Good-bye Opportunity

About three weeks ago I wrote about the Curiosity Rover that has been functioning on Mars for six and a half years. Today we say farewell to the Opportunity Rover (2004 – 2018) which was formally pronounced dead at a news conference yesterday. Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator of the Science Mission Directorate, said, "I'm standing here with a sense of deep appreciation and gratitude to declare the Opportunity mission as complete, and with it, the Mars Exploration Rover mission as complete."[1]

What a run this little rover had. NASA has a webpage[2]dedicated to the travels and images of this rover from more than fourteen years of roving. It was last heard from on June 10, 2018 when a dust storm caused it to begin to lose the ability to harvest electricity from the sun. Yesterday’s announcement emphasised the technological triumph of this rover staying active far beyond the days of its original 90-Martian-day (90 sols) mission.[3]Of course NASA’s Curiosity Rover is still expected to continue sending back data for the foreseeable future and NASA has plans for a Red Planet: Mars 2020 mission that includes another rover.

So, this Valentine’s Day, we send our love to Oppy, the little Rover who gave us so much more than we asked. We look forward to the next series of explorations of the Martian landscape.

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[1]https://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/mars-opportunity-rover-dead-1.5018038

[2]https://mars.nasa.gov/mer/mission/tm-opportunity-all.html

[3]https://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/mars-opportunity-rover-dead-1.5018038

A Robotic Spacecraft Dies

This week was supposed to be a week of good news for the Schiaparelli lander. It was expected that by this time, the Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) would be relaying information from Schiaparelli to Earth and science experiments would be about to begin on the surface of Mars. The European Space Agency (ESA) did have success in inserting the TGO into orbit around Mars but Schiaparelli did not fare so well. Evidence points to a crash landing on Mars. ESA lost contact with the Schiaparelli craft shortly after its entry into the Martian atmosphere on October 19. ESA believes that two of three phases of the landing succeeded but that something went wrong with the third and final stage of the complex landing procedure.

Phase one of the landing was a controlled air-braking procedure in which a heat-shield allowed Schiaparelli to use the atmosphere to slow the craft and achieve a height of 10 km above the surface of the planet. Next, a 12-meter diameter parachute slowed the craft further, taking Schiaparelli to 1 km above Mars. The final phase of landing was to be a controlled burn of 9 hydrazine rockets which would fire for approximately 30 seconds and bring the craft to 2 meters above the surface, then shut-off and allow Schiaparelli to drop the last 2 meters to the surface with a relatively gentle impact.

What seems clear from the evidence gathered so far is that the hydrazine rockets fired early and did not fire long enough to allow Schiaparelli to slow to zero velocity at 2 meters above the surface. Instead, it is believed that the space-craft fell more than 2 km and landed with a velocity greater than 300 km/hr, crushing the delicate craft and perhaps causing it to explode upon impact. Images of the landing site, taken by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (a NASA orbiter), show both the parachute and Schiaparelli on the surface with a larger than anticipated impact site for the spacecraft.

Meanwhile, the TGO is in its expected orbit around Mars and will go through a series of maneuvers in early 2017 to bring it into a low Mars orbit where it will begin its science missions. TGO will analyse the atmosphere of the planet looking for methane that may have been generated by life on the planet in some stage of its history. Methane could be an indicator of methane-producing bacteria that may have once thrived in water on the Martian surface thousands of years ago.

Despite the set-back of a crash landing, ESA will continue to work towards putting a rover on Mars in the year 2020. We look forward to much more Martian exploration in the years to come.

Schiaparelli

(Click on this thumbnail picture for a larger image.)

This week in solar system navigation, the Schiaparelli Lander was given the necessary software to allow it to land on Mars. Descent and soft touchdown on Mars will be guided by the commands that were uploaded on October 7^th.  The fact that such commands can be transmitted and incorporated into an on-board computer, more than 150 million km (9 light minutes) from Earth is a feat in itself. (Man, I would not want to pay those data roaming fees!) At the time, Schiaparelli and its parent vehicle, the Trace Gas Orbiter, were conjoined and enroute to the Red Planet. Together, these two spacecraft are part of the European Space Agency’s (ESA) ExoMars mission. Schiaparelli is scheduled to land on Mars on October 19 at 8:40 am MDT, while the Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) will insert itself into orbit around Mars and relay information from the lander. The TGO will also have several science instruments on board with which it will analyze the thin atmosphere of the planet and will play a role in relaying data from other landing missions including a 2020 ESA Rover.

ESA is inviting media outlets to follow the progress of this mission including separation of the two vehicles on October 16^th, Schiaparelli landing on the 19^th, and summary on October 20^th. The media announcement can be seen here. Watch for more exciting news in the days to come, but for now you can watch an animation of the landing on the same media webpage.

ExoMars

ExoMars is a "Programme to investigate the Martian environment and to demonstrate new technologies paving the way for future Mars sample return missions."[1] The European Space Agency successfully launched their two craft on March 14 on a Russian Proton M rocket and has received signals indicating that the launch was successful. The two craft will continue to travel together for the next seven months and will then separate for two unique tasks shortly before arrival at Mars. The orbiter will measure trace gasses in the Martian atmosphere and will particularly look for gasses such as methane that could be evidence of life on the red planet. The orbiter will also seek to identify the source of these gasses.

Three days before orbit insertion, the two space-craft will separate allowing the Schiaparelli lander to aerobrake, deploy a parachute, use its heatshields, and land in the Meridiani Planum. This area is known to contain "hematite, an iron oxide that, on Earth, almost always forms in an environment containing liquid water."[2]

The Meridiani Planum region is significant because it has been explored by the Opportunity Rover[3] and a good deal of information about potential locations of water and minerals has been determined. If significant amounts of water can be located, it may be possible to use that water to generate electricity and rocket-fuel so that a spacecraft might make a return voyage. To this point, all missions to Mars have been one-way trips. This is what ESA means when they say that this mission could “pave the way for future Mars sample return missions.” ESA, NASA, SpaceX, and the entire scientific community will be watching this mission for the next several months.

Works Cited:

ESA: Robotic Exploration of Mars; “ExoMars.”

Science News, March 11, 2016

Wikipedia, “Meridiani Planum.”

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[1] Science News, March 11, 2016; "ExoMars Mission to Search for Signs of Life on the Red Planet"; accessed 2016-03-16; https://www.sciencenews.org/blog/science-ticker/exomars-mission-search-signs-life-red-planet?tgt=nr

[2] ESA: Robotic Exploration of Mars; “ExoMars”; accessed 2016-03-16; http://exploration.esa.int/mars/47852-entry-descent-and-landing-demonstrator-module/

[3] Wikipedia, “Meridiani Planum,” accessed 2016-03-16; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meridiani_Planum

The Dance of the Planets

 (Photo credit: Universe Today)

I have continued to enjoy the movements of Venus, Jupiter, and Mars. This particular conjunction of planets has now inspired my imagination for several weeks. Each morning I look to the east around five or six am to see if it is clear enough to see this amazing display. The relative arrangement of the three planets and the bright star, Regulus, are slightly different each day and change from hour to hour. The rate at which each one rises in the morning is dependent not only on the spin of our earth but also the movement of the planets in their orbits relative to earth’s position in her orbit around the sun. I am intrigued each day to see where each planet appears relative to the others. I am always amazed by the slightly red hue of Mars as seen from earth. This red colour is thought to be caused by the scattering of red photons in the atmosphere of Mars. The soil of Mars contains much iron that turns to a rusty red colour due to oxidation and the dust of this red iron is kicked up into her atmosphere by surface winds.

I can see why the Psalmist was inspired to write poetry about his observations of the night sky. May we never lose our sense of awe about the planets and stars.

Psalm 8 (NLT)

For the choir director: A psalm of David, to be accompanied by a stringed instrument.

¹ O Lord, our Lord, your majestic name fills the earth!
    Your glory is higher than the heavens.
² You have taught children and infants
    to tell of your strength,
silencing your enemies
    and all who oppose you.

³ When I look at the night sky and see the work of your fingers—
    the moon and the stars you set in place—
⁴ what are mere mortals that you should think about them,
    human beings that you should care for them?
⁵ Yet you made them only a little lower than God
    and crowned them with glory and honor.
⁶ You gave them charge of everything you made,
    putting all things under their authority—
⁷ the flocks and the herds
    and all the wild animals,
⁸ the birds in the sky, the fish in the sea,
    and everything that swims the ocean currents.

⁹ O Lord, our Lord, your majestic name fills the earth!

(Photo credit: Universe Today)

Venetian Dreams

The popular press has, in recent years, written much about the planet Mars, but very little about Venus. This is to be expected since Mars is the planet of greatest focus for the major space programs of the world. Four planetary rovers have traversed various portions of the Martian surface,1 orbital spacecraft have mapped the surface in great detail, and visionary pioneers have made it their goal to put colonies of humans on Mars.

Yet we should not so quickly ignore the beauty and mystery of Venus. Certainly it would be much more difficult to colonize; yet, as a destination for research and exploration, it is still intriguing. Venus has been compared to our own Earth in a number of ways. Venus has a radius of 6,052 km while Earth has a radius of 6,371 km. Venus has a mass that is 81% of that of Earth. Both are relatively close to our sun. Venus, on average is 108 million km from the sun, while Earth averages 150 million km.2 At their closest, Earth and Venus are only 26 million km apart. Compare this to Earth and Mars that are 34 million km apart at their closest. Due to the elliptical orbits of all three planets, these distances vary widely and there are moments when Earth is closer to Mars than to Venus.3

So, why would it be more difficult to colonize Venus? The answer lies in the thick atmosphere of the planet. Most people recognize that the earth has a greenhouse gas problem, but Venus is the queen of carbon dioxide. Her atmosphere - and yes, the planet has been referred to as feminine ever since it was named after the Greek goddess of beauty - is 96% CO2 and the atmospheric pressure on the surface is 92 times that of our own atmosphere at sea level. That is equivalent to the pressures experienced at a depth of 3000 ft in our own ocean. Spacesuits would not be sufficient to the task; we would need a submarine or bathysphere to be comfortable on the Venetian soil. Even space vehicles built to contemporary standards would be crushed on the surface of this planet. Then there is the heat; the average temperature on Venus is 460 degrees Celsius. For comparison, the average temperature on Earth is 14 degrees, on Mars it is minus 55 degrees, and on Mercury it is 167 degrees Celsius. Venus is our solar system’s hottest planet. All water has long since boiled away and humans would need a lot of air-conditioning to last any length of time on the surface.

Airship colonization has been suggested as one possible way to live on Venus.4 Thirty miles above the surface, the air pressure is one Earth atmosphere. Thus, lighter-than-air balloons might function as research vessels on this planet. Such machines would still need to be well insulated against heat and impervious to high concentrations of sulphuric acid that probably exist at this level in the Venetian atmosphere.5 With a Venetian axis rotation that lasts 243 Earth days, a counter-clockwise rotation around its axis (Uranus is the only other planet in our solar system with a retrograde rotation), a day relative to the sun that is 117 Earth days long, and no moon, it would be a fascinating place to live.6

1.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_rover
2. http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Science/Venus_Express/Venus_compared_to_Earth
3. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venus
4. http://qz.com/317243/nasa-scientists-want-to-colonize-venus-with-giant-floating-cities/
5. http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Science/Venus_Express/Acid_clouds_and_lightning
6. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venus

Dare Mighty Things

"Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs even though checkered by failure, than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much because they live in the gray twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat." - Theodore Roosevelt, 26th president of US (1858 - 1919)

"Dare mighty things" is a slogan used extensively by NASA in promotional videos for the Curiosity Rover landing on August 5, 2012. I tuned into NASA TV 1 last night to watch the entire sequence of events from the vehicle's approach to Mars, through entry into the atmosphere, parachute deployment, rocket pack maneuvers, sky crane operation, landing on the surface, and finally, first pictures back after Curiosity oriented herself on the surface of Mars. It was an extraordinary event and it was amazing to watch the optimism, tension, fear, elation, victory, celebration, and tears of the men and women in the Jet Propulsion Lab at the California Institute of Technology. This was the culmination of an eight year project to get this rover to Mars. Everything hinged on a complicated landing system that would safely deposit the rover on the Martian ground so that the real science of analyzing the surface of Mars could begin.

And they did it! I must admit to having a few doubts as I saw how complicated the landing system was. Yes, it was the engineering solution that ultimately made the most sense; but there were just so many things that could go wrong. Yet these amazing professionals worked as a team to put an SUV sized vehicle on a planet millions of kilometers away.2

There are plenty of take-away messages from ventures like this. Perhaps we could incorporate the "dare mighty things" into a lot more of our life. What could be accomplished by working together in teams? How can we use the mighty deeds accomplished by this team to inspire us in our work lives, our families, our churches, our communities, and our country? What indeed are we capable of accomplishing? What mighty things are sitting on the shelf in our own lives waiting for us to dare to accomplish them? Today, while there is still time, dare mighty things!


1. http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/index.html
2. The earth and Mars are 55 million to 400 million kilometers apart depending on where they are each at in their orbits (http://www.universetoday.com/14824/distance-from-earth-to-mars/)