spacEurope

spacEurope's not dead!

noreply@blogger.com (Rui Borges) — Sun, 22 Feb 2009 00:41:00 +0000

Just changed identity.
He goes now by the name of...
BEYOND THE CRADLE

Thank you all for making of this place a wonderful adventure!
Now I invite you all to come and meet the new place, drinks are on the house!

spacEurope's not dead!

noreply@blogger.com (Rui Borges) — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 21:28:00 +0000

Cold feet...

noreply@blogger.com (Rui Borges) — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 16:07:00 +0000

NASA will hold a media teleconference tomorrow, Sept. 23, at 12:30 p.m. EDT, to discuss data from the joint NASA and European Space Agency Ulysses mission that points out to the fact that our sun's solar wind is at a 50-year low.

According to NASA's press release, this situation might lead to the alteration of, not just the Earth, but the solar system's conditions.

Present at the conference will be Ed Smith, NASA Ulysses project scientist and magnetic field instrument investigator, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., Dave McComas, Ulysses solar wind instrument principal investigator, Southwest Research Institute, San Antonio, Karine Issautier, Ulysses radio wave lead investigator, Observatoire de Paris, Meudon, France, Nancy Crooker, Research Professor, Boston University, Boston, Mass.

To follow closely...

Roving the Worlds: A Plea For Telepresence > By Nicholas Previsich

noreply@blogger.com (Rui Borges) — Sun, 21 Sep 2008 21:47:00 +0000

Exciting news about the future of Opportunity has been resonating around the small but intense spaceflight community over the past weekend, so there is no need to repeat it in detail here. Suffice to say that the Mars Exploration Rovers continue to live up to their class name, and have done nothing short of revolutionized our thinking about the planet in the process.

Mars is now a place, a diverse world full of discrete locales, each with their own peculiar features, charms, pitfalls, personalities, all from a very human viewpoint at scales that we can see and touch in our minds. How utterly unexpected this is at the emotional level for some reason; how bountiful has been the science return, both due to the remarkable longevity of the MERs and the ingenuity with which they have been guided and used.

Our technological expertise evolves almost in the biological sense, albeit far more rapidly, and continually opens more doors for us as we see the Universe for what it really is, discovering new frontiers that inevitably reveal new methods, new tools, new ways of thinking, continuously rejuvenating our perpetually adolescent species at all levels. The desire to explore at the human scale of perception is primordial because it has been the key to our survival. It is all very well to observe a mountain peak in the hazy distance from the comfort of a lush valley; it is quite another to journey there, touch the hard rock itself, feel the cold, and perhaps lay one's hand on a plant found near the summit, never before seen, whose berries stop the young from dying of a pernicious vitamin deficiency...

This has been our history. This is the legacy and the future of humanity: our endless curiosity, our willingness to take risks that no sane animal would ever consider, our odd ability to see beyond the immediate both during and after our ventures and then extrapolate applications, determine future goals, and move ever onward. This is who and what we are.

Toward this fundamental drive, this vastly important end, the MERs have revealed at least one method by which humanity can efficiently tackle the formidable problem of exploring a vast Solar System at the scale to which we have evolved to evaluate. It seems both reasonable and practical to propose a long-term exploration strategy for not only Mars but the other "terrestrial" worlds within our grasp as follows: Rove them.

Over the next 200 years, it should be possible to examine at least 10% of the surfaces of the Moon, Mars, Mercury, Europa, Ganymede, Callisto, Titan, and Triton directly via mobile automatons. Such a reconnaissance would not only reveal unexpected wonders both aesthetic and scientific, but also lay a firm foundation for future manned exploration by characterizing these worlds at the human scale and also identifying landing sites that will offer the best possible return on the massive investment of human flight. Of equal importance is the fact that Earth's entire population will be able to participate in the adventure almost as directly as if they were members of the pioneering expeditions of old: Magellan, Columbus, Lewis & Clark, continuously seeing new horizons and new terrain.

It is not only pragmatic, but proper. Exploration is for the benefit of the entire species, and for the first time in history all mankind can participate as much or as little as each individual may choose. Those who have chosen to do so have advanced...even locked on our small planet, they have already advanced far beyond not only the dreams but also the very comprehension of their ancestors even a millennium before. If the new frontier of the Solar System is opened to all, where will we be in just five hundred more years?

O-N-W-A-R-D-!-!-!

noreply@blogger.com (Rui Borges) — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 23:09:00 +0000

What a great, GREAT day...Emily says it all...but let me just add this:

Ithaca

When you start on your journey to Ithaca,

then pray that the road is long,

full of adventure, full of knowledge.

Do not fear the Lestrygoniansand the Cyclopes and the angry Poseidon.

You will never meet such as these on your path,

if your thoughts remain lofty, if a fine

emotion touches your body and your spirit.

You will never meet the Lestrygonians,

the Cyclopes and the fierce Poseidon,

if you do not carry them within your soul,

if your soul does not raise them up before you.

Then pray that the road is long.

That the summer mornings are many,

that you will enter ports seen for the first time

with such pleasure, with such joy!

Stop at Phoenician markets,

and purchase fine merchandise,

mother-of-pearl and corals, amber and ebony,

and pleasurable perfumes of all kinds,

buy as many pleasurable perfumes as you can;

visit hosts of Egyptian cities,

to learn and learn from those who have knowledge.

Always keep Ithaca fixed in your mind.

To arrive there is your ultimate goal.

But do not hurry the voyage at all.

It is better to let it last for long years;

and even to anchor at the isle when you are old,

rich with all that you have gained on the way,

not expecting that Ithaca will offer you riches.

Ithaca has given you the beautiful voyage.

Without her you would never have taken the road.

But she has nothing more to give you.

And if you find her poor, Ithaca has not defrauded you.

With the great wisdom you have gained, with so much experience,

you must surely have understood by then what Ithacas mean.

-K. P. Kavafis (C. P. Cavafy), translation by Rae Dalven

Portugal > Future Gateway to Space?

noreply@blogger.com (Rui Borges) — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 16:49:00 +0000

Sir Richard "Virgin Galactic" Branson, announced, according to Portugal News, in his visit to Portugal that this country, my country, Europe's oldest nation, from where the navigators departed 6 centuries ago to give "new worlds to the world", can become be an ideal venue to build a “spaceport”. While Branson said he was considering the idea of a Portuguese space centre, he added any additonal progress would only be discussed in four years time.

The founder of Virgin Galactic also admitted that discussions have already taken place with Portuguese authorities concerning the development of a space centre.
The centre would be similar to the one already under construction in New Mexico in the United States, from where space tourists, including, so far, five Portuguese nationals, will fly to space sometime between the end of 2010 and during 2011.
To date, five Portuguese nationals have purchased a ticket to fly to space on a Virgin Galactic flight.

Portuguese Minister of Economy, Manuel Pinho, was caugth by surprise with Branson's announcement , but added that this opportunity “hold the view that Portugal is a country of potential”.

After a press conference held in Lisbon, after which he made the announcement, Branson travelled to Portugal's northern capital, where he visited and inaugurated Caminho das Estrelas, a travel agency which has the exclusive rights in Portugal to sell Virgin Galactic products and that is managed by Mário Ferreira who will be the first Portuguese travelling to space.

Wait for further developments, I need to know more details about this... :-)

MSL 3rd Landing Site Selection Meeting > Final Report > By Researcher X

noreply@blogger.com (Rui Borges) — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 22:44:00 +0000

So the last day begins with evaluation of the final site: Gale Crater. This site was added back into consideration this summer, driven inpart by new evidence that there is interesting mineralogy in the thick stack of strata inside the crater. The lead talk is presented by Dawn Sumner (using Ken Edgett's slides). An argument is made that Gale represents 'an Early Mars type section'. The landing ellipse itself shares a characteristic with Holden crater, in that you are landing on an alluvial fan. The main advantage of the site is a thick site of strata in the central mound (5000 m of finally bedded materials) -- this thick stratigraphic section has multiple bedding styles and a wide variety of erosional expression.
Along with this thick morphological evidence for stratigraphy, Ralph Milliken describes that Gale has interesting compositional stratigraphy as well -- and there is a lot of connection between thestratigraphy derived from both morphology and composition. There are clays in the lower materials, which the presenters suggest might be lacustrine, and possible sulfate-bearing materials in the upper units. Interestingly, Gale's upper stratigraphy has a yardangy texture of pasted on material, which Ralph compares to ILDs in Valles Marineris (an interesting connection). The final Gale talk is by Brad Thomson, who insists that Gale's stratigraphy can be connected to fluvial activity, and both are in a well understood context and chronology. At this point, the discussion on Gale starts to address possible uncertainty in the lacustrine interpretation of its stratigraphy, and the chronological constraints of this site. Others jump in, but Ken Edgett argues that we don't know much about any stratigraphic sectionon Mars (he says that we know of one lake on Mars, Eberswalde, a second one that's not really that bad ('a distant second') Jezero, and then a whole lot of unknowns).

So following the discussion of the sites, we move on into general discussion. The first major topic is that Jim Bell asks Bethany Ehlmann to really lay out the evidence for the carbonate detection at Nili, because 'he doesn't believe it'. So we are in for some detailed spectral interpretation where I quickly get lost in 'bending-mode this', 'band-depth that', and 'continuum-removal' the other.
The next general discussion topic is that the PIs for the various instruments lay out what they actually think MSL can do, to help incorporate into our votes, and we're off to lunch ... voting will happen first thing after lunch on 11 topics. (see the list here) Tension builds during lunch as various factions try and anticipate how things will go.

Unlike the second workshop, the way voting goes at this meeting is that we have one last round of discussion on each of the sites, and then we vote on paper.
Detailed results are going to be posted at this site, but here is what I could write down:
The top three sites with weighted averages are Eberswalde, Holden, and Gale; all with weighted averages between 40-45. The next two sites are Mawrth and Nili, almost at the same score (~37-38). S. Meridiani finishes sixth, and Miyamoto is much lower than any of the others. We are assured that Mawrth and Nili are not actually dead -- in fact, it is likely that one of them will be brought back into consideration for reasons beyond the scope of this meeting. For example, we know that Holden and Eberswalde are virtually right next to each other, and it is unlikely that both will survive to later stages of consideration. (The old 'actuator' risk that might keep the southern sites from driving still exists, under the radar, but it is still there). We are assured repeatedly that this round of voting is not 'the decision, 'but instead will be factored into the decision carefully. The contingencies that will ultimately result in the next shorter list will be complicated and are beyond the scope of this meeting. Matt Golombek gives us a preview of the next meeting in April; the next workshop will be focused on the 'nitty gritty' of traverses, engineering, and choices about how to actually use MSL to explore the surface.
After the vote is revealed, there is some discussion of whether things were fair: (Diana Blaney: Is there a bimodal distribution related to who is in the room -- basically the 'spectroscopy' sites have sunk to the middle from comparatively favored position at early landing sites...Steve Ruff: Why did the vote go on the questions tailored in this way? A pure ranking would have been better).
So that's that -- *phew*. A bunch of people are bummed out by the results (quite openly), but some are happy (less openly). It'll be interesting to see what landing site actually comes out in the wash next year.

MSL 3rd Landing Site Selection Meeting > Day 2 Summary > By Researcher X

noreply@blogger.com (Rui Borges) — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 22:44:00 +0000

Four sites today -- totally exhausting and finishing close to 7 PM -- but good arguments about what we would want to do with this billion dollar piece of hardware...

The second day of the landing site workshop got off to a rip-roaring start, as the top site from the first two landing site workshops was presented with several detailed talks by Jack Mustard (the main proponent), Nicola Mangold, Bethany Ehlmann, and Dave Des Marais. The context that Jack Mustard laid out for his presentation was the question: where would we go on Mars if any putative biology never developed photosynthesis? His argument was we would want to go somewhere where there is lots of water rock-interactions -- fluid in cracks or where fluids moved through the subsurface.

The Nili Fossae Trough site is interesting because it has diverse exposures of alteration products, especially phyllosilicates. Bethany Ehlhmann's talk also presents evidence that at least in some portions of the stratigraphy, there are also other alteration minerals, including carbonates. The basic traverse path carries the vehicle from an interesting ejecta (out of place) material into a valley or reentrant of mineralogical diversity. Jack Mustard argues that as you drive on the way to the reentrant, you get some The fact that the ellipse science is on 'float rock' is criticized by some in the audience who don't like this sort of thing and prefer rocks in their clear bedrock context.

There is a presentation of the idea that Nili saw extended fluvial episodes or 'extended wetness'. There is some pushback from the audience on this. How long and/or how episodic?

The discussion than devoloves into an argument about whether MSL would have any hope of observing supposed life in cracks (eloquently argued in the negative by Dawn Sumner). Perhaps these water-rock interactions may have provided energy gradients for life, but what's the concentration mechanism? (Crowd tension rises...) Jack and Dave Des Marais then argue that we don't really know what martian life looks like, and our presumptions might be substantially biased by terrestrial experience and photosynthetic organisms.

The second site of the day is Holden crater -- a large crater which impacted into the Udon-Ladon-M???? valley system that extends north towards the Chryse basin through a really old degraded Holden proto-basin. The region has some of the best preserved evidence for fluvial activity -- Eberswalde crater, another candidate, to be discussed shortly sits directly to Holden's north. John Grant and Ross Irwin are the lead proponents of this site -- he first emphasizes that Holden is a go-to site. The landing ellipse is on an alluvial fan, and the presenters call in Kelin Whipple to describe how examining these alluvial deposits might tell us about the environment of early Mars. Both at the edge of the alluvial fan, and in the light toned layered deposits in the 'go-to' target to the south, bedding, meter-scale subunits, and clearly discernable units are apparent. The context and local stratigraphy is well-established. Two possibilities for layered units are distal alluvial deposition or lacustrine -- the presenters argue that this does not matter much, but I am a bit skeptical (lacustrine is much sexier). One unanticipated element of the Holden ellipse is that there are clear 'bedrock' blocks available in the Holden drive site, including megabreccia and a mound with good mafic signatures and linear veins running through it. This was presented as a possible advantage vis a vis Nili, which has similar (perhaps more spectacular) veined materials.

Ralph Milliken presents the mineralogy of this site -- the main spectral signature of interest with CRISM is clay.
The third site of the day is Holden's neighbor, Eberswalde crater, and 'the best delta on Mars'. Jim Rice is the lead presenter, although the best discussion of the actual fluvial architecture is given by Kevin Lewis, who has produced spectacular elevation models of the delta. One of the cool things that comes out of this discussion is the fact that the foreset beds of Eberswalde are actually clear in new data, which is the first time these have been convincingly observed. (Earlier suggestions have all been based on observational artifacts!). All of the presenters for this site argue that the source-to-sink architecture of this site is clearly apparent, which is a positive element for understanding its context. The landing ellipse is on the putative lake beds, supported by the fact that across the ellipse Eberswalde, like Holden, has smectite clay. During the discussion of Eberwalde, the room starts to try and wrestle with whether the strength of the clay absorptions matter for how we might understand preservation potential. Bethany Ehlmann argues that stronger absorptions are better -- probably indicative of more 'good stuff' that could help preserve biosignatures. However, there are two counter-arguments raised: (1) the absorption strength in the CRISM wavelength range do not translate particularly well into abundances, and (2) Ralph Milliken and Jurgen Schieber argue that it is better to have weaker clay absorptions with a presumption about how biosignatures might actually be preserved rather than just strong absorptions alone.

The final site of the day is Mawrth Vallis, and here my notes get particularly flaky because my laptop has long since run out of power (not enough damn power strips). JP Bibring is the lead presenter for the Mawrth site, which gets focused on one of four possible ellipses in this region "ellipse 2" (a complication which confuses the audience at various times). The main target at Mawrth is some of the best phyllosilicate absorptions on Mars, with diversity among the various clay minerals [Fe-phyllosilicates beneath Al-phyllosilicates] and considerably interesting bedding. By the end of the Mawrth discussion, the main issue seems to be that no one has any reasonable idea how the stack of clays actually ended up a stack of clays, and the whole stratigraphy of the region is a bit uncertain. One possibility is that the kaolinite (Al) bearing upper units might or might not be draped across the region (indeed, perhaps all of the clays are draped), creating some uncertainty into how the actual material gets where we observe it. Part of why I run out of power is that the Mawrth presenters (*cough, Bibring, cough*) run an hour over time -- probably not helping their case since I'm getting hungry and the rest of the audience seems like its getting punchier and punchier. I wonder if this has any influence on the ultimate decision making process...I hope not. Anyhow, more coming when I get around to summarizing the ultimate day tonight or tomorrow. Votes will be cast and one site will be presented, and then people will hopefully civilly discuss the merits of each site.

Out for now...

MSL 3rd Landing Site Selection Meeting > Day 1 Summary > By Researcher X

noreply@blogger.com (Rui Borges) — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 08:32:00 +0000

spacEurope counted once more with the precious participation of our Researcher X at the third landing site selection meeting for the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL), taking place at Monrovia, CA.

Here are his impressions on the meeting's first day:

I'm in attendance at the 3rd MSL landing site workshop in a Doubletree Hotel in Monrovia, CA. The goal of this meeting is to further help focuswhere this remarkable vehicle will attempt to explore. The good news isthat we are down to only seven sites {Eberswalde Crater, Holden Crater,Nili Trough, Mawrth Vallis, Miyamoto Crater, S. Meridiani, and GaleCrater}. Thus, the meeting will have more focus than the previous meetings where 40 or more sites have been discussed. Here, we will ultimately vote on four points related to the site (1) Diversity: Can multiple rock units be observed? (2) Context: are they found in a well understood framework? What will we know ahead of time about the locale? What will we know about its connection to its region/ the rest of Mars?(3) Was the site a habitable environment? (on the basis of both geomorphology and mineralogy?) and (4) Preservation potential: If it was habitable, could we preserve signs of that habitability?

The first day began with some good engineering news. The project manager assured us that all of the current sites can be reached with single target specification, mitigating the need for a complicated pairing of landing sites with possible safer backups. Also, the need for a 'safe haven' has disappeared, so the selection process has been significantly simplified since the second landing site workshop. The landing site safety evaluation team also bring the news that all seven of the candidate sites areacceptable at 95% success level. There is some site to site variability in the margin of safety, it is small and is outweighed by remaining uncertainties that affect all of the sites.

The schedule for the first day is arranged in two parts. In the morning, we hear substantial discussion of terrestrial perspectives on habitability and biosignature preservation. The challenges of finding ancient life onEarth are substantive (though somewhat different than on Mars); the record of life on early Earth is radically limited by dynamic resurfacing of the planet by plate tectonics. Even where they are found Archean rocks alsotend to have been beat up (by temperature, pressure, and metamorphism).Thus, many locations where people have thought to find early life it isvery controversial. The key message of these talks is (1) sedimentary rocks are good, preferably shallow water sediments (virtually all biosignature preservation potential is in sedimentary rocks); (2) isolating possible biosignatures from oxidative degradation is important (sequestration is very important); (3) a source-to-sink framework for landing sites very important if we are to actually understand MSL resultsin context.

The second task of the day is to discuss two specific landing sites, which happen to be right next to each other (but substantially different): Miyamoto and S. Meridiani. Miyamoto crater is a 100+ km Noachian basinwith common exposures of phyllosilicate clays in much of its landing ellipse, and possible signs of inverted channnels. The proponent of this site (Horton Newsom) argued that there is evidence that some of these clays may be fluvial as well, but there is no clear evidence of this connection. Much of the criticism of this site during the discussion focuses on actual evidence that this location was habitable, its limitedexposed section, and the disconnect between the phyllosilicates in this site and its somewhat tenuous evidence for fluvial activity (inverted materials which Horton claims are inverted channels).

The second of day one's two landing sites is S. Meridiani. Effectively,this landing ellipse is drawn on exactly the same sulfate rock units that the MER Opportunity rover has been driving around on (although perhaps at a different point in the stratigraphic section). The good news about this site is that we are absolutely sure that we can land on these rocks safely. The real science target in S. Meridiani are a variety of phyllosilicates that appear to be in bedrock just outside of the ellipse. Thus, you get diversity from landing directly on sulfates and then driving to clays. Sandra Wiseman (the proponent of this site) argues that these phyllosilicates are essentially the oldest materials in this location, which were then cut by later valleys. In the discussion, there is a lot of focus on the unknown origin for the phyllosilicates. Could they simply be ejecta from Miyamoto? Are they really layered compositionally? Many of the challenges are about its stratigraphic context.

So that's pretty much the results of the first day. Things are almost certainly going to get more contentious as we discuss the other five sites. We're putting votes off until Wednesday afternoon so that's when the real fight will come out -- though the people running the workshop keep telling us that its not a competition, just a search for the bestsite.

I wanted to give you some perspective of the room as well. The chairs are hilariously wrapped with some sort of stretchy polyester fabric and are really silly looking. The room is a bit bigger than the last meeting (thankfully), but we have rapidly run out of coffee in the hotel provided vats both mornings. Many of the speakers have had single slides with missing images -- a result of people's powerpoint files being incompatible with the projection computer. Always worth thinking about this sort of thing when NASA put people on the Moon. :)

Phoenix Mission > AFM update with Daniel Parrat

noreply@blogger.com (Rui Borges) — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 18:21:00 +0000

I am really sorry for the lack of information in the last weeks but things outside spacEurope’s realm have been quite time consuming.
As I have made mention in the last post, the AFM was something to keep an eye on for the following days, that was because I have requested our dear Daniel Parrat for an update.
If you are remembered, Daniel works as an Instrument Sequence Engineer on the microscopy station of MECA, i.e. the Optical Microscope (OM) and the FAMARS instrument at the Phoenix Science Operations Center.

With no more delays neither fancy headers, but with a lot of excuses for this long silence here is Parrat’s report.

……………………………………………………………………………………………………

The fourth day (or sol) after the landing, we did a check up of the instrument, the first one since pre-launch. Our silicon chip was in great shape, the eight cantilevers having survived the launch, the journey in space and the landing. This first result was very encouraging, but unfortunately we could only enjoy it for a few minutes: the same day, the first measurement of a calibration substrate failed. The stage was stopped before reaching the first sensor tip, thinking that it was already in contact with it. In terms of Phoenix operations, that meant that AFM imaging was “out of the table” for a while. Fortunately, we were still allowed to initialize it during OM experiments (as a self-defense mechanism against a possible bad motion of the stage).

Looking at the results of those initializations, we soon realized that the AFM was more sensitive than what we thought to thermal changes. This was confirmed by experiments in our lab, and we found that reinitializating it every half-hour, in combination with a few changes in the approach procedure, was sufficient to solve the problem. However, it took still about five weeks – the longest of my life – to get the approval for those changes in the commanding sequences. The reason is that each instrument team had to do some changes at that time, the AFM being at low priority (well, it had the lowest one).

On sol 44, we were back on track. We were very nervous about trying again to bring the calibration substrate towards the AFM. It had been on Mars for more than seven weeks, without further testing than a basic initialization.

A couple of hours before the downlink of the results, I was at home with my family. I received a phone call from Urs Staufer: “Are you not coming? The first image is there!!!”. That’s how I missed the downlink of the first AFM image from Mars. However, I was so happy that this detail did not ruin this wonderful day. When I came to the operations center, everybody was celebrating and busy analyzing the image (it is probably not yet over…). It looked very nice, showing three lines of the calibration substrate. This first image was taken in static mode, also called contact mode (see “Famars-Part I” in Rui’s blog for explanations).

However, once again, the happiness was not total (I would say 81%, the ISEs of the mission will understand). During the same day, we also tried to take another image, this time in dynamic mode. However, this one was not successful, only showing a sad blank image. So the lab was calling us again…

After a series of tests (both in the lab and on Mars!), we found that the heat generated by the SWTS motors was transmitted to the AFM scanner in a very short time, causing the signal to drift a lot (even more than in static mode). John Michael Morookian, who knows the whole MECA payload better than anybody else, found a convenient way to reduce the heat generated by the stage. His proposition seemed the best for me, even if there was a risk of going two or three microns too far because of the higher speed of the stage.

Using this new approach and having adjusted the feedback parameters of the AFM, we were finally able to take a good image in dynamic mode, on Sol 64. The sample was another calibration substrate with “chess-like” structure (TGX1 for the experts). I was perhaps even happier with this image. First because it showed that the scanner that I built produced only a few distortions in the image, and secondly because the AFM tip was still sharp, even after a few scans in static mode. From an engineering point of view, we were at the Nirvana. From a science point of view, we had not yet started…

Dynamic mode being usable, the chase for Martian particles could finally start. On sol 68, we targeted a substrate with possible scientific interest. This substrate, designed and fabricated at Imperial College by Tom Pike, Sanjay Vijendran and Hanna Sykulska, was composed of small pits (5 microns wide and deep), which could have trapped some particles delivered previously by the robotic arm. And it did! One of the AFM images of that substrate showed a tiny particle, quietly nested in one of the pits. Its diameter was about one micron, a size much smaller than any other object measured in space (at my knowledge). If you think to the powers of 10, it’s a 10-6m object “seen” at a distance of about 1011m from the viewer…

Now the MECA microscopy team continues its experiments, both with the OM and the AFM. A few other good AFM images were taken, and we hope that the extended mission will allow discovering other interesting particles. Today we have just started the transition to Earth time operations, which is a relief after having spent the last three months at Mars time. We will soon reach the end of the initial 90 days, which makes me both happy and sad. Happy because the Phoenix instruments are all still doing well, and sad because the Phoenix team will soon no longer exist, after all these years of work together...

GO!!!

noreply@blogger.com (Rui Borges) — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 08:34:00 +0000

Welcome, back, Rui! We missed you, and anxious to resume where we left off...

Humanity has been launching rockets for thousands of years, as weapons, as entertainment, and most recently as vehicles. There are varying emotional reactions to all these events, but the latter is by far the most striking.

The launch of a space vehicle is an astonishingly emotional experience for all who witness it, even via telecommunications rather than in person. Certainly part of it is from the long build-up, the drama of 'will it or won't it go today'? The need to check and recheck, to be absolutely certain that this fire-breathing beast will perform its best during its few brief minutes of life and place its precious cargo where it needs to be is drama by definition, and nobody can escape its allure.

Then there is fire, and noise, and the slow majesty of this incredible creation of the hearts and minds and efforts of humanity leaving our world.Watch the crowd at such a moment. Some are cursing, some are praying with clasped hands. Some are frozen at the sight, transfixed, mumbling benedictions under their breath. Many have tears rolling down their cheeks. Many scream "Go!!! Go!!! GO!!!" as the rocket begins to pick up speed, executes its roll program, and heads downrange to the silence and the blackness, finally disappearing into the sky as if it never was, as the smoke settles and quiet returns to the launch site. All who witness this are touched, forever.

Why do we behave this way? Nobody ever sheds tears for a fireworks display.
Something deep within us knows how important this all is. Something inside us all longs to go there too, and cheers on the rockets that symbolically transport our dreams and collective future to new places, for our posterity, for our survival. We know where we need to be, someday...whether we know it or not.

Editor's note: Dear Nick, it is great to be back and to count with your passionate words...good to see you have made your homework... ;-)

This might get handy in the following days

noreply@blogger.com (Rui Borges) — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 21:29:00 +0000

Interview with Tom Pike

The FAMARS instrument:
Part I
Part II

We're back...

noreply@blogger.com (Rui Borges) — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 20:30:00 +0000

Humm...perchlorate...

So...no problem with spacesuits' dry cleaning hey?
Now...who runs the laundry?...

Answers soon. Just give me the time to catch up...

Oh...If you have questioned yourself where this blogger of yours has been...this is one of the possible answers...

BepiColombo Update

noreply@blogger.com (Rui Borges) — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 16:41:00 +0000

After receiving information that certain rumours hit the internet (translated version here) about serious problems affecting the BepiColombo mission, envolving increasing costs and, serious enough, according to an anonymous source to endanger the mission to the point of cancellation, I have contacted Dr. Johannes Benkhoff, in order to know the facts from BepiColombo Project Scientist himself.

And what had Dr. Benkhoff to tell to spacEurope readers? According to the Project Scientist, who was not able to read these rumours, made himself available to list some facts:

During the development and the thoroughly study of the mission with respect to available technology's which can survive the harsh environment around Mercury, the team encountered a strong mass increase of the spacecraft. Currently the mission is above the capabilities of the Soyuz fregat launcher. Therefore, in Benkhoff's words, a solution needs to be found, this goes through two possibilities that are currently under discussion: Decrease of the mass by allowing more risks or looking for another more powerful launcher which has the draw back of more costs.

The Project Scientist informed spacEurope that a "Tiger Team" is, now, investigating both options. The work of the Tiger Team has not finished yet.

We hope to return soon with more details.

EDITED ON JUNE 6:

Dr. Benkhoff just informed spacEurope that the Tiger Team will work until the PDR (Preliminary Design Review). This Review is foreseen to be finished before the end of the year. The Project Scientist expects an official announcement of any changes to the mission (possible new launcher, revised mission profile, etc.) within the next couple of months.

A Home for spacEurope?

noreply@blogger.com (Rui Borges) — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 16:13:00 +0000

While on Mars the time is to dig, here on Earth I am digging for time...

Updates have not been as regular as I whish them to be but I think that this is happening for a good reason.

But not all is lot...as I made mention to yesterday, Barry Goldstein, Phoenix Project Manager, will be soon at spacEurope for another Live Q&A and Stuart Atkinson will deliver us a new, and promising interview with Mark Lemmon, Phoenix Co-Investigator, SSI Lead, Dust Cycles, Texas A&M University.

Stay alert!

In the meanwhile here is why (besides the extra amount of work I'm dealing with...) spacEurope has been a bit rusty...

I have been, during the days of life of this blog, comparing spacEurope to a home, to a place where everyone is welcomed, where everyone has a role.
Brick by brick, step by step.
Some of you know, others don’t, that I am a pilgrim, in the sense that I, literally, walk the paths of this planet in search for answers and, more important in my perspective, posing new questions.
Call it a personal q’n’a if you wish…
In the course of those walks I feel privileged to have crossed my journey with other humans and their experiences which always taught me something, at least to be aware that my reality isn’t the world’s omphalo…
In the course of those walks I have met people that have dedicated their lives to those who, like me, assume this walking way of knowing our world as a very important aspect of our existence.
That was something I have been thinking for a long time. To host.
To build a house of knowledge, a place where people could share perspectives, a place to speak, listen, see and learn.
A place where one would bring what could and take what needed.

I’ve been investing some money, and the return of that investment will permit me to pass from a virtual place into a wood and stone one in the year of 2009.

The objective? To welcome you, reader, and all those with the will to learn that might land in a inner, hidden, peaceful corner of Portugal.

Ideas regarding the structure of the place are still finding their way, still getting acquainted, but the main issue will be that this house for the Homo Viator would have basically the same structure as this blog you are visiting, non profitable.
Taking a look into the future things would work in a way that solidarity assumes a very important role.
People would express their will to visit, there would be places for 20/30 people, we could even organize thematic workshops there…
Since there would be no money involved, the idea was to each one bringing something that would become part of this house of friends with knowledge as quest.
A book, a bottle of wine, an idea, something from back home…
Something that would make of this place a home where everyone visiting would feel as it own.
Although I have posted a picture in a previous post, the location is not yet decided, that is why other candidates make their appearance as the one below…

Just imagine that patio in a hot summer night filled with people around a table in a conversation until the rise of the sun…Although both this estates (and others…) please me a lot, they are for sale now and I doubt that it will be available within a year, and more area is required to permit that what I intend to do become a reality, with lots of space to satisfy the objectives of those arriving, and this can vary, if someone comes with the spirit of gathering around a table discussing, perfect! If someone needs a place where it can be on its own, to study, to work in a peaceful environment, to think…perfect!

Whatever is your goal, your search, your dream...hope to see you there one year from now!

Until then, I'll try to give keep you inform about the latest developments.

Ultreya!

Rui Borges

Sintra Portugal

spacEurope Editor

Phoenix Special > Can this be it?

noreply@blogger.com (Rui Borges) — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 07:57:00 +0000

Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona/Max Planck Institute

Can this be it?...

According to Uwe Keller, Robotic Arm Camera lead scientist from the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research, Katlenburg-Lindau, Germany, what we see in this image of "Snow Queen" is in agreement with the notion that it may be ice, and the team suspect that they will see the same thing in the digging area.

On a e-mail received by spacEurope yesterday, our dear Barry Goldstein, Phoenix Project Manager, told us that the science team thinks indeed that this is ice and indicated that "once we complete the fix for the TEGA (shortly) we will be able to validate that it is water ice."

When will we have more answers about it? Goldstein answers:

"As I right this (Sunday), the downlink for yesterday should be coming. We should have touched the surface with the arm. If all goes well. Monday would be the earliest."

In fact, Phoenix already did touched the soil, More...for the first time, it reached out and touched the Martian ground on Saturday, May 31.

Phoenix's Robotic Arm scoop left an impression that resembles a footprint at a place provisionally named Yeti in the King of Hearts target zone, away from the area that eventually will be sampled for evaluation:

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

Oh...remember the great Live Q&A we had with Barry before the Phoenix Landing?...Take your time but get ready...

He'll be back...Barry told us that, as soon as things calm down a bit, he would be happy to return here and do another bloging session with spacEurope readers.

In Barry's words, our support is greatly appreciated at JPL, and I'll add, let's make them appreciate it even more...what do you say?

Things are really moving in a really special and interesting path there, at the martian arctic...

Phoenix Special > OMG! Just Dig!

noreply@blogger.com (Rui Borges) — Sat, 31 May 2008 13:26:00 +0000

I know that everyone talks about the image of Phoenix against Heimdal Crater but this...man...this...
Dreams coming true...
If it is confirmed that THIS is ice under the lander...it is not ice...it is GOLD!
Please...just take my prize!...

Dig! Just Dig Phoenix!

Image Credit: NASA/JPL/UA - inverted by bcory at UMSF

Mars500 > Facility

noreply@blogger.com (Rui Borges) — Fri, 30 May 2008 09:32:00 +0000

Last week, as you might have read here at spacEurope, the selection of the 32 candidates for the Mars500 Study took place, from where two of them, together with four Russian volunteers, will be sealed in an isolation chamber located in the Russian Institute for Biomedical Problems (IBMP) in Moscow, for a total of 105 days starting already in October before a full isolation period with another two European candidates, which will last for 520 days starting early in 2009.

In the upcoming week you will be able to find here an interview with ESA’s Mars 500 Programme Manager, Jennifer Ngo-Anh, who considers that we are, with this study, taking the first steps in a long journey that will culminate in the future with seeing European astronauts on Mars, until then I have decided to help you getting acquainted with the facility that the final candidates will find in their simulation of the journey that will take them not only towards Mars and back to Earth but where they will also experience the life in the landing module that would transfer them to and from the Martian surface.
Feel free to take a tour by downloading and printing the figure on the left and if there is any question regarding the project that you would like to get an answer to just e-mail me and I will make it reach the Mars500 Programme Manager.

Phoenix Special > On Mars

noreply@blogger.com (Rui Borges) — Fri, 30 May 2008 08:27:00 +0000

Phoenix's Optical Microscope started working and it looks like we have a celebration dance at Mars...

See how the little guy on the top left is really happy to see us?... ;-)

NASA / JPL / U. Arizona / animated GIF by spacEurope

I hope to count soon with a detailed explanation from our OM source, our dearDaniel Parrat, about what are we seing in these images and what we can expect to count in the future days from, both, the Optical Microscope and the FAMARS instrument.

Dance little martian! Dance! ;-)

The Maps of History > by Nicholas Previsich

noreply@blogger.com (Rui Borges) — Thu, 29 May 2008 10:07:00 +0000

Riding Mars' wave, it is time to remember and celebrate an ephemeride taking place tomorrow.

Our resident columnist Nicholas Previsich takes the opportunity to map our own path into the future having as departure the launch anniversary of Mariner 9, the first mission to orbit another planet.

.......................................................

The Maps of History

May 30th 2008, tomorrow, will mark the 37th anniversary of the launch of Mariner 9 to Mars, and it arrived there the following November only to face a blinding dust-storm that obscured nearly every feature on the planet save for some dark spots in Tharsis, which later were revealed to be volcanoes more then 20 km high.

Mariner 9 survived and went on to show us that Mars was not just the Moon's bigger brother with a trace of atmosphere, but a world of its own, with canyons, riverbeds, and more, much more then we could understand at the time. That's why we've gone back, repeatedly.

We still don't understand it all, and the harder we look the more we find that begs explanation, such as 'slope streaks' and putative geysers. Active things are happening on what was originally thought to be a dead rock in space, a dashed dream from the days of early space exploration. What we've really found is that Mars and indeed the rest of the Solar System is not what we expected, yet also dynamic in ways we hadn't thought of given our limited perspective as dwellers of Earth's surface.

Our perspective is changing, however, as we learn, as we see more. Mariner 9 was the first mission to map another world. We mapped our satellite reasonably well for Apollo and other reasons, but Mars was the first planet we really knew beyond our own...assigning map coordinates, names, and a systemic way to organize and view alien terrain.

The historical precedents should not be overlooked, nor the significance of this event. Amerigo Vespucci produced the first preliminary map of the east coast of the New World in the late 1400s; the remainder of the Americas would be mapped within a century. More then 500 years passed until another hemisphere of a world was mapped. Yet it only took thirty years afterwards to map more then a dozen worlds, from Mercury outward, as we explode beyond our cradle using tools that could not have been dreamed of by the ancients.

This is a special, even unique, time in history. The Americas were a discovery to the Europeans, but of course the Native Americans had seen them before. For the first time in 25,000 years or more, the human race is truly seeing new territory, mapping entire worlds via cameras and radar. What we see is not familiar, nor should we expect it to be. These are alien places, and although they obey the laws of physics and chemistry there is no mandate to follow a path in these processes that we find familiar or comfortable. In fact, we should be surprised to find anything familiar at all on these worlds, for the main lesson learned in our travels thus far is that few things are as they seem at first glance.

That never has deterred us. When we see a new place, we go there.

We'll do the same with the Solar System. We will move outward and survive, as we always have, make accomodations for the strangeness of new places as the drives of evolution force us to do....and somehow enjoy and learn from the experience in the bargain.

The true story of humanity has barely begun.

..................................................................................

Want to know more about Mariner 9? Click here.

Editor's note: Nicholas Previsich is now oficially retired...here are my congratulations and my wish that this will permit you to have more time to think about, write and share your ideas with me (I'm your fan you know that...) and spacEurope readers.

You're the man!

Phoenix Special > Unstowed and ready to work!

noreply@blogger.com (Rui Borges) — Thu, 29 May 2008 06:58:00 +0000

Phoenix's arm finally was, finally, unstowed! After a one day delay originated by the fact of Tuesday's commands, sent to Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter as planned, did not reached the lander, the reason for this to happen was the temporary shut off of the orbiter's Electra UHF radio system for relaying commands.

I've created an animated gif where it is possible to see the Robotic Arm moving for the first time after a long journey from the Earth to Mars:

Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona / Animated GIF by spacEurope

Also a full panorama of Phoenix's landing site was achieved (click to enlarge)...:

Image Credit: NASA/JPL/U. Arizona/Texas A&M

Now the time is to think where to head that robotic arm and get the real action started...

According to Mark Lemmon, SSI Co-Investigator, the last images acquired are "very exciting to the science team."

And why is that? Lemmon explains:

"We see the polygons we're looking for...We appear to have landed where we have access to digging down a polygon trough the long way, digging across the trough, and digging into the center of a polygon. We've dedicated this polygon as the first national park system on Mars -- a "keep out" zone until we figure out how best to use this natural Martian resource."

Until then Phoenix will use the robotic arm to firstly dig in a different area seen in 360-degree view shown above, an area outside the preserved polygon.

Phoenix Special > Listening to Phoenix

noreply@blogger.com (Rui Borges) — Wed, 28 May 2008 15:11:00 +0000

As promised on the previous post by Michel Denis, ESA has made available the sounds of Phoenix descent, after being processed by the Mars Express Flight Control Team.

As stated in the website, and as you can confirm with your own ears, the sounds of Phoenix descending are "audible, loud and clear".

The data from the Mars Express Lander Communication system (MELACOM) that tracked Phoenix was received on Earth soon after the Phoenix landing.

Visit ESA.int for more details.

Mars500 > Candidates selection

noreply@blogger.com (Rui Borges) — Wed, 28 May 2008 10:12:00 +0000

Mars all over the headlines...

While orbiters orbit , rovers rove and landers land it is now time for news not regarding robotic ways of acquiring knowledge...

The Mars500 study, a cooperative project between ESA and the Russian Institute for Biomedical Problems (IBMP) in Moscow, has selected, last week, 32 candidates (from a total of more than 5 600 applicants) from which two, along with four Russian volunteers, will be sealed in an isolation chamber for a total of 105 days starting in October. This is followed by the full isolation period with another two European candidates, which lasts for 520 days starting early in 2009.

Part of the referred chamber will simulate the spacecraft that would transport them on their journey to and from Mars and another part will simulate the landing module that would transfer them to and from the Martian surface.
So...what is the profile of this 32 special ones?
Between them, according to an ESA release, there are numerous degrees and PhDs covering the whole spectrum of science and engineering, as well as candidates who are qualified divers and pilots and/or have military experience and even candidates that previously worked on human spaceflight missions. These highly qualified individuals have come from all over Europe: Germany, Austria, Italy, Belgium, France, Sweden, Denmark and Switzerland and...Portugal (well...must find out who he/she is...)

The criteria under which these candidates were selected were, according to Henning Soll, a DLR psychologist and a member of the interview panel for the selection procedure, not only robustness, emotional stability, motivitation for team work, openeness to other cultures and the capabilty to deal with the "slightly Spartan lifestyle" associated with an actual space mission.
A crucial requirement will deal with the combination of different personalities and talents together in order to create the optimal group for such an extensive exercise.

A medical examination, which included an ultrasound investigation of inner organs, was performed in order to determine the health status of the candidates; a psychological test, also used in the pilot selection process by DLR; and a personal interview with an expert panel to determine areas such as the motivation and suitability of each candidate in question, these were the three aspects to the selection process at the European Astronaut Centre.

More information on ESA.int and, soon, on this blog of yours...

Phoenix Special > Update

noreply@blogger.com (Rui Borges) — Wed, 28 May 2008 06:46:00 +0000

Good news and sights from Mars!

Phoenix is ready to begin moving its robotic arm, first unlatching its wrist and then flexing its elbow. The commands for moving the the arm were sent by the team on Tuesday morning, May 27, to NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter for relay to Phoenix.

Somehow, MRO did not relay those commands to the lander, so arm movement and other activities are expected to take place today.

Incredible images! HIRISE has done it again...

See what I mean?...

Whoa!

In the above image (click to access full resolution) it is possible to see shows a full-resolution view of the Phoenix parachute and lander during its May 25 descent, with Heimdall crater in the background.

It shows the parachute attached to the back shell, the heat shield and the lander itself against red Mars. The parachute and lander are about 300 meters.

According to HiRISE principal investigator Alfred S. McEwen of the University of Arizona, Tucson Phoenix appears to be descending into the 10 kilometer crater, but is actually 20 kilometers, in front of Heimdal.

Whoa-Whoa!!!

And here you have the first views (click to access full resolution) from the Phoenix on her landing site where it will work for the next three months...Pretty bird!!!

Speaking of images...
If you are remembered, in spacEurope Live Q&A with Michel Denis and Peter Schmitz I asked our guests, what would HRSC, the camera onboard Mars Express be able to capture during Phoenix's approach?...

By then, Denis, Head of the MARS EXPRESS Mission Operations Unit, and Schmitz, Mars Express-Phoenix Service Manager, told spacEurope readers that the HRSC was hoping to catch a few (3-4) pixels of the fireball entering the Martian Atmosphere with the Super Resulution Channel while the probe was above the Limb as seen from MEX.

Now, after Phoenix already reached martian ground two questions urge:

Were those images acquired and, if that was achieved...Where are they?

I have contacted Michel Denis once more who, kindly, helped us knowing what is expected to happen.

Denis asked space exploration fans to have just a bit of patience for HRSC...

According to the Head of the MARS EXPRESS Mission Operations Unit, the images were indeed attempted but the result is very uncertain, it was also referred that the data is now all on ground, in the hands of the specialists, however, Denis added that, if anything is in the images, by no way HRSC results can approach the exceptional image made by MRO HIRISE of the parachute and Phoenix.

But of course Denis thinks that it would still be nice to see a few bright pixels dashing though the HRSC Super Resolution Channel although its spatial resolution is roughly 10 times less than HiRISE.

Michel Denis was a really happy man with the lander's success, in his words, what counts is the extraordinary landing of Phoenix "in real time" and to learn from this, such that Europe makes its first real landing with Exomars, which Denis believe will be a big success in a few years (retrospectively Beagle -2 was not much more than an experiment).

Finally, the Head of the MARS EXPRESS Mission Operations Unit, invited us all to watch tomorrow (today, May 28) the ESA website, where will be published what Mars Express has " heard" with Melacom, Denis enhances the fact of not being a a picture, but it will be their way to proudly say: "Hey guys, Europe was there too during Phoenix arrival."

And this fact has been already officially and kindly recognised by NASA already, but it was not so visible to the general public.

Today you will be able to confirm it yourself...

EDITOR'S NOTE:

This blog won't allow spurious debates or offensive remarks towards individuals or institutions therefore, the policy of maintaining the comments option disabled, except for special events like Live Q&As, will pursue. Another reason is the recurrent malicious attacks that this site has been through for several months.

One gives one hand, other wants to take the whole arm...

Phoenix Special > After landing

noreply@blogger.com (Rui Borges) — Tue, 27 May 2008 13:28:00 +0000

Avé Phoenix! HiRISE salutes you!

Besides all the drooling images arriving from the martian arctic which can be seen here, this simply amazing image was acquired during Phoenix EDL , by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) onboard MRO, and in it it is possible to see the Lander parachuting to Mars.

Why amazing? Because this is the first time EVER that a spacecraft was able to image the final descent of another spacecraft onto a planetary body.

From NASA's release:

"From a distance of about 310 kilometers (193 miles) above the surface of the Red Planet, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter pointed its HiRISE obliquely toward Phoenix shortly after it opened its parachute while descending through the Martian atmosphere. The image reveals an apparent 10-meter-wide (30-foot-wide) parachute fully inflated. The bright pixels below the parachute show a dangling Phoenix. The image faintly detects the chords attaching the backshell and parachute. The surroundings look dark, but correspond to the fully illuminated Martian surface, which is much darker than the parachute and backshell. Phoenix released its parachute at an altitude of about 12.6 kilometers (7.8 miles) and a velocity of 1.7 times the speed of sound.The HiRISE acquired this image on May 25, 2008, at 4:36 p.m. Pacific Time (7:36 p.m. Eastern Time). It is a highly oblique view of the Martian surface, 26 degrees above the horizon, or 64 degrees from the normal straight-down imaging of Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. The image has a scale of 0.76 meters per pixel."

Yesterday I was asking our dear Mark Lemmon if he had already the chance of taking some sleep...his answer was quite elucidative...:

"Got a little sleep. Why sleep, when there's Mars right out the window?

It was a fabulous experience. The images were better than I imaginedthey would be, given the circumstances. My obsessiveness as a kidin micromanaging my SLR camera exposure times paid off when we hadto use manual exposures for all of the early SSI images."

What a sense of opportunity for me to experience web access problems with so many things happening at a same time...I'll do my bet to solve the problems as soon as possible.