DOCSLIB.ORG

Planetary Report Report

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Planetary Report Report TheThe PLANETARYPLANETARY REPORT REPORT Volume XXV Number 2 March/April 2005 Huygens—Success! Volume XXV Table of Number 2 Contents March/April 2005 A PUBLICATION OF Features Basic Solar Sailing From 6 Solar sailing—how does it work? Society Vice President Bill Nye has a way The of explaining complex principles in fun, easy-to-understand ways. Here he takes on the basics of solar sailing, explaining to readers of all ages the physics behind this Editor novel propulsion method. e are waiting. We’ve been waiting 8 Eavesdropping on Huygens W 4 years. We are impatient. But this The Huygens probe was a great success, but, as with many successful space- is something truly worth waiting for. craft, it was not perfect. A problem with one of the probe’s radio links meant that What has us all standing around, champing data from the Doppler Wind Experiment had not been returned to Earth. Thanks to at the bit, on tenterhooks, and all those other the ingenuity of an international team of radio scientists, the experiment was saved. Sami Asmar, manager of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s Radio Science Systems clichés, is the launch of Cosmos 1, the first so- Group, tells the dramatic story. lar-sail spacecraft, on its mission to orbit Earth and demonstrate the feasibility of a technology A World Revealed: Huygens’ Images of Titan that could one day take us to the stars. 12 In January, the world watched as the Huygens probe returned our first-ever The only thing that makes the delays bear- views of Titan’s surface. Scientists are still examining the data, deciphering clues to able is knowing that we are doing what is nec- Titan’s past and present. Here, we present some of the most exciting pictures. essary to ensure the success of our mission. It’s a commonplace saying that a project can be Miranda: Shattering an Image done more quickly, less expensively, or better— 14 Uranus’ strange moon Miranda has been an object of intrigue since Voy - but you can’t have all three at the same time. ager 2 first returned close-up images of its haggard face in 1986. Now, nearly The “faster, cheaper, better” mantra of NASA, 20 years later, planetary scientist Bob Pappalardo shines new light on the tiny moon to our regret, did not prove doable. We faced and its fractured surface. precisely this situation with our solar sail. We are operating on a fixed budget, provided 20 Annual Report to Our Members by Cosmos Studios, Peter Lewis, and the mem- 2004 was an incredible year—with three spacecraft arriving at Mars and bers of The Planetary Society. We have allowed Cassini orbiting Saturn—and Society members were part of it all. For our members, improvements to our spacecraft to creep in, we have put together a short report on our activities and an overview of the Society’s knowing that each redundancy and upgrade financial status. increases our chances of success. The element we have let slide is schedule. Departments So we will not meet our published launch date. But all that stands in our way now are fi- 3 Members’ Dialogue nal tests of the assembled craft and scheduling the launch with the Russian navy, which will 4 We Make It Happen! send Cosmos 1 into orbit with a converted submarine-launched ballistic missile. We’re 19 World Watch within weeks of reaching our goal. Fingers Society News crossed! Good luck to us all! 22 —Charlene M. Anderson Contact Us On the Cover: Mailing Address: The Planetary Society, 65 North Catalina Avenue, Pasadena, CA 91106-2301 Top: As Huygens floated down through Titan’s atmosphere, it cap- General Calls: 626-793-5100 Sales Calls Only: 626-793-1675 tured these 30 images from altitudes of 13 to 8 kilometers (9 to 5 E-mail: [email protected] World Wide Web: http://planetary.org miles). Details are visible down to about 20 meters across, and the images cover an area 30 kilometers (about 19 miles) wide. The Planetary Report (ISSN 0736-3680) is published bimonthly at the editorial offices of The Planetary Society, 65 North Catalina Avenue, Pasadena, CA 91106-2301, 626-793-5100. It is available to members of The Planetary Society. Annual dues in the US are $30 (US dollars); in Canada, $40 (Canadian dollars). Dues in Bottom: A mountainous coastline marks the landscape near other countries are $45 (US dollars). Printed in USA. Third-class postage at Pasadena, California, and at an additional mailing office. Canada Post Agreement Number 87424. Huygens’ landing site, as seen in this mosaic. Dark channels drain Editor, CHARLENE M. ANDERSON Copy Editor, A. J. SOBCZAK into a major river below. To terrestrial eyes, this looks like an aerial Associate Editor, DONNA ESCANDON STEVENS Proofreader, LOIS SMITH Managing Editor, JENNIFER VAUGHN Art Director, BARBARA S. SMITH photo of a scenic lakeshore, but on Titan, water behaves like rock Technical Editor, JAMES D. BURKE Science Editor, BRUCE BETTS Images: ESA/NASA/University of Arizona Viewpoints expressed in columns and editorials are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent positions of The Planetary Society, its officers, or its advisers. and hydrocarbons flow like water. ©2005 by The Planetary Society. Cofounder CARL SAGAN 1934–1996 Board of Directors Members’ Chairman of the Board NEIL deGRASSE TYSON Astrophysicist and Director, Hayden Planetarium, American Museum of Natural History Dialogue President WESLEY T. HUNTRESS JR. Director, Geophysical Laboratory, Carnegie Institution of Washington Vice President Titan on the Web and technology coordinator, deeply into these studies, they BILL NYE science educator We’re glad you liked our web Emily Lakdawalla, has provid- were unable to find any prac- Executive Director coverage of Huygens’ landing ed exciting “up-to-the-minute” tical mission possibility. LOUIS D. FRIEDMAN ANN DRUYAN on Titan from the European coverage of this historic event Of course, for interstellar author and producer DANIEL GERACI Space Agency’s European that is unmatched by anything sailing, we are probably a cen- Executive Vice President, Phoenix Companies LAURIE LESHIN Space Operations Center in I have seen and read on the tury or more away from being planetary scientist JOHN M. LOGSDON Darmstadt, Germany. Here Web to date. able to develop the kind of laser Director, Space Policy Institute, are a few of the comments we —RON LOCKWOOD, power that will be required for George Washington University Advisory Council Chair CHRISTOPHER P. McKAY received through planetary.org. Cape Town, South Africa practical flight. planetary scientist, NASA Ames Research Center —Louis D. Friedman, BRUCE MURRAY Professor of Planetary Science and Geology, Congratulations to all the Interstellar Flight Executive Director California Institute of Technology ELON MUSK many thousands of dedicated Technology Chairman, CEO, SpaceX JOSEPH RYAN people who have made this age In “Cosmos 1: The Journey Proper Credit Executive Vice President and of wonder and excitement a re- Begins” (see the November/ How could I not agree with General Counsel, Marriott International ROALD Z. SAGDEEV former Director, Institute for Space Research, ality. More to the point, thank December 2004 issue of The your reader James S. Veldman Russian Academy of Sciences YOU! Planetary Report), the authors (see the January/February STEVEN SPIELBERG director and producer I was ten years old when state that the solar sail is the 2005 issue) regarding human MARIA T. ZUBER Sputnik was the wonder of the only technology that may take spaceflight—especially when Professor, Massachusetts Institute of Technology world. That I have lived to see us to the stars. he says: “there is a window of Advisory Council JIHEI AKITA images of so many of my Back in the 1970s or 1980s, opportunity for going into Executive Director, The Planetary Society, Japan BUZZ ALDRIN neighbors in the solar system there was a feasibility study space, and that window will Apollo 11 astronaut NORTON BELKNAP knocks me out! called “Project Daedalus,” not remain open indefinitely.” President, Paul Taylor Dance Company RICHARD BERENDZEN Thanks again to all those which determined that a However, for the sake of educator and astrophysicist around the world who made fusion-powered ship (robotic) accuracy, may I point out that JACQUES BLAMONT Chief Scientist, Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales, France this possible. I’m proud to be was capable of exploring it was not Sir Patrick Moore RAY BRADBURY a member of The Planetary Sirius. Travel time was about who wrote the words in our poet and author DAVID BRIN Society and, when we show 12 years. The ship used pulsed foreword (from which this was author FRANKLIN CHANG-DIAZ this side of our nature, of the microfusion explosions as a paraphrased) but myself. Mr NASA, Astronaut Office ARTHUR C. CLARKE human race. propellant. Veldman refers to “his [Moore’s] author FRANK DRAKE —THOMAS JORDAN, No doubt, solar sails are recent book FUTURES,” but President, SETI Institute; Professor of Astronomy and As- Englewood, New Jersey far more financially probable the full title is: FUTURES: trophysics, University of California,Santa Cruz OWEN GARRIOTT former astronaut; Professor, than ships of the type described 50 Years in Space by David University of Alabama, Huntsville Emily Lakdawalla’s reporting by Daedalus. However, that A. Hardy and Patrick Moore. GARRY E. HUNT space scientist, United Kingdom from Germany is simply technology was investigated The book celebrates the 50 BRUCE JAKOSKY wonderful! Her firsthand re- several decades ago and years since Patrick and I first planetary scientist THOMAS D. JONES ports from the press con- determined to be possible— collaborated. planetary scientist, former astronaut, and author SERGEI KAPITSA ferences have given us all just very expensive. Speaking of anniversaries, Institute for Physical Problems, Russian Academy of Sciences an insight into what goes on —FABIAN STRETTON, may I offer my congratulations CHARLES E.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • THE PLANETARY REPORT JUNE SOLSTICE 2017 VOLUME 37, NUMBER 2 Planetary.Org
    THE PLANETARY REPORT JUNE SOLSTICE 2017 VOLUME 37, NUMBER 2 planetary.org SPECTACULAR JUPITER JUNO REVEALS A SURPRISING AND COMPLEX WORLD CHINA’S CHANG’E-5 C A NEW SMOKING GUN? C A PLANETARY DEFENSE PLAN SNEAK PEAK RICHARD CHUTE is The Planetary Society’s chief development officer. Help Us Fuel Up for Launch! Watch As We Get Ready for LightSail 2… We could employ solar sails, vast but very thin films that catch sunlight…plying the void between the worlds. Especially for trips to Mars and beyond, such methods are far better than rockets. — Carl Sagan, Pale Blue Dot THE PLANETARY SOCIETY’S LightSail® 2 get there, we need one more boost from our spacecraft is one step closer to the launch vitally important mission team: the members pad and ready to make space exploration of The Planetary Society. ABOVE LEFT A history! In the two years since our test launch In the coming weeks, we’ll be launching a remote camera placed of LightSail 1, our spacecraft has undergone special member appeal to help us store the Society Planetary Spradling/The Josh illustration: Baraty; Navid Launch photo: near the launch pad an extensive review followed by a series of financial fuel we need to complete the work captured this photo critical upgrades and tests. ahead of us. Watch for our special mailing and of LightSail 1 blasting off on May 20, 2015. Our new and improved LightSail 2 is now the opportunity to make a gift that will help being prepared for delivery to the Air Force us secure our place in history.
    [Show full text]
  • Planetary Report Report
    The PLANETARYPLANETARY REPORT REPORT Volume XXIX Number 1 January/February 2009 Beyond The Moon From The Editor he Internet has transformed the way science is On the Cover: Tdone—even in the realm of “rocket science”— The United States has the opportunity to unify and inspire the and now anyone can make a real contribution, as world’s spacefaring nations to create a future brightened by long as you have the will to give your best. new goals, such as the human exploration of Mars and near- In this issue, you’ll read about a group of amateurs Earth asteroids. Inset: American astronaut Peggy A. Whitson who are helping professional researchers explore and Russian cosmonaut Yuri I. Malenchenko try out training Mars online, encouraged by Mars Exploration versions of Russian Orlan spacesuits. Background: The High Rovers Project Scientist Steve Squyres and Plane- Resolution Camera on Mars Express took this snapshot of tary Society President Jim Bell (who is also head Candor Chasma, a valley in the northern part of Valles of the rovers’ Pancam team.) Marineris, on July 6, 2006. Images: Gagarin Cosmonaut Training This new Internet-enabled fun is not the first, Center. Background: ESA nor will it be the only, way people can participate in planetary exploration. The Planetary Society has been encouraging our members to contribute Background: their minds and energy to science since 1984, A dust storm blurs the sky above a volcanic caldera in this image when the Pallas Project helped to determine the taken by the Mars Color Imager on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter shape of a main-belt asteroid.
    [Show full text]
  • Planetary Report Report
    The PLANETARYPLANETARY REPORT REPORT Volume XXV Number 5 September/October 2005 ATACAMA DESERT MarsMars AnalogsAnalogs VALLES MARINERIS Volume XXV Table of Number 5 Contents September/October 2005 A PUBLICATION OF Features From The Dry Earth, Wet Mars 6 Sometimes the best place to learn about Mars exploration is right here on Editor Earth. In Chile’s Atacama Desert, scientists have discovered an area so dry that organic material, and therefore evidence of life, is virtually undetectable. Study of he damage that Earth inflicts on her this parched Mars-like region on Earth may lead us to a better understanding of Tinhabitants—horribly demonstrated how to search for water and the elements of life in Martian soil. This year, The by Hurricane Katrina and the December Planetary Society cosponsored a field expedition to the Atacama Desert, sending tsunami—reminds us what fragile creatures graduate student Troy Hudson on a 1-week adventure with a team of scientists led we are, lucky to survive at all on this dynamic, by Society Board member Chris McKay. Here, Troy describes his experience. dispassionate ball of rock hurtling through space. 12 The Pioneer Anomaly: A Deep Space Mystery Our exploration of other worlds has As Pioneer 10 and 11 head toward the farthest reaches of our solar system, taught us that the potential for planetary something strange is happening—they are mysteriously slowing down. Scientists catastrophe is always with us. On Mars, do not yet know why the spacecraft aren’t acting as expected; however, The we’ve seen planet-rending gouges cut by Planetary Society has stepped in to help fund the effort to analyze roughly 25 years catastrophic floods.
    [Show full text]
  • Asteroid Retrieval Feasibility Study
    Publications 4-2-2012 Asteroid Retrieval Feasibility Study John Brophy California Institute of Technology Fred Culick California Institute of Technology Louis Friedman The Planetary Society Pedro Llanos Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University - Daytona Beach, [email protected] et al. Follow this and additional works at: https://commons.erau.edu/publication Part of the Astrodynamics Commons, Space Vehicles Commons, and the The Sun and the Solar System Commons Scholarly Commons Citation Brophy, J., Culick, F., Friedman, L., Llanos, P., & al., e. (2012). Asteroid Retrieval Feasibility Study. , (). Retrieved from https://commons.erau.edu/publication/893 This Report is brought to you for free and open access by Scholarly Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Publications by an authorized administrator of Scholarly Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Asteroid Retrieval Feasibility Study 2 April 2012 Prepared for the: Keck Institute for Space Studies California Institute of Technology Jet Propulsion Laboratory Pasadena, California 1 2 Authors and Study Participants NAME Organization E-Mail Signature John Brophy Co-Leader / NASA JPL / Caltech [email protected] Fred Culick Co-Leader / Caltech [email protected] Co -Leader / The Planetary Louis Friedman [email protected] Society Carlton Allen NASA JSC [email protected] David Baughman Naval Postgraduate School [email protected] NASA ARC/Carnegie Mellon Julie Bellerose [email protected] University Bruce Betts The Planetary Society
    [Show full text]
  • Lightsail 2 Set to Launch in June “We Are Go for Launch!” Said Planetary Society CEO Bill Nye
    Lightsail 2 set to launch in June “We are go for launch!” said Planetary Society CEO Bill Nye. Funded by space enthusiasts, LightSail 2 aims to accomplish the 1st-ever, controlled solar sail flight in Earth orbit next month. Writing at the Planetary Society’s blog, Jason Davis this week (May 13, 2019) described the upcoming challenge of the launch of LightSail 2, a little spacecraft literally powered by sunbeams and dear to the hearts of many. He wrote: Weighing just 5 kilograms, the loaf-of-bread-sized spacecraft, known as a CubeSat, is scheduled to lift A one-unit CubeSat measures 10 centimeters per side. off on June 22, 2019, aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy LightSail is a three-unit CubeSat measuring 10 by 10 by 30 rocket from Kennedy Space Center, Florida. Once in centimetres. Here, an early LightSail model sits next to a space, LightSail 2 will deploy a boxing ring-sized solar loaf of bread for size comparison. sail and attempt to raise its orbit using the gentle push from solar photons. It’s the culmination of a 10-year project with an origin story linked to the three scientist-engineers who founded The Planetary Society in 1980. Indeed, although the Lightsail 2 project itself is 10 years old, the idea for lightsail or solar sail spacecraft goes back decades, at least. Carl Sagan – who was one of those Planetary Society founders -- popularized the idea for our time. Now the mantle for popularizing lightsails, and helping to bring the dream many steps closer to reality, has been passed to Bill Nye, the current CEO of the Planetary Society.
    [Show full text]
  • THE PLANETARY REPORT JUNE SOLSTICE 2016 VOLUME 36, NUMBER 2 Planetary.Org
    THE PLANETARY REPORT JUNE SOLSTICE 2016 VOLUME 36, NUMBER 2 planetary.org ILLUMINATING CERES DAWN SHEDS NEW LIGHT ON AN ENIGMATIC WORLD BREAKTHROUGH STARSHOT C LIGHTSAIL 2 TEST C MEMBERSHIP UPGRADES SNAPSHOTS FROM SPACE EMILY STEWART LAKDAWALLA blogs at planetary.org/blog. Black Sands of Mars ON SOL 1192 (December 13, 2015), Curiosity approached the side of Namib, a Faccin and Marco Bonora Image: NASA/JPL/MSSS/Elisabetta massive barchan sand dune. Namib belongs to a field of currently active dark basaltic sand dunes that form a long barrier between the rover and the tantalizing rocks of Mount Sharp. This view, processed by Elisabetta Bonora and Marco Faccin, features wind-carved yardangs (crests or ridges ) of Mount Sharp in the background. After taking this set of photos, Curiosity went on to sample sand from the dune, and it is now working its way through a gap in the dune field on the way to the mountain. —Emily Stewart Lakdawalla SEE MORE AMATEUR-PROCESSED SPACE IMAGES planetary.org/amateur SEE MORE EVERY DAY! planetary.org/blogs 2 THE PLANETARY REPORT C JUNE SOLSTICE 2016 CONTENTS JUNE SOLSTICE 2016 COVER STORY Unveiling Ceres 6 Simone Marchi on why Ceres is a scientific treasure chest for Dawn. Pathway to the Stars Looking back at years of Society-led solar sail 10 development as Breakthrough Starshot is announced. Life, the Universe, and Everything 13 Planetary Radio in Death Valley. ADVOCATING FOR SPACE Partisan Peril 18 Casey Dreier looks at the U.S. President’s impact on space policy and legislation. DEVELOPMENTS IN SPACE SCIENCE Update on LightSail 2 20 Bruce Betts details the progress we’ve made in the year since LightSail 1 launched.
    [Show full text]
  • 1 Statement of Kathryn C. Thornton Professor and Associate Dean School of Engineering and Applied Science University of Virginia
    Statement of Kathryn C. Thornton Professor and Associate Dean School of Engineering and Applied Science University of Virginia before the Committee on Science and Technology Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics U.S. House of Representatives April 3, 2008 Chairman Udall, Ranking Member Feeney, and members of the subcommittee, thank you for inviting me to appear before you today. My name is Kathryn Thornton and I am a Professor and Associate Dean in the School of Engineering and Applied Science at the University of Virginia. I appear here this morning not in my faculty role but as an organizer and co-chair of an independent workshop entitled Examining the Vision: Balancing Exploration and Science held last February at Stanford University. The workshop was co-hosted by Stanford University Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, and The Planetary Society. Other organizers were co-chair Professor G. Scott Hubbard from Stanford University, Dr. Louis Friedman of The Planetary Society, and Dr. Wesley T. Huntress, Jr., of the Carnegie Institution of Washington. The post- workshop joint communiqué and a partial list of participants are attached. The intent of the workshop was to critically examine the current implementation of the Vision for Space Exploration as announced by President Bush in January 2004, especially to help prepare for a new Administration’s consideration of its broad space program goals and plans. The Vision for Space Exploration in its original plan was a major redirection of the human space flight program with an accompanying emphasis on scientific exploration. Whatever changes might be made in its implementation in the next Administration, we wanted to identify, highlight and support the best parts of the current concept.
    [Show full text]
  • NASA and Planetary Exploration
    **EU5 Chap 2(263-300) 2/20/03 1:16 PM Page 263 Chapter Two NASA and Planetary Exploration by Amy Paige Snyder Prelude to NASA’s Planetary Exploration Program Four and a half billion years ago, a rotating cloud of gaseous and dusty material on the fringes of the Milky Way galaxy flattened into a disk, forming a star from the inner- most matter. Collisions among dust particles orbiting the newly-formed star, which humans call the Sun, formed kilometer-sized bodies called planetesimals which in turn aggregated to form the present-day planets.1 On the third planet from the Sun, several billions of years of evolution gave rise to a species of living beings equipped with the intel- lectual capacity to speculate about the nature of the heavens above them. Long before the era of interplanetary travel using robotic spacecraft, Greeks observing the night skies with their eyes alone noticed that five objects above failed to move with the other pinpoints of light, and thus named them planets, for “wan- derers.”2 For the next six thousand years, humans living in regions of the Mediterranean and Europe strove to make sense of the physical characteristics of the enigmatic planets.3 Building on the work of the Babylonians, Chaldeans, and Hellenistic Greeks who had developed mathematical methods to predict planetary motion, Claudius Ptolemy of Alexandria put forth a theory in the second century A.D. that the planets moved in small circles, or epicycles, around a larger circle centered on Earth.4 Only partially explaining the planets’ motions, this theory dominated until Nicolaus Copernicus of present-day Poland became dissatisfied with the inadequacies of epicycle theory in the mid-sixteenth century; a more logical explanation of the observed motions, he found, was to consider the Sun the pivot of planetary orbits.5 1.
    [Show full text]
  • Planetary Report
    The PLANETARY REPORT Volume XXX Number 3 May/June 2010 Why Go Into Space? From The Editor On the Cover: This dazzling, visible-light portrait of the Orion nebula was his 30th anniversary year has had me looking taken by the European Southern Observatory’s new Visible Tback to the beginning of The Planetary Soci- and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy (VISTA). Most of ety, while our LightSail program keeps pulling the light from the spectacular clouds comes from hydrogen gas glowing under the fierce ultraviolet glare of the hot young my thoughts to the future. In 1980, The Planetary Society launched while stars at center. The region above Orion’s center is obscured Carl Sagan was presenting his personal view of by clouds of dust. Image: ESO/J. Emerson/VISTA & R. Gendler, the universe on television screens around the with thanks to the Cambridge Astronomical Survey Unit world. There’s no question that our organization’s success is linked directly to the phenomenon that Background: was Cosmos. To honor that connection, in 2005, It’s easy to forget—as we deal with the day-to-day challenges we created the Cosmos Award for Outstanding of life—that we live on a planet whose normal geologic Public Presentation of Science. The first recipi- activity can trump our most important plans. Here, lava ent was filmmaker James Cameron (who’s had spews out of a mountain on March 21, 2010, in the region a rather big success of his own lately). This February, we presented The Planetary of Iceland’s Eyjafjallajökull volcano.
    [Show full text]
  • THE PLANETARY REPORT DECEMBER SOLSTICE 2013 VOLUME 33, NUMBER 4 Planetary.Org
    THE PLANETARY REPORT DECEMBER SOLSTICE 2013 VOLUME 33, NUMBER 4 planetary.org 10 YEARS ON MARS THE MAGIC BEHIND THE MARS EXPLORATION ROVERS CONTACT US The Planetary Society 85 South Grand Avenue Pasadena, CA 91105-1602 General Calls: 626-793-5100 E-mail: [email protected] Internet: planetary.org MURRAY RIDGE FOLD-OUT C THE YEAR IN PICTURES C A PLANETVAC MILESTONE CORRECTED FOLD FOR SPECIAL COVER CONTENTS DECEMBER SOLSTICE 2013 Murray Ridge Panorama 2 A special fold-out cover showcasing Mars’ Murray Ridge. COVER STORY 7 The Year in Pictures Emily Lakdawalla serves up some of 2013’s most significant. The Magic of MER 13 A.J.S. Rayl looks inside the MER missions’ success. Planetary Dirt Sampling Success 20 Bruce Betts reports on the Society-sponsored PlanetVac. ADVOCATING FOR SPACE 22 A Shift in the Wind Casey Dreier gives us an update. DEPARTMENTS 4 Your Place in Space Bill Nye looks back at a busy year. 6 Planetary Radio Online radio + exciting topics. 6 On Planetary.org A feast of space news coverage. 21 What’s Up? Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. 23 MySky From Orange County, California. ON THE COVER: In this sunset view from sol 2847 (January 27, 2012), Opportunity gazed backward toward the distant peaks of Endeavour crater’s far rim. The setting Sun casts very long shadows from the low-standing ridge on which the rover stands. In fact, Opportunity’s own shadow is visible as a blurry speck atop the ridge’s shadow. To read more about how this image was processed, go to bit.ly/1i3qgl5.
    [Show full text]
  • Lightsail Program Status: One Down, One to Go
    SSC15-V-3 LightSail Program Status: One Down, One to Go Rex Ridenoure, Riki Munakata, Alex Diaz, Stephanie Wong Ecliptic Enterprises Corporation Pasadena, CA; (626) 278-0435 [email protected] Barbara Plante Boreal Space Hayward, CA; (510) 915-4717 [email protected] Doug Stetson Space Science and Exploration Consulting Group Pasadena, CA, (818) 854-8921 [email protected] Dave Spencer Georgia Institute of Technology Atlanta, GA, (770) 331-2340 [email protected] Justin Foley California Polytechnic University, San Luis Obispo San Luis Obispo, CA, (805) 756-5074 [email protected] ABSTRACT The LightSail program involves two 3U CubeSats designed to advance solar sailing technology state of the art. The entire program is privately funded by members and supporters of The Planetary Society, the world’s largest non- profit space advocacy organization. Spacecraft design started in 2009; by the end of 2011 both spacecraft had largely been built but not fully tested, and neither had a firm launch commitment. Following an 18-month program pause during 2012-2013, the effort was resumed after launch opportunities had been secured for each spacecraft. The first LightSail spacecraft—dedicated primarily to demonstrating the solar sail deployment process—was launched into Earth orbit on 2015 May 20 as a secondary payload aboard an Atlas 5 rocket, and on June 9 mission success was declared. The mission plan for the second LightSail includes demonstration of solar sailing in Earth orbit, among other objectives. It is on track for a launch in 2016 aboard a Falcon Heavy rocket as a key element of the Prox-1 mission.
    [Show full text]
  • Bill Nye: Science Guy a Film by David Alvarado and Jason Sussberg
    POV Community Engagement & Education DISCUSSION GUIDE Bill Nye: Science Guy A Film by David Alvarado and Jason Sussberg www.pbs.org/pov LETTER FROM THE FILMMAKERS We’re documentary filmmakers, but we’re also Bill Nye fans who spent our middle school years learn- ing about the ecosystem and the color spectrum from his trusty VHS tapes. Bill’s passion and en- thusiasm stayed with us, and when we got older, we started making films about science and tech- nology. When we learned that Bill Nye was doing something new—working outside of the classroom to champion science and space exploration and helping lead the fight against climate change, we knew we had to make this documentary. As filmmakers, we tell stories about interesting people in the worlds of science, health, informa- tion and technology. Our last film THE IMMOR- TALISTS was about the personal lives of two anti-aging scientists. We focused the story more on their humanity, love and death, and less on the technological “how to” of living forever. We take a similar approach in BILL NYE: SCIENCE GUY— Directors David Alvarado and Jason Sussberg. documenting Bill’s journey from popular kid show Photo courtesy of Erika Kapin host to serious science statesman, coupled with in- timate access to his personal life. We see the human-side of a much larger social friction between science and anti-science. Bill is a dream subject for a documentary. He is someone everybody knows of, but no one really knows— where did he come from, what were the experiences that formed his worldview, why is he so mission-driven? Bill was absolutely open to every filming possibility we presented—an amazing leap of faith that allowed us to really get to know the man behind the bow tie.
    [Show full text]