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By NASA
NASA’s Dawn spacecraft captured this image of Vesta as it left the giant asteroid’s orbit in 2012. The framing camera was looking down at the north pole, which is in the middle of the image.NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA/MPS/DLR/IDA Known as flow formations, these channels could be etched on bodies that would seem inhospitable to liquid because they are exposed to the extreme vacuum conditions of space.
Pocked with craters, the surfaces of many celestial bodies in our solar system provide clear evidence of a 4.6-billion-year battering by meteoroids and other space debris. But on some worlds, including the giant asteroid Vesta that NASA’s Dawn mission explored, the surfaces also contain deep channels, or gullies, whose origins are not fully understood.
A prime hypothesis holds that they formed from dry debris flows driven by geophysical processes, such as meteoroid impacts, and changes in temperature due to Sun exposure. A recent NASA-funded study, however, provides some evidence that impacts on Vesta may have triggered a less-obvious geologic process: sudden and brief flows of water that carved gullies and deposited fans of sediment. By using lab equipment to mimic conditions on Vesta, the study, which appeared in Planetary Science Journal, detailed for the first time what the liquid could be made of and how long it would flow before freezing.
Although the existence of frozen brine deposits on Vesta is unconfirmed, scientists have previously hypothesized that meteoroid impacts could have exposed and melted ice that lay under the surface of worlds like Vesta. In that scenario, flows resulting from this process could have etched gullies and other surface features that resemble those on Earth.
To explore potential explanations for deep channels, or gullies, seen on Vesta, scientists used JPL’s Dirty Under-vacuum Simulation Testbed for Icy Environments, or DUSTIE, to simulate conditions on the giant asteroid that would occur after meteoroids strike the surface.NASA/JPL-Caltech But how could airless worlds — celestial bodies without atmospheres and exposed to the intense vacuum of space — host liquids on the surface long enough for them to flow? Such a process would run contrary to the understanding that liquids quickly destabilize in a vacuum, changing to a gas when the pressure drops.
“Not only do impacts trigger a flow of liquid on the surface, the liquids are active long enough to create specific surface features,” said project leader and planetary scientist Jennifer Scully of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, where the experiments were conducted. “But for how long? Most liquids become unstable quickly on these airless bodies, where the vacuum of space is unyielding.”
The critical component turns out to be sodium chloride — table salt. The experiments found that in conditions like those on Vesta, pure water froze almost instantly, while briny liquids stayed fluid for at least an hour. “That’s long enough to form the flow-associated features identified on Vesta, which were estimated to require up to a half-hour,” said lead author Michael J. Poston of the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio.
Launched in 2007, the Dawn spacecraft traveled to the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter to orbit Vesta for 14 months and Ceres for almost four years. Before ending in 2018, the mission uncovered evidence that Ceres had been home to a subsurface reservoir of brine and may still be transferring brines from its interior to the surface. The recent research offers insights into processes on Ceres but focuses on Vesta, where ice and salts may produce briny liquid when heated by an impact, scientists said.
Re-creating Vesta
To re-create Vesta-like conditions that would occur after a meteoroid impact, the scientists relied on a test chamber at JPL called the Dirty Under-vacuum Simulation Testbed for Icy Environments, or DUSTIE. By rapidly reducing the air pressure surrounding samples of liquid, they mimicked the environment around fluid that comes to the surface. Exposed to vacuum conditions, pure water froze instantly. But salty fluids hung around longer, continuing to flow before freezing.
The brines they experimented with were a little over an inch (a few centimeters) deep; scientists concluded the flows on Vesta that are yards to tens of yards deep would take even longer to refreeze.
The researchers were also able to re-create the “lids” of frozen material thought to form on brines. Essentially a frozen top layer, the lids stabilize the liquid beneath them, protecting it from being exposed to the vacuum of space — or, in this case the vacuum of the DUSTIE chamber — and helping the liquid flow longer before freezing again.
This phenomenon is similar to how on Earth lava flows farther in lava tubes than when exposed to cool surface temperatures. It also matches up with modeling research conducted around potential mud volcanoes on Mars and volcanoes that may have spewed icy material from volcanoes on Jupiter’s moon Europa.
“Our results contribute to a growing body of work that uses lab experiments to understand how long liquids last on a variety of worlds,” Scully said.
Find more information about NASA’s Dawn mission here:
https://science.nasa.gov/mission/dawn/
News Media Contacts
Gretchen McCartney
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
818-287-4115
gretchen.p.mccartney@jpl.nasa.gov
Karen Fox / Molly Wasser
NASA Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1600
karen.c.fox@nasa.gov / molly.l.wasser@nasa.gov
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Last Updated Dec 20, 2024 Related Terms
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By Space Force
SecAF Kendall delivered a speech to USAFA cadets about the qualities necessary for strong leadership and why capable, insightful, moral leaders are more essential than ever in defense of the nation.
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By NASA
The future of human space exploration took a bold step forward at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston on Nov. 15, 2024, as Texas A&M University leaders’ broke ground for the Texas A&M University Space Institute.
Texas state officials, NASA leaders, and distinguished guests participated in the ceremony, held near the future development site of Johnson’s new Exploration Park, marking an important milestone in a transformative partnership to advance research, innovation, and human spaceflight.
NASA’s Johnson Space Center Director Vanessa Wyche gives remarks at the Texas A&M University Space Institute groundbreaking ceremony in Houston on Nov. 15, 2024. NASA/Robert Markowitz “This groundbreaking is not just a physical act of breaking ground or planting a flag,” said Johnson Director Vanessa Wyche. “This is the moment our vision—to dare to expand frontiers and unite with our partners to explore for the benefit of all humanity—will be manifested.”
The Texas A&M University Space Institute will be the first tenant at NASA’s 240-acre Exploration Park to support facilities that enhance commercial access, foster a collaborative development environment, and strengthen the United States’ competitiveness in the space and aerospace industries.
Chairman Bill Mahomes Jr. of the Texas A&M University System Board of Regents, left, Chancellor John Sharp of the Texas A&M University System, and Johnson Director Vanessa Wyche hold a commemorative plaque celebrating the establishment of the Texas A&M University Space Institute at Exploration Park. NASA/Robert Markowitz Exploration Park aims to foster research, technology transfer, and a sustainable pipeline of career development for the Artemis Generation and Texas workers transitioning to the space economy. The park represents a key achievement of Johnson’s 2024 Dare | Unite | Explore commitments, emphasizing its role as the hub of human spaceflight, developing strategic partnerships, and paving the way for a thriving space economy.
Research conducted at the Space Institute is expected to accelerate human spaceflight by providing opportunities for the brightest minds worldwide to address the challenges of living in low Earth orbit, on the Moon, and on Mars.
Senior leadership from Johnson Space Center gathers for the groundbreaking ceremony of the Texas A&M University Space Institute. NASA/Robert Markowitz Industry leaders and Johnson executives stood alongside NASA’s Lunar Terrain Vehicle and Space Exploration Vehicle, symbolizing their commitment to fostering innovation and collaboration.
Texas A&M University Space Institute director and retired NASA astronaut Dr. Nancy Currie-Gregg and Dr. Rob Ambrose, Space Institute associate director, served as the masters of ceremony for the event. Johnson leaders present included Deputy Director Stephen Koerner; Associate Director Donna Shafer; Associate Director for Vision and Strategy Douglas Terrier; Director of External Relations Office Arturo Sanchez; and Chief Technologist and Director of the Business Development and Technology Integration Office Nick Skytland.
Also in attendance were Texas State Rep. Greg Bonnen; Texas A&M University System Board of Regents Chairman William Mahomes Jr.; Texas A&M University System Chancellor John Sharp; Texas A&M University President and Retired Air Force Gen. Mark Welsh III; and Texas A&M Engineering Vice Chancellor and Dean Robert Bishop.
Texas A&M University Space Institute Director and retired NASA astronaut Nancy Currie-Gregg plants a Texas A&M University Space Institute flag at Johnson Space Center, symbolizing the partnership between the institute and NASA.NASA/Robert Markowitz The institute, expected to open in September 2026, will feature the world’s largest indoor simulation spaces for lunar and Martian surface operations, high-bay laboratories, and multifunctional project rooms.
“The future of Texas’ legacy in aerospace is brighter than ever as the Texas A&M Space Institute in Exploration Park will create an unparalleled aerospace, economic, business development, research, and innovation region across the state,” Wyche said. “Humanity’s next giant leap starts here!”
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By NASA
This archival photo shows engineers working on NASA’s Voyager 2 spacecraft on March 23, 1977. NASA/JPL-Caltech NASA’s Voyager mission launched in the 1970s. Today, it’s making history as it conducts new science. But how are two spacecraft from the ’70s not just surviving, but thriving farther out in space than any other spacecraft has been before?
A Little Mission Background
Voyager is a NASA mission made up of two different spacecraft, Voyager 1 and 2, which launched to space on Sept. 5, 1977, and Aug. 20, 1977, respectively. In the decades following launch, the pair took a grand tour of our solar system, studying Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune — one of NASA’s earliest efforts to explore the secrets of the universe. These twin probes later became the first spacecraft to operate in interstellar space — space outside the heliosphere, the bubble of solar wind and magnetic fields emanating from the Sun. Voyager 1 was the first to enter interstellar space in 2012, followed by Voyager 2 in 2018.
Today, Voyager continues not just because it can, but because it still has work to do studying interstellar space, the heliosphere, and how the two interact. “We wouldn’t be doing Voyager if it wasn’t taking science data,” said Suzanne Dodd, the mission’s current project manager and the director for the Interplanetary Network at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
But across billions of miles and decades of groundbreaking scientific exploration, this trailblazing interstellar journey has not been without its trials. So, what’s the Voyager secret to success?
In short: preparation and creativity.
As NASA’s two Voyager spacecraft travel out into deep space, they carry a small American flag and a Golden Record packed with pictures and sounds — mementos of our home planet. This picture shows John Casani, Voyager project manager in 1977, holding a small Dacron flag that was folded and sewed into the thermal blankets of the Voyager spacecraft before they launched 36 years ago. Below him lie the Golden Record (left) and its cover (right). In the background stands Voyager 2 before it headed to the launch pad. The picture was taken at Cape Canaveral, Fla., on Aug. 4, 1977. NASA/JPL-Caltech We Designed Them Not to Fail
According to John Casani, Voyager project manager from 1975 to launch in 1977, “we didn’t design them to last 30 years or 40 years, we designed them not to fail.”
One key driver of the mission’s longevity is redundancy. Voyager’s components weren’t just engineered with care, they were also made in duplicate.
According to Dodd, Voyager “was designed with nearly everything redundant. Having two spacecraft — right there is a redundancy.”
“We didn’t design them to last 30 years or 40 years, we designed them not to fail.”
John Casani
Voyager Project Manager, 1975-1977
A Cutting-Edge Power Source
The twin Voyager spacecraft can also credit their longevity to their long-lasting power source.
Each spacecraft is equipped with three radioisotope thermoelectric generators. These nuclear “batteries” were developed originally by the U.S. Department of Energy as part of the Atoms for Peace program enacted by President Eisenhower in 1955. Compared to other power options at the time — like solar power, which doesn’t have the reach to work beyond Jupiter — these generators have allowed Voyager to go much farther into space.
Each of NASA’s Voyager probes are equipped with three radioisotope thermoelectric generators (RTGs), including the one shown here at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The RTGs provide power for the spacecraft by converting the heat generated by the decay of plutonium-238 into electricity. Launched in 1977, the Voyager mission is managed for NASA by the agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of Caltech in Pasadena, California.
NASA/JPL-Caltech Voyager’s generators continue to take the mission farther than any before, but they also continue to generate less power each year, with instruments needing to be shut off over time to conserve power.
Creative Solutions
As a mission that has operated at the farthest edges of the heliosphere and beyond, Voyager has endured its fair share of challenges. With the spacecraft now in interstellar space running on software and hardware from the 1970s, Voyager’s problems require creative solutions.
Retired mission personnel who worked on Voyager in its earliest days have even come back out of retirement to collaborate with new mission personnel to not just fix big problems but to pass on important mission know-how to the next generation of scientists and engineers.
“From where I sit as a project manager, it’s really very exciting to see young engineers be excited to work on Voyager. To take on the challenges of an old mission and to work side by side with some of the masters, the people that built the spacecraft,” Dodd said. “They want to learn from each other.”
After receiving data about the health and status of Voyager 1 for the first time in five months, members of the Voyager flight team celebrate in a conference room at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory on April 20. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech NASA/JPL-Caltech Within just the last couple of years, Voyager has tested the mission team’s creativity with a number of complex issues. Most recently, the thrusters on Voyager 1’s thrusters, which control the spacecraft’s orientation and direction, became clogged. The thrusters allow the spacecraft to point their antennae and are critical to maintaining communications with Earth. Through careful coordination, the mission team was able to remotely switch the spacecraft to a different set of thrusters.
These kinds of repairs are extra challenging as a radio signal takes about 22 ½ hours to reach Voyager 1 from Earth and another 22 ½ hours to return. Signals to and from Voyager 2 take about 19 hours each way.
Voyager’s Interstellar Future
This brief peek behind the curtain highlights some of Voyager’s history and its secrets to success.
The Voyager probes may continue to operate into the late 2020s. As time goes on, continued operations will become more challenging as the mission’s power diminishes by 4 watts every year, and the two spacecraft will cool down as this power decreases. Additionally, unexpected anomalies could impact the mission’s functionality and longevity as they grow older.
As the mission presses on, the Voyager team grows this legacy of creative problem solving and collaboration while these twin interstellar travelers continue to expand our understanding of the vast and mysterious cosmos we inhabit.
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Last Updated Nov 04, 2024 Related Terms
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By NASA
Radioisotope Power Systems RPS Home About About RPS About the Program About Plutonium-238 Safety and Reliability For Mission Planners Contact Systems Overview Power Systems Thermal Systems Dynamic Radioisotope Power Missions Overview Timeline News Resources STEM Overview Power to Explore Contest Kid-Friendly Videos FAQ 5 Min Read After 60 Years, Nuclear Power for Spaceflight is Still Tried and True
Workers install one of three Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generators (RTGs) on the Cassini spacecraft. More › Credits:
NASA Editor’s Note: Originally published on June 21, 2021.
Six decades after the launch of the first nuclear-powered space mission, Transit IV-A, NASA is embarking on a bold future of human exploration and scientific discovery. This future builds on a proud history of safely launching and operating nuclear-powered missions in space.
“Nuclear power has opened the solar system to exploration, allowing us to observe and understand dark, distant planetary bodies that would otherwise be unreachable. And we’re just getting started,” said Dr. Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate. “Future nuclear power and propulsion systems will help revolutionize our understanding of the solar system and beyond and play a crucial role in enabling long-term human missions to the Moon and Mars.”
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Space nuclear power to explore the deepest, dustiest, darkest, and most distant regions of our solar system and beyond. NASA From Humble Beginnings: Nuclear Power Spawns an Age of Scientific Discovery
On June 29, 1961, the John’s Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory launched the Transit IV-A Spacecraft. It was a U.S. Navy navigational satellite with a SNAP-3B radioisotope powered generator producing 2.7 watts of electrical power — about enough to light an LED bulb. Transit IV-A broke an APL mission-duration record and confirmed the Earth’s equator is elliptical. It also set the stage for ground-breaking missions that have extended humanity’s reach across the solar system.
Since 1961, NASA has flown more than 25 missions carrying a nuclear power system through a successful partnership with the Department of Energy (DOE), which provides the power systems and plutonium-238 fuel.
“The department and our national laboratory partners are honored to play a role in powering NASA’s space exploration activities,” said Tracey Bishop, deputy assistant secretary in DOE’s Office of Nuclear Energy. “Radioisotope Power Systems are a natural extension of our core mission to create technological solutions that meet the complex energy needs of space research, exploration, and innovation.”
There are only two practical ways to provide long-term electrical power in space: the light of the sun or heat from a nuclear source.
We couldn’t do the mission without it. No other technology exists to power a mission this far away from the Sun, even today.
Alan Stern
Principal Investigator, NASA’s New Horizons Mission to Pluto and Beyond
“As missions move farther away from the Sun to dark, dusty, and harsh environments, like Jupiter, Pluto, and Titan, they become impossible or extremely limited without nuclear power,” said Leonard Dudzinski, chief technologist for NASA’s Planetary Science Division and program executive for Radioisotope Power.
That’s where Radioisotope Power Systems, or RPS, come in. They are a category of power systems that convert heat generated by the decay of plutonium-238 fuel into electricity.
“These systems are reliable and efficient,” said June Zakrajsek, manager for NASA’s Radioisotope Power Systems Program office at Glenn Research Center in Cleveland. “They operate continuously over long-duration space missions regardless of sunlight, temperature, charged particle radiation, or surface conditions like thick clouds or dust. They’ve allowed us to explore from the Sun to Pluto and beyond.”
RPS powered the Apollo Lunar Surface Experiment Package. They’ve sustained Voyager 1 and 2 since 1977, and they kept Cassini-Huygens’ instruments warm as it explored frigid Saturn and its moon Titan.
Today, a Multi-Mission Thermoelectric Generator (MMRTG) powers the Perseverance rover, which is captivating the nation as it searches for signs of ancient life on Mars, and a single RTG is sustaining New Horizons as it ventures on its way out of the solar system 15 years after its launch.
“The RTG was and still is crucial to New Horizons,” said Alan Stern, New Horizons principal investigator from the Southwest Research Institute. “We couldn’t do the mission without it. No other technology exists to power a mission this far away from the Sun, even today.”
New Horizons carries seven scientific instruments and a radioisotope thermoelectric generator. The spacecraft weighs 1,060 pounds. NASA/JHUAPL Great Things to Come: Science and Human Exploration
Dragonfly, which is set to launch in 2028, is the next mission with plans to use an MMRTG. Part of NASA’s New Frontiers program, Dragonfly is an octocopter designed to explore and collect samples on Saturn’s largest moon, Titan, an ocean world with a dense, hazy atmosphere.
“RPS is really an enabling technology,” said APL’s Zibi Turtle, principal investigator for the upcoming Dragonfly mission. “Early missions like Voyager, Galileo, and Cassini that relied on RPS have completely changed our understanding and given us a geography of the distant solar system…Cassini gave us our first close-up look at the surface of Titan.”
According to Turtle, the MMRTG serves two purposes on Dragonfly: power output to charge the lander’s battery and waste heat to keep its instruments and electronics warm.
“Flight is a very high-power activity. We’ll use a battery for flight and science activities and recharge the battery using the MMRTG,” said Turtle. “The waste heat from the power system is a key aspect of our thermal design. The surface of Titan is very cold, but we can keep the interior of the lander warm and cozy using the heat from the MMRTG.”
As the scientific community continues to benefit from RPS, NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate is investing in new technology using reactors and low-enriched uranium fuel to enable a robust human presence on the Moon and eventually human missions to Mars.
Astronauts will need plentiful and continuous power to survive the long lunar nights and explore the dark craters on the Moon’s South Pole. A fission surface power system could provide enough juice to power robust operations. NASA is leading an effort, working with the DOE and industry to design a fission power system for a future lunar demonstration that will pave the way for base camps on the Moon and Mars.
NASA has also thought about viable ways to reduce the time it takes to travel to Mars, including nuclear propulsion systems.
As NASA advances its bold vision of exploration and scientific discovery in space, it benefits from 60 years of the safe use of nuclear power during spaceflight. Sixty years of enlightenment that all started with a little satellite called Transit IV-A.
News Media Contact
Jan Wittry
NASA’s Glenn Research Center
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