- Next Space Station Crew Preps for a Year-long Stay in Space
- China's Test Spacecraft Simulates Orbital Docking
- ‘Habitable’ Planet GJ 581d Previously Dismissed as Noise Probably Does Exist
- China to Launch Tianzhou-1 Cargo Ship in 2016 to Rendezvous with Space Lab
- University of Iowa Researchers Launch Rockets in Search of Unseen Parts of Universe
|
Posted: 08 Mar 2015 02:37 PM PDT
On Friday Mar. 6, the primary and backup crews of the upcoming Expedition 43 to the International Space Station (ISS) showed their readiness for the mission during a press conference in Star City, near Moscow, Russia. The primary crew, consisting of Russian cosmonauts Gennady Padalka, Mikhail Kornienko and U.S. astronaut Scott Kelly, and the backup crew: cosmonauts Alexei Ovchinin, Sergei Volkov, and NASA astronaut Jeffrey Williams, will proceed to the final stage of preparations at the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Kelly and Kornienko will stay on the ISS for one year, what will allow studying the effect of long-term human presence in microgravity. The experiment will be remarkable due to the fact that Kelly’s twin brother will duplicate this experiment on Earth: he will carry out the same tests and perform the same tasks in order to compare the response of organisms with similar DNA to the same load under the conditions of gravity and its absence.
The press conference of the flight’s participants was held after the examination drills. The complex examination drills of the ISS long-time expedition primary and backup crews have been completed at the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center (GCTC). According to the results of the two examination days, the Commission has highly assessed the preparation of all crew members, thus confirming their readiness to work in the ISS.
During the drill, the flight’s participants had to recognize the emergency situations, simulated by the GCTC’s instructors, and to offer and implement in practice the possible options of their elimination. The crew tested the basic modes of the spacecraft’s flight: launch, autonomous orbital flight, rendezvous and docking with the ISS, undocking and descent from the orbit.
After the successful completion of all stages of the examination by the backup crew, the primary crew completed the examination tasks in the “ISS Russian segment”. The crew members worked out the program of the “typical day in space”, they practiced regular tasks and elimination of emergency situations on board the ISS.
At the press conference on Friday, the journalists were mainly interested in the scientific program of the flight. After answering questions, the crews traditionally went to the office of Yuri Gagarin in Zvezdny Gorodok aerospace museum, where they left records in a commemorative book. And then, they laid flowers at the Kremlin wall memorial.
Now, the flight participants will have the pre-launch preparation directly at Baikonur.
Meanwhile, General Designer of RSC Energia for manned space systems Sergei Romanov reported on the progress of preparations for launch of the manned transportation spacecraft Soyuz TMA-16M that will take Expedition 43 crew to the ISS, and on the readiness of Soyuz TMA-14M for completion of its mission.
"Soyuz TMA-16M was assembled in June 2014, passed the full scope of factory check tests and in September was shipped off to Baikonur, where it also passed a full scope of tests per General Designer's documentation. The spacecraft is currently at the stage of final operations, "Romanov said.
He said the launch of Soyuz TMA-16M is notable because the spacecraft will deliver into orbit the participants of a one-year mission, and in September it is going to bring back to Earth the participants of a visiting mission - Sarah Brightman and Andreas Mogensen.
RSC Energia First Deputy General Designer Vladimir Soloviev presented the ISS Russian Segment mission plan for the forthcoming period, reported on the results and further plans for conducting science experiments onboard the ISS, and also reported on the readiness of the Russian Segment for carrying out the program of the next expedition.
"There are sufficient resources to carry out the ISS-43 program. The control loop is fully functional. Specialists have completed their theoretical training, the onboard and ground operational documentation has been prepared. The hardware and personnel are ready for continuing the expedition,” Soloviev noted.
The launch of Soyuz TMA-16M to the ISS is scheduled for Mar. 27, 2015 on Soyuz-FG launch vehicle from the launch pad 1 of the Baikonur launch site.
 | ||||||
|
Posted: 08 Mar 2015 12:42 PM PDT
China has run tests close to the moon simulating an unmanned docking procedure needed in the country's next lunar mission. The service module of the unmanned lunar orbiter currently in space to trial such techniques entered a target lunar orbit after breaking maneuvers, and flew to a suitable position for orbital docking between Tuesday and Saturday, said the State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense (SASTIND) on Sunday.
Liu Jizhong, deputy chief commander of the SASTIND's lunar probe project, said that the service module has proven the reliability of key technology needed for the docking of two spacecraft in the Chang'e-5 mission.
The Chang'e-5 probe, expected to launch in 2017, will be tasked with landing on the moon, collecting samples and returning to Earth.
The current lunar orbiter was launched on Oct. 24, 2014. A capsule designed to separate and return to Earth did so as planned in November, while the service module continues its lunar flight to carry out preset scientific tasks.
The service module is operating smoothly and will carry out further tests on capturing lunar images, and may conduct tests assessing lunar gravity depending how the mission progresses.
Liu told Xinhua that the SASTIND expects to test launching Chang'e-5 with a Long March-5 carrier rocket in south China's Hainan Province this year.
"In the tests of the service module, we have simulated three key procedures needed for Chang'e-5: re-entry [to the moon's orbit] at high speed, adjustment of lunar orbit and docking in lunar orbit, laying a solid foundation for China's three-step lunar program -- orbiting, landing and returning," said Liu.
Credit: xinhuanet.com
 | ||||||
|
Posted: 08 Mar 2015 12:23 PM PDT
Researchers are confident the planet named GJ 581d, identified in 2009 orbiting the star Gliese 581, does exist, and that last year’s claim was triggered by inadequate analyses of the data. The planet candidate was spotted using a spectrometer which measures the ‘wobble’, small changes in the wavelength of light emitted by a star, caused as a planet orbits it. In 2014 researchers revisiting the data said that the ‘planet’ was actually just noise in the data caused by starspots. The possible existence of the planet was widely dismissed without further questioning. But now researchers from Queen Mary University of London (QMUL) and University of Hertfordshire, UK, have questioned the methods used to challenge the planet’s existence. The statistical technique used in the 2014 research to account for stellar activity is simply inadequate for identifying small planets like GJ 581d.
The method used before has worked when identifying larger planets in the past because their effect on the star was so significant as to negate errors in the findings. However, it makes it almost impossible to find the smallest planet signals close to or within the noise caused by the stellar own variability.
Using a more accurate model on the existing data the researchers are highly confident that the signal of GJ 581d is a real one, despite stellar variability.
Leading author of the paper, Dr Guillem Anglada-Escudé, said: “The existence (or not) of GJ 581d is significant because it was the first Earth-like planet discovered in the ‘Goldilocks’-zone around another star and it is a benchmark case for the Doppler technique.
“There are always discussions among scientists about the ways we interpret data but I’m confident that GJ 581d has been in orbit around Gliese 581 all along. In any case, the strength of their statement was way too strong. If they way to treat the data had been right, then some planet search projects at several ground-based observatories would need to be significantly revised as they are all aiming to detect even smaller planets. One needs to be more careful with these kind of claims”
Credit: qmul.ac.uk
 | ||||||
|
Posted: 08 Mar 2015 12:02 PM PDT
China will send a cargo ship into the space in 2016 to dock with a future space module scheduled to be launched earlier the same year, a leading Chinese space scientist said Friday. The Tianzhou-1, which literally means "heavenly vessel", will carry propellants, living necessities for astronauts, research facilities and repair equipment to China's second orbiting space lab Tiangong-2, said Zhou Jianping, chief engineer of China's manned space program. Cargo transportation system is a key technology China must master and make breakthroughs to build its own space station, said Zhou who is also a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, the country's top political advisory body.
China's multi-billion-dollar space program, a source of surging national pride in the country, aims to put a permanent manned space station into service around 2022.
The country already launched its first space lab, Tiangong-1, in September 2011 and has conducted two dockings with the module in the following two years. In June 2013, three Chinese astronauts delivered a physics lesson onboard Tiangong-1.
According to Zhou, Tianzhou-1 will be blasted off on top of a next-generation Long March-7 rocket, possibly from a new launch site in the southern Hainan Province.
Research on the Long March-5 carrier rocket - to be used to lift the Tiangong-2 lab into space - Tiangong-2's payload, and selection of astronauts for the mission are currently "progressing in an orderly manner," Zhou said.
Credit: xinhuanet.com
 | ||||||
|
Posted: 08 Mar 2015 10:01 AM PDT
Walk into the corner astronomy lab in the basement of Van Allen Hall, and you’ll likely hear a student spontaneously burst into song while creating preliminary computer aided designs for an upcoming NASA project proposal. Or, find a former-accountant-turned-
McEntaffer is the principal investigator (PI) on a suborbital rocket project to develop critical technologies for future NASA missions. The lab is building the first of three payloads whose instruments will be able to see the missing normal matter in space that is not currently observable with telescopes or the naked eye.
The matter the team hopes to eventually see makes up the intergalactic medium – the hot, sparse plasma (10^5 to 10^7° K) that takes up the space between the galaxies. It’s where astronomers believe that a large fraction of the universe’s normal matter—atomic and baryonic, rather than dark matter – exists. Astronomers also believe that the matter reflects x-ray light, rather than the longer wavelengths of the visible light spectrum.
“If we can detect the absorption caused by the intergalactic medium, then we will have discovered upwards of 50 percent of all the normal matter in space,” McEntaffer says.
That goes a long way toward confirming the current models of the universe, McEntaffer says. Astronomers are able to predict the amount of matter that should exist in the universe, and they need those predictions to be backed up by real observations, which is a continuing process.
“A full one-third to one-half has yet to be found from this theoretical model that defines our whole universe. To define this last bit, that’s huge for understanding the universe,” McEntaffer says.
To see the unseen, the team is building an observational system using x-ray diffraction gratings—tiny zig-zag patterns cut into pieces of silicone—that can break apart the x-ray light itself, diffracting it. Just as refracting visible light through a prism reveals the colors of the rainbow, diffracting x-ray light off the gratings produces the “x-ray rainbow,” McEntaffer says. The x-ray rainbow won’t show up if the x-ray light simply passes over a flat surface, but when it hits the repeating zig-zag of the grating, the x-ray light creates an interference pattern, displaying the relative “colors” that make up x-ray light.
From there, “you can tell the physical properties of what you’re looking at, which you can’t tell from a pretty picture, or a single point of light,” McEntaffer says.
For the team’s upcoming rocket missions, the makeup of the x-ray rainbow is captured either by a gaseous electron-multiplying (GEM) detector, or a charge-coupled device camera, depending on the size of the observed object. The data is then sent back down to Earth.
The team’s first project, the Off-plane Grating Rocket for Extended Source Spectroscopy (OGRESS) and second project, the Off-plane Grating Rocket Experiment (OGRE) will comprise three rocket launches—the first of which happens this spring. Two more will follow in 2016 and 2018.
If the missions are successful, the team hopes to secure a NASA proposal to put a similar instrument setup on the International Space Station. It means a great amount progress for astronomers’ understanding of the universe, but it also means a tremendous amount of experience for the students involved. Because the missions they fly don’t involve people, students are able to work directly on the rocket’s electronics, a rare thing for undergraduate and graduate students, McEntaffer says.
“Really, this the only way to get hardware training in space-based astronomy. The rocket program trains undergraduates, graduates, post docs, engineers, all the way through young PIs, like myself. For me, it’s preparing for the next mission. We’re all getting ready for that next role in that next mission,” McEntaffer says.
McEntaffer is the principal investigator on this five-year collaboration with NASA. The diffraction gratings are built by students at the Optical Science and Technology Center inside the Iowa Advanced Technology Laboratories at the University of Iowa. The mission is funded by NASA and incorporates optics from Goddard Space Flight Center and a CCD camera from collaborators at the Open University in the UK.
Credit: uiowa.edu
|
댓글 없음:
댓글 쓰기