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From: "Moon, Larry J. (JSC-EA411)" <larry.j.moon@nasa.gov>
Date: November 19, 2014 9:46:29 AM CST
To: "Moon, Larry J. (JSC-EA411)" <larry.j.moon@nasa.gov>
Subject: FW: NASA and Human Spaceflight News - Wednesday – November 19, 2014
Enjoy the beautiful day in the Houston metro area.Link below to Wayne Gotsch's obitNASA and Human Spaceflight NewsWednesday – November 19, 2014HEADLINES AND LEADSNASA Extends Commercial Crew Agreement with Blue OriginJeff Foust – Space NewsNASA announced Nov. 14 that it has extended its unfunded agreement with Blue Origin to support to that company's effort to develop a commercial crew spacecraft, even though the company is not competing for a NASA contract to provide transportation to the international space station.ATK to move ahead with Orbital Sciences merger planAmrita Jayakumar – The Washington PostThe proposed merger of Alliant Techsystems and Orbital Sciences appears to be back on track.Russian Space Object 2014-28E Sparks Worries About 'Satellite Killer'Alan Boyle – NBC NewsSatellite-watchers say a Russian object that was put into orbit six months ago has been behaving strangely, sparking worries that the craft is conducting a test run for anti-satellite warfare.Small Asteroid Impacts Spark Fireballs in Earth's Sky Every Other WeekMike Wall – Space.comFireballs caused by disintegrating asteroids streak through Earth's skies at least twice per month on average, scientists say.Editorial | Responding to SpaceShipTwo TragedySpaceNews EditorOftentimes it takes a serious incident to bring related underlying issues into stark relief, and this looks to be the case with the Oct. 31 fatal mishap involving Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo rocket plane.EPA Finds No Show-stoppers with Radioactive Battery for Mars 2020Dan Leone – Space NewsThe U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) found no show-stoppers with NASA's plan to put a nuclear battery aboard the Mars 2020 sample-caching rover, according to a Final Environmental Impact Statement the space agency published on its website Nov. 6.Return to the Moon: Lunar Mission One will crowd-source its way to spaceKate Arkless Gray – SENAn ambitious new venture to explore the South Pole of the Moon has been unveiled today. Lunar Mission One, backed by space professionals, industry and educators, hopes to crowd-source enough funding for the initial development of an exploratory robotic mission to the Moon, to launch in 2024."Philae lander sent in a surprise before going to sleepAshley Yeager – ScienceNewsThe Philae lander has given scientists a few hints about comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko before going to sleep. Data from one of the lander's instruments suggests that the comet has a hard icy layer sitting beneath 10 to 20 centimeters of dust. The find surprised scientists who were anticipating the instrument's hammer would pound into a layer of material that was a bit softer. There are also reports that another of Philae's instruments detected carbon-containing organic molecules.Philae Managers Say Recovery Possible as Comet Approaches SunPeter B. de Selding – Space NewsManagers of Europe's Philae comet lander, which went into hibernation Nov. 15 after its battery drained 56 hours after touchdown, on Nov. 18 made a virtue of a necessity in saying Philae's overly shadowed location will be an advantage as Comet 67P approaches the sun in the coming months.Philae lander not to become costly space junk — Russian scientistITAR TASS, of RussiaAs soon as it moves out of the shadow and the first solar rays reach the research probe's chargers, Philae will start to work againThe Philae lander last week failed to get the primary matter from which the Solar system was formed billions of years ago, deputy director of the Russian Academy of Sciences' (RAS) Space Research Institute (SRI), Doctor of Physics and Mathematics Oleg Korablev told TASS on Tuesday.Russia's new heavy-lifter rolled to launch padStephen Clark - Spaceflightnow.comSeveral weeks ahead of a planned liftoff in late December, the biggest new Russian rocket to fly in a generation rolled to its launch pad at the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in northern Russia earlier this month for preflight testing.COMPLETE STORIESNASA Extends Commercial Crew Agreement with Blue OriginJeff Foust – Space NewsNASA announced Nov. 14 that it has extended its unfunded agreement with Blue Origin to support to that company's effort to develop a commercial crew spacecraft, even though the company is not competing for a NASA contract to provide transportation to the international space station.NASA and Blue Origin signed an extension Oct. 31 of their existing Space Act Agreement, originally part of the agency's Commercial Crew Development Round 2 (CCDev2) award made in April 2011. This extension, like previous ones dating back to February 2013, is an unfunded one where NASA provides technical guidance but no money to Blue Origin.One milestone covers an in-flight test of a "pusher" escape system, where rocket engines at the base of the vehicle would push the spacecraft away from its launch vehicle in the event of an abort. Under the CCDev2 milestone, NASA personnel would review data and video from the test, which would use an unspecified subscale booster.A second milestone involves a flight test of Blue Origin's BE-3 rocket engine, a liquid oxygen/liquid hydrogen engine that the company has tested on the ground in earlier milestones. That flight would test the engine on a "representative suborbital mission," which NASA personnel would be invited to observe.The third milestone involves a flight test of a subscale propellant tank, also on a representative suborbital mission. The assembly review for that tank was a milestone in a prior unfunded extension of Blue Origin's CCDev2 agreement.The extension states that the BE-3 and propellant tank milestones would be achieved by September 2015, while the pusher escape system test milestone is scheduled for March 2016. The overall agreement now expires April 17, 2016."The team at Blue Origin has made tremendous progress in its design, and we're excited to extend our partnership to 2016," Kathy Lueders, manager of NASA's Commercial Crew Program, said in the Nov. 14 statement announcing the extension of the Blue Origin agreement.The CCDev2 program was originally established to help companies mature technologies for commercial crew transportation systems that would feed into later competitions for the development of systems to carry NASA astronauts to and from the ISS. Boeing, Sierra Nevada Corp., and Space Exploration Technologies Corp. also received funded CCDev2 awards.While Blue Origin received $22 million in its original CCDev2 award, it decided, unlike the other three funded companies, not to compete in later phases of the program. Instead, the company has continued development of what it simply calls its "Space Vehicle" using internal funding. In September, NASA awarded contracts valued at up to $6.8 billion to Boeing and SpaceX to develop and test their commercial crew vehicles, a decision that Sierra Nevada has protested to the Government Accountability Office."It's important to keep a pulse on the commercial human spaceflight industry as a whole," Lueders said in the NASA statement, "and this partnership is a shining example of what works well for both industry and the government."ATK to move ahead with Orbital Sciences merger planAmrita Jayakumar – The Washington PostThe proposed merger of Alliant Techsystems and Orbital Sciences appears to be back on track.Orbital's Antares rocket exploded seconds into its flight to the International Space Station last month. The failure raised questions about the potential impact on Orbital's finances and its reliance on Soviet-era rocket engines, which caused the explosion. Orbital has said it was insured against the loss and will not suffer a significant financial hit.The incident also left the fate of Orbital's $5 billion merger with ATK's defense and aerospace groups unclear.But in a statement issued Monday, ATK executives said they had reviewed Orbital's response to the disaster and expressed confidence that going ahead with the union was a good plan."During the course of the last two weeks, both companies have diligently evaluated and analyzed information relating to the Antares incident and Orbital's go-forward plan," Mark DeYoung, ATK's president and chief executive, said in a statement. "As a result of our findings, management and our board of directors continue to endorse the previously announced transaction."Both companies have pushed back the date of a special stockholder meeting in which investors will vote whether to approve the merger. The meetings were originally scheduled for December, but will take place Jan. 27.The transaction, if approved, is expected to close in February, ATK said.Orbital executives announced a contingency plan earlier this month to fulfill the company's $1.9 billion NASA contract to resupply the international space station through 2016. Those plans include choosing another company's rocket to launch Orbital's Cygnus spacecraft, as well as speeding up the selection of an upgraded engine for Antares. Orbital also will cut out one mission in its contract and increase the Cygnus payload on each flight to make up the difference.Both companies' stock prices closed higher Tuesday.Russian Space Object 2014-28E Sparks Worries About 'Satellite Killer'Alan Boyle – NBC NewsSatellite-watchers say a Russian object that was put into orbit six months ago has been behaving strangely, sparking worries that the craft is conducting a test run for anti-satellite warfare.The object carries several designations — 2014-28E, or Cosmos 2499, or NORAD object 39765. It popped up in space along with three military communication satellites after a Russian Rokot-Briz launch in May, and at the time, experts assumed it was just a piece of space debris.But since that time, 2014-28E moved into a different orbit and then maneuvered back into a position near the launch vehicle's spent Briz-KM upper stage, according to reports circulating among satellite observers. In the latest issue of his report on satellites and launches, astrophysicist Jonathan McDowell says the object "made a final burn to complete its rendezvous" on Nov. 9.Such observations have gotten a wider spotlight thanks to reports appearing this week in The Financial Times and The Washington Post.The maneuvers could mean Russia has resumed testing techniques that would enable satellites to approach and observe other satellites, or even disable or destroy them. The Soviet Union looked into concepts for inspector satellites and a satellite killer (known in Russian as "Istrebitel Sputnikov") as far back as the 1950s, and Russia has continued to work on elements of a potential anti-satellite system.The fact that Russia has said so little about 2014-28E only deepens the mystery."The possibility that these kinds of activities are preparing a major and unpleasant strategic surprise for U.S. military capabilities warrants a lot of attention, and a lot of questions for Moscow," NBC News space analyst James Oberg said in an email.Oberg suggested that the Pentagon already knows more about the project than outside satellite-watchers do. "Presumably, U.S. military observers have seen the same thing, but in even greater detail," he said.NASA and the U.S. military have been conducting experiments in satellite rendezvous technologies for more than a decade. The Air Force notched successes with its XSS-11 program, while NASA's DART program ended in failure. More recently, the Air Force launched an experimental maneuvering satellite called ANGELS, or Automated Navigation and Guidance Experiment for Local Space.China, too, has been conducting exercises in satellite maneuvering with its Shiyan, Chuangxin and Shijian spacecraft. Chinese officials have characterized those exercises as tests for space debris collection or satellite maintenance, but outside experts worry that the technology could be used against other satellites.Concerns about anti-satellite weapons sparked an international debate over the prospects of a "Pearl Harbor" attack in outer space several years ago, and the newly reported test could cause the controversy to flare up again."The payoff in building such weapons isn't so much as a tool to make a space sneak attack, it's to raise doubts in the minds of American military leaders about the survivability of their space assets," said Oberg, who wrote a book about space power theory for military planners. "In the past, U.S. space-based systems have been justifiably praised as 'force multipliers' for surface combatants. So any development that reduces that 'multiplication factor,' by placing doubt in its owners' minds, is a bargain 'force reducer.' It then can sway critical deployment and engagement decisions in a real crisis."Small Asteroid Impacts Spark Fireballs in Earth's Sky Every Other WeekMike Wall – Space.comFireballs caused by disintegrating asteroids streak through Earth's skies at least twice per month on average, scientists say.A new map created by NASA researchers documents 556 fireball events — produced when small asteroids explode in Earth's atmosphere — that occurred around the world between 1994 and 2013."We now know that Earth's atmosphere does a great job of protecting Earth from small asteroids," said Lindley Johnson, NASA's Near-Earth Objects (NEO) Observations Program Executive, in a statement.Fireballs, also known as bolides, are defined as meteors that blaze at least as brightly as the planet Venus in the sky.Scientists compiled the new map using data collected by U.S. government sensors. That database is more complete than others previously available to NEO researchers, but it does not include every single fireball that blazed up over the last two decades, NASA officials said in the statement. So the actual number is higher than the 556 depicted on the map.The map also charts the energy released by each fireball. The most powerful of all was the Russian meteor explosion, which occurred in February 2013 when a 65-foot-wide (20 meters) space rock detonated over the city of Chelyabinsk, injuring more than 1,200 people.The Chelyabinsk explosion released the equivalent of about 500 kilotons of TNT, researchers said, making it about 30 times more powerful than the atomic bomb the United States dropped on the Japanese city of Hiroshima during World War II.While the new fireball map chronicles the impact of space rocks just 3 to 65 feet (1 to 20 m) wide, it should also help researchers extrapolate to get a better handle on the population of big, potentially dangerous asteroids whizzing near the planet, Johnson said.That population is large. Scientists think there are about 1,000 potential "civilization-enders" at least 0.6 miles (1 kilometer) wide out there. NASA's NEO Observations Program has already spotted about 96 percent of these mountain-size space rocks, and none of them pose a threat for the foreseeable future.But there may be about 25,000 near-Earth asteroids at least 460 feet (140 m) in diameter, which could cause massive destruction on a local scale if they hit the planet. And many of them are cruising undiscovered through space.Indeed, scientists have found just over 11,600 near-Earth asteroids of all sizes to date; the entire population likely numbers in the millions.Objects too small to generate fireballs hit Earth incredibly frequently. About 100 tons of sand- or dust-size particles rain down on the planet from outer space every day, scientists say.Editorial | Responding to SpaceShipTwo TragedySpaceNews EditorOftentimes it takes a serious incident to bring related underlying issues into stark relief, and this looks to be the case with the Oct. 31 fatal mishap involving Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo rocket plane.This has nothing to do with the cause of the accident, which is the subject of a U.S. National Transportation Safety Board-led investigation that could take the better part of a year. This concerns the response, in particular by the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration's Office of Commercial Space Transportation, or AST, which regulates the U.S. commercial launch and spaceflight industries.Coupled with the Oct. 28 failure of Orbital Sciences Corp.'s Antares rocket on a commercial resupply flight to the international space station, the SpaceShipTwo accident has exposed funding issues at AST. Although the office is not leading either failure investigation — Orbital is leading the Antares probe — its supporting role in both is stretching its resources thin.Under the continuing resolution that funds federal activities at prior-year levels until Dec. 11, the AST is spending at a rate based on an annual budget of $16 million. The FAA requested a $16.6 million budget for the office in 2015, and while Senate appropriators have approved that amount, the House has proposed keeping it at the $16 million level.Congress in recent years has resisted the funding increases that AST officials say are necessary as the office deals with the revival of the U.S. commercial launch industry — which all but disappeared in the early 2000s — and expands its regulatory mission to cover the launch and re-entry of passenger-carrying vehicles. The back-to-back mishaps are a wakeup call to anyone who still doubted that the commercial spaceflight industry is real and questioned the AST's need for more money.The SpaceShipTwo accident also triggers the AST's the authority to begin drafting safety regulations for the emerging industry under the Commercial Space Launch Amendments Act of 2004. The law, designed to provide a pro-growth environment for the young industry, grants aspiring space tourism companies a regulatory grace period of eight years — it has since been extended to October 2015 — to give them a chance to build a foundation of vehicle testing experience that in turn could inform the rulemaking process.But the law also allows the AST to step in if there's an accident involving a fatality, serious injury or high risk of either, provided that the resulting regulations are limited to the causes of the mishap.Clearly the AST needs to wait until the NTSB presents the results of its investigation before drafting any such safety rules.In the same vein, it was surprising to hear that Virgin Galactic intends to continue with construction of a second SpaceShipTwo vehicle with an eye toward resuming test flights in six months. Although the NTSB has raised the possibility that human error played a role in the mishap, it has not ruled out a design or mechanical issue with SpaceShipTwo.Virgin Galactic is understandably eager to minimize additional delays to the introduction of commercial service and to demonstrate its resolve, but pressing ahead with construction — and perhaps even flight tests — while the investigation is still underway could prove problematic. One could argue that if Virgin Galactic wants to bet on SpaceShipTwo's exoneration that's its own business. But in doing so the company risks fueling doubts about the commercial spaceflight industry's commitment to safety, which could invite the types of regulations it has sought to avoid, or at least defer.That said, the AST should tread lightly in recognition of the industry's novelty and fragility. While it can never compromise when it comes to protecting uninvolved third parties, the office also must recognize that those who are willing to pay for the thrill of going to the edge of space are risk takers by both nature and choice — this is not commercial aviation.The possibility of fatal accidents in commercial spaceflight has always been foreseen by anyone familiar with the difficulty it entails. Now that one has occurred, albeit perhaps sooner than some might have expected, prudence dictates a deliberative and cautious response from all parties that doesn't exacerbate the blow that the industry has already suffered.EPA Finds No Show-stoppers with Radioactive Battery for Mars 2020Dan Leone – Space NewsThe U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) found no show-stoppers with NASA's plan to put a nuclear battery aboard the Mars 2020 sample-caching rover, according to a Final Environmental Impact Statement the space agency published on its website Nov. 6.The NASA-led environmental review will not technically be complete until at least Dec. 19 — the soonest federal regulations allow NASA to post a formal record of its decision to use nuclear material on the mission — but the lack of red flags from the EPA is a signal that the way is essentially clear for NASA to proceed with its plan to power Mars 2020 with a multimission radioisotope thermoelectric generator (MMRTG).The MMRTG will convert heat from about 4.8 kilograms of decaying plutonium 238 into electricity to power Mars 2020's seven science instruments, powertrain, sample-caching apparatus and communications array. The rover is slated to launch in July or August 2020 to collect and cache a martian surface sample that could be returned to Earth later by another mission. The backup launch date is August or September 2022.Mars 2020 will be a modified version of the Mars Science Laboratory's Curiosity rover, which launched in 2012 and will continue roving the red planet until at least 2016, if it stays healthy. Curiosity also uses an MMRTG and was subject to the same environmental review process Mars 2020 is finishing now.The only quibble EPA had with NASA's 317-page Environmental Impact Statement was that the document did not spell out NASA's intent to involve the EPA in any accident investigation that would be necessary should Mars 2020 be destroyed by a launch failure or unplanned atmospheric re-entry. In comments appended to the statement, EPA said NASA could add such an invitation in the record of decision expected in December. NASA replied that it would do so.Under the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969, NASA has to conduct an environmental review of any mission that involves launching nuclear material. Among other things, the agency must quantify the risk of radioactive contamination from launch failure and explore whether the mission requires a radioactive power supply.The risk of contamination due to launch failure is minimal, according to NASA.There is only a 2.5 percent chance of a Mars 2020 launch failure, the agency calculated, and an even slimmer chance, 0.4 percent, of a launch failure that would breach the rover's MMRTG and its iridium-encased plutonium fuel capsules, according to NASA's Final Environmental Impact Statement."The average maximum dose to any member of the public from an accident with a release in the launch area would be equal to about 3 months of exposure to natural background radiation for a person living in the United States," NASA wrote.NASA Planetary Science Division Director Jim Green told SpaceNews in a Nov. 11 email that a solar-powered Mars 2020 rover could carry the full seven-instrument, $130 million science payload the agency approved in July, but such a rover would have to land closer to the martian equator and might not last as long as the plutonium-powered rover NASA intends to build."The main difference is that the MMRTG alternative would be capable of a full Martian year of operations within a broader range of landing latitudes, whereas the two solar-powered options would require narrower landing latitudes, constrained science operations, and potentially reduced mission lifetime," Green wrote in his email. One martian year is just under two Earth years long.Although NASA technically has to wait until after posting its record of decision to proceed with an MMRTG-powered Mars 2020, some of the early work on the rover's nuclear battery is already underway.For example, the Department of Energy in June gave Aerojet Rocketdyne of Sacramento, California, a $7.5 million contract to prepare for flight one of three MMRTGs that Canoga Park, California-based Boeing Rocketdyne Propulsion and Power built under a 2003 contract. Aerojet Rocketdyne inherited the MMRTG contract in 2012, when its parent, Gencorp Inc., bought Rocketdyne from United Technologies Corp.The presence of plutonium on Mars 2020 also has ramifications for the type of launch vehicle NASA will be allowed to use. There are several existing or planned launch vehicles capable of lofting the car-sized rover to Mars, but the only one now in operation that is also NASA-certified to carry nuclear material is United Launch Alliance's Atlas 5. NASA examined the possibility of launching Mars 2020 on that rocket, United Launch Alliance's Delta 4 rocket or Space Exploration Technologies Corp.'s planned Falcon Heavy, which is slated to debut in 2015.Neither Delta 4 nor Falcon Heavy is currently approved to launch NASA science missions, let alone the high-risk missions known internally as Class A payloads. An MMRTG automatically makes a mission Class A, Jim Norman, director of the agency's Launch Services Program here, wrote in a Nov. 12 email.The cost of using a nuclear power source goes beyond the expense of the hardware and expertise required to install an MMRTG or similar unit on a spacecraft. NASA spokesman Dwayne Brown declined to say how much NASA paid to conduct the Mars 2020 environmental review now nearing completion, but estimates of previous reviews peg the cost of compliance at tens of millions of dollars.Back in January, Ralph McNutt, a planetary scientist based at the Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland, and a participant in several nuclear-powered space missions including the Pluto-bound New Horizons probe, told the NASA-chartered Outer Planets Assessment Group it cost around $65 million to study whether the public would have been exposed to radiation if NASA's flagship Saturn orbiter Cassini failed during its 1997 launch.Return to the Moon: Lunar Mission One will crowd-source its way to spaceKate Arkless Gray – SENAn ambitious new venture to explore the South Pole of the Moon has been unveiled today. Lunar Mission One, backed by space professionals, industry and educators, hopes to crowd-source enough funding for the initial development of an exploratory robotic mission to the Moon, to launch in 2024."Up until now we have not explored the lunar polar regions" says Professor Ian Crawford of Birkbeck College, University of London, who is one of those endorsing the project. "All previous lunar missions have literally just scratched the surface."Lunar Mission One aims to use innovative new technology to drill to at least 20 metres below the Moon's surface—and perhaps as deep as 100 metres. This will allow the analysis of lunar rock that dates back around 4.5 billion years. "By drilling we will unlock billions of years of geological history related to the origin and evolution of the Earth-Moon system" says Crawford.Exploration does not come cheap, and the team behind Lunar Mission One are looking to new sources of funding for their mission, namely crowd-sourcing their initial development costs via Kickstarter. Project Founder David Iron hopes that this new funding model could help space exploration at a time where governments are finding it increasingly hard to commit funds. "Anyone from around the world can get involved for as little as a few pounds" he says.The Lunar Mission One Kickstarter launched today with the aim of raising £600,000 by 17 December, 2014, in order to progress the project to the next stage. Depending on the level of donation, a range of incentives are offered to funders, including becoming members of the Lunar Missions Club, having the chance to meet experts working on the project, and even having their name inscribed on the lunar landing module.Backers will also have the chance to secure a "digital memory box" to be included in a time capsule that is to be buried on the Moon during the mission. This time capsule will also include a public record of life on Earth as it is now, containing a biodiversity database and information about human history and civilisation.Space scientist Dr Maggie Aderin-Pocock, presenter of the BBC's The Sky at Night, is excited about the opportunities the mission has for engaging people, especially children, with the wonder of space. "What I love about this project is that kids can be a part of the mission themselves" she says. "This gives them a vested interest in the project… space really is for everyone."RAL Space has been engaged as technical advisor for the first stage of the Lunar Mission One project, alongside science and education partners University College London, The Open University and The Institute of Education.If enough money is raised in the next month to take the project to the next stages, work will begin in 2015 to establish management of the mission and conduct risk assessment. Public sales of "digital memory boxes" together with public and private backing are hoped to fund the technology development, testing and eventual launch of the mission.Philae lander sent in a surprise before going to sleepAshley Yeager – ScienceNewsThe Philae lander has given scientists a few hints about comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko before going to sleep. Data from one of the lander's instruments suggests that the comet has a hard icy layer sitting beneath 10 to 20 centimeters of dust. The find surprised scientists who were anticipating the instrument's hammer would pound into a layer of material that was a bit softer. There are also reports that another of Philae's instruments detected carbon-containing organic molecules.Cameras aboard the Rosetta orbiter also spotted Philae as it drifted across the comet's surface and captured glimpses of the lander and its shadow during the probe's first touchdown.Mission scientists continue to analyze the data that Philae collected in its brief 64 hours of activity on comet 67P.Philae Managers Say Recovery Possible as Comet Approaches SunPeter B. de Selding – Space NewsManagers of Europe's Philae comet lander, which went into hibernation Nov. 15 after its battery drained 56 hours after touchdown, on Nov. 18 made a virtue of a necessity in saying Philae's overly shadowed location will be an advantage as Comet 67P approaches the sun in the coming months.At that point, they said, it is "probable" that the increased doses of solar power will warm the lander, permitting its secondary battery to power up sufficiently to renew communications via the Rosetta spacecraft orbiting overhead.In response to SpaceNews inquiries, Stephan Ulamec, Philae project manager at the German Aerospace Center, DLR, on Nov. 18 said such a scenario "is very likely to happen. Philae will not overheat on its way to the sun because of its shaded position. Getting closer to the sun means Philae could warm up, wake up and reload its secondary battery by solar power."As of Nov. 18 Philae managers were still sifting through data from the last communication Philae had with Rosetta early Nov. 15 before its batteries drained.Early results confirm that the last of Philae's instruments to be switched on, the SD2 Sampling, Drilling and Distribution system, deployed correctly and made an attempt to penetrate the surface ice and collect a soil sample. It remained unclear whether a sample was collected and put into Philae's micro-oven for analysis. There is no evidence either way, DLR said."The strength of the ice found under a layer of dust on the landing site is surprisingly high," said Klaus Seidensticker of DLR's Institute of Planetary Research.Before it went dark, Philae was raised several centimeters and commanded to rotate 35 degrees to optimize its exposure to the sun. DLR said the telemetry from the last data transmission early Nov. 15 confirmed that this maneuver occurred.Data from Philae's MUPUS instrument, or Multi-Purpose Sensors for Surface and Sub-Surface Science, suggest that while the MUPUS hammer was deployed and its power increased, "we were not able to go deep into the surface," said Tilman Spohn of DLR's Institute of Planetary Research. The instrument nonetheless delivered information on the comet's surface.The SD2 drill was the last of Philae's instruments to be deployed because ground teams wanted to collect as much data as possible from those instruments whose measurements posed no risk of destabilizing the lander on its precarious perch. Only two of its three legs were securely on the surface.After separating from its mothership, Philae arrived near dead center in its intended landing area on Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. But its thruster system, designed to keep it secured on the surface, failed to deploy, as did the harpoons that were to affix it to the surface. Philae thus rebounded off the comet's surface, reaching up to a kilometer in elevation and travelling for about a kilometer over around two hours.It then touched down and rebounded again, this time for seven minutes, before coming to its final resting place.Ground teams are still combing through data to determine exactly where Philae is. On Nov. 17 the European Space Agency released a series of photos from Rosetta's Osiris camera showing Philae's descent. A subsequent photo shows the same area after Philae's rebound, with small footprints in the dust that were not visible in a previous photo of the spot.DLR has concluded that Philae worked 56 hours continuously on the surface of the comet, plus the seven-hour descent from Rosetta during which its MUPUS and Rosetta Lander Magnetometer and Plasma Monitor (ROMAP) multisensor experiments both were active. Including the descent, then, Philae logged 63 hours of data.The only two instruments that were not activated were thermal sensors and accelerometers attached to the harpoon anchoring system.Philae's exploits 500 million kilometers from Earth attracted global attention. With the lander now out of the spotlight, at least until its battery is recharged next summer, the Rosetta satellite will continue its unprecedented close-in study of a comet as it approaches the sun. Rosetta is expected to follow the comet for another 18 months or more.ESA Rosetta managers are debating whether to land Rosetta on Comet 67 at the end of its operational life, but no decision has been made.Philae lander not to become costly space junk — Russian scientistITAR TASS, of RussiaAs soon as it moves out of the shadow and the first solar rays reach the research probe's chargers, Philae will start to work againThe Philae lander last week failed to get the primary matter from which the Solar system was formed billions of years ago, deputy director of the Russian Academy of Sciences' (RAS) Space Research Institute (SRI), Doctor of Physics and Mathematics Oleg Korablev told TASS on Tuesday.Philae is a robotic European Space Agency (ESA) lander that accompanied the Rosetta spacecraft until its designated landing on Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko (67P), more than ten years after departing Earth. On 12 November 2014, the lander achieved the first-ever controlled touchdown on a comet nucleus.Korablev said that the research failure was caused by the inaccurate information the scientists had about the surface of the comet nucleus.The Space Research Institute deputy director said the lander "twice failed to fasten on the rocks on the surface of the Churyumov-Gerasimenko comet and later had difficulty with drilling into the comet nucleus.""The lander's solar batteries soon depleted as it landed in the shadow of a comet rock," Korablev said. It was initially planned to make the isotope analysis of the comet's soil, but now the primary matter studies will be continued remotely from the Rosetta spacecraft.Despite the problems, the most ambitious ESA project in the sphere of unmanned cosmonautics is a success, says the Russian scientist. Meanwhile, Space Research Institute Academic Secretary, Doctor of Physics and Mathematics Aleksandr Zakharov told TASS that the Philae lander will not become costly space junk on the surface of the Churyumov-Gerasimenko comet when the first solar rays reach its chargers."I'm sure that now the ESA specialists are taking a number of measures to reactivate the Philae. However, now this largely depends on the comet flight trajectory. As soon as it moves out of the shadow and the first solar rays reach the research probe's chargers, Philae will start to work again and will possibly continue its research on the comet's surface," the scientist said. "Now it's hard to say when this might happen," he added.According to the scientist, due to the fact that the Philae lander is not firmly attached to the comet that has low gravity, the probe may fly off into space again. "This may happen if a smaller space object hits the surface of the Churyumov-Gerasimenko comet. However, this is unlikely, this threat is rather a theory," Zakharov said.It took the Rosetta spacecraft more than 10 years of flight to approach the researched object. Over this period the space probe has covered more than 6.4 billion kilometres. Rosetta's prime objective is to help understand the origin and evolution of the Solar System. The comet's composition reflects the composition of the pre-solar nebula out of which the Sun and the planets of the Solar System formed, more than 4.6 billion years ago. Therefore, an in-depth analysis of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko by Rosetta and its lander will provide essential information to understand how the Solar System formed.Russia's new heavy-lifter rolled to launch padStephen Clark - Spaceflightnow.comSeveral weeks ahead of a planned liftoff in late December, the biggest new Russian rocket to fly in a generation rolled to its launch pad at the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in northern Russia earlier this month for preflight testing.The heavy-lift Angara 5 rocket is due to replace Russia's Proton launcher to haul the country's heaviest satellites into orbit. Manufactured by the Khrunichev State Research and Production Space Center — the Proton's prime contractor — the Angara 5 is also slated to compete for commercial satellite launches on the global market.Russian news agencies have reported the rocket's first liftoff is scheduled for around Dec. 25. It will carry a simulated payload into geostationary transfer orbit stretching more than 20,000 miles above Earth, a common destination for communications satellites.Weighing 773 metric tons (852 tons) when filled with kerosene, liquid oxygen and hypergolic propellants, the Angara 5 is the biggest Russian launcher to debut since the Energia rocket for the Soviet Union's Buran space shuttle flew in the late 1980s.The booster is formed of five rocket cores each fitted with an RD-191 engine built by NPO Energomash of Khimki, Russia. Engineers derived the single-chamber RD-191 engine from the four-nozzle RD-171 and dual-chamber RD-180 engines flying on the Zenit and Atlas 5 launchers.When it is cleared for liftoff, the Angara 5 rocket's five kerosene-fueled RD-191 engines will generate nearly 2.2 million pounds of thrust to power the massive booster off the launch pad at Plesetsk, a military-run space base about 500 miles north of Moscow.Four of the rocket cores will release from the rocket a few minutes after liftoff, then the Angara 5's main stage and its throttleable RD-191 engine will ramp up power to continue the rocket's acceleration into orbit.A second stage RD-0124A engine and a Breeze M upper stage — borrowed from Russia's Soyuz 2-1b and Proton rockets — will finish the job.The Angara 5 can place up to 24.5 metric tons — about 54,000 pounds — into a 120-mile-high orbit. On missions with communications satellites heading for geostationary transfer orbit, an Angara 5 rocket can lift up to 5.4 metric tons, or about 11,900 pounds, according to Khrunichev.The Angara 5's first flight is scheduled a half-year after a scaled-down single-engine Angara 1.2PP rocket successfully lifted off on a suborbital demonstration mission in July.Russia envisions the Angara rocket family, which encompasses several configurations aimed at delivering small, medium-class and large satellites into orbit, replacing a range of launchers, including modified ballistic missiles such as Rockot and the heavy-duty Proton. The switchover to Angara rockets will also reduce Russian reliance on foreign suppliers and the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, which has been the subject of contention between the Russian and Kazakh governments in recent years.According to a report by Russia's Itar-Tass news agency, the country has spent about $2.9 billion on the Angara rocket program, which kicked off in 1992.The photos below show the Angara 5's Nov. 10 rollout from the rocket assembly building before it was lifted vertical on the launch pad. Plans called for the rocket to undergo fueling and electrical testing before its return to the hangar until closer to launch.ENDMore at www.spacetoday.net
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