Fwd: MAAM's Mid-Atlantic Air Museum's P-61 'Black Widow' Recovery and Restoration Project - The Widow's Web

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Begin forwarded message:

From: "Gary Johnson" <gjohnson144@comcast.net>
Date: June 29, 2013 8:55:32 PM GMT-06:00
To: "Gary Johnson" <gjohnson144@comcast.net>
Subject: FW: MAAM's Mid-Atlantic Air Museum's P-61 'Black Widow' Recovery and Restoration Project - The Widow's Web

Subject: MAAM's Mid-Atlantic Air Museum's P-61 'Black Widow' Recovery and
Restoration Project - The Widow's Web


http://www.maam.org/p61.html

Fwd: 50 Amazing Galaxy Pictures tha... (astronomydvd.com)

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Begin forwarded message:

From: "Gary Johnson" <gjohnson144@comcast.net>
Date: June 29, 2013 8:35:23 PM GMT-06:00
To: "Gary Johnson" <gjohnson144@comcast.net>
Subject: FW: 50 Amazing Galaxy Pictures tha... (astronomydvd.com)

From: William Bates  
Sent: Friday, June 28, 2013 2:32 PM
To: William Bates
Subject: 50 Amazing Galaxy Pictures tha... (astronomydvd.com)

 

William Bates

 

Simply mindboggling

 50 Amazing Galaxy Pictures that You Must See
 http://www.astronomydvd.com/galaxypics.html

 

 

 

Holder Begs Court To Prevent Public From Seeing Obama’s “Executive Privilege” Records Relating to “Fast And Furious”... | RedFlagNews.com

http://redflagnews.com/headlines/holder-pleads-with-court-to-stop-document-release-on-obama-gun-running-scandal


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Fwd: CCiCAP: Capsule Countdown

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Begin forwarded message:

From: "Gary Johnson" <gjohnson144@comcast.net>
Date: June 29, 2013 9:26:34 AM GMT-06:00
To: "Gary Johnson" <gjohnson144@comcast.net>
Subject: FW: CCiCAP: Capsule Countdown

 

CCiCAP: Capsule Countdown

 by Rupa Haria 5:31 AM on Jun 28, 2013

In the July 1 edition of Aviation Week & Space Technology, Guy Norris reports on the mounting pressure the budget squeeze has added to commercial crew tests. With Boeing and Space X both competing for NASA's Commercial Crew Integrated Capability (CCiCAP), the race is heating up. Digital and tablet subscribers can read Guy's story from Friday.

Meanwhile, the Sierra Nevada's Dream Chaser engineering test article (ETA), which was awarded $212.5 million as part of the CCiCAP program,  recently begun tow tests at NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards AFB, California.  

Here are Guy's photos and notes on the program.

The vehicle, which will conduct glide tests later this summer after being dropped from a hovering helicopter, began the build up to flight tests with a series of very low speed tow runs to check the wear of its nose skid on the paved taxiways at Dryden.

Sierra Nevada also recently successfully completed tests of the pyrotechnically-actuated flight termination system.

During its unveiling at Dryden in late May, the Dream Chaser was presented in company with the original NASA M2-F1 lifting body which first flew at the desert base in 1963. The modified half-cone shaped vehicle was built from plywood and tubular steel by glider designer Gus Briegleb, and towed into the air behind a souped-up Pontiac convertible driven at up to 120 mph across Rogers Dry Lake. With NASA research pilot Milt Thompson at the controls, the flimsy craft later flew to an altitude of 12,000 ft towed behind a U.S. Navy R4D. The M2-F1 was released from the tow and returned to the lakebed at speeds up to 120 mph. The M2-F1 was eventually flown 77 times before being retired and paved the way for  a series of increasingly sophisticated vehicles like the M2-F2/F3, HL-10, X-24A and X-24B. The Dream Chaser is evolved from the HL-20, a proposed spaceplane concept from the late 1980s-early 1990s which leveraged both the original U.S. lifting body designs and the Soviet-era BOR-4 vehicle.

Watch the video of the Sierra Nevada's Dream Chaser concept of operations.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=i7yPVaNdGBw

 

 

 

 

 

 

Copyright © 2013, Aviation Week, a division of The McGraw-Hill Companies. All rights reserved.

 

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Fwd: Opportunity Approaching Mountain Climbing Goal and Signs of Habitable Martian Environment

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Begin forwarded message:

From: "Gary Johnson" <gjohnson144@comcast.net>
Date: June 29, 2013 9:27:10 AM GMT-06:00
To: "Gary Johnson" <gjohnson144@comcast.net>
Subject: FW: Opportunity Approaching Mountain Climbing Goal and Signs of Habitable Martian Environment

 

 

 

Opportunity Approaching Mountain Climbing Goal and Signs of Habitable Martian Environment

by Ken Kremer on June 29, 2013

 

Opportunity rover captures spectacular view ahead to her upcoming mountain climbing goal, the raised rim of "Solander Point" at right, located along the western edge of Endeavour Crater. It may harbor clay minerals indicative of a habitable zone. This pancam photo mosaic was taken on Sol 3335, June 11, 2013.
Credit: NASA/JPL/Cornell/ASU/Marco Di Lorenzo/Ken Kremer (kenkremer.com)
See full panoramic scene below
Last chance to "Send Your Name to Mars on MAVEN" – below

NASA's nearly decade old Opportunity Mars rover is sailing swiftly on a southerly course towards her first true mountain climbing destination – named "Solander Point" – in search of more evidence of habitable environments with the chemical ingredients necessary to sustain Martian life forms.

At Solander Point, researchers have already spotted deep stacks of ancient rocks transformed by flowing liquid water eons ago. It is located along the western rim of huge Endeavour Crater.

"Right now the rover team is discussing the best way to approach and drive up Solander," Ray Arvidson told Universe Today. Arvidson is the mission's deputy principal scientific investigator from Washington University in St. Louis, Mo.

Solander Point may harbor clay minerals in the rock stacks indicative of a past Martian habitable zone.

"One idea is to drive part way up Solander from the west side of the rim, turn left and then drive down the steeper north facing slopes with the stratographic sections," Arvidson told me.

"That way we don't have to drive up the relatively steeper slopes. The rover can drive up rocky surfaces inclined about 12 to 15 degrees."

"We want to go through the stratographic sections on the north facing sections."

Solander Point mosaic captured by high resolution pancam camera on Sol 3334, June 10, 2013. Opportunity will scale Solander after arriving in August 2013 in search of chemical ingredients to sustain Martian microbes. Credit: NASA/JPL/Cornell/ASU/Marco Di Lorenzo/Ken Kremer (kenkremer.com)

The science team hopes that by scaling Solander, Opportunity will build on her recent historic discovery of a habitable environment at a rock called "Esperance" that possesses a cache of phyllosilicate clay minerals.

These aluminum rich clay minerals typically form in neutral, drinkable water that is not extremely acidic or basic and therefore could support a path to potential Martian microbes.

"Esperance ranks as one of my personal Top 5 discoveries of the mission," said Steve Squyres of Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y., principal investigator for NASA's rover mission at a recent media briefing.

'Esperance' Target Examined by Opportunity in May 2013. The pale rock called "Esperance," has a high concentration of clay minerals formed in near neutral water indcating a spot favorable for life. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornell Univ./Arizona State Univ.

Using high resolution CRISM spectral data collected from Mars orbit, the rover was specifically directed to Esperance, Arvidson explained. The rock was found about a kilometer back on Matijevic Hill at 'Cape York', a rather low hilly segment of the western rim of giant Endeavour crater which spans 14 miles (22 km) across.

'Solander Point' offers roughly about a 10 times taller stack of geological layering compared to 'Cape York.' Both areas are raised segments of the western rim of Endeavour Crater.

The team is working now to obtain the same type of high resolution spectral evidence for phyllosilicate clay minerals at Solander as they had at Cape York to aid in targeting Opportunity to the most promising outcrops, Arvidson explained.

Opportunity is snapping ever more spectacular imagery of Solander Point and the eroded rim of Endeavour Crater as she approaches closer every passing Sol, or Martian Day.

Opportunity captures spectacular panoramic view ahead to her upcoming mountain climbing goal, the raised rim of "Solander Point" at right, located along the western edge of Endeavour Crater. It may harbor clay minerals indicative of a habitable zone. The rise at left is "Nobbys Head" which the rover just passed on its southward drive to Solander Point from Cape York. This pancam photo mosaic was taken on Sol 3335, June 11, 2013 shows vast expanse of the central crater mound and distant Endeavour crater rim.
Credit: NASA/JPL/Cornell/ASU/Marco Di Lorenzo/Ken Kremer (kenkremer.com)

The long lived robot arrived at the edge of Endeavour crater in mid-2011 and will spend her remaining life driving around the scientifically rich crater rim segments.

On June 21, 2013, Opportunity marked five Martian years on Mars since landing on Jan 24, 2004 with a mere 90 day 'warranty'.

This week Opportunity's total driving distance exceeded 23 miles (37 kilometers).

The solar powered robot remains in excellent health and the life giving solar arrays are producing plenty of electrical power at the moment.

Solander Point also offers northerly tilled slopes that will maximize the power generation during Opportunity's upcoming 6th Martian winter .

The rover handlers want Opportunity to reach Solander's slopes by August, before winter's onset.

On the opposite side of Mars at Gale Crater, Opportunity's younger sister rover Curiosity also discovered clay minerals and a habitable environment originating from a time when the Red Planet was far warmer and wetter billions of years ago.

And this is your last chance to "Send Your Name to Mars" aboard NASA's MAVEN orbiter- details here. Deadline: July 1, 2013. Launch: Nov. 18, 2013

Ken Kremer

Wide angle view of Endeavour Crater showing Solander Point and Cape Tribulation in this photo mosaic captured by navcam camera on Sol 3335, June 11, 2013. Opportunity will scale Solander after arriving in August 2013 in search of chemical ingredients to sustain Martian microbes. Credit: NASA/JPL/Cornell/Marco Di Lorenzo/Ken Kremer (kenkremer.com)

Traverse Map for NASA's Opportunity rover from 2004 to 2013
This map shows the entire path the rover has driven during more than 9 years and over 3330 Sols, or Martian days, since landing inside Eagle Crater on Jan 24, 2004 to current location heading south to Solander Point from Cape York ridge at the western rim of Endeavour Crater. Credit: NASA/JPL/Cornell/ASU/Marco Di Lorenzo/Ken Kremer 

 

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Fwd: NASA Space Shuttle Runway Gets New Life as Commercial Spaceport

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Begin forwarded message:

From: "Gary Johnson" <gjohnson144@comcast.net>
Date: June 29, 2013 9:27:40 AM GMT-06:00
To: "Gary Johnson" <gjohnson144@comcast.net>
Subject: FW: NASA Space Shuttle Runway Gets New Life as Commercial Spaceport

 

 

David Weaver/Allard Beutel 

Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1600
david.s.weaver@nasa.gov
allard.beutel@nasa.gov
 
Tracy Young
Kennedy Space Center, Fla.
321-867-9284
tracy.g.young@nasa.gov

June 28, 2013

 

RELEASE : 13-199
 
NASA and Space Florida Begin Partnership Discussions

 
Space Florida Proposes to Operate Shuttle Landing Facility

WASHINGTON -- NASA has selected Space Florida, the aerospace economic development agency for the state of Florida, for negotiations toward a partnership agreement to maintain and operate the historic Shuttle Landing Facility (SLF).

NASA Administrator Charles Bolden and the director of NASA's Kennedy Space Center (KSC), Robert Cabana, announced the selection during a news conference Friday at Kennedy's Visitor Complex in Florida.

"This agreement will continue to expand Kennedy's viability as a multi-user spaceport and strengthen the economic opportunities for Florida and the nation," Bolden said. "It also continues to demonstrate NASA's commitment and progress in building a strong commercial space industry so that American companies are providing safe, reliable, and cost-effective transportation to and from the International Space Station and other low Earth orbit destinations."

NASA issued a request for information to industry in 2012 to identify new and innovative ways to use the facility for current and future commercial and government mission activities. Space Florida's proposal is aligned closely with Kennedy's vision for creating a multiuser spaceport.

"The SLF is a significant asset for the center that ties our historical past to the vision of the future," said Cabana. "I had the privilege of landing two space shuttle orbiters at the facility and look forward to beginning discussions with Space Florida on a future partnership that will fully utilize this unique resource."

"The SLF provides a unique capability for new and expanding suborbital launch providers, unmanned aerial vehicle operators and other aerospace-related businesses to thrive in a location that maximizes the resources of the space center and Eastern Range operations," said Space Florida President Frank DiBello. "We look forward to working with NASA and KSC leadership in the coming months to finalize the details of this transaction in a way that will provide the greatest benefit to incoming commercial aerospace businesses."

The SLF, specially designed for space shuttles returning to Kennedy, opened for flights in 1976. The concrete runway is 15,000 feet long and 300 feet wide. The SLF is capable of handling all types and sizes of aircraft and horizontal launch and landing vehicles.

For more information on Space Florida, visit:

http://www.spaceflorida.gov

For more information about NASA's Kennedy Space Center, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/kennedy 

- end - 

 

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NASA Space Shuttle Runway Gets New Life as Commercial Spaceport

by Clara Moskowitz, SPACE.com Assistant Managing Editor

28 June 2013 Time: 04:38 PM ET

 

 

 

The Shuttle Landing Facility at Kennedy Space Center, one of the largest runways ever built, will be converted to a commercial spaceport operated by the state of Florida. CREDIT: NASA View full size image

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — The famous seaside space shuttle runway here at NASA's Kennedy Space Center may have a second life soon as a launch and landing spot for a whole new type of space mission: tourist flights.

The 15,000-foot-long (4,600 meters) Shuttle Landing Facility (SLF) has been unused for spaceflights since the 30-year space shuttle program retired in 2011. But now NASA is handing over operation of the facility to Space Florida, the aerospace economic development agency for the state of Florida, to put the runway to new uses.

"Space Florida will take over operation of SLF as a combined airport and spaceport," NASA administrator Charles Bolden said here at a press conference today (June 28). "This will continue to expand Kennedy's viability as a multiuser spaceport. We look forward to working with Space Florida over the coming months." [Photos: NASA's Last Shuttle Landing in History]

Space Florida hopes to recruit commercial space companies to perform launches and landings from the Shuttle Landing Facility. The organization has reached out to suborbital launch company XCOR Aerospace, as well as orbital spaceship builders Sierra Nevada Space Systems, Boeing and Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX), and has high hopes many of these companies will establish operations at Kennedy Space Center.

"It's our job to make it a commercial entity —we're excited for the challenge," Jim Kuzma, senior vice president and chief operating officer of Space Florida, told SPACE.com.

NASA itself may prove to be a customer of the facility when it starts launching its new heavy-lift rocket, the Space Launch System, and Orion spacecraft, in coming years. Under the new arrangement, NASA is no longer shouldering the everyday cost of running the Shuttle Landing Facility — Florida is — so if NASA uses the facility it will have to pay for it like any other customer.

"It's exciting for Florida," Kuzma said. "We think the work force is here, the understanding of the needs of the space industry is here."

Andrew Nelson, chief operating officer of XCOR Aerospace, which hopes to begin launching tourists to the edge of space on its Lynx vehicle soon, agreed.

"The workforce is incredible here," he said. "There's just something in the DNA here."

XCOR said it was attracted to the idea of launching flights out of Kennedy Space Center in part because the Space Coast lures so many tourists — it's about an hour's drive from the tourist Mecca of Orlando.

"There are 30 million tourist visitors a year here," Nelson told SPACE.com. "A few are going to want to fly to space."

 

Copyright © 2013 TechMediaNetwork.com All rights reserved.

 

===============================================================

 

 

NASA picks Florida agency to take over shuttle landing strip

By Irene Klotz | Reuters 

• View Photo
• Reuters/Reuters - The space shuttle Atlantis leaves the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida November 2, 2012. REUTERS/Joe Skipper

By Irene Klotz

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - NASA has selected Space Florida, a state-backed economic development agency, to take over operations, maintenance and development of the space shuttle's idled landing site at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, officials said on Friday.

Terms of the agreement, which have not yet been finalized, were not disclosed, but Space Florida has made no secret about its desire to take over facilities no longer needed by NASA to develop a multi-user commercial spaceport, somewhat akin to an airport or seaport.

The state already has a lease for one of the space shuttle's processing hangars, and an agreement with Boeing to use the refurbished facility for its planned commercial space taxi.

The so-called CST-100 is one of three spaceships under development in partnership with NASA to fly astronauts to the International Space Station, a permanently staffed, $100 billion research outpost that flies about 250 miles above Earth.

NASA ended its 30-year space shuttle program in 2011, leaving Russia's Soyuz capsules as the sole means to transport crews to the station, a service that costs the United States more than $70 million per person. NASA hopes to buy rides commercially from a U.S. company by 2017.

The shuttle's retirement left the Kennedy Space Center loaded with equipment and facilities that are not needed in NASA's new human space initiative, which includes a heavy-lift rocket and deep-space capsule for journeys to asteroids, the moon and other destinations beyond the space station's orbit.

Last year, NASA solicited proposals for agencies or companies to take over the shuttle landing facility and its 15,000-foot (4,572-meter) runway, one of the longest in the world.

Additional landing site infrastructure includes an aircraft parking ramp measuring 480 by 550 feet, a landing aids control building, a 90-foot (27-meter) wide shuttle tow way, an air traffic control tower and a 23,000-square-foot (2,137-square-meter) enclosure used by convoy vehicles that serviced the shuttles after landing.

In addition to shuttles returning from orbit, the runway is used by heavy transport aircraft, military cargo planes, T-38, Gulfstream G-2 and F-104 aircraft, and helicopters.

Space Florida would like that list to also include suborbital passenger ships, such as the two-seater Lynx space plane being developed by privately owned XCOR Aerospace, orbital vehicles like Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen's air-launched Stratolaunch Systems, and unmanned aircraft.

"We look forward to working with NASA and KSC leadership in the coming months to finalize the details of this transaction in a way that will provide the greatest benefit to incoming commercial aerospace businesses," Space Florida President Frank DiBello said in a statement.

Turning the shuttle landing facility over to a commercial operator will save NASA more than $2 million a year in operations and maintenance costs, documents posted on the agency's procurement website show.

The landing facility also includes a 50,000-square-foot (4,645-square-meter) hangar that Space Florida already owns. A commercial flight services company, Starfighters Aerospace, currently operates there.

NASA said it received five bids for the shuttle landing facility, including the winning one.

The announcement that Space Florida had been chosen was made by NASA administrator Charles Bolden who was in Florida for the opening of the shuttle Atlantis exhibit at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex.

Proposals to take over one of the shuttle's two launch pads are due on July 5.

(Editing by Jane Sutton and Paul Simao)

Copyright © 2013 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. 

 

===============================================================

 

Former shuttle runway to launch 'space plane'

By Mark K. Matthews, Washington Bureau

7:14 p.m. EDT, June 27, 2013

WASHINGTON — A new breed of vacationers — space tourists — could launch from Central Florida as early as 2015 thanks to a new agreement that would put Florida officials in charge of the 3-mile runway at Kennedy Space Center that once was used by the space shuttle.

The preliminary deal, to be announced at KSC on Friday by NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden, would give Space Florida control of one of the largest landing strips in the world and one that's enshrined in space history: Nearly 80 shuttle crews landed there before NASA ended the 30-year program in 2011.

Now it looks likely that the shuttle runway will host a new different type of space traveler: tourists and scientists making suborbital trips on new "space planes" that can launch and land from the massive landing strip.

A top executive with the California company XCOR Aerospace, a space-plane builder that has expressed interest in the runway for months, said the preliminary agreement makes it all but certain that it would establish a base at the strip for "participant flights" — beginning as soon as 2015.

"It's always been our hope to fly from the shuttle-landing facility, and it looks like that's starting to materialize," said Andrew Nelson, chief operating officer of XCOR. A deal to locate at KSC was "99 percent of the way there," he said, with only paperwork remaining.

A new XCOR base at KSC could bring as many as 150 jobs by late 2018 — as well as some wealthy tourists. It costs $95,000 for one seat aboard an XCOR space plane, which is designed to blast a pilot and a tourist as high as 330,000 feet for a five-minute stay in the weightless environment of suborbital space.

No tourists yet have flown, but XCOR hopes to begin test flights with a pilot by the end of this year. The company already has sold 22 seats to the parent company of Axe body spray, which will award them in a global marketing contest that has attracted more than 500,000 entrants.

"Our flight participants will be ecstatic in flying from Florida," Nelson said.

Neither NASA nor Space Florida, the state's public-private promoter of the space industry, would say much publicly before the announcement.

The shuttle-landing facility "provides a unique capability for new and expanding suborbital launch providers … and other aerospace-related businesses," said Frank DiBello, the president of Space Florida, in a statement.

Sources close to the negotiations said a few wrinkles were still being worked out, including when Space Florida would take control of the runway and other nearby buildings such as a control tower. It's not certain whether Space Florida would pay NASA to use the facility, though it would remain under NASA ownership.

Even if there's no "rent" or transfer fee, there's still a clear benefit for NASA. The agency has been under pressure from Washington to cut expenses, and transferring control could save NASA an estimated $2.1 million in operations and maintenance costs, according to NASA documents.

Once in charge, Space Florida would assume these expenses, with the intent of recouping the money from the new tenants it hopes to attract.

In addition to XCOR, another potential customer is Stratolaunch Systems. The Alabama-based company, which counts former NASA chief Mike Griffin on its board, is looking to build a massive aircraft — about twice the size of a 747 — to enable the launch of crew and cargo into space.

The plane would carry a space vehicle high into the atmosphere before releasing it to fly the rest of the way on its own. Stratolaunch officials have said that KSC is one option for a launch site.

A bigger prize, however, could be in the growing business of unmanned aerial vehicles, better known as drones.

After years of use overseas by the U.S. military, drones are poised to go into widespread domestic use — according to one estimate, there could be as many as 30,000 drones in U.S. skies by 2030 — and Space Florida wants to make the state a leader in the fledgling industry.

Space Florida has applied to become one of six sites that the Federal Aviation Administration plans to use to test the integration of drones into U.S. airspace. A key part of Space Florida's bid is using the shuttle-landing facility as a base of operations, with the long-term goal of making the area a hub of drone flights and testing.

Any added activity at KSC also could be a boon for NASA, which is doing what it can to prove its worth in Florida in the aftermath of the shuttle's retirement. Indeed, the announcement comes just a day before Bolden is scheduled to appear at the KSC visitor complex for the opening of its shuttle Atlantis exhibit.

mkmatthews@tribune.com or 202-824-8222

 

Copyright © 2013, Orlando Sentinel

===============================================================

 

Fwd: Pegasus launch puts solar research craft IRIS in orbit

Sent from my iPad

Begin forwarded message:

From: "Gary Johnson" <gjohnson144@comcast.net>
Date: June 29, 2013 9:30:21 AM GMT-06:00
To: "Gary Johnson" <gjohnson144@comcast.net>
Subject: FW: Pegasus launch puts solar research craft IRIS in orbit

 

 

Steve Cole
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-0918
stephen.e.cole@nasa.gov
 
Susan M. Hendrix
Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
301-286-7745
susan.m.hendrix@nasa.gov
 
Rachel Hoover
Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif.
650-604-0643
rachel.hoover@nasa.gov
 
George H. Diller
Kennedy Space Center, Fla.
321-867-2468
george.h.diller@nasa.gov

June 27, 2013

 

RELEASE : 13-192

 

 

NASA Launches Satellite to Study How Sun's Atmosphere is Energized

 

 

WASHINGTON -- NASA's Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph (IRIS) spacecraft launched Thursday at 7:27 p.m. PDT (10:27 p.m. EDT) from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif. The mission to study the solar atmosphere was placed in orbit by an Orbital Sciences Corporation Pegasus XL rocket.

"We are thrilled to add IRIS to the suite of NASA missions studying the sun," said John Grunsfeld, NASA's associate administrator for science in Washington. "IRIS will help scientists understand the mysterious and energetic interface between the surface and corona of the sun."

IRIS is a NASA Explorer Mission to observe how solar material moves, gathers energy and heats up as it travels through a little-understood region in the sun's lower atmosphere. This interface region between the sun's photosphere and corona powers its dynamic million-degree atmosphere and drives the solar wind. The interface region also is where most of the sun's ultraviolet emission is generated. These emissions impact the near-Earth space environment and Earth's climate.

The Pegasus XL carrying IRIS was deployed from an Orbital L-1011 carrier aircraft over the Pacific Ocean at an altitude of 39,000 feet, off the central coast of California about 100 miles northwest of Vandenberg. The rocket placed IRIS into a sun-synchronous polar orbit that will allow it to make almost continuous solar observations during its two-year mission.

The L-1011 took off from Vandenberg at 6:30 p.m. PDT and flew to the drop point over the Pacific Ocean, where the aircraft released the Pegasus XL from beneath its belly. The first stage ignited five seconds later to carry IRIS into space. IRIS successfully separated from the third stage of the Pegasus rocket at 7:40 p.m. At 8:05 p.m., the IRIS team confirmed the spacecraft had successfully deployed its solar arrays, has power and has acquired the sun, indications that all systems are operating as expected.

"Congratulations to the entire team on the successful development and deployment of the IRIS mission," said IRIS project manager Gary Kushner of the Lockheed Martin Solar and Atmospheric Laboratory in Palo Alto, Calif. "Now that IRIS is in orbit, we can begin our 30-day engineering checkout followed by a 30-day science checkout and calibration period."

IRIS is expected to start science observations upon completion of its 60-day commissioning phase. During this phase the team will check image quality and perform calibrations and other tests to ensure a successful mission.

NASA's Explorer Program at Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., provides overall management of the IRIS mission. The principal investigator institution is Lockheed Martin Space Systems Advanced Technology Center. NASA's Ames Research Center will perform ground commanding and flight operations and receive science data and spacecraft telemetry.

The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory designed the IRIS telescope. The Norwegian Space Centre and NASA's Near Earth Network provide the ground stations using antennas at Svalbard, Norway; Fairbanks, Alaska; McMurdo, Antarctica; and Wallops Island, Va. NASA's Launch Services Program at the agency's Kennedy Space Center in Florida is responsible for the launch service procurement, including managing the launch and countdown. Orbital Sciences Corporation provided the L-1011 aircraft and Pegasus XL launch system.

For more information about the IRIS mission, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/iris

 

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Pegasus launch puts solar research craft in orbit BY JUSTIN RAY SPACEFLIGHT NOW June 27, 2013 The newest spacecraft to launch in NASA's oldest program -- the Explorer project that dates back to America's first satellite -- was propelled into Earth orbit Thursday night by an air-launched rocket off the coast of California. Image of the Pegasus XL's launch with the IRIS satellite off the coast of California at 7:27 p.m. PDT Thursday. Credit: NASA TV/Spaceflight Now   The Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph spacecraft, or IRIS, is embarking on a $181 million mission to peer into the mysterious region around the sun where the temperatures dramatically escalate from the surface to the tumultuous atmosphere. "IRIS will fill crucial gaps in our understanding over the role the interface region plays in powering its dynamic million-degree atmosphere, called the corona," said Jeffrey Newmark, IRIS program scientist at NASA Headquarters. Fitted with a 20-centimeter ultraviolet telescope and a multi-channel imaging spectrograph, IRIS will scan across the sun to construct data over a range of heights, temperatures and densities in the solar atmosphere. "What we want to discover is what the basic physical processes are that transfer energy and material from the surface of the sun to the outer atmosphere of the sun -- the corona," said Alan Title, IRIS principal investigator at Lockheed Martin's Advanced Technology Center. "The visible surface, the place where virtually all of the light that leaves the sun leaves from, its about 10,000 degrees Fahrenheit. Immediately above that the temperature rises to the million-degree corna. How that happens is a mystery. What are the processes that occur there?" The data is considered a key ingredient in helping to understand the solar wind and coronal mass ejections that erupt from the sun and can impact the Earth, upsetting power grids, upsetting communications and navigation signals, and be harmful astronauts and satellites. An Orbital Sciences Pegasus XL rocket, making its 42nd flight since 1990 and the last one currently scheduled, departed Vandenberg Air Force Base at 7:30 p.m. local time hooked to the belly of an L-1011 carrier jet under the controls of Don Walter. Flying a pre-determined "race track pattern" northward over the Pacific, the aircraft flew by the drop zone to measure weather conditions while the launch team conducted countdown testing. Making a U-turn offshore from Monterey, the plane dubbed "Stargazer" then headed back southward as the countdown neared drop time. Achieving the precise heading and receiving a final "go" from the ground-based launch officials, co-pilot Ebb Harris pushed a button on the center console of the cockpit that opened hooks holding the rocket and Pegasus was away cleanly. The 51,000-pound, 55-foot-long rocket free-fell for five seconds, dropping 300 feet below the aircraft while traveling at Mach 0.82. During the plunge, the onboard flight computer sensed the rocket's separation from the carrier jet and issue a command to release the safety inhibits in preparation for ignition. At 7:27 p.m. local time, the first stage lit to power the 403-pound IRIS into a sun-synchronous polar orbit around Earth. About 13 minutes after launch, the satellite was cast free from the spent third stage of Pegasus into a slightly elliptical orbit of 420 by 385 miles, as planned, at an inclination of 98 degrees to the equator, circling the planet every 97 minutes from pole to pole. The orbit flies along the dawn-dusk line, provides eight months of continuous observations per year and maximizes eclipse-free viewing of the sun, officials said. Photo of the IRIS spacecraft undergoing assembly and testing in a clean room. Credit: Lockheed Martin  In about 21 days, the telescope's door will be opened and the commissioning process should be completed to start the science mission in about 60 days. "IRIS is about a factor of 10 higher resolution than any other instrument that has explored this region and, even more importantly, it's about a factor of 20 faster. So it can take images about once a second. This is critical because the processes that occur in this part of the atmosphere happen very, very fast," Title said. The mission's goal is observing how solar material moves, gets heated and energized through this unexplored region around the sun. "Previous observations suggest there are structures in this region of the solar atmosphere 100 to 150 miles wide, but 100,000 miles long," Title said. "Imagine giant jets like huge fountains that have a footprint the size of Los Angeles and are long enough and fast enough to circle Earth in 20 seconds. IRIS will provide our first high-resolution views of these structures along with information about their velocity, temperature and density." At just 7 feet long and 4 feet in diameter at its rear, the satellite grew to 12 feet in width from tip-to-tip shortly after launch when the power-generating solar arrays were unfolded. "IRIS is small, light-weight, low-power satellite designed to perform complex solar observations," said Gary Kushner, IRIS program manager at Lockheed Martin's Advanced Technology Center. With no onboard fuel or consumables, designers expect IRIS to long surpass its two-year mission life, perhaps operating for a couple of decades, said John Marmie, IRIS assistant project manager at NASA's Ames Research Center. The mission operations strategy calls for a morning science team meeting to make requests to flight controllers who write commands that are uplinked to the spacecraft to execute. One command load will be sent up IRIS every weekday and the resulting science data made available online for scientists and general public within hours. "We have preplanned a large number of observing sequences that are targeted to seeing things like solar flares," Title said. IRIS will work in concert with NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory that monitors the sun's surface and the joint Japanese-U.S. Hinode spacecraft studying the sun's outer atmosphere. "For the first time we will have the necessary observations for understanding how energy is delivered to the million-degree outer solar corona and how the base of the solar wind is driven," Newmark said.

 

 

© 2013 Spaceflight Now Inc.

 

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Pegasus rocket carries sun-study satellite into orbit

06/27/2013 11:12 PM 

By WILLIAM HARWOOD
CBS News

A winged Pegasus rocket lifted a compact solar observatory into orbit around Earth's poles Thursday, kicking off a $181 million mission to shed light on a major mystery: what heats up the sun's outer atmosphere to extreme temperatures and how that, in turn, affects Earth's space weather.

NASA's Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph, or IRIS, spacecraft will focus on the dynamic zone between the sun's 6,000-degree visible surface -- the photosphere -- and the tenuous corona, which is somehow heated to more than a million degrees over a span of a few thousand miles.

An Orbital Sciences Pegasus XL rocket carrying a new sun-study satellite falls away from the company's carrier jet moments before first stage ignition. (Credit: NASA TV)

 

Scientists hope to gain insights into the energy transport mechanisms that drive the solar wind -- the supersonic stream of atomic particles blasted away from the sun -- solar flares and explosive eruptions known as coronal mass ejections that occasionally disrupt power grids, satellite operations and communications on Earth.

"What we want to discover is what the basic physical processes are that transfer energy and material from the surface of the sun to the outer atmosphere of the sun, the corona," Alan Title, IRIS principal investigator at Lockheed Martin's Advanced Technology Center, told reporters before launch.

"The visible surface (is) the place where virtually all of the light that leaves the sun leaves from. Immediately above that, the temperature rises to the million-degree corona. How that happens is a mystery. What are the processes that occur there?"

Making the program's 42nd flight, the Orbital Sciences Pegasus XL rocket was carried aloft from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., by an L-1011 carrier jet.

The Orbital Sciences "Stargazer" jet carried the 51,000-pound rocket to a pre-determined drop point over the Pacific Ocean and, after final tests were completed, released the Pegasus at a planned altitude of 39,000 feet at 10:27 p.m. EDT (GMT-4; 7:27 p.m. local time).

A few seconds later, 300 feet below the carrier jet and gliding southward at about slightly more than 80 percent the speed of sound, the Pegasus XL's first stage solid-fuel motor ignited with a rush of exhaust and the spacecraft quickly shot away toward space.

The solid-fuel first-stage motor of the Pegasus XL rocket roars to life above the Pacific Ocean, pushing the Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph, or IRIS, spacecraft toward orbit. (Credit: NASA TV)

All three stages of the Pegasus XL rocket appeared to operate normally and about 13 minutes after launch, telemetry indicated the 403-pound IRIS spacecraft had been released into an orbit tilted 98 degrees to the equator with a high point of about 420 miles and a low point of some 385 miles.

"We're thrilled. We're very excited," said Launch Director Tim Dunn. "The spacecraft, we've made initial contact with it (through a NASA communications satellite). We've gotten good data back. The solar arrays did begin to deploy and everything is proceeding right on track."

It will take engineers about two months to check out the spacecraft's systems, calibrate its instruments and begin routine science observations. The trajectory was designed to ensure about eight months of uninterrupted observations each year.

The solar powered IRIS spacecraft is equipped with an 8-inch telescope and a multi-channel imaging spectrograph that will study ultraviolet emissions from the corona and the interface between it and the sun's visible-light surface.

Title said IRIS has "about a factor of 10 higher resolution than any other instrument that has explored this region and, even more importantly, it's about a factor of 20 faster. So it can take images about once a second. This is critical because the processes that occur in this part of the atmosphere happen very, very fast."

"Previous observations suggest there are structures in this region of the solar atmosphere 100 to 150 miles wide, but 100,000 miles long," he said. "Imagine giant jets like huge fountains that have a footprint the size of Los Angeles and are long enough and fast enough to circle Earth in 20 seconds. IRIS will provide our first high-resolution views of these structures along with information about their velocity, temperature and density."

IRIS data will complement observations by the much larger, and more expensive, Solar Dynamics Observatory spacecraft.

"IRIS almost acts as a microscope to SDO's telescope," Hall said in a NASA overview. "It's going to look in closely and it's going to look at that specific region to see how the changes in matter and energy occur in this region. It's going to collectively bring us a more complete view of the sun."

© 2011 William Harwood/CBS New

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New NASA satellite to begin sun-watching mission

Associated Press

View Photo

Associated Press/NASA,VAFB, Randy Beaudoin,File - File-This undated image provided by NASA shows technicians preparing at Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif. for the launch of NASA's latest satellite, Interface …more 

VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. (AP) — From its perch in low-Earth orbit, NASA's newest satellite will soon get a close-up look at a little-explored region of the sun that's thought to drive space weather that can affect Earth.

The Iris satellite was boosted into orbit about 400 miles above Earth by a Pegasus rocket Thursday evening after a sunset launch. Engineers will test the satellite first before turning on its telescope to stare at the sun.

"We're thrilled," NASA launch director Tim Dunn said in a NASA TV interview after orbit was achieved.

Unlike a typical launch, an airplane carrying the rocket and satellite flew from Vandenberg Air Force Base to a drop point over the Pacific some 100 miles off California's central coast. At an altitude of 39,000 feet, the plane released the rocket, which ignited its engine and streaked skyward.

Mission controllers anxiously waited as the rocket made the 13-minute climb into space and cheered after learning that Iris had separated from the rocket as planned.

There were some issues. At one point, communications signals were lost and ground controllers had to track Iris using other satellites orbiting Earth. When it came time for Iris to unfurl its solar panels after entering orbit, there was a lag before NASA confirmed the satellite was generating power.

Previous sun-observing spacecraft have yielded a wealth of information about our nearest star and beamed back brilliant pictures of solar flares.

The 7-foot-long Iris, weighing 400 pounds, carries an ultraviolet telescope that can take high-resolution images every few seconds.

Unlike NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory, which observes the entire sun, Iris will focus on a little-explored region that lies between the surface and the corona, the glowing white ring that's visible during eclipses.

The goal is to learn more about how this mysterious region drives solar wind — a stream of charged particles spewing from the sun — and to better predict space weather that can disrupt communications signals on Earth.

"This is a very difficult region to understand and observe. We haven't had the technical capabilities before now to really zoom in" and peer at it up close, NASA program scientist Jeffrey Newmark said before the launch.

The mission is cheap by NASA standards, costing $182 million, and is managed by the space agency's Goddard Space Flight Center.

Iris will gaze at the sun for two years. Before observations can begin, engineers will spend two months conducting health checkups.

Thursday's launch was delayed by a day so that technicians at the Air Force base could restore power to launch range equipment after a weekend outage cut electricity to a swath of the central coast.

The Pegasus, from Orbital Sciences Corp. of Dulles, Va., is a winged rocket designed for launching small satellites. First flown in 1990, Pegasus rockets have also been used to accelerate vehicles in hypersonic flight programs.

 

Copyright © 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. 

 

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NASA Launches Sun-Watching Telescope to Probe Solar Secrets

by Mike Wall, SPACE.com Senior Writer

27 June 2013 Time: 10:40 PM ET

 

 

NASA's IRIS sun-observing telescope launches toward space on an Orbital Sciences Pegasus XL rocket just after its separation from an L-1011 carrier aircraft over the Pacific Ocean on June 27, 2013. CREDIT: NASA TV  View full size image

NASA's newest solar observatory launched into space late Thursday (June 27), beginning a two-year quest to probe some of the sun's biggest mysteries.

An Orbital Sciences Corp. Pegasus XL rocket and the new solar telescope — called the Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph satellite, or IRIS — left California's Vandenberg Air Force Base underneath a specially modified aircraft at 9:30 p.m. EDT Thursday (6:30 p.m. local time; 0130 GMT Friday).

Nearly one hour later, at 10:27 p.m. EDT (7:27 p.m. local time), the plane dropped its payload 39,000 feet (11,900 meters) above the Pacific Ocean, about 100 miles (160 kilometers) northwest of Vandenberg. After a five-second freefall, the Pegasus rocket roared to life and carried the sun-watching IRIS into Earth orbit. [NASA's IRIS Solar Observatory Mission in Pictures]

"We're thrilled. We're very excited," NASA launch director Tim Dunn said just after the successful blastoff. "We've gotten good data back. The solar arrays did begin to deploy and everything is proceeding right on track."

Scientists hope IRIS' observations help them better understand how energy and material move around the sun. They want to know, for example, why the outer atmosphere of the sun is more than 1,000 times hotter than the star's surface.

Solar mysteries

IRIS is part of NASA's Small Explorer program, which caps the cost of a space mission at $120 million. Like its budget, the spacecraft is small, weighing just 400 pounds (181 kilograms) and measuring 7 by 12 feet (2.1 by 3.7 m) with its power-generating solar panels deployed.

Artist's concept of the Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph (IRIS) satellite in orbit. The sun-observing telescope is launching in June 2013.
CREDIT: NASA

View full size image

After a 60-day checkout period on orbit, IRIS will begin its science campaign. The probe will stare at a mysterious sliver of the sun between the solar surface and its outer atmosphere, or corona.

Researchers hope a better understanding of this interface region, which is just 3,000 to 6,000 miles (4,800 to 9,600 kilometers) wide, helps explain why temperatures jump from 10,000 degrees Fahrenheit (5,500 degrees Celsius) at the sun's surface to 1.8 million degrees F (1 million degrees C) or so in the corona.

"What causes this rise? How does the energy transfer from the surface, the cool surface, to this hot outer atmosphere?" Jeffrey Newmark, IRIS program scientist at NASA Heaquarters in Washington, D.C., said Tuesday (June 25) during a prelaunch mission briefing. "These are the questions that IRIS, the science of IRIS, is going to address."

A more focused look at the sun

While other NASA solar spacecraft — such as the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) and the two STEREO (Solar TErrestrial RElations Observatory) probes — record views of the entire sun, IRIS' spectrograph will focus on just 1 percent of our star at a time, resolving features as little as 150 miles (240 km) across.

IRIS' relatively narrow view should complement other solar probes' broader look nicely, mission scientists said.

"Relating observations from IRIS to other solar observatories will open the door for crucial research into basic, unanswered questions about the corona," Joe Davila, IRIS project scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., said in a statement.

Members of the public at NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif., watch a live video feed of the agency's IRIS solar telescope as it soars toward space from a drop point over the Pacific Ocean on June 27, 2013.
CREDIT: NASA Ames Research Center

View full size image

IRIS was orginally slated to launch Wednesday (June 26), but a power outage across California's central coast knocked out key elements of Vandenberg's tracking and telemetry systems, causing a one-day delay.

Powerful sun storms can wreak havoc with electrical grids here on Earth. So the delay was appropriate in a way, highlighting the importance of IRIS' mission, said Pete Worden, director of NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field,  Calif., which is responsible for IRIS mission operations and ground data systems.

"The better we can understand the physics going on, the better we can understand the [solar] activity, the better that we can potentially predict and mitigate some of these problems," Worden said Tuesday.

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Fwd: NASA's Voyager 1 craft enters unfamiliar space

Sent from my iPad

Begin forwarded message:

From: "Gary Johnson" <gjohnson144@comcast.net>
Date: June 29, 2013 9:30:54 AM GMT-06:00
To: "Gary Johnson" <gjohnson144@comcast.net>
Subject: FW: NASA's Voyager 1 craft enters unfamiliar space

 

 

 Steve Cole
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-0918
stephen.e.cole@nasa.gov
 
Jia-Rui C. Cook
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
818-354-0850
jccook@jpl.nasa.gov

June 27, 2013

 

RELEASE : 13-191 

 

NASA's Voyager 1 Explores Final Frontier of Our 'Solar Bubble'

 

 

WASHINGTON -- Data from Voyager 1, now more than 11 billion miles from the sun, suggest the spacecraft is closer to becoming the first human-made object to reach interstellar space.

Research using Voyager 1 data and published in the journal Science Thursday provides new detail on the last region the spacecraft will cross before it leaves the heliosphere, or the bubble around our sun, and enters interstellar space. Three papers describe how Voyager 1's entry into a region called the magnetic highway resulted in simultaneous observations of the highest rate so far of charged particles from outside heliosphere and the disappearance of charged particles from inside the heliosphere.

Scientists have seen two of the three signs of interstellar arrival they expected to see: charged particles disappearing as they zoom out along the solar magnetic field and cosmic rays from far outside zooming in. Scientists have not yet seen the third sign, an abrupt change in the direction of the magnetic field, which would indicate the presence of the interstellar magnetic field.

"This strange, last region before interstellar space is coming into focus, thanks to Voyager 1, humankind's most distant scout," said Ed Stone, Voyager project scientist at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. "If you looked at the cosmic ray and energetic particle data in isolation, you might think Voyager had reached interstellar space, but the team feels Voyager 1 has not yet gotten there because we are still within the domain of the sun's magnetic field."

Scientists do not know exactly how far Voyager 1 has to go to reach interstellar space. They estimate it could take several more months, or even years, to get there. The heliosphere extends at least 8 billion miles beyond all the planets in our solar system. It is dominated by the sun's magnetic field and an ionized wind expanding outward from the sun. Outside the heliosphere, interstellar space is filled with matter from other stars and the magnetic field present in the nearby region of the Milky Way.

Voyager 1 and its twin spacecraft, Voyager 2, were launched in 1977. They toured Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune before embarking on their interstellar mission in 1990. They now aim to leave the heliosphere. Measuring the size of the heliosphere is part of the Voyagers' mission.

The Science papers focus on observations made from May to September 2012 by Voyager 1's cosmic ray, low-energy charged particle and magnetometer instruments, with some additional charged particle data obtained through April of this year.

Voyager 2 is about 9 billion miles from the sun and still inside the heliosphere. Voyager 1 was about 11 billion miles from the sun Aug. 25 when it reached the magnetic highway, also known as the depletion region, and a connection to interstellar space. This region allows charged particles to travel into and out of the heliosphere along a smooth magnetic field line, instead of bouncing round in all directions as if trapped on local roads. For the first time in this region, scientists could detect low-energy cosmic rays that originate from dying stars.

"We saw a dramatic and rapid disappearance of the solar-originating particles. They decreased in intensity by more than 1,000 times, as if there was a huge vacuum pump at the entrance ramp onto the magnetic highway," said Stamatios Krimigis, the low-energy charged particle instrument's principal investigator at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Md. "We have never witnessed such a decrease before, except when Voyager 1 exited the giant magnetosphere of Jupiter, some 34 years ago."

Other charged particle behavior observed by Voyager 1 also indicates the spacecraft still is in a region of transition to the interstellar medium. While crossing into the new region, the charged particles originating from the heliosphere that decreased most quickly were those shooting straightest along solar magnetic field lines. Particles moving perpendicular to the magnetic field did not decrease as quickly. However, cosmic rays moving along the field lines in the magnetic highway region were somewhat more populous than those moving perpendicular to the field. In interstellar space, the direction of the moving charged particles is not expected to matter.

In the span of about 24 hours, the magnetic field originating from the sun also began piling up, like cars backed up on a freeway exit ramp. But scientists were able to quantify the magnetic field barely changed direction -- by no more than 2 degrees.

"A day made such a difference in this region with the magnetic field suddenly doubling and becoming extraordinarily smooth," said Leonard Burlaga, the lead author of one of the papers, and based at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. "But since there was no significant change in the magnetic field direction, we're still observing the field lines originating at the sun."

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, in Pasadena, Calif., built and operates the Voyager spacecraft. California Institute of Technology in Pasadena manages JPL for NASA. The Voyager missions are a part of NASA's Heliophysics System Observatory, sponsored by the Heliophysics Division of the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington.

For more information about the Voyager spacecraft mission, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/voyager

and

http://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov 

- end - 

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NASA's Voyager 1 craft enters unfamiliar space

By ALICIA CHANG | Associated Press

 

View Photo

Associated Press/NASA - In this artist rendering released by NASA, the Voyager 1 spacecraft explores a new region of space at the edge of the solar system. New research published Thursday, June 27, 2013 in …more 

LOS ANGELES (AP) — New research pinpoints the current location of NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft: It's still in our solar system.

Since last summer, the long-running spacecraft has been exploring uncharted territory where the effects of interstellar space, or the space between stars, can be felt. Scientists don't know how thick this newfound region in the solar system is or how much farther Voyager 1 has to travel to break to the other side.

"It could actually be anytime or it could be several more years," said chief scientist Ed Stone of the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which manages the mission.

Stone first described this unexpected zone at a meeting of the American Geophysical Union last year. A trio of papers published online Thursday in the journal Science confirmed just how strange this new layer is.

Soon after Voyager 1 crossed into this region last August, low-energy charged particles that had been plentiful suddenly zipped outside while high-energy cosmic rays from interstellar space streamed inward. Readings by one of Voyager 1's instruments showed an abrupt increase in the magnetic field strength, but there was no change in the direction of the magnetic field lines — a sign that Voyager 1 has not yet exited the solar system.

Voyager 1 and its twin, Voyager 2, were launched in 1977 to visit the giant gas planets, beaming back dazzling postcards of Jupiter, Saturn and their moons. Voyager 2 went on to tour Uranus and Neptune. After planet-hopping, they were sent on a trajectory toward interstellar space.

Voyager 1 is about 11 ½ billion miles from the sun. Voyager 2 is about 9½ billion miles from the sun. The nuclear-powered spacecraft have enough fuel to operate their instruments until around 2020.

In the meantime, scientists are looking for any clues of a departure. Given the time it takes to process the data, mission scientist Leonard Burlaga said there will be a lag between when Voyager 1 finally sails into interstellar space and when the team can confirm the act. Then there's always the possibility of surprises beyond the solar system.

"Crossing may not be an instantaneous thing," Burlaga said. "It may be complicated."

 

Copyright © 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. 

 

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NASA's Voyager 1 Probe Enters New Realm Near Interstellar Space

by Mike Wall, SPACE.com Senior Writer

27 June 2013 Time: 02:01 PM ET

 

 

This artist's concept shows plasma flows around NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft as it gets close to entering interstellar space. Image released Dec. 3, 2012. CREDIT: NASA/JPL-Caltech/The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory View full size image

NASA's venerable Voyager 1 probe has encountered a strange new region at the outer reaches of the solar system, suggesting the spacecraft is poised to pop free into interstellar space, scientists say.

Voyager 1, which has been zooming through space for more than 35 years, observed a dramatic drop in solar particles and a simultaneous big jump in high-energy galactic cosmic rays last August, the scientists announced in three new studies published today (June 27) in the journal Science.

The probe did not measure a shift in the direction of the ambient magnetic field, indicating that Voyager 1 is still within the sun's sphere of influence, researchers said. But mission scientists think the spacecraft will likely leave Earth's solar system relatively soon. [NASA's Voyager Probes: 5 Surprising Facts]

"I think it's probably several more years — 2015 is reasonable," said Voyager project scientist Ed Stone of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, lead author of one of the new studies and co-author of another.

"But it's speculation, because none of the models we have, have this particular region in them," Stone told SPACE.com. "So none of the models can be directly and accurately compared to what we're observing. What we're observing is really quite new."

A new region of space

Voyager 1 and its twin, Voyager 2, launched a few weeks apart in 1977 to study Saturn, Jupiter, Uranus and Neptune. The probes completed this unprecedented "grand tour" and then kept right on flying toward interstellar space.

Voyager 1 should get there first. At 11.5 billion miles (18.5 billion kilometers) from Earth, the spacecraft is the farthest man-made object in space. Voyager 2, for its part, is now 9.4 billion miles (15.1 billion km) from home.

Both probes are currently plying the outer layers of the heliosphere, the enormous bubble of charged particles and magnetic fields surrounding the sun. But things are really getting interesting for Voyager 1, the new studies report.

An artist's illustration of NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft, the farthest human-built object from Earth, which launched in 1977 and is headed for interstellar space.
CREDIT: NASA

View full size image

On Aug. 25, 2012, the probe recorded a 1,000-fold drop in the number of charged solar particles while also measuring a 9 percent increase in fast-moving particles of galactic origin called cosmic rays.

Those are two of the three phenomena that Voyager scientists expect to see when the spacecraft crosses over into interstellar space. But Voyager 1 still hasn't observed the third one — a shift in magnetic-field orientation, from east-west within the solar system to roughly north-south outside of it.

The magnetic field "did not change direction. All it did was get compressed, so it's stronger now than it was," Stone said. "That's what one would expect if, in fact, the energetic particles, which were providing the pressure, suddenly left."

Overall, researchers said, Voyager 1's new data suggest that the spacecraft remains within the solar system, though it appears to be in a sort of interface region connecting the heliosphere and interstellar space.

Keep on trucking

Mission scientists will keep an eye on the magnetic-field readings over the coming months and years, Stone said.

"If there's a dramatic change, like there was last Aug. 25, that will be very exciting," he said. "If it's a gradual change, well, it'll just take us longer to realize what's happening."

Stone and his colleagues hope that Voyager 1 leaves the solar system before 2020. The probe's declining power supply will force engineers to shut off the first instrument that year, and all of them will probably stop working by 2025.

There's no reason to think anything will go wrong before 2020, since the spacecraft remains in good health despite its advanced age. But the mission team knows there are no guarantees.

"Something could break. That's what you can't predict — the random failure," Stone said. "So far, we've been lucky. There haven't been any catastrophic random failures."

 

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