Spacecraft Mission News (English, German) – 14.03.19

Veröffentlicht am 14. März 201913. März 2019 von vnawrath

Front Page / Titelseite

Where We Are

Emily Lakdawalla introduces an at-a-glance spacecraft locator to The Planetary Report.
read more … https://ift.tt/2VTnAzK
via Planetary Society Blog https://ift.tt/QRHOCj

Methan auf Mars muss kein Hinweis auf Leben sein

Als der im Sommer 2012 im Rahmen der Nasa-Mission „Mars Science Laboratory“ im Gale-Krater abgesetzte Rover Curiosity Ausbrüche des Gases Methan registrierte, und mehr noch, als die Messungen mit dem Laser-Spektrometer an Bord des Robotfahrzeugs jahreszeitliche Schwankungen des Methan-Anteils in der dünnen Mars-Atmosphäre zeigten, gerieten die Forscher auf der Erde in Aufregung. Denn auf der Erde deutet so etwas zumeist auf biologische Aktivität…
read more … https://ift.tt/2SVNlOe
via Astronomie.de – Der große Feed mit allen News https://ift.tt/2hhCviI

Amidst Cuts to NASA, Mars Sample Return May Finally Happen

The President’s Budget Request for NASA in 2020 would start a Mars Sample Return mission and ramp up efforts to send humans to the Moon. But it would still kick off the first year of a new decade with a half-billion dollar cut to the space agency.
read more … https://ift.tt/2TseVHM
via Planetary Society Blog https://ift.tt/QRHOCj

SwRI-led LAMP instrument sheds light on lunar water movement

Using the Southwest Research Institute-led Lyman Alpha Mapping Project (LAMP) aboard NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO), scientists have observed water molecules moving around the dayside of the Moon. A paper published in Geophysical Research Letters describes how LAMP measurements of the sparse layer of molecules temporarily stuck to the surface helped characterize lunar hydration changes over the course of a day. Up until the last decade or so, scientists thought the Moon was arid, with any water existing mainly as pockets of ice in permanently shaded craters near the poles. More recently, scientists have identified surface water in sparse populations of molecules bound to the lunar soil, or regolith. The amount and locations vary based on the time of day. This water is more common at higher latitudes and tends to hop around as the surface heats up.
read more … https://ift.tt/2H9aP0I
via Southwest Research Institute https://www.swri.org

Read full newspaper / Gesamte Ausgabe lesen

Spacecraft Mission News (English, German) – 07.03.19

Veröffentlicht am 7. März 20196. März 2019 von vnawrath

Front Page / Titelseite

NASA InSight Lander: hammering hole / hämmert Loch in den Marsboden

NASA’s InSight Mars lander got stuck between a rock in a hard place

Hammer time appears to be over. NASA’s InSight lander, which is currently the rover in charge on the Red Planet, has hit its first snag. The lander has been snapping pics and exploring Mars since Nov. 26, 2018, and successfully set its heat probe onto the planet’s dusty surface on Feb. 12.

Mars-Sonde Insight: Bohrinstrument HP³ stößt auf Widerstand – vorerst Pause

Das deutsche Bohrinstrument HP³ ist auf dem Weg in den Marsboden auf ein unerwartetes Hindernis gestoßen. Jetzt wollen die Forscher das erst einmal prüfen.

Good luck ‘Mole’ – DLR’s HP3 experiment starts hammering into the Martian soil

On 28 February 2019, the German Aerospace Center (DLR) ‘Mole’ fully automatically hammered its way into the Martian subsurface for the first time. In a first step, it penetrated to a depth between 18 and 50 centimetres into the Martian soil with 4000 hammer blows over a period of four hours. „On its way into the depths, the mole seems to have hit a stone, tilted about 15 degrees and pushed it aside or passed it,“ reports Tilman Spohn, Principal Investigator of the HP3 experiment.

InSight: Mars-Maulwurf hämmert sich in den Marsboden

Mit dem NASA-Lander InSight ist auch eine kleine, vom DLR entwickelte Rammsonde zum Mars gelangt, die sich bis zu fünf Meter in den Untergrund des Roten Planeten graben soll, um hier Temperaturmessungen vorzunehmen. In der vergangenen Woche hat sie ihre Arbeit aufgenommen und sich mit 4000 Hammerschlägen schon ein wenig in den Untergrund gegraben.

InSight mission: the Mars ‘Mole’ takes a break

As part of NASA’s InSight mission, the German Aerospace Center (DLR) developed a penetrometer designed to dig three to five metres below the surface of Mars and measure the heat emanating from the planet’s interior.

Mission InSight: Pause für den Marsmaulwurf

Das Deutsche Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt (DLR) hat im Rahmen der NASA-Mission InSight eine Rammsonde entwickelt, um drei bis fünf Meter unter die Oberfläche des Mars zu graben und dort die Wärme aus dem Inneren des Roten Planeten zu messen.

SpaceX‘s Crew Dragon Demo to ISS / Testflug der Crew Dragon zur ISS

SpaceX-Kapsel erreicht ISS: Der Drache hat angedockt

Die Raumkapsel „Crew Dragon“ des Unternehmens SpaceX hat erfolgreich die Raumstation ISS erreicht. Die USA versprechen sich von der geglückten Mission ein neues Kapitel in der Raumfahrt.

Testflug erfolgreich: Private Raumkapsel „Crew Dragon“ erreicht die ISS

Die Nasa sieht in der Firma SpaceX den Nachfolger für die Space-Shuttles, um die Abhängigkeit von Russland zu beenden. Der Testflug mit einer Puppe gelang.

SpaceX Crew Dragon Successfully Docks to Station

After making 18 orbits of Earth since its launch early Saturday morning, the Crew Dragon spacecraft successfully attached to the International Space Station’s Harmony module forward port via “soft capture” at 5:51 a.m. EST while the station was traveling more than 250 miles over the Pacific Ocean, just north of New Zealand.

Crew Dragon Successfully Docks to International Space Station

Docking occurred slightly ahead of schedule at 5:51 EST

Spacecraft Mission News (English, German) 28.02.19

Veröffentlicht am 28. Februar 2019 von vnawrath

Front Page / Titelseite

Title picture: JAXA

Touch Down Hayabusa2 on Ryugu

Hayabusa2 has touched down on Ryugu!

Touchdown occurred at about 22:49 UTC on 21 February, and the spacecraft is healthy.

Image from just after touchdown

From February 20 to 22, we conducted the touchdown operation (TD1-L8E1) of Hayabusa2 on the surface of asteroid Ryugu. Figure 1 shows an image taken with the Optical Navigation Camera – Wide angle (ONC-W1) during the spacecraft ascent after touchdown.

via hayabusa2.jaxa.jp http://www.hayabusa2.jaxa.jp

Hayabusa2 conducts touchdown on Asteroid Ryugu

The Japanese asteroid sampling mission Hayabusa2 – launched on December 3, 2014 aboard an H-IIA rocket from Tanegashima, Japan – completed its long flight to asteroid Ryugu (formerly 1999 JU3) before – on September 21 – achieving the milestone of deploying its two tiny MINERVA-II robots/rovers, followed later by the deployment of the MASCOT lander. Then, on February 21 (UTC), Hayabusa2 successfully touched down on the surface.

via nasaspacefligt.com https://www.nasaspaceflight.com/

Asteroidenforschung: Raumsonde Hayabusa-2 beschießt Asteroiden Ryugu

In der Nacht auf den 22. Februar 2019 setzte die japanische Raumsonde Hayabusa für kurze Zeit auf der Oberfläche des Asteroiden Ryugu auf und aktivierte ihren Probensammler.

Japanische Raumsonde Hayabusa2 landet auf Asteroiden Ryugu

Erleichterung im Kontrollzentrum der japanischen Raumfahrtbehörde: Der Raumsonde Hayabusa2 gelang die Landung auf dem Asteroiden Ryugu.

via heise online News https://www.heise.de/

Dramatic Dark Smudge Appears Where Hayabusa2 Landed on Ryugu Asteroid

Japan’s Hayabusa2 probe touched down successfully on the Ryugu asteroid late last week, blasting its surface and—hopefully—collecting samples. A new image released by JAXA shows a distinctive smudge on the asteroid where the procedure took place, but the cause of the dark surface feature isn’t immediately clear.

via gizmodo.com https://gizmodo.com

Sonde Hayabusa2: Landeanflug zu Asteroiden Ryugu begonnen

Hayabusa2 hat schon mehrere Lander zur Oberfläche des Asteroiden Ryugu geschickt, nun folgt sie selbst. Am Freitag soll sie dort Material einsammeln.

Space X Crew Dragon Raumkapsel

What to expect when Crew Dragon launches to the International Space Station b

SpaceX’s Crew Dragon is scheduled to blast off for a 6-day, uncrewed test flight on 2 March at 02:49 EST (07:49 UTC).

Nasa erlaubt Testflug der neuen SpaceX-Raumkapsel

Zunächst soll bloß eine Puppe mit der neuen SpaceX-Raumkapsel auf die Internationale Raumstation gelangen. Doch das Unternehmen des Milliardärs Elon Musk plant bereits bemannte Missionen – noch in diesem Jahr.

via Spiegel Online http://www.spiegel.de

NASA, SpaceX clear Crew Dragon for critical March 2 test flight

NASA managers held a flight readiness review Friday and cleared SpaceX to press ahead with work to ready a Falcon 9 rocket and Crew Dragon commercial ferry ship for launch March 2 on an unpiloted test flight to the International Space Station.

via Spaceflight Now https://spaceflightnow.com

Read full newspaper / Gesamte Ausgabe lesen

Spacecraft Mission News (English, German) – 21.02.19

Veröffentlicht am 21. Februar 201920. Februar 2019 von vnawrath

Front Page / Titelseite

ESA plans mission to smallest asteroid ever visited

ESA’s planet-defending Hera mission will set a new record in space. The asteroid investigator will not only be the first spacecraft to explore a binary asteroid system – the Didymos pair – but the smaller of these two worldlets, comparable in size to Egypt’s Great Pyramid of Giza, will become the smallest asteroid ever visited.

What to expect when Hayabusa2 collects a sample from Ryugu

More than 4 years after launch and a half year surveying asteroid Ryugu, Japan’s Hayabusa2 spacecraft is ready for sample collection.

Earth’s atmosphere stretches out to the Moon – and beyond

A recent discovery based on observations by the ESA/NASA Solar and Heliospheric Observatory, SOHO, shows that the gaseous layer that wraps around Earth reaches up to 630 000 km away, or 50 times the diameter of our planet

Hubble helps uncover origin of Neptune’s smallest moon Hippocamp

Astronomers using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, along with older data from the Voyager 2 probe, have revealed more about the origin of Neptune’s smallest moon. The moon, which was discovered in 2013 and has now received the official name Hippocamp, is believed to be a fragment of its larger neighbour Proteus.

Spacecraft Mission News (English, German) – 14.02.19

Veröffentlicht am 14. Februar 201913. Februar 2019 von vnawrath

Front Page / Titelseite

Title picture: NASA/JPL-Caltech

NASA to Share Results of Effort to Recover Mars Rover

NASA will discuss the status of its Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity in a media briefing at 11 a.m. PST (2 p.m. EST) Wednesday, Feb. 13, from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

read more … https://go.nasa.gov/2DDwSsp

via Latest News – NASA’s Mars Exploration Program https://go.nasa.gov/2gRBMK4

Mars-Rover Opportunity: Letzter Kontaktversuch der NASA

Nach mehr als sieben Monaten stellt die NASA ihre Versuche ein, mit Opportunity Kontakt aufzunehmen. Damit endet die überaus erfolgreiche Mission.

Touchdown for InSight’s Heat Probe

InSight has gone two for two, placing the second of its instruments gently on the Martian ground.

Russische Medaille für Alexander Gerst

Der deutsche ESA-Astronaut Alexander Gerst ist am Dienstag im Sternenstädtchen bei Moskau mit der russischen Medaille Kosmos ohne Grenzen ausgezeichnet worden. Er nahm sie im Kosmonauten-Ausbildungszentrum( ZPK) Juri Gagarin entgegen.

NASA’s MAVEN Spacecraft Shrinking its Mars Orbit to Prepare for Mars 2020 Rover

The MAVEN spacecraft today is starting a campaign to tighten its orbit around Mars to prepare to serve as a data-relay satellite for NASA’s Mars 2020 rover, which launches next year.

read more … https://go.nasa.gov/2TO5AWO

via Latest News – NASA’s Mars Exploration Program https://go.nasa.gov/2gRBMK4

MAVEN Spacecraft Shrinking its Orbit to Prepare for Mars 2020 Rover

NASA’s 4-year-old atmosphere-sniffing Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) mission is embarking on a new campaign today to tighten its orbit around Mars. The operation will reduce the highest point of the MAVEN spacecraft’s elliptical orbit from 3,850 to 2,800 miles (6,200 to 4,500 kilometers) above the surface and prepare it to take on additional responsibility as a data-relay satellite for NASA’s Mars 2020 rover, which launches next year.

read more … https://go.nasa.gov/2I7SbaU

via NASA

NASA’s Webb Is Sound After Completing Critical Milestones

NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has successfully passed another series of critical testing milestones on its march to the launch pad.

read more … https://go.nasa.gov/2DluMNG

via Webb Telescope Features http://www.nasa.gov/

Read full newspaper / Gesamte Ausgabe lesen

Spacecraft Mission News (English, German) – 07.02.19

Veröffentlicht am 7. Februar 20196. Februar 2019 von vnawrath

Front Page / Titelseite

Credit title picture: NASA/JPL-Caltech

So long, MarCO, and thanks for the radio transmissions

NASA says it does not expect to receive any more transmissions from the MarCO CubeSats that accompanied Insight to Mars last year.

The World’s 1st Interplanetary Cubesats Go Silent Beyond Mars

The first small spacecraft to ever leave Earth’s orbit have been silent for more than a month, NASA said today (Feb. 5) in an announcement about the pair of Mars Cube One probes nicknamed MarCO.

ISS suffers another leak, but this time of the messy, non-dangerous, type

Around 11 liters of water leaked into the International Space Station (ISS) during work to prepare for the future installation of the Urine Transfer System (UTS). Although the incident was minor compared to the more worrying pressure leak caused by a hole in the since-departed Soyuz MS-09, it once again highlights the day-to-day maintenance required on the orbital outpost that will play into lessons learned ahead of crewed deep space exploration.

Die ISS hat wieder ein Loch: Diesmal in der Weltraum-Toilette

Auf der Internationalen Raumstation ist bei Reparaturarbeiten an der Toilette eine erhebliche Menge Flüssigkeit ausgetreten.

Deep Impact: The Deep-Space Comet Hunter

NASA’s Deep Impact mission was the most-traveled deep-space comet hunter of its time.

via Space.com https://www.space.com

Coffee Lovers May Someday Brew Their Java with Space-Roasted Beans

There’s gourmet coffee, and then there’s coffee roasted by the searing heat of re-entry into Earth’s atmosphere from the edge of space.

Spacecraft Mission News (English, German) – 31.01.2019

Veröffentlicht am 31. Januar 201931. Januar 2019 von vnawrath

Front Page / Titelseite

Title picture: NASA/JPL/Cornell University

Mars Rover Opportunity: 15 years anniversary and silence / 15 jähriges Jubiläum und derzeit ohne Kontakt

Opportunity: 15 Jahre auf dem Mars und noch etwas Hoffnung

Vor 15 Jahren landete der Marsrover Opportunity auf der Oberfläche des Roten Planeten. Doch richtige Freude kommt bei der NASA angesichts dieses seltenen Jubiläums nicht auf: Seit Juni hat das Team nämlich nichts mehr von Opportunity gehört. Trotzdem versucht man den Rover weiterhin regelmäßig zu kontaktieren und lauscht nach Signalen von ihm. (25. Januar 2019)

NASA Has a New Plan to Revive the Mars Rover Opportunity, as Time Runs Short

NASA has developed a new, more powerful collection of commands to try to force the long-silent Opportunity rover on Mars to resume operations.

Rover Team Beaming New Commands to Opportunity on Mars

Engineers at JPL have begun transmitting a new set of commands to Opportunity in an attempt to compel the Mars rover to contact Earth.

read more … https://go.nasa.gov/2BgSKJN

via Latest News – NASA’s Mars Exploration Program https://go.nasa.gov/2gRBMK4

January 26, 2019 at 12:36AM

NASA’s Opportunity Rover Logs 15 Years on Mars

The rover landed in a region of the Red Planet called Meridiani Planum 16 years ago today, on Jan. 24, 2004.

read more … https://go.nasa.gov/2Hy9xxa

via Latest News – NASA’s Mars Exploration Program https://go.nasa.gov/2gRBMK4

January 26, 2019 at 12:36AM

Silent Mars Rover Opportunity Marks 15 Years on Red Planet in Bittersweet Anniversary

NASA’s Mars rover Opportunity is beginning its 16th year on the Red Planet the same way it ended its 15th — in silence.

NASA Probe Snaps 1st Photos from Just a Mile Above Asteroid Bennu and the View’s AMAZING!

NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission is orbiting an asteroid closer than any spacecraft has ever orbited a body — and it shows in an incredible pair of photographs that the team released yesterday (Jan. 24). The spacecraft slipped into orbit around the asteroid, called Bennu, on Dec. 31, after the team carefully mapped the object to design a safe path for the probe. That was a challenge, since Bennu is the smallest space rock that’s ever been orbited.

OSIRIS-REx stable in Bennu orbit, team refines sample collection plans

The team has yet to find a Bennu sample site that matches their pre-arrival expectations, meaning their plans will probably have to change.

Why are there no stars in most space images?

There are a few questions that we get all the time at The Planetary Society. Look up at space at night from a dark location and you can see innumerable stars. Why, then, do photos of things in space not contain stars? How come the black skies of the Moon contain no stars in Chang’e photos? The answer: The stars are there, they’re just too faint to show up.

Spacecraft Mission News (English, German) – 24.01.19

Veröffentlicht am 24. Januar 201924. Januar 2019 von vnawrath

Front Page / Titelseite

Credit issue picture / Quelle Titelbild: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute

Age of Saturn‘s Rings / Alter der Ringe des Saturns

NASA-Sonde Cassini: Saturnringe viel jünger als gedacht – und bald verschwunden

Die Ringe des Saturn sind wohl erst frühestens vor 100 Millionen Jahren entstanden. Und mehr als nochmal so lange bestehen werden sie wohl nicht.

Neue Forschungsergebnisse: Saturn-Ringe sind wohl jünger als gedacht

Der majestätische Saturn ist viele Milliarden Jahre alt. Doch sein Markenzeichen hat er wohl noch gar nicht so lange, wie ein Forscherteam herausgefunden hat.

Saturn’s rings are ‚very young‘

We’re looking at Saturn at a very special time in the history of the Solar System, according to scientists. They’ve confirmed the planet’s iconic rings are very young – no more than 100 million years old, when dinosaurs still walked the Earth.

NASA’s Cassini Data Show Saturn’s Rings Relatively New – Solar System Exploration: NASA Science

The rings of Saturn may be iconic, but there was a time when the majestic gas giant existed without its distinctive halo. In fact, the rings may have formed much later than the planet itself, according to a new analysis of gravity science data from NASA’s Cassini spacecraft.

Read more… https://go.nasa.gov/2W1RNgQ

via Solar System Exploration: NASA Science – January 21, 2019 at 04:30PM

Hubble: Wide Field Camera 3 scheint wieder fit

Die Beobachtungen mit der Wide Field Camera 3 an Bord des Weltraumteleskops Hubbles dürften bald weitergehen: Die NASA hat das Instrument gestern wieder in den normalen Betriebsmodus versetzt. Nach einigen weiteren Tests könnte der normale Beobachtungsbetrieb bald wieder aufgenommen werden. In der letzten Woche hatte es Probleme mit der Kamera gegeben.

Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 Recovered, Collecting Science Data

The Hubble Space Telescope’s Wide Field Camera 3 was brought back to full operational status and completed its first science observations just after noon EST today, Jan. 17. The instrument autonomously shut down on Jan. 8 after internal data erroneously indicated invalid voltage levels. The Wide Field Camera 3 was installed on Hubble in May 2009 during the last servicing mission. It has taken over 240,000 observations to date and is the most used instrument of Hubble’s current complement.

Read more… https://go.nasa.gov/2LZ5zwm

via NASA https://www.nasa.gov- January 23, 2019 at 04:50PM

Genaue Startdaten von Boeings Starliner zur ISS stehen angeblich fest

China’s Moon Plants Are Dead

The moon is a lifeless world once again. The cotton plants that sprouted on the moon’s far side aboard China’s Chang’e 4 lander are dead, done in by the bitter cold of the lengthy lunar night, GBTimes reported today (Jan. 16).

Spacecraft Mission News (English, German) – 17.01.19

Veröffentlicht am 17. Januar 201916. Januar 2019 von vnawrath

Front Page / Titelseite

Credit issue header picture: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Ocean Moons, Promising Targets in Search for Life, Could Be Dead Inside

For more than two decades, scientists have wondered whether extraterrestrial life may be flourishing deep below the icy coatings boasted by moons in our outer solar system. Spacecraft like the Galileo mission to Jupiter and the Cassini mission to Saturn have stumbled on evidence that some of their moons hide global oceans, warmed by the pull of the giant planet they orbit. And oceanic explorers much closer to home have discovered dynamic communities living in darkness around geologic features on the ocean floor. Combine the two and it’s easy to be carried away with dreams of alien seafloors teeming with microbes. But new research is looking deeper, into the rock itself, and suggesting that these worlds may be dead inside — not just biologically, but geologically as well.

Shutdown Grounds NASA’s Airborne Observatory

The ongoing partial government shutdown has grounded a NASA aircraft used for astronomical observations amid reviews about how to operate that program in the future. The Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA), a Boeing 747 with a 2.5-meter telescope mounted in its fuselage, has been unable able to perform any science flights since the shutdown started Dec. 22, project officials said during a town hall session about the program Jan. 8 during the 233rd Meeting of the American Astronomical Society (AAS) here.

Lunar Orbital Platform-Gateway: NASA’s Proposed Lunar Space Station

The Lunar Orbital Platform-Gateway is a proposed NASA program that would bring astronauts to the moon to operate a lunar space station. The concept has generated a wealth of research and numerous political discussions since 2017, especially because NASA’s stated goal under the Trump administration is to return to the moon before going to Mars.

Cotton Seed Sprouts on the Moon’s Far Side in Historic First by China’s Chang’e 4

Before China finished packing up its Chang’e 4 lunar lander to be blasted off on a never-before-accomplished journey to the far side of the moon, scientists slipped in a small tank holding plant seeds. And now, the team announced, a cotton seed has sprouted.

There Is Now Life On Two Worlds In Our Solar System

China Details Future Moon Plans, Including Polar Research Station

China’s bold moon-exploration plans don’t stop with the pioneering Chang’e 4 mission, which made the first-ever soft landing on the lunar far side on Jan. 2.

The State Council Information Office of China (SCIO) held a press conference Monday (Jan. 14) to discuss that epic touchdown, and to give an overview of the nation’s future activities on Earth’s nearest neighbor.

Hubble Space Telescope’s Glitchy Eye Should Clear Up Soon

The Hubble Space Telescope’s main eye on the universe should be back up and running soon. Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) took itself offline last week as a safety precaution, after onboard software noticed anomalous voltage readings within the instrument. But Hubble team members have now determined that voltage levels actually remained within the normal range, ascribing the glitch to a telemetry issue rather than a power-supply problem.

Spacecraft Mission News (English, German) – 20.12.18

Veröffentlicht am 20. Dezember 201820. Dezember 2018 von vnawrath

On My Own Behalf / In eigener Sache

Dies ist die letzte Ausgabe in diesem Jahr. Die nächste Spacecraft Mission News wird am 10. 01.19 erscheinen. Ich wünsche allen Lesern schöne Feiertage und einen guten Start ins neue Jahr!

This will be the last issue for this year. Spacecraft Mission News will return on 10.01.19. I wish you a great holiday season and a good start into the new year!

Front Page / Titelseite

Alexander Gerst returns from ISS / Alexander Gerst kehrt von der ISS zurück

Alexander Gerst ist wieder zurück auf der Erde: All-Zeit vorbei

Fast 200 Tage lang war Astronaut Alexander Gerst auf der ISS, jetzt ist er zurück: Um kurz nach sechs Uhr landete er in Kasachstan. Noch am Abend wird er in Deutschland erwartet.

Rückkehr des ESA-Astronauten Alexander Gerst am 20.12.2018

Der deutsche ESA- Astronaut Alexander Gerst beendet seinen zweiten Aufenthalt auf der Internationalen Raumstation. Er ist bisher der zweite ESA-Astronaut, der das Kommando über die Internationale Raumstation inne hatte. Damit geht auch seine Horizons-Mission zu Ende, bei der über 50 Experimente im schwerelosen Forschungslabor der ISS für die Partner durchgeführt wurden.

Watch Alexander Gerst’s return to Earth

ESA astronaut Alexander Gerst is wrapping up his second stay on the International Space Station, the Horizons mission, running over 50 experiments for the partners of the weightless research laboratory as well as maintaining the outpost. Alexander became the second ESA astronaut to take over command of the International Space Station.

NASA Astronaut, Crewmates Returns to Earth After 197-Day Mission

Three members of the International Space Station’s Expedition 57 crew, including NASA astronaut Serena Auñón-Chancellor, returned to Earth Thursday, safely landing at 12:02 a.m. EST (11:02 a.m. local time) in Kazakhstan. Auñón-Chancellor and her crewmates, Expedition 57 Commander Alexander Gerst of ESA (European Space Agency) and Soyuz Commander Sergey Prokopyev, launched June 6 and arrived at the space station two days later to begin their mission. Over 197 days, they circled the globe 3,152 times, covering 83.3 million miles.

Most distant encounter: Spacecraft New Horizons approaching Ultima Thule / Bisher entfernteste Begegnung: Raumsonde New Horizons wird bald Ultima Thule erreichen

New Horizons Spacecraft on Target for Superclose Flyby of Ultima Thule

NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft will indeed get very close to the mysterious, distant object Ultima Thule on New Year’s Day. Mission principal investigator Alan Stern today (Dec. 18) gave the all-clear for New Horizons to stay on its optimal flyby course, which will take the probe within just 2,200 miles (3,500 kilometers) of Ultima Thule at 12:33 a.m. EST (0533 GMT) on Jan. 1.

What to Expect When New Horizons Visits 2014 MU69, Ultima Thule

New Horizons is rapidly approaching its New Year’s encounter with the most distant world ever visited, 2014 MU69. Closest approach will be at a distance of 3,500 kilometers at about 05:33 on 1 January UTC, and it’ll happen at a zippy 14.16 kilometers per second. Space fans can’t wait to see pictures of this distant, tiny world, an ancient relic of the formation of our solar system, which the mission and NASA have nicknamed “Ultima Thule,” until it is formally named. (I think we should all get to give it our own nicknames. I’m partial to „Moo,“ or maybe „Peanut.“)

Hell Yes, NASA’s New Horizons Will Buzz Right Past Ultima Thule on New Year’s Day

Today was the last possible day for mission controllers to adjust the trajectory of the New Horizons spacecraft as it approaches Ultima Thule, a distant Kuiper Belt object. With no detectable dangers in sight, NASA has given the green light for the spacecraft to remain along its optimal path—a trajectory that will result in an intimate flyby in just two weeks time.

New Horizons‘ Flyby of Ultima Thule (KBO 2014 MU69)

After the successful flyby of Pluto on July 14th 2015, the interplanetary probe New Horizons is continuing it’s mission targeting 2014 MU 69, nickamed Ultima Thule, a remote trans-neptunian Kuiper Belt Object.

Saturn loses its rings / Saturn verliert seine Ringe

Saturn’s Rings Are Beautiful, But They Won’t Last

Chances are, you wouldn’t recognize Saturn without its trademark thick band of rings. But if you could travel 300 million years into the future, you would need to, because by then, chances are those rings would be gone — and they could disappear even faster.

Saturn verliert seine Ringe

Die typischen Ringe des Planeten verschwinden allerdings nicht plötzlich, sondern allmählich. Sie bestehen zu großen Teilen aus Wassereis und regnen sozusagen auf die Saturnoberfläche. Astronomen der Nasa haben ausgerechnet, dass jede Sekunde etwa eineinhalb Tonnen Eis durch die Schwerkraft des Planeten runterkommen. Wenn das so weitergeht, hat Saturn in 300 Millionen Jahren keine Ringe mehr. Das Team hat noch andere Verluste eingerechnet und kommt dann sogar auf nur noch 100 Millionen Jahre. Das ist ganz schön kurz, wenn man es mit den vier Milliarden Jahren vergleicht, die der Saturn alt ist.

Bröckelndes Geröll: Der Saturn verliert seine Ringe – SPIEGEL ONLINE – Wissenschaft

100.000 Ringe umfassen den Saturn, ihr äußerer hat einen Durchmesser von nahezu einer Million Kilometer. Erstaunlich dünn sind die Ringe, der dickste misst gerade mal 100 Meter. Eine Schallplatte mit dem gleichen Verhältnis von Dicke zu Durchmesser wäre nicht mal einen Zehntausendstel Millimeter hoch.

Ringless Saturn? The Planet’s Famous Feature May Be Surprisingly Young.

Saturn’s rings are among the most eye-catching sights in the solar system—and yet they haven’t always been there. A new analysis suggests the planet’s majestic bangles might be so young that if dinosaurs looked up, they could have witnessed an otherwise plain, straw-colored Saturn putting a ring on itself—one that would have been briefly enormous.

Saturn is losing its rings: NASA says they will be gone in 100m years

The rings are being pulled into Saturn by gravity as a dusty rain of ice particles, a new NASA study has revealed. Ring particles are caught in a balancing act between the pull of Saturn’s gravity, which wants to draw them back into the planet, and their orbital velocity, which wants to fling them outward into space. ‚We estimate that this ‚ring rain‘ drains an amount of water products that could fill an Olympic-sized swimming pool from Saturn’s rings in half an hour,‘ said James O’Donoghue of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.

Steph Curry Tells Former Astronaut Scott Kelly Moon-Landing Comment Was ‚Made in Jest‘

Steph Curry is sorry for all the trouble his moon-landing comments have caused. On a podcast that aired last week, the NBA superstar said he doesn’t believe that humanity actually landed on the moon. The offhand remark (which was echoed by several other NBA players on the podcast) went viral, prompting a wave of reaction from folks imploring Curry to clarify or repudiate his stance, and to educate himself about NASA and spaceflight history.

	Eckehart Herklotz bei Mond, Jupiter, Saturn und Star…
	Jenny bei Astronomie ohne Teleskop: Vors…
	Mars im Goldenen Tor… bei Astronomie ohne Teleskop: Vors…
	astrozwerge bei Astronomie ohne Teleskop: Vors…
	Astronomie ohne Tele… bei Astronomie ohne Teleskop: Vors…

Juni 2019
M	D	M	D	F	S	S
« Mai
					1	2
3	4	5	6	7	8	9
10	11	12	13	14	15	16
17	18	19	20	21	22	23
24	25	26	27	28	29	30

Front Page / Titelseite

Where We Are

Methan auf Mars muss kein Hinweis auf Leben sein

Amidst Cuts to NASA, Mars Sample Return May Finally Happen

SwRI-led LAMP instrument sheds light on lunar water movement

Teilen Sie dies mit:

Gefällt mir:

Front Page / Titelseite

NASA InSight Lander: hammering hole / hämmert Loch in den Marsboden

NASA’s InSight Mars lander got stuck between a rock in a hard place

Mars-Sonde Insight: Bohrinstrument HP³ stößt auf Widerstand – vorerst Pause

Good luck ‘Mole’ – DLR’s HP3 experiment starts hammering into the Martian soil

InSight: Mars-Maulwurf hämmert sich in den Marsboden

InSight mission: the Mars ‘Mole’ takes a break

Mission InSight: Pause für den Marsmaulwurf

SpaceX‘s Crew Dragon Demo to ISS / Testflug der Crew Dragon zur ISS

SpaceX-Kapsel erreicht ISS: Der Drache hat angedockt

Testflug erfolgreich: Private Raumkapsel „Crew Dragon“ erreicht die ISS

SpaceX Crew Dragon Successfully Docks to Station

Crew Dragon Successfully Docks to International Space Station

Gefällt mir:

Front Page / Titelseite

Touch Down Hayabusa2 on Ryugu

Hayabusa2 has touched down on Ryugu!

Image from just after touchdown

Hayabusa2 conducts touchdown on Asteroid Ryugu

Asteroidenforschung: Raumsonde Hayabusa-2 beschießt Asteroiden Ryugu

Japanische Raumsonde Hayabusa2 landet auf Asteroiden Ryugu

Dramatic Dark Smudge Appears Where Hayabusa2 Landed on Ryugu Asteroid

Sonde Hayabusa2: Landeanflug zu Asteroiden Ryugu begonnen

Space X Crew Dragon Raumkapsel

What to expect when Crew Dragon launches to the International Space Station b

Nasa erlaubt Testflug der neuen SpaceX-Raumkapsel

NASA, SpaceX clear Crew Dragon for critical March 2 test flight

Gefällt mir:

Front Page / Titelseite

ESA plans mission to smallest asteroid ever visited

What to expect when Hayabusa2 collects a sample from Ryugu

Earth’s atmosphere stretches out to the Moon – and beyond

Hubble helps uncover origin of Neptune’s smallest moon Hippocamp

Gefällt mir:

Front Page / Titelseite

NASA to Share Results of Effort to Recover Mars Rover

Mars-Rover Opportunity: Letzter Kontaktversuch der NASA

Touchdown for InSight’s Heat Probe

Russische Medaille für Alexander Gerst

NASA’s MAVEN Spacecraft Shrinking its Mars Orbit to Prepare for Mars 2020 Rover

MAVEN Spacecraft Shrinking its Orbit to Prepare for Mars 2020 Rover

NASA’s Webb Is Sound After Completing Critical Milestones

Gefällt mir:

Front Page / Titelseite

So long, MarCO, and thanks for the radio transmissions

The World’s 1st Interplanetary Cubesats Go Silent Beyond Mars

ISS suffers another leak, but this time of the messy, non-dangerous, type

Die ISS hat wieder ein Loch: Diesmal in der Weltraum-Toilette

Deep Impact: The Deep-Space Comet Hunter

via Space.com https://www.space.com

Coffee Lovers May Someday Brew Their Java with Space-Roasted Beans

Teilen Sie dies mit:

Gefällt mir:

Front Page / Titelseite

Mars Rover Opportunity: 15 years anniversary and silence / 15 jähriges Jubiläum und derzeit ohne Kontakt

Opportunity: 15 Jahre auf dem Mars und noch etwas Hoffnung

NASA Has a New Plan to Revive the Mars Rover Opportunity, as Time Runs Short

Rover Team Beaming New Commands to Opportunity on Mars

NASA’s Opportunity Rover Logs 15 Years on Mars

Silent Mars Rover Opportunity Marks 15 Years on Red Planet in Bittersweet Anniversary

NASA Probe Snaps 1st Photos from Just a Mile Above Asteroid Bennu and the View’s AMAZING!

OSIRIS-REx stable in Bennu orbit, team refines sample collection plans

Why are there no stars in most space images?

Teilen Sie dies mit:

Gefällt mir:

Front Page / Titelseite

Age of Saturn‘s Rings / Alter der Ringe des Saturns

NASA-Sonde Cassini: Saturnringe viel jünger als gedacht – und bald verschwunden

Neue Forschungsergebnisse: Saturn-Ringe sind wohl jünger als gedacht

Saturn’s rings are ‚very young‘

NASA’s Cassini Data Show Saturn’s Rings Relatively New – Solar System Exploration: NASA Science

Hubble: Wide Field Camera 3 scheint wieder fit

Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 Recovered, Collecting Science Data