The Cosmic Mirror
By Daniel Fischer
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Current mission news: MGS (latest pictures!) + Cassini + Galileo + NEAR

MTI launch delayed by surprise range safety issue:
Spacefl. Now, SpaceV. Earlier stories: Spacefl. Now, Space Daily, RP, SpaceV., Space.com.
Update # 179 of March 6th, 2000, at 16:45 UTC
NEAR in lower Eros orbit / 100 000 years of impacts / GLAST payload selected / McCaw drops out of Iridium - is this the end? / German Solar Sail to fly on Russian rocket

NEAR in a 200 km orbit - "now the fun starts"

 A 22-second engine burn on March 3 has nudged NEAR into a 208-kilometer orbit around Eros, giving the spacecraft its best scientific look at the asteroid so far. Over the next four weeks NEAR will collect images and data for a detailed global surface map, a topographic model and a more precise estimate of gravity on Eros. NEAR's Multispectral Imager will snap enough photos to create color and monochrome maps of Eros' surface. By measuring the distance between NEAR and Eros, the Laser Rangefinder will begin to shape three-dimensional perspectives of the craters, ridges and various other features in the images. The craft's radio science equipment will use the closer orbit to get a better reading of the asteroid's gravity field.

On February 29, 2000 NEAR had recorded another first: The NEAR Laser Rangefinder (NLR) detected the first laser returns from Eros at a range of 290 km. This is the first time that ranging returns have been detected from an asteroid. NLR was designed to operate at 50 km range, and its successful detection of Eros at 290 km augurs well for the future. The laser rangefinder data will give us a three-dimensional view of the asteroid surface, nicely complementing the information from images. This is because imagers record the distribution of brightness as a function of angles perpendicular to the line-of-sight, whereas the laser rangefinder measures distance to the surface along the line-of-sight. The combination of the two data sets will be powerful.

With a little help from the sun, the satellite could also get its first readings of the asteroid's elements soon: The X-Ray Spectrometer detects fluorescence from elements that react to solar x-rays. "A lot depends on solar activity," says Ralph McNutt, X-Ray/Gamma Ray Spectrometer instrument scientist: "If there is a strong solar x-ray event, the instrument will get a good measurement." Moving 5 km/h relative to Eros, NEAR will circle the rotating space rock three full times during this orbit. NEAR operates at this range until April 1, when another short engine burn will gradually move it into a 100-kilometer orbit. The asteroid and spacecraft are almost 245 million kilometers from Earth.

March 2nd Newsflash, Science Update and Image of the Day (Laser Rangefinder data). Plus SpaceScience.com.
Another nice picture from 289 km distance and color views from all sides: Eros' subtle butterscotch hue at visible wavelengths is nearly uniform across the surface.
Spaceflight Now, Fla. Today, Space Daily, BBC, Space.com, CNN, SpaceViews, Discovery.

Crash plan for Galileo? The Jupiter orbiter may be deliberately crashed into the planet or Io in 2002, in order to avoid contaminating the moon Europa by accident. Another option would be to aim the craft away from the planet and its moons so the odds are it will never hit anything: AP, Discovery, Space.com, BBC, SPIEGEL.
New Galileo images of Io, Europa released: 2526, 2527 and 2528, CNN, SpaceRef, Space Daily, Space.com, BBC, SpaceScience and SPIEGEL stories.

Who's going to stop Pioneer 10? The faint radio transmissions from the deep space probe launched in 1972 are now being read for advanced concept support of chaos theory: SpaceScience, CNN, Status Reports.

100 000 years of impacts simulated

 To get a better feel for the danger from extraterrestrial impacts on Earth, Michael Paine has recently run a simulation looking at the worst event in each of 10 000 decades - and as chance would have it a 5 km asteroid hit the Earth during this run of the Hazards program from the Univ. of Arizona. This impact was removed from the following statistics because it's a very rare event, happening only every 50 million years on average. So that's what happens to Earth during a "typical" interval of 100 000 years:
  • 9792 asteroids & comets between 13 and 100 meters in size impact, causing fatalities in 10% of the cases, which translates to an annual risk of 1 fatal event in 100.
  • 173 bodies between 100 and 200 meters hit, with fatalities in 72% of the cases - annual risk 1 in 800.
  • 31 bodies between 200 and 500 meters hit, with fatalities in 94% of the cases - annual risk 1 in 3500.
  • 3 bodies larger than 500 meters hit, with fatalities in every case - annual risk 1 in 30 000.
  • In total 9999 objects > 13 meters impact in the simulation, most of them asteroids, but 15% were long period and 6% short period comets. The impacts cause fatalities in 11% of the cases, which translates to an annual risk of 1 fatal event in 90 (regardless of the number of victims).
These 110 fatal impacts together cause about 13 million fatalities - but during the 100 000 year simulation on the other hand only 40 impact craters on land were produced, most of which would erode away quickly: The geological cratering record on Earth turns out to be a very poor indicator of the constantly present hazard due to comets and asteroids! The "Hazards" computer program used includes the danger to coastal regions from tsunamis generated by ocean impacts, and a constant world population of 5 billion was assumed.
CCNet of Feb. 28 item 3, more details and debate about what the results mean in CCNet of March 6 letters 1 & 2.
A Space.com = EZ article on earlier "Hazard" simulations.

New NEO telescope in Japan - on January 26th a new 50 cm telescope for the observation of Near Earth Objects as well as space debris was set up at the Bisei Spaceguard Center in the Okayama Prefecture of Japan. It is still under a phase of improvement of image quality, but has now started to observe: CCNet of Feb. 28 item 1.

Armageddon - the real story from the Why Files: a long feature (excellent, with the exception of the sensationalistic intro), with additional comments in a CCNet Special of March 3 and more on the 'British' view in Space Daily.
Defending Earth: Fact vs. Fiction - a lengthy essay from Paine in CCNet of Feb. 16.

Instrument for Gamma-ray satellite GLAST selected

 NASA on Feb. 28th has announced the selection of the main instrument on the Gamma Ray Large Area Space Telescope (GLAST) mission, planned for launch in 2005: "Silicon GLAST" from Stanford Univ. In addition to the flight investigation, four interdisciplinary scientist investigations were selected to broaden the scientific expertise in the project. The mission's primary scientific objectives require an instrument with large collecting area, imaging capability over a very large field of view, the ability to measure the energy of the gamma rays over an unprecedented range of energies, and time precision to study transient phenomena characteristic of gamma-ray sources.

The investigation selected by NASA is the "GLAST Large Area Telescope Flight Investigation: A Particle-Astrophysics Partnership to Explore the High-Energy Universe." The Principal Investigator is Professor Peter F. Michelson of Stanford University, Co-I's come from many countries. The instrument is a matrix of towers composed of thin lead foil interleaved with thin silicon detectors to record the gamma-ray direction, followed by a matrix of scintillation crystals to measure the gamma ray energy which ranges from 10 million to 1 trillion electron volts. Silicon GLAST has about 50 times the sensitivity of any previous gamma-ray investigation and covers a much broader energy range with high angular precision. NASA's cost to develop the GLAST mission is approximately $200 million, which includes approximately $70 million for the primary instrument.

NASA and SLAC Press Releases and a detailled Paper on GLAST.
GLAST Home 1, Home 2 and Outreach Pages.
Coverage by SpaceViews, NYT.

Gamma Ray Observatory might not be crashed after all - engineers have found possible ways to keep the big observatory satellite safely in orbit, so there is no immediate need to bring it down. The engineers think they can guide the telescope with its smaller thrusters and other maneuvers, such as putting the observatory in a constant spin that helps them control it: CGRO PR Page, Fla. Today, Huntsville Times stories.

McCaw drops out - the end may be near for Iridium

Teledesic co-founder Craig McCaw announced Friday he was giving up on plans to purchase satellite phone company Iridium, leaving the fate of the company in serious doubt - McCaw plans to focus his attention and funds on Teledesic and a revamped, high-speed version of ICO, another bankrupt satellite phone company McCaw is salvaging (see right column for ICO's 1st satellite launch), than on Iridium: Teledesic Press Release, Space Daily, SpaceViews. Last ditch attempt to save company: SpaceViews.

Big sunspot groups on solar disk - another flare alert

The NOAA Space Environment Center was forecasting a 70% chance of significant M-class solar flares from at least one of the two large sunspots that were visible on the solar disk: SpaceScience, CNN, Space.com, BBC.

BOOKMARK THEM - Websites that keep track of the Sun and Space Weather: Current Solar Data, Today's Space Weather, SpaceWeather.com!

IMAGE launch delayed at least a week because of concerns over parts: Spaceflight Now, SpaceViews.

Polar satellite spotted a geomagnetic storm triggered by a gust of solar wind: SpaceScience.

The Sun's influence on Earth's climate will be discussed at a conference - during the past ten years astronomers and solar-terrestrial physicists have reappraised the role of the Sun: ESA Science News.

"Striking correlation" between coronal holes and climate claimed - a clear drop in terrestrial atmospheric temperature after the Sun's magnetic field activity is most intense: Space Daily.

Martian meteorites reveal clues to processes in planet's atmosphere

Detailed measurements of sulfur isotopes in five Martian meteorites show that the abundant sulfur on the surface of Mars is due largely to chemical reactions in the Red Planet's atmosphere that are similar to those that occur in Earth's atmosphere - life was not involved: UCSD Press Release = EurekAlert = Space Daily, Space.com, RP, SpaceViews stories.

"Mars bacteria" debate revitalized by the discovery of terrestrial bacterial fossils - as small as the objects found in ALH 84001: Nature Science Update. More speculations on Martian bacteria: NSU.

Speculations on how NASA's Mars program proceeds, now that the MPL failure report's release is coming on March 16th: Space Daily.

Nuclear-powered Mars missions considered a possibility in the future: Space.com.

Two moons of Uranus seen again after 14 years

Scientists from three institutions have announced the recovery of Cordelia and Ophelia with the HST - these Uranian moons had been discovered by Voyager 2 in 1986 as 1986 U7 and 1986 U8 but hadn't been seen since. Their positions were predicted by their gravitational interaction with the rings of Uranus: Cornell, UofA Press Releases, SpaceScience, Space.com, Discovery, SpaceViews, SPIEGEL.

MACHOs fade as Dark Matter explanation

Despite the inconclusive results about the direct detection of WIMPs (see last Update story 1 sidebar) these hypothetical elementary particles seem to be the best explanation for the Dark Matter in the Universe, as the leading alternative, MACHOs, just doesn't work, the latest results presented at the Dark Matter 2000 conference show: Space.com, NYT, SPIEGEL.

Watch the Sombrero Galaxy without the galaxy

in a highly-processed VLT image that highlights M 104's spectacular dust belt and allows the viewer to follow the spiral structure almost all the way round: ESO Press Photos, BBC, SPIEGEL, Space.com, WELT stories.

"Faint Sun Paradox" deepens

How did the early Earth (and early Mars) escape freezing when the young Sun was fainter than today, as all stellar evolution models say? One possible explanation, an initially more massive (and brighter) Sun that experienced heavy mass loss, has turned out to be unlikely as the star p01 UMa, an analogue of the young Sun, does not show such a mass loss: Nature Science Update.

Why is Sgr A* such a faint X-ray source?

If Sgr A* really does harbor a black hole, it ought to shine as an X-ray source, but the faint glow detected by Chandra in the right spot (reported in Update # 167 story 2) has taken researchers by surprise by being much fainter than expected - the luminosity of the X-ray source is a factor of five fainter than previously thought: NASA Science News, RP.

Chandra images "cosmic weather system" produced by the collision of two giant clusters of galaxies: MSFC Press Release, NASA Science News, Space.com = EZ, SpaceViews.

"Physics on Stage"

Three major European research organisations, CERN, ESA and ESO, are organising a unique Europe-wide programme to raise the public awareness of physics and related sciences, to counteract the current decline in interest and knowledge about physics among Europe's citizens by means of a series of highly visible promotional activities: Homepage, ESO, ESA Press Releases.

European Solar Sail to fly on Russian rocket?

ESA is currently considering using a Russian booster to launch and deploy a German solar sail measuring over 20 by 20 meters when deployed - initial plans called for the launch of the solar sail as a "piggyback" payload on an Ariane 5, but now ESA received an unsolicited offer from Russia to launch the solar sail on a Dnepr: Sail Homepage, a ground demonstration, Space.com story.

JPL Accomplishes Laser Sail First - engineers there have used a laser beam to move a sample of extremely lightweight material using nothing more than the pressure of light: Space.com, Space.com again.

Spectacular HST view of a reflection nebula

Just weeks after NASA astronauts repaired the Hubble Space Telescope last December, the Hubble Heritage Project snapped a picture of NGC 1999, an example of a reflection nebula - like fog around a street lamp, a reflection nebula shines only because the light from an embedded source illuminates its dust, the core of which forms a Bok globule: STScI Press Release, CNN, BBC, SPIEGEL.

ESA builds deep space antenna in Australia

The start of construction of a Deep Space Ground Station, just outside the historic monastic town of New Norcia, north of Perth in Western Australia, has been marked with a Foundation Stone Laying Ceremony by the European Space Agency on March 2nd - the 35 meter dish will be used e.g. for Rosetta and Mars Express: Homepage, ESOC Press Release, ESA Science News, Fla. Today, SpaceViews.

Next SeaLaunch lift-off on March 12 - for a bankcrupt customer

The passenger on the next SeaLaunch rocket will be the first satellite for ICO, yet another satellite mobile phone enterprise that is still under chapter 11 bankcruptcy protection: Boeing and ICO Press Releases, SpaceViews, Fla. Today, Space.com.

Beal tests powerful rocket engine

The BA-810 (for a 3-stage, heavy-lift expendable booster that Beal Aerospace is developing) is the third most powerful liquid-propellent engine ever built: Beal Press Releases, Space Daily, Fla. Today, SpaceViews. Beal abandons plans for Virgin Island rocket plant: Fla. Today.

Boeing considers air-launched rocket

The company is beginning development of an air-launched rocket named AirLaunch that could be used for a military spaceplane or commercial payloads, a three-stage expendable solid-propellant launch vehicle capable of launching up to 3 metric tons into low-Earth orbit after being carried aloft atop a 747 jumbo jet: Boeing Press Release, Space.com, Space Daily, Fla. Today, SpaceViews.

A healthier rocket fuel?

A new rocket fuel developed by the U.S. military - called CINCH (Competitive Impulse Non-Carcinogenic Hypergol) - is carcinogen-free and could thus make launching satellites a safer activity: Space.com.

Rockets like auto engines?

Pulse detonation rocket engines offer a lightweight, low-cost alternative for space transportation: Spaceflight Now.

MSFC Flight experiment to test ultra-high temperature ceramic material that could radically improve thermal protection of spacecraft through the extreme heat of reentry into Earth's atmosphere: MSFC Press Release = Space Daily.

  • German space agency wants to fly small science satellites to fill gaps between the big ESA missions: DLR Page.
  • Fregat still not found because of deep snow at the landing site: AvNow.
  • How an "Interplanetary Internet" could work explain two SpaceRef articles: 1, 2.

  • Price list for ISS customers - $20.8 million per year per experiment will be charged: Price Structure document, SpaceRef, SpaceViews.
  • Panel recommends changes in ISS biotechnology research: SpaceViews. Boeing workers accidentally trash space station tanks: Fla. Today, Space.com.
  • New Mir rumors: China to buy the station? So say "Chinese diplomatic sources": Space Daily. Rumors "groundless"? Space Daily.
  • Actor cleared for Mir flight: RP. April 3 set as launch date: AvNow.
  • Old Buran shuttle now in Australia to be displayed in Sydney: Space.com.

  • New relief maps of the Earth have been produced by the NOAA: Slide Set, Space.com.
  • A by-product of the last shuttle mission: EarthKAM's Earth views from an Earth-aimed camera mounted inside a window of the orbiter: Space.com, EZ.
  • SeaWiFS spots giant sandstorm off the African coast: satellite's homepage, BBC story.

  • Five stories about NASA's comet missions Stardust & CONTOUR (see Update # 176 story 5 for the latter) from SpaceScience (1 & 2), Fla. Today (1 & 2), and CNN.
  • Struggle over Hayden meteorite intensifies - now the NY museum has sued the Indians: Space.com, AP, NYT.
  • Ariane 5 nose cone stranded in Texas? A strange object which fits the description of an Ariane 5 solid-rocket booster nose cone washed up on a beach across from the city of Corpus Christi, Texas - then it disappeared, starting a local mystery: Space.com.

Why there was a Feb. 29, 2000

is explained e.g. by the USNO, the ROG, AIP, APOD and Space.com. Little has happened, computerwise, except perhaps in Japan: CNN, Discovery, BBC.

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Compiled and written by Daniel Fischer
(send me a mail to [email protected]!), Skyweek
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