Science 8 November 2013:
Vol. 342 no. 6159 p. 681
DOI: 10.1126/science.342.6159.681 Planetary Science The Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN (MAVEN), a NASA spacecraft to be launched to Mars later this month, will try to decipher billions of years of planetary history from careful study of the martian atmosphere. Eons ago, planetary scientists believe, Mars had a thick atmosphere that sheltered a surface awash with water—conditions in which life could have emerged and thrived. Today, that atmosphere is thin and depleted, and Mars is a cold, barren desert. What caused this remarkable transformation? Until now, planetary scientists have attempted to answer such questions mainly from the planet's surface. MAVEN will take a new course: flying through the outer fringes of Mars's atmosphere, measuring gases and monitoring conditions with eight instruments. The measurements should help researchers figure out how the solar wind, asteroid impacts, and chemical reactions gradually depleted the Red Planet's atmosphere.
Monday, November 11, 2013
[News & Analysis] Planetary Science: Orbiting MAVEN Mission Set to Trace a Planet's History in Thin Martian Air
Thursday, September 12, 2013
Three space station crewmembers land after 166-day mission
The International Space Station crew members (L to R) U.S. astronaut Chris Cassidy and Russian cosmonauts Pavel Vinogradov and Alexander Misurkin walk after donning space suits before the launch at the Baikonur cosmodrome March 28, 2013.
Credit: Reuters/Sergei Ilnitsky/PoolBy Irene Klotz
CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida | Tue Sep 10, 2013 11:18pm EDT
CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - Two Russian cosmonauts and a U.S. astronaut left the International Space Station on Tuesday, leaving a skeleton crew to maintain the outpost until replacements arrive later this month.
Outgoing station commander Pavel Vinogradov, NASA astronaut Christopher Cassidy and Russian cosmonaut Alexander Misurkin bid their crewmates good-bye and climbed aboard their Russian Soyuz capsule to prepare for a 3.5-hour flight back to Earth after 166 days in orbit.
"The time has gone by so incredibly fast," Cassidy said during an inflight interview last week.
"It'll be really sad to leave. This is an incredible experience ... but by the same token, I'm ready to go. It's time for some other people to come ... and I'm really excited to go back and see my friends and family."
Before leaving, Vinogradov, a veteran of three spaceflights, transferred command of the $100 billion station, a project of 15 nations, to fellow cosmonaut Fyodor Yurchikhin, who remains aboard with Italian astronaut Luca Parmitano and NASA's Karen Nyberg.
"We had a great environment here, very friendly and very warm," Vinogradov said through a translator in a ceremony on NASA TV on Monday marking the change in command.
Strapped inside their Soyuz capsule, Vinogradov, Cassidy and Misurkin pulled away from the station's Poisk module at 7:35 p.m. EDT/1135 GMT as the two ships sailed 258 miles above Mongolia, said NASA mission commentator Brandi Dean.
Three hours later, the Soyuz hit the top of Earth's atmosphere, giving the men their first sampling of gravity since their launch on March 28.
The final leg of the journey took place under parachutes, with the capsule finally coming to a stop on the steppes of Kazakhstan at 10:58 p.m. EDT/0258 GMT, marking the end of the Expedition 36 mission.
The space station has been continuously staffed by rotating crews of astronauts and cosmonauts since November 2000.
Following medical checks, Vinogradov and Misurkin will be flown to Star City near Moscow. Cassidy will fly on a NASA jet back to the Johnson Space Center in Houston.
A replacement space station crew, headed by veteran cosmonaut Oleg Kotov and including rookies Sergey Ryazanskiy and Michael Hopkins, is due to launch on September 25.
(Editing by Christopher Wilson)
Monday, June 24, 2013
Science Podcast - Sleeping sickness, kids' science books, the GRAIL mission, and more (7 Dec 2012)
Thursday, April 11, 2013
NASA Picks Next Exoplanet Mission for Launch in 2017
NASA plans to launch an exoplanet-hunting satellite and an instrument to study neutron stars in 2017. Both are small missions that could have a big impact.
The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) will aim to find terrestrial planets in the habitable zones of nearby stars. It will use an array of wide-field cameras to survey the brightest stars in the sun's neighborhood in hopes of detecting exoplanets such as gas giants and rocky, Earth-sized planets. Some of these planets, researchers hope, will become candidates for follow-up studies of their atmospheres by the James Webb Space Telescope, scheduled for launch in 2018.
The other mission chosen by NASA is the Neutron Star Interior Composition Explorer (NICER), which will be deployed on the International Space Station. The instrument will observe x-rays flashed by neutron stars, helping researchers understand the nature of matter contained in these dense, spinning objects that result from the collapse of massive stars.
"TESS will carry out the first space-borne all-sky transit survey, covering 400 times as much sky as any previous mission," said George Ricker, a research scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge and principal investigator of the mission, in a statement. "It will identify thousands of new planets in the solar neighborhood, with a special focus on planets comparable in size to the Earth."
Both TESS and NICER have been selected as part of NASA's Explorer program, out of four concept studies submitted to the agency in the fall last year. TESS will get up to $200 million, and NICER—to be led by Keith Gendreau of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland—will receive up to $55 million.