In The Heart Of The Virgo Cluster : The Virgo Cluster Of Galaxies Is The Closest Cluster Of Galaxies

NASA’s Hybrid Computer Enables Raven’s Autonomous Rendezvous Capability

ISS - International Space Station patch. March 21, 2017 A hybrid computing system developed at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, is the enabling technology behind an ambitious experiment testing a relative navigation and autonomous docking capability known as Raven.

Image above: This panorama of the International Space Station was composed by piecing together images taken by Raven’s Visible Camera. These images were processed by a hybrid computing platform, SpaceCube 2.0. Image Credit: NASA. Developed by the Satellite Servicing Projects Division, or SSPD, the carry-on luggage-sized module was launched February 19 aboard SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft, along with other experiments deployed outside the International Space Station on an experiment pallet. Raven is testing and maturing visible, infrared and lidar sensors and machine-vision algorithms; the module will bring NASA one step closer to realizing the groundbreaking autopilot capability that can be applied to many NASA missions for decades to come. Since NASA’s pre-Apollo days, the agency has successfully docked spacecraft while they speed through space. However, all operations involved humans who orchestrated the movements from the ground. Raven’s objective is to develop and mature technologies that ultimately will relieve human dependency and give spacecraft the ability to catch up with one another and dock autonomously in real time. “The Raven module is equipped with technology that lays the foundation for a relative navigation system,” said Goddard Director Christopher Scolese. “What some may not fully appreciate is the fact that Raven’s sensors could not do their job if it weren’t for another very effective technology called SpaceCube. The SpaceCube processor is the behind-the-scenes technology that is making this important demonstration possible.” SpaceCube is a reconfigurable, very fast flight computing platform that Goddard technologists first demonstrated during a relative navigation experiment on the Hubble Servicing Mission-4 in 2009. During the Raven experiment, the module’s “sensors serve as the eyes. SpaceCube acts as the brain, analyzing data and telling components what to do,” said Ben Reed, deputy division director of SSPD. The “eyes” and the “brain” together create the autopilot capability. Since its initial development, SpaceCube has evolved into a family of flight computers all distinguished by their computing speed, which is 10 to 100 times faster than the commonly used spaceflight processor — the RAD750. Though the RAD750 is immune to the adverse effects of radiation, it is slow and many generations behind the computing speed of commercial processors. SpaceCube processors achieve their data-crunching prowess because Goddard technologists married radiation-tolerant integrated circuits, which are programmed to execute specific computing jobs simultaneously, with algorithms that detect and fix radiation-induced upsets in collected data. Consequently, these hybrid systems are nearly as reliable as the RAD750, yet orders-of-magnitude faster, capable of executing complex computations once limited to ground-based systems.

Image above: This image shows the Defense Department’s experiment pallet, STP-H5, hanging at the end of Canada’s robotic arm during installation on the outside of the International Space Station. Image Credit: NASA. During its two-year stay on the space station, Raven will sense incoming and outgoing visiting space station spacecraft, feeding the data it “sees” to SpaceCube 2.0, one in the family of SpaceCube products. SpaceCube then runs a set of pose algorithms, or a set of instructions, to gauge the relative distance between Raven and the spacecraft it is tracking. Then, based on these calculations, SpaceCube 2.0 autonomously sends commands that swivel the Raven module on its gimbal or pointing system to keep the sensors trained on the vehicle, while continuing to track it. While all this is transpiring, NASA operators on the ground monitor Raven’s technologies, paying close attention to how they function as a system and making necessary adjustments to increase Raven’s tracking abilities. “Tracking spacecraft with this system is only possible because we have SpaceCube,” said SSPD Avionics Technology Lead and SpaceCube Lead Engineer David Petrick, who has won prestigious awards for his work on the processor. “This type of operation requires fast computing.” Raven’s foundational technologies will be applied to future missions. For example, Restore-L, which also will use SpaceCube 2.0, will rendezvous with, grasp, refuel and relocate Landsat 7 when it launches in 2020.   SpaceCube 2.0, however, isn’t the only processor now at work on the space station’s external experiment pallet sponsored by the Department of Defense’s Space Technology Program. SpaceCube 1.0 is being used as the communication interface between the space station’s data services and multiple experiments on the pallet. In addition, a miniaturized version of SpaceCube 2.0 — the SpaceCube Mini —  is operating two NASA and U.S. Defense Department experiments. NASA also is testing two other miniature computers, developed with the University of Florida. These models are mostly equipped with commercial parts. For other technology news, go to https://gsfctechnology.gsfc.nasa.gov/newsletter/Current.pdf Related links: Raven: https://sspd.gsfc.nasa.gov/Raven.html SpaceCube: https://spacecube.gsfc.nasa.gov/ Space Station Research and Technology: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/index.html International Space Station (ISS): https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/main/index.html Images (mentioned), Text, Credits: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center/Lori Keesey/Lynn Jenner. Greetings, Orbiter.ch Full article

This is one slice of an incredible high resolution, enhanced color image of Pluto, recently released by NASA. You can see the full, larger version here. 

Credit: NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI

I saw the picture and I thought it was a photo of the space between a Venetian blind and a window frame but no. No. It was a moon between the rings of Saturn.

NGC 3132: The Eight Burst Nebula : Its the dim star, not the bright one, near the center of NGC 3132 that created this odd but beautiful planetary nebula. Nicknamed the Eight-Burst Nebula and the Southern Ring Nebula, the glowing gas originated in the outer layers of a star like our Sun. In this representative color picture, the hot blue pool of light seen surrounding this binary system is energized by the hot surface of the faint star. Although photographed to explore unusual symmetries, its the asymmetries that help make this planetary nebula so intriguing. Neither the unusual shape of the surrounding cooler shell nor the structure and placements of the cool filamentary dust lanes running across NGC 3132 are well understood. via NASA

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why is there star

gas cloud get squished (gravitational collapse) then sometimes smaller elements can squish together to make bigger elements (nuclear fusion) and this continues as long as the smolest elements (hydrogen and helium) are in the core

The Past, Present and Future of Exploration on Mars

Today, we’re celebrating the Red Planet! Since our first close-up picture of Mars in 1965, spacecraft voyages to the Red Planet have revealed a world strangely familiar, yet different enough to challenge our perceptions of what makes a planet work.

You’d think Mars would be easier to understand. Like Earth, Mars has polar ice caps and clouds in its atmosphere, seasonal weather patterns, volcanoes, canyons and other recognizable features. However, conditions on Mars vary wildly from what we know on our own planet.

Join us as we highlight some of the exploration on Mars from the past, present and future:

PAST

Viking Landers

Our Viking Project found a place in history when it became the first U.S. mission to land a spacecraft safely on the surface of Mars and return images of the surface. Two identical spacecraft, each consisting of a lander and an orbiter, were built. Each orbiter-lander pair flew together and entered Mars orbit; the landers then separated and descended to the planet’s surface.

Besides taking photographs and collecting other science data, the two landers conducted three biology experiments designed to look for possible signs of life.

Pathfinder Rover

In 1997, Pathfinder was the first-ever robotic rover to land on the surface of Mars. It was designed as a technology demonstration of a new way to deliver an instrumented lander to the surface of a planet. Mars Pathfinder used an innovative method of directly entering the Martian atmosphere, assisted by a parachute to slow its descent and a giant system of airbags to cushion the impact.

Pathfinder not only accomplished its goal but also returned an unprecedented amount of data and outlived its primary design life.

PRESENT

Spirit and Opportunity

In January 2004, two robotic geologists named Spirit and Opportunity landed on opposite sides of the Red Planet. With far greater mobility than the 1997 Mars Pathfinder rover, these robotic explorers have trekked for miles across the Martian surface, conducting field geology and making atmospheric observations. Carrying identical, sophisticated sets of science instruments, both rovers have found evidence of ancient Martian environments where intermittently wet and habitable conditions existed.

Both missions exceeded their planned 90-day mission lifetimes by many years. Spirit lasted 20 times longer than its original design until its final communication to Earth on March 22, 2010. Opportunity continues to operate more than a decade after launch.

Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter

Our Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter left Earth in 2005 on a search for evidence that water persisted on the surface of Mars for a long period of time. While other Mars missions have shown that water flowed across the surface in Mars’ history, it remained a mystery whether water was ever around long enough to provide a habitat for life.

In addition to using the rover to study Mars, we’re using data and imagery from this mission to survey possible future human landing sites on the Red Planet.

Curiosity

The Curiosity rover is the largest and most capable rover ever sent to Mars. It launched November 26, 2011 and landed on Mars on Aug. 5, 2012. Curiosity set out to answer the question: Did Mars ever have the right environmental conditions to support small life forms called microbes? 

Early in its mission, Curiosity’s scientific tools found chemical and mineral evidence of past habitable environments on Mars. It continues to explore the rock record from a time when Mars could have been home to microbial life.

FUTURE

Space Launch System Rocket

We’re currently building the world’s most powerful rocket, the Space Launch System (SLS). When completed, this rocket will enable astronauts to begin their journey to explore destinations far into the solar system, including Mars.

Orion Spacecraft

The Orion spacecraft will sit atop the Space Launch System rocket as it launches humans deeper into space than ever before. Orion will serve as the exploration vehicle that will carry the crew to space, provide emergency abort capability, sustain the crew during the space travel and provide safe re-entry from deep space return velocities.

Mars 2020

The Mars 2020 rover mission takes the next step in exploration of the Red Planet by not only seeking signs of habitable conditions in the ancient past, but also searching for signs of past microbial life itself.

The Mars 2020 rover introduces a drill that can collect core samples of the most promising rocks and soils and set them aside in a “cache” on the surface of Mars. The mission will also test a method for producing oxygen from the Martian atmosphere, identify other resources (such as subsurface water), improve landing techniques and characterize weather, dust and other potential environmental conditions that could affect future astronauts living and working on the Red Planet.

For decades, we’ve sent orbiters, landers and rovers, dramatically increasing our knowledge about the Red Planet and paving the way for future human explorers. Mars is the next tangible frontier for human exploration, and it’s an achievable goal. There are challenges to pioneering Mars, but we know they are solvable. 

To discover more about Mars exploration, visit: https://www.nasa.gov/topics/journeytomars/index.html

Make sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space: http://nasa.tumblr.com

Will NASA send astronauts to the moon again or any other planet within the next ten years?

@nasaorion spacecraft will launch on the Space Launch system (the largest spacecraft every built, even bigger than the Saturn V rocket!).  Both are under construction @nasa currently, and this is the spacecraft that will take us beyond the low earth orbit of the International Space Station, whether that be the Moon, Mars, or beyond.  We will conduct test missions with astronauts on Orion in the early 2020s, and a first mission will take us 40,000 miles beyond the Moon!

Galaxy NGC 7714 After Collision : Is this galaxy jumping through a giant ring of stars? Probably not. Although the precise dynamics behind the featured image is yet unclear, what is clear is that the pictured galaxy, NGC 7714, has been stretched and distorted by a recent collision with a neighboring galaxy. This smaller neighbor, NGC 7715, situated off to the left of the featured frame, is thought to have charged right through NGC 7714. Observations indicate that the golden ring pictured is composed of millions of older Sun-like stars that are likely co-moving with the interior bluer stars. In contrast, the bright center of NGC 7714 appears to be undergoing a burst of new star formation. NGC 7714 is located about 100 million light years away toward the constellation of the Fish . The interactions between these galaxies likely started about 150 million years ago and should continue for several hundred million years more, after which a single central galaxy may result. via NASA

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Cassini Just Sent Back Closest Ever Images of Saturn, And They're Incredible

NASA's Cassini probe is plunging to its death. The nuclear-powered spacecraft has orbited Saturn for 13 years, and sent back hundreds of thousands of images. The photos include close-ups of the gaseous giant, its famous rings, and its enigmatic moons - including Titan, which has its own atmosphere, and icy Enceladus, which has a subsurface ocean that could conceivably harbour microbial life.

YO THAT SHIT BALLER AS FUCK HOLY SHIT

The Moon of Lakes and Rivers - Saturn’s moon Titan

Saturn’s moon Titan is the only world - other than earth - that we know has liquid’s pooled on its surface. Unlike Earth, Titan has lakes of liquid methane - you wouldn’t want to swim in these lakes.

Titan’s “methane cycle” is analogy to Earth’s water cycle. In the 3rd and 4th images above we can see clouds of methane in Titan’s atmosphere. Ever since NASA’s Voyager 1 spacecraft, we have known that the gases that make up Titan’s brown colored haze were hydrocarbons. The atmosphere of Titan is largely nitrogen; minor components lead to the formation of methane–ethane clouds and nitrogen-rich organic smog.

It is thanks to the Cassini spacecraft that we now understand more about the climate of Titan - though we still understand very little!

The Cassini Space craft has mapped most of the Northern polar region of Titan, this is the region that contains almost all of Titan’s lakes. Cassini is systematically sweeping across Titan and mapping the surface of this strange alien world. The image below is an example of Cassini’s mapping process:

Credit: NASA/JPL/Cassini