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 Location of the pump module on the S-1 truss that failed. Credit: NASA Two spacewalks will be required to remove and replace a pump on a critical cooling system on the International Space Station, and NASA is hoping to have station astronauts and ground teams ready by Thursday, August 5 for the first EVA. The pump module failed over the weekend, prompting a shift to a backup system, while other systems were shut down as a precaution. The backup system is working perfectly, and having a second system failure is highly unlikely, but NASA does not like to operate on a "single-string" system without redundancy. "Having another failure would be a serious situation for the program that we want to avoid," said ISS program manager Mike Suffredini.
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Read the rest of NASA Schedules Two "Emergency" EVA's to Fix Cooling System (594 words)
© nancy for Universe Today, 2010. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: ISS
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 The ExoMars program. Credit: ESA From a NASA press release:
NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) are working on a joint program to explore Mars in the coming decades and announced today they have selected five science instruments for the first mission. The ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter, scheduled to launch in 2016, is the first of three joint robotic missions to the Red Planet. It will study the chemical makeup of the Martian atmosphere with a 1000-fold increase in sensitivity over previous Mars orbiters. The mission will focus on trace gases, including methane, which could be potentially geochemical or biological in origin and be indicators for the existence of life on Mars. The mission also will serve as an additional communications relay for Mars surface missions beginning in 2018.
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Read the rest of Instruments Chosen for Joint ESA/NASA Mission to Mars (458 words)
© nancy for Universe Today, 2010. | Permalink | 2 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: esa, Mars. NASA
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 High-resolution view from LRO's Mini-RF of the Moon's north polar region, inset is an unusual crater , Rozhdestvensky (110 miles, or 177 kilometers in diameter). Credit: NASA Radar has been used since the 1960s to map the lunar surface, but until recently it has been difficult to get a good look at the Moon's poles. In 2009, the Mini-SAR radar instrument on the Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft was able to map more than 95% of both poles at 150 meter radar resolution, and now the Mini-RF instrument on the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter — which has 10 times the resolution of the Mini-SAR — is about halfway through its first high-resolution mapping campaign of the poles. The two instruments are revealing there are likely massive amounts of water in the permanently shadowed craters at the poles, with over 600 million metric tons at the north pole alone. "If that was turned into rocket fuel, it would be enough to launch the equivalent of one Space Shuttle per day for over 2,000 years," said Paul Spudis, principal investigator for the Mini-SAR, speaking at the annual Lunar Forum at the Ames Research Center in July.
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Read the rest of Radar Images Reveal Tons of Water Likely at the Lunar Poles (632 words)
© nancy for Universe Today, 2010. | Permalink | 8 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Chandrayaan-1, craters, LRO, Mini-RF, Mini-SAR, Moon
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 The International Space Station. Credit: NASA One of the International Space Station's external cool system pumps quit working late Saturday, likely due to mechanical failure. This triggered subsequent shutdowns in other systems. Teams on the ground are working with the six astronauts on board the station to troubleshoot the issue, but it appears at least two spacewalks will be required to remove and replace the pump. NASA officials said the problem will have to be resolved quickly, as the cooling system is extremely important for all the station's systems. This is a redundant system, so the backup loop is now cooling the station and the crew is in no danger, but NASA does not like to work any systems "single string," i.e., with no backup.
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Read the rest of Space Station Cooling System Shuts Down (342 words)
© nancy for Universe Today, 2010. | Permalink | 7 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: ISS, Space Station
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This week the TWIS team talks about the recent Russian, shares video from Elon Musk's visit with the Colbert Nation, get a tour of Titan's Lake District, more on ZombieSat, and KSC to the turtle rescue.
© nancy for Universe Today, 2010. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
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This year's Perseid meteor shower on August 11-14 is predicted to be one of the best in recent years, and if this awesome trailer from "MeteorWatch" organizer Adrian West doesn't get you excited, then nothing will! Who knew meteors could be such a heart-pumping thrill ride! If you haven't heard of MeteorWatch, it is a way to watch the shower with others, and share your experiences even if you are out there watching all alone. This is a social media astronomical event that has been a big hit among Twitterers for previous events. But there's lots of ways to join in, not only on Twitter (hashtage is #meteorwatch). Everyone is welcome whether they are an astronomer or just have an interest in the night sky. The aim is to get as many people to look up as possible and maybe see meteors or even some fireballs for the first time. Here are a few additional resources:
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Read the rest of Get Ready for the Perseids: Join the World in Watching (115 words)
© nancy for Universe Today, 2010. | Permalink | 5 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Meteor Showers, Perseids meteor shower
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 Spirit rover, as seen by HiRISE on Feb. 15, 2010. Crop and colorization by Stuart Atkinson, image credit: NASA/JPL, U of AZ JPL issued a press release today with an update that mission controllers have still not heard from the hibernating Spirit rover. Even though the rover is experiencing one of Mars' harshest winters since the rovers arrived, the rover team has begun an active "paging" technique called 'sweep and beep' in an effort to communicate with Spirit instead of just passively listening for any activity from the rover. Based on models of Mars' weather and its effect on available power, mission managers believe that if Spirit responds, it most likely will be in the next few months. But in a 'hope for the best, prepare for the worst' kind of way, the press release added, "However, there is a very distinct possibility Spirit may never respond." "It will be the miracle from Mars if our beloved rover phones home," said Doug McCuistion, director of NASA's Mars Exploration Program. "It's never faced this type of severe condition before – this is unknown territory." (...)
Read the rest of NASA Braces Rover Fans for the Worst About Spirit (420 words)
© nancy for Universe Today, 2010. | Permalink | 11 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Mars, Mars Rovers, Spirit Rover
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 Bull's-Eye Impact Crater. Credit: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona Here's some doses of coolness and craziness for your Friday. This top image is one of the latest from the HiRISE camera on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, and shows what looks like a target on the Red Planet. Researchers from the HiRISE team aren't sure yet whether this is two impacts — one impact that occurred dead center within another — or just unusual subsurface layering within one impact. I'm voting for two impacts, just because it is such a cool, lightning-strikes-twice concept. While no ejecta from the interior crater can be seen, the team says the ejecta could have been removed by extensive periglacial modification. Additionally, the floor fill around the inner crater resembles impact ejects elsewhere at this latitude, and some of the "landslides" to the East could be flow-back of ejecta off the walls of the larger crater. Likely the team will be looking closer at this impact to sort out the history and likelihood of a double impact. (UPDATE: I just saw that the Bad Astronomer has posted a more detailed CSI into this image, which you should read!) Now, this next one is the crazy part…
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Read the rest of Bulls-Eye on Mars and, Apparently, an Industrial Complex (133 words)
© nancy for Universe Today, 2010. | Permalink | 14 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: HiRISE, hoaxes, Mars, MRO
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