OrbitalHub

NASA JPL dicit:

NASA and the European Space Agency are developing plans for one of the most ambitious campaigns ever attempted in space: bringing the first samples of Mars material safely back to Earth for detailed study. The diverse set of scientifically curated samples now being collected by NASA’s Mars Perseverance rover could help scientists answer the question of whether ancient life ever arose on the Red Planet.

Bringing samples of Mars to Earth for future study would happen in several steps with multiple spacecraft, and in some ways, in a synchronized manner. This short animation features key moments of the Mars Sample Return campaign: from landing on Mars and securing the sample tubes to launching them off the surface and ferrying them back to Earth.

Credit: NASA/ESA/JPL-Caltech/GSFC/MSFC

NASA dicit:

The DART mission deployed a kinetic impactor to smack the small moon Dimorphos of the asteroid Didymos on the evening of September 26. This was an on-orbit demonstration of asteroid deflection, a key test of NASA’s kinetic impactor technology, designed to impact an asteroid to adjust its speed and path. This particular asteroid moon is NOT a threat to Earth, but is technology being explored to use for when we DO find a potentially hazardous asteroid.

The Hubble Space Telescope captured these extraordinary views of the asteroid moon soon after the successful impact.

Credit: NASA Langley Research Center

NASA dicit:

Near-Earth asteroid Bennu is a rubble pile of rocks and boulders left over from the formation of the solar system. On October 20, 2020, NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft briefly touched down on Bennu and collected a sample for return to Earth. During this “TAG event,” the spacecraft’s arm sank far deeper into the asteroid than expected, confirming that Bennu’s surface is incredibly weak. Now, scientists have used data from OSIRIS-REx to revisit the TAG event and better understand how Bennu’s loose upper layers are held together.

Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/CI Lab/SVS/Dan Gallagher (KBRwyle): Producer/Jonathan North (KBRwyle): Lead Animator/Kel Elkins (USRA): Lead Data Visualizer/Alexander Bodnar (AIMM): Animator/Adriana Manrique Gutierrez (KBRwyle): Animator/Walt Feimer (KBRwyle): Animator/Lisa Poje (Freelance): Animator/Dan Gallagher (KBRwyle): Narrator/Dante Lauretta (The University of Arizona): Lead Scientist/Kevin Walsh (SwRI): Scientist/Ronald Ballouz (JHUAPL): Scientist/Olivier Barnouin (JHUAPL): Scientist/Rani Gran (NASA/GSFC): Public Affairs Officer/Nancy Neal-Jones (NASA/GSFC): Public Affairs Officer/James Tralie (ADNET): Support/Ernie Wright (USRA): Support/Aaron E. Lepsch (ADNET): Technical Support

NASA dicit:

This year, the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) celebrates its 13th anniversary orbiting the Moon. This mission has given scientists the largest volume of data ever collected by a planetary science mission at NASA. Considering that success and the continuing functionality of the spacecraft and its instruments, NASA has awarded the mission an extended mission phase to continue operations. This is LRO’s 5th extended science mission (ESM5), and during this time there will be 4 major areas of focus.

Video Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/Produced and Edited by: David Ladd (AIMM)/Data Visualizations by: Ernie Wright (USRA)/Spacecraft Animations by: Adriana Manrique Gutierrez (KBRwyle)

NASA dicit:

The Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System Technology Operations and Navigation Experiment, or CAPSTONE, will be the first spacecraft to fly a unique orbit around the Moon intended for NASA’s future Artemis lunar outpost Gateway. Its six-month mission will help launch a new era of deep space exploration.

Multiple partner businesses contributed to CAPSTONE with support from NASA’s small business programs. The spacecraft was built and tested by Tyvak Nano-Satellite Systems, Inc., a Terran Orbital Corporation, operated and managed by Advanced Space, and will be launched by Rocket Lab USA, Inc.

Video credit: NASA’s Ames Research Center

NASA dicit:

NASA’s Psyche mission is preparing for a 1.5 billion-mile (2.4 billion-kilometer) solar-powered trip to the metal-rich asteroid of the same name.

In a cleanroom at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in February 2022, twin solar arrays were attached to the spacecraft body, unfolded lengthwise, and then re-stowed as tests on Psyche continue. The five-panel, cross-shaped solar arrays are the largest ever installed on a spacecraft at JPL, so engineers had to test them one at a time.

Psyche is expected to launch no earlier than August 2022. About an hour after launch, the arrays will deploy and latch into place in a sequential process that will take 7 ½ minutes per array. They will then provide power for the journey to Psyche and for operating the three science instruments. In total, the solar arrays are 37 feet (11.3 meters) long. Only the three center panels can be deployed at JPL; the two cross panels on each wing are deployed using specialized equipment at Maxar Technologies in Palo Alto, California, where the arrays and spacecraft chassis were built. When they deploy fully in flight, the spacecraft will be about the size of a singles tennis court.

Psyche is scheduled to arrive at the asteroid in 2026 and spend nearly two years making increasingly close orbits. Scientists think the asteroid Psyche could be part of the core of a planetesimal, the building block of an early rocky planet, which would provide a unique opportunity to study how planets like our own Earth formed.

Video credit: NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory