Jet june Propulsion 2011 Laboratory volume 41

number 6 Aquarius to scrutinize By Mark ocean salinity Whalen

International mission due for June 9 launch from Vandenberg

AnotherInternational key piece in Earth’s missionclimate-change due puzzle is about to emerge with the June 9 launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base of forthe Aquarius June instrument,9 launch jointly from developed by JPL and Goddard Space Flight Center. The first NASA instrument to measureVandenberg ocean-surface salinity from space, Aquarius will assess the critical interactions between ocean circulation, climate and the global water cycle. A collaboration between NASA and Argentina’s space agency, Aquarius is the primary instrument aboard the international Aquarius/SAC-D observatory. SAC stands for Satelite de Applicaciones Cientificas. The observatory carries seven other instruments that will collect environmental data for a wide range of applications, including studies of natural hazards, air quality, land processes and epidemiology. Dutch Slager / JPL Photo Lab Aquarius Project Scientist Yi Chao provides a mission preview. Aquarius Project Scientist Yi Chao says the science community has hoped for the instrument’s debut for decades.

Q: WHY IS OCEAN SALINITY SO IMPORTANT TO STUDY? commercial ships, but they are very expensive, so they are the modeling community to improve climate models and Salinity and temperature determine the density of the limited to very few locations. reduce forecast uncertainty. seawater, and the weight of the seawater plays a key role About 10 years ago, autonomous uncrewed underwater in driving ocean circulation, such as water overturning in vehicles were developed to provide many different measure- Q: how will AQUARIUS DATA be USEd? a vertical direction like the gulfstream moving water from ments without being maintained by people. These devices Besides the science team competitively selected by NASA the tropics to the poles and then getting cold and sinking cost about $20,000, also pretty costly. Right now about Headquarters, the data can be employed by customers who to the bottom. That plays a key role in regulating climate, 3,000 of them are deployed in the ocean. That sounds like a will use it to make day-to-day decisions. For example, one weather and atmospheric conditions. lot, but they have to be placed hundreds of kilometers apart group we are interacting with is the National Center of Also, salinity has a key role in linking with the water in order to cover the entire globe. More importantly, certain Environmental Prediction, which produces El Niño predic- cycle. When there is rain, fresh water is dumped into the areas—such as the southern ocean around the Antarctic tions on a weekly basis for the National Oceanic and Atmo- ocean and the salinity is decreased. Near the coastal ar- continent—are difficult to access and still remain poorly spheric Administration. eas, fresh water runoff from rivers also decreases salinity, mapped. We are already thinking ahead for societal applications. as will melting ice. So, basically, salinity is an indicator We would like to speed up that process and the time period of the water cycle from our oceans to the atmosphere, to Q: SO WHERE DOES AQUARIUS COME IN? to transition from research to practical application. the rivers, to the land—and all the water eventually has to As a NASA Earth Space Science Pathfinder mission, Goddard will manage the operational phase and handle cycle through the ocean. Aquarius needs to demonstrate that this kind of technology the ground data salinity processing. Aquarius data will be Satellites can measure ocean-surface properties such as from space can be made successfully in the future—much distributed and archived by the JPL Physical Oceanograph- temperature, winds, sea level, productivity and color. Salin- like measuring sea levels with TOPEX/Poseidon led to Ja- ic Distributed Active Archive Center. ity, the variable, has been requested by the Earth science son-1, Ocean Surface Topography Mission/Jason-2 and their Q: HOW MANY JPLERS ARE ON THE TEAM? community for a long, long time to measure from space; follow-ons. There are so many people at JPL who contributed to it has been the dream in the community for at least three Because much of the ocean has never been densely Aquarius during the last decade. At the peak of the imple- decades. measured before, having routine measurements for good coverage of the globe leads us to expect the community will mentation phase, there were more than 50 people involved Q: WHY HAS IT TAKEN SO LONG? discover something interesting and new. That’s what makes at JPL from all the technical divisions. Today, about 30 The salinity signal from the ocean surface that can be this mission exciting and different. people are working on the various components of the measured from space is really, really small—sometimes We also expect to have more breakthroughs where we mission. smaller than the “noise” that contaminates any remote- see a lot of salinity signals. In the Indian Ocean, a lot of Q: PERSONALLY, YOU ARE QUITE INVESTED IN THIS sensing technique. It’s taken almost a decade to under- rain falls as part of the seasonal cycle; in the Pacific there’s QUEST. stand the principal of salinity remote-sensing, almost the El Niño phenomena. Those type of climate variabilities I was hired in 1993, a few months after the launch of another decade to understand how to improve these cor- have a signature of salinity that has not been well mapped TOPEX/Poseidon, to work on that mission, and then I rections for data retrieval, then finally another decade to before. With Aquarius, we will get a global map of salinity worked on the QuikScat scatterometer. I’m very excited put the instruments together from airplane and laboratory every seven days. participating in Aquarius from the start and seeing how tests. Also, one of the exciting questions the community wants to see answered is, after hurricanes, what happens to the JPL continues to sustain a leadership position in satellite Q: HOW HAS OCEAN SALINITY BEEN MEASURED THUS oceans? A tremendous amount of heat is lost in a hurricane oceanography. FAR? because it has an intense interaction with the ocean and We saw something interesting at JPL’s recent open The first measurements were made more than 150 years the atmosphere, resulting in a decrease of 2 or 3 degrees house. As soon as you mention climate, everybody knows. ago when people on boats collected seawater samples in a Centigrade (about 35 to 37 F) after the hurricane passes. Not too long ago, hardly anybody in the public paid atten- bucket and then measured the temperature and salinity on There should be a pretty significant salinity wake as well. tion to the topic of climate change. We explained Aquarius’ board. Now salinity is routinely measured by research or Potentially, this is another discovery we want to map. The mission as a missing piece of the climate-change puzzle, routine salinity measurements from Aquarius should enable and everybody gets it. So it’s perfect timing. 2 Open niverse U House 2011

More than 38,000 visitors attended the Lab’s annual Open House on May 14–15. The public got a final look at Mars Science Labora- tory’s Curiosity rover before it ships to Florida for its launch next fall. JPL also showed off its new Earth Science Center in Building 264. More pictures are available at http://goto/open-house. Photos by Brad Graverson

Farewell to Spirit By Franklin O’Donnell Operations end for robust rover that achieved for seven years

It was the Mars rover that lived up to its name. For Dragging the stuck wheel while driving backwards, years since landing in 2004, Spirit delivered a treasure Spirit made one of its most important science discover- chest of science findings, revealing the region it explored ies. The immobile wheel plowed up bright white soil, as a hot, violent place early in Mars’ history, with hot which proved to be nearly pure silica. springs, steam vents and volcanic explosions. As time “Spirit’s unexpected discovery of concentrated silica went by, Spirit battled problems such as a lame wheel deposits was one of the most important findings by either before becoming mired in a sand trap. More than a year rover,” said Steve Squyres of Cornell University, principal ago, it fell silent. investigator for the Mars Exploration Rovers. “It showed Since then the mission team continued trying to con- that there were once hot springs or steam vents at the tact Spirit, but after the Martian summer arrived this Spirit site, which could have provided favorable condi- year with no word from the rover, in late May they an- tions for microbial life.” This bird’s-eye view combines a self-portrait of Spirit’s spacecraft deck and a pan- nounced it was time to say goodbye to the robotic explor- After surviving a massive dust storm, in 2009 Spirit oramic mosaic of the Martian surface. Spirit captured this 360-degree panorama on er. The team ended operational planning for Spirit and became bogged down in loose sand that the mission the summit of “Husband Hill” inside Mars’ Gusev Crater in August 2005. transitioned the Mars Exploration Rover project to focus team likened to a golfer’s worst nightmare. To compound on its still-active twin, Opportunity. matters, the rover lost use of a second of its six wheels. The first of the two rovers to arrive at Mars in January Early in 2010, after efforts to free Spirit were unsuc- pomorphized Spirit, calling it “the hard-working, nothing- 2004, Spirit bounced to the surface in Gusev Crater, a cessful, mission managers announced the rover would be comes-easy rover” of the mission’s two robots, compared 166-kilometer-diameter (100-mile) dish thought to be an repurposed as a stationary science outpost. But with the with its more easy-living twin. Half a planet away, the ancient lakebed. In the year that followed, it drove 7.73 advent of Martian winter, electricity generated by Spirit’s Opportunity rover continued a four-year trek from Victo- kilometers (4.8 miles)—more than 12 times the goal solar panels dipped; by late March 2010, the rover ria Crater, an 800-meter-diameter (half-mile-wide) bowl set for the original 90-day primary mission—and sent stopped transmitting. it investigated for two years, to the much larger Endeav- to Earth more than 124,000 images. Crossing a plain “Our job was to wear these rovers out exploring, to our Crater. to reach a distant range of hills, Spirit became the first leave no unutilized capability on the surface of Mars, In addition to memorials in news reports and on op-ed robot to scale a hill on another planet when it reached and for Spirit, we have done that,” said Mars Exploration pages, Spirit garnered attention on the floor of the U.S. the summit of Husband Hill. After its right front wheel Rover Project Manager John Callas of JPL. House of Representatives when Rep. David Dreier read a became immobile in 2006, it continued to move, covering The announced end to Spirit’s mission triggered sub- statement congratulating JPL on the “tremendous suc- nearly a kilometer (more than half a mile). stantial coverage in external news media. Like the cess” of the mission. mission team and the general public, journalists anthro- 3 niverse

‘Eyes’ wide open U for discovery By Franklin O’Donnell Interactive website offers virtual tour of planets and missions

It’s May 25, 2008, and you’re parked a few like a pro in five minutes,” Ellison added. “They’re not thousand miles above Mars. As the Phoenix afraid to try things and explore.” “Eyes” is the latest product in a long career in visual- lander comes screaming into the atmosphere, ization for Hussey, who led the creation of one of the first several orbiters converge on the planet’s data flyover videos, “L.A. The Movie,” at JPL in the mid north pole to witness Phoenix’s descent. With 1980s. Hussey left the lab in the 1990s to spend eight a few clicks you hop from craft to craft to years at Disney Feature Animation, then came back to JPL in 2003. inspect them more closely. One of his first projects after returning was to produce In the real world, such feats would depend on count- visualizations for Cassini’s orbit insertion at Saturn with less tons of fuel and painstaking engineering. But explor- Richard Weidner. Two years ago, he and his team created ing the planets can be nearly effortless, thanks to a new a website called “Eyes on the Earth,” which allows users interactive JPL website. to access near-real-time data from NASA’s Earth orbiting “Eyes on the Solar System” is a newly launched inter- satellites. active website produced by JPL that lets users travel “Technology keeps moving,” said Hussey. “In the 1980s, anywhere in the solar system anytime between 1950 and visualizations required huge computers. When I look at 2050. As they go, users can turn and zoom in or out at what we did in 2004, it now looks pedestrian. Today’s will and run the clock faster or slower (or backwards) to personal computers are much more powerful than what get a close view of planets and missions. was available even a few years ago.” “Eyes on the Solar High on realism, “Eyes” uses detailed imagery of plan- System,” he said, is “a lot of NASA/JPL data put inside a etary surfaces and renderings of spacecraft to make game engine inside a web browser.” the experience as lifelike as possible. In addition to the The team is in the process of reworking “Eyes on the planets and moons, the system includes Pluto and four Earth” to take advantage of the infrastructure they cre- other dwarf planets as well as 15 asteroids and a handful ated for “Eyes on the Solar System.” They also plan to of comets. add features such as the ability to share content on so- “Essentially it’s a virtual camera that you can take any- cial networks. where in the solar system across a century,” says Kevin As their next major project, the team is looking beyond Hussey, manager of the Visualization Technology Applica- the solar system to the rapidly expanding realm of plan- Top: The Galileo orbiter passes close to Jupiter’s moon Europa during its eight years tions and Development Group that created “Eyes.” The ets orbiting other stars. Before long, don’t be surprised investigating the giant planet. Above: A small portion of the fleet of satellites keeping site is online at solarsystem.nasa.gov/eyes. to see “Eyes on the Galaxy.” an eye on our home planet, Earth. Hussey and his team spent a year developing the pack- age before releasing it in beta late in 2010. In addition to fixing bugs, they continue to add new features such as data on more missions and more space objects. Besides Hussey, the team includes technical consultant Doug Ellison, three software developers—Viet Nguyen, Paul Doronila and Anton Kulikov—as well as 3-D artist Brian Kumanchik and intern Christian Lopez. One thing they quickly found is that the site is so pow- erful that some users didn’t know what to do with it. “We had to turn stuff off—it was too complex,” said Ellison. They also added more tutorials, tours and pre-scripted flyby experiences to showcase the site’s capabilities. But “third, fourth and fifth graders get ahold of it and use it

Right: Riding along with the Voyager 2 spacecraft during its flyby of Saturn in 1981. Universe 4 Pasadena, CA91109. 4800 OakGroveDrive, of theJetPropulsionLaboratory, of CommunicationsandEducation Universe ispublishedbytheOffice READ ANDSUBMITCLASSIFIEDADS AT JPL’s online newsource [email protected] David Hinkle Audrey Steffan JPL PhotoLab Photography Production Design Mark Whalen Editor B N http://jplspace E-mail usat

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P were selected.AmyMainzerofJPL possible future missionsalso planetary vehicle funding. at $425million,notincludinglaunch- selected missionwillbecost-capped ment effortsleadinguptolaunch.The will selectonetocontinuedevelop- in 2012oftheconceptstudies,NASA analyses. Afteranotherdetailedreview phase orpreliminary designstudiesand $3 millionforitsmission’s concept manage. Goddard SpaceFlightCenterwould its changesasitinteractswiththesun. on acometmultipletimesandobserve and CometHopper, whichwouldland wouldmanagetheproject);Laboratory Saturn’s moonTitan (AppliedPhysics on alarge methane-ethaneseaon Explorer, whichwouldlandinandfloat designstudiesarenary theTitan Mare of thecore. information aboutthesizeandnature planet’s wobblethatwouldprovide pler trackingoftinyvariationsinthe interior; andradiocapabilityforDop- monitor heatflowfrom theplanet’s probe thatbeneaththesurfacewould for measuringMarsquakes;athermal threecarry experiments:Aseismometer project ifit’s selected. restrial planets.JPLwouldmanagethe of theformationandevolutionter interior andadvanceunderstanding the structure andcompositionofMars’ Monitoring Station,whichwouldstudy cipal investigatorfortheGeophysical the MarsExplorationRovers,isprin- proposal. lead anewtechnology-development will pickonepotential2016mission. science investigationsfrom whichNASA tion oftheinteriorMars,onethree would studythestructure andcomposi- preliminary designofamissionthat that JPLhasbeenselectedtopursue Discovery proposal selection proposalDiscovery selection Mars interiortobestudiedin first applicationof multi-processing. ed aseriesofmini-computerswith the developed, manufactured andmarket- puter EnterprisesinPasadena,which briefly leftJPLtofoundActionCom - deep-space navigationtechniques.He ing, determiningandimplementing tion Group, responsible forresearch- later becamemanageroftheNaviga- supercomputers, diedMay11. that evolvedintomodern-dayparallel manager wholedamajorproject David Curkendall,74,aretired Curkendall joinedJPLin1961.He Three technologydevelopmentsfor Each investigationteamwillreceive The othertwoselectedforprelimi- The proposed Marslanderwould Bruce Banerdt, project scientistfor wasalsonamedto The Laboratory NASA’s Program Discovery announced

assings Dave Curkendall - L kevin-hand. nationalgeographic.com/field/explorers/ research. award of$10,000toassistwiththeir society. Thehonorees eachreceive an trailblazers honored thisyearbythe Ices Group, young isoneof14visionary while stillearlyintheircareers. adventure andglobalproblem-solving who pushtheboundariesofdiscovery, tists, photographersandstorytellers which recognizes adventurers, scien- 2011 classofEmerging Explorers, been namedtoNationalGeographic’s condolences following thedeathofmy and ITTfortheirkindthoughtful friends andcolleaguesinIND,DSN nasa.gov. Program,covery visithttp://discovery. isprincipalinvestigator.Observatory system. TheSmithsonianAstrophysical of celestialobjectsintheoutersolar tation thatcouldleadtothediscovery validate atechniquecalledblindoccul- Whipple, whichwoulddevelopand of Texas isprincipalinvestigator);and Earth (AnitaCochranoftheUniversity objects’ role indeliveringvolatilesto composition ofacometandexplore the spectrometer tomeasure thechemical Explorer, whichwoulddevelopamass developments are thePrimitiveMaterial Earth’s orbit. derstanding ofsmallbodiesthatcross measurements toprovide abetterun- catalog ofobjectsandaccurateinfrared of Earthimpact.Itwouldgeneratea Earth objectsandstudythepresent risk study theoriginandevolutionofnear- which woulddevelopatelescopeto is principalinvestigatorforNEOCam, honors researcher Hand Hand honors researcher National Geographic Stephanie Chongatext.4-4888. Altadena. Detailsare pending.Contact be heldJune25atthefamilyhomein andcelebrationofhislifewill service to theAltadenaLibrary. Amemorial eration ofdonationsinhismemory Curkendall’s familyrequests consid- children Doni,RamsesandIvan. Dotti; sonsEricandJay;grand- 2004. mance Applications.Heretired in forParallelHigh-Perfor Laboratory Office andledtheLab’s Advanced Performance InformationTechnology multi-processing computers. the developmentofmassivelyparallel the Caltech/JPLHypercube Project, He returned totheLabin1984lead My wifeandIwouldliketothankour Curkendall is survived byhiswife, Curkendall issurvived Curkendall alsomanagedJPL’s High See Hand’s profile athttp://www. Hand, whoworksinthePlanetary JPL astrobiologist KevinHandhas For more informationabouttheDis- The othertwoselectedtechnology etters Kevin Hand

- illness, andforyourcontinuedprayers upon firstlearningofmybrother’s workers foryourthoughtsandprayers you” toallmyJPLfriendsandco- would liketoextendaheartfelt“thank Early planetaryleaderParksdies are sincerely appreciated. cards andheartfeltwords ofsympathy of myyoungersister. Your flowers, sympathy inthesorrowful departure Juno project foryourexpressions of and colleaguesatJPLonthe ficult time. helps mealottogothrough this dif- Liepack. ThesupportIreceived here at thelossofmyfather, Dr. Horst friends atJPLfortheircondolences ciated andcomforting. cards, andletterswere greatly appre- sister, JudyKeith.Theflowers,plants, flight projects before becomingJPL’s directorand asassistantlaboratory for tor forspacescienceandexploration planets. to 1977’s Voyagers 1and2totheouter was especiallyproud ofhiscontribution 1973, JPL’s Viking orbitersin1975,and Mariner 10toVenus andMercury in in 1969,Mariner9toMars1971, to Venus in1967,Mars6and7to 1966–68. lunarsoftlanderseriesin the Surveyor that photographedMarsin1965;and of Earth’s moon;theMariner4mission which produced thefirstcloseupphotos of anotherplanet;Rangers7,8and9, sion thatwasthefirstsuccessfulflyby cluding Mariner2,the1962Venus mis- responsible formanyflightprojects in- tor, diedFriday, June3.Hewas89. astheLaboratory’sserve deputydirec- JPL’s program planetary whowentonto Bob Parks with a Sergeant model, 1959. Bob ParkswithaSergeantmodel,1959. On behalfofmyselfandmyfamily, I My familyandIwishtothankfriends I wouldliketothankallofour Parks later served asassociatedirecParks laterserved - He alsoledactivitiesforMariner5 Joining JPLin1947,Parkswas Robert Parks,theearlyleaderof Wayne SibleandJoanPetersilge Oti Liepackandfamily Wafa Aldiwan R an RSVP e-mail to Gary Parks. an RSVPe-mailtoGary Those interested inattendingcansend dence ofJohnParksinCostaMesa. place onSaturday, June18attheresi- son, Rick,whopredeceased him. Colton andWesley. Parkshadanother of CostaMesa;andgrandsonsSean, Mirror Developmentproject; sonJohn, an elementmanagerontheAdvanced Phoenix Lander, andwhoiscurrently spacecraft managerfortheMars manager onHerschel/Planckand asprojectemployee whohasserved byhissonGary,is survived aJPL in CulverCitybefore joiningJPL. worked brieflyforHughesAircraft Co. he wasstationedinVienna. Parks Corps, meetinghiswife,Hanne,when intheU.S.ArmySignal he served trical engineering.From 1944to1946 1944 withabachelor’s degree inelec- graduated withhonorsfrom Caltechin 1987. deputy director in1984.Heretired in Sincerely, large JPLpresence attheservices. Our familywasquitetouchedbythe all ofyouwhoattendedtheservices. cent passingofourfather. Thanksto condolences wereceived afterthe re- and colleaguesforthesupport appreciated. basket were much beautifulandvery time inmylife.Theplantsandfruit comforting duringsuchadifficult The outpouringoflovehasbeenvery and condolencesuponhispassing. 10 years,Section2151. years, Section3818;DavidFlores, Section 172C;PatriciaHallack,13 Section 383J;PamelaRay,22years, Section 314C;RonHolm,24years, in May:NancyGrenander, 27years, We wouldliketothankourfriends The followingJPLemployeesretired Acelebrationofhislifewilltake Inadditiontohiswidow, Parks Born inLosAngeles1922,Parks etirees Scott andSteveFlores Roberta Martin

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