ExoMars Update Week > Special Announcement

Jorge Vago, ExoMars Project Scientist, as, kindly, made himself available to be at spacEurope, live, answering YOUR questions.

It is with great pleasure that I invite you to visit this blog on Saturday afternoon and to write down your what you would like to know about the mission in the comment box of a special post that I will create for the occasion half an hour (4.30PM GMT) before the arrival of our guest at 5PM GMT that, during one hour Jorge Vago will be here, giving his insights, answering the visitor's interrogations.

As wine or hors d'ouvres are items difficult to bring to a blog I count with your best questions...

More details soon.

ExoMars Update Week > Pasteur Instruments

Introduction, Q'n'A, now, this third step of the ExoMars week walk, is dedicated to the Pasteur instruments, those to be included in the mobile element of the European mission, the Rover.

The following information, which I have condensed in a graphic in order to permit a better understanding of what will be the role of each one of the instruments, makes reference to a payload that is, as indicated to spacEurope by the mission Project Scientist, Jorge Vago, as definitive as it can be in the present time.

Click it to see it:

Tomorrow: Humboldt Instruments

ExoMars Update Week > Q'n'A with Jorge Vago - Mission Project Scientist

After yesterday's introduction here we are for ExoMars Update Week’s second day.
And what’s in it?

There has been some lack of information about this particular mission, the latest ExoMars-Pasteur Progress Letter available, the most comprehensive tool to understand what is happening in the European Rover domains, is dated from from October 2006.

Although knowing that this mission, due to its complex nature and development, has some understandable discretion in the releasing of critical information, my curiosity as space exploration follower and as a taxpayer helping to fund such an ambitious mission, spoke louder, therefore I have decided to contact Jorge Vago, ExoMars Project Scientist, who, with appreciated will and promptitude, agreed on unveiling some aspects of the mission that have already passed through decisions and developments.
What you will read next is, I am afraid as our guest is, the result of the possible Q’n’A, the one that time (always the time factor…) permitted.

First of all, the silence around this particular mission as induced to a series of doubts concerning its launch date, that has been presented, officially, as 2013.

That was, obviously, one of the questions on the table.
What had Exomars’ Project Scientist to tell us about this particular issue?

The aim is pointed towards the same launch window, 2013, to be even more specific, December of that same year, around 2130 days and counting…
Although all efforts are being conducted to respect this frame, Jorge Vago presented to spacEurope a backup date that will serve as a scenario if things doesn’t work out within the five years separating us from the predicted mission launch: January 2016 is now announced as the month to target to if, let us hope not, ExoMars will depart towards Mars if an earlier lift-off is not possible.

Lift-off…that takes us to another topic where some doubts exist concerning definitive decisions, what is, now, the most plausible option for the launch of the ExoMars mission?
As clear as he could be, Jorge Vago told spacEurope that the present baseline points to the use of an Ariane 5 ECA launcher, although mission planners still include the Russian Proton M rocket as a backup option.

In earlier occasions it has been indicated that ExoMars might include an orbiter that could serve, at a same time, as a science instrument and, an aspect becoming more and more crucial, as a way of transmitting data acquired by the ground segments back to Earth.
Everything indicates that this will not happen, as the mission’s Project Scientist revealed to spacEurope, the present mission concept does not include the referred Orbiter.
So…how will the work done by both, the Rover and the Lander instruments, be delivered to scientists back on ExoMars’ planet of origin?
For this operations, as Vago states, ExoMars will have to count with a collaboration from the opposite margin of the Atlantic, data relay will be performed by NASA, either using the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) or one of the satellites that the American Agency is planning to launch in 2013 and thereafter.

Now…landing sites…are decisions already being taken concerning this particular aspect of the mission? Yes, but things won’t become definitive soon…
As our guest indicates, the path being followed is similar to the one taken with the MSL which, predicted to launch in the upcoming year has not yet reached a final decision, the European mission is expected to finalise this process until 2012.

Another relevant discussion in the last Pasteur Letter available concerned the viability of including the Geophysics and Environment Package (GEP) in the mission, the answer to this question was already in yesterday’s post but here it is presented in a clearer way, Jorge Vago tells us that yes, the GEP is alive and well, still included in the Lander as part of the mission.

Airbags, a crane, an innovative method…how will ExoMars reach the Red Planet’s ground?
Things weren’t quite understandable in this field.
Jorge Vago takes us along the European mission’s final steps prior to the beginning of its martian life, put your helmet on and enjoy the ride:

The Composite (Carrier + Descent Module) will arrive to Mars in late 2014.

It will go into a parking orbit and wait there approximately 1 year, until the atmospheric conditions are optimal for landing (sufficient atmospheric density and no danger of dust storms).
Then? The Composite will execute a manoeuvre at apogee to retarget the spacecraft for the entrytrajectory. Two days later, the Carrier will separate the Descent Module, which will then enter the atmosphere.

The Carrier will burn up.

The Descent Module will brake using its heatshield, from approximately 25 times the speed of sound to twice the speed of sound.

Thereafter, a first drogue parachute will deploy to reduce the speed to subsonic.

After this, the 25-m diameter main parachute will open. The last stage of the descent is performed with throttable liquid rocket engines which will compensate the horizontal wind component and stop the Descent Module in mid air, about 10 m from the ground.

The Lander will then be dropped and the Descent Module backshell will fly away.

As it falls, the Lander will inflate six vented airbags to cushion the impact with the Martian surface without any bounces. These airbags are, as Vago indicated, a new technology specially designed for this mission.

After landing, the six petals will open, the Rover will deploy its solar panels, and, as our ears, eyes and heart await, ExoMars will contact Earth.

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Tomorrow: Pasteur Instruments

ExoMars Update Week > Introduction

Starting today and during the following days of this week you will be able to read here, at spacEurope, some new information and important updated details about ESA’s quest for the exploration of martian ground.

It feels good to have news from the ExoMars front...

In order to give a start to this special issue, nothing better than a brief introduction to the mission, provided by Jorge Vago, ExoMars Project Scientist, who I thank for his time and patience and that also made himself available to answer some questions regarding some practical aspects of the mission, you can read about this tomorrow, Wednesday.
Thursday and Friday will be days to check out what is the current status of the instruments for both payloads, Pasteur and Humboldt.

Step by step, the pilgrim rover will reach its destiny...

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Introduction

ExoMars is the first mission of ESA’s Aurora exploration programme.

The mission will demonstrate key technologies and perform novel scientific investigations in support of the Aurora programme’s objectives.

ExoMars will develop and demonstrate the following technologies:
- Entry, Descent, and Landing (EDL) of a large payload on the surface of Mars;
- Surface mobility with a Rover having several kilometres range;
- Access to the subsurface with a drill to acquire samples down to 2 metres;
- Automatic sample preparation and distribution for analyses with scientific instruments.

The ExoMars mission’s scientific objectives, in order of priority, are:
- To search for signs of past and present life on Mars;
- To characterise the water/geochemical environment as a function of depth in the shallow subsurface;
- To study the surface environment and identify hazards to future human missions;
- To investigate the planet’s subsurface and deep interior to better understand its evolution and habitability.

Establishing whether life ever existed, or is still active on Mars today, is one of the outstanding questions of our time. It is also a prerequisite to prepare for the future human exploration of the Red planet. ExoMars will, therefore, deploy a Rover, carrying a comprehensive suite of analytical instruments dedicated to exobiology and geology research: the Pasteur payload. The Rover will travel several kilometres searching for traces of past and present signs of life, collecting and analysing samples from within surface rocks and from the subsurface, down to a depth of 2 m.

The ExoMars Rover surface operations will be complemented by the Humboldt Payload, to be accommodated in the Geophysics and Environment Package (GEP). Following the Rover’s egress, the Humboldt station will be activated to study the environment and measure planetary geophysics parameters important for understanding Mars’s evolution and habitability.

The Rover’s Pasteur Payload, with its comprehensive suite of analytical instruments dedicated to exobiology and geological research, includes a drill (for accessing underground material down to a depth of 2.0 m) and a Sample Preparation and Distribution System (SPDS) integrated with the instruments, for collecting and analysing samples. The Drill represents a key element for the scientific success of ExoMars.

NASA’s successful 2004 MER rovers were conceived as robotic geologists. They have demonstrated the past existence of wet environments on Mars. Their results have persuaded the scientific community that mobility is a must-have requirement for future missions. Recent discoveries from ESA’s Mars Express have revealed multiple deposits containing salt and clay minerals that can only form in the presence of liquid water. This reinforces the hypothesis that ancient Mars may have been wetter, and possibly warmer, than it is today.

NASA’s 2009 Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) will study surface geology and organics, with the goal of identifying habitable environments.

ExoMars (2013) is the next logical step. It will have instruments to investigate whether life ever arose on the red planet. It will also be the first mission combining mobility and access to subsurface locations where organic molecules may be well-preserved; thus allowing, for the first time, to investigate Mars’s third dimension: depth.

This alone is a guarantee that ExoMars will break new scientific ground.

The geophysics and environment measurements to be performed with the Humboldt Payload of the GEP will also provide unique and novel scientific results.


GEOLOGICAL CONTEXT:

To effectively achieve the objective of searching for traces of extinct and/or extant life on Mars, the Rover must include the capability to identify and obtain the best samples to search for signs of life. This requires a step-wise exploration approach, starting with panoramic investigations, progressing to smaller scale measurements, and culminating with the acquisition of samples —with a subsurface drill— for analysis in the Rover laboratory.

ORGANICS/LIFE:

To search for past or present life, Pasteur must accommodate a suite of organic analytical instruments to detect organic compounds in the Martian subsurface with very high sensitivity. The recommended suite can characterise a large range of molecular sizes, from simple organic compounds to polymers, including their structural information. It will also study the oxidation environment in the shallow subsurface and atmosphere, which may play an important role in the alteration of organic substances.

The recommended suite will provide unprecedented levels of sensitivity, specificity, and analytical confidence.


HUMBOLDT PAYLOAD

ENVIRONMENT:

The environment suite of instruments will provide, for the first time, important data on Martian physical and environmental properties, including radiation (UV and ionising), dust, humidity and meteorology.

GEOPHYSICS:

A number of instruments will be devoted to the study of interior planetary processes important to understand Mars’ long term evolution.

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Tomorrow: Q’n’A with Jorge Vago, ExoMars Project Scientist

As soon as it was possible, here it is, an updated status report about TandEM as provided to spacEurope by Athena Coustenis, the Project Leader:

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The new year finds us in a frenzy of activities as ESA has been very active in commencing the studies for the TandEM space mission.

We have had a kick-off meeting between ESA representatives, the ESA study teams (headed by Jean-Pierre Lebreton) and myself on January 10, at ESTEC.
Following that meeting we have learned that there is a lot of work to be done in order to fully define our scientific objectives and the payload requirements within the next couple of months.

The European Science Study Definition Teams have also been set up. They consist in three core/coordinating teams, one per mission and one interface team.

They will be coordinating scientific inputs with all of the TandEM members and also with specific working groups which will be constituted by a larger number of members around the following themes:

- Mission analysis
- Atmospheric environment
- Surface, interiors and planetary protection

These groups will be better defined soon and will start working in the coming months.

For the TandEM members and SDT Teams, we are preparing meetings and workshops in the coming months. There will be a kick-off meeting for the study teams on February 13 at ESTEC. Then we're planning for full-members workshops later in the year.

That's all for now,we're hoping to hear more soon from the other side of the Atlantic about the Flagship Titan study and I'm hoping for a close collaboration between ESA, NASA and their partners.

After a long time since the last chapter, I’ll conclude today the TANDEM triptic, started in the end of October, focusing on the proposed mission’s payload.

There are some aspects that make of this mission intending to explore Titan and Enceladus in depth that are truly tempting, one of this is the fact of TANDEM includes, in its design, an orbiter and in-situ elements. This opens opportunities for the development of both massive and smaller payloads and will permit to have a wider collaboration from a wider range of ESA’s member states and international pretenders, interested in providing instruments to study both moons.

TANDEM can become a wealthy inheritor…having Cassini-Huygens as an ancestor this can only mean that the better lessons will be learned and, if approved, it can mature its concept by counting with all the incoming technology under development for ExoMars.

By merging Cassini-Huygens experience and the constant evolution of, both, scientific and technological knowledge it can be expected a payload with novelties in what concerns the instruments concept itself, being the mission proposals aiming for an unprecedent detail and quality of the data acquired, also it is an objective of TANDEM to scan, thoroughly, all spectral ranges return of data where detail and quality is the and the thorough scanning in all spectral ranges.

TANDEM, although a specific mission, will work as a breakthrough ground for innovation, what are the areas that will deserve a special attention from the specialists involved in such a process and that will open new roads for the following adventures?
TANDEM will have, naturally, to improve Entry, Descent and Landing technics, learning from Huygens’ experience, aerocapture, the development of balloons, mini-probes and penetrators are also key areas where evolution will, inevitably, occur.

The predicted use of RTGs in the orbiter of this mission, will imply a deeper study of this kind of technology, what will, eventually, permit the development of smaller RTGs that could be used in a whole new set of exploration options, of which small balloons and longlived seismic stations are only two examples.
Solar power is also present at the proposal not only as a life support for the mission but also studied to be used as propulsion system.

The study of a tether system and surface sampling capabilities, the search for new paths that will permit science autonomy onboard the mission to be more reliable, through the development of better data selection, compression and storage techniques.
Communications and new trajectory designs for the probe, the landers and the penetrators releases on Titan and Enceladus, are also fields where minds will focus on with special attention.

Also the existing environment on the far Saturnian system will enable technological innovation here on Earth by permitting new miniaturization techniques in the microelectronics field, due to the relatively low radiation experienced by a mission like TANDEM, that allows the preservation of its functionality.


Coming soon: TANDEM Status Report

Now in...COLOR!

Hans Balsiger, from University of Bern, Switzerland,the Principal Investigator for ROSINA, Rosetta Orbiter Spectrometer for Ion and Neutral Analysis, and this blog’s last participation in its first year of activity, shares with spacEurope’s readers some of his personal insights concerning European space exploration.
Pessimism or a clairvoyant opinion fruit of experience?
To read and to think...

1 year of spacEurope:

Looking back (and forward) by a (semi-retired) scientist.

First of all congratulations for the 1st birthday. Keep going!

From my point of view as a space scientist this year had only few highlights and the projection of European space science into the future does not really excite me.

Positive from my point of view were, of course, the very successful manoeuvres of Rosetta at Mars and the Earth.

Especially the risky Mars swing-by, where the spacecraft was for long minutes out of communication and solar power. That was nerve-wrecking.

But as always the engineers at ESOC performed beautifully.

So Rosetta continues its long journey and will have its first scientific high-light when it visits the asteroid Steins in September.

In general all scientific missions in orbit are doing well.

Depressing is, on the other hand, the continuous lack of money.

It leads to the postponement of new missions and most of the missions selected for study in Cosmic Vision will, if chosen, have to be done in collaboration with other agencies.

The growth of ESA and its collaboration with the EU does not seem to improve the funding situation for science. And a sceptic like myself wonders if the planned merger of the mandatory science programme with the optional robotic exploration in one directorate will not be to the disadvantage of science.

Clearly, NASA science has often suffered from overspending in the technology programs.

So let's hope that these are only the nightmares of an aging professor, and let's cross our fingers...

Hans Balsiger

And just before the weekend (I'll be closer to the sea...), here is the second post (the first one is behind this clicking...) with spacEurope’s readers questions about the COROT mission and that were answered by Malcolm Fridlund, the mission’s Project Scientist.

Lyle T. Wallace, Madison, Wisconsin, USA, asked if the mission specifically target stars for theirpotential to harbor earth-like planets, here’s the reply, the targets are mainly of the solar type, and thus as far as the team understand this is where Earth-like planets should be, but this is, in Fridlund’s words, "science in progress".

A second question from Lyle seeks an answer we’re all waiting for…are any of the candidate light curves presently under review from potentially small rocky worlds? I believe we will have to wait, with our temperance button switched in the ON mode…COROT’s PS answer? “No comment :-)”…

Are you feeling teased once again?...

Lyle ends by asking if is it theoretically possible to use Corot in conjunction with other telescopes that are currently in operation to identify oxygen in the atmosphere of an exoplanet, in Malcolm Fridlund’s perspective this is something that he does not see happening.

Another spacEurope reader, Nicholas Previsich, also from the US, shoots the following one:
-Dr. Fridlund states that COROT can see starspots (and I'm assuming that this is done by detecting very small variations in the light curves of the stars). Is this data being used to derive the percentage of a given star's surface that's spotted? Seems like valuable astrophysical data worth acquiring & analyzing.

Let us read Malcolm’s answer:
-Yes, this is correct and we have a program for analysing spots, number andsize and relating this to other aspects of stellar physics (and the presenceof planets).

And a final one from me…I would REALLY like to know when will we be able to start seing results regarding the 40 sun-like stars...

Here is what the scientist has to say, Based on the work the team is doing at the moment they willappear one at a time with maybe a few weeks between each. So, what Fridlund can say is that there will not be any press releases about each one of these.

The mission’s PS revealed that he is going to suggest that the some kind ofweb news might be set up at the home pages of CNES and ESA for reporting each as they comealong. To close this post, Malcolm Fridlund told spacEurope that he believes that the publication date on these will be as the papers are submitted, at the moment there are three papers submitted about the first two planets.

This is it for now, have a perfect weekend.

From the stars to Santa Maria and back again...

It was yesterday that ESA’s new ground tracking station was inaugurated in the Azorean island of Santa Maria, Portugal.
Now part of the European net of…the station’s function will be to track launches from Europe's spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, as they pass overhead at 28 000 km per hour.

Santa Maria station joined ESA's ESTRACK network on 17 January 2008. Credits: ESA

The now operational station is one of the first ESTRACK stations with launcher tracking capability. The station has the potential track Vega and Soyuz and mid-inclination Ariane launch trajectories, but also ongoing Earth observation missions.

In early 2008, the station will track its first launch when Jules Verne, the first Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) to be sent to the ISS, lifts off from Kourou on board an Ariane 5.

Consisting of a 5.5-m antenna hard-wired on a stable concrete platform, Santa Maria's station is composed by a telecommunications equipment, a no-break power system, lightning protection and support infrastructure.

Santa Maria station - 5.5m antenna Credits: ESA

This are some technical details about it technical part of it...

Now, something more...

Santa Maria, that was the first island, with São Miguel, where the Discoverers settled, is one of the nine islands composing the Azores archipelago, rediscovered in 1427 by Diogo de Silves (the one in the little stamp on the right) and colonized by the Lusitanians navigators, that have made of this territory in the heart of the Atlantic an outpost on their quest for a new world, revealed in all its glory to those who, sailing the seas guided by stars, have proposed themselves to go Onwards.

Seing, in our days, Santa Maria as a link of the chain, as part of the adventure of Mankind on the quest for its place beyond Earth, navigating, now, in space towards new lands and those same stars that were once guides, it is with a thrilling emotion that an extraordinary image draws itself in my pilgrim’s mind…“my” Portuguese Discoverers, and others preceding them, were, at their era, the ones seeding evolution, from which we are the ones harvesting the fruits.

Padrão dos Descobrimentos, monument celebrating the Portuguese Discoveries, located in Lisbon. Credit: Dias dos Reis.

Impossible not to fantasize about the future path.
Impossible not to think a mere inauguration of a ground tracking station dresses itself with a deeper meaning. That event, when seen from another perspective, as a part of Mankind’s play in the goose game created by time and space, acquires a sense where I can’t avoid to think that stars gave us the matter from which we are made of, stars permitted us to appear and develop on this unique planet inhabited by unique creatures, stars were our gods, stars were our guides in a journey to know Earth and that will, ultimately, take us back to them, the stars where lays our origin.
We are on our way home.

A visit to Santa Maria would be quite pleasant, wouldn’t you agree?

Yes...I know...bad illumination...terrible sound...basic editing...and that anchorman!... but please...take in consideration that this is the first time I'm doing something of this kind... :-) More important...was it informative? Critics? Corrections? Ideas? Send me your feedback!

We didn't have to wait THAT much to be amazed, didn't we?... :-)

Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington

It’s a nice sunny day here on Mars, wasn’t it?...

This post title could be a dialog taking place over martian ground...

According to data acquired by the OMEGA Visible and Infrared Mineralogical Mapping Spectrometer instrument on board ESA’s Mars Express, the Red Planet has high-level clouds that are thick enough to make our idea of Mars dresses itself with some shadows...

spacEurope questioned OMEGA and SPICAM co-investigator, Franck Montmessin (Service d’Aeronomie, CNRS / IPSL / Université Versailles Saint-Quentin en Yvelines, France) about this latest results that were published in the 13 November 2007 issue of the Journal of Geophysical Research in a paper entitled “Hyperspectral imaging of convective CO2 ice clouds in the equatorial mesosphere of Mars” by F. Montmessin (Service d’Aeronomie, CNRS / IPSL / Université Versailles Saint-Quentin en Yvelines, France), B. Gondet, J.-P. Bibring, Y. Langevin (Institut d’Astrophysique Spatiale, Orsay, France), P. Drossart, T. Fouchet (Laboratoire d’Etudes Spatiales et d’Instrumentation en Astrophysique, Observatoire de Paris, France), and F. Forget (Laboratoire de Météorologie Dynamique, CNRS / IPSL / Université Pierre et Marie Curie, Paris, France).

I started by asking if there was any idea about what might be the duration of clouds located so high and with such great dimensions (this clouds are more than 80 km above the surface and they can reach hundred kilometres in size...), according to our guest these do not last more than a couple of days and probably sustain pronounced variations during the day.


These images show another high-altitude carbon-dioxide-ice (CO2) cloud detected in the equatorial region of Mars by the OMEGA instrument aboard ESA’s Mars Express about two weeks after the detection of another CO2-ice cloud on 12 June 2004. The shadow of the cloud can be spotted on the surface, elongating across the rim of an impact crater.
Credits: ESA/OMEGA team


About a possible mechanism that permits these to reach the referred altitude and size, Franck Montmessin helped me clearing up ideas regarding the altitude by explaining that they are not carried upwards but, instead, form locally.
In our guest’s words this formation occurs so high because this is the only portion of the atmosphere where temperature drops to sufficiently low values to permit CO2 condensation, CO2 ice being whatthese clouds are made of.
On the other hand, as Montmessin puts it, the question of size is more delicate. In fact, our guest tells us that it is not expected that a micron-sized particle remains aloft for longer than a few minutes since it would quickly fall under the action of gravity.

So...what might be the explanation? In OMEGA and SPICAM co-investigator opinion what seems likely is the possibility for these clouds to be maintained by convective updrafts which counteractgravitational settling and allow "large" particles to be kept aloft.

My following question was to know if, now that we can say that this clouds are thicker and composed of larger particles than expected, will this C02 ice precipitate itself back to the surface? And if so, in what conditions and shape? There will be no snow for astronauts to play with...
CO2 ice will fall and quiclky sublimate below the cloud level at high altitude before reaching the ground.

According to ESA’s release this clouds resemble tall convectional clouds that grow as the result of rising columns of warm air. I was curious to know if there is an Earth analogy that can permit us to better visualize this, Franck Montmessin helped us here, the closest parent on Earth would be cirrocumulus, which are convective clouds that form high and that usually prefigure the arrival of stormy weather similar to the one present below:


Image Credit: K Pilsbury

Not bad for a desert planet...

OMEGA’s imaged clouds can reduce the Sun's apparent brightness by up to 40%, which, according to our guest can cast quite a dense shadow and having consequences on the local ground temperature which can, in the shadow, be up to 10°C cooler than on the surrounding area, this will also have consequences in the local weather, mainly in what regards martian winds, Montmessin detailed it for spacEurope: winds are driven by temperature contrasts. And cloud shadows will create temperature gradients between areas located inside and outside the shadow . This will in turn generate air circulation that may oppose or combine with the background wind activity.

Those 40% of apparent brightness reduction can be a bit hard to figure for some people, at least for me...I imagined a scenario and presented it to our guest: Can we say that we are in a beautiful summer say noon and, passing one of this clouds we would be under a winter's afternoon end sky? I thought my estimative could be too extreme and exagerated...but, according to OMEGA’s co-Investigator, it’s not that far from the martian reality although you still couldn't face the sun directly.
These clouds, as pointed by Montmessin,compared to Earth standard, remain optically thin, however, clouds that occur that high in the Earth atmosphere (the so-called noctilucent clouds, aka the polar mesospheric clouds) are far thinner than the ones observed on Mars.

Another issue that made me think was the fact of one the hypothesis for the particles around which the CO2 ice condenses could be composed of dust or salt, which is the same to say that Martian dust could be carried to high altitudes, my doubt here was this: Can this mean that dust from a martian region can be coating, due to precipitation, another region with elements not originally found there? And might this represent a constraint to ground analysis revealing not the original materials but the transported ones? In our guest’s perspective that will not happen because of these clouds. But transport of dust particles which occurs naturally without the help of clouds could yield the kind of mechanism I described.

This high level clouds could have played an important role in the global warming of Mars...Could this mean that this clouds are somehow like an atmospheric fossil from the martian past?
The answer is No. But Montmessin tells us that they carry an important message because theirformation process should not have changed during those billion years and understanding them nowshould allow us to extrapolate the scheme back to the past.

And now from here, with this fresh new answers, to where? In which direction will the study go from here on? The scientist points the course: the study will be extended to elaborate a completeclimatology. Data will be compared to those of other instruments (SPICAM of Mars Express, for instance). Lastly, we have undertaken a work to simulate these clouds with sophisticated computer models, the same ones that are used by weather forecast to do weather prediction. This is the only way for us to access the detailed understanding of these clouds.

I knew Carlos Oliveira not long ago…
He is, like me, Portuguese, and, of course, an European, but he lives in the US of A…and that perspective I couldn’t let go…

...and it is always nice to read nice words about our work... ;-)

Carlos Oliveira is one of the responsibles for the existence of astro.pt, a Portuguese-written concept including an active mailing list and an updated blog, a precious outreach and learning tool, since there are not many with this quality, in my native language but he is also a PhD student in Science Education, with a minor in Astronomy and he designed and teaches an unique Astrobiology course at the University of Texas at Austin.…

Carlos…the pulpit is yours:

"Addressing the challenge proposed by Rui Borges, I’ll talk a little bit about my view of the European space outreach.
NASA achievements and Hollywood ideas dominated television and news for several decades. Thus, it’s no surprise that, in general, people were unaware of European space activities.

Six years ago, for my undergraduate thesis, I saw at first hand what other studies had been saying: the Europeans knew about the American Space Agency (NASA), but were oblivious about their own Space Agency (ESA). According to my study, 96% of all the interviewees knew NASA very well, but only 22% were aware of ESA.

And the interviewees were European people, living in Europe!

Yet, they had better knowledge about the agency in the other side of the Atlantic than its counterpart “at home”.
There was a clear need for ESA to change its relationship with the public. And it did. In recent years, Europeans are much more aware of their Space Agency and space news in general made by Europeans.

Some people may say that because there is more information available about everything, then it logically follows that there is also more information about Europe in space. That may explain part of it, but in my opinion currently space activities made in Europe are better promoted by Europe itself.

Reasons that contribute to this current state of affairs are for instance: ESA promoting and sponsoring European students to attend international space conferences, ESA sponsoring students into incredible opportunities (like a trip in the “Vomit Comet”), very successful space missions like the Mars Express, and so on.
In our country, Portugal, during the 1990s and into this millennium, there has been an increasing awareness of space related activities: PoSat, Visionarium, Centro Multimeios de Espinho, CAUP, NUCLIO, José Matos, João Magueijo, Pedro Russo, and many others, through different means, made the Portuguese people more aware of space-related issues, knowledge, and activities.

And of course, the Internet is also a huge booster in promoting space news in general and European space news in particular.
This is exactly where this blog comes into play. The success of this blog comes not just from the enthusiasm and dedication of its author – although these are very important characteristics – but especially because it fills a gap in the blogosphere: it concentrates especially on European space news.

As an European living in USA, except through the Internet, I have no access to European space news – television mainly, or even exclusively, shows American space news, which is understandable taking in consideration the strength of it worldwide.

Even on the Internet, American news are in majority in the space news agencies on the web. Thus, spacEurope is a breath of fresh air allowing its readers to know that Europe is also dynamic and ESA is achieving great feats. I hope that spacEurope in 2008 – and in the next 20 years – will continue to bring us the most needed knowledge about European space news."

MERCURY FLYBY1 PARTY - THE DAY AFTER (or when the juicy stuff starts arriving...)

EDITED AT 8:53AM(GMT)

Here we are...staring at Mercury's previously unseen side...

After a series of problems with several spacecrafts in the last hours, the downlink of data acquired during Mercury's flyby by the MESSENGER spacecraft appeared to be, somehow, compromised.

During the crisis of trying to re-establish contact with the Ulysses spacecraft after a loss of contact, the high rate downlink opportunity for MESSENGER was taken over. As Noam Izenberg told spacEurope the team had to renegotiate re-establishe a downlink schedule.

Seems now that things have worked out well and problems were solved permiting us to see a new Mercury...

............................................................................

EDITED AT 14:58GMT: Update with Louise Prockter:

"Things have been really busy here (...).

We are expecting the first images in about 2 hours from now, so the rest of the day will be crazy.

We are planning to release a number of images over the next few days, so you won’t have to wait until the 30th."

......................................................................................................

I have received some questions regarding the when, how and where will the data acquired during MESSENGER's close call to Mercury.

There is really a high level of curiosity to see the MDIS images...

I've adressed this question to Noam Izenberg, who, I hope, in order to face the next exciting hours, had a good, refreshing night of sleep...

Here's his take on the doubts regarding the following steps:

"The data downlink begins around noonish Eastern time US (GMT-5).

It should take several hours for the data to come down from the spacecraft, and then the Ingestion of the data to the Science Operations center - the translation of raw telemetry to files that can be examined and verified for initial scientific use - takes place either late today or early tomorrow morning, depending on how fast the data comes down.

I think, but am not 100% sure - so no promises - that some early images may be available by the end of the day today."

You have read...no promises...may patience rule our mood today...

EDITED: Just received an e-mail from Mark Perry with good news for those thinking that there wouldn't be no images prior to the 30th of January, according to the RS instrument scientist the team "will release at least one image per day for the next ten days, or so." although he does not know if the first image will be released by today or tomorrow.

Now…after yesterday’s MESSENGER’s rollercoaster...time to relax and experience something different...a special gift…

The blog is still, during this week, under the celebration of its anniversary. (EDITED: The Anniversary video has also been updated, check it here...)
One of the individualities I’ve contacted with those special requests only permitted to a small child like spacEurope was one of the “founding fathers”, Patryk Lykawka, the astronomer defending the existence of the Aernus planet beyond the Kuiper Belt, who was one of those who were present at the blog during its first year of life.

Lykawka is also a composer…

And, as an admirer of his work I came with a very special wish…
In what consisted? Nothing more nothing less than if he could, under his responsibility and personal taste, elect one of his musical pieces and permit it to be used as this blog’s official sound, some sort of hymn, something that, further ahead, could be identified as part of the whole functional building in which I want spacEurope to become: written words, a visual experience and a sonic component, working together for taking us along space exploration’s path.

The astro-composer said yes and presented me, not one, but two tracks…indecision took control.
But a decision had to be made, the original name of the composition is “Beast Dreams”…but somehow it sounds like “Aernus” to me and I hope, one day, it may be the soundtrack for a very special report: The confirmation of the existence of a certain far distant planet…

To Patryk my sincere “Thank you!”
And you…spacEurope reader, spectator and listener, take the following minutes to travel along something that will be part of this home from here on.

Enjoy!

EDITED: And that's a wrap!

We had a perfect flyby!

A really deserved success to such a great team.

Just a final adenda I wasn't able to post yesterday due to lost of access to blogger.

It's from Mark Perry:

"Rui,The radio-science aspect of the flyby went as planned. We were able to lock onto the spacecraft's signal and begin 2-way Doppler measurements in less then two minutes after MESSENGER came out from around the planet. So, we have Doppler data during closest approach. It will take at least a few weeks to analyze the data and extract the small signals that represent the non-uniformity in Mercury's gravity field.

Just as important, the radio signal showed that the spacecraft was still operating normally. There were no telemetry signals on the data, but the RF signal, itself, would have been different if the spacecraft had entered a safe mode.So far, so good!

Mark"

Now, let me just thank the members of the MESSENGER team for their efforts to keep us informed and you all who participated with a great mood in this party.

May the data flow! :-)

MERCURY FLYBY1 PARTY POST

Closer and closer...Today is flyby day!

Edited: There's video from images acquired between January 9 and 13

The MESSENGER spacecraft is now making its approach to Mercury and it will give our best regards and the announcement to our return to the planet at a distance of just 200kms…
To celebrate the occasion, and counting with the good will of some of the mission’s instruments scientists I have created this special post where interaction is the intended to be the key word…

How to participate?

Do you have a question? That’s even better…

If you click in the comments link below this lines you will be able to read updated information and curiosities straight from the mission’s HQ posted by some members of the team making this possible and you have the possiblity of writing there your own comments and questions regarding the event.

Noam Izenberg and Mark Perry, MASCS and Radio Science instrument scientists, and, time permitting (but highly unlikely...), Ralph McNutt, MESSENGER's Project Scientist and Louise Prockter, MDIS instrument scientist, spacEurope’s guests will start their collaboration today, the flyby day, but they’ll be around on Tuesday and Wednesday, the days where data starts arriving Mother Earth and where, as Noam Izenberg puts it "The _real_ fun begins"...

Remember, interaction is the word!

Go MESSENGER Go!

In the meanwhile, and as a way of inspiring our spacebased souls, a true spacEurope's friend, Nicholas Previsich, always present with his suggestions and critics, just sent me his impressions on the return to Mercury, let's read:

"MESSENGER- Filling In The Gap

"Hello. My name's Nick, and I've been a life-long space enthusiast, one of those 40-somethings that used to sit in my pajamas & watch early-morning Gemini launches way back in the day. My deepest thanks to Rui for this chance to step on the soapbox, and also congratulations for spacEurope's first year (...)!

In my earliest childhood, I was extremely impatient to see new worlds. I was dying to see the canals of Mars, the swamps of Venus, and the molten tin lakes of Mercury...and, of course, when we did finally see these places through our marvelous robots, things were far different then we'd thought. I was never disappointed with this, except for the fact that my inner child thought I'd be going there myself in the "Jetsons" worldview of the future that so many of us late Baby-Boomers took to heart as an expectation. Only recently have I realized how lucky I am, how lucky we all are.

MESSENGER will complete the reconnaissance of the inner planets of the Solar System. Consider that statement a moment, if you will. Fifty years ago--just fifty years ago--we as a species made our first tentative step into space with the launch of Sputnik I, and in just a few more years we will have complete maps of not only the terrestrial planets but also the major moons of Jupiter and Saturn. In fact, it is probable that we will have currently operational missions to all the classical planets of the ancients, with Dawn enroute to Ceres and Vesta (worlds in their own right) and New Horizons speeding to Pluto to boot.

Ptolemy, Galileo, Cassini, Columbus, and more--all our forbearers who yearned to see the next horizon or wondered what those moving points of light in the sky might be like--all would envy us today, for we see not the New World but dozens of them for the first time in human history. We are the fortunate ones after hundreds of generations to truly see new lands--and all in an historical blink of an eye.

I don't need my hovercraft, I don't need my robot maid; I'm more than content to see all of Mercury's surface before I die, to watch Titan slowly reveal its secrets, to watch Mars unveiled as a place of diverse wonders before my eyes, merely to name a few. To paraphrase the spacEurope slogan, we are indeed exploring space and seeding evolution, which is the realization of an ancient dream. They'll never be a time quite like this again, and we are beyond lucky to be here now.

NICHOLAS PREVISICH"

For more information regarding the flyby visit the mission's website.

That's my Stu!

What a day! :-)

Have a marmalade weekend!

Greetings.
This is Rui Borges (with Lhoba...) and spacEurope celebrates its first anniversary today.

I am a proud blogger…

From a small corner in my living room with a view to the Sintra mountain range, by the powers of the Internet, I earned access to a huge window to the Universe and its exploration by Mankind. Internet permitted, has never before, the almost immediate access of the general public to the data coming from operations taking place millions and millions of kilometres from home and the interaction with the people responsible for the missions.

It is still with a sense of awe that, I, from a generation where a minute in the night news and a small article in the daily newspapers was all we get. To see the exploration of the cosmos almost live, to make our questions reach those that can unveil answers in near real time is something quite extraordinary made possible by technological innovation, but having, in fact, a return from mission’s team members, although favoured by today’s communication readiness, is a question of human will to share science and knowledge but also the beauty and inspiration that only space exploration can offer us.

There was a kid who conceived, designed and launched missions towards the red planet with Lego bricks, who painted scenarios to fill his room walls in order to simulate the long journey towards Mars… Yes, Mars was my childhood passion but time and life imperatives put it in a higher shelve that only a few years ago I managed to reach. Like a treasure there it was, Mars again…
The responsible for that return, and ultimately for the existence of this blog, is a mission and, particularly, one person: The Mars Exploration Rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, and the man in charge, Steve Squyres, from Cornell University. All the words are not enough to say how that specific mission changed my, and others, view of space exploration in our days.

The MER mission is, clearly, the Alfa where spacEurope was generated. We, the general public, chasing abysses, climbing mountains, reaching craters, knowing a whole new world with people in charge telling us to follow them as a honorary part of the team…
The Ultreya quest, back at the Mark Carey Mars Forum and at Doug Ellison’s UnmannedSpaceflight (THE forum!) forum will always remain as one of the most incredible, enchanting periods of my life, a pilgrimage taking place outside the Earth.

Since those days, propelled by Squyres good vibrations, and as the good scientific ignorant I am, I started shooting questions in every direction when doubts popped out but things weren’t quite tuned yet…a more accurate objective was missing…

There was also another inspiration for this blog, an ESA contest (thanks Jacqueline!) that I almost won… ;-) The theme was about the importance of space exploration and its future under an European perspective, this made me think about what could be my contribute, as a common citizen, to inform and promote about what is done in Europe or by Europeans in this area. The aim was to help changing, in the measure of my possibilities, an installed general idea among people interested in space exploration that usually compare NASA’s and ESA’s way of informing and sharing data.

The European Agency suffered, and still does, from an image problem, being classified by many as a nest of specialists and bureaucrats not really interested in releasing information that taxpayers paid for… That was not my opinion, this is not my opinion…
I was determined to assure myself of this and to show that, from this side of the Atlantic, scientists, engineers, everyone working in this new period of Discoveries were as open minded and willing to interact with the general public as people from the western margin of the ocean. I wanted to know in more detail, and to share it with others, what was being done with the one-ticket-movie-money-a-year with each European, me included, supports ESA’s budget.

spacEurope was born.

And my image about ESA changed, improved, revealed me that behind ESA’s walls, there are human beings that can merge brilliant minds with great personalities and a true will to inform and spread knowledge. If more was not revealed that may be due to my time limitations and the lack of scientific knowledge to make the right questions at the right time…Mea culpa…
But I can say, at least, that during this year, I’ve been learning with the best teachers in each area… :)

I sincerely hope that this blog helped you getting a clear image of what is going on in European efforts towards space exploration. In the last year we have witnessed ESA changing its relation with the public, things will, I’m certain of this, improve even more from here on. A year and a tonne of questions after, it is the time for me to thank you all who visit, read and share your feedback and, obviously, those who participated and that, with immense patience and generosity, put up with my insistence and questions.

To you all here is my message, I will keep on doing my work, expecting that time will permit me to succeed in my efforts to make the quality of this blog grow in its second year of life. If the first year was, clearly, a period of experiences, some of these working and others not so quite, a period to test the ground and to build some bridges where the passage was insecure, a period for asking myself where do I want this place to be headed. spacEurope’s essence will remain being, entering its second year of life, to reduce the distance between the general public and the specialists taking us Onward.

As it was visible during the last months of activity I have decided to give attention to missions, discoveries and achievements taking place not only in good old Europe but a little bit across the world, from the US to China, from Japan to Canada… One of the reasons for that is the participation of Europeans in the focused subjects, the other…space exploration oblige… This will also continue because there are events that it would be a crime to not make reference to. From Europe to the world, from the world to the Cosmos…and back again in one single post… :)

May your feedback keep me on the right track in this new chapter for a blog made for you, the reader. On year 2 I invite everyone to bring something that can make this home a better place, a critic, an idea, a collaboration, helping making of spacEurope a blog where all of us, guests, regular visitors already part of the family and the occasional ones, have the right to a chair and to express their opinion. Once more, thank you and, now…under this words, my tribute to those (the visible ones…my gratefulness extends to all those working to make contacts possible and pointing a safe route…) who made this first 365 days of spacEurope possible: the guests:

MERCURY AHEAD!!!

"On January 9, 2008, the MESSENGER spacecraft snapped one of its first images of Mercury at a distance of about 2.7 million kilometers (1.7 million miles) from the planet. The image was acquired with the Narrow Angle Camera, one half of MESSENGER's Mercury Dual Imaging System (MDIS) instrument. Mercury is about 4880 kilometers (3030 miles) in diameter, and this image has a resolution of about 70 kilometers/pixel (43 miles/pixel). The MESSENGER spacecraft is fast approaching Mercury and will pass within 200 kilometers (124 miles) of the surface at 19:04:39 UTC (2:04:39 pm EST) on January 14, 2008."
Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington

EDITED:
In the meanwhile I have received some detailed information from Louise Prockter, MDIS instrument scientist:

"During the week leading up the flyby we are taking images for Optical Navigation.

Thirty hours before the closest approach point, we begin taking a 3 color movie of Mercury, which continues until about 2 hours before closest approach. We will be looking a crescent Mercury, and we will image some of the terrain that was observed by Mariner 10 back in the 1970’s. We then take a monochrome mosaic and an 11-filter color image of the same part of the surface.
During the closest part of the flyby, we are in shadow, so won’t be taking any images for about an hour. As we approach the terminator, we use the MDIS pivot to look ahead along the spacecraft ground track, and image a region that is in the sunlight part. Once we cross the terminator, we image this area another four times as we fly over it, in order to gather information about the texture of the surface as the viewing geometry changes. We also take our highest-resolution images of the surface at this time – from 100-200 m/pixel.

We are now taking images of the hemisphere of Mercury that has never before been seen by a spacecraft.
As we fly away from Mercury, we take a number of monochrome and color images of the same area, at a variety of resolutions down to ~1 km/pixel in monochrome, and ~5 km/pixel in color. Finally, about 2 hours after the closest approach point, we begin taking a monochrome departure movie, where we take 1 image every 5 minutes for another 18 hours.These images will be compared to the “known” hemisphere of Mercury, but they will be at generally higher resolution than Mariner 10, and some of them are in 11 filters instead of the 3 that Mariner 10 acquired."

UPDATE with Ralph McNutt

I was, in ingenuous mode, trying to see if something like...an OpNav image...would leak out of the MESSENGER team fortress.

Guess you can understand that don't you?...

I've contacted Ralph McNutt and asked him if he had already the chance of seing one of those "little treasures".

I got the feeling that he is teasing us...:

"The OpNavs began coming in yesterday morning. We have a beautiful crescent of Mercury centered in the imager field of view! There is a news telecon later today via NASA HQ (see our website page under “Calendar”) and the first of the OpNavs will be released at that conference and to the web site then."

Still in MESSENGER's Project Scientist words:

"I am currently sitting in our Quarterly Review with MESSENGER personnel and personnel from the NASA Discovery Program and NASA Headquarters – everything is “Go” for the closest approach, the first pictures of Mercury in almost 33 years, and the best scientific examination of that planet ever."

Spirit is high for the flyby!

EDITED:

NASA will host a media teleconference at 1 p.m. EST on Thursday, January 10, to preview MESSENGER’s historic January 14 flight past Mercury, on that same occasion will be released the first OpNav images.

The briefing participants are:
-Marilyn Lindstrom, MESSENGER program scientist, NASA Headquarters, Washington
-Sean Solomon, MESSENGER principal investigator, Carnegie Institution of Washington
-Eric Finnegan, MESSENGER mission systems engineer, Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, Laurel, Md.
-Faith Vilas, MESSENGER participating scientist and director, MMT Observatory at Mt. Hopkins, Ariz.

Audio of the teleconference available, live here.

Incoming images will find their home on this location.