Planetary Science Division Status Report
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7Th IAA Planetary Defense Conference – PDC 2021 26
7th IAA Planetary Defense Conference – PDC 2021 1 26-30 April 2021, Vienna, Austria IAA-PDC-21-11-37 Precautionary Planetary Defence Aaron C. Boley(1), Michael Byers(2) (1)(2)Outer Space Institute University of British Columbia 325-6224 Agricultural Road Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z1 Canada +1-604-827-2641 [email protected] Keywords: Asteroids, Precautionary Principle, Decision-Making, Active Management visiting the asteroid before the 2029 close approach Introduction: The question of whether to attempt leads us to ask, in a general sense, to what degree deflections during planetary defence emergencies has might restraint be prudent? been subject to considerable decision-making analysis As discussed by Chesley and Farnocchia (2021), if a (Schmidt 2018; SMPAG Ad-Hoc Working Group on Legal mission to an asteroid with a rich set of keyholes, like Issues 2020). Hypothetical situations usually involve a Apophis, goes awry and unintentionally collides with the newly discovered asteroid with a high impact probability asteroid, there is a risk that this will create a future on a set timescale. This paper addresses two further impact emergency. The publicity associated with the complexities: (1) limiting missions to an asteroid due to asteroid’s close approach could also prompt non-state the risk of a human-caused Earth impact; and (2) active actors to launch their own missions as technology management of asteroids to place them in “safe demonstrations and/or profile-raising exercises, much harbours”, even when impact risks are otherwise below like the infamous Tesla launch by SpaceX. “decision to act” thresholds. We use Apophis as a case Adding to these considerations is a potential traffic study, and address the two complexities in turn. -
The Messenger
10th anniversary of VLT First Light The Messenger The ground layer seeing on Paranal HAWK-I Science Verification The emission nebula around Antares No. 132 – June 2008 –June 132 No. The Organisation The Perfect Machine Tim de Zeeuw a groundbased spectroscopic comple thousand each semester, 800 of which (ESO Director General) ment to the Hubble Space Telescope. are for Paranal. The User Portal has Italy and Switzerland had joined ESO in about 4 000 registered users and 1981, enabling the construction of the the archive contains 74 TB of data and This issue of the Messenger marks the 3.5m New Technology Telescope with advanced data products. tenth anniversary of first light of the Very pioneering advances in active optics, Large Telescope. It is an excellent occa crucial for the next step: the construction sion to look at the broader implications of the Very Large Telescope, which Winning strategy of the VLT’s success and to consider the received the green light from Council in next steps. 1987 and was built on Cerro Paranal in The VLT opened for business some five the Atacama desert between Antofagasta years after the Keck telescopes, but the and Taltal in Northern Chile. The 8.1m decision to take the time to build a fully Mission Gemini telescopes and the 8.3m Subaru integrated system, consisting of four telescope were constructed on a similar 8.2m telescopes and providing a dozen ESO’s mission is to enable scientific dis time scale, while the Large Binocular Tele foci for a carefully thoughtout comple coveries by constructing and operating scope and the Gran Telescopio Canarias ment of instruments together with four powerful observational facilities that are now starting operations. -
Exomars Schiaparelli Direct-To-Earth Observation Using GMRT
TECHNICAL ExoMars Schiaparelli Direct-to-Earth Observation REPORTS: METHODS 10.1029/2018RS006707 using GMRT S. Esterhuizen1, S. W. Asmar1 ,K.De2, Y. Gupta3, S. N. Katore3, and B. Ajithkumar3 Key Point: • During ExoMars Landing, GMRT 1Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA, 2Cahill Center for Astrophysics, observed UHF transmissions and California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA, 3National Centre for Radio Astrophysics, Pune, India Doppler shift used to identify key events as only real-time aliveness indicator Abstract During the ExoMars Schiaparelli separation event on 16 October 2016 and Entry, Descent, and Landing (EDL) events 3 days later, the Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (GMRT) near Pune, India, Correspondence to: S. W. Asmar, was used to directly observe UHF transmissions from the Schiaparelli lander as they arrive at Earth. The [email protected] Doppler shift of the carrier frequency was measured and used as a diagnostic to identify key events during EDL. This signal detection at GMRT was the only real-time aliveness indicator to European Space Agency Citation: mission operations during the critical EDL stage of the mission. Esterhuizen, S., Asmar, S. W., De, K., Gupta, Y., Katore, S. N., & Plain Language Summary When planetary missions, such as landers on the surface of Mars, Ajithkumar, B. (2019). ExoMars undergo critical and risky events, communications to ground controllers is very important as close to real Schiaparelli Direct-to-Earth observation using GMRT. time as possible. The Schiaparelli spacecraft attempted landing in 2016 was supported in an innovative way. Radio Science, 54, 314–325. A large radio telescope on Earth was able to eavesdrop on information being sent from the lander to other https://doi.org/10.1029/2018RS006707 spacecraft in orbit around Mars. -
Selection of the Insight Landing Site M. Golombek1, D. Kipp1, N
Manuscript Click here to download Manuscript InSight Landing Site Paper v9 Rev.docx Click here to view linked References Selection of the InSight Landing Site M. Golombek1, D. Kipp1, N. Warner1,2, I. J. Daubar1, R. Fergason3, R. Kirk3, R. Beyer4, A. Huertas1, S. Piqueux1, N. E. Putzig5, B. A. Campbell6, G. A. Morgan6, C. Charalambous7, W. T. Pike7, K. Gwinner8, F. Calef1, D. Kass1, M. Mischna1, J. Ashley1, C. Bloom1,9, N. Wigton1,10, T. Hare3, C. Schwartz1, H. Gengl1, L. Redmond1,11, M. Trautman1,12, J. Sweeney2, C. Grima11, I. B. Smith5, E. Sklyanskiy1, M. Lisano1, J. Benardino1, S. Smrekar1, P. Lognonné13, W. B. Banerdt1 1Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91109 2State University of New York at Geneseo, Department of Geological Sciences, 1 College Circle, Geneseo, NY 14454 3Astrogeology Science Center, U.S. Geological Survey, 2255 N. Gemini Dr., Flagstaff, AZ 86001 4Sagan Center at the SETI Institute and NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA 94035 5Southwest Research Institute, Boulder, CO 80302; Now at Planetary Science Institute, Lakewood, CO 80401 6Smithsonian Institution, NASM CEPS, 6th at Independence SW, Washington, DC, 20560 7Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Imperial College, South Kensington Campus, London 8German Aerospace Center (DLR), Institute of Planetary Research, 12489 Berlin, Germany 9Occidental College, Los Angeles, CA; Now at Central Washington University, Ellensburg, WA 98926 10Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN 37996 11Institute for Geophysics, University of Texas, Austin, TX 78712 12MS GIS Program, University of Redlands, 1200 E. Colton Ave., Redlands, CA 92373-0999 13Institut Physique du Globe de Paris, Paris Cité, Université Paris Sorbonne, France Diderot Submitted to Space Science Reviews, Special InSight Issue v. -
The Journey to Mars: How Donna Shirley Broke Barriers for Women in Space Engineering
The Journey to Mars: How Donna Shirley Broke Barriers for Women in Space Engineering Laurel Mossman, Kate Schein, and Amelia Peoples Senior Division Group Documentary Word Count: 499 Our group chose the topic, Donna Shirley and her Mars rover, because of our connections and our interest level in not only science but strong, determined women. One of our group member’s mothers worked for a man under Ms. Shirley when she was developing the Mars rover. This provided us with a connection to Ms. Shirley, which then gave us the amazing opportunity to interview her. In addition, our group is interested in the philosophy of equality and we have continuously created documentaries that revolve around this idea. Every member of our group is a female, so we understand the struggles and discrimination that women face in an everyday setting and wanted to share the story of a female that faced these struggles but overcame them. Thus after conducting a great amount of research, we fell in love with Donna Shirley’s story. Lastly, it was an added benefit that Ms. Shirley is from Oklahoma, making her story important to our state. All of these components made this topic extremely appealing to us. We conducted our research using online articles, Donna Shirley’s autobiography, “Managing Martians”, news coverage from the launch day, and our interview with Donna Shirley. We started our research process by reading Shirley’s autobiography. This gave us insight into her college life, her time working at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and what it was like being in charge of such a barrier-breaking mission. -
Mars Express Going Gyroless - Impact on Science Operations Systems
EPSC Abstracts Vol. 12, EPSC2018-1048, 2018 European Planetary Science Congress 2018 EEuropeaPn PlanetarSy Science CCongress c Author(s) 2018 Mars Express going Gyroless - Impact on science operations systems C.Muñiz Solaz (1), A.Cardesin (1), J.Marin-Yaseli de la Parra (1), M.Costa i Sitjà (1), D.Merritt (1), M.Castillo (1), M.G.Breitfellner (1), E.Grotheer (1), P.Martin(1), F. Nespoli (1), M.Kueppers(1), G.Buenadicha(1), B. Geiger (1), D.Titov(2) (1) ESA European Space Astronomy Centre (ESAC), Camino bajo del Castillo s/n, Urb. Villafranca del Castillo, P.O. Box 78, 28691 Villanueva de la Cañada, Madrid, Spain ([email protected] / T: +34-91-8131349) (2) European Space Research and Technology Centre (ESTEC), Keplerlaan 1, 2201 AZ Noordwijk ZH, Netherlands Abstract tions of its gyroscopes, thereby extending the mission lifetime. MEX was never designed to fly without its Mars Express was originally designed to explore Mars gyros continuously available, therefore an AOCS up- for a period of 1 Martian year. The mission has been grade was necessary to avoid an end of mission fore- very successful and has been extended in several oc- cast in early 2019. This software update not only af- casions and today it has been flying for more than fects the spacecraft operations but also the science op- 15 years. Due to its long lifetime in space the gy- erations, including procedures and planning processes. ros had started to degrade, and a decision was made The Science Ground Segment (SGS) team, located to extend the spacecraft lifetime by developing a new at the European Space Astronomy Centre (ESAC) near AOCS software to allow for switching off the gyros Madrid (Spain), is responsible for the generation, co- during an extended part of the operations, thereby re- ordination and maintenance of the overall scientific ducing the duty cycle of the IMUs. -
Solar System Exploration
Theme: Solar System Exploration Cassini, a robotic spacecraft launched in 1997 by NASA, is close enough now to resolve many rings and moons of its destination planet: Saturn. The spacecraft has now closed to within a single Earth-Sun separation from the ringed giant. In November 2003, Cassini snapped the contrast-enhanced color composite pictured above. Many features of Saturn's rings and cloud-tops now show considerable detail. When arriving at Saturn in July 2004, the Cassini orbiter will begin to circle and study the Saturnian system. Several months later, a probe named Huygens will separate and attempt to land on the surface of Titan. Solar System Exploration MAJOR EVENTS IN FY 2005 Deep Impact will launch in December 2004. The spacecraft will release a small (820 lbs.) Impactor directly into the path of comet Tempel 1 in July 2005. The resulting collision is expected to produce a small impact crater on the surface of the comet's nucleus, enabling scientists to investigate the composition of the comet's interior. Onboard the Cassini orbiter is a 703-pound scientific probe called Huygens that will be released in December 2004, beginning a 22-day coast phase toward Titan, Saturn's largest moon; Huygens will reach Titan's surface in January 2005. ESA 2-1 Theme: Solar System Exploration OVERVIEW The exploration of the solar system is a major component of the President's vision of NASA's future. Our cosmic "neighborhood" will first be scouted by robotic trailblazers pursuing answers to key questions about the diverse environments of the planets, comets, asteroids, and other bodies in our solar system. -
Kevin Gill ‘11G
InSight: RIVIER ACADEMIC JOURNAL, VOLUME 14, NUMBER 1, FALL 2018 EXPLORING THE UNIVERSE: Meet Kevin Gill ‘11G Michelle Marrone (From Rivier Today, Fall 2018) From the comfort of his lab chair in sunny, southern California, Kevin Gill ’11G has a view into outer space. As a Science Data Software Engineer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), he spends his time planning and designing technology in support of environmental science and space exploration, as well as data visualization and planetary imaging. His recent work not only produced the first-ever close views of Saturn, but also contributed to NASA’s team winning an Emmy Award. Kevin earned his M.S. in Computer Science at Rivier and has been designing software to render the unique images he gathers ever since. He used an algorithm he developed during his program at Rivier to generate hypothetical images portraying Mars as a vibrant planet with oceans, an oxygen-rich atmosphere, and a green biosphere. The images went viral and within a week his work was featured on major media networks—Discovery News, Fox News, Universe Today, and the Huffington Post. His work captured NASA’s attention and paved the way for his career move. “Rivier taught me many of the algorithms and development practices I still use today at NASA,” says Kevin. “In fact, I can trace the lineage of code currently running on NASA systems directly to my final master’s project at the University.” The systems and tools he develops support a range of scientists specializing in the areas of climate, oceanography, asteroids, planetary science, and others. -
Astronomy News KW RASC FRIDAY JANUARY 8 2021
Astronomy News KW RASC FRIDAY JANUARY 8 2021 JIM FAIRLES What to expect for spaceflight and astronomy in 2021 https://astronomy.com/news/2021/01/what-to-expect-for- spaceflight-and-astronomy-in-2021 By Corey S. Powell | Published: Monday, January 4, 2021 Whatever craziness may be happening on Earth, the coming year promises to be a spectacular one across the solar system. 2020 - It was the worst of times, it was the best of times. First landing on the lunar farside, two impressive successes in gathering samples from asteroids, the first new pieces of the Moon brought home in 44 years, close-up explorations of the Sun, and major advances in low-cost reusable rockets. First Visit to Jupiter's Trojan Asteroids First Visit to Jupiter's Trojan Asteroids In October, NASA is set to launch the Lucy spacecraft. Over its 12-year primary mission, Lucy will visit eight different asteroids. One target lies in the asteroid belt. The other seven are so-called Trojan asteroids that share an orbit with Jupiter, trapped in points of stability 60 degrees ahead of or behind the planet as it goes around the sun. These objects have been trapped in their locations for billions of years, probably since the time of the formation of the solar system. They contain preserved samples of water-rich and carbon-rich material in the outer solar system; some of that material formed Jupiter, while other bits moved inward to contribute to Earth's life-sustaining composition. As a whimsical aside: When meteorites strike carbon-rich asteroids, they create tiny carbon crystals. -
Venona Special Studies
- 1 - Venona Project Special Studies Transcribed by Students of the Mercyhurst College Institute for Intelligence Studies Arranged by John Earl Haynes, Library of Congress, 2010 COVER NAMES IN NEW YORK TRAFFIC p. 2 UNIDENTIFIED COVER NAMES IN NEW YORK TRAFFIC p. 86 COVER NAMES IN SAN FRANCISCO TRAFFIC p. 92 COVER NAMES IN WASHINGTON TRAFFIC p. 123 ADDITIONAL COVERNAMES AND RELATED INFORMATION IN DIPLOMATIC TRAFFIC p. 127 REVISED TRANSLATION OF MESSAGE ON ANTENNA-LIBERAL'S WIFE ETHEL p. 135 THE COVERNAMES "ANTENNA" AND "LIBERAL" IN . MESSAGES p. 139 ESSAGES IN . INVOLVING THE COVERNAME"ENORMOZ" AND THE NAMES OF NUCLEAR PHYSICISTS, ETC. p. 147 UNDATED REPORT OF MEREDITH GARDNER p. 155 DEVELOPMENT OF THE “G--“HOMER” [“GOMER”] CASE p. 158 THE KOMAR (KRAVCHENKO) AFFAIR IN . MESSAGES p. 161 REVISED TRANSLATION OF TWO . MESSAGES ON CHANGES IN COVERNAMES p. 170 THE COVERNAME "KARAS" IN. TRAFFIC p. 178 THE COVERNAMES "TÉNOR", "BAS", AND "CHETÁ" (? IN . TRAFFIC p. 181 - 2 - Special Study Cover Names in New York Traffic - 3 - cover-name Message number Date Publication reference S/ or 3/NBF/ 19 N.Y. to M. 812 29053 JKI 06 T1022 1B-1910 0027A ABRAM N.Y. to M. 992 24063 JKR 14 T872√ 1B-7518 0005A JACK SOBLE 1086 06073 JKV 48 T873√ 2A-0011 1957 29113 NNNNNN T939√ 625 04054 JHD 48 T916√ 851 15064 JIJ 40 T10.1√ 1146 10084 JHM 41 T123√ 1251 02094 JHN 12 T301√ (to ChEKh) 0005B 1353 23094 JHO 42 T289√ 1449 12104 JIL 37 T106√ 1754 14124 JHZ 49 T6√ 48 11015 JHV 37 (NSA)T1941 AVGUR 2A-0013 1638 (AUGUR) N.Y. -
Genesis Radiation Environment
https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=20070014073 2019-08-30T00:44:36+00:00Z 1 Source of Acquisition NASA Marshall Space Flight Center Genesis Radiation Environment Joseph I. Minow* NASA Marshull Space Flight Center, Huntsville, AL 35812 USA Richard L. Altstatt' and William C. Skipworth* Jacobs Engineering, Marshall Space Flight Center Group, Huntsville, AL 35812 USA The Genesis spacecraft launched on 8 August 2001 sampled solar wind environments at L1 from 2001 to 2004. After the Science Capsule door was opened, numerous foils and samples were exposed to the various solar wind environments during periods including slow solar wind from the streamer belts, fast solar wind flows from coronal holes, and coronal mass ejections. The Survey and Examination of Eroded Returned Surfaces (SEERS) program led by NASA's Space Environments and Effects program had initiated access for the space materials community to the remaining Science Capsule hardware after the science samples had been removed for evaluation of materials exposure to the space environment. This presentation will describe the process used to generate a reference radiation Genesis Radiation Environment developed for the SEERS program for use by the materials science community in their analyses of the Genesis hardware. I. Introduction ASA's Space Environments and Effects (SEE) Program initiated the Surveying and Examination of Eroded N Returned Surfaces (SEERS) Initiative in 2003. The goal of the Initiative was to provide leadership in the engineering analysis of returned flight hardware by supporting a comprehensive effort to understand environmental effects due to solar W, ionizing radiation, plasmas, neutral contamination, meteoroids, and other conditions experienced during the mission (not primary science mission objectives). -
The Mars 2001 Odyssey and the "Autogen" Process
View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by DigitalCommons@USU AUTOGEN: The Mars 2001 Odyssey and the "Autogen" Process By Roy Gladden June 6, 2002 Jet Propulsion Laboratory / California Institute of Technology Pasadena, California Abstract In many deep space and interplanetary missions, it is widely recognized that the scheduling of many commands to operate a spacecraft can follow very regular patterns. In these instances, it is greatly desired to convert the knowledge of how commands are scheduled into algorithms in order to automate the development of command sequences. In doing so, it is possible to dramatically reduce the number of people and work-hours that are required to develop a sequence. The development of the "autogen" process for the Mars 2001 Odyssey spacecraft is one implementation of this concept. It combines robust scheduling algorithms with software that is compatible with pre- existing "uplink" software, and literally reduced the duration of some sequence generation processes from weeks to minutes. This paper outlines the "autogen" tools and processes and describes how they have been implemented for the various phases of the Mars 2001 Odyssey mission. What is autogen? manually building the commands for lengthy and well- understood command sequences, efforts were made to The term "autogen" is applied in two different ways. develop software that would automatically schedule the First, "autogen," in its broadest sense, identifies a commands given certain input data. By taking the process that may be used to automatically generate knowledge for how commands were to be scheduled sequences for a spacecraft and, second, it is a Solaris and writing algorithms to replicate that knowledge, it script that has been used to facilitate this process.