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Unknown space object zooms past Mars Rover Curiosity
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By European Space Agency
Video: 00:01:00 Rover trials in a quarry in the UK showing a four-wheeled rover, known as Codi, using its robotic arm and a powerful computer vision system to pick up sample tubes.
The rover drives to the samples with an accuracy of 10cm, constantly mapping the terrain. Codi uses its arm and four cameras to locate the sample tube, retrieve it and safely store it on the rover – all of it without human intervention. At every stop, the rover uses stereo cameras to build up a 180-degree map of the surroundings and plan its next maneouvres. Once parked, the camera on top of the mast detects the tube and estimates its position with respect to the rover. The robotic arm initiates a complex choreography to move closer to the sample, fetch it and store it.
The sample tubes are a replica of the hermetically sealed samples inside which NASA’s Perseverance rover is collecting precious martian soil inside. To most people on Earth, they resemble lightsabres.
The reddish terrain, although not fully representative of Mars in terms of soil composition, has plenty of slopes and rocks of different sizes, similar to what a rover might encounter on the martian surface. Quarry testing is an essential next step in the development process, providing a unique and dynamic landscape that cannot be replicated indoors.
ESA continues to run further research using the rover to maintain and develop rover capabilities in Europe.
Read the full article: Rovers, lightsabres and a piglet.
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By European Space Agency
Image: ESA’s Metal 3D Printer has produced the first metal part ever created in space.
The technology demonstrator, built by Airbus and its partners, was launched to the International Space Station at the start of this year, where ESA astronaut Andreas Mogensen installed the payload in the European Drawer Rack of ESA’s Columbus module. In August, the printer successfully printed the first 3D metal shape in space.
This product, along with three others planned during the rest of the experiment, will return to Earth for quality analysis: two of the samples will go to ESA’s technical heart in the Netherlands (ESTEC), another will go to ESA’s astronaut training centre in Cologne (EAC) for use in the LUNA facility, and the fourth will go to the Technical University of Denmark (DTU).
As exploration of the Moon and Mars will increase mission duration and distance from Earth, resupplying spacecraft will be more challenging. Additive manufacturing in space will give autonomy for the mission and its crew, providing a solution to manufacture needed parts, to repair equipment or construct dedicated tools, on demand during the mission, rather than relying on resupplies and redundancies.
ESA’s technology demonstrator is the first to successfully print a metal component in microgravity conditions. In the past, the International Space Station has hosted plastic 3D printers.
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By European Space Agency
Image: The Copernicus Sentinel-2B satellite captured this image over Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana on 2 September, just ahead of the Sentinel-2C launch. View the full article
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By NASA
Hubble Space Telescope Home NASA’s Hubble, MAVEN… Missions Hubble Home Overview About Hubble The History of Hubble Hubble Timeline Why Have a Telescope in Space? Hubble by the Numbers At the Museum FAQs Impact & Benefits Hubble’s Impact & Benefits Science Impacts Cultural Impact Technology Benefits Impact on Human Spaceflight Astro Community Impacts Science Hubble Science Science Themes Science Highlights Science Behind Discoveries Hubble’s Partners in Science Universe Uncovered Explore the Night Sky Observatory Hubble Observatory Hubble Design Mission Operations Missions to Hubble Hubble vs Webb Team Hubble Team Career Aspirations Hubble Astronauts News Hubble News Hubble News Archive Social Media Media Resources Multimedia Multimedia Images Videos Sonifications Podcasts E-books Lithographs Fact Sheets Glossary Posters Hubble on the NASA App More Online Activities 6 min read
NASA’s Hubble, MAVEN Help Solve the Mystery of Mars’ Escaping Water
NASA, ESA, STScI, John T. Clarke (Boston University); Processing: Joseph DePasquale (STScI) Mars was once a very wet planet as is evident in its surface geological features. Scientists know that over the last 3 billion years, at least some water went deep underground, but what happened to the rest? Now, NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope and MAVEN (Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution) missions are helping unlock that mystery.
“There are only two places water can go. It can freeze into the ground, or the water molecule can break into atoms, and the atoms can escape from the top of the atmosphere into space,” explained study leader John Clarke of the Center for Space Physics at Boston University in Massachusetts. “To understand how much water there was and what happened to it, we need to understand how the atoms escape into space.”
Clarke and his team combined data from Hubble and MAVEN to measure the number and current escape rate of the hydrogen atoms escaping into space. This information allowed them to extrapolate the escape rate backwards through time to understand the history of water on the Red Planet.
Escaping Hydrogen and “Heavy Hydrogen”
Water molecules in the Martian atmosphere are broken apart by sunlight into hydrogen and oxygen atoms. Specifically, the team measured hydrogen and deuterium, which is a hydrogen atom with a neutron in its nucleus. This neutron gives deuterium twice the mass of hydrogen. Because its mass is higher, deuterium escapes into space much more slowly than regular hydrogen.
Over time, as more hydrogen was lost than deuterium, the ratio of deuterium to hydrogen built up in the atmosphere. Measuring the ratio today gives scientists a clue to how much water was present during the warm, wet period on Mars. By studying how these atoms currently escape, they can understand the processes that determined the escape rates over the last four billion years and thereby extrapolate back in time.
Although most of the study’s data comes from the MAVEN spacecraft, MAVEN is not sensitive enough to see the deuterium emission at all times of the Martian year. Unlike the Earth, Mars swings far from the Sun in its elliptical orbit during the long Martian winter, and the deuterium emissions become faint. Clarke and his team needed the Hubble data to “fill in the blanks” and complete an annual cycle for three Martian years (each of which is 687 Earth days). Hubble also provided additional data going back to 1991 – prior to MAVEN’s arrival at Mars in 2014.
The combination of data between these missions provided the first holistic view of hydrogen atoms escaping Mars into space.
These are far-ultraviolet Hubble images of Mars near its farthest point from the Sun, called aphelion, on December 31, 2017 (top), and near its closest approach to the Sun, called perihelion, on December 19, 2016 (bottom). The atmosphere is clearly brighter and more extended when Mars is close to the Sun.
Reflected sunlight from Mars at these wavelengths shows scattering by atmospheric molecules and haze, while the polar ice caps and some surface features are also visible. Hubble and MAVEN showed that Martian atmospheric conditions change very quickly. When Mars is close to the Sun, water molecules rise very rapidly through the atmosphere, breaking apart and releasing atoms at high altitudes. NASA, ESA, STScI, John T. Clarke (Boston University); Processing: Joseph DePasquale (STScI)
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A Dynamic and Turbulent Martian Atmosphere
“In recent years scientists have found that Mars has an annual cycle that is much more dynamic than people expected 10 or 15 years ago,” explained Clarke. “The whole atmosphere is very turbulent, heating up and cooling down on short timescales, even down to hours. The atmosphere expands and contracts as the brightness of the Sun at Mars varies by 40 percent over the course of a Martian year.”
The team discovered that the escape rates of hydrogen and deuterium change rapidly when Mars is close to the Sun. In the classical picture that scientists previously had, these atoms were thought to slowly diffuse upward through the atmosphere to a height where they could escape.
But that picture no longer accurately reflects the whole story, because now scientists know that atmospheric conditions change very quickly. When Mars is close to the Sun, the water molecules, which are the source of the hydrogen and deuterium, rise through the atmosphere very rapidly releasing atoms at high altitudes.
The second finding is that the changes in hydrogen and deuterium are so rapid that the atomic escape needs added energy to explain them. At the temperature of the upper atmosphere only a small fraction of the atoms have enough speed to escape the gravity of Mars. Faster (super-thermal) atoms are produced when something gives the atom a kick of extra energy. These events include collisions from solar wind protons entering the atmosphere or sunlight that drives chemical reactions in the upper atmosphere.
Mars was once a very wet planet. Scientists know that over the last 3 billion years, some of the water went underground, but what happened to the rest? Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center; Lead Producer: Paul Morris; Mars Animations Producer: Dan Gallagher Serving as a Proxy
Studying the history of water on Mars is fundamental not only to understanding planets in our own solar system but also the evolution of Earth-size planets around other stars. Astronomers are finding more and more of these planets, but they’re difficult to study in detail. Mars, Earth and Venus all sit in or near our solar system’s habitable zone, the region around a star where liquid water could pool on a rocky planet; yet all three planets have dramatically different present-day conditions. Along with its sister planets, Mars can help scientists grasp the nature of far-flung worlds across our galaxy.
These results appear in the July 26 edition of Science Advances, published by the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
About the Missions
The Hubble Space Telescope has been operating for over three decades and continues to make ground-breaking discoveries that shape our fundamental understanding of the universe. Hubble is a project of international cooperation between NASA and ESA (European Space Agency). NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, manages the telescope and mission operations. Lockheed Martin Space, based in Denver, Colorado, also supports mission operations at Goddard. The Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) in Baltimore, Maryland, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, conducts Hubble science operations for NASA.
MAVEN’s principal investigator is based at the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP) at the University of Colorado Boulder. LASP is also responsible for managing science operations and public outreach and communications. NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, manages the MAVEN mission. Lockheed Martin Space built the spacecraft and is responsible for MAVEN mission operations at Goddard. NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California provides navigation and Deep Space Network support. The MAVEN team is preparing to celebrate the spacecraft’s 10th year at Mars in September 2024.
Facebook logo @NASAHubble @NASAHubble Instagram logo @NASAHubble Media Contacts:
Claire Andreoli
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD
claire.andreoli@nasa.gov
Ann Jenkins and Ray Villard
Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, MD
Science Contact:
John T. Clarke
Boston University, Boston, MA
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Last Updated Sep 05, 2024 Editor Andrea Gianopoulos Location NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Related Terms
Astrophysics Astrophysics Division Goddard Space Flight Center Hubble Space Telescope Mars MAVEN (Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN) Missions Planetary Science Planets Science Mission Directorate The Solar System Keep Exploring Discover More Topics From Hubble and Maven
Hubble Space Telescope
Since its 1990 launch, the Hubble Space Telescope has changed our fundamental understanding of the universe.
Hubble Science Highlights
MAVEN
The Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN (MAVEN) mission is the first mission devoted to understanding the Martian upper atmosphere.
Mars
Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun, and the seventh largest. It’s the only planet we know of inhabited…
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By NASA
5 min read
Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)
Sonifications of three images have been released to mark the 25th anniversary of Chandra’s “First Light” image. For Cassiopeia A, which was one of the first objects observed by Chandra, X-ray data from Chandra and infrared data from Webb have been translated into sounds, along with some Hubble data. The second image in the sonification trio, 30 Doradus, also contains Chandra and Webb data. NGC 6872 contains data from Chandra as well as an optical image from Hubble. Each of these datasets have been mapped to notes and sounds based on properties observed by these telescopes.NASA/CXC/SAO/K.Arcand, SYSTEM Sounds (M. Russo, A. Santaguida) A quarter of a century ago, NASA released the “first light” images from the agency’s Chandra X-ray Observatory. This introduction to the world of Chandra’s high-resolution X-ray imaging capabilities included an unprecedented view of Cassiopeia A, the remains of an exploded star located about 11,000 light-years from Earth. Over the years, Chandra’s views of Cassiopeia A have become some of the telescope’s best-known images.
To mark the anniversary of this milestone, new sonifications of three images – including Cassiopeia A (Cas A) – are being released. Sonification is a process that translates astronomical data into sound, similar to how digital data are more routinely turned into images. This translation process preserves the science of the data from its original digital state but provides an alternative pathway to experiencing the data.
This sonification of Cas A features data from Chandra as well as NASA’s James Webb, Hubble, and retired Spitzer space telescopes. The scan starts at the neutron star at the center of the remnant, marked by a triangle sound, and moves outward. Astronomers first saw this neutron star when Chandra’s inaugural observations were released 25 years ago this week. Chandra’s X-rays also reveal debris from the exploded star that is expanding outward into space. The brighter parts of the image are conveyed through louder volume and higher pitched sounds. X-ray data from Chandra are mapped to modified piano sounds, while infrared data from Webb and Spitzer, which detect warmed dust embedded in the hot gas, have been assigned to various string and brass instruments. Stars that Hubble detects are played with crotales, or small cymbals.
Another new sonification features the spectacular cosmic vista of 30 Doradus, one of the largest and brightest regions of star formation close to the Milky Way. This sonification again combines X-rays from Chandra with infrared data from Webb. As the scan moves from left to right across the image, the volume heard again corresponds to the brightness seen. Light toward the top of the image is mapped to higher pitched notes. X-rays from Chandra, which reveal gas that has been superheated by shock waves generated by the winds from massive stars, are heard as airy synthesizer sounds. Meanwhile, Webb’s infrared data show cooler gas that provides the raw ingredients for future stars. These data are mapped to a range of sounds including soft, low musical pitches (red regions), a wind-like sound (white regions), piano-like synthesizer notes indicating very bright stars, and a rain-stick sound for stars in a central cluster.
The final member of this new sonification triumvirate is NGC 6872, a large spiral galaxy that has two elongated arms stretching to the upper right and lower left, which is seen in an optical light view from Hubble. Just to the upper left of NGC 6872 appears another smaller spiral galaxy. These two galaxies, each of which likely has a supermassive black hole at the center, are being drawn toward one another. As the scan sweeps clockwise from 12 o’clock, the brightness controls the volume and light farther from the center of the image is mapped to higher-pitched notes. Chandra’s X-rays, represented in sound by a wind-like sound, show multimillion-degree gas that permeates the galaxies. Compact X-ray sources from background galaxies create bird-like chirps. In the Hubble data, the core of NGC 6872 is heard as a dark low drone, and the blue spiral arms (indicating active star formation) are audible as brighter, more highly pitched tones. The background galaxies are played as a soft pluck sound while the bright foreground star is accompanied by a crash cymbal.
More information about the NASA sonification project through Chandra, which is made in partnership with NASA’s Universe of Learning, can be found at https://chandra.si.edu/sound/. The collaboration was driven by visualization scientist Kimberly Arcand (CXC), astrophysicist Matt Russo, and musician Andrew Santaguida, (both of the SYSTEM Sounds project), along with consultant Christine Malec.
NASA’s Universe of Learning materials are based upon work supported by NASA under cooperative agreement award number NNX16AC65A to the Space Telescope Science Institute, working in partnership with Caltech/IPAC, Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian, and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
More about Chandra
Chandra, managed for NASA by Marshall in partnership with the CXC, is one of NASA’s Great Observatories, along with the Hubble Space Telescope and the now-retired Spitzer Space Telescope and Compton Gamma Ray Observatory. It was first proposed to NASA in 1976 by Riccardo Giacconi, recipient of the 2002 Nobel Prize for Physics based on his contributions to X-ray astronomy, and Harvey Tananbaum, who would later become the first director of the Chandra X-ray Center. Chandra was named in honor of the late Nobel laureate Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, who earned the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1983 for his work explaining the structure and evolution of stars.
Learn more about the Chandra X-ray Observatory and its mission here:
https://www.nasa.gov/mission/chandra-x-ray-observatory/
https://cxc.harvard.edu
News Media Contact
Lane Figueroa
Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Alabama
256-544-0034
lane.e.figueroa@nasa.gov
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Last Updated Sep 03, 2024 LocationMarshall Space Flight Center Related Terms
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