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By Daniel Fischer Every page present in Europe & the U.S.!
| Ahead | Awards 
The latest issue!
| A German companion - only available here! Current mission news: MGS (latest pictures!) + Cassini + Stardust |
began in 1978 with the Interkosmos launches of the Chech, Polish and (East) German cosmonauts Remek, Hermaszewski and J�hn: ESA News, BMBF PR, Welt.
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Last "Great Observatory" in orbit: NASA's Space Infrared Telescope FacilityThe launch came years late, but now the fourth and final "Great Observatory" satellite is in orbit: Early on August 25 a Delta 2 has launched NASA's SIRTF from Florida's Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. Flying eastward over the Atlantic Ocean, the new observatory entered an Earth-trailing orbit the first of its kind at about 43 minutes after launch. Five minutes later, the spacecraft separated from the Delta's second and final stage. At about 6:39 UTC, some 64 minutes after take-off, the NASA Deep Space Network station in Canberra, Australia received the first data from the spacecraft. "All systems are operating smoothly, and we couldn't be more delighted," said David Gallagher, project manager for the mission at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.The last of NASA's suite of Great Observatories, the Space Infrared Telescope Facility will use infrared detectors to pierce the dusty darkness enshrouding many of the universe's most fascinating objects, including brown dwarfs, planet-forming debris discs around stars and distant galaxies billions of light years away. Past Great Observatories include the Hubble Space Telescope, Chandra X-ray Observatory and Compton Gamma Ray Observatory. The two-and-one-half to five-year mission is an important bridge to NASA's Origins Program, which seeks to answer the questions: "Where did we come from? Are we alone?" In-orbit checkout and calibration is scheduled to last 60 days, followed by a 30-day science verification period, after which the observatory is expected to begin its regular science mission. The spacecraft is unique in that it is smaller and lighter than past missions involving cryogenically cooled telescopes. In past missions, a vacuum shell surrounded the telescope like a thermos bottle, actively chilling the observatory and science instruments. On the SIRTF, the vacuum shell surrounds only the instrument chamber and the liquid helium tank. Engineers refer to this configuration as a "warm launch architecture." It means that much less coolant is needed, allowing for the use of a relatively smaller launch vehicle. In addition, it will permit the spacecraft to collect science data for up to five years, twice the length of the longest previous infrared mission. A new name for the Space Infrared Telescope Facility is expected to be announced about four months after launch, when the first images and science results will be released. The new name was selected after a worldwide contest with more than 7,000 entries. |
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Rocket disaster in Brazil kills 21 techniciansBrazil's ill-fated space program has been hit by its most devastating disaster - and one of the worst ever in rocket history worldwide - on August 22: The VLS-1 had been undergoing preparations for a launch from the Alcantara launch facility no sooner than August 25 when it suddenly exploded without warning. The explosion destroyed the $6.5-million rocket and the two small satellites it planned to launch; they were carrying positioning equipment, a communications transmitter and energy source. Brazilian officials say that 21 people, including a mix of military and civilian technicians, were killed in the explosion, and 20 more have been hospitalized, some in serious condition.There was no initial word regarding what caused the explosion, but later is became clear that one of four solid-propellant booster rockets had ignited prematurely, for whatever reason. The explosion which also led to the collapse of the launch pad is the latest setback in Brazil's efforts to develop its own launch vehicle; two previous VLS-1 launches had failed within minutes of liftoff in 1997 and 1999. First word of the accident had come at about the same time as the head of the Brazilian Space Agency was holding a news conference with his Ukrainian counterpart about a deal to launch Ukrainian Cyclone rockets from Alcantara. Previously there had also been talk about launching Russia's Proton rocket from this remote launch site close to the equator. |
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As Mars comes closer than in 59,619 years, MGS data seem to rule out oceans in the pastOn August 27 at 9:51 UTC Mars will reach its closest point to Earth during the current opposition when their centers will be a mere 55,758,006 kilometers apart - the last time the Red Planet came even closer was in 57,617 BC, when it passed within 55.718 million km of Earth. So far no major dust activity has been recorded, providing Earth-bound and orbit-based observers alike a particularly good view of Mars' albedo features. The scientific discovery of the month comes from the Mars Global Surveyor, though: Its thermal emission spectrometer has found no detectable carbonate signature in surface materials at scales ranging from three to 10 km during its six-year Mars mapping mission. However, the sensitive instrument could detect the mineral's ubiquitous presence in martian dust in quantities between two and five percent.
So carbonate has been found, but only trace amounts in dust and not in large outcroppings
as originally suspected: This shows that the TES can see carbonates - if they are there - and that
carbonates can exist on the surface today. The trace amounts that we see probably did not come
from marine deposits derived from ancient martian oceans, but from the atmosphere interacting
directly with dust: Tiny amounts of water in Mars' atmosphere can interact with the ubiquitous
dust. So there is no evidence for oceans
interacting with the big, thick atmosphere that many people have thought once existed there. The
absence of massive regional concentrations of carbonates, like limestone rather points to a cold,
frozen, icy Mars that has always been that way, as opposed to a warm, humid, ocean-bearing Mars
sometime in the past.
Upon final descent, an innovative camera system will photograph the Phoenix landing site just
before it touches down in late 2008. A powerful robotic arm will dig down into the soil and
ice-rich ground as deep at 3.3 feet, while imaging with a camera mounted on the arm itself.
The lander for Phoenix had originally been built and being tested to fly as part of the 2001 Mars
Surveyor Program, but the program was canceled after the Mars Polar Lander was lost upon
landing near Mars' south pole in December 1999. Since then, the 2001 lander has been stored in a
clean room at Lockheed Martin in Denver, managed by NASA's new Mars Exploration Program as a flight asset.
Renamed Phoenix, it will now carry improved versions of UA panoramic cameras and a thermal evolved
gas analyzer (TEGA) from the ill-fated Mars Polar Lander, as well as experiments that had been
built and delivered for the 2001 Mars Surveyor Program.
"The M�ssbauer spectrometer on Spirit is working, and even if we don't come up with a way to improve its performance, we'll be able to get scientific information out of the data it sends us from Mars," says PI Steve Squyres: "But it's a very flexible instrument, with lots of parameters we can change. We have high hopes that over the coming months we'll be able to understand exactly what's happened to it and make adjustments that will improve its performance. And if the M�ssbauer spectrometer on Opportunity behaves on Mars the way it did today, we'll get beautiful data from that instrument." "All the engineering cameras are healthy," adds JPL imaging scientist Justin Maki: "We took two pictures with each engineering camera - 14 pictures from each spacecraft. Even when the cameras are in the dark, the images give characteristic signatures that let us know whether the electronics are working correctly." The science cameras on each rover also all performed flawlessly, and a spectrometer on each rover for identifying minerals from a distance, mini-TES, also worked perfectly on each rover. |
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Three options for the fate of the Hubble Space Telescopeare being pondered by NASA after a high-ranking panel has delivered its report (much earlier than expected) following a public hearing on July 31. NASA's current plans are to extend the life of the HST to 2010 with one Space Shuttle servicing mission (SM 4) in 2005 or 2006. The plan is tentative pending the agency's return to flight process and the availability of Shuttle missions. NASA plans to eventually remove the HST from orbit and safely bring it down into the Pacific Ocean. The three options presented by the HST-JWST Transition Plan Review Panel, listed in order of priority, however are:
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Giant gas cloud of atoms formed in first stars in most distant quasarAstronomers studying the most distant quasar yet found in the Universe have discovered a massive reservoir of gas containing atoms made in the cores of some of the first stars ever formed. The carbon-monoxide gas was revealed by the Very Large Array (VLA) and the Plateau de Bure radio interferometer. The gas, along with the young galaxy containing it, is seen as it was when the Universe was only one-sixteenth its current age, just emerging from the primeval "Dark Ages" before light could travel freely through the cosmos. The distant galaxy, dubbed J1148+5251, contains a bright quasar powered by a black hole at least a billion times more massive than the Sun. The galaxy - at z=6.42 - is seen as it was only 870 million years after the Big Bang. The Universe now is 13.7 billion years old. J1148+5251 would have been among the first luminous objects in the Universe.The original atoms formed in the Universe within the first three minutes of the Big Bang were only hydrogen and helium. Carbon and oxygen - the atoms making up carbon monoxide - had to be made in the thermonuclear furnaces at the cores of the earliest stars. The carbon and oxygen atoms in the gas detected were made by some of the first stars ever formed, only about 650 million years after the Big Bang. In the next 200 million years or so, those stars - probably very different stars from those we see today - exploded as supernovae, spreading the carbon and oxygen out into space. Those atoms then cooled and combined into the carbon monoxide molecules detected with the radio telescopes. The discovery gives scientists a tantalizing direct view of one of the earliest galaxies in the young Universe, and raises questions about the nature of the first stars and how galaxies and quasars formed. Combining the radio observations with data from optical telescopes shows that the transparent "bubble" around J1148+5251 is about 30 million light-years in diameter: This is direct evidence that we are seeing this object helping reionize the Universe. The amount of molecular gas in the galaxy - a mass more than 10 billion times that of the Sun - tells the scientists that things were happening quickly in the early Universe. This is as much mass as we see in big galaxies today, and it had little time, astronomically speaking, to accumulate. Also, the most popular theory for how big galaxies formed is that they were built up over long spans of time by multiple mergers of smaller galaxies: That's why it's so surprising to see such a massive galaxy so early in the Universe. Studies of J1148+5251 and other distant objects yet to be discovered will help scientists find the answers to their questions about the Universe's early stars and galaxies. |
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ISS UpdateThe 250-page CAIB report will be released on Aug.26: an announcement and the Prelim. Recomm. #5 on on-board ascent imaging, an ESA Release on a good ISS viewing window for Europe, NASA Releases on the naming of an ISS Program Scientist and of Expedition 8 [SN] as well as on 1000 days of human presence on the station, a JPL Release on the naming of asteroids for the Columbia crew and coverage of Aug. 25: SN, USN&WR, AFP, SC, NZ. Aug. 24: WP. Aug. 23: ST, SC, CNN. Aug. 22: WP, AFP, FT, ST. Aug. 21: Nature, AFP, SC, ST. Aug. 20: SD, SC. Aug. 19: AFP, SC. Aug. 16: ST. |
Aug. 15:
FT.
Aug. 14:
ST.
Aug. 13:
S&T,
Ast.
FT.
Aug. 11:
ST,
AFP,
BBC,
RP,
NZ.
Aug. 10:
AP.
Aug. 9:
ST.
Aug. 8:
NZ.
Aug. 7:
SN,
SC,
ABC.
Aug. 6:
ST.
Aug. 5:
New Sci.,
SN,
FT,
AFP 2,
1,
SC,
ST 2,
1.
Aug. 4:
SF Gate,
ST,
RP.
Aug. 1:
AP,
ST.
July 31:
WP,
FT 2,
1,
ST 2,
1.
July 30:
AP,
ST.
July 27:
ST.
July 26:
WP,
ST,
AFP.
July 24:
ST.
Two options emerge for NASA's Orbital Space Plane, a winged vehicle versus a capsule - and the debate is far from over: SN, SpaceRev. OSP docking demonstrator DART passes design review: NASA Release. 1st Chinese manned flight reportedly set for October 10: SD, ST, FT. Earlier: SD (earlier), New Sci., BBC, AFP (earlier), Welt. |
Atlas V chosen for New Horizons - and the Pluto mission is threatened again!NASA has chosen the Atlas V expendable launch vehicle as the launch system for the proposed Pluto New Horizons mission scheduled for launch in January 2006 - but congress suddenly plans to cut $55 million from the New Frontiers program, which would seriously delay the launch and science return of New Horizons: a DPS mailing, coverage by SD, ST and SC of the planned cut and JHU [SD], NASA and LockMart Press Releases plus coverage by SN, ST and SC on the launcher choice.Pentagon strips 7 launches from Boeing Delta 4 rocket as punishment for corporate mischief during the Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle development: AFNS and Boeing Press Releases, FT, SN, WP, ST, SC. Large CCD camera installed on Palomar Observatory telescopeThe QUEST (Quasar Equatorial Survey Team) camera has an array of 112 CCDs and has been installed on Palomar Observatory's 48-inch Oschin Telescope in California: UI Press Release, Ast.Largest robotic telescope (2 meters aperture) takes first pictures on La Palma: PPARC Release, homepage, BBC, S&T, Ast. Fate of Moscow's planetarium: S&T. SALT now nearly complete - the Southern African Large Telescope will be the largest optical telescope in the Southern hemisphere: U. Wisconsin PR. STRM30 data set greatly improves maps of Earth's land masslocated between 60 degrees north and 60 degrees south of the equator - the SRTM30 map matches the GTOPO30 resolution, but with its seamless quality, a leap in global-scale accuracy: JPL Release [SN].The Big Blackout as seen from space and other implications: NOAA Release, APOD, SC. MERIS pictures show Aral Sea shrinking - over the last 40 years it has evaporated back to half its original surface area: ESA Release, BBC. Landsat problem remains unsolved - the failure of a crucial component on the craft's primary instrument has left data from all of June and most of July unavailable to scientists and other users: SN, SC. |
Hot on the trail of GemingaAstronomers using XMM-Newton have discovered a pair of X-ray tails, stretching 3 x 1012 km across the sky - they emanate from the mysterious neutron star known as Geminga: ESA Science News.Close encounters between stars form X-ray emitting, double-star systems in dense globular star clusters, Chandra observations confirm: Chandra Release, Ast. Chandra to look for X-rays from Earth: Science@NASA. Canada's fastest computer simulates galaxies, black holes - it will be used to test our understanding of astronomical phenomena ranging from the development of structure in the universe over 14 billion years to the development of new planets: U Toronto PR. More images from GALEXhave been received, revealing hundreds of galaxies to expectant astronomers, providing the first batch of data on star formation that they had hoped for: JPL Release [SN, SR], Ast.UHECRs from Gamma Ray Bursts? Gamma-ray bursts may generate the most energetic particles in the universe, known as the ultrahigh-energy cosmic rays: GSFC Release. Many GRBs go undetected: MIT Press Release. Amateur detects GRB afterglow before the pros: GSFC, MIT Releases, AAVSO Page, Ast., S&T. A Chandra view of Messier 17 reveals hot gas flowing away from massive young stars in the center of the Horseshoe Nebula: Photo Release. Court sets value of moon rocksA federal court has decided that a collection of lunar rocks stolen by four people last year is worth a mere $5 million - this is the first time a dollar value has been attached to samples returned by the Apollo missions, and it means that the moon rock thieves will not go to jail after all: FT (other story), CollectSpace, ST.There is a hole in asteroid Juno - AO surface maps show that Juno, like other asteroids, is misshapen rather than round, and that it has "sharp" edges: CfA Release, Ast., BdW. Some Perseids 2003 results: AstroFoto. 24 new names for planetary moons have been announced: S&T. Kuiperoid named Huya: ABC. Naming solar system bodies: SC, JPL. An NIR image of Jupiter by Gemini: Photo Release.
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All other historical issues can be found in the Archive.
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since it was issued (the German site has no counter).
Compiled and written by Daniel Fischer
(send me a mail to [email protected]!), Skyweek
