SPACE

ISRO's 'MOM' - Ten facts about Mangalyaan

2014-09-24T21:02:00.001-07:00

India's very own Mars Orbiter Mission popularly known as Mangalyaan, was launched by Indian Space and Research Organization (ISRO) back on November 5, 2013. Today it has finally made its entry into Mars's orbit, making the mission a successful bet. Not only in India, the success is being celebrated and appreciated worldwide. In the words of our Prime Minister Narendra Modi "History has been created."

Here are top 8 facts about Mangalyaan that you need to know:

India is the first country to conduct a successful Mars mission 'Mangalyaan' on its first try after US, European Space Agency and the former Soviet Union.
Mangalyaan's on-orbit mission life is less than ten months.
The essential target of the mission is to showcase nation's rocket launch frameworks, shuttle building and operations capacities.
Mangalyaan is equipped with at least five solar powered equipments which will accumulate the information on Martian Climate and water, if it still exists on Mars. The Orbiter is expected to investigate the surface of the planet, availability of minerals and environment.
The closest and farthest points of the Orbiter from Mars will be 365 Km and 80,000 Km respectively.
The Mission was carried out in a period of 15 months, utilizing an amount close to Rs 450 crores.
The Indian Deep Space Network will take care of navigation and keeping a check on the operations of the mission. NASA's Deep Space Network will assist in administrations amid the non-visible time of the Indian Deep Space Network.
The dry mass of the shuttle is 500 Kilos while will carry 850 Kilos of Propellant and Oxidizer to fuel the engine.

ISRO 'MOM' and NASA 'MAVEN'

2014-09-24T08:48:00.001-07:00

Incredible India made MOM mission Successfully

Hypersonic flight

2012-01-17T09:02:00.000-08:00

Hypersonic flight

Hypersonic flight is flight through the atmosphere at speeds above about Mach 5.5, a speed where disassociation of air begins to become significant and high heat loads exist.Hypersonic flight has been achieved by the Space Shuttle's orbiter, the Apollo command module, Buran and scramjets.

History

The V-2 rocket, first used in World War II by the Germans and later used by the United States in its early rocketry work, was the first manufactured object to achieve hypersonic flight. In February 1949, its upper stage reached a maximum velocity of 5,150 miles per hour (8,288 kilometers per hour)—more than five times the speed of sound. The vehicle, however, burned on re-entry, and only charred remnants were found. In April 1961, Russian Major Yuri Gagarin became the first human to travel at hypersonic speed, during the world's first piloted orbital flight. Soon after, in May 1961, Alan Shepard became the first American and second person to achieve hypersonic flight when his capsule reentered the atmosphere at a speed above Mach 5 at the end of his suborbital flight over the Atlantic Ocean. In June, Air Force Major Robert White flew the X-15 research airplane at speeds over Mach 5, and broke his own record in November, reaching Mach 6.7.
On 22 March 2010 the second successful flight in Australia of hypersonic jet was reported.

Proposed hypersonic aircraft

HyperSoar

Cancelled hypersonic aircraft

Sanger bomber
X-20 Dyna-Soar
Rockwell X-30 (National Aerospace Plane)

HyperSoar

The HyperSoar is a hypersonic aircraft concept designed by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory engineer Preston Carter. It was to be capable of flying at around Mach 12 (9200 MPH - 14700 km/h), allowing it to transit between any two points on the globe in under two hours. The HyperSoar is predicted to be a passenger plane capable of skipping outside the atmosphere to prevent it from overheating and burning up in the atmosphere. A trip from Chicago to Tokyo would take 18 skips or 72 minutes to reach (10,123 kilometers distance apart). To travel from Los Angeles to New York (3,978 kilometers) would involve about 5 skips and take 35 minutes. (Both flights require a total of about 2,450 kilometers and 27 minutes for take off and landing. So this means that it would take 8 minutes in the air for LA to NY and 45 for Chicago to Tokyo). According to plans, it would use hydrocarbon-based engines instead of hydrogen-based ones outside the atmosphere, as well as experimental jet engine technology inside it. The project was expected to begin testing by 2010.

Status

Although reports continued to reference the press releases (in 1998 and repeated in 2000), no development in the project was forthcoming. Although it presaged 2004's NASA X-43 and the current X-51 Waverider scramjet aircraft, the Hypersoar was merely a design concept. As of 2010, Lawrence Livermore (still funded primary by the DOE) was not actively engaged in any hypersonic vehicle design.

A Space Moonrise (and the PromISSe of a New Future)

2012-01-16T09:36:00.000-08:00

A Space Moonrise (and the PromISSe of a New Future)

One of 16 daily moonrises photographed by ESA astronaut André Kuipers aboard the ISS. (ESA/NASA)

“The moon looks the same from the ISS as it does on Earth. Only we see it rise and set again and again.”
ESA astronaut André Kuipers tweeted this message earlier today, accompanied by the wonderful photo above showing a distant Moon resting along Earth’s limb. The solar panels of the docked Soyuz TMA-03M spacecraft are seen in the foreground.

André arrived at the Space Station on December 23 along with Expedition 30 crewmates Oleg Kononeko and Don Pettit.

In addition to conducting over 45 experiments for ESA, NASA and JAXA during his five months in orbit, André’s PromISSe mission will help educate children about math, science, engineering, technology, and the benefits – and challenges – of working in space.

The program will also encourage the next generation of space explorers to stay fit with the second edition of the international fitness initiative Mission X: Train Like an Astronaut.

A medical doctor, André serves as flight engineer aboard the ISS and will be highly involved in docking procedures for the new Dragon (SpaceX) and Cygnus (Orbital Sciences) capsules as part of NASA’s next-generation commercial spaceflight program.

Read ESA’s PromISSe mission blog here, and follow André Kuipers on Twitter @astro_andre for more Expedition 30 mission updates.

INDIA HAS RED PLANET FEVER

2012-01-16T09:34:00.000-08:00

India has Red Planet Fever

Enlarge Mars, the possible focal point for India's future space endeavours.

Credit: NASA/courtesy of nasaimages.org

Mars fever has gripped India. In a recent report from the Planetary Science and Exploration conference that was held in December 2011, scientists from the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) are making preliminary plans for a robotic mission to the Red Planet sometime next year.

The possibility of an Indian mission to Mars first came up during a brainstorming session at the Physical Research Laboratory (PRL), an affiliate of the ISRO, last March. For two days, scientists and students developed their plans and proposals for a mission to the red planet.

A Mars Mission Study Team has been established to review proposed scenarios for the future mission, and an Indian chapter of the Mars Society formed last year at IIT-Mumbai.

The report from the meeting last month gives a concrete look at what Indian scientists have on their Martian wish list. In all, ten instruments and experiments comprise the ultimate mission.
En route to Mars, a Mars Radiation Spectrometer (Maris) will measure and characterize background levels of charged particles in interplanetary space. This data will play a vital role in determining radiation levels facing humans going to Mars.

Once at Mars, the proposed Indian mission will focus on the Martian atmosphere.

A Probe For Infrared Spectroscopy for Mars (Prism) is designed to study the spatial and seasonal variations of atmospheric gases on Mars’ atmosphere throughout the mission’s lifetime. The Mars Exospheric Neutral Composition Analyzer (Menca) is designed to analyze the planet’s upper atmosphere-exosphere, the region roughly 400 km (248 miles) above the surface.

Specific instruments are designed to study the composition of the atmosphere. A Methane Sensor For Mars (MSM) has been proposed to detect traces of the gas in the atmosphere. Another instrument, Tis, will measure thermal emissions to help scientists generate a map reflecting the composition and mineralogy of the planet. It will also help the team monitor carbon dioxide levels.
A Plasma and Current Experiment (Pace) will assess the escape rate of the atmosphere and the structure of the “tail” this escaping atmosphere creates. Radio and microwave instruments will also be on board the spacecraft to measure the planet’s surface activity. A suite of instruments will also be on hand to detect plasma waves in the atmosphere.

Visual measurements are also part of the proposed mission. The Mars Color Camera (MCC) is designed to photograph the Martian surface from a highly elliptical orbit, roughly 500 km by 80,000 km (310 miles by 49,700 miles). The camera will be able to take high resolution images of the topography of the surface and map the polar caps, both of which are expected to help scientists understand surface events like dust storms.

According to ISRO scientists, the proposed mission could launch as early as November 2013, which would have the spacecraft enter into orbit around Mars in September 2014. A launch so relatively soon is appealing to many Indian scientists, many of whom argue that a mission to Mars should take priority over a mission to the Moon.

After all, India has already reached the Moon with the successful Chandrayaan-2 spacecraft. Why not keep the momentum going and aim for a new and exciting target with the next mission?

NEW EARTH LIKE PLANET CONFIRMED

2012-01-08T05:55:00.000-08:00

Kepler 22-b: Earth-like planet confirmed

The planet, shown here in an artist's conception, circles its host star in 290 days

Astronomers have confirmed the existence of a nearly Earth-sized planet in the "habitable zone" around a star not unlike our own.

The planet, Kepler 22-b, lies about 600 light-years away and is about 2.4 times the size of Earth, and models suggest it has a temperature of about 22C.
It is the closest confirmed planet yet to one like ours - an "Earth 2.0".
However, the team does not yet know if Kepler 22-b is made mostly of rock, gas or liquid.
During the conference at which the result was announced, the Kepler team also said that it had spotted some 1,094 new candidate planets - nearly doubling the telescope's haul of potential far-flung worlds.
Kepler 22-b was one of 54 exoplanet candidates in habitable zones reported by the Kepler team in February, and is just the first to be formally confirmed using other telescopes.
More of these "Earth 2.0" candidates are likely to be confirmed in the near future, though a redefinition of the habitable zone's boundaries has brought that number down to 48. Ten of those are close to Earth-sized but so far all of the confirmed planets are larger than Earth.

'Superb opportunity'
The Kepler space telescope was designed to look at a fixed swathe of the night sky, staring intently at about 150,000 stars. The telescope is sensitive enough to see when a planet passes in front of its host star, dimming the star's light by a minuscule amount.
Kepler identifies these slight changes in starlight as candidate planets, which are then confirmed by further observations by Kepler and other telescopes in orbit and on Earth.

Kepler Space Telescope

Stares fixedly at a patch corresponding to 1/400th of the sky
Looks at more than 155,000 stars
Has so far found 2,326 candidate planets
Among them are 207 Earth-sized planets, 10 of which are in the "habitable zone" where liquid water can exist

William Borucki talks about Kepler

Kepler 22-b lies 15% closer to its sun than the Earth is to our Sun, and its year takes about 290 days. However, the planet's host star puts out about 25% less light, keeping the planet at its balmy temperature that would support the existence of liquid water.

The Kepler team had to wait for three passes of the planet before upping its status from "candidate" to "confirmed".
"Fortune smiled upon us with the detection of this planet," said William Borucki, Kepler principal investigator at Nasa's Ames Research Center.
"The first transit was captured just three days after we declared the spacecraft operationally ready. We witnessed the defining third transit over the 2010 holiday season."
The results were announced at the Kepler telescope's first science conference, alongside the staggering number of new candidate planets. The total number of candidates spotted by the telescope is now 2,326 - of which 207 are approximately Earth-sized.
In total, the results suggest that planets ranging from Earth-sized to about four times Earth's size - so-called "super-Earths" - may be more common than previously thought.
As candidates for planets similar to Earth are confirmed, the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (Seti) has a narrower focus for its ongoing hunt.
"This is a superb opportunity for Seti observations," said Jill Tarter, the director of the Center for Seti Research at the Seti Institute.
"For the first time, we can point our telescopes at stars, and know that those stars actually host planetary systems - including at least one that begins to approximate an Earth analogue in the habitable zone around its host star."

KEPLER22 & KEPLER22B EARTH LIKE PLANET

2012-01-08T05:48:00.000-08:00

Kepler-22

Kepler-22
Observation data Epoch J2000 Equinox J2000
Constellation	Cygnus^[1]
Right ascension	19^h 16^m 52.2^s
Declination	+47° 53′ 4.2″
Apparent magnitude (V)	11.664^[2]
Characteristics
Spectral type	G5^[3]
Astrometry

Distance	590 light-years (180 pc)^[3] ly

Details

Mass	0.970 ± 0.060^[2] M_☉
Radius	0.979 ± 0.020^[2] R_☉
Luminosity	0.79 ± 0.04^[2] L_☉
Temperature	5518 ± 44^[2] K
Metallicity [Fe/H]	–0.29 ± 0.06^[2] dex
Rotational velocity (v sin i)	0.6 ± 1.0^[2] km/s

Other designations
KOI-087,^[4] KIC-10593626, 2MASS J19165219+4753040^[5]

Kepler-22 is a G-type star, approximately 600 light years from Earth, that is orbited by a planet found to be unequivocally within the star's habitable zone. Kepler-22 is slightly smaller and cooler than the Sun,^[6] with a lower abundance of elements having more mass than helium.^[2] It is located in the constellation Cygnus at the celestial coordinates: Right Ascension 19^h 16^m 52.2^s, Declination +47° 53′ 4.2″.^[4]

Discovery of planet in Earthlike habitable zone

On December 5, 2011, the scientific community announced that a possible Earthlike world (Kepler-22b) had been discovered orbiting in the star's habitable zone by NASA's Kepler spacecraft.^[7] This was significant in that it was the first relatively Earth-sized extrasolar planet (about twice as big)^[8] confirmed to be orbiting within a star's habitable zone.

Kepler-22b

Kepler-22b
Parent star
Extrasolar planet		List of extrasolar planets
A diagram of the Kepler-22b System, compared to our Inner Solar System.
Star		Kepler-22
Constellation		Cygnus
Right ascension	(α)	19^h 16^m 52.2^s
Declination	(δ)	+47° 53′ 4.0″
Apparent magnitude	(m_V)	11.5 (B-band) ^[1]
Distance		620 ly (190 ^[2] pc)
Spectral type		G5V
Mass	(m)	0.97 M_☉
Radius	(r)	0.98 R_☉
Temperature	(T)	5606 K
Orbital elements
Semimajor axis	(a)	0.85 AU (127 Gm)
Orbital period	(P)	289.9 ^[3] d
Inclination	(i)	89.764 +0.042 −0.025 ^[4]°
Physical characteristics
Radius	(r)	2.4 ^[5] R_⊕
Discovery information
Discovery date		2009 (first observed)^{[citation needed]} 12/5/2011 (announced) ^[6]
Discoverer(s)		Kepler Science Team
Detection method		Transit
Discovery site		Kepler telescope
Discovery status		Published
Other designations

Database references
Extrasolar Planets Encyclopaedia		data
SIMBAD		data

Kepler-22b is the first confirmed extrasolar planet found by NASA's Kepler Space Telescope to orbit within the habitable zone of a Sun-like star.^[6]^[7] Kepler-22b, a possible super-Earth, is 600 light years away from Earth, in orbit around Kepler-22, a G-type star.^[6]^[7]

Discovery

The discovery was announced December 5, 2011.^[7] The planet was originally discovered on Kepler's third day of science operations in mid-2009.^{[citation needed]} The third transit was detected in late 2010. Additional confirmation data was provided by the Spitzer Space Telescope and ground-based observations.

Composition and structure

Artist's conception of Kepler-22b.

Kepler-22b's radius is roughly 2.4 times the radius of Earth, or about 60% that of Neptune. Its mass and surface composition remain unknown,^[7]^[6] with only some very rough estimates established: It has less than 124 Earth masses at the 3 sigma confidence limit, and less than 36 Earth masses at 1 sigma confidence.^[8]
It has been estimated that it is probably a "Neptunian" (i.e. mass similar to Neptune^[9]) planet with a mass of ~35 Earth masses, but there is the possibility it could be an "ocean like" world with only some 10 Earth masses^[10]. It might be comparable to GJ 1214 b, whose radius is similar to Kepler-22b's.

Since it is substantially larger than Earth, it is likely to have a different composition than Earth, and depending on its actual mass, the planet could be rocky, liquid, or gaseous.^[7]. If it is mostly ocean with a small rocky core, Natalie Batalha, one of the scientists on the project, speculated "it's not beyond the realm of possibility that life could exist in such an ocean."^[11] This possibility of life has spurred SETI to perform research on top candidates for extraterrestrial intelligence.^[12]

Orbit

The only parameters of the planet's orbit that are currently available are its period, which is about 290 days, and its inclination, which is such that it transits the disk of its star as seen from Earth.
No information is available about the shape of the planet's orbit. Many extrasolar planets are known to move in highly elliptical orbits. We only know that the semi-major axis of its orbit is within the habitable zone of an Earth mass planet. If Kepler-22b has a highly elongated orbit it may well only spend a small fraction of its time within this habitable zone.

Surface temperature and composition

Temperature comparisons	Venus	Earth	Kepler 22b	Mars
Global Equilibrium Temperature	307 K 34 °C 93 °F	255 K −18 °C −0.4 °F	262 K −11 °C 22.2 °F	206 K −67 °C −88.6 °F
+ Venus' GHG effect	737 K 464 °C 867 °F
+ Earth's GHG effect		288 K 15 °C 59 °F	295 K 22 °C 71.6 °F
+ Mars' GHG effect				210 K −63 °C −81 °F
Tidally locked	Almost	No	N/A	No
Global Bond Albedo	0.9	0.29	N/A	0.25

The average distance from Kepler-22b to its host star Kepler-22 is about 15% less than the distance from Earth to the Sun^[2] but the luminosity (light output) of Kepler-22 is about 25% less than that of the Sun.^[7] This combination of a shorter average distance from the star and a lower stellar luminosity are consistent with a moderate surface temperature at that distance if we assume that the surface is not subject to extreme greenhouse heating.
If the planet is found to move in a highly elliptical orbit, its surface temperature will vary from a higher temperature when close to Kepler-22 to lower when further away. If the orbit is indeed highly elliptical, then the temperature variance range will be extreme.
Scientists can estimate the possible surface conditions as follows:

In the absence of an atmosphere, the equilibrium temperature would be approximately -11°C.
If the atmosphere provides a greenhouse effect similar in magnitude to the one on Earth, the planet would have an average surface temperature of 22 °C (72°F).^[7]^[6]
If the atmosphere has a greenhouse effect similar in magnitude to the one on Venus, the planet would have an average surface temperature of 460 °C (860°F).

2011-12-10T05:07:00.001-08:00

Our Cosmic Neighborhood

From our small world we have gazed upon the cosmic ocean for thousands of years. Ancient astronomers observed points of light that appeared to move among the stars. They called these objects "planets," meaning wanderers, and named them after Roman deities—Jupiter, king of the gods; Mars, the god of war; Mercury, messenger of the gods; Venus, the goddes of love and beauty, and Saturn, father of Jupiter and god of agriculture. The stargazers also observed comets with sparkling tails, and meteors or shooting stars apparently falling from the sky.

Since the invention of the telescope, three more planets have been discovered in our solar system: Uranus (1781), Neptune (1846), and, now downgraded to a dwarf planet, Pluto (1930). In addition, there are thousands of small bodies such as asteroids and comets. Most of the asteroids orbit in a region between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter, while the home of comets lies far beyond the orbit of Pluto, in the Oort Cloud.

The four planets closest to the sun—Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars—are called the terrestrial planets because they have solid rocky surfaces. The four large planets beyond the orbit of Mars—Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune—are called gas giants. Tiny, distant, Pluto has a solid but icier surface than the terrestrial planets.

Nearly every planet—and some of the moons—has an atmosphere. Earth's atmosphere is primarily nitrogen and oxygen. Venus has a thick atmosphere of carbon dioxide, with traces of poisonous gases such as sulfur dioxide. Mars's carbon dioxide atmosphere is extremely thin. Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune are primarily hydrogen and helium. When Pluto is near the sun, it has a thin atmosphere, but when Pluto travels to the outer regions of its orbit, the atmosphere freezes and collapses to the planet's surface. In that way, Pluto acts like a comet.

Moons, Rings, and Magnetospheres

There are 140 known natural satellites, also called moons, in orbit around the various planets in our solar system, ranging from bodies larger than our own moon to small pieces of debris.

From 1610 to 1977, Saturn was thought to be the only planet with rings. We now know that Jupiter, Uranus, and Neptune also have ring systems, although Saturn's is by far the largest. Particles in these ring systems range in size from dust to boulders to house-size, and may be rocky and/or icy.

Most of the planets also have magnetic fields, which extend into space and form a magnetosphere around each planet. These magnetospheres rotate with the planet, sweeping charged particles with them. The sun has a magnetic field, the heliosphere, which envelops our entire solar system.

Ancient astronomers believed that the Earth was the center of the universe, and that the sun and all the other stars revolved around the Earth. Copernicus proved that Earth and the other planets in our solar system orbit our sun. Little by little, we are charting the universe, and an obvious question arises: Are there other planets where life might exist? Only recently have astronomers had the tools to indirectly detect large planets around other stars in nearby solar systems.

—Text courtesy NASA/JPL