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Home , Donna (crater), Ellen Stofan, Magellan (spacecraft), Mars Exploration Rover, Mars Science Laboratory

Jet JANUARY 2012 Laboratory volume 42

number 1

GRAIL twins toast new year from Three-month ‘formation flying’ mission will By Mark Whalen lunar orbit study the from crust to core Above: The GRAIL team celebrates with cake and apple cider. Right: Celebrating said. “So it does take a lot of planning, a lot of test- the other will accelerate towards that moun- GRAIL-A’s Jan. 1 lunar orbit insertion are, from left, Maria Zuber, GRAIL principal ing and then a lot of small maneuvers in order to get tain to measure it. The change in the distance between investigator, Massachusetts Institute of Technology; , JPL director; ready to set up to get into this big maneuver when we the two is noted, from which gravity can be inferred. Jim Green, NASA director of . go into orbit around the moon.” One of the things that make GRAIL unique, Hoffman JPL’s Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) A series of engine burns is planned to circularize said, is that it’s the first formation flying of two spacecraft mission celebrated the new year with successful main the twins’ orbit, reducing their to a little around any body other than . “That’s one of the engine burns to place its twin spacecraft in a perfectly more than two hours before beginning the mission’s biggest challenges we have, and it’s what makes this an synchronized orbit around the moon. 82-day science phase. “If these all go as planned, we exciting mission,” he said. By surveying the moon from the crust to the core will be ready to start science data collection no later The GRAIL team includes a number of staff members using a JPL-built sensor, the mission will create the most than March 8,” Hoffman said. who also worked on JPL’s Gravity Recovery and Climate accurate gravitational field map ever of Earth’s natural After their Sept. 10 launch, the GRAIL pair—each Experiment, or GRACE, a mission comprising two space- satellite. In the process, the evolution of solar system’s about the size of a washing machine—cruised for about craft flying in tandem that has very precisely measured rocky planets will be further revealed, and navigation for 3½ months to reach the lunar orbital period. While the Earth’s gravitational field for almost 10 years. future lunar visitors will be much improved. missions took only about three days to reach the GRACE used GPS, which is critical for both position- GRAIL-B achieved lunar orbit Jan. 1, one day after moon, GRAIL needed the extra time for several reasons, ing and timing when trying measure small changes in GRAIL-A successfully completed its engine burn. The explained Hoffman. relative velocity. With no GPS for the moon, GRAIL had insertion maneuvers placed the spacecraft into a near- “Apollo and other missions that took a direct trajec- to recreate those two portions of the system. Hoffman polar, elliptical orbit with an orbital period of about 11½ tory to the moon have had huge propulsion systems,” said the mission’s time-transfer system essentially sends hours. Hoffman said. “Our spacecraft are very small, because a “coded time stamp” between the two orbiters; an ultra- “Everything went exactly as expected for both lunar they have just one instrument, the lunar gravity ranging stable oscillator continuously keeps track of the relative orbit insertions,” said Deputy Project Manager Tom Hoff- system. Smaller is better, because that makes them more time on each of the two. A science beacon sends man. “The combined JPL/ team per- stable during the science phase of the mission. For us, data to the Deep from each of the two formed excellently and the vehicles behaved flawlessly.” having a large propulsion system would be expensive, vehicles. While team members’ new year celebration was a and also would not be as good for the science. GRACE payload manager Charlie Dunn served in bit deferred, it wasn’t a problem. “The team still had “The low-energy trajectory worked perfectly and al- the same role during GRAIL’s development, and many operations to perform to repressurize the main tank lowed us to only expend about 24 kilograms of fuel for subsystem engineers, cognizant engineers and test on Jan. 2, but I am sure they had a good evening each spacecraft, which produced about 190 meters per technicians were in the same group that developed knowing that they had gotten not one, but two vehicles second in delta-V,” Hoffman added. “This is a low cost for the GRACE instrument. Bill Klipstein, payload systems successfully into lunar orbit,” Hoffman noted. entering lunar orbit.” engineer for GRACE, is now payload manager for Project Manager David Lehman noted that a ma- Stability is critical for the GRAIL twins as they have GRAIL. JPL’s Michael Watkins is the project scientist, neuver prior to orbit insertion changed the GRAIL-A embarked on an encounter of intricate and precise for- with Sami Asmar as his deputy. JPL co-investigators spacecraft’s speed by just 0.05 mile per hour. “That’s mation flying, as each spacecraft measures differences are Alex Konopliv and James Williams. GRAIL’s princi- how small we had to make this change in order to as small as a micron between the two. For example, after pal investigator is Maria Zuber of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. affect going into orbit precisely around the moon,” he one of the pair flies over a mountain, a few minutes later Continued on page 2 NuStar, , Science Lab to highlight 2012

Four launches and several encounters This means that NuSTAR will make much DAWN made 2011 a banner year for JPL. The crisper images of the high-energy X-ray JPL’s Dawn spacecraft, which has been When has been slowed to nearly zero velocity, the rover Lab will be busy as well in 2012, as JPL sky than previously possible above 10 orbiting the giant since will be released from the descent stage. A bridle and umbilical launches another spacecraft and carries keV, providing 100 to 200 times more July, sent back the first images from its cord will lower the rover to the ground. The rover’s front mobility out a number of key mission events. sensitivity than Swift. low-altitude mapping orbit on Dec. 13, system will be deployed so that it is essentially ready to rove upon Key JPL staff on NuStar are Project 210 kilometers (130 miles) above the landing. NUSTAR Manager Yunjin Kim, Project Scientist surface. The images show the lumpy sur- Daniel Stern and Project Systems Engi- face in detail never seen before. maneuver in December due to an ultra- neer Jason Willis. About 20 JPL employ- The focus of the low-orbit investigation precise orbit placement following its ees are working on the project through is to determine Vesta’s elemental compo- launch a month earlier. The first trajecto- launch, and three JPLers are on the sci- sition and to measure its gravity field to ry-correction maneuver during the trip is ence team. high accuracy. Scientists plan to acquire now planned for Jan. 11. NuSTAR will launch into a low-Earth data in this orbit through mid-February. The mission’s car-sized Curiosity rover orbit on a Pegasus XL rocket from the As a bonus, the mission team is acquiring in December began monitoring space Kwajalein Atoll, the world’s largest coral additional images and visible and infrared , research that will aid in plan- atoll, which lies midway between Austra- ning for future human missions to the Red NuStar will launch from a Pegasus XL rocket. spectra. lia and Hawaii. NuSTAR will be the fourth Dawn will begin its ascent to higher alti- Planet. Curiosity’s Radiation Assessment In March, the Lab will launch the Pegasus launch conducted from the area. tude about April 1. From mid-May to early Detector instrument monitors high-energy Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Orbital Sciences Corp. built the rocket, June, the mission will conduct another atomic and subatomic particles from the Array, or NuStar, which will embark on a which will be released at about 40,000 intensive science campaign at an altitude of , distant supernovas and other sourc- two-year quest to study the cosmos with feet from a Stargazer L-1011 aircraft. about 680 kilometers (420 miles). By May, es. The particles constitute radiation unprecedented sensitivity using high- For more information, visit www. the progression of the seasons at Vesta will that could be harmful to any microbes or energy X-rays. .caltech.edu. allow Dawn to see newly illuminated parts in space or on Mars. The rover Led by Principal Investigator Fiona of the surface. also will monitor radiation on the surface Harrison of Caltech, the NASA Small Following that, Dawn will begin its of Mars after landing. Explorer mission will map supernova gradual climb out to escape from Vesta, Ten instruments on Curiosity will as- explosions and search for black holes stopping along the way to observe the sess whether Mars’ Crater could be and other phenomena. Deployed on a asteroid again as the season continues or has been favorable for microbial life. 10-meter (30-foot) mast that separates to advance. Dawn will leave Vesta in late The spacecraft is on course to land at focal-plane detectors from optics mod- July to begin an interplanetary cruise to Mars’ Gale Crater on Aug. 6, 2012, Uni- ules, NuStar is the first satellite mission Ceres, which will be reached in February versal Time (evening of Aug. 5, Pacific to use focusing X-ray optics at energies 2015. Daylight Time). A new entry, descent and above 10 kiloelectron volts (keV). For landing system comprising a “sky crane” comparison, NASA’s flagship Chandra X- MARS SCIENCE structure will be employed to ray Observatory works in the low-energy, LABORATORY reach the surface. The spacecraft can fly or “soft” X-rays, below 10 keV. NASA’s This image, one of the first obtained by Dawn in its low altitude On its way toward touchdown next sum- “S” curves in the upper atmosphere of Swift mission works at NuStar energies mapping orbit, shows many buried craters located within Vesta’s mer, JPL’s Mars for added precision in landing. and beyond, but without focusing optics. equatorial trough region. bypassed a planned trajectory-correction Visit http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl.

GRAIL Continued from page 1

Overall, about 100 JPLers contributed tion with undergraduate students at UC will be taken after the first week of map- not only on excellence of the project team to GRAIL, including about 60 at orbit San Diego, thousands of fifth- to eighth- ping in March. but also upon the significant contribu- insertion. grade students will select target areas A student contest that began in October tions of all of JPL,” he said. “We really Many students will also be part of the on the lunar surface and send requests 2011 also will choose new names for the have needed everyone’s support to get to mission, as each of the GRAIL twins car- to an operations center in San Diego. twin spacecraft. The new names are sched- where we are today and will need that to ries a digital video imaging system used Photos of the target areas will be sent uled to be announced in January. complete the mission.” as an educational/public outreach activ- back by the GRAIL satellites for students Hoffman thanked the greater JPL GRAIL is the 11th mission to launch as ity: Moon Knowledge Acquired by Middle to study. community for its support of the GRAIL part of NASA’s . For school students, or MoonKAM. Led by More than 2,100 schools have signed up team, from the early development phase more information, visit http://solarsystem. former and her to participate. The first MoonKAM images through operations today. “The success .gov/grail. team at Sally Ride Science in collabora- of a mission such as GRAIL is dependent Proposal seeks InSight of Mars beneath the surface By Mark Whalen

didn’t work.” More than two dozen former team members are expected for the InSight team, Hoffman said. InSight’s major difference from Phoenix lies in the proposed mission’s landing site. The InSight team wants nothing to do with the frozen landscape of Mars’ northern polar area Discovery that was Phoenix’s home. Program mission “We’re looking at a strip of land very near the equator, so our solar panels get the would launch maximum amount of energy to live a long time,” Banerdt said. “We want to find some- place that’s really boring, with as few rocks as possible.” in 2016 Selecting a landing site this early helps firm up the system design, Hoffman added. “If we know where we’re landing and know what the elevation is, we’ll know that our Phoenix heritage will hold together, which is really important to us from a risk and cost standpoint. We also can take a look at our power use for that location and can do system analysis to ensure if we’re well within the power capabilities of the landed system; then we can run scenarios for basically the entire mission to provide a proof of concept.” The InSight spacecraft Once landed, the mission calls for a bustling first 30 to 60 days, the period of instru- would closely resem- ment deployment. ble JPL’s 2008 Mars To check for quakes beneath the surface will be the Seismic Experiment for Interior Structure, provided by the French Space Agency. The Heat Flow and Physical Properties Phoenix lander. Package (HP3), a self-hammering nail that digs about 5 meters below the surface, is provided by the German Space Agency. A camera mounted on a robotic arm takes images on the surface to create a 3-D map of the workspace for the instruments. The arm then picks up the instrument, takes it off the deck and places it on the ground. “This allows us to get the full sensitivi- ty of the seismometer and give access for the mole to dig into the ground,” Banerdt said. In addition to the seismic and heat-flow experiments, the Rotation and Interior Struc- ture Experiment (RISE), led by JPL, will use the spacecraft communication system to provide precise measurements of planetary rotation to determine the core structure and composition. The InSight proposal survived the first round in the Discovery Program competition, Over the years, numerous discoveries and findings have resulted from the many which initially had 28 proposals submitted. investigations conducted at the Red Planet. As JPL-managed Mars orbiters continue Now in phase A of the process, each proposal team is preparing its preliminary de- to explore from above and the rover sustains its quest for knowledge, sign. By mid-March, they will deliver a concept study report to the agency, describing a Curiosity is on its way there to join the party next summer in a search for signs of much deeper level of detail of the design, operation and the planned components of the habitability. mission. In late May 2012, a NASA review board will pay a visit to JPL—and the sites Mars’ earliest evolution, however, remains largely a mystery, as little is known about hosting the other two considered proposals—for final questions and demonstrations. what lies beneath the surface. But if JPL researcher Bruce Banerdt and colleagues The selected mission will have a cost cap of $425 million, plus the cost of the launch have their way, in a few years the secrets of Mars’ thermal evolution and its relation to vehicle, in FY 2012 dollars. that of other rocky planets could also be revealed. If InSight is selected, Hoffman said, JPL’s role would be project management, systems Banerdt is principal investigator for Interior exploration using Seismic Investigations, engineering and mission design. JPL would also lead systems engineering for entry, de- Geodesy and Heat Transport, or InSight, a NASA Discovery Program proposal that scent and landing, mission operations and ground data systems. Lockheed Martin would would deliver a stationary lander to the in 2016 for a two-year mis- build the spacecraft; provide integration and assembly, test and launch operations ac- sion. InSight is one of three proposals now under consideration for development. tivities; and provide payload accommodation. The spacecraft’s three instruments will seek to discover Mars’ interior’s thermal Besides Banerdt and Hoffman, the InSight team includes deputy principal investigator properties, determine the planet’s geodesy, measure any tectonic activity, and deter- and deputy project manager Henry Stone. Co-investigators on the mis- mine the composition and size of the core and mantle. In so doing, the mission could sion come from the United States, Austria, Belgium, Canada, France, , Japan, reveal clues about the formation of more than just Mars. Switzerland and the United Kingdom. “What we’re after is understanding the processes that formed the terrestrial plan- Banerdt, who has worked on, proposed or advocated a mission like InSight for more ets—Mercury, , Earth, the moon and Mars,” noted Banerdt, who is currently than 15 years, feels confident about this effort. the project scientist for the Mars Exploration Rovers mission. “We have evidence that “It’s actually pretty well developed. We’ve identified the entire science team already, the Martian crust is more than 4 billion years old. We think the evidence we’ll find in and most of the people working on this have been identified,” he said. “We have a lot of Mars—from the thickness of the crust, the layering of the crust and mantle, the size experienced people; people who have worked with Lockheed Martin, Mars missions and and composition of the core—will tell us about the processes that turned the planet other missions that our hardware is coming from, so we have a great team here,” he from a jumble of homogeneous into the fairly complex, structured sys- said. tem that we see today.” The other proposals being considered for Discovery funding are the Comet Hopper, The InSight spacecraft very closely resembles JPL’s 2008 Mars Phoenix lander, and which would land on comet 46P/Wirtanen multiple times and observe its changes as in fact will inherit Phoenix’s system architecture. Key components such as avionics, it interacts with the sun (Jessica Sunshine of the University of Maryland is principal electronics and software will be updated. InSight Project Manager Tom Hoffman noted investigator); and Mare Explorer, which would land in and then float on a large another critical component of Phoenix’s heritage in JPL’s favor. methane-ethane sea on Saturn’s moon Titan. of Proxemy Research Inc. in “Absolutely, the most important thing we can inherit from Phoenix is the people,” Gaithersburg, Md., is principal investigator. said Hoffman. “They’re invaluable. They understand what needs to be done, and if A decision on the Discovery Program next new mission is expected next July. they’ve been on that similar project they’ll know what in the past they’ve tried that 4 Webster to lead Microdevices Lab deep-space missions. He is a member of Senior Research Scientist Chris Web- the AIAA Electric Propulsion Technical ster has been appointed director of JPL’s Committee, and in 2011 he received the News NASA Exceptional Achievement Medal Microdevices Laboratory.

niverse Webster, currently program manager and the JPL Lew Allen Award for Excel- U for the Planetary Science Instruments lence. Briefs Office in the Solar System Exploration Formal presentation of the trio’s fel- Directorate, will serve as Microdevices lowships will be in conjunction with the Lab director as an additional duty. A 50th American Institute of Aeronautics 30-year JPL employee, Webster pio- and Astronautics Aerospace Sciences neered the development of tunable laser meeting in Nashville, Tenn. in January. spectrometers for balloon, aircraft and spacecraft instruments, leading some John Brophy Richard Hofer Durden named institute fellow For his contributions to 500 aircraft and 22 high-altitude balloon and systems, missions. He also developed innovative Three named institute fellows for the ion propulsion system for the including spaceborne cloud radar, JPL miniature instruments for planetary JPLers Mark Adler, John Brophy and Dawn spacecraft. After working on researcher Steven Durden of the Radar missions to Mars, Venus and Titan, and Richard Hofer have been named associ- solar electric propulsion at Marshall Concepts and Formulation Group (334G) is the JPL principal investigator on the ate fellows of the American Institute of Space Flight Center, he later managed has been named a fellow of the Institute Tunable Laser Spectrometer instrument Aeronautics and Astronautics. NASA’s Solar Electric Propulsion Tech- of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, on Mars Science Laboratory’s Curiosity Adler, at JPL for 19 years, currently nology Application Readiness Project, the highest grade in the organization. rover. This instrument is enabled by the manages the Low Density Supersonic which led to the successful demonstra- Durden joined JPL in 1986 and has Chris Webster quantum-engineered, infrared interband Decelerator Technology Demonstration. tion of ion propulsion on JPL’s Deep worked on a number of airborne and cascade lasers developed at the Micro- He has previously been the lead Space 1 spacecraft. He has also served spaceborne atmospheric , includ- devices Lab. mission engineer, Mars Exploration as manager of JPL’s Advanced Propul- ing CloudSat, as well as various research Webster has won the NASA Excep- Program architect, Mars sample return sion Technology Group. tasks involving modeling and analysis tional Scientific Achievement Medal chief engineer, Hofer, a senior engineer in the of radar data. He is a member of the twice (1992, 2004), the Ed Stone Award mission manager, chief mission Electric Propulsion Group, joined JPL American Geophysical Union, and cur- (2004), and has led numerous NASA concepts architect, and advanced con- in 2005. He serves as the technology rently serves on the NASA Group Achievement Awards. cepts development manager. lead responsible for the development Measurement Missions Science Team. Brophy is project element manager and qualification of Hall thrusters for

expected to make a complete recovery. this very difficult time. We celebrated Thank you. his life in a memorial service Dec. 27. P assings Mona Witkowski Andrea Ollier

John Schlue, 75, a retired engi- Chialin Wu The family of Katalin Herman ex- I would like to thank everyone for the neer and supervisor, died Nov. 8. presses its warmest gratitude to our beautiful plant and support we received Schlue joined JPL in 1961. He con- JPL family for the very meaningful following the passing of my father-in- tributed to numerous missions during event celebrating Katalin’s life. The law. It was greatly appreciated. his 44-year career, including Surveyor; support and love expressed for us and Garson Yee Mariners VI and VII; the first two for our dear Katalin touched us deeply Vikings; , the first dedicated and helped to comfort us during this My brother George and I would like oceanographic satellite; and the Shuttle He is survived by his wife, Yini Loh; very difficult time. Special thanks to to thank our friends, colleagues and all Radar Topography Mission. He also sisters Chia-Cheng and Chia-Wei; Donna Cummings and Jackie Akers for of the wonderful people who make up served as manager of the Product As- children Emily, Michael and Jennifer; all the work they did to make the event the JPL family for the beautiful flow- surance Office and the Mission Assur- and grandchildren Matthew and Kaitlyn. happen. We likewise appreciate all the ers and plant in remembrance of our ance Office. Services were held Nov. 20 at Rose support of the organizational leadership mother. Your cards, e-mails, kind words Hills in Whittier. in 346, 314, Cassini and MRO, of the and prayers have been a strength to us von Kármán staff, and of Visitor Control and to our family. Thank you all so very Retiree Patrick DeCarolis Sr., 91, and Investigations. much. died Nov. 28. In addition, I thank the leadership Tom Fraschetti of 314, 31 and the MRO project for John Schlue DeCarolis maintained communica- their rock-solid support during my tion antennas for the NASA Mariner leave of absence so that I was able to R etirees program, which launched a series of ensure that Katalin’s final journey was robotic probes to investigate Mars, The following JPL employees retired in experienced in a secure, comfortable, READ AND SUBMIT CLASSIFIED ADS Venus and Mercury from 1963 to 1973. December: Alan Hoffman, 49 years, dignified and loving environment. I also Section 513; Michael Sander, 44 AT JPL’s online news source He also contributed to the Voyager, Vi- thank all of our special friends who http://jplspace king and missions. He retired years, Section 1000; Elizabeth Em- reached out to us, who were there for mons, 38 years, Section 2501; Rigo- Schlue earned the the NASA Excep- in 1987. us and who supported us during that berto Medina, 37 years, Section 268; E-mail us at tional Service Medal in 1990 and 1991. DeCarolis is survived by his wife, difficult journey. Larry Bright, 35 years, Section 343P; [email protected] He is survived by his wife, Dottie, son Josephine; children Elaine DeCaro- David Herman Tamlin Antoine, 29 years, Section Craig and daughter Karen. lis Wilson, Jean Marie Pintarelli and 280; Deborah Mahoney, 24 years, Patrick DeCarolis, Jr.; grandchildren John was right when he always com- Section 3819; Terry Durham, 23 years, Chialin (Charlie) Wu, 64, a princi- Dan Wilson, Gina Calderon, Kaci Wilson mended JPLers for being a large family Section 272; Karen Woodson, 22 pal systems engineer in the Radar Sci- and Gemma and Shaelee DeCarolis; of supportive people. Upon his death, years, Section 3417; Dan Handayan, ence and Engineering Section, died Nov. and great-grandchildren Luke Calderon, you were close at hand, giving us your 14 years, Section 2632; Anthony Bird, 10. He had worked at JPL since 1974. Cami Wilson, Wilson and Charlie comfort, generosity and assistance, Editor 10 years, Section 2126. A researcher of digital signal process- Wilson. and filling our hearts with the fond- Mark Whalen ing techniques for radar and image Services were held Dec. 3 at the est memories of his life. We thank you Correction sensors, Wu developed algorithms to for remembering John Schlue in so Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary Due to incomplete information provided accommodate spaceborne data, and many special ways: your donations to Design Church in Pasadena. to Universe, an article in the December co-authored a U.S. patent on the in- the American Cancer Society, beauti- Audrey Steffan issue about JPL contributions to NASA’s terferometric synthetic aperture radar ful plants, pictures and cards and the Southeast Asia Composition, Cloud, apparatus for JPL missions. He also words you wrote on them. The ERC Production Climate Coupling Regional Study incor- designed the radar on etters plant is cherished as are all of you. David Hinkle the SeaWinds/QuikScat project, and was L rectly stated the number of JPL instru- Dottie, Craig and Karen Schlue ments flying on the campaign. There are integration and test manager for the I would like to thank my fellow co- five JPL instruments, four of which will Photography cloud profiling radar on CloudSat. Most workers on the GRACE and CloudSat My family and I would like to thank fly on the ER-2 aircraft; omitted was the recently, he participated in integration projects for the outpouring of emotional all the members of the Facilities Divi- JPL Photo Lab Microwave Temperature Profiler, led by and verification tests for several radar support during my son Robbie’s illness. sion for your kind words of comfort and JPL principal investigator Michael Ma- instrument development projects and Your words of encouragement and your the ERC for the beautiful plant you so Universe is published by the Office honey. A proposal led by Simone Tanelli the terminal descent sensor for Mars prayers carried me through those 15 kindly sent in remembrance of the sud- of Communications and Education to provide radar observation of cloud Science Laboratory. harrowing days with him in the hospital. den passing of my brother, Frank Phillip of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, microphysics and dynamics in convective Wu was a recipient of the NASA Ex- Lemierre Syndrome: “It’s not just anoth- Mayer. I would personally like to thank environments will fly on the DC-8. 4800 Oak Grove Drive, ceptional Service Medal. er sore throat!” He is home now and is everyone for your kind thoughts through Pasadena, CA 91109.