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Space News Update — September 9, 2016 —

Contents

In the News

Story 1:

OSIRIS-REx probe launched to asteroid in compelling search for the origins of life

Story 2: Hubble discovers rare fossil relic of early Milky Way

Story 3: Titan's Dunes and Other Features Emerge in New Images

Departments

The Night Sky

ISS Sighting Opportunities

Space Calendar

NASA-TV Highlights

Food for Thought

Space Image of the Week

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1. OSIRIS-REx probe launched to asteroid in compelling search for the origins of life

Like reaching back in time to examine the conditions that existed in the ancient solar system, NASA today launched a robotic probe to visit Asteroid Bennu and return an unspoiled sample of the primitive body that may hold the seeds of life.

“We’re going to an asteroid that represents the first building blocks of the planets in our solar system,” said Dante Lauretta, OSIRIS-REx principal investigator with the University of Arizona.

“The mission is driven by the return of pristine organic molecules from the early solar system. I’m really hopeful that we will get some unique material that isn’t in our meteorite collections because its probably friable and not easily surviving atmospheric passage, and that’s the reason we are going to protect it in our Sample Return Capsule.”

Known as the Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security, Regolith Explorer, or OSIRIS-REx for short, the $800 million mission embarked on its 7-year, round trip journey to Bennu and back at 7:05 p.m. EDT (2305 GMT).

“Liftoff for OSIRIS-Rex, its seven-year mission to boldly go to the Asteroid Bennu and back,” NASA launch commentator Mike Curie called in tribute to the 50th anniversary of Star Trek.

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The craft departed atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket, blasting off from Cape Canaveral at the opening minute of the planetary-alignment window on the first try after a smooth countdown.

“This was an excellent launch,” says Tim Dunn, the NASA launch director. “Not a single anomaly was worked during the countdown, almost unheard of.”

The strange-looking launcher, with a single solid rocket booster mounted to its side to augment the first stage, powered away on 1.2 million pounds of thrust, coming off the pad “beautifully,” Dunn said, and headed eastward across the Atlantic Ocean.

Staging four minutes into flight saw the Centaur upper stage ignite for an eight-minute burn to boost the spacecraft into an initial Earth parking orbit. After coasting over Africa, the rocket fired for seven more minutes to escape Earth on an interplanetary trajectory before separating to fly solo an hour into flight.

It marked the 136th successful launch in a row for the Atlas program spanning 23 years, the 65th for the Atlas 5 over the span of 14 years and extended United Launch Alliance’s mission record to 111 in nearly 10 years.

OSIRIS-REx, built by Lockheed Martin in Denver, quickly deployed its two power-producing solar arrays and phoned home via the Canberra tracking station that it was in excellent health.

“The OSIRIS-REx spacecraft is happy and healthy,” said Rich Kuhns, OSIRIS-REx program manager with Lockheed Martin Space Systems.

“We started the journey with a phenomenal launch on the Atlas 5. It delivered us right where we needed to be.”

OSIRIS-REx will swing by the Earth on Sept. 22, 2017, receiving a gravity-assisted slingshot to bend the flight path to intercept the destination — Asteroid Bennu — in August 2018 for a three-year stay.

Source: Spaceflight Now Return to Contents

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2. Hubble discovers rare fossil relic of early Milky Way

A fossilized remnant of the early Milky Way harboring stars of hugely different ages has been revealed by an international team of astronomers. This stellar system resembles a globular cluster, but is like no other cluster known. It contains stars remarkably similar to the most ancient stars in the Milky Way and bridges the gap in understanding between our galaxy's past and its present.

Terzan 5, 19 000 light-years from Earth, has been classified as a globular cluster for the forty-odd years since its detection. Now, an Italian-led team of astronomers have discovered that Terzan 5 is like no other globular cluster known.

The team scoured data from the Advanced Camera for Surveys and the Wide Field Camera 3on board Hubble, as well as from a suite of other ground-based telescopes [1]. They found compelling evidence that there are two distinct kinds of stars in Terzan 5 which not only differ in the elements they contain, but have an age-gap of roughly 7 billion years [2].

The ages of the two populations indicate that the star formation process in Terzan 5 was not continuous, but was dominated by two distinct bursts of star formation. "This requires the Terzan 5 ancestor to have large amounts of gas for a second generation of stars and to be quite massive. At least 100 million times the mass of the Sun," explains Davide Massari, co-author of the study, from INAF, Italy, and the University of Gröningen, Netherlands.

Its unusual properties make Terzan 5 the ideal candidate for a living fossil from the early days of the Milky Way. Current theories on galaxy formation assume that vast clumps of gas and stars interacted to form the primordial bulge of the Milky Way, merging and dissolving in the process.

"We think that some remnants of these gaseous clumps could remain relatively undisrupted and keep existing embedded within the galaxy," explains Francesco Ferraro from the University of Bologna, Italy, and lead author of the study. "Such galactic fossils allow astronomers to reconstruct an important piece of the history of our Milky Way."

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While the properties of Terzan 5 are uncommon for a globular cluster, they are very similar to the stellar population which can be found in the galactic bulge, the tightly packed central region of the Milky Way. These similarities could make Terzan 5 a fossilized relic of galaxy formation, representing one of the earliest building blocks of the Milky Way.

This assumption is strengthened by the original mass of Terzan 5 necessary to create two stellar populations: a mass similar to the huge clumps which are assumed to have formed the bulge during galaxy assembly around 12 billion years ago. Somehow Terzan 5 has managed to survive being disrupted for billions of years, and has been preserved as a remnant of the distant past of the Milky Way.

"Some characteristics of Terzan 5 resemble those detected in the giant clumps we see in star-forming galaxies at high-redshift, suggesting that similar assembling processes occurred in the local and in the distant Universe at the epoch of galaxy formation," continues Ferraro.

Hence, this discovery paves the way for a better and more complete understanding of galaxy assembly. "Terzan 5 could represent an intriguing link between the local and the distant Universe, a surviving witness of the Galactic bulge assembly process," explains Ferraro while commenting on the importance of the discovery. The research presents a possible route for astronomers to unravel the mysteries of galaxy formation, and offers an unrivaled view into the complicated history of the Milky Way.

Source: EurekAlert Return to Contents

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3. Titan's Dunes and Other Features Emerge in New Images

New scenes from a frigid alien landscape are coming to light in recent radar images of Saturn's largest moon, Titan, from NASA's Cassini spacecraft.

Cassini obtained the views during a close flyby of Titan on July 25, when the spacecraft came as close as 607 miles (976 kilometers) from the giant moon. The spacecraft's radar instrument is able to penetrate the dense, global haze that surrounds Titan, to reveal fine details on the surface.

One of the new views (along with a short video) shows long, linear dunes, thought to be comprised of grains derived from hydrocarbons that have settled out of Titan's atmosphere. Cassini has shown that dunes of this sort encircle most of Titan's equator. Scientists can use the dunes to learn about winds, the sands they're composed of, and highs and lows in the landscape.

"Dunes are dynamic features. They're deflected by obstacles along the downwind path, often making beautiful, undulating patterns," said Jani Radebaugh, a Cassini radar team associate at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah.

Another new image shows an area nicknamed the "Xanadu annex" earlier in the mission by members of the Cassini radar team. Cassini's radar had not previously obtained images of this area, but earlier measurements by the spacecraft suggested the terrain might be quite similar to the large region on Titan named Xanadu.

First imaged in 1994 by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, Xanadu was the first surface feature to be recognized on Titan. While Hubble was able to see Xanadu's outline, the annex area went unnoticed.

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The new Cassini image reveals that the Xanadu annex is, indeed, made up of the same type of mountainous terrains observed in Xanadu and scattered across other parts of Titan.

"This 'annex' looks quite similar to Xanadu using our radar, but there seems to be something different about the surface there that masks this similarity when observing at other wavelengths, as with Hubble," said Mike Janssen, also a JPL member of the radar team. "It's an interesting puzzle."

Xanadu -- and now its annex -- remains something of a mystery. Elsewhere on Titan, mountainous terrain appears in small, isolated patches, but Xanadu covers a large area, and scientists have proposed a variety of theories about its formation.

"These mountainous areas appear to be the oldest terrains on Titan, probably remnants of the icy crust before it was covered by organic sediments from the atmosphere," said Rosaly Lopes, a Cassini radar team member at JPL. "Hiking in these rugged landscapes would likely be similar to hiking in the Badlands of South Dakota."

The July 25 flyby was Cassini's 122nd encounter with Titan since the spacecraft's arrival in the Saturn system in mid-2004. It was also the last time Cassini's radar will image terrain in the far southern latitudes of Titan.

"If Cassini were orbiting Earth instead of Saturn, this would be like getting our last close view of Australia," said Stephen Wall, deputy lead of the Cassini radar team at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.

Cassini's four remaining Titan flybys will focus primarily on the liquid-filled lakes and seas in Titan's far north. The mission will begin its finale in April 2017, with a series of 22 orbits that plunge between the planet and its icy rings.

More information about Cassini: http://www.nasa.gov/cassini, http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov

Source: JPL Return to Contents

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The Night Sky Friday, September 9

• First-quarter Moon (exact at 7:49 a.m. EDT). This evening the Moon, no longerexactly first-quarter, shines over Mars, as shown at right.

• The triangle of Mars, Saturn, and Antares, emblem of all this summer's evenings, continues to lengthen as summer nears its end, as shown below. In the coming days and weeks Saturn and Antares will continue to move farther toward the lower right, while Mars hangs back and fades. By mid-autumn Saturn and Antares will be gone.

Saturday, September 10

• This evening the Moon shines over the Sagittarius Teapot. The Teapot, about the size of your fist at arm's length, is tipping and pouring to the right.

Sunday, September 11

• The Moon is just about equidistant from Altair, high to its upper left after dark, and Mars, far off to its right and somewhat lower.

Monday, September 12

• Now the Moon shines straight under Altair at dusk. A finger-width above Altair is Tarazed, Gamma Aquilae. Altair is 16.7 light-years distant; Tarazed is about 390. The name "Tarazed" comes for the Persian for "balance beam," referring to its pattern with Altair and fainter Beta Aquilae on Altair's other side.

Tuesday, September 13

• As dusk turns to night, Arcturus twinkles due west. It's getting lower every week. And off to its right in the northwest, the Big Dipper is turning more and more level.

Source: Sky & Telescope Return to Contents

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ISS Sighting Opportunities

For Denver: Date Visible Max Height Appears Disappears

Sat Sep 10, 4:42 AM 2 min 30° 30° above N 15° above NNE

Sun Sep 11, 5:25 AM 3 min 14° 11° above NW 10° above NNE

Mon Sep 12, 4:36 AM 1 min 17° 17° above N 10° above NNE

Mon Sep 12, 6:12 AM 1 min 10° 10° above NNW 10° above N

Tue Sep 13, 5:19 AM 2 min 11° 10° above NNW 10° above NNE

Sighting information for other cities can be found at NASA’s Satellite Sighting Information

NASA-TV Highlights (all times Eastern Daylight Time)

• 2 p.m., 8 p.m., Friday, September 9 - NASA Television Video File News Feed of the ISS Expedition 48/Soyuz TMA-20M Post-Landing Activities in Kazakhstan and Interviews (Includes a post-landing interview with ISS Expedition 48 Commander Jeff Williams of NASA and the return of cosmonauts Alexey (all channels)

• 3 p.m., 7 p.m., 11 p.m., Friday, September 9 - NASA Television Video File News Feed of the ISS Expedition 49-50 Crew’s Departure from the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Star City, Russia for the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan (Kimbrough, Ryzhikov, Borisenko) (all channels)

• 4 p.m., Friday, September 9 - Replay of the OSIRIS-Rex Post Launch News Conference (all channels)

• 7 a.m., 11 a.m., 3 p.m., 7 p.m., 11 p.m., Saturday, September 10 - NASA Television Video File News Feed of the ISS Expedition 49-50 Crew’s Departure from the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Star City, Russia for the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan (all channels)

• 10 a.m., 6 p.m., Saturday, September 10 - NASA Television Video File News Feed of the ISS Expedition 48/Soyuz TMA-20M Post-Landing Activities in Kazakhstan and Interviews (all channels)

• 2 p.m., 8 p.m., Saturday, September 10 - Replay of the OSIRIS-Rex Post Launch News Conference (all channels)

• 7 a.m., 11 a.m., 3 p.m., 7 p.m., 11 p.m., Sunday, September 11 - NASA Television Video File News Feed of the ISS Expedition 49-50 Crew’s Departure from the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Star City, Russia for the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan (all channels)

• 10 a.m., 4 p.m., Sunday, September 11 - Replay of the OSIRIS-Rex Post Launch News Conference (all channels)

• 2 p.m., Sunday, 8 p.m., September 11 - NASA Television Video File News Feed of the ISS Expedition 48/Soyuz TMA-20M Post-Landing Activities in Kazakhstan and Interviews (all channels)

Watch NASA TV on the Net by going to the NASA website. Return to Contents

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Space Calendar • Sep 09 - Asteroid 2 Pallas Occults TYC 0539-01038-1 (10.7 Magnitude Star) • Sep 09 - [Sep 09] Apollo Asteroid 2016 RL17 Near-Earth Flyby (0.022 AU) • Sep 09 - [Sep 07] Amor Asteroid 2016 RV1 Near-Earth Flyby (0.049 AU) • Sep 09 - [Sep 03] Apollo Asteroid 2016 QN44 Near-Earth Flyby (0.073 AU) • Sep 09 - Asteroid 3473 Sapporo Closest Approach To Earth (1.705 AU) • Sep 09 - Asteroid 118945 Rikhill Closest Approach To Earth (2.339 AU) • Sep 09 - 10th Anniversary (2006), STS-115 Launch (Space Shuttle Atlantis, International Space Station) • Sep 09 - 55th Anniversary (1961), Bells Meteorite Fall (Hit Building in Texas) • Sep 10 - Comet 288P At Opposition (1.449 AU) • Sep 10 - Comet 212P/NEAT Perihelion (1.645 AU) • Sep 10 - [Sep 03] Apollo Asteroid 2016 QS44 Near-Earth Flyby (0.020 AU) • Sep 10 - Aten Asteroid 2015 KE Near-Earth Flyby (0.038 AU) • Sep 10 - 5th Anniversary (2011), GRAIL Launch (Moon Orbiter) • Sep 10-13 - European Rover Challenge, Jasionka, Poland • Sep 11 - Comet 288P Closest Approach To Earth (1.449 AU) • Sep 11 - Comet 343P/NEAT-LONEOS At Opposition (1.571 AU) • Sep 11 - [Sep 09] Apollo Asteroid 2016 RH17 Near-Earth Flyby (0.016 AU) • Sep 11 - Apollo Asteroid 2009 BK2 Near-Earth Flyby (0.076 AU) • Sep 11 - Amor Asteroid 2016 PR26 Near-Earth Flyby (0.084 AU) • Sep 11 - Asteroid 23469 Neilpeart Closest Approach To Earth (1.167 AU) • Sep 11 - Asteroid 11881 Mirstation Closest Approach To Earth (1.202 AU) • Sep 11 - Asteroid 10204 Turing Closest Approach To Earth (1.778 AU) • Sep 11 - Alexandre Pingre's 305th Birthday (1711)

• Sep 12 - [Sep 07] 50th Anniversary (1966), Gemini 11 Launch (Charles Conrad and Richard Gordon)

• Sep 12 - Asteroid 971 Alsatia Occults HIP 39077 (6.9 Magnitude Star) • Sep 12 - Apollo Asteroid 2016 LX48 Near-Earth Flyby (0.046 AU) • Sep 12 - Apollo Asteroid 161989 Cacus Closest Approach To Earth (0.243 AU) • Sep 12 - Asteroid 34419 Corning Closest Approach To Earth (1.647 AU) • Sep 12 - Asteroid 780 Armenia Closest Approach To Earth (1.826 AU) • Sep 12 - 25th Anniversary (1991), STS-48 Launch (Space Shuttle Discovery, UARS) • Sep 12 - Anousheh Ansari's 50th Birthday (1966) • Sep 13 - [Sep 09] Tiangong 2 CZ-2F Launch (2nd Chinese Space Station) • Sep 13 - Comet 188P/LINEAR-Mueller Closest Approach To Earth (1.786 AU) • Sep 13 - Comet 228P/LINEAR At Opposition (3.831 AU) • Sep 13 - Comet C/2015 H2 (PANSTARRS) Perihelion (4.967 AU) • Sep 13 - Comet 95P/Chiron Closest Approach To Earth (17.399 AU) • Sep 13 - Asteroid 1217 Maximiliana Closest Approach To Earth (1.465 AU)

Source: JPL Space Calendar Return to Contents

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Food for Thought

Report Warns of Additional Commercial Crew Delays

The two companies developing commercial crew transportation systems for NASA are experiencing problems that will likely push back the beginning of regular flights until at least late 2018, an agency report warned.

The report by the NASA Office of Inspector General (OIG), released Sept. 1, also concluded that those delays may force NASA to purchase additional seats on Russian Soyuz flights to and from the International Space Station, the cost of which has grown significantly over the last decade.

The report argued that while previous delays in the overall commercial crew development program could be blamed on funding shortfalls, more recent delays have their roots in technical problems both Boeing and SpaceX are experiencing in the development of the respective vehicles, the CST-100 Starliner and Crew Dragon.

“While past funding shortfalls have contributed to the delay, technical challenges are now driving schedule slippages,” the report stated. “Notwithstanding the contractors’ optimism, based on the information we gathered during our audit, we believe it unlikely that either Boeing or SpaceX will achieve certified, crewed flight to the ISS until late 2018.”

As of June, Boeing had completed 15 of 34 milestones in its Commercial Crew Transportation Capability (CCtCap) contract with NASA, valued at $1.067 billion, according to the report. The company has experienced problems, though, with the CST-100’s development, including mass growth and aeroacoustical loads on its Atlas 5 rocket during launch. Earlier this year, Boeing delayed an uncrewed test flight of the spacecraft to December 2017 and a crewed test flight — likely to carry one NASA astronaut and one Boeing test pilot — until February 2018.

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SpaceX, according to the report, has completed eight of 21 milestones under its CCtCap contract and received $469 million. Its issues with Crew Dragon stem in large part from a design change from a spacecraft that would land on dry land to one that will splash down. “This resulted in significant challenges, including complications with vendor components and the effectiveness of the integrated landing system designed to ensure parachutes work and the capsule does not take on excessive water after landing in the ocean,” the report stated.

The report added that SpaceX, which was planning uncrewed and crewed test flights in mid-2017, was encountering issues with several other vehicle subsystems, including the spacecraft’s parachutes and the tunnel allowing the crew to move between the Dragon and the ISS. SpaceX also hadn’t completed all the milestones associated with a critical design review. “Accordingly, we anticipate additional schedule slippage and do not expect certified flights by SpaceX earlier than late 2018,” the report stated.

That assessment came before the Sept. 1 pad accident at Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral that destroyed a Falcon 9 and its satellite payload and damaged pad infrastructure. While commercial crew missions will launch from Launch Complex 39A here, the investigation into the failure could delay upcoming launches, including commercial crew test flights.

SpaceX argued in the report that a prior Falcon 9 launch failure in June 2015 did not have a major effect on its commercial crew work. “Although SpaceX officials told us that the [2015] mishap has not delayed its crew development efforts because it had built sufficient margin into the schedule,” the OIG report stated, “they also noted the lack of margin remaining to accommodate any additional unexpected issues that may arise.”

A delay to late 2018, and the possibility of additional delays, could require NASA to purchase additional Soyuz flight services, which currently run through 2018. The report noted that the price of Soyuz seats charged to NASA by Roscosmos has increased by 384 percent since NASA first acquired seats in 2006, to nearly $82 million for six seats in 2018.

The NASA Advisory Council, meeting in Cleveland in July, expressed similar concerns about needing to buy additional Soyuz seats, adding that NASA would likely need to make a decision soon.

“Due to the long lead time to procure Soyuz seats, a decision must be made really very shortly — before the end of 2016 — to guarantee access to the ISS in 2019,” said Wayne Hale, interim chairman of the council’s human exploration and operations committee, at the July 28 meeting, “or we may be forced to reduce or possibly eliminate its crew complement.”

NASA had planned to hold a commercial crew update here Sept. 6 in advance of the Sept. 8 launch of the agency’s OSIRIS-REx asteroid sample return mission. Media arriving at the center for the event were told the event was canceled, without explanation.

Source: SpaceNews Return to Contents

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Space Image of the Week

Mars in the Clouds Image Credit & Copyright: Sebastian Voltmer

Explanation: Wandering through this stunning field of view, Mars really is in front of these colorful cosmic clouds. The mosaic constructed from telescopic images is about 5 degrees (10 full moons) across. It captures the planet's position on August 26, over 7 light-minutes from Earth and very near the line-of-sight to bright star Antares and the Rho Ophiuchi cloud complex. In the exposure yellow-hued Mars, above and left, is almost matched by Antares, also known as Alpha Scorpii, below center. Globular star cluster M4 shines just right of Antares, but M4 lies some 7,000 light-years away compared to Antares' 500 light-year distance. Slightly closer than Antares, Rho Ophiuchi's bluish starlight is reflected by the dusty molecular clouds near the top of the frame.

Source: APOD Return to Contents