Front Page / Titelseite

‘It’s Going to Be Historic’: New Horizons Team Prepares for Epic Flyby of Ultima Thule

In less than 10 weeks, NASA’s New Horizons mission will explore the most distant target ever visited by a spacecraft. In the early-morning hours of Jan. 1, 2019, New Horizons will ring in the New Year by flying past the Kuiper Belt object (KBO) officially called 2014 MU69 but nicknamed Ultima Thule, a city-size rock regarded as a frozen relic from the birth of the solar system. Although scientists have a rough size estimate for Ultima Thule — about 23 miles (37 kilometers) wide — they don’t have much more information. They aren’t sure if it’s elongated, if it has a moon or ring system or even if it’s a single object. Indeed, some of the very limited observations of Ultima Thule suggest it might actually be two close-orbiting bodies. [NASA’s New Horizons Mission in Pictures]

Sojus Fehlstart / Soyuz launch failure

Russian official says Soyuz rocket failure caused by an errant sensor

Although the official report on the cause of a Soyuz rocket failure won’t be released until Thursday, a Russian official disclosed its central conclusion a day early, the country’s news agency TASS reports. Sergei Krikalev, the executive director of “manned programs” for Russia’s space corporation Roscosmos, said a sensor on board the rocket failed to properly signal the separation of the first and second stages. As a result, one of the side-mounted rocket boosters did not separate properly from the vehicle and collided with the rocket.

via arstechnica https://arstechnica.com/ October 31, 2018 at 18:50PM

Krikaljow: Sensorschaden war Ursache für Sojus MS-10-Absturz

Die Ursache für den Absturz des Raumschiffes Sojus MS-10 vom 11. Oktober steht nun amtlich fest. Ein defekter Sensor, der die Abtrennung der ersten von der zweiten Sojus-FG-Raketenstufe signalisiert, habe zu dem Fehlstart geführt, teilte der Amtierende Direktor für die bemannten Programme des Raumfahrtstaatskonzerns GK Roskosmos, Sergej Krikaljow, am Mittwoch auf einer Festveranstaltung zum 55. Jahrestag des Moskauer Instituts für Medizinisch-Biologische Probleme (IMBP) mit.

Havarie-Kommission gibt am 31. Oktober die Ursachen des Sojus MS-10-Fehlstarts bekannt

Offenbar sind die Ursachen des Fehlstarts des Sojus MS-10-Raumschiffes vom 11. Oktober geklärt. Die Havarie-Kommission unter Leitung von Oleg Skorobogatow werde ihre Untersuchungsergebnisse am kommenden Mittwoch bekannt geben, melden Moskauer Medien.

Defekter Sensor verursachte Fehlstart von Sojus-Rakete

Ein defekter Sensor hat nach vorläufigen russischen Angaben den Fehlstart der bemannten Sojus-Rakete am 11. Oktober verursacht. Das sagte der Leiter der bemannten russischen Raumfahrt, Ex-Kosmonaut Sergej Krikaljow, in Moskau. Deshalb habe es Probleme bei der Trennung der ersten von der zweiten Raketenstufe gegeben, erklärte er.

Defekter Sensor: Absturzursache für Sojus-Absturz ermittelt

Ein defekter Sensor habe nach vorläufigen russischen Angaben den Fehlstart der bemannten Sojus-Rakete am 11. Oktober verursacht. Das sagte der Leiter der bemannten russischen Raumfahrt, Ex-Kosmonaut Sergej Krikaljow, am Mittwoch nach Berichten der russischen Medienagentur Sputnik. Krikaljow trat in Moskau bei einer Festveranstaltung des russischen Instituts für medizinisch-biologische Probleme auf.

Neuer Aufbruch zum Mond – Erstes Servicemodul für das Orion-Raumschiff ist fertig

Bis heute waren zwölf Menschen auf dem Mond – allesamt NASA-Astronauten, die sich im Rahmen des Apollo-Programms der amerikanischen Raumfahrtbehörde zwischen 1969 und 1972 auf diese beispiellose Reise gemacht haben. Am 21. Juli 2019 jährt sich die erste Mondlandung zum 50. Mal, seit dem 14. Dezember 1972 hat kein Erdenbürger mehr den Erdtrabanten betreten. Das könnte sich in absehbarer Zukunft ändern: Die NASA möchte mit ihrem Orion-Programm ein Raumschiff entwickeln und bauen, das für unterschiedlichste Zwecke im Erd-, Mond- oder auch Marsorbit eingesetzt werden kann. Das sogenannte MPCV (Multi-Purpose-Crew-Vehicle) soll erstmals 2020 vom Kennedy Space Center in Florida mit dem Space Launch System SLS, der neuen Schwerlastrakete der NASA, zu einem unbemannten Flug starten, den Mond mehrfach umrunden und anschließend wieder zur Erde zurückkehren. Ein zentraler Teil aller Orion-Raumschiffe ist das Europäische Servicemodul ESM, das im Auftrag der NASA von der Europäischen Weltraumagentur ESA zu wesentlichen Teilen in Deutschland gebaut wird. Ohne das ESM kann das neue Crew-Raumschiff Orion nicht fliegen.

Tschüss Europa, hallo Mond!

Das europäische Servicemodul (ESM), das dem Orion-Raumschiff auf seiner ersten Mission um den Mond Energie und Schub geben wird, tritt Anfang nächster Woche in Bremen seine Reise in Richtung USA an. An Bord des großen Transportflugzeugs Antonov An-124 wird es am frühen Morgen des 5. November starten und am 6. November im Kennedy Space Center in Florida ankommen.

Entwickelt und gebaut in Deutschland und Italien, ist das ESM der europäische Beitrag zur Rückkehr zum Mond.

Rekord: So nah war noch keine Sonde an der Sonne – SPIEGEL ONLINE – Wissenschaft

Die Nasa-Sonde “Parker Solar Probe” hat einen neuen Rekord aufgestellt. Kein Raumfahrzeug kam der Sonne bisher näher. Und in den kommenden Tagen wird es noch heißer für das Nasa-Gerät.

A NASA Spacecraft Just Broke the Record for Closest Approach to Sun

A NASA sun-studying spacecraft just entered the record books. In April of 1976, the German-American Helios 2 probe made spaceflight’s closest-ever solar approach, cruising within 26.55 million miles (42.73 million kilometers) of the sun. But NASA’s Parker Solar Probe zoomed inside that distance today (Oct. 29), crossing the threshold at about 1:04 p.m. EDT (1704 GMT), agency officials said.

Hubble working again / Hubble arbeitet wieder

“Hubble”: Weltraumteleskop arbeitet laut Nasa wieder

Wochenlang schlummerte “Hubble” im Notfallmodus, nun hat das Weltraumteleskop seine Arbeit wieder aufgenommen – und beobachtet eine Galaxie.

Hubble Space Telescope returns to science operations

The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope returned to normal operations late Friday, 26 October, and completed its first science observations on Saturday, 27 October. The observations were of the distant, star-forming galaxy DSF2237B-1-IR and were taken in infrared wavelengths with the Wide Field Camera 3. The return to conducting science comes after successfully recovering a backup gyroscope that had replaced a failed one three weeks earlier.

Hubble Space Telescope Returns to Action After Gyroscope Glitch

The Hubble Space Telescope is back. The iconic scope resumed normal operations Friday (Oct. 26) after a three-week hiatus caused by issues with two orientation-maintaining gyroscopes, NASA officials announced in an update Saturday (Oct. 27).

Hubble Space Telescope Update

The mission engineers and scientists for the Hubble Space Telescope have been working to correct some technical issues with the gyros that point the venerable space telescope. Hubble went into safe mode a couple of weeks ago and now seems to be back to resuming normal operations. Join Tony Darnell and Carol Christian as they discuss what happened with Hubble, how the problems were discovered and a fix found. We’ll also explore other topics related to Hubble, such as, how much longer will it be around? Will Hubble last long enough to overlap JWST?

See video… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_qhaNjlAS-U

via – October 27, 2018 at 06:44PM

NASA’s Planet Hunter Kepler / NASAs Planetenjäger Kepler

Number of Habitable Exoplanets Found by NASA’s Kepler May Not Be So High After All

The tally of potentially habitable alien planets may have to be revised downward a bit. To date, NASA’s prolific Kepler space telescope has discovered about 30 roughly Earth-size exoplanets in their host stars’ “habitable zone” — the range of orbital distances at which liquid water can likely exist on a world’s surface. Or so researchers had thought. New observations by the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Gaia spacecraft suggest that the actual number is probably significantly smaller — perhaps between two and 12, NASA officials said today (Oct. 26). [Photos: Gaia Spacecraft to Map Milky Way Galaxy]

NASA Retires Kepler Space Telescope, Passes Planet-Hunting Torch

After nine years in deep space collecting data that indicate our sky to be filled with billions of hidden planets – more planets even than stars – NASA’s Kepler space telescope has run out of fuel needed for further science operations. NASA has decided to retire the spacecraft within its current, safe orbit, away from Earth. Kepler leaves a legacy of more than 2,600 planet discoveries from outside our solar system, many of which could be promising places for life.

Top Science Results from the Kepler Mission

Planets outnumber stars.

Kepler has proven there are more planets than stars in our galaxy — and knowing that revolutionizes our understanding of our place in the cosmos.

Small planets are common.

Kepler has shown us our galaxy is teeming with terrestrial-size worlds, and many of them may be similar to Earth in size and distance from their parent stars. The most recent analysis of Kepler’s discoveries concludes that 20 to 50 percent of the stars in the sky are likely to have small, possibly rocky planets that are in the habitable zones of their stars where liquid water could pool on the surface. We still have much to learn about whether any of them could host life.

Kepler By the Numbers – Mission Statistics

NASA’s First Planet Hunter, the Kepler Space Telescope: 2009-2018

NASA’s Kepler space telescope spent nine years in space, collecting an unprecedented dataset for science that has revolutionized our understanding of our place in the cosmos. It found our galaxy teeming with planets — more planets even than the stars — and stunned the world with many other first-of-a-kind discoveries. Profoundly, Kepler found planets that are in some ways similar to Earth, raising the prospects for life elsewhere. What did it take to lift a mission of this magnitude off the ground and keep it going? Here is a walkthrough the odyssey of the Kepler mission — from the earliest kernel of an idea, through its obstacles and into its most stunning moments of discovery and success. As NASA’s first planet-hunting mission, Kepler’s legacy will live on for generations.

RIP, Kepler: NASA’s Revolutionary Planet-Hunting Telescope Runs Out of Fuel

The most prolific planet-hunting machine in history has signed off. NASA’s Kepler space telescope, which has discovered 70 percent of the 3,800 confirmed alien worlds to date, has run out of fuel, agency officials announced today (Oct. 30). Kepler can no longer reorient itself to study cosmic objects or beam its data home to Earth, so the legendary instrument’s in-space work is done after nearly a decade.

Kepler Planet Hunting Mission Ends

“After nine years in deep space collecting data that indicate our sky to be filled with billions of hidden planets – more planets even than stars – NASA’s Kepler space telescope has run out of fuel needed for further science operations.”

Feature – ISS Horizions Mission Alexander Gerst

Horizons’ is the name of ESA astronaut Alexander Gerst’s second mission to the International Space Station.
The mission name evokes exploring our Universe, looking far beyond our planet and broadening our knowledge. Alexander would also like to make people realise that there is always a chance to go beyond their personal horizons. Alexander will be launched on 6 June with US astronaut Serena Auñón-Chancellor and Russian cosmonaut Sergei Prokopyev from the Baikonur cosmodrome, Kazakhstan in the Soyuz MS-09 spacecraft.
Alexander will take over command of the International Space Station for the second half of his mission. Alexander Gerst is the 11th German citizen to fly into space. The astronaut is now in the last stages of training for his challenging spaceflight. The science programme is packed with European research: more than 50 experiments will deliver benefits to people back on Earth and prepare for future space exploration.

“Horizons” – die neue Mission von Alexander Gerst

“Horizons” – so heißt die nächste Mission des deutschen ESA-Astronauten Alexander Gerst. Anfang Juni 2018 soll der 41-jährige Geophysiker mit der Expedition 56/57 seine zweite “Forschungsreise” zur Internationalen Raumstation ISS antreten. Gerst wird nach dem Belgier Frank de Winne der zweite Europäer sein, der als Kommandant auf der ISS eingesetzt wird. Knapp fünf Monate – bis Ende Oktober 2018 – soll Gerst in knapp 400 Kilometern Höhe unterwegs sein. Der englische Name der Mission, Horizons, symbolisiert dabei die Neugier und Faszination, Unbekanntes zu entdecken und zu erforschen.

Alexander Gerst: als Kommandant auf die ISS

Podcast auf Omega Tau. Dort wird über die Aufgaben des Kommandanten, über die Ausbildung zum Astronaut generell und zum Kommandant im Speziellen, sowie über wissenschaftliche Experimente auf der ISS gesprochen. Natürlich kommen auch seine Eindrücke während seines früheren Fluges 2014 zur Sprache.

41 Experimente des Alexander Gerst sind “made in Germany”

Wie kann Künstliche Intelligenz (KI) den Astronauten bei ihrem Job im All helfen und was lernen wir für die Anwendung auf der Erde daraus? Wie verhalten sich lebende Zellen in Schwerelosigkeit? Was macht der Aufenthalt im All mit unserem Immunsystem? Wie lassen sich aus Schmelzprozessen auf der ISS die industriellen Gießprozesse auf der Erde verbessern? Was können wir vom Wanderverhalten der Tiere über den Klimawandel lernen? Diese und viele weitere wissenschaftlich und gesellschaftlich relevante Fragen sollen auf der Internationalen Raumstation ISS in 41 deutschen Experimenten beantwortet werden, die das Deutsche Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt (DLR) für die nächste Mission von Alexander Gerst zur ISS – “horizons – Wissen für Morgen”- koordiniert und steuert.

Die Maus im Weltall – Die Seite mit der Maus

Am 06. Juni 2018 pünktlich um 13:12 Uhr ist unser Maustronaut Alexander Gerst zusammen mit der Maus zu seiner zweiten Mission ins Weltall gestartet. Sechs Monate wird er auf der Internationalen Raumstation ISS verbringen, drei Monate lang sogar als Kommandant. Die neue Mission trägt den Titel “Horizons”, das ist englisch und bedeutet “Horizonte”. Denn Alexander will herausfinden, was sich hinter dem Horizont verbirgt – und Maus und Elefant werden ihn dabei begleiten.

Das ist jetzt die Crew auf der ISS: In der hinteren Reihe schweben die Astronauten Oleg Artjemjew, Andrew Feustel, Richard Arnold und die Maus. Vorne siehst du Sergej Prokopjew, Alexander Gerst und Serena Auñón-Chancellor. Auf dem Foto hinter der Crew ist der russische Ingenieur Sergei Koroljow zu erkennen, der ein großer Weltraumpionier war.

Further news / Weitere Nachrichten – Alexander Gerst

This week in science – delivering the data

There is lots to do when you are low on crew, but the trio on board the International Space Station has science down to a fine art. Join us as we delve into the week that was 22-26 October in this wrap-up of ESA astronaut Alexander Gerst’s activities on board.

#WorldCitiesDay – Urban areas from space

ON WORLD CITIES DAY 2018 WE TAKE A LOOK AT SOME OF THE URBAN AREAS ALEXANDER GERST HAS PHOTOGRAPHED FROM HIS UNIQUE VANTAGE POINT ON BOARD THE INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION.

Feature – NASA’s Insight Mars Lander

Homepage – NASA’s Insight Mars Lander

BR News – Einblick in das Innerste des Mars

Noch ist der NASA-Lander Insight auf dem Weg zum Mars. Ende November soll er dort ankommen und darauf Platz nehmen. Dieses Rendezvous wird dem Roten Planeten tatsächlich unter die Haut gehen. Die NASA ist dem Mars bereits mehrfach zu Leibe gerückt – unter anderem mit den Rovern Opportunity und Curiosity sowie den Sonden Odyssey, MRO und Maven. Am 5. Mai 2018 wurde der stationäre Lander InSight (Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport) zum Schnüffeln losgeschickt. InSight startete mithilfe einer rund 57 Meter großen Atlas-V-401-Rakete von der Vandenberg Air Force Basis in Kalifornien und soll am 26. November auf dem Roten Planeten ankommen. Dann wird der Lander für rund zwei Jahre zum geduldigen Spürhund.

Nasa’s InSight mission will target ‘Marsquakes’

InSight will be the first probe to focus its investigations predominantly on the interior of the Red Planet. The lander – due to touch down in November – will put seismometers on the surface to feel for “Marsquakes”. These tremors should reveal how the underground rock is layered – data that can be compared with Earth to shed further light on the formation of the planets 4.6 billion years ago. “As seismic waves travel through [Mars] they pick up information along the way; as they travel through different rocks,” explained Dr Bruce Banerdt, InSight’s principal investigator. “And all those wiggles you see on seismograms – scientists understand how to pull that information out. After we’ve gotten many, many Marsquakes from different directions, we can put together a three dimensional view of the inside of Mars.”

Media resources | InSight

Homepage – InSight Media Resources

Further news / Weitere Nachrichten – Insight

1 Month to Mars! NASA’s InSight Lander Nearing Red Planet Touchdown

One month from today, Mars will welcome a new robotic resident that seeks to probe the planet’s innards. NASA’s InSight lander is scheduled to touch down just north of the Martian equator on the afternoon of Nov. 26, bringing a nearly seven-month space trek to an end. InSight launched, along with the two tiny Mars Cube One (MarCO) cubesats, atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket from California’s Vandenberg Air Force Base on May 5.

Podcast: On a Mission

NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory presents “On a Mission,” a new podcast that explores a single mission to outer space. Season 1, which launches October 29, is all about the InSight mission to Mars.

International Spacestation (ISS)

Will Russia Launch Astronauts to the ISS in December?

Bridenstine: “‘We have a really, really good idea of what the issue is’ and there will be a ‘number of Soyuz launches in the next month and a half’ before a launch with a crew. He called it the ‘most successful failed launch we could have imagined.'”

Astronaut to Ride on Next Crewed Soyuz Has Confidence in Russian Space Tech

Canadian astronaut David Saint-Jacques — who witnessed the aborted launch of Expedition 57 two weeks ago in Baikonur, Kazakhstan, and is next on the list to fly on a Soyuz — says he is more confident than ever in the Russian technology that carries astronauts to the International Space Station.

Plant Science and Solar Array Photos as Station Nears Milestone

Botany science and solar array photography were on the Expedition 57 crew’s schedule today including ongoing maintenance of the orbital lab. The research and photo surveys help scientists and engineers understand how life and International Space Station systems adapt to microgravity.

Space Station-Bound Cargo Ship Named for Moonwalker John Young

NASA’s first astronaut to fly six times into space (seven, if you count his launch off the moon) and command four different types of spacecraft will add one more vehicle to his credit, if only in name.

Spacesuits and High-Temp, Fire Science Focus of Crew Today

U.S. spacesuits and hot, fiery research kept the Expedition 57 crew busy Friday. The three-member crew from around the world also continued the ongoing upkeep of the International Space Station’s systems. A pair of spacesuits inside the Quest airlock had their cooling loops scrubbed today by station Commander Alexander Gerst of ESA (European Space Agency). The suit maintenance comes ahead of a pair of spacewalks being planned to connect new lithium-ion batteries on the space station’s port truss structure.

Crew Studies How Space Impacts Brain and Perception

A pair of Expedition 57 astronauts spent the day exploring how humans think and work while living long-term in space. A cosmonaut also tested a pair of tiny, free-floating satellites operating inside the International Space Station. NASA astronaut Serena Auñón-Chancellor is helping doctors on the ground understand if an astronaut’s brain structure and mental abilities change in space. She took part in a behavioral assessment test today that involves the mental imaging of rotating objects, target accuracy during motion or stillness and concentrating on two tasks at the same time. The NeuroMapping experiment, which has been ongoing since 2014, is exploring an astronaut’s neuro-cognitive abilities before, during and after a spaceflight.

Earth / Erde

Kyoto und Osaka

Der Satellit Copernicus Sentinel-2B zeigt uns Kyoto und Osaka, beide Großstädte mit 1,5 bzw. 2,7 Millionen Einwohnern in Japan, in einem atemberaubenden Falschfarbenbild. Die beiden Städte sind natürlich wesentlich kleiner als die Landeshauptstadt Tokio, die mit etwa 38 Millionen Einwohnern eine der größten Metropolen der Welt ist.

China startet erfolgreich Ozean-Satelliten CFOSat

China hat am Montag den chinesisch-französischen ozeanografischen Satelliten CFOSat (China-France Oceanography Satellite) gestartet.

Solar System / Sonnensystem

NASA to Soon End Active Efforts to Restore Contact with Opportunity

NASA expects to soon end efforts to contact the Opportunity Mars rover, silent for more than four months after a major dust storm, but will continue to listen for signals from the spacecraft for months to come. Opportunity, which has been on Mars since January 2004, last contacted Earth June 10. A powerful globe-spanning dust storm blocked the sun and deprived the rover of solar power, putting it into a low-power mode.

NASA Will Keep Trying to Revive the Silent Mars Rover Opportunity Through January

The clock hasn’t run out on NASA’s Opportunity Mars rover after all. On Sept. 11, NASA began a 45-day “active listening” campaign in an attempt to rouse the solar-powered Opportunity, which went silent on June 10 after a raging dust storm plunged its environs into darkness. The 45-day deadline passed late last week. But NASA will continue active listening — a strategy that involves both sending commands to Opportunity and listening for any peeps the six-wheeled robot may make — for several more months at least, agency officials announced yesterday (Oct. 29). [Mars Dust Storm 2018: What It Means for Opportunity Rover]

Hayabusa2 Braces for a Rocky Landing on Asteroid Ryugu

Japan’s Hayabusa2 spacecraft is getting ready to touch down on asteroid Ryugu, where it will scoop a sample of the asteroid’s rocky surface that will eventually be sent back to Earth. After narrowing down the possible landing sites for Hayabusa2, mission scientists performed a sampling rehearsal on Wednesday (Oct. 24) at 10:47 p.m. EST (0247 GMT on Oct. 25), and the mission is “ramping up the steps toward a successful touchdown,” Masaki Fujimoto of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) said at a news conference here at the 50th meeting of the American Astronomical Society’s Division for Planetary Sciences (DPS).

BepiColombo

BepiColombo goes array

Soon after launch, the two 15 metre-long solar arrays of the BepiColombo Mercury Transfer Module (MTM) were pointed straight at the Sun to maximise the amount of power obtained, as is common practice for spacecraft powered by solar energy. On Saturday 27 October, a week after launch, the solar arrays were rotated to a position off-pointed by 54 degrees with a rotation rate of about 0.5 degrees per second.

BepiColombo erkundet die Geheimnisse des Merkurs

Der Merkur ist einer der seltsamsten Planete in unserem Sonnensystem. Um die Geheimnisse des der Sonne am nächsten stehenden Planeten zu erkunden, ist Raumsonde der europäisch-japanischen Mission BepiColombo ist bereits unterwegs.

Die bisher besten Bilder des Merkur stammen von der NASA-Mission MESSENGER. Sie zeigen einen mit Kratern übersäten Planeten mit rätselhaften Merkmalen auf seiner Oberfläche.

Messung des Magnetfelds

Der 2,5 m lange Arm mit den Magnetometersensoren an Bord von BepiColombo Mercury Planetary Orbiter (MPO) wurde erfolgreich ausgeklappt und die Sensoren sind jetzt bereit, das Magnetfeld des Sonnenwinds auf dem Weg zum Merkur zu messen. Das Ausfahren des Magnetometerarms an Bord des MPO nahm etwa eine Minute in Anspruch und wurde in einer Reihe von Bildern festgehalten, die von einer der Kameras an Bord des Mercury Transfer Module (MTM) aufgenommen wurden. Zeitgleich konnten die Sensoren im Ausleger während des Ausfahrens das lokale Magnetfeld erfassen.

Vom ESOC zum Merkur

In den frühen Morgenstunden am Samstag, den 20. Oktober 2018, startete die Mission BepiColombo ihre Reise zum Merkur, um den innersten Planeten unseres Sonnensystems zu erforschen. Auf diesem Foto sind die beiden Estrack-Ingenieure Lucy Santana und Daniel Firre zu sehen, die während des Starts die Kommunikation zwischen BepiColombo im Weltraum und dem Bodenstationsnetzwerk der der ESA koordinierten.

Here’s What Earth Looks Like When You’re Heading to the Sun

NASA’s Parker Solar Probe will never return to Earth — but it can still look back on where it came from. On Sept. 25, the sole camera aboard that spacecraft, which launched on Aug. 12, captured a photo of Earth shining brightly in a field of stars. That camera is called WISPR (Wide-field Imager for Solar Probe) and is actually on board to allow the spacecraft to photograph the structure of the sun’s upper atmosphere, the corona, as the spacecraft approaches — becoming the cosmic equivalent of a dashcam.

Mars Express keeps an eye on curious cloud

Since 13 September, ESA’s Mars Express has been observing the evolution of an elongated cloud formation hovering in the vicinity of the 20 km-high Arsia Mons volcano, close to the planet’s equator. In spite of its location, this atmospheric feature is not linked to volcanic activity but is rather a water ice cloud driven by the influence of the volcano’s leeward slope on the air flow – something that scientists call an orographic or lee cloud – and a regular phenomenon in this region.

There’s a Strange Cloud on Mars Right Now, and It’s Just Hanging Around

For more than a month now, a European orbiter circling Mars has been watching a long, plume-like cloud on the Red Planet. The cloud has remained in place over a mountain called Arsia Mons near the Martian equator since Sept. 13, according to a statement released by the European Space Agency (ESA). But that location is just a coincidence, the agency adds. No volcanic process is producing the cloud — the volcano hasn’t been active in about 50 million years, scientists believe.

A changing crater: Honouring a renowned Mars scientist

The surface of Mars may appear to be perpetually still, but its many features are ever-changing – as represented in this Mars Express view of the severely eroded Greeley impact crater. Greeley crater, named for the renowned planetary scientist Ronald Greeley, is located in one of the most ancient parts of Mars: a section of the planet’s southern highlands named Noachis Terra.

Jupiter

PIA22691: Jovian White Oval

A swirling, oval white cloud in Jupiter’s South South Temperate Belt is captured in this image from NASA’s Juno spacecraft. Known as White Oval A5, the feature is an anticyclonic storm. An anticyclone is a weather phenomenon where winds around the storm flow in the direction opposite to those of the flow around a region of low pressure.

Jupiter’s Wavy Atmosphere Resembles Earth’s Clouds in Photos from NASA’s Juno Probe

Jupiter and Earth may look like two completely different planets, but the planets’ atmospheres seem to have something in common, new images from NASA’s Juno mission have revealed. NASA’s Juno spacecraft, which has been orbiting Jupiter since 2016, captured images of small-scale wave patterns in Jupiter’s atmosphere during a series of close flybys called “perijoves.” Imaged with the spacecraft’s JunoCam instrument, these small wave patterns bear some resemblance to cloud formations found on Earth.

Saturn’s Moon Dione Is Covered in Weird Stripes

Scientists studying Saturn’s moon Dione spotted weird stripes that they now believe could be caused by material falling onto the moon’s surface. The new research is based on data gathered by NASA’s Cassini mission, which ended last fall. In photographs taken by the spacecraft before it was destroyed, a pair of scientists saw long, narrow, bright stripes across the surface of Dione — which looked eerily like similar features already identified on another of Saturn’s moons, Rhea.

Pluto’s Biggest Moon Could Give an Orbiter an (Almost) Free Ride

It took decades to get a mission to fly past Pluto, but it may take less time for an orbiter to swing around the tiny world if a fuel-saving tour could help bring costs down. Researchers have determined that a future mission could use the dwarf planet’s enormous moon, Charon, for gravitational boosts to save fuel, enabling extensive observations of the Pluto system and even allowing for a visit to another icy world in the outer solar system.

Beyond Solar System / Milchstraße & Kosmos

The ghost of Cassiopeia [1818]

About 550 light-years away in the constellation of Cassiopeia lies IC 63, a stunning and slightly eerie nebula. Also known as the ghost of Cassiopeia, IC 63 is being shaped by radiation from a nearby unpredictably variable star, Gamma Cassiopeiae, which is slowly eroding away the ghostly cloud of dust and gas. This celestial ghost makes the perfect backdrop for the upcoming feast of All Hallow’s Eve – better known as Halloween.

Ghostly cloud

A gigantic cold front in the Perseus galaxy cluster has been observed by a trio of X-ray telescopes.

Politics / Politik

ESA: Minister befürworten Vision für die Zukunft Europas in der Raumfahrt

Die für Raumfahrt zuständigen Minister der ESA-Mitgliedstaaten haben am Donnerstag im Europäischen Weltraumastronomiezentrum der ESA (ESAC) in Villanueva de la Cañada bei Madrid eine Zwischentagung (IMM18) abgehalten. Sie war ein Meilenstein auf dem Weg zu der für November 2019 in Sevilla angesetzten nächsten Ministerratstagung der ESA, „Space19+“

Technology / Technologie

NASA’s Chandra Space Telescope Is Back in Action After Gyroscope Fix

NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory has bounced back from the glitch that knocked it offline two weeks ago. That glitch was caused by an orientation-maintaining gyroscope, whose misbehavior caused the venerable space telescope to go into a protective “safe mode” on Oct. 10. But mission team members were able to establish a new gyroscope configuration, and Chandra resumed science operations on Sunday evening (Oct. 21), NASA officials said.

Wie werden bei Einschmelzsonden für Enceladus Daten übermittelt?

Im Rahmen der Initiative Enceladus Explorer wird auch eine Einschmelzsonde entwickelt, mit deren Hilfe man den vermuteten Ozean unter der Eisdecke des Saturnmonds erkunden könnte.

ULA Now Planning First Launch of Vulcan in 2021

United Launch Alliance now expects to perform the first launch of its next-generation Vulcan rocket in the spring of 2021, a slip of nearly a year that the company says is due to requirements of a recent Air Force award. During a panel discussion at the American Astronautical Society’s Wernher von Braun Symposium here Oct. 24, John Elbon, chief operating officer of ULA, said the company was making “good progress” on the vehicle, an effort aided by winning one of three Launch Service Agreement (LSA) awards from the U.S. Air Force Oct. 10.

Third ASPIRE Test Confirms Mars 2020 Parachute a Go

In the early hours of Sept. 7, NASA broke a world record. Less than 2 minutes after the launch of a 58-foot-tall (17.7-meter) Black Brant IX sounding rocket, a payload separated and began its dive back through Earth’s atmosphere. When onboard sensors determined the payload had reached the appropriate height and Mach number (38 kilometers altitude, Mach 1.8), the payload deployed a parachute. Within four-tenths of a second, the 180-pound parachute billowed out from being a solid cylinder to being fully inflated.

As If Space Elevators Aren’t Cool Enough, They Might Fix Themselves, Too

Space elevators to ferry passengers and cargo to and from orbit could be built using existing materials, if the technology takes inspiration from biology to fix itself when needed, a new study finds. In theory, a space elevator consists of a cable or bundle of cables that extend thousands of miles to a counterweight in space. The rotation of the Earth would keep the cable taut, and climber vehicles would zip up and down the cable at the speed of a train.

Japan startet zwei Wissenschaftssatelliten

Japan hat am Montag erfolgreich zwei Wissenschaftssatelliten gestartet. Die H-IIA F40-Trägerrakete mit GOSAT-2 und KhalifaSat an der Spitze stieg vom Weltraumbahnhof Tanegashima auf, meldet die Raumfahrtagentur JAXA.

Landspace Fails to Reach Orbit with Milestone Private Chinese Launch

Landspace suffered an issue with the third stage of its Zhuque-1 solid launch vehicle Saturday as it bid to become the first Chinese private launch company to reach orbit. The three-stage Zhuque-1, named after the Vermillion Bird from Chinese mythology, lifted off from a mobile platform at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, northwest China, at 4 a.m. Eastern (4 p.m. local time).

NASA Needs Help Shipping Cargo to Its Future Lunar Space Station

NASA is asking for help making shipments to a future lunar space station 240,000 miles (almost 400,000 kilometers) away. The agency opened a solicitation this week asking companies to consider what they’d need to deliver cargo; United States firms have until Nov. 2 to provide their input.

NASA Wants Throwaway Rockets For A Reusable Architecture

Watch NASA Break a Speed Record in This Mars Parachute Test

NASA is preparing technology for use on its Mars 2020 rover mission, due to land on the Red Planet in February 2021 — and it’s breaking world records along the way. Landing on Mars is notoriously challenging because of the planet’s thin atmosphere, which makes it difficult to slow down a spacecraft enough to land gently on its surface. In order to land their heaviest yet rover on Mars, NASA had to redesign an existing landing-parachute design — the same one that protected the Curiosity rover — with even stronger materials, including the Kevlar traditionally found in bulletproof vests.

World / Welt

Neuseeländischer Raketenbauer Rocket Lab: Mit Kampfpreisen ins All

Ein Weltraumbahnhof ausgerechnet in Neuseeland? Peter Beck ist überzeugt, dass er mit diesem Standort für sein Unternehmen Rocket Lab die globale Satellitenindustrie umkrempeln kann.

Deep space ambassadors

On 26 October, a group of EU Ambassadors to Australia (including Australia, Belgium, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, France, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Netherlands, Slovenia) visited ESA’s deep space ground station at New Norcia, Western Australia. New Norcia station is one of three deep space stations operated by ESA, belonging to ESA’s global Estrack network of ground stations. Together with stations at Cebreros, Spain, Malargüe and Argentina, it provides global coverage for continuous monitoring of spacecraft.

EU-Botschafter erforschen den Weltraum

Am 26. Oktober besuchten EU-Botschafter in Australien die ESA-Bodenstation in New Norcia, Westaustralien. Die New Norcia Station gehört zu den von der ESA betriebenen drei Deep-Space Stationen, die Teil des Bodenstations-Netzwerk ist. Zusammen mit den beiden anderen Deep-Space Stationen in Spanien und Argentinien ermöglicht sie die Kommunikation mit Satelliten, die hunderte von Millionen Kilometern weit weg unterwegs sind. Die ESA- Deep-Space Stationen verfügen über einige der weltweit leistungsfähigsten Tracking- Technologien. So können Trägerraketen, die vom ESA-Weltraumbahnhof in Kourou, Französisch-Guayana, gestartet werden, genau verfolgt werden.

ESA bereitet sich auf „Space19+“ vor

Letzte Woche sind die für Weltraumbelange zuständigen europäischen Minister im Europäischen Weltraum-Astronomiezentrum (ESAC) der ESA in der Nähe von Madrid zusammengekommen. Im Mittelpunkt des Treffens stand die Vorschau der ESA-Vision für die europäische Zukunft im Weltraum. Die Zwischentagung auf Ministerebene stellt einen Meilenstein auf dem Weg zur nächsten ESA-Ratstagung auf Ministerebene dar, die unter dem Namen „Space19+“ im November 2019 stattfinden wird. Die Minister der ESA-Mitgliedsstaaten sichteten die strategischen Richtlinien, die dem Vorschlag des ESA-Generaldirektors Jan Wörner zur Zukunft Europas im Weltall zugrunde liegen. Dieser Vorschlag wird wiederum bei der Space19+ zur Beschlussfassung vorgelegt.

Science / Wissenschaft

Scientists Home in on the Best ‘Water Worlds’ to Search for Alien Life

As far as we know, all life requires one thing, water, and that’s why scientists are fascinated by worlds they know or suspect host giant oceans: These worlds are among the best candidates for finding life beyond Earth. And in a new report, a team of scientists summarizes what we know about each of these potential “water parks” and our long-term options for furthering that knowledge with progressively more ambitious missions. The report is on behalf of the Roadmaps to Ocean Worlds group of NASA’s Outer Planets Assessment Group, designed to inform a congressionally mandated research portfolio within the agency.

Spaceflight Might Expand Your Mind, But It Shrinks Your Brain

Going to space does more than change the way you look at the world — it also changes your brain. In a new small study, published today (Oct. 24) as a Letter to the Editor in The New England Journal of Medicine, a team of researchers from Germany, Belgium and Russia detailed changes in the brains of 10 cosmonauts before and after long-term missions to space, finding “extensive” changes to the brain’s white and gray matter.

MAIUS-1: Kurztrip ins All für ultrakalte Atome

Anfang 2017 hatte ein Forschungsverbund unter Federführung der Leibniz Universität Hannover die Forschungsrakete MAIUS-1 ins All geschossen. Während des Fluges untersuchten die Wissenschaftlerinnen und Wissenschaftler dort in mehr als 100 Experimenten das Verhalten von Materiewellen und erstmals Bose-Einstein-Kondensate im Weltall. Jetzt liegen erste Ergebnisse vor.

Tweeting from Space? How 280 Characters Can Change Astronaut Psychology

It turns out that when you tell astronauts that a psychologist has been using linguistic analysis tools on tweets sent from space, they get a little sensitive. “That concerns me, as I’m a test pilot and math major,” Randy Bresnik, NASA astronaut and assistant to the chief of the astronaut office, said jokingly.

LUNA bringt den Mond auf die Erde

Auf dem Gelände des Astronautenzentrums in Köln (EAC) ist eine Anlage geplant, die die Mondoberfläche nachstellen soll. Andreas Diekmann, Projektleiter der ESA für Strategic Planning und Future Development, erklärt, wie die dreiteilige analoge Mondanlage LUNA Europa dabei helfen kann, weiter in den Weltraum vorzudringen. Analoge Umgebungen, die Teile des Weltraums auf der Erde nachahmen, bieten zum einen die Möglichkeit, Instrumente und Werkzeuge zu testen und zum anderen sind sie ein idealer Forschungsstandort und Übungsplatz für Astronauten.

History / Geschichte

Kalenderblatt: 50 Jahre Sojus-3

Russland begeht am Freitag den 50. Jahrestag des Starts des Raumschiffes Sojus-3. Am 26. Oktober 1968 war Georgi Beregowoi zu dem knapp viertägigen Experimentalflug des neuen sowjetischen Raumschiffes gestartet, bei dem es um die Erprobung der Kopplungstechnik ging.