MARCH Jet Propulsion 2015 Laboratory VOLUME 45
NUMBER 3
Dawn of the solar system Spacecraft enters orbit of dwarf planet Ceres By Mark Whalen
JPL has reached another new world. a spacecraft has encountered a dwarf ney of 7½ years and more than 3 billion This time, it’s one most people have planet. miles, Dawn is about to call it ‘home’.” never heard of. “Ceres has beckoned us for more Dawn, which entered Ceres’ orbit The anonymity won’t last long. The than two centuries. Since its discovery March 6, will reveal the nature of this Dawn spacecraft has entered orbit in 1801, it has been known as a planet, water-rich, planetary building block around Ceres, the largest object in then an asteroid and later as a dwarf that shares characteristics with the the main asteroid belt between Mars planet,” said Dawn Mission Manager icy moons of the outer solar system.
and Jupiter. This marks the first time Marc Rayman. “And now, after a jour- Continued on page 2 result from the release of water vapor that there isoutgassing,whichcould Observatory lastyear. vapor madebytheHerschel Space to followuponthedetectionofwater added thatthere willbean opportunity pal investigatorCarol Raymond. She the bodyrotates,” saiddeputy princi points, detailsofthesurfaceandhow views ofCeres from severalvantage of Ceres. Dawn’s orbit began on the dark side first intensivescienceobservations,as views willhavetowaituntilApril23’s the planetuponapproach. Butbetter illuminated thedarkgraysurfaceof on Ceres, shinybeaconsthathave solve themysteryoftwobrightspots the innersolarsystem. role ofwetobjectsinbringingwaterto models ofhowplanetsformedandthe different protoplanets willhelp inform tailed examination of these two very from mid-2011 to late 2012. The de protoplanet Vesta, whichDawnvisited Ceres isverydifferent from itssibling, DAWN “The Herschelobservations indicate “Starting then,we’ll get much better Scientists are particularly anxious to Continued from page1 2 mysteriouswhite spots onCeres - - proud ofthe flightteamforthesuperb ally smoothly,” saidRayman. “I’mvery from industrialpartnerOrbitalATK. vestigator, ChrisRussell),withsupport UCLA (homeofDawn’s principalin JPLers. There are afewstaffed at flight operationsteam,almostall what wehavenow,” hesaid. will bewellover100timesbetterthan year, inourlowestorbit,thepictures throughout theyear. “Bytheendof will spiral to progressively lower orbits they nowhave,saidRayman.Dawn than three timessharperthanthebest ages ofthebrightspotsthatare more April andearlyMaywillprovide im Dawn’s first observationorbitinlate poles are alwayscolder.” regulated byitssolarinsulation;the near-surface temperature islargely only intheequatorialregion. Ceres’ could beathinlayerofwater, likely on aswell,”saidRaymond. could besomeactiveprocesses going from sublimationoftheice,butthere “The approach hasgoneexception About 45peoplecompriseDawn’s At analtitudeofabout8,400miles, One hypothesisonthebrightspots there’s an ice layer on in thesubsurface.” likely related tosomeice ter theicesublimated.It’s that wasleftbehindaf “It could be a salt deposit were ice,”saidRaymond. would besurprisingifit posits onthesurface.“It sions thathaveleftde posits watervaporemis she added.“Beneaththat ters thick nearthesurface, the order of50kilome Some scientiststhink ------other parameterssuchasthebody’s to measure Ceres’ gravityfieldand landmark trackingfrom camera images work Doppler, range-trackingdataand investigation usingDeepSpaceNet Sami Asmarwillconductagravity and France. United StatesaswellGermany, Italy participating scientistsfrom across the cludes about80co-investigatorsor its execution.” gence everyonecontinuestobring proach andfortheexpertisedili plan they devised forthisuniqueap planets inoursolar system.” means intermsofabuilding blockfor we’re goingtounderstandwhatCeres tem that’s beenexplored thusfar. And are uniquetoanybodyinthesolarsys stand whyithasverybrightspotsthat tobeon.We’rejourney goingtounder detail,” saidRaymond.“It’s suchacool we’re goingtoknowCeres inexquisite small as40metersacross. field, and look at surface features as elemental compositionanditsgravity the surface,teamwillmapCeres’ logic features inkeendetail. of thesurfaceandstartmappinggeo information tobuildatopographicmap scientists togetverydetailedshape will spiraldowntoanorbitthatallows res’ surface.Afterthat,thespacecraft global mapofthecompositionCe Ceres’ interior, saidKonopliv. ages, are usedtoconstrainmodelsof shape determinedfrom cameraim Gravity fielddata,togetherwiththe spin pole,rotation rateandephemeris. JPL’s AlexKonopliv, RyanParkand Raymond said the scienceteamin “By thetimewefinishinmid-2016 In its finalorbit, just 230 miles above Dawn’s spectrometers willprovide a n ------
Universe 2 Book probes anerawhenJPLsent10spacecrafttotheRedPlanet Two decades at Mars answer, however. that otherfactorscausedthe failure. We willnever knowthe people havedifferent views; there are someatJPLwhobelieve loss wascausedbyaleakin thepropulsion system.But other And justasitwasarrivingatMarsin1993,lost. the designforacommercial Earthsatellite. desire tomakeitaslow-cost aspossible.Soitwasbuiltusing substantial payload of science instruments, but there was also a biters andlanders.Itwastobeafairlycomplexorbiter with a was tryingtofigure outwhat todoonMarsaftertheVikingor in 1992? So youbeginwithMarsObserver, theorbiterthatlaunched Program, toexaminetherelationships betweenprojects. books aboutindividualmissions,butIwantedtolookattheMars how theydidn’t. TheNASAhistoryprogram isreally focusedon all ofthemissionsconnectedtoeachother—or, insomeways, he servedasadministratorinthe1990s.Iwantedtolookathow “faster-better-cheaper” thatDanGoldinbrought toNASAwhen Why didyoudecidetowriteaboutthisparticularera? Yes. Theofficial conclusioninthefailure report wasthatthe Yes. MarsObserver wasconceivedinthe1980s,whenNASA The mainstoryarc ofthistimeperiodwasthephilosophy along theway. era inanewbook, three orbitersandalander, butalsolostthreemissions.JPLHistorianErikConwayexaminesthat philosophy. During thattime,JPLsafelydeliveredthefirstthreeroverstoRedPlanet,alongwith when NASAwasworkingtoimplementrapid,low-costmissionsunderthe“faster-better-cheaper” In two decades between the1990sandearly2000s, JPL sent 10 spacecraftto Mars—an era Exploration andEngineering - So itcametoJPL. it whiletheywere involvedinahigh-priorityastronomy mission. tion inlow-costmissions—but Amescouldn’t commit to doing the AmesResearch Center—theideawastogiveJPL competi gram going.OriginallyNASAwantedPathfindertobedone by missions, becauseNASAfeltitneededtodosogetthe pro missions were assigned,not competedlikethelaterDiscovery Discovery Program of low-cost missions. Both of these two 1996 thatcarriedthefirstrover totheplanet,Sojourner. And thenthere wasMars Pathfinder, thelanderlaunchedin lot ofworkdoneforMarsObserver. and lowcost,tothefactthatitwasabletakeadvantageofa nine years.Iattributeitssuccess,bothintermsofmissionreturn instruments. GlobalSurveyororbitedMarsveryproductively for meantthatyoucouldn’twhich inturn fitonasmanyscience lot lessmoney, soitwasconstrainedtoasmallerlaunchvehicle, which launchedin1996.However, NASAwantedtodoitfora lost on Mars Observer, and this led to Mars Global Surveyor, And afterthat? Yes, thiswasone ofthefirsttwomissionsunderNASA’s NASA Headquarterswasverykeentore-fly theinstruments . Herehediscusseshisfindingsandwhatlearned By Franklin O’Donnell Continued onpage4 - -
Universe 3 EXPLORATION ANDENGINEERING fail stoodthetestoftime? Have thetheoriesaboutwhatcausedeachspacecraftto the MarsClimateOrbiterandPolarLander. But thencameMars’98,andtheback-to-backfailures of success. safely andwhichcouldn’t. Ofcourseitendedupbeingagreat mission werecouldbecut experiencedandknewwhatcorners the sametimecostwasconstrained;peoplerunning What doyouthinkmadePathfindersosuccessful? was approved in the summer of 2000. Originally it was going to ideas. Whenitsettleddown, the MarsExplorationRoverproject in 2003. Thatwasafairlychaotic period, withalotof different And then? Polar Landerfailure, the’01landerwasshelved. was removed evenbefore MarsPolarLanderfailed.Butwiththe ing to carry a rover called Athena, but that had gotten too big and that couldnotfitonMarsGlobalSurveyor. orbit today. Itflewsomeoftheinstrumentsfrom MarsObserver yssey afterlaunch,wentaheadandcontinuestofunctionin Mars the 2001launchopportunity. Theorbiter, named2001MarsOd After that,theMarsProgram hadtoworkhard to recover. that attachedtheparachutetolanderdeckwastooweak. example, theparachutewaswrong size,andthestructure 2001 Marslander. Theyfoundanumberofotherproblems—for later when they redid the mission, using hardware built for a Does thatstillholdtogether? cut off tooearlyduringitsfinaldescent,causingittocrash. report saidthemostlikelycausewasthatitsretrorockets atmosphere. AsforMarsPolarLander, theofficial loss Essentially itbrakedtoohard,upintheupper andburned verted betweenimperialandmetricunits. code that were removed from thepropulsion software that con Yes, thatwasreally thenadirof“faster-better-cheaper” era. More thananythingelseitwastheirinsistenceontesting.At There wasashort-termcompetitiontodecidewhat launch The 2001lander, however, wascancelled.Originallyitgo Yes. There was another orbiter-lander pair in the pipeline for That isn’t whattheMarsPhoenixproject founda few years In thecaseofMarsClimateOrbiter, yes—itinvolvedlinesof Continued from page3 - - - designed tobelessprone tosingle-pointfailures. Odyssey, except thatithadmore redundancy builtin.Itwas camera onMRO. for safety. Thatwastheengineeringreason forthebigHiRISE that, theyhadtofigure outawaytobettercertifylandingsites on doing a Mars sample return mission in the early 2010s. To do Reconnaissance Orbiter—launchedin2005. The nextU.S.Marsmissionwasanotherorbiter—Mars Pathfinder did16full-scaleairbagtests,MER80. Pathfinder it involved a lot of testing, buton steroids—whereas Opportunity. idea tohaveabackup—soitendedupastworovers, Spiritand be a single rover, but Dan Goldin thought it would beagood failures seemstobebeyond whatNASAcanbear. low-cost missions,butthepublicrelations riskofMarsmission it’s abigdeal.More riskorlessscience are thetwopathsto public outcry, butwhenNASAlosesaMarsmissionofanysize, Defense Departmentcanloseabillion-dollarsatellitewithout because toomuchattentionispaidtomissionsinthemedia. The mission toacometwasanotherexampleofsuccess. really ameteorology stationwithalittlebittyrover. TheStardust worked becausethesciencecomplexitywasreduced—it was veyor were great successesoffaster-better-cheaper. Pathfinder Overall, was“faster-better-cheaper” afailure forJPL? reestablished. story cyclewasover, andthetestingculture atJPLwasfirmly that hardware. BythetimeofPhoenix,faster-better-cheaper and itendedupinstorage.SoPhoenixmadeuseofalot more than 70 percent of the spacecraft had been completed, you note,wasaredo ofMarsPolarLander. The finalmissionyoudealwithisMarsPhoenix—which,as Otherwise, MROwasgenerallysimilartotheprevious orbiter, Yes. Atthattime,NASAHeadquartersandJPLwere stillintent It wasashort-fuseproject, plannedinonlyeightmonths.Like But faster-better-cheaper ingeneraldoesn’t workwellforMars I wouldn’t sayso.MarsPathfinderandGlobalSur outthatwhentheMars’01landerwascancelled, It turned n -
Universe 4 tions totheVillaGardens EmployeeFund. Prisilla andhalf-sistersEppie Meg. Patrick, Alicia,Jon,ReidandErin; stepmother Wendy, JonandDan;grandchildren Helena,Caleb, tary andcivilianprojects. nations totheAlzheimer’s Foundation. Burkett. gie Kaufman,JeanVendel, Walt Blizzard andPatty Magenta, Jacob,AlexandJack;siblingsMar and Darin;daughterDanicaMoney;grandchildren sions. Heretired in1995. last-minute patchthatenabledphototransmis 2 (duringtheUranusclosestapproach) created a deep-space communicationsworkwithVoyager Viking, Voyager andGalileomissions.His1985 joined JPL in 1970.He contributed to thePioneer, mer, diedJan.26. Viking andVoyager missions. Ranger, Pioneer, Surveyor, Mariner, LunarOrbiter, Flight OperationsCenter. Hecontributedtothe Spain, Australia, Goldstone,Calif.andJPL’s Space munications between tracking stations in Africa, was responsible foroperationsandcontrol ofcom 11. manager withtheDeepSpaceNetwork,diedNov. tion 1000. years, Section347J; years, Section8010; 21 years,Section2500; off Weisbin Donald Plagge 1011; Section 2150; years, Section1700; lara Liggett liam Imbriale The followingemployees R Inskeep’s familyrequests considerationofdona He issurvivedbyhiswife,Susan; children Mike, The Blizzard familyrequests considerationof do Blizzard is survived by his wife, Jillene; sons Devin A U.S.AirForce Korean War veteran,Blizzard Edgar Blizzard, 81,aretired computerprogram Bond issurvivedbyhiswife,Maya. Bond joined JPL in 1964 and retired in 1977. He Fred Bond, a retired communications operations P Donald Yeomans Jon Inskeep , 22years,Section1780; , 31years,Section3320; Keith E.Wilson assings etirees , 31years,Section393F; , 23years,Section5330; Charles Weisbin , 35years,Section3330; , 23years,Section2820; , 39years, Section 3920; Jean Smith, Brenda Jackson Terrance Huntsberger, spacecraft, aswellmili testing andpartdesignfor work atJPLincludedrocket to OakGrove in1968.His Base before transferring facility atEdwards AirForce died Feb.15. instrumentation engineer, Inskeep workedataJPL Jon Inskeep, 81, a retired , 26years,Section337E; retired inFebruary: Margareth Olm, Calvin Chambers Janet Zadeh , 26years,Section 14years,Sec Fabrizio Pol Alan Stepak , 30years, Patricia Alison Wil , 31 17 16 ------, house to JPLforthebeautifulplantandcard senttomy and Itrulyappreciate yoursupport.Thankyoualso passing ofmygrandmotherinJanuary. Myfamily your kindnessandwords ofsympathyduringthe S. SepulvedaBlvd.,LosAngeles. at 11a.m.theVeterans NationalCemetery, 950 Barbara Brewton. Gooden; daughterKathyGooden-Tyree and sister is beautiful. delivered tomyhome.It’s adailyreminder thatlife Honey. Thankyoualsofor the wonderfulplant and wonderfulmemoriesofour life withHuelo- and great-grandchildren) havemany, manyhappy for allofus,we(hiswife,children, grandchildren, although his illness with cancer was a difficult time and mymomwere togetherforover58years,and condolence ontherecent passingofmyfather. He leagues andfriendsforthenotesmessagesof derful reminder howJPLcares forusall appreciate the beautiful plants from JPL. It’s a won in-law withinafewweeksofeachother. We also recent passingofbothmystepfatherandfather- friends foryourcondolencesandsupportafterthe Odyssey project for thethoughtfulgift. A specialthankstomyteammatesontheMars dolences andsupportfollowingmymother’s death. by theentire family. programs. The cards and plants were appreciated about JPLandwhatwewere doinginthespace passing ofmybrother, Gary. Healwaysloved totalk workers foryourcondolencesandsupportonthe your thoughts,prayersandforthebeautifulplant. supportive sopleaseacceptoursincere thanksfor rique. OurJPLfamilyhasbeenoverwhelmingly received onthe sudden passingofourson,En like tothankyouallforthecondolencesthatwe Fred Gooden Thank youtomyJPLfriendsandcolleaguesfor L A memorialservicewillbeheldFriday, March 20 Randy Herrera My familyandIwishtothankallofmyJPLcol Kevin Clark Thank youtomyco-workersandotherJPL Jeffrey Plaut Thank youtoJPLfriendsandcolleaguesforcon Lloyd Keith A heartfeltthankyoutomyfriendsandco- Enrique andMarthaAviña To ourfriendsandcolleagues atJPL,wewould Karen Lum . etters sel BerryandFrederick his wife,Linda;sonsRus Wackenhut through 2007. fire departmentcontractor tinued toserveJPLthrough employee in2000andcon 1989. Heretired asan Gooden, 73,diedFeb.27. Gooden issurvivedby Gooden joinedJPLin Retired JPLfire chiefFred . ------
Universe 5 Pasadena, CA91109. 4800 Oak Grove Drive, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Education Directorate ofthe the Communicationsand Universe ispublishedby CLASSIFIED ADSAT JPL’S ONLINE NEWSSOURCE JPL Photo Lab Photography Mark Whalen Editor universe@jpl.nasa.gov READ ANDSUBMIT E-MAIL USAT http://jplspace
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Universe 6