyuz

Major tasks at the ISS: System operations at the ISS, including those in the Japanese Experiment Module, Kibo, as an ISS Flight Engineer; ISS robotic arm operations; and conducting scientific experiments

Schedule until the mission: Taking training sessions on operating ISS facilities, including Kibo and the ISS robotic arm; on conducting in-orbit scientific experiments; and on riding the Soyuz

Reference materials:

Brief Personal History of Astronaut Hoshide: http://www.jaxa.jp/press/2009/11/20091118_iss_e.html#at1

Onboard Plan of Japanese Astronauts: http://www.jaxa.jp/press/2009/11/20091118_iss_e.html#at2

Images, Text, Credit: Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA).

Greeting, Orbiter.ch