Interpretations of data that Phoenix returned during its five months of operation on a Martian arctic plain fill four papers in this week’s edition of the journal Science, the first major peer-reviewed reports on the mission’s findings. Phoenix ended communications in November 2008 as the approach of Martian winter depleted energy from the lander’s solar panels.

This mosaic of images from the Surface Stereo Imager camera on NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander shows several trenches dug by Phoenix, plus a corner of the spacecraft's deck and the Martian arctic plain stretching to the horizon. Image Credit: NASA/JPL

“Not only did we find water ice, as expected, but the soil chemistry and minerals we observed lead us to believe this site had a wetter and warmer climate in the recent past — the last few million years — and could again in the future,” said Phoenix Principal Investigator Peter Smith of the University of Arizona, Tucson.

A paper about Phoenix water studies, for which Smith is the lead author with 36 coauthors from six nations, cites clues supporting an interpretation that the soil has had films of liquid water in the recent past. The evidence for water and potential nutrients “implies that this region could have previously met the criteria for habitability” during portions of continuing climate cycles, these authors conclude.

This mosaic of images from the Surface Stereo Imager camera on NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander shows a portion of the spacecraft's deck after deliveries of several Martian soil samples to instruments on the deck. Image Credit: NASA/JPL

The mission’s biggest surprise was finding a multi-talented chemical named perchlorate in the Martian soil. This Phoenix finding caps a growing emphasis on the planet’s chemistry, said Michael Hecht of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., who has 10 coauthors on a paper about Phoenix’s soluble-chemistry findings.

“The study of Mars is in transition from a follow-the-water stage to a follow-the-chemistry stage,” Hecht said. “With perchlorate, for example, we see links to atmospheric humidity, soil moisture, a possible energy source for microbes, even a possible resource for humans.”

Perchlorate, which strongly attracts water, makes up a few tenths of a percent of the composition in all three soil samples analyzed by Phoenix’s wet chemistry laboratory. It could pull humidity from the Martian air. At higher concentrations, it might combine with water as a brine that stays liquid at Martian surface temperatures. Some microbes on Earth use perchlorate as food. Human explorers might find it useful as rocket fuel or for generating oxygen.

Another surprise from Phoenix was finding ice clouds and precipitation more Earth-like than anticipated. The lander’s Canadian laser instrument for studying the atmosphere detected snow falling from clouds. In one of this week’s reports, Jim Whiteway of York University, Toronto, and 22 coauthors say that, further into winter than Phoenix operated, this precipitation would result in a seasonal buildup of water ice on and in the ground.

Several of the trenches dug by NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander are displayed in this approximately true color mosaic of images from the lander's Surface Stereo Imager camera. Image Credit: NASA/JPL

“Before Phoenix we did not know whether precipitation occurs on Mars,” Whiteway said. “We knew that the polar ice cap advances as far south as the Phoenix site in winter, but we did not know how the water vapor moved from the atmosphere to ice on the ground. Now we know that it does snow, and that this is part of the hydrological cycle on Mars.”

Evidence that water ice in the area sometimes thaws enough to moisten the soil comes from finding calcium carbonate in soil heated in the lander’s analytic ovens or mixed with acid in the wet chemistry laboratory. The University of Arizona’s William Boynton and 13 coauthors report that the amount of calcium carbonate “is most consistent with formation in the past by the interaction of atmospheric carbon dioxide with liquid films of water on particle surfaces.”

The new reports leave unsettled whether soil samples scooped up by Phoenix contained any carbon-based organic compounds. The perchlorate could have broken down simple organic compounds during heating of soil samples in the ovens, preventing clear detection.

The heating in ovens did not drive off any water vapor at temperatures lower than 295 degrees Celsius (563 degrees Fahrenheit), indicating the soil held no water adhering to soil particles. Climate cycles resulting from changes in the tilt and orbit of Mars on scales of hundreds of thousands of years or more could explain why effects of moist soil are present.

A pulsar is the rapidly spinning and highly magnetized core left behind when a massive star explodes. Most of the 1,800 cataloged pulsars were found through their periodic radio emissions. Astronomers believe these pulses are caused by narrow, lighthouse-like radio beams emanating from the pulsar’s magnetic poles.

“Fermi has truly unprecedented power for discovering and studying gamma-ray pulsars,” said Paul Ray of the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington. “Since the demise of the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory a decade ago, we’ve wondered about the nature of unidentified gamma-ray sources it detected in our galaxy. These studies from Fermi lift the veil on many of them.”

The Vela pulsar, which spins 11 times a second, is the brightest persistent source of gamma rays in the sky. Yet gamma rays — the most energetic form of light — are few and far between. Even Fermi’s Large Area Telescope sees only about one gamma-ray photon from Vela every two minutes.

“That’s about one photon for every thousand Vela rotations,” said Marcus Ziegler, a member of the team reporting on the new pulsars at the University of California, Santa Cruz. “From the faintest pulsar we studied, we see only two gamma-ray photons a day.”

Radio telescopes on Earth can detect a pulsar easily only if one of the narrow radio beams happens to swing our way. If not, the pulsar can remain hidden.

A pulsar’s radio beams represent only a few parts per million of its total power, whereas its gamma rays account for 10 percent or more. Somehow, pulsars are able to accelerate particles to speeds near that of light. These particles emit a broad beam of gamma rays as they arc along curved magnetic field lines.

16 new pulsars, Credit: NASA/DOE/Fermi LAT Collaboration

This all-sky map shows the positions and names of 16 new pulsars (yellow) and eight millisecond pulsars (magenta) studied using Fermi’s LAT. The famous Vela, Crab, and Geminga pulsars (right) are the brightest ones Fermi sees. The pulsars Taz, Eel, and Rabbit have taken the nicknames of nebulae they are now known to power. The Gamma Cygni pulsar resides within a supernova remnant of the same name.

The new pulsars were discovered as part of a comprehensive search for periodic gamma-ray fluctuations using five months of Fermi Large Area Telescope data and new computational techniques.

“Before launch, some predicted Fermi might uncover a handful of new pulsars during its mission,” Ziegler added. “To discover 16 in its first five months of operation is really beyond our wildest dreams.”

Like spinning tops, pulsars slow down as they lose energy. Eventually, they spin too slowly to power their characteristic emissions and become undetectable.

But pair a slowed dormant pulsar with a normal star, and a stream of stellar matter from the companion can spill onto the pulsar and increase its spin. At rotation periods between 100 and 1,000 times a second, ancient pulsars can resume the activity of their youth. In the second study, Fermi scientists examined gamma rays from eight of these “born-again” pulsars, all of which were previously discovered at radio wavelengths.

“Before Fermi launched, it wasn’t clear that pulsars with millisecond periods could emit gamma rays at all,” said Lucas Guillemot at the Center for Nuclear Studies in Gradignan, near Bordeaux, France. “Now we know they do. It’s also clear that, despite their differences, both normal and millisecond pulsars share similar mechanisms for emitting gamma rays.”

NASA’s Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope is an astrophysics and particle physics partnership, developed in collaboration with the U.S. Department of Energy, along with important contributions from academic institutions and partners in France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Sweden, and the U.S.

Hernandez, who considers Stockton, Calif., his hometown, grew up in a migrant farming family, travelling each year between Mexico and California. He did not learn English until the age of 12.

Hernandez, whose Twitter account is astro_jose, can be followed at: http://www.twitter.com/astro_jose

Twitter

“I was inspired to pursue a dream to one day work in space while listening to the radio news about space exploration while working in the fields of northern California,” Hernandez said. “I hope to spread that excitement about space, science and engineering and inspire others to follow their dreams by sharing my activities and interacting with my followers on Twitter.”

Selected as an astronaut by NASA in May 2004, Hernandez will make his first spaceflight on the STS-128 shuttle mission that will continue assembly of the International Space Station. During the mission, he will oversee the transfer of supplies and equipment between the shuttle and station, assist with robotics operations and serve as a flight engineer in the shuttle cockpit during launch and landing. It will be the first shuttle mission to feature two Latino astronauts. Danny Olivas, who also is of Mexican descent, is among Hernandez’s six crewmates.

For Hernandez’s complete biography, visit: http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/Bios/htmlbios/hernandez-jm.html

For more information about the STS-128 mission, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/shuttlemissions/sts128

For SpaceFellowships twitter page visit: http://twitter.com/SpaceFellowship

For Mike Massimino’s twitter page visit: http://twitter.com/Astro_Mike

Microsensors

Wireless technologies are shaping up to be important enablers of future space exploration. Wireless sensor nodes placed throughout a spacecraft might function as a networked nervous system, yielding a wealth of currently inaccessible structural or environmental data to mission controllers. Similar nodes scattered across a planetary surface would generate a much higher scientific return than a single lander could, configuring a network to combine their findings for relaying to Earth. And establishing ‘plug and play’ wireless networking between multiple spacecraft could enable the seamless transfer of data and commands. Formation flying satellite constellations and orbiter-lander-rover combinations would be the most obvious beneficiaries, but proximity networks could be set up by any spacecraft within signal range as easily as a laptop plugs into a WiFi network.

Spinning-in to space

Mars Express Avionics Test Bench

Actual wireless space missions are still some way off, but the underlying technologies are already with us, in the protocols delivering wireless connectivity to homes, offices and public places.

“This research is an example of us ’spinning in’ technology developed elsewhere into the space sector,” explains ESA data handling engineer Jean-François Dufour. “Commercial wireless protocols such as the IEEE 802.11 family of standards for computer WiFi or sensor networking standards such as IEEE 802.15.4 are already available so we are assessing how they might transfer to the space environment.”

Mr Dufour is an ESA representative of a body that coordinates wireless research among global space agencies, the Wireless Working Group (WWG) of the Consultative Committee for Space Data Services (CCSDS) – an international body set up to promote interoperability of spacecraft data systems.

The move includes the refurbishing of two large static test stands, which are designed to accommodate rocket engines of several tonnes thrust. These test stands are being fully instrumented with state of the art test equipment used at Airborne Engineering’s former test facility, and will help establish a new rocket manufacturing and test facility based in the UK.

Westcott

These facilities have been secured by arrangement with AMPAC-ISP who run the Westcott test site and also build and test their own successful range of rocket motors for satellite applications.Airborne Engineering has several ongoing contracts for rocket development and testing, including two motors for Reaction Engines Limited, one developing a green, air breathing, hydrogen fuelled engine for a hypersonic passenger transport plane programme, the other an experimental engine contributing to the development of advanced air breathing SABRE engines for the SKYLON spaceplane. Both of these projects are funded by the European Space Agency. As well as developing its own rocket propulsion systems, Airborne Engineering also plays a key role in the development of the Canary sounding rocket which will test advanced nozzles this summer.

LRO's first lunar images show an area near this region. Credit: NASA

As the moon rotates beneath LRO, LROC gradually will build up photographic maps of the lunar surface.

“Our first images were taken along the moon’s terminator — the dividing line between day and night — making us initially unsure of how they would turn out,” said LROC Principal Investigator Mark Robinson of Arizona State University in Tempe. “Because of the deep shadowing, subtle topography is exaggerated, suggesting a craggy and inhospitable surface. In reality, the area is similar to the region where the Apollo 16 astronauts safely explored in 1972. While these are magnificent in their own right, the main message is that LROC is nearly ready to begin its mission.”

These images show cratered regions near the moon’s Mare Nubium region, as photographed by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter’s LROC instrument. Each image shows a region 1,400 meters (0.87 miles) wide. the bottoms of both images face lunar north. The image below shows the location of these two images in relation to each other.

Credit: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center/Arizona State University

Credit: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center/Arizona State University

Lyman-alpha blobs are so called because they strongly emit radiation due to the Lyman-alpha emission line of hydrogen gas. Normally, Lyman-alpha emission is in the ultraviolet part of the spectrum, but Lyman-apha blobs are so distant, their light is redshifted to (longer) optical wavelengths. X-ray data (blue) indicates the presence of a supermassive black hole feeding at the center of an active galaxy embedded in the blob.Illustrated close up in the right hand panel, radiation and outflows from the active galaxy are thought to be a source for energizing and heating the blob’s hydrogen gas. In fact, Lyman-alpha blobs could represent an early phase in galaxy formation where the heating is so great it begins to limit further rapid growth of active galaxies and their supermassive black holes.

Lyman Alpha Blob, Credit: NASA / ESA

Space Shuttle Endeavour

The tanking test began at 6:52 a.m. EDT Wednesday. During the next three hours, teams in the Launch Control Center watched closely for signs of a leak as liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen poured into the massive orange tank. Previous attempts to launch Endeavour on the STS-127 mission were scrubbed by a leak in the area of the Ground Umbilical Carrier Plate, which attaches a gaseous hydrogen vent line to the external tank. Crews worked tirelessly to investigate and repair the problem.

“There were absolutely no leak indications whatsoever noted on the two leak detectors,” said Launch Director Pete Nickolenko. “We’ll continue to look at the data, and our next step is to move toward launch.”

Endeavour’s launch is targeted for July 11 at 7:39 p.m.

Commander Gennady Padalka and flight engineers Mike Barratt and Koichi Wakata reviewed the Soyuz relocation procedures with specialists at the Russian Mission Control Center in Korolev, outside Moscow.

Image Above: Expedition 20 Commander Gennady Padalka works in the Harmony node of the International Space Station. Credit: NASA

The trio will don their Sokol launch and entry suits and undock the vehicle from the aft port of the Zvezda service module at 5:29 p.m. EDT. With Padalka at the controls, the Soyuz will dock at the Pirs docking compartment about 30 minutes later. This maneuver will clear the way for the arrival of the next Progress supply ship. NASA TV coverage of the Soyuz move begins at 5 p.m.

The ISS Progress 33 unpiloted spacecraft is currently flying free, having undocked from Pirs at 2:30 p.m. Tuesday.

The Progress will continue to move away from the station until Friday, when the vehicle will perform a retrograde burn to place it into a parking orbit. Another burn on July 11 sets up the Progress for its final rendezvous with the station on July 12. The cargo ship will approach to within 10 to 15 meters of the Zvezda to test new automated rendezvous equipment mounted on Zvezda during a pair of spacewalks earlier this month. This equipment will be used to guide the new Mini-Research Module-2 (MRM2) to an unpiloted docking to the zenith port of Zvezda later this year. MRM2 will serve as a new docking port for Russian spacecraft and an additional airlock for spacewalks conducted out of the Russian segment.

In other activities aboard the station Wednesday, Flight Engineer Bob Thirsk continued to prepare the Fluid Physics Experiment Facility in the Japanese Kibo module for a study of the Marangoni effect, which is the flow of liquids caused by surface tension.

PALO ALTO, Calif. — Space Systems/Loral (SS/L), a subsidiary of Loral Space & Communications (Nasdaq:LORL), and the world’s leading provider of high-power commercial satellites, today announced that the satellite it built for TerreStar Networks is successfully performing post-launch maneuvers. The world’s largest commercial satellite deployed its solar arrays Wednesday evening, following its launch aboard an Ariane 5 rocket from the European Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana. The satellite’s first thruster firing will begin later today, to propel it toward its final geosynchronous orbit.

TerreStar-1

“The successful launch of TerreStar-1 marks the start of a new era in integrated satellite and terrestrial mobile services,” said Jeffrey Epstein, president of TerreStar Networks. “Space Systems/Loral has been an important partner in helping us achieve our vision.”

TerreStar-1 has an 18-meter antenna reflector that will unfold like an umbrella when the satellite reaches its orbital slot. The large reflector enables voice, data, and video communications to be transmitted to mobile devices the size of a typical smartphone using 2GHz spectrum.

Space Systems/Loral, working with Hughes Network Systems, developed a two-way Ground-Based Beam Forming (GBBF) system that provides the flexibility to put the satellite’s power where it is needed the most at any point in time. With GBBF, TerreStar-1 is capable of generating hundreds of spot beams covering the Continental U.S., Canada, Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

“Over one million hours were spent to design, build, and test TerreStar-1,” said John Celli, president and chief operating officer of Space Systems/Loral. “The completion of this highly complex satellite is truly a testament to our skills, hard work, and dedication, and the support of many suppliers around the world.”

The satellite is based on SS/L’s 1300 space-proven platform, which provides the flexibility to support a broad range of applications and technology advances. When TerreStar-1 reaches its geostationary orbital slot at 111.0 degrees West longitude, Space Systems/Loral will have 57 GEO satellites on orbit.

The resulting view (at http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/press/spirit/20090603a.html) confirmed a rock beneath the rover touching its underbelly. With a rock now placed similarly in the test sandbox, testing in the next few weeks will evaluate possible extraction moves for Spirit.For all Spirit updates, go to http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/freespirit/ .

With a slope of about 10 degrees and a pointy rock under the test rover's belly, this sandbox setup at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., is ready for engineers to use the test rover to assess possible moves for getting Mars rover Spirit out of a patch of loose Martian soil. The rock beneath the test rover was put in place on July 1, 2009, to resemble a rock underneath Spirit on Mars. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Lifting off from the ELA-3 launch zone on a rare afternoon departure, the Ariane 5 deployed TerreStar-1 into geostationary transfer orbit 26 minutes later.   With a launch mass of nearly 6,910 kg., TerreStar-1 was carried as a solo payload on the heavy-lift Ariane 5 ECA mission, which followed Arianespace’s most recent flight by less than two months.

Ariane 5 delivered its TerreStar-1 payload into an accurate geostationary transfer orbit, continuing the Arianespace launch vehicle’s record of on-target missions.

“This 31st consecutive success for Ariane 5 – which is our third launch in 2009 – perfectly illustrates that high performance and reliability can go hand in hand,” said Arianespace Chairman & CEO Jean-Yves Le Gall.  “Ariane 5 also has demonstrated its real capability to perform a complete range of missions – from launches of the heaviest commercial satellites to the most complex scientific spacecraft.”

Le Gall thanked TerreStar-1’s operator – U.S.-based TerreStar Networks Inc. – for its confidence, noting this is the 29th new satellite company to have relied on Arianespace for the launch of an initial spacecraft.

TerreStar-1 will be located at an orbital position of 111 deg. West, offering new-generation mobile communications services across the United States and Canada.   It was produced at Space Systems/Loral’s Palo Alto, California facility, and was the 34th spacecraft built by this U.S. satellite manufacturer to be launched by Arianespace.

Operating in the 2-GHz spectrum with an 18-meter deployable reflector and powerful S-band feed array, TerreStar-1 will be able to manage some 500 spot beams.  It is designed to supply secure communications services to governments in emergency situations, as well as to rural communities. The satellite also will provide voice, data and video transmission services to businesses via dual satellite/ground terminals approximately the size of a typical smart phone.

In post-launch comments from the Spaceport’s control center, TerreStar Networks President Jeffrey Epstein showed the type of handheld device that will function with the company’s communications network and the TerreStar-1 satellite.   He also expressed the excitement of experiencing the Ariane 5’s launch first-hand.  “We are deeply appreciative of Arianespace’s efforts,” Epstein said.  “What we just witnessed is the culmination of millions of hours of advanced  technology in satellite deployment here, and it’s truly remarkable to watch.”

An on-target flight, and a new Ariane 5 mission in August

Ariane 5 provided another accurate payload delivery, releasing TerreStar-1 with the following provisional parameters at injection of the launch vehicle’s cryogenic upper stage:

• Perigee: 249.9 km. for a target of 249.7 km.
• Apogee: 35,941 km. for a target of 35,928 km.
• Inclination: 6.01 degrees for a target of 6.00

TerreStar-1 had a liftoff mass of nearly 6,910 kg. and was carried as a solo payload on today’s Ariane 5 heavy-lift flight from the Spaceport in French Guiana.

At the completion of today’s mission, Arianespace’s Le Gall announced that Ariane 5’s next launch is set for mid-August, carrying a dual-satellite payload for two Asia-Pacific customers: JCSAT-12 for Japan’s SKY Perfect JSAT Corp.; and Australia’s Optus D3.

Le Gall said Arianespace remains on track to perform seven Ariane 5 flights during 2009.  The Ariane 5 ECA for its upcoming mid-August mission has completed the initial build-up in the Spaceport’s Launcher Integration Building.  This vehicle will now be readied for transfer to the Final Assembly Building – which opened up yesterday morning after the Ariane 5 with TerreStar-1 moved out to the launch zone.

Arianespace’s ability to prepare two Ariane 5s in parallel at the Spaceport is a key to its flexibility and reactivity – which is further enhanced by the heavy-lift workhorse’s ability to orbit two primary satellite payloads on a single flight.

The three Ariane 5 missions performed so far in 2009 have lofted a total of seven spacecraft with a combined payload mass of nearly 19,600 kg.  Arianespace’s first flight of the year was on February 12, orbiting the HOT BIRD™ 10 and NSS-9 commercial telecommunications satellites, along with two Spirale auxiliary passengers for the French defense procurement agency.  This was followed by the May 14 launch of Europe’s Herschel and Planck deep space telescopes, which were placed on Earth escape trajectories for their 1.5 million km. voyages to the second Lagrange point (L2).

However a recent study published in “Geomorphology” shows that snow and ice are not enough in themselves to stop dune movement. While trapped ice and snow impedes movement of sand dunes in polar climates, compared to their counterparts in warmer areas, this does not entirely stop dune movement, the study shows.This indicates that other factors are limiting dune movement, said Mary Bourke, a senior research scientist at the Tucson-based Planetary Science Institute. Bourke led the study, which covers the longest time period of any cold-climate dune migration and dune dynamics study to date.

In a paper published last year, Bourke also showed that two small dunes recently disappeared on Mars. The dunes, which were 20 meters wide (about 65 feet) and located in the north polar region of Mars, were completely eroded away over a period of 5.7 Earth years.

“This (dune disappearance) is fantastic new data, showing that sand is transported on Mars where and when the wind energy is available,” Bourke said. “But the bigger, larger dunes on Mars are not moving, at least in the areas we studied.”

In the most recent study, Bourke and her colleagues used vertical aerial photos and LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) data to estimate dune migration rates in Antarctica’s Victoria Valley dune field. The photos, taken between 1961 and 2001, came from the USGS Antarctic Resource Center. These dunes are known to be covered by seasonal snowfalls and have snow and ice layers trapped in the dunes.

Bourke found that the dunes migrated about 1.5 meters (5 feet) per year, which is small compared to the distance covered by dunes in warm deserts, which can be as high as 30-70 meters (about 100 to 230 feet) a year.

Recent images from the HiRISE camera that is orbiting Mars reveal crusted surfaces on the dunes scientists have monitored since the first Viking mission in 1975. These appear to be similar to hard-surfaced sandy deposits found in some of Earth’s deserts. The dunes also have cemented layers. These could be cemented by ice or by geochemical processes.

Other factors limiting dune movement on Mars would include the planet’s thin atmosphere, which requires very high wind speeds to provide the force needed to move sand, and the water and carbon-dioxide frosts that cover dunes in Mars’ polar regions for 70 percent of the year, Bourke said.

But, Bourke adds, the study of dune movement in Antarctica’s Victoria Valley shows that dunes in the cold weather environments found on Mars, Titan and other frozen bodies still have the potential to move, organize and evolved in the same way that dune fields do on Earth.

NASA’s Mars Fundamental Research Program is funding this research under a grant entitled “Volatile-rich aeolian deposits: A field-based analogue study”.

Those who worked with Bourke on the research include: Ryan C. Ewing, of the University of Texas at Austin; David Finnegan, of the U.S. Army Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory; and Hamish A. McGowan, of the University of Queensland in Australia.

Cemented layers protrude from a dune in North Polar Region of Mars. This is a subset of HiRISE image PSP_001374_2650. (Image credit: NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory/The University of Arizona.)

This new guide for astronomers, known as the APEX Telescope Large Area Survey of the Galaxy (ATLASGAL) shows the Milky Way in submillimetre-wavelength light (between infrared light and radio waves. Images of the cosmos at these wavelengths are vital for studying the birthplaces of new stars and the structure of the crowded galactic core.

View of the Galactic Plane from the ATLASGAL survey (annotated and in five sections)

“ATLASGAL gives us a new look at the Milky Way. Not only will it help us investigate how massive stars form, but it will also give us an overview of the larger-scale structure of our galaxy”, said Frederic Schuller from the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy, leader of the ATLASGAL team.

The area of the new submillimetre map is approximately 95 square degrees, covering a very long and narrow strip along the galactic plane two degrees wide (four times the width of the full Moon) and over 40 degrees long. The 16 000 pixel-long map was made with the LABOCA submillimetre-wave camera on the ESO-operated APEX telescope. APEX is located at an altitude of 5100 m on the arid plateau of Chajnantor in the Chilean Andes — a site that allows optimal viewing in the submillimetre range. The Universe is relatively unexplored at submillimetre wavelengths, as extremely dry atmospheric conditions and advanced detector technology are required for such observations.

The interstellar medium — the material between the stars — is composed of gas and grains of cosmic dust, rather like fine sand or soot. However, the gas is mostly hydrogen and relatively difficult to detect, so astronomers often search for these dense regions by looking for the faint heat glow of the cosmic dust grains.

Submillimetre light allows astronomers to see these dust clouds shining, even though they obscure our view of the Universe at visible light wavelengths. Accordingly, the ATLASGAL map includes the denser central regions of our galaxy, in the direction of the constellation of Sagittarius — home to a supermassive black hole — that are otherwise hidden behind a dark shroud of dust clouds.

The RCW120 nebula

The newly released map also reveals thousands of dense dust clumps, many never seen before, which mark the future birthplaces of massive stars. The clumps are typically a couple of light-years in size, and have masses of between ten and a few thousand times the mass of our Sun. In addition, ATLASGAL has captured images of beautiful filamentary structures and bubbles in the interstellar medium, blown by supernovae and the winds of bright stars.

Some striking highlights of the map include the centre of the Milky Way, the nearby massive and dense cloud of molecular gas called Sagittarius B2, and a bubble of expanding gas called RCW120, where the interstellar medium around the bubble is collapsing and forming new stars.

“It’s exciting to get our first look at ATLASGAL, and we will be increasing the size of the map over the next year to cover all of the galactic plane visible from the APEX site on Chajnantor, as well as combining it with infrared observations to be made by the ESA Herschel Space Observatory. We look forward to new discoveries made with these maps, which will also serve as a guide for future observations with ALMA”, said Leonardo Testi from ESO, who is a member of the ATLASGAL team and the European Project Scientist for the ALMA project.

Due to appear tomorrow in the journal Nature, the discovery has been made by an international team of researchers working with XMM-Newton data, led by Sean Farrell from the Centre d’Etude Spatiale des Rayonnements, now based at the University of Leicester.

Illustration of HLX-1 (blue star to the upper left hand side of the galactic bulge)

Stellar-mass black holes (about three to twenty times as massive as the Sun) and supermassive black holes (several million to several thousand million times as massive as the Sun) have long been known to exist. Because of the large gap between these two extremes, scientists have speculated the existence of a third, intermediate class of black holes, with masses between a hundred and several hundred thousand solar masses.

Up until now, scientists were unable to confirm that this elusive intermediate class actually existed.

Farrell’s team were analysing archived data obtained by XMM-Newton, looking for neutron stars and white dwarves, when they stumbled upon a most peculiar object that was observed on 23 November 2004.

Called HLX-1 (Hyper-Luminous X-ray source 1), it lies towards the outskirts of the galaxy ESO 243-49, approximately 290 million light-years from Earth. If it is indeed located in this distant galaxy, HLX-1 is very luminous in X-rays; peaking at 260 million times the luminosity of the Sun.

On analysing the light originating from HLX-1, the team found that the X-ray signature was inconsistent with any object other than a feeding black hole. The measured brightness was too low for it to be in our own Galaxy, and the lack of observed radio or optical emission from the location of HLX-1 in addition to the observed X-ray signature indicates that it is unlikely to be a background galaxy.

This means that the source of the X-ray emission must lie in ESO 243-49. Its location is too far away from the galactic centre for it to be a supermassive black hole, and too bright for a stellar-mass black hole feeding at the maximum rate.

To be sure that this really was a single astronomical object, and not a cluster of several fainter sources that was shining brightly, the team used XMM-Newton to observe it again on 28 November 2008.

Comparing the two observations, they found that the signature of X-rays originating from HLX-1 varied significantly in time and concluded from this that it must be a single object. They found that the only way to explain its intense luminosity was if HLX-1 harboured a black hole greater than 500 solar masses. No other physical explanation could account for what they had seen.

The few intermediate-mass black hole candidates that have been discovered so far could be accounted for by other theories, but this one stood out as it was brighter than all the previous candidates by a factor of almost 10. The team had their hands on the best detection of an intermediate mass black holes to-date.

While it is already known that stellar-mass black holes are the remnants of massive stars, how supermassive black holes form is still unknown. One of the possible scenarios involves mergers of intermediate mass black holes. To ratify such a theory, it is essential to prove their existence in the first place.

This is why detections such as this by XMM-Newton are essential. It will help to understand just how supermassive black holes, such as that at the centre of our Galaxy, form.

The team have planned further observations in X-ray, ultraviolet, optical, infrared and radio wavelengths in the near future to better understand this unique object and the environment around it.

The data promise to show chemical elements on the moon that have never been identified before, and Reedy and the Kaguya GRS team already have found uranium signatures in the data, an element not seen in previous moon-mapping efforts.

The uranium results were recently announced in papers presented at the 40th Lunar and Planetary Conference and at the Proceedings of the International Workshop Advances in Cosmic Ray Science. The lead authors on those papers are Prof. Naoyuki Yamashita and Prof. Nobuyuki Hasebe respectively. Both are from Japan’s Waseda University.

PSI Senior Scientist Robert C. Reedy gave an invited talk at the Third Kaguya Science Working Team meeting in Tokyo in January. (Photo by the JAXA Kaguya Project)

Earlier gamma-ray spectrometer maps from the Apollo and Lunar Prospector missions show a few of the moon’s chemical elements. But the maps constructed by Reedy and the Kaguya GRS team — using data gathered by state-of-the-art high-energy-resolution germanium detectors — are extending the earlier results and improving our understanding of the moon’s surface composition.

In addition to uranium, the Kaguya GRS data also is showing clear signatures for thorium, potassium, oxygen, magnesium, silicon, calcium, titanium and iron.

Reedy and his colleagues are using measurements from the Kaguya lunar orbiter’s GRS to construct high-quality maps of as many chemical elements as possible. Kaguya was launched in September 2007 and crashed into the moon at the end of its mission on June 10 of this year.

“We’ve already gotten uranium results, which have never been reported before,” Reedy said. “We’re getting more new elements and refining and confirming results found on the old maps. Some of these comparisons are being done with lunar elemental maps made by a Lunar Prospector team headed by PSI senior scientist Tom Prettyman.”

Reedy has been an official co-investigator on the Kaguya GRS team since 2007, and has received some support from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA).

“Being selected as a co-investigator for a JAXA planetary mission is a great honor,” Reedy said.

Reedy’s continuing mapping work now is being funded for two years through NASA’s SALMON program (Stand-Alone Missions of Opportunity).

“All of the work being funded is considerably improving our knowledge of the moon’s composition and its origin and evolution,” Reedy said. It also will help scientists locate lunar resources and help with planning for future lunar missions, he added.

In addition to Reedy, the Kaguya GRS team includes Hasebe (the GRS principal investigator); Yamashita and Yuzuru Karouji, of the Waseda University in Tokyo, Japan; and Claude d’Uston and Olivier Gasnault, of the Centre d’Etude Spatiale des Rayonnements in Toulouse, France.

The ullage motor, almost four feet in length, is similar to the Space Shuttle booster separation motor which ATK also manufacturers. Eight ullage motors will be arranged in four pairs on the Ares I upper stage, which also houses the reaction control system.

Engineers at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., completed first-round testing on Sept. 11 of a key motor for the next-generation Ares I rocket.

The motors provide acceleration of the upper stage during stage separation from Ares I first stage. This acceleration process not only settles the liquid fuel and oxidizer in the upper stage tanks which provides continuous liquid flow to the J2X main engines, but also assists in the separation of the two stages. Each motor burns for approximately four seconds and provides a combined thrust of 40,000 pounds.

“We are pleased Boeing selected ATK to provide this critical piece of hardware for the upper stage,” said Mike Rudolphi, ATK vice president of Site Operations and Integration. “We look forward to working with the team and sharing our expertise in motor design and testing to produce safe and reliable motors for the Ares Program.”

Under the contract, ATK will provide motors for Design, Development, Test and Evaluation phase, and the initial flights.

ATK Space System’s Huntsville Operations will manage the program, with engineering support from other ATK businesses and manufacturing locations.

ATK is a premier aerospace and defense company with more than 18,000 employees in 22 states, Puerto Rico and internationally, and revenues in excess of $4.7 billion. News and information can be found on the Internet at www.atk.com.

Certain information discussed in this press release constitutes forward-looking statements as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Although ATK believes that the expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, it can give no assurance that its expectations will be achieved. Forward-looking information is subject to certain risks, trends and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected. Among those factors are: assumptions related to the performance of the ullage motors; changes in governmental spending, budgetary policies and product sourcing strategies; the company’s competitive environment; the terms and timing of awards and contracts; and economic conditions. ATK undertakes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements. For further information on factors that could impact ATK, and statements contained herein, please refer to ATK’s most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K and any subsequent quarterly reports on Form 10-Q and current reports on Form 8-K filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

Matthew Balme, a research scientist with the Tucson-based Planetary Science Institute and a research fellow at the United Kingdom’s Open University, discovered signs of melting permafrost in images from NASA’s HiRISE (High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment) camera, which is flying aboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.

The images show that landforms once thought to be shaped by volcanism were actually modified by the expansion and contraction of ice due to freeze/thaw cycles, Balme said.

Balme studied an outflow channel that was active as recently as 2 to 8 million years ago. The channel contains polygonal patterns, branched channels, blocky debris and mound/cone formations, all of which are similar to formations found where permafrost melts on Earth.

“These observations demonstrate that ice melted near the Martian equator within the past few million years and then refroze,” Balme said. “This probably happened over many freeze/thaw cycles.”

Since liquid water is essential to life as we know it, this equatorial channel would be an ideal place to hunt for traces of past or present Martian life, Balme added.

Balme’s research was funded by the UK’s Science and Technology Facilities Council and by NASA’s Mars Data Analysis Program. In addition to his post with PSI, Balme is an Aurora Fellow at the UK’s Open University.

HiRISE image shows evidence of flowing water on Mars

This HiRISE image shows evidence of flowing water on Mars, which occurred in recent geologic time. A cusp-shaped cliff (with narrow, spur-like headlands) divides higher terrain (bottom left) from lower terrain (upper right). A channel network leads away from a debris field underneath the cliff and terminates in hummocky debris fans. Both the upper and lower terrains are marked by a polygonal pattern of faint grooves and mounds. This terrain pattern – when found with cusp-shaped cliffs, debris fields, and channels – indicates thawing of an ice-rich permafrost landscape. Virtually identical features are seen on Earth in permafrost areas of Canada and Siberia. These features are Part of HiIRSE image PSP_009280_1905. (Image credit: NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory/The University of Arizona.)

The software – Optimal Trajectories by Implicit Simulation version 4

(OTIS4) – is a general-purpose program used to perform trajectory performance studies. Its principal application includes the preliminary design of aerospace vehicles. It can also predict how a vehicle will perform or determine how best to fly it.

NASA

In designing aerospace vehicles, the trajectory performance is linked to the physical design of the vehicle by factors such as weight, fuel tank volume and solar array sizing. Trajectory generation, trajectory targeting and trajectory optimization can all be accomplished using this software. OTIS4 allows users to characterize these properties in the framework of the simulation. The result is an optimal trajectory design, as well as the parameter design of the vehicle itself.

This software has been used in the verification of launch vehicle performance for NASA’s Ares program and the engine sizing studies for the Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle program, the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, and NASA’s Constellation Program to return to the moon. It has also been used in numerous preliminary design studies conducted by NASA.

The software team from Glenn consists of John P. Riehl (Strongsville), Waldy K. Sjauw (Concord Township) and Robert D. Falck (Cleveland) as well as Boeing Research and Technology engineer Stephen Paris (Kent, Wash.)

The event to recognize this software was held in May at Cuyahoga Community College’s Corporate College East in Warrensville Heights, Ohio.

Earlier this year, the OTIS4 software received the prestigious 2008 NASA Software of the Year Award.

DARPA’s FAST program aims to develop a new, ultra-lightweight High Power Generation System (HPGS) that can generate up to 175 kilowatts — more power than is currently available to the International Space Station. When combined with electric propulsion, FAST will form the foundation for future self-deployed, high-mobility spacecraft to perform ultra-high-power communications, space radar, satellite transfer and servicing missions.

Boeing

Boeing Phantom Works of Huntington Beach is leading the effort with support from Boeing Network and Space Systems, El Segundo, Calif. The Phase 2 work will include designing, fabricating and integrating test articles, performing a series of component-level evaluations and running two full-scale system tests.

“Our team is pleased to partner with DARPA in developing this powerful new technology,” said Tom Kessler, FAST program manager, Boeing Advanced Network and Space Systems. “FAST offers significant cost and performance benefits to our commercial, civil and national security customers, including new high-power applications to provide a cost-effective means for spacecraft to travel to the outer solar system.”

During Phase 1 of the program, the Boeing-led team, which includes DR Technologies, Northrop Grumman Astro Aerospace, Texas A&M University, Emcore, Boeing subsidiary Spectrolab Inc., and other key suppliers, developed a preliminary design for an HPGS capable of providing more than 130 watts per kilogram on a system that is less than half the weight and one sixth the size of an existing on-orbit solar power system. The team also defined the test program being conducted in Phase 2, which will verify the performance and operation of the HPGS’s solar concentration, power conversion, heat rejection, structure and deployment, and sun pointing and tracking subsystems.

The Boeing team’s unique solar concentrator design offers higher performance and greater radiation tolerance than current on-orbit solar power generation systems. Boeing will also be using different approaches to solar cell technology to include capabilities from Emcore and Spectrolab.

The size efficiency of the HPGS enables a new class of compact spacecraft that can self-deploy from low-Earth orbit to reach their final orbit using electric propulsion. This permits the use of smaller, less expensive launch vehicles that can support high-value science missions to the outer solar system without the need for expensive radioisotope power systems.

A unit of The Boeing Company, Boeing Integrated Defense Systems is one of the world’s largest space and defense businesses specializing in innovative and capabilities-driven customer solutions, and the world’s largest and most versatile manufacturer of military aircraft. Headquartered in St. Louis, Boeing Integrated Defense Systems is a $32 billion business with 70,000 employees worldwide.

Expedition 20 Commander Gennady Padalka and Flight Engineers Mike Barratt of NASA and Koichi Wakata of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency will undock the Soyuz TMA-14 return spacecraft, from the Zvezda service module and fly a short distance to the Pirs docking compartment. The flight is expected to take about 30 minutes.

ISS

NASA TV coverage will begin at 4 p.m. CDT with undocking planned for 4:26 p.m.

While Padalka, Barratt and Wakata are aboard the Soyuz, Expedition 20 Flight Engineers Roman Romanenko of Russia, Bob Thirsk of the Canadian Space Agency and Frank De Winne of the European Space Agency will monitor the move from inside the station. Their Soyuz return craft, the TMA-15, is docked to the Earth-facing port of the station’s Zarya module.

The relocation of Soyuz TMA-14 opens the Zvezda docking port for the arrival of a new Russian Progress cargo vehicle in late July.

The ISS Progress 33 undocked from the Pirs docking compartment at 2:30 p.m. EDT. Commander Gennady Padalka and Flight Engineer Roman Romanenko monitored the undocking and photographed the departing cargo craft to assess the condition of its docking assembly.

The Expedition 20 crew aboard the International Space Station talks with students from the 2009 International Space University Space Studies Program. Credit: NASA TV

The Progress will continue to move away from the station until Friday, when the vehicle will perform a retrograde burn to place the spacecraft into a parking orbit. Another burn on July 11 sets up the Progress for its final rendezvous with the station on July 12. The cargo ship will approach to within 10 to 15 meters of the Zvezda service module to test new automated rendezvous equipment mounted on Zvezda during a pair of spacewalks earlier this month. This equipment will be used to guide the new Mini-Research Module-2 (MRM2) to an unpiloted docking to the zenith port of Zvezda later this year. MRM2 will serve as a new docking port for Russian spacecraft and an additional airlock for spacewalks conducted out of the Russian segment.

Also on Tuesday, Flight Engineer Mike Barratt spent some time troubleshooting AgCam, the Agriculture Camera experiment sponsored by the University of North Dakota. Barratt checked the experiment’s software and performed diagnostic tests on its hardware. AgCam is designed to capture images of vegetated areas on the Earth from space to assist farmers, ranchers, foresters, natural resource managers and tribal officials.

Meanwhile, Flight Engineer Frank De Winne worked with the InSpace 2 experiment, preparing and inspecting vials to validate samples prior to performing any tests with them. InSpace investigates fluids that change properties in response to magnetic fields. This technology could help engineers develop new brake systems and robotics and improve the ability to design structures, such as bridges and buildings, to better withstand earthquake forces.

In the Japanese Kibo module, Flight Engineer Bob Thirsk began activities to prepare the Fluid Physics Experiment Facility for a study of the Marangoni effect, which is the flow of liquids caused by surface tension.

Thirsk later joined the rest of his Expedition 20 crewmates, including Flight Engineer Koichi Wakata, for a live interactive event with students from the 2009 International Space University Space Studies Program. The students are studying the payload design process and have an experiment currently on the station.

Padalka, Barratt and Wakata are set to relocate their Soyuz TMA-14 spacecraft on Thursday. The crew members will undock the vehicle from the aft port of Zvezda at 5:26 p.m. and dock to Pirs about 30 minutes later, clearing the way for the arrival of the next Progress supply ship. NASA TV coverage of the Soyuz move begins at 5 p.m.

Cassini passed through a gap in the rings as it entered orbit on June 30, 2004. It finished its prime mission in 2008 and continues to use its 12 instruments in an extended mission that includes extensive further studies of the moons Titan and Enceladus.

Saturn. Image credit:NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute