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Space News Update — April 1, 2014 —

Contents

In the News

Story 1:

SLS positioning for ARRM and Europa missions

Story 2:

Soyuz docks with International Space Station

Story 3:

Opportunity Rover Gets Power Boost from Wind Events on Mars

Departments

The Night Sky

ISS Sighting Opportunities

NASA-TV Highlights

Space Calendar

Food for Thought

Space Image of the Week

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1.0 SLS positioning for ARRM and Europa missions

Space Launch System (SLS) managers are conducting a feasibility study into the use of a 5.4 meter payload fairing, with a view to enabling the use of the HLV for the Asteroid Redirect Robotic Mission (ARRM) spacecraft – set to launch in 2019 – and even a robotic mission to Europa. The effort is part of a multifaceted drive to find missions for the Heavy Lift Launch Vehicle (HLV). NASA’s new flagship launch vehicle is currently progressing towards its Critical Design Review (CDR) milestone. Its development path has so far managed to avoid the serious schedule and design issues suffered during the Constellation Program (CxP).

However, SLS has yet to win over some of its critics who point to the lack of missions for the HLV. SLS will debut in late 2017 on Exploration Mission -1 (EM-1), a test flight that tasks the HLV to loft the Orion spacecraft on a mission that will send the spacecraft 70,000 km past the Moon on a 25 day flight. Four years will pass before SLS launches again on Exploration Mission -2 (EM-2), this time with a crewed Orion, sent to rendezvous with a captured asteroid near the Moon. No specific missions have been allocated to the HLV past EM-2 at this time, as NASA managers work through Design Reference Mission (DRM) options, ahead of negotiations with international partners – who will have to join forces with NASA in order to share the strain of the huge costs associated with deep space exploration. This “capability” approach builds on available hardware, projected funding and international involvement as the foundation for creating missions for the HLV in the 2020s, during which the vehicle will have to launch a minimum of once per year. While that roadmap continues to be evaluated, SLS managers have always cited the HLV’s multi-mission capability, envisioning numerous missions to fill in the gaps in an exploration manifest that only requires SLS to launch a handful of times during the next decade.

Without naming specific payloads, NASA managers have previously intimated they expect SLS’ superior up mass capability will attract willing payloads from areas ranging from the Department of Defense (DOD), international partners to the science community. In an effort to advertise and further evaluate SLS’ versatility, documentation (acquired by L2) portrayed one of the payload fairing options that could be installed on to the HLV, specific to robotic spacecraft. Titled as “Objective: Determine the Technical Feasibility of Utilizing a RUAG 5.4m PLF on SLS Vehicles & Define a Potential Partnership Approach to Develop the System,” the overview is based on using an Ariane 5 style fairing atop of the SLS. The Swiss-based RUAG Space has been responsible for the development and production of all Ariane launcher payload fairings. Currently, fairings are produced for the European Ariane 5 and for the United Launch Alliance Atlas V-500 launch vehicles as well as for the new small European Launcher Vega. The company note their fairings are built with composite technology based on aluminum honeycomb cores with carbon fiber reinforced plastic face sheets. This construction method allows the combination of low mass with high stiffness. The SLS team are employing a “Two Way Feasibility Study of the Applicability of a RUAG 5.4m PLF to SLS, via “RUAG assessment using NASA Evaluation Criteria (GR&A), and a “NASA assessment using RUAG PLF definition and NASA Generated Data.” The intent, as noted by the presentation, is to reconcile the differences between the assessments by the end of study process.

SLS engineers began working on the study in the middle of 2013 via Technical Interchange Meetings (TIMs), prior to creating the March, 2014 overview. Its current status is at the management review level ahead of a partnership decision. In providing examples of the fairings usage, two DRMs were provided. The first relates to using SLS for launching the ARRM spacecraft that will head out and capture an asteroid. Although NASA is still evaluating the type of spacecraft that will conduct this role, scheduled for at least two years ahead of EM-2, current baselines point to an EELV-class rocket as providing the spacecraft’s launch. Switching that role to the SLS would be a hard sell, not least based on cost, unless NASA creates a path to promote the benefits of

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providing SLS with a 2019 cargo mission – something that has been previously suggested - as a potential avenue to hand the SLS workforce a mission in-between the large EM-1 to EM-2 gap, whilst also providing SLS with a second test launch ahead of launching with humans. The second DRM provided – a mission with a spacecraft bound for Jovian moon Europa – would be an even larger challenge to enable, mainly from a funding standpoint. SLS managers have already made attempts to attract science missions to their manifest, with previous L2 notes showing they have been working alongside the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) on a notional science mission to the Europa. However, this was an exercise, as opposed to the opening plans for an action mission. With this new presentation once again citing a mission to Europa in its DRM examples, the SLS team continue to promote the HLV for flagship science missions. However, other – far cheaper – launch vehicle options already exist. The main problem for enabling such a mission is the funding – or lack thereof – for a robotic mission to Europa, with NASA’s budget strained to the point such a mission only exists at the “pre-formulation” stage. At present, this mission would likely favor the Atlas V, which is certified to launch spacecraft that require Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generators (RTGs) – developed for deep space missions – to provide long duration power support to the payload. SLS would require certification for such a payload, which would likely come only after a salvo of missions have proved the HLV’s reliability. Such an effort – should a Europa mission target early into SLS’ lifetime – would add cost to the mission, which could result in the payload customer/responsible Agency department having to pick up the tab. SLS also lacks payload access at the pad, which is normally a safety requirement for the installation of RTGs. The benefit of such a mission being lofted via the superior performance of SLS would result in the mission transit time vastly reduced, when compared to the eight or so years it would take via a current launch vehicle. However, that is not yet a viable consideration when such a mission is a long way from becoming a reality.

Source: NASA Spaceflight Return to Contents

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2. Soyuz docks with International Space Station

A Russian Soyuz spacecraft carrying two cosmonauts and a NASA astronaut glided to a smooth linkup with the International Space Station Thursday, two days after a technical snag blocked a fast-track rendezvous and docking shortly after launch Tuesday. Astronaut Rick Mastracchio posted this view of the approaching Soyuz from the International Space Station. Photo credit: NASA/Rick Mastracchio With commander Alexander Skvortsov monitoring the automated approach from the Soyuz's center seat, the docking mechanism in the nose of the Soyuz TMA-12M ferry craft engaged its counterpart at the end of the upper Poisk module at 7:53 p.m. EDT (GMT-4) as the two spacecraft sailed 252 miles above southern Brazil. "Sasha, congratulations to you and your crew on having successfully completed the first part of your mission," radioed Oleg Ostapenko, director of Roscosmos, the Russian federal space agency. "Congratulations to everyone." "Thank you, sir." Skvortsov replied.

A few moments later, latches engaged to firmly lock the Soyuz in place. After extensive leak checks, Skvortsov, flight engineer Oleg Artemyev and NASA astronaut Steven Swanson were expected to float into the station, welcomed aboard by Expedition 39 commander Koichi Wakata, Mikhail Tyurin and Rick Mastracchio. All six crew members planned to gather in the Zvezda command module for a traditional post-docking radio chat with space agency managers, friends and family members gathered at the Russian flight control center near Moscow. After a safety briefing, Skvortsov, Artemyev and Swanson planned to settle in, looking forward to a bit of time off after a busy, unexpected two-day rendezvous. U.S. flight controllers, meanwhile, planned to press ahead with work to load new software into the station's computer system. The station crew originally expected to take delivery of a commercial SpaceX cargo ship next Wednesday, but the launching, planned for Sunday, was put on hold because of presumed problems with U.S. Air Force tracking equipment. A new launch date has not yet been announced.

Skvortsov, Artemyev and Swanson blasted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Tuesday. Shortly after reaching orbit, the spacecraft's computer began executing a planned six-hour, four-orbit rendezvous, a procedure requiring a series of carefully timed rocket firings to home in on the space station. The first two rocket firings went smoothly, but the spacecraft was slightly out of attitude, or orientation, for the third "burn" and the rendezvous procedure was aborted. During subsequent passes over Russian ground stations, engineers downlinked stored data from the spacecraft to figure out what caused the 1-degree attitude error. They have not yet revealed the presumed root cause, but NASA officials say the problem is understood and engineers have developed procedures to make sure it isn't repeated on future flights.

In the meantime, flight controllers began implementing backup plans for a 48-hour, 34-orbit rendezvous. Such two-day Soyuz rendezvous plans were the norm for most of the space station's 15-year lifetime and Skvortsov flew one during his first flight to the outpost in 2010. The shorter four-orbit rendezvous was designed to

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reduce the time crews have to spend in the cramped Soyuz en route to the space station. The abbreviated rendezvous was first tested in 2012 with an uncrewed Progress cargo ship. After additional test flights, four crewed Soyuz flights followed the fast-track trajectory. Skvortsov's crew would have been the fifth. With the station's crew back up to six, the astronauts and cosmonauts face a full slate of research activity, along with the expected arrival of three cargo ships over the next several weeks -- the SpaceX Dragon capsule, a Russian Progress freighter and an Orbital Sciences Corp. Cygnus cargo ship. Because of the SpaceX delay, however, launch dates are under review and have not yet been finalized. Wakata and his two crewmates have had the station to themselves since March 11 when Soyuz TMA-10M commander Oleg Kotov, Sergey Ryazanskiy and Mike Hopkins returned to Earth. Wakata and his crewmates are scheduled to follow suit in their Soyuz TMA-11M ferry craft on May 13. At that point, Swanson will take over as commander of Expedition 40. That will clear the way for the May 28 launch of Soyuz TMA-13M commander Maxim Suraev, a Russian space veteran, and two rookies: European Space Agency astronaut Alexander Gerst and NASA astronaut Reid Wiseman. Skvortsov, Swanson and Artemyev are scheduled to return to Earth on Sept. 11. Their replacements -- Barry Wilmore, Alexander Samokutyaev and Elena Serova -- are scheduled for launch Sept. 26. They will join Suraev, Gerst and Wiseman as part of the Expedition 41 crew.

Spaceflight Now Return to Contents

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3. Opportunity Rover Gets Power Boost from Wind Events on Mars

The Opportunity rover on Mars has gotten a 70% boost in power over the past few weeks. A good portion of that comes from the fact that its springtime in Mars’ southern hemisphere where Oppy now sits along the western rim of Endeavour Crater and so the Sun is now shining longer and higher in the sky. But also, several recent gusts of wind – or perhaps small dust devils – have cleaned much of the dust off the rover’s solar panels. The rover team reported that between Sols 3605 and 3606 (March 15 and March 16, 2014), there was a dust cleaning event that resulted in about a 10% improvement in power production to 574 watt-hours, and then another cleaning event this week has put the power output to 615 watt-hours. See a self-portrait that Opportunity took of its solar panels back in January to compare with the image above of how much cleaner the solar panels are now. Of course, this is not the first time a wind cleaning event has dusted off the solar panels — in fact it has happened several times which is one of the reasons for the longevity of the solar-powered rovers. I love these self-images the rovers can take, and below is a great recent image the rover took of its own shadow, in the late-afternoon Sun. The image was taken by the rover’s rear hazard avoidance camera.

Universe Today Return to Contents

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The Night Sky

Tuesday, April 1 The biggest and brightest asteroids, 1 Ceres and 4

Vesta respectively, are only about 2° apart in eastern Virgo, some 12° northeast of Mars. They've brightened to magnitudes 7.1 and 5.9, respectively. They'll be at opposition in mid-April. Use our finder chart for Ceres and Vesta.

Wednesday, April 2 The crescent Moon shines below the Pleiades,

Aldebaran, and the V-shaped Hyades, as shown above.

Thursday, April 3 With binoculars or a telescope, North Americans can

watch the waxing crescent Moon crossing the Hyades star cluster. The Moon's dark, earthlit limb will occult three 4th- and 5th-magnitude stars depending on where you are, as told in the April Sky & Telescope, page 50.

Friday, April 4 Spot Mars and Spica in the southeast after dark and

look far left from them to find Arcturus, the "Spring Star," shining in the east. Arcturus forms the pointy bottom of the long, narrow kite asterism made by the brightest stars of Bootes. The kite is currently lying on its side to the left of Arcturus, with its head at the far left bent slightly upward. The kite is 23° long, about two fist-widths at arm's length. Saturday, April 5 The Moon passes below Jupiter in Gemini this

weekend, as shown at right

Source: Sky 2& Telescope Return to Contents

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ISS Sighting Opportunities For Denver:

Date Visible Max Height Appears Disappears Tue Apr 1, 5:12 AM 5 min 55° 22 above NW 11 above ESE

Wed Apr 2, 4:25 AM 2 min 30° 30 above NE 10 above E

Wed Apr 2, 5:59 AM 5 min 27° 11 above WNW 11 above SSE

Thu Apr 3, 5:12 AM 3 min 50° 49 above WSW 10 above SE

Fri Apr 4, 4:26 AM < 1 min 11° 11 above SE 11 above SE

Fri Apr 4, 9:02 PM 1 min 23° 11 above SSW 23 above SSW

Sat Apr 5, 8:13 PM 4 min 22° 11 above S 16 above E

Sat Apr 5, 9:49 PM 1 min 20° 10 above WSW 20 above W

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

NASA-TV Highlights (all times Eastern Daylight Time)

April 1, Tuesday

12:30 p.m. - Deep Space Network’s 50th Anniversary NASA Social - JPL (NTV-1, NTV-2)

April 3, Thursday 8:15 a.m. - ISS Expedition 39 In-Flight Interview for JAXA with TV Tokyo (native language on NTV-3) - JSC (All Channels) Watch NASA TV online by going to the NASA website. Return to Contents

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Space Calendar

Apr 01 - Asteroid 3902 Yoritomo Occults HIP 26571 (6.5 Magnitude Star) Apr 01 - Asteroid 2009 SA100 Near-Earth Flyby (0.044 AU) Apr 01 - Asteroid 2010 GD35 Near-Earth Flyby (0.049 AU) Apr 01 - Asteroid 2009 FD Near-Earth Flyby (0.101 AU) Apr 01 - Asteroid 3297 Hong Kong Closest Approach To Earth (2.584 AU) Apr 02 - Comet 297P/Beshore Closest Approach To Earth (1.563 AU) Apr 02 - Comet C/2012 K1 (PANSTARRS) At Opposition (1.794 AU) Apr 02 - Comet 119P/Parker-Hartley Perihelion (3.027 AU) Apr 02 - Comet 78P/Gehrels At Opposition (3.862 AU) Apr 02 - Asteroid 1014 Semphyra Occults HIP 74392 (4.5 Magnitude Star) Apr 02 - Asteroid 2014 EQ12 Near-Earth Flyby (0.052 AU)

Apr 02 - [Mar 30] Asteroid 2014 FL38 Near-Earth Flyby (0.082 AU) Apr 02 - Asteroid 11335 Santiago Closest Approach To Earth (1.150 AU) Apr 02 - Asteroid 12258 Oscarwilde Closest Approach To Earth (1.341 AU) Apr 02 - Asteroid 3720 Hokkaido Closest Approach To Earth (1.428 AU) Apr 02 - Asteroid 7088 Ishtar Closest Approach To Earth (1.915 AU) Apr 02 - Asteroid 6701 Warhol Closest Approach To Earth (1.967 AU) Apr 02 - Asteroid 42355 Typhon Closest Approach To Earth (18.494 AU) Apr 02 - 50th Anniversary (1964), Zond 1 Launch (USSR Venus Flyby Mission) Apr 02 - 55th Anniversary (1959), Selection Of The Mercury 7 Astronauts

Apr 03 - [Mar 28] DMSP F-19 Atlas 5 Launch Apr 03 - Comet P/2007 C1 (Christensen) Closest Approach To Earth (1.421 AU) Apr 03 - Comet 281P/MOSS Closest Approach To Earth (3.613 AU) Apr 03 - Comet P/2008 T1 (Boattini) At Opposition (3.871 AU) Apr 03 - Asteroid 2 Pallas Occults TYC 0238-00901-1 (11.3 Magnitude Star) Apr 03 - Asteroid 2014 EC49 Near-Earth Flyby (0.088 AU) Apr 04 - Sentinel 1A Soyuz-STB Fregat-MT Launch

Apr 04 - [Mar 30] IRNSS 1B/ Swayam PSLV-XL Launch Apr 04 - Comet P/2010 A2 (LINEAR) Closest Approach To Earth (1.334 AU) Apr 04 - Cassini, Orbital Trim Maneuver #376 (OTM-376) Apr 04 - Asteroid 2013 TT5 Near-Earth Flyby (0.096 AU) Apr 04 - Asteroid 128036 Rafaelnadal Closest Approach To Earth (1.162 AU) Apr 04 - Asteroid 2266 Tchaikovsky Closest Approach To Earth (2.637 AU) Apr 05 - Comet 54P/de Vico-Swift-NEAT At Opposition (4.277 AU) Apr 05 - Asteroid 99942 Apophis Closest Approach To Earth (0.376 AU) Apr 05 - Asteroid 2956 Yeomans Closest Approach To Earth (1.580 AU) Apr 05 - Asteroid 24750 Ohm Closest Approach To Earth (1.953 AU) Apr 05 - Asteroid 6594 Tasman Closest Approach To Earth (2.014 AU) Apr 05 - Judith Resnick's 65th Birthday (1949)

Source: JPL Space Calendar Return to Contents

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Food for Though

Satellite Shows High Productivity from U.S. Corn Belt

Data from satellite sensors show that during the Northern Hemisphere's growing season, the Midwest region of the United States boasts more photosynthetic activity than any other spot on Earth, according to NASA and university scientists. Healthy plants convert light to energy via photosynthesis, but chlorophyll also emits a fraction of absorbed light as a fluorescent glow that is invisible to the naked eye. The magnitude of the glow is an excellent indicator of the amount of photosynthesis, or gross productivity, of plants in a given region. Research in 2013, led by Joanna Joiner of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., demonstrated that fluorescence from plants could be teased out from existing data from satellites that were designed and built for other purposes. The new research, led by Luis Guanter of the Freie Universität Berlin, used the data for the first time to estimate photosynthesis from agriculture. Results were published March 25 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

According to co-author Christian Frankenberg of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., "The paper shows that fluorescence is a much better proxy for agricultural productivity than anything we've had before. This can go a long way regarding monitoring -- and maybe even predicting -- regional crop yields." Guanter, Joiner and Frankenberg launched their collaboration at a 2012 workshop, hosted by the Keck Institute for Space Studies at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) in Pasadena, to explore measurements of photosynthesis from space. The team noticed that on an annual basis, the tropics are the most active in photosynthesis. But during the Northern Hemisphere's growing season, the U.S. Corn Belt "really stands out," Frankenberg said. "Areas all over the world are not as productive as this area." The researchers set out to describe the phenomenon observed by carefully interpreting data from the Global Ozone Monitoring Experiment 2 (GOME-2) on Metop-A, a European meteorological satellite. Data showed that fluorescence from the U.S. Corn Belt peaks in July at levels 40 percent greater than those observed in the Amazon. Comparison with ground-based measurements from carbon flux towers and yield statistics confirmed the results. "The match between ground-based measurements and satellite measurements was a pleasant surprise," said Joiner, a co-author on the paper.

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Ground-based measurements have a resolution of about 0.4 square mile (1 square kilometer), while the satellite measurements currently have a resolution of more than 1,158 square miles (3,000 square kilometers). The study confirms that even with coarse resolution, the satellite method could estimate the photosynthetic activity occurring inside plants at the molecular level for areas with relatively homogenous vegetation like the Corn Belt. Challenges remain in estimating the productivity of fragmented agricultural areas not properly sampled by current space-borne instruments. That's where missions with better resolution could help, such as NASA's Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 (OCO-2) -- a mission planned for launch in July 2014 that will also measure solar-induced fluorescence. The research could also help scientists improve the computer models that simulate Earth's carbon cycle, as Guanter found a strong underestimation of crop photosynthesis in models. The analysis revealed that carbon cycle models -- which scientists use to understand how carbon cycles through the ocean, land and atmosphere over time -- underestimate the productivity of the U.S. Corn Belt by 40 to 60 percent. Unlike most vegetation, food crops are managed to maximize productivity. They usually have access to abundant nutrients and are irrigated. The U.S. Corn Belt, for example, receives water from the Mississippi River. Accounting for the region's irrigation is currently a challenge for models, which is one reason why they underestimate agricultural productivity. "If we don't take into account irrigation and other human influences in the agricultural areas, we're not going to correctly estimate the amount of carbon taken up by vegetation, particularly corn," Joiner said. "Corn plants are very productive in terms of assimilating carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. This needs to be accounted for going forward in trying to predict how much of the atmospheric carbon dioxide will be taken up by crops in a changing climate."

According to Frankenberg, the remote sensing-based techniques now available could be a powerful monitoring tool for food security, especially data from OCO-2 in combination with data from other upcoming satellites such as NASA's Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP), scheduled for launch later this year. NASA monitors Earth's vital signs from land, air and space with a fleet of satellites and ambitious airborne and ground-based observation campaigns. NASA develops new ways to observe and study Earth's interconnected natural systems with long-term data records and computer analysis tools to better see how our planet is changing. The agency shares this unique knowledge with the global community and works with institutions in the United States and around the world that contribute to understanding and protecting our home planet.

NASA JPL Return to Contents

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Space Image of the Week

Io in True Color

Image Credit: Galileo Project, JPL, NASA

Explanation: The strangest moon in the Solar System is bright yellow. This picture, an attempt to show how Io would appear in the "true colors" perceptible to the average human eye, was taken in 1999 July by the Galileo spacecraft that orbited Jupiter from 1995 to 2003. Io's colors derive from sulfur and molten silicate rock. The unusual surface of Io is kept very young by its system of active volcanoes. The intense tidal gravity of Jupiter stretches Io and damps wobbles caused by Jupiter's other Galilean moons. The resulting friction greatly heats Io's interior, causing molten rock to explode through the surface. Io's volcanoes are so active that they are effectively turning the whole moon inside out. Some of Io's volcanic lava is so hot it glows in the dark.

Source: NASA APOD Return to Contents