Phoenix Special - Phoenix and the Quest for Life - I > With Stuart Atkinson

Stuart Atkinson, spacEurope crew member, brave and intrepid outreacher, has the gift of the written word…
When I received his latest article to be published here (you can read the first part today, the second on Monday. Yes…another looong weekend ahead…), I must be honest, I read it several times before this time arrived. Why?
Because he puts the question in a way that makes sense to all of us, space exploration fans or the general public usually not enticed by this particular theme.
Head lices and life beyond Earth…who would have thought of that?
Yes…Atkinson…
My friend…I got all “evangelical” reading you. I know others will too.

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Phoenix and the Quest for Life - I

When I’m not writing or editing children’s astronomy books, or browsing the pages of unmannedspaceflight.com or spacEurope, I spend a lot of what I laughingly call my “spare time” giving illustrated talks and lectures about space exploration. I give my presentations to kids in schools, and to adult community groups too. It’s great fun, and worthwhile too; I’ll never get to fly into space myself now, I’ve realised grudgingly, but I like to think that one of the kids I’ve spoken to will one day become an astronaut, and fly to the Moon or even Mars because one of my Powerpoint presentations or workshops inspired them to when they were younger.

Every talk is different. Some audiences sit there, still and silent, like rows of zombies, as they look at the images and listen to the words. Other times the audience is so excited – by the subject, not by me, I’m sure! - that the school room or village hall I’m talking in resembles the cinema from the film Gremlins! But at the end of every afternoon or evening, when I ask if there are any questions, I can count on someone – whether the room’s full of spotty kids or grizzled oldies – asking The Questions.

There are four Questions, and they’re always asked. “How do you go to the toilet in space?” is a conundrum that occupies the evil mind of many children, and as I prepare to answer my grinning inquisitor there’s usually a teacher standing at the back of the class with a look of absolute dread etched on their face. “Have you ever been into space?” usually comes next, to which I reply, sadly, no, I haven’t, I’m too old – but you might go into space when you’re grown up! When asked question 3, “Is an asteroid going to hit us?” I resist the temptation to reply with an honest Yes, eventually! and instead I reassure my audience that it’s so unlikely to happen in their lifetimes it’s not worth worrying about. Probably. Perhaps. We’ll see.

Then, finally, there’s question 4. The Question.

“Why should we spend all this money on space when there are so many things wrong down here?”

I know what they’re expecting me to answer, I can see it on their faces as they sit there, arms folded, ready for a debate or argument. They just know I’m going to start preaching to them about how the exploration of space benefits mankind through the development of innovative new technologies (no, not non stick pans, madam…); how satellite communications have revolutionised our world; how the study of the planets helps us know more about the history and future of Earth…

So my answer comes as something of a shock.

“To look for aliens,” I tell them, looking them straight in the eye.

Boy, you should see the looks on their faces! Hunting for aliens? Seriously? That’s why we should spend billions of pounds or dollars or Euros sending golf-cart sized rovers to Mars and school-bus sized probes to Saturn?

Yes, I tell them, absolutely. Because in the end, that’s what it’s all about. We can't just go into space for the sake of it, we have to go for a Good Reason. The Right Reason. And even though its scientists and engineers, controllers and publicists all stress that Phoenix’s main mission is to see if the martian polar environment might once have been hospitable for life, and to look for and study any traces of water lingering beneath the surface there, we all know what it’s really going there for, don’t we? We all have a tiny flame of optimism and curiosity flickering and fluttering in our hearts - along with all the butterflies that are flapping about in our bellies - as Landing Day, May 25th, approaches. We want to know the answer to the ultimate and eternal space question, the question that has intrigued, frustrated and bugged the hell out of us as a species ever since the first person looked at Mars’ ruddy disc swimming in a telescope eyepiece.

Come on Phoenix, we’re all thinking, stop messing about and tell us: is there life on Mars?

After all, that’s what it’s all about, all this stuff with rockets and space-probes, space men and space women. Life.

As a species we are fascinated by Life. We are driven, with a ferocious, insatiable hunger, to learn all we can about its origins and fate, strengths and frailties, limitations and possibilities. Justifiably, we spend vast amounts of time, and money, trying to find ways of extending Life. Perversely, we spend even more time and money inventing, building and selling to others weapons to use to destroy Life.

And we look for Life with an obsessive passion. For centuries we have travelled the globe looking for new forms of Life in dense jungles, under the ocean and now beneath the ice. We are now, with ambition and optimism, starting to search for Life beyond Earth, and are fascinated by the possibility of its existence. That's why I got up so early, to see Life in the sky - or at least to see an intriguing panorama of potential homes of Life Out There. When I looked at Saturn last night, shining close to the bright Leonian star Regulus, just above the skeletal treetops, I knew that one of its moons, Titan, may have alien life on its slushy, cloud-covered surface, and maybe beneath the now-famous “Tiger Strip” fractures down near Enceladus’ south pole, you know, the ones that gush out water and all those yummy organic compounds. Whenever I look at Jupiter, flickering and flashing in the pre-dawn sky, I feel a familiar tingle when I thought about all the places Life may be lurking there: perhaps underneath the icy crusts of its moons Europa, Ganymede and Callisto, perhaps even within the storm-wracked clouds of the mighty gas giant itself, in the form of the lumbering, living zeppelins of the already greatly-missed Arthur C. Clarke’s imagination

…and if some optimistic exobiologists are right, then perhaps even the acid-saturated clouds of Twinned-With-Hell Venus, the gorgeous Morning Star which I’ve seen blazing above the mountains and fells of my Cumbrian home before dawn countless times, may harbour hardy alien microbes…

And of course, looking at the ruddy spark of Mars always sets me thinking about all the places Life might be clinging-on there: microbes could be hiding underground there, sheltering from the Sun’s sterilising UV glare, living on decades-apart sips of the red planet’s briny water; colourful colonies of bacteria could be clustered around small, volcanic vents in the shadowed depths of the sprawling Mariner Valley. Life might be even found within the rocks themselves, just as startled scientists found it hiding within rocks in Antarctica.

Life on Mars is no longer the stuff of science fiction. It could be somewhere. Anywhere. Maybe it’s everywhere, we don’t know! But thanks to Spirit, Opportunity, and a host of other probes we now know for a fact that Mars once used to be warmer, and wetter, more friendly towards the development of life.

And hey, something is putting that ammonia and methane into the atmosphere, right?

But we’re not content to look for life in our own backyard now. Now, while some astronomers search for primitive Life on the surfaces of Earth's sister planets with robots, others are designing telescopes that will one day take pictures of Earth-like worlds orbiting other stars. Within a decade we could have the first photo of a "New Terra", and surely, when it appears on websites, TV screens and the front pages of newspapers around the world, that first image of a tiny blue-green world shining like a painted marble against the blackness of deep space will have the same social impact as the first Apollo photo showing Earth as a whole disc.

But of course, the ultimate prize – our “Quest for Life’s” Holy Grail - is the detection of a signal from an alien civilisation, and as you read this, many scientists fascinated by SETI, the Search for ExtraTerrestrial Intelligence, are engaged in an epic search to locate that Grail. Some employ radio telescopes to listen to the Universe, using them as ultra-sensitive radio scanners that can monitor tens of thousands of bands at once. They hope to actually detect or even hear faint calls from advanced alien civilisations on planets orbiting distant, mysterious stars. Others are looking for flashes of light that might be laser beams fired at us from across the galaxy, containing words or even pictures from our faraway cousins…

The drama, romance – and frustration – of SETI isn’t restricted to professional astronomers. Around the world, more than five million ordinary men, women and children are engaged in the search too. Having downloaded special SETI@Home software onto their home (or work!) computers they can analyse the R2-D2 chirps, whistles and beeps detected by SETI telescopes and search for any ET signal they contain. They don’t even have to watch the screen while the software does its job; SETI@Home runs as a screensaver, chugging away while its host computer is idle. Around the globe, 24 hours a day, the hard drives of tens of thousands of unattended PCs spin and whirr as mailto:SETI@Hole software listens uncritically to the background muzak of the Universe, hoping to catch sound of a previously unknown, beautiful alien melody.

How ironic this development is! For decades, science fiction novels and movies have told us that the first ET signal would be detected by a geeky, white-coated astronomer in the strip-lit control room of a hi-tech observatory. Now, because of SETI@Home, the chances are it will be found by one of us. Perhaps a blue-collar worker who was driving a fork-lift around a factory warehouse will be the first human being in history to make contact with an alien intelligence. Or it might be a teenage girl who was out walking her dog when the discovery was made. Mankind’s first interstellar ambassador might be a ten year old boy, who was fast asleep, oblivious to the flickering of his PC’s hard disk light, when the first ET greeting washed over our planet…

Just think. It may even have happened already. It could be a Breaking News story on CNN, FOX, SKY or BBC News 24 now, as you read this at your computer…

So, you see, in the end, it's all about Life. Understanding, encouraging, creating Life - that’s what we, as a species, do. It may even be, in the grand scheme of things, why we're here in the first place. Maybe the scientists who dedicate their lives to solving the hallowed Drake Equation are wrong, and there are no other civilisations Out There. Someone has to be first, after all. If it's us, Man, then it might be our role, our responsibility, to spread life across the stars, across the Galaxy, who's to say otherwise?

But with exobiology dedicated missions to Europa, Titan and Enceladus decades if not generations away, the Quest for Life will focus on Mars for our lifetimes. Within three decades that Quest will take men and women to Mars, to plant bootprints in the tracks of Spirit, Opportunity and, hopefully, ExoMars too, but until then those robots will have to be our eyes and hands and tools.

Spirit and Oppy have been fantastically successful. They’ve survived technical glitches, software crashes, stalls and broken wheels. They refused to die when Mars itself tried to murder them by hurling a huge dust storm at them, darkening their skies and starving them of energy. They recently survived being caught in the “Master and Commander” like crossfire of the political and scientific civil war raging within NASA. They have not just survived, they’ve triumphed.

(continues...)

Through the Eyes of the Phoenix > Poster!

spacEurope’s headquarter is getting ready for the landing of Phoenix, to take place on May 25.

The poster signed by Peter Smith fits perfectly into the place giving it a whole new life, it is truly a design beauty (click the image to enlarge it) I can contemplate at the HQ's wall in this temporary location until I get a proper frame...

It deserves a proper frame...

Now I ask...what are you waiting for to send your participation to the Through the Eyes of the Phoenix competition and get a chance of winning one of those among other prizes?

Don’t forget, if Phoenix reaches Mars on the 25, your deadline is May 18!

For more informations regarding the competition click here and here.

The Universe. Yours to Discover. Every Day.

2009 is still some months ahead but will be, undoubtfuly, a great year for Astronomy.

400 years after the first use of an astronomical telescope by Galileo Galilei, the International Astronomical Union is aiming at a wider awareness of our place in the Universe, with the, UN designated, International Year of Astronomy 2009, engaging the population of the Earth, challenging young people to look above their heads and face a Universe, that, as the IYA2009 motto says, is theirs to Discover.

Let's look at the trailer...let's keep on spreading the message!

Pedro Russo, Mariana Barrosa e Luís Calçada...um orgulho saber-vos aí!

Over the Mountain of the Moon - II

This was the picture I wanted to post yesterday…
A view from my living room. (click to enlarge...)

Somehow it got lost in this computer’s treacherous memory.
Somehow it took me in another direction.

Somehow, through M. I have found myself battling with my own concepts.
Why space? Why space exploration? Why do we bother, why do we dream, why do we challenge, why do we Go?

This picture somehow illustrates that quest. This path that many ignore and from which much more will profit.
What does this picture from my hometown, Sintra, reveals us?
Earth, Man, Civilization, Discovery and Beyond.

We have gone that far.
We have gone this far, the Hour is to move Onward.

We, mere, ignorant, fans of space exploration, are not mere, ignorant fans of space exploration.

We are members of this expedition that has and will last for millennia.
We are those foreseeing the possible tomorrow.
We are those dreaming. And what would be of Man without dreaming?
Centuries have passed and we keep the candle lighten. As a beacon.

Today, in my country, we celebrate the Carnation Revolution, where common people made the difference, defining a new course for a decaying nation.
May we, the common people of the world, see beyond the numerous human made veils and embrace our common challenge: To go where we must go, to go towards our own destiny, over the hill, across the frontier.
To find our reflection in the Universe’s mirror.

29 Days to Mars, time to recover old words, time to recover new worlds.

What do we harvest from this adventure, from this unavoidable purpose of Mankind?
The roadmap for our own survival.
Man must return, in full strength, to the Spirit of Adventure and Discovery, to a new quest, first dreamed, then imagined and finally assumed as irreversible by our species’ core, offering consistence, permitting no retreat, embraced by all, towards the next step, that must and will be, the journey of the Human family, and its subsequent permanent settling Beyond Earth. Beyond ourselves.

We, Homo Sapiens, must not, and will not, fall in the traps of conformity and granted satisfaction.
For evolution to occur we must have, not only the will, but the daring to be the apple that returns to the branches, the tree that returns to the soil, the soil that returns to the meteor, the meteor that returns to the outset.
In order to evolve we must delve in our primeval past and bring back, to the present, the survivor and the adventurer in each one of us.

We are the vehicles for the Tomorrow.
From the deepest of us, among us, are already the future pilgrims of the Cosmos.
The future Homo Viator.
Far beyond the boundaries of our own planet lay all the questions, and even not reaching all the answers, in the process, we will be face to face with the wonder.
This are the lines we must follow, this is the Grail we must seek, a pilgrim’s dream, we will conquer the void, and there, on far lands, seeds will germinate, a smile will be seen, and a singing voice will be heard.
Dreams. Of future.
Of a future where we will walk distant valleys that were once fire and ice, fire and ice that were once dust, dust that was once star. The path is the return to the beginning of the whole, to where we, valleys, fire, ice, dust and star were one.

The future pilgrim is the entire journey and the distance in between, all the will to unite Earth and other shores.
The future pilgrim is, step by step, making his way, returning Home.

And everything will bloom from that picture’s formula…Earth, Man, Civilization, Moon and Beyond.

Beyond. As it has always been.

May we assume the resolute urgency of now.

Do we have a home for spaEurope M.?

More details soon...

Phoenix Special > 30 Days to Mars! > With Dr. Charles Elachi, Director of JPL

Dear SpacEurope readers

In 30 days, the Phoenix lander will arrive at Mars after journeying 295 days and more than 600 million kilometers. At 4:26 p.m. Pacific Time (23:26 Universal Time) on May 25, Phoenix will separate from the cruise stage to begin its entry into the Martian atmosphere. If all goes well, 12 minutes later the lander will touch down safely in the north polar region of Mars. And days later, Phoenix will be the first mission to reach out and touch the water ice on the Red Planet. Its goal: to study the history of water on the planet, and to determine whether the Martian polar environment has ever been habitable.

As we count down the days to landing, anticipation is building here at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California. Along with our partners in this endeavor – the University of Arizona, which will lead the science operations; and Lockheed Martin in Denver, where the lander was built – we have been very busy preparing for landing. Our teams have practiced multiple scenarios during operational readiness tests (some for landing, and others for surface operations) to prepare for the best, and the worst, of what Mars can throw our way. This Monday, April 28, we will review the preparations that have already been made, and on Tuesday the team will begin a final operational readiness test for that nerve-wracking event known as EDL, short for Entry, Descent, and Landing.

There’s no doubt that EDL is the most exciting time of a landed mission.
But while we have enjoyed two successful landings this decade with the twin rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, we are also reminded that landing on Mars is always a difficult proposition. Readers in the U.S. and Europe will recall that other spacecraft in the past 10 years have been lost at Mars during landing. So though we have enjoyed a string of successes, we remain aware that the overall success rate at the Red Planet is sobering - less than 50-percent. The safety margins, however, are acceptable, and the potential science rewards this mission offers warrant the risk.

To quote Theodore Roosevelt, "Far better is it to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checked by failure...than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they live in a gray twilight that knows not victory nor defeat.”

I’d like to acknowledge the men and women who have worked on the Phoenix project at NASA/JPL, Lockheed Martin and the University of Arizona. This incredibly dedicated and passionate group of people, all of them explorers in their own right, have applied themselves to the daunting challenges of getting this mission to Mars. Some of these individuals have been highlighted in a video series on the challenges, which I encourage you to watch at www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/phoenix.

Ahead of us are uncharted territories, both in terms of engineering and destination. I look forward to landing day and I very much appreciate your interest in the mission.
I hope you'll join us in watching the dramatic events on May 25 either on NASA TV or via the Webcast available at www.nasa.go/ntv.

Best Regards,
Charles Elachi
Director, Jet Propulsion Laboratory

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Editor’s note:

See how time flies? Seems like it was yesterday that we were signalling the passage of the half hundred of days for the landing of Phoenix and here we are, already, at a 30 days distance from accomplishing that goal.
Why the choice of those three letters, JPL, to mark this special milestone?

Although the Phoenix mission has the particularity of being led, for the first time, by a public University, the University of Arizona to be more precise, and from where spacEurope has already counted with the presence of key representatives, like the institution’s President, Robert Shelton and Peter Smith, the scientist leading this Scout Class Mission, it is indispensable to make reference to the other two vertices of the triangle…Lockheed Martin Space Systems (LMSS), responsible for the flight system management and, of course, JPL, the historic Laboratory is also involved, with a human and technological contribute indispensable for the success of the quest.
It was to JPL that PI Peter Smith delegated the project management, this is personified by Barry Goldstein, leading a team of engineers and scientists with a vast experience in space exploration missions.
Also from JPL is Leslie Tamppari, project scientist working close to Peter Smith on leading a team of scientists coming from many different nations and areas of expertise, making of this mission a truly international effort to know more about Mars.

JPL has been developing some hard work within the Phoenix mission since extremely crucial aspects of the mission are under the Laboratory responsibility, just check what those guys have on their shoulders…: the payload management, flight systems, mission operations providing the interface to the Deep Space Network, sending command sequences and receiving data, and maintaining the correct trajectory and performing the necessary adjustments, safely guiding Phoenix towards its destiny. Enough? No way…we need the most experienced ones to get a mission to the Martian surface…and where are they? Yes, you have guessed…
It will be also the JPL team to show the way to Phoenix through the (the palms of my hands are already getting sweaty…) Entry, Descent & Landing process.

And after a successful landing JPL will be still under the spotlight since instruments vital for the success of the mission have the Laboratory work on it, this is the case of the robotic arm onboard Phoenix, built by JPL, and the chemistry laboratory, that was assembled by the institution, and which will be capable of characterizing the soil and ice chemistry, providing long waited answers.

This are all the reasons that leaded me to think that it would be unforgivable not to make a special reference to the work developed by the laboratory that has taken us so far through its 72 years of history, that was why I invited Dr. Charles Elachi, Director of JPL, and also vice president of the California Institute of Technology, to share with the readers some of his thoughts regarding the Phoenix mission and this special milestone and to whom I would like to express my gratitude for accepting spacEurope’s challenge, offering us some of his, as we all are well aware of, precious time.

30 Days to Mars and counting!

Rui Borges
SpacEurope editor

Phoenix Special > Landing Site...or not

What you are seing above this words is what might become Phoenix’s landing site.
The location of the original image, which you may see here, takes into the heart of the mission’s landing ellipse center.

Phoenix will find herself at a martian region named Vastitas Borealis (Northern Plain, or Northern Waste), that’s where we can find “Green Valley”, an informal name given to the lander’s destination which has, forming its sides, a group of low hills called Scandia Colles.
You can have a better idea of what we are talking about by checking this PDF where the landing site is at the left edge, about 10 o'clock (thanks Phil!).
To know more about where we are headed and how will we reach it, visit Max-Planck-Institut für Sonnensystemforschung (MPS) site.

I have grabbed the referred original image and cropped into 6 pieces (click it to enlarge it...) that permits us to have an idea about what Phoenix will be facing down there.
Recovering PI Smith’s ideas from his participation at spacEurope’s Live Q’n’A, Phoenix’s landing site has been well imaged from space by the HiRISE camera, a 0.5 m telescope with resolution of rocks 1 - 1.5 m or greater. The team has found a safe site with few boulders to insure a safe landing. However, it will not be free of cobbles and smaller pebbles. Peter Smith revealed his curiosity about to see how these eventual stones have weathered over time and whether they are aligned with the polygonal boundaries that we can see in the images I have posted above.

Still following Smith’s thoughts, the site is a shallow valley and has undergone erosion which may leave signatures, there are few slopes in the neighborhood and the horizon should look extremely flat, so...no hills. However, this site is far from boring. It is close to a 10 km crater and it is probable that Phoenix will stand on the ejecta blanket containing material brought to the surface from depth, the lander will also step on the slope of a large volcano, Alba Patera, and therefore may encounter ash blown from the interior. Finally, the site is a shallow valley and has undergone erosion which may leave signatures.

One thing is for sure, for more efforts we develop we won’t be able to get there before Phoenix do so, cross your fingers, hold your breath, count the days...there are only 31 left.

Over the Mountain of the Moon

This is a view from my land.
A view towards where history and myth walk aside, where man and triton share an imaginary common existence.
This is a view from my land.

A bit of Earth, a bit of Mars, a bit of Moon.
A choice, an election, to be face to face with the wonder.
This is a view from my land.
Day by day witnessing the perfect relation between the celestial bodies.
This is a view from my land.
A view into the Beyond. Into New Worlds.
And this is why, when leaving, I always look back at Sintra, the mountain of the moon.
And this is why when the old volcano is already out of sight I look inside searching for its presence.

Tomorrow Portugal dresses itself in carnations and I will place myself on a different scenario, although transporting myself to another place where peace and beauty rule, I can’t avoid to make Byron’s words my own temporary farewell to the territory that conquered me.

“XVIII.

Poor, paltry slaves! yet born ’midst noblest scenes

– Why, Nature, waste thy wonders on such men?

Lo! Cintra’s glorious Eden intervenes

In variegated maze of mount and glen.

Ah me! what hand can pencil guide, or pen.

To follow half on which the eye dilates

Through views more dazzling unto mortal ken

Than those whereof such things the Bard relates.

Who to the awe-struck world unlock’d Elysium’s gates?”

Lord Byron, Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage

Feel free to check my not-really-updated photography blog dedicated to my hometown, but, really, better than seing those images is to be here in person...if you’re thinking about coming to this side of the world tell me something, I am sure we could have a good glass of wine and a great conversation!

Don’t forget to participate at spacEurope’s online competition, the clock doesn’t stop and you have only 24 days to send your participations.
In spite of traveling, this blog won’t be silent, tomorrow spacEurope welcomes a very special guest with a truly inspiring testimony. Don’t miss it.

Herschel Mission > Update

Good news coming from Herschel, ESA’s mission that will permit to observe and study relatively cool objects everywhere in the universe, from Earth’s vecinity to distant galaxies, retrieving a whole new encyclopedia about the birth and evolution of stars and galaxies.
The telescope’s mirror, with 3.5-m diameter, has been assembled on 16 April, with the payload and service module, completing the spacecraft structure whhat may be undoubtfuly considered a very significant milestone prior to the mission’s launch, slated for the end of 2008.

"A picture of the Herschel telescope resting on the cryostat, taken on 16 April 2008.

The Herschel telescope has been assembled with the payload and service modules, at ESA's European Space Research and Technology Centre, completing the assembly of the entire spacecraft. This powerful telescope will allow scientists to look deep into space, at long infrared wavelengths. Herschel’s spectral coverage, which ranges from far-infrared to sub-millimetre wavelengths, will be made available for space-based observations for the first time." Credits: ESA

Herschel telescope mirror is a fantastic work of science and innovation, since it was made from 12 silicon-carbide petals that were brazed together to form a single structure and coated with a layer of reflective aluminium, what permited to achieve a remarkably lightweight mirror.

For more information visit the mission site and stay alert for our Herschel Commander, Leo Metcalfe, Science Operations Manager, to soon arrive with his latest log entry where we will know more about this news and more...

You can read Leo Metcalfe's previous log entries here and here.

A Day for Earth. 33 Days to Mars.

Image Credit: Earth limb by ESA's Rosetta

Where are we headed? Living in times of paradox, times where we are able to visit and explore another worlds but also times where we can wipe ourselves out from the world that gave us birth and provided all the tools and shelter necessary for us to take the great journey towards the cosmos.

Where are we headed? Living in times of paradox, where we were capable of seeding the sense of vision, of hearing, of smell and of touch across the solar system and, at a same time, days where we are blind, def, forgotten of the scent and textures of our own planet.

Where are we headed? Living in times of paradox, able to have humans building the dream of a permanent presence of members of our species in space, while on Earth war, poverty, famine, ignorance, fundamentalism, pollution, rule our existence.

Where are we headed?
Back to the Moon and Beyond or back to the Stone Age and Oblivion?

Who are we? A species with the singular power to exterminate itself or the primates with a singular ability to resist adversity and to rise from the ashes of failures and fly like the Phoenix towards Mars? We are both.
A Day for Earth. 33 Days to Mars.
Time for reflection.

Phoenix Special > 34 Days to Mars! > Dig! Phoenix! Dig!

Want to know what will it be like Phoenix digging through Mars' arctic territory?

OK, your wish is granted:

This is, as Mark Lemmon describes in his latest blog entry at Phoenix website, an animation of 4 images of the trench from the lander Surface Stereo Imager obtained during the most recent simulations taking place at the Payload Interoperability Testbed.

According to Lemmon, although the colors are a little off due to the limitations of the PIT (warm camera, different lighting on the calibration targets and the trench), the camera did a great job capturing the size and shape of the trench.

This comes as a result of the latest exercise in simulating operations on Mars that took place last week where 3 days were spent running about 2 sols per day, doing an event called the Ice Thread Test.

Read it all here.

Enticing!

34 days to Mars!

Phoenix Special > Mars Express & Phoenix

When, on the 25th of May, Phoenix arrives at Mars, it will be welcomed by a fleet of three spacecrafts orbiting the planet.

This trio awaiting the newcomer is composed by NASA's Mars Odyssey and Mars Reconaissance Orbiter and ESA's Mars Express.

And it is about this lat mission that this is all about...NASA has requested the European Agency that MEx to monitor the nail-biting, never ending, 13 minutes that will take the Phoenix to enter, to descend and to land on martian ground.

A lot of work is being done back at ESA's Space Operations Centre (ESOC), Darmstadt, Germany...flight controllers started optimising the Mars Express orbit in November and December of the last year (final adjustments may still be required depending on Phoenix's final trajectory) with the objective of having the spacecraft in place to be a priviliged witness of the final stage of Phoenix's journey from the Earth to Mars.

But that's not all, onboard Mars Express is the Lander Communciations System (MELACOM), which was originally designed to communicate with the Beagle lander, so, what what have operations and flight dynamics specialists at ESOC do? They have taken advantage of the existing system design and EDL pointing mode that will allow MEx to point towards the newcomer during the Entry, Descent and landing phase.

How will this happen?
The European spacecraft will perform a high-speed slew as MELACOM tracks Phoenix, rotating about one axis at a two to three times faster speed than normal, then the system will receive data that will permit NASA to confirm Phoenix's speed and acceleration while it crosses the Mars atmosphere.

Another request coming from NASA to the Mars Express team was to designe and implement a 'lander pointing mode'. This will be of critical importance since it will permit the European mission, in case of anything goes wrong, to transmit telecommands to Phoenix and receive data from it on the surface.

Mars Express will, definitely, not be a mere spectator of the incoming show...several instruments onboard will be working hard...the mission's PFS (Planetary Fourier Spectrometer) will survey the martian atmosphere before and after descent, this will be of great importance for future eandeavours to the Red Planet since it will help to characterise how the descent trajectory will be affected by the atmosphere.
SPICAM, the Ultraviolet and Infrared Atmospheric Spectrometer, will sound measurements of the atmosphere, prior to EDL, to study the density of carbon dioxide at altitudes of 50 to 150 km.

Something that is leaving really curious is to know if the High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) will be able to image Phoenix as it arrives to Mars...

ESA will also, for the first time, support NASA with the delta-DOR equipment installed at the Agency's two deep-space tracking stations, in Cebreros, Spain, and New Norcia, Australia.

A lot of work originates a lot of questions...would you like to know more about what is the role that Mars Express will play during the arrival of Phoenix? And after? Is there something you would like to know in more detail? Is there a question floating in the air? Convince to come down and land at...yes, spacEurope's next Live Q'n'A. Answers will be here on May 8, nearly two weeks prior to Phoenix's landing, and provided by the ones with the knowledge to do so.

This time we will have not one, but two guests, forming a team to face spacEurope's readers inquisition.

Who are they?

Michel Denis, Head of the MARS EXPRESS Mission Operations Unit, and Mars Express-Phoenix Service Manager, Peter Schmitz.

We are going to be in good company, aren't we?

Don't miss it, bring what you can, take what you need on Thursday, May 8, 1200-1300UTC.

And now for something completely different...

I have received a phone call informing me that the prizes for the Through the Eyes of the Phoenix Competition are already at the Lisbon Airport waiting for me to pick them up...

And why, if I may ask, aren't your works already at my mailbox? Give it a go! Have a creative weekend!

Phoenix Special > 40 Days to Mars! > With Nicholas Previsich

We’re here, at spacEurope, still on the aftermath of yesterday’s live Q’n’A with Peter Smith, where we have seen our visitors questions answered by the mission’s Principal Investigator and which I believe it turned out to be a very pleasant and enriching hour, yes I know…it should have been two or three but the PI has some considerable tonnes of work in his hands to assure that everything will be ready for May 25.
Today we keep focused on Phoenix but from a different perspective…

40 days to Mars! Already!
Looks like it was yesterday that we were here celebrating the 50 days missing!
40 Days to Mars and 33 days for you to send your creations to the spacEurope/Phoenix Mission Outreach Through the Eyes of the Phoenix Competition! Don’t miss the opportunity to get the kids and yourself participating in a special way on a mission about to change our knowledge about Mars and get yourself a really cool souvenir from the Mission!
spacEurope’s crew is really excited about the days to come and as one of our resident columnists wasn’t able to be present on yesterday’s party, nothing like posting some words from him as a way of saying:
Nick…we don’t forget you!

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Polarizing Thoughts

In 40 Earth days, Phoenix will land in the far north of Mars and show us a mysterious region on a planet that is itself the very incarnation of mystery. What is it, exactly, about the polar regions of planets that seems to captivate us and remain romantic, no matter how many times we've visited these places on our own world?

Polar areas are almost inevitably much different climactically from the other areas of a world, even if a planet's "climate" consists only of the amount of solar heating over a given period in hard vacuum. There also seems to be some sort of prediliction for geophysical differences as well. The North Pole of Mercury may have the volatile residues of long-dead comets, a potential bonanza for future explorers and colonists. Tantalizing hints of similar deposits near the South Pole of the Moon are under serious investigation, and if confirmed may be a primary motivation for us to finally establish our first true foothold beyond Earth. The frigid organic lakes of Titan are found only near its poles, and the geysers of Enceladus vent silently into space from its south pole.

The poles are different even on worlds radically dissimilar to the solid bodies we prefer to inhabit. Saturn features an enormous hexagonal circulation feature -a geometrical standing wave of hydrogen and helium, primarily- in its north, and a perpetual vortex bigger than a thousand hurricanes large enough to swallow all we are and ever have been in the south. The unique nature of polar regions extends far beyond planets, our precious grains of sand in a Universe large beyond comprehension. There is mounting evidence that so-called "hypernovae" produce gamma-ray bursts -the most energetic events known- and they are radiation beams emitted along the spin and/or magnetic rotational axes of exploding stars. Even more significant, active galaxies with tremendous black holes at their core often emit jets of radiation along their spin axes, via mechanisms still to be fully explained. Poles are mysterious, magical, and active locales. Suffice to say that the poles of almost any large rotating body tend to be unique places.

Is this why we seek to know them? On Earth, the oceans of the polar regions are cold, and therefore can retain more dissolved oxygen then the temperate regions; that's why animals such as the giant Pacific octopus or the king crab are found here and nowhere else, as well as abundant large fish of many species. We go there on Earth because experience and exploration has shown that there are riches to be found. It's only natural that we'll do the same on other worlds. Phoenix may land on a polar seabed, possibly the altered remnant of an ocean that might well have been blooming with nascent organisms long before life was even possible on our own world. Underneath, there is ice; is it another artifact of a long-dead sea, or of more recent vintage? Moreover, if there ever was (or is) any Martian life, is it as tenacious as its terrestrial cousins? Life on Earth just doesn't give up. If there's even the narrowest ecological niche available for survival, rest assured that some organism will exploit it. It is not unreasonable to expect the same tenacity born of the fundamental drives of evolution from extraterrestrial life.

On Mars, on every place, the poles are unusual locales for many reasons. As it happens, the extreme latitudes of Mars may just be the most habitable regions of the planet, and with luck we may see just how special they are with our own eyes via a marvelous construction of our ingenuity and imagination in less than two months.

Nobody really knows what we'll see. That's why we're going. That's why we've always gone.

Nicholas Previsich

Phoenix Special > Live Q'n'A with Peter Smith - Principal Investigator

This thread is now closed, time now to return to that nail biting period taking us from here to May 25…spacEurope thanks you all who visited and Peter Smith for his precious time.

41 Days to Mars!

EDITED: Peter Smith will arrive spacEurope at 1800UTC.

Counting from now, 1700UTC and until 1855UTC you can leave your questions to Phoenix Principal Investigator.

As I hope you might have read already, spacEurope will welcome today, April 14, the visit of a very special guest, Phoenix Scout Mission Principal Investigator Peter Smith.

And what is the reason for this presence?
As Phoenix is now, nearly six weeks, 44 days left, on its final stretch towards Mars, we all want to know more about the first mission to reach the planet’s north pole and who better to answer your questions than its Principal Investigator?

If you are a regular visitor of this blog you already know how this Live Q’n’As work.
If it is a first time you can always check the previous one that counted with the participation of Jorge Vago, ExoMars Project Scientist.

You can start participating one hour (1700UTC) before the arrival of our guest, which will arrive here around 1800UTC, I, or other spacEurope crew member, will announce that this same post is now on LIVE mode, then, you can start leaving your questions, wishes, suggestions, etc.

How to proceed?
The easiest way is to enter spacEurope via its main page, there, at the bottom of this same post click where is written 0 (or another number) COMMENTS, click it and you are at Live Q’n’A ground…leave your words in the “leave your comment” section, as time will be limited try to make concise and clear questions, allowing Peter Smith to answer as much requests as possible during the hour (until 1900UTC) he will stay with us.

After doing so you will find a NICKNAME box, you are not obliged to do so but please, identify yourself with a name, use a nickname if you prefer and, if possible, indicate your location (city and country).

Another thing, don’t post or access ANY link in the COMMENTS section and remember to refresh the page from time to time to check for new questions or comments.

In case you have any doubt about how to participate please feel free to send me an e-mail.

Interaction is the word! spacEurope counts with you to make of this occasion a Phoenix celebration!

Onward!

Phoenix Special > 44 Days to Mars! > With Daniel Parrat

While NASA engineers have adjusted the flight path of the Phoenix Mars Lander, setting the spacecraft on course for its May 25 landing on the Red Planet, performing the first trajectory maneuver targeting a specific location in the northern polar region of Mars, result of the analysis of HiRISE that prompted the Phoenix team to shift the center of the landing target 13 kilometers (8 miles) southeastward, away from slightly rockier patches to the northwest, confirming the final landing site, as announced by Ray Arvidson to this blog on the 50 days to Mars celebration, here on Earth, 44 days to Mars, it is time to know what has Daniel Parrat, a spacEurope reincident, been doing since his last and precious participation (read it here and here) in this blog in the days preceding the launch of Phoenix.

Daniel has moved in Tucson about two months ago, to be closer to where the action is taking place and is now working on the microscopy station of MECA, i.e. the Optical Microscope (OM) and the FAMARS instrument at the Phoenix Science Operations Center.

Let’s see what is happening over there as the clock seems to run faster and faster towards May 25!

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"My work here mostly consists in the preparation of the operations. The first part of the job is some training for my role during the mission. I will be an ISE (Instrument Sequence Engineer) for the microscopy part of MECA, meaning that I will uplink the sequences controlling the OM and FAMARS. These sequences have to be prepared and validated well in advance, and only small changes (notified in advance) are made the day they are sent. John Michael Morookian, from JPL, has written most of the MECA sequences (VML language), and I have made small contributions for the AFM and the OM. The sequences for the first week of the mission are already "frozen", meaning that any change that we would like to make to them has to be approved by a team led by the mission manager. Most of my work now is to determine if the set of sequences that we have created until now is sufficient, and if changes have still to be done. The validation process is very rigorous, with different software simulations and runs on a flight-like testbed. The possible problems regarding running MECA in parallel with other instruments of the mission is also critical.

We have also gone through a certain number of "real time" trainings. During these tests, we were operating the PIT (payload interoperability testbed) as if it was the real spacecraft. We were working on Martian time, and sometimes during the night. The last "surface" training, the "characterization phase dry-run" consisted in reproducing the first week of the mission, using the "frozen" sequences that I have mentioned.

We try to make some tests on the hardware to improve our knowledge of the experiments that we will do on Mars. These tests encompass topics such as sample delivery to MECA by the Robotic Arm, AFM targeting of particles based on OM images, determination of the best exposures for the OM, removal of bad AFM tips, etc.

Finally, some documentation has to be written for use during the operation. These documents describe the capabilities of the instruments, their calibration, the kind of data they can produce. The Phoenix science team will need these pieces of information when taking decisions during the mission.

The next training is ORT10, which will take place in May, a couple of weeks before the landing. It will consist in doing the first three sols of operations, i.e Sol 0, Sol 1 and Sol 2.

We are very close to the landing now; it is really exciting, but it also requires a lot of work for the whole team!"

Editor’s note: Urs Staufer, Co-Investigator, Atomic Force Microscope, Soil Analysis, who introduced me to Daniel, was, at the time, at University of Neuchatel and is now professor at the University of Delft but, as indicated by our guest, will continue to work on the project, especially during the operations.

Through the Eyes of the Phoenix - Online Competition Update

Online Competition Update

As some of you might be aware of, spacEurope, in association with the Phoenix Mars Mission Outreach Program, is hosting an online competition focusing on what will be like the landscape that Phoenix will see when open its eyes on May 25.
You can read more about it here.

The reason for this update is to get things into place, organizing some items and clarifying some aspects of the competition.

So…here we go…

Timeline
Works started being accepted on April 2 and the deadline to send your participation is fixed at 11:59PM UTC of May 18.
Each author may send a maximum of two works, any technique is accepted into competition as long as you are able to photograph the final result and send it to spacEurope’s mailbox, in *.jpg format with a minimum 300dpis of resolution.
With the works you must send your name, age, city, country. We ask you also to give a title to your work.

The jury will then, between 00:00AM UTC May 19 and 11:59PM UTC May 23, evaluate your pieces of Martian arctic and vote, deliberating who are the winners on two different categories: -12, the ones completing 12 years until 11:59PM UTC May 24, and +12, the ones completing 12 starting on 00:00AM UTC May 25.

Who’s the jury?
As indicated in the opening post of the competition, this one is composed by spacEurope’s crew: Rui Borges, its editor, Lewis Dartnell, the blog’s resident astrobiologist, Nicholas Previsich, responsible for the “The Dream Unfolds” column, and Stuart Atkinson, also a resident columnist, in charge of the “Through the Clouds to the Stars” section, beyond us, there is someone directly linked to the mission, Carla Bitter, Education and Public Outreach Manager for the Phoenix Mission, but also, time permitting, Mark Lemmon, Phoenix Scout Mission Co-Investigator, SSI Lead, will help us deciding.

The prizes are as follow…(EDITED due to a copy paste mistake...):
-12 – 1st Prize: A book (yet to be decided among the competition jury…EDITED: Already decided...Stuart Atkinson, spacEurope's crew member, member of the jury and also an author as kindly made a copy of one of his books available) + a mission poster signed by Phoenix’s Principal Investigator, Peter Smith + a mission t-shirt
- 2nd Prize - A mission poster signed by Phoenix’s Principal Investigator, Peter Smith
- 3rd Prize – A mission poster signed by Phoenix’s Principal Investigator, Peter Smith
+12 - 1st Prize: Our resident astrobiologist’s book: Life in the Universe: A Begginers Guide, signed by the author, Lewis Dartnell + a mission poster signed by Phoenix’s Principal Investigator, Peter Smith + a mission t-shirt
- 2nd Prize - A mission poster signed by Phoenix’s Principal Investigator, Peter Smith
- 3rd Prize – A mission poster signed by Phoenix’s Principal Investigator, Peter Smith

spacEurope will contact the winners, to request an address to where the prizes can be sent, before the public announcement of the results, these will be made public during May 24, the day before the landing of the Phoenix.

We are counting with you!

Just Phobolous!!!

Click to enlarge.

"The High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter took two images of the larger of Mars' two moons, Phobos, within 10 minutes of each other on March 23, 2008. This is the first, taken from a distance of about 6,800 kilometers (about 4,200 miles). It is presented in color by combining data from the camera's blue-green, red, and near-infrared channels."

More here.

50 Days to Mars! - Post-weekend reactions

I know...I should have anticipated it, usually most of the people don't work on weekends and that was precisely the time when I tried to contact the personalities I wanted to be part of the celebration of Phoenix's 50 days to Mars.

Now, only 47 days left, it is time to start harvesting some of those reactions, one of those was from Jim Bell, from the Mars Exploration Rover mission, posted yesterday in the 50 days to Mars! post.

Today we have the pleasure of counting with Rosaly M. Lopes-Gautier, volcanologist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, involved in, both, Cassini-Huygens and New Horizons mission but who didn't miss the opportunity to adress some words to the fellow space explorers in the Phoenix mission:

"There is great excitement here at JPL as Phoenix approaches Mars. We are all looking forward to learning more about Mars, but we also know that every landing on Mars is challenging. On May 25, Phoenix will spend 7 minutes descending on Mars, and I must say we will be a little nervous during that time.

Three spacecraft currently in orbit around Mars will listen to Phoenix, the orbits of these spacecraft have been tweaked so that they are in the right positions to be able to do that. This will be something of a record, to have three orbiters track Phoenix as it descends and lands. The data stream from Phoenix will be relayed to Earth throughout the spacecraft's entry, descent and landing events. If all goes well, the flow of information will continue for one minute after touchdown. This will make it an exciting landing to watch from here.

After landing, Phoenix will spend 3 months investigating Mars. It will use a robotic digging arm and other instruments to tell whether icy soil of the Martian arctic could have ever been a favorable environment for microbial life. The lander will also look for clues about the history of the water in the north polar region and will monitor weather.

I have several friends working on the mission (I work on Cassini) so I will be celebrating with them and will wait with great interest the science results that will follow."

50 Days to Mars!

EDITED: If we had already a reaction from the MSL mission, which, if all goes well, will be the following mission after Phoenix to reach martian ground, from the Mars Exploration Rover Mission, Phoenix's predecessor, our dear Jim Bell has also expressed his wishes on the passage of this nice round number for the Phoenix team...:

"All of us involved in the Mars Exploration Rover mission are wishing our Phoenix mission colleagues the best of success as they head into the "home stretch". We know that they have all been working very hard to prepare for the landing. When Phoenix opens its "eyes" on sol 1, I think that the view is going to be stunning, beautiful, and probably not at all what any of us is expecting. Mars has a way of surprising us, time after time!"

Within a few hours from the time I am writing this words we will be celebrating a significant milestone in the journey of Phoenix towards Mars, the countdown digits for the landing will reach the 50 days for the arrival of the mission to the north pole of the Red Planet.
Only a mere 1200 hours separate us from witnessing Phoenix reaching unknown territory, with all the justified emotion that a mission that was reborn from ashes due to will of people who dared not to quit dreaming.

During the last days I have been thinking on how to celebrate the occasion.
So…that is the reason for me being here on this beautiful Saturday...bringing you some special interventions and announcements.

Where to start?

With a very special reaction coming from someone who will, soon, be at spacEurope for an audio interview, Dr. Ashwin R. Vasavada, JPL, Deputy Project Scientist for the Mars Science Laboratory, which we all expect to succeed on being the next mission to land on Mars:

"I am sure that all of us on the Mars Science Laboratory project are starting to hold our breath in anticipation of the safe arrival of Phoenix to Mars. I personally can't wait to see the icy high latitudes for the first time! Having worked earlier on the unsuccessful Mars Polar Lander, it's a thrill to see Phoenix carry the torch on trying to understand the climate history and habitability of Mars.
See you on Mars, Phoenix!"

Now some news and announcements…spacEurope was informed that, while Phoenix smoothly makes its way towards Mars, here on Earth, fortunately opposing to earlier reports pointing to a delay in the scheduled activities, everything is going just perfectly regarding the Payload interoperability testbed, or PIT, for the closest friends…

A very important note received on my yesterday’s e-mail marathon came from Ray Arvidson, Phoenix’s Co-Investigator for the Robotic Arm.
The Professor had some very special news for spacEurope’s readers: according to the Co-Investigator, the team has confirmed the mission’s final landing site on the last week. So…what scenario will we be facing? Quoting Arvidson, Phoenix will find a location dominated by smooth, relatively rock free plains with numerous periglacial polygons where the team expects water ice to be only a few centimeters beneath a cover of loose regolith. I will try to bring us more details on this as soon as possible.
Ray Arvidson also revealed the expectations of the Phoenix family towards May 25th: to see the surface from a landed perspective and begin the excavation, sampling, and analyses of the ice deposits. I will try to have more details on this as soon as possible.

So, now we have a better idea of what will we see then…this can be useful for those participating in the Through the Eyes of the Phoenix online competition organized by spacEurope in association with the mission’s outreach.
Still on this issue, even knowing that the man must be drowned in work until his neck, I have invited Mark Lemmon to be part of the jury.
Well…as I write this that is, time allowing, a possibility.
Let us cross our fingers and hope that the mission’s image guy can dig out some minutes to check your works.

Let me see what more spacEurope goodies I have here…another very important aspect will be ESA’s Mars Express support, as required by NASA, for the EDL of Phoenix mission, about this you will be able to, soon, listen to a special update post with Michel Denis, ESA Mars Express Spacecraft Operations Manager, clarifying what will be the role of the European mission.
Regarding this, I am really curious to know if it will be possible for the High Resolution Stereo Camera onboard the orbiter to see Phoenix as it entries and descends towards the surface of Mars…just stay alert, juicy news on the way…
Also for the upcoming days expect some surprises coming from spacEurope’s residents…I have assigned Nicholas Previsich in a very special mission, let us see how it works out…

Stuart Atkinson prepared a truly inspiring article to be posted in soon and Lewis Dartnell, our resident astrobiologist is also getting his ideas into place to present you an article on Phoenix’s relevancy for the search of life beyond Earth…
You have all the reasons to expect plenty of exciting moments as the countdown for the arrival of Phoenix at Mars is unstoppable.

And…last but not the least… as the perfect way to wrap this post, I have received yesterday a truly appreciated e-mail that leads me, proudly, to an official announcement:
Peter Smith, Phoenix Principal Investigator, has confirmed his presence at spacEurope on April 14 (only 9 days from now…) for a live Q’n’A with the readers of this blog, so, get yourself prepared, think about the questions you may have about the mission and submit these when the day arrives, I assure you our PI will not disappoint you.

For now, from sunny Sintra, this is it.
Wish you all a perfect weekend!

Onward Phoenix!

30000 VISITS POLL

To improve.
Day by day. Visit by visit. View by view.
That is where I aim at when speaking of spacEurope.
To make of this blog a place recognized by its quality, reliability and its informative and educational value without leaving aside the passion for the role of man in the adventure of Discovery. To put it simple, without this passion there wouldn’t be spacEurope. Ambitious goals for a mere blog, but achievable with the help of all those participating in its daily development.

If we were commemorating not long ago, at January 11, a year of spacEurope and previously, in ten months of activity, the 10000th visit to the place now, in, half the time, we have reached the 30000 visits...
This is a sign that something has changed, in my opinion, for better, in the beginning of spacEurope’s second year of activity, this implicates, therefore more responsibility ahead, for which I, and I am sure, this blog’s residents, happily assume as a challenge.
We will keep on working, we hope you will keep on reading our work and may this evolve as time grants us more experience.

A very important aspect is your feedback. It helps spacEurope to gain awareness of how is our work being appreciated so, please, if there is anything you would like to express feel free to write down your critics, ideas, suggestions.
Do you have your own article idea? Submit it to spacEurope and we’ll talk about it.
Everyone can make the difference, everyone can help spacEurope reaching further ahead.

Starting today you will see with some regularity a new feature in the right column of this blog, a poll, in which I ask you, the visitor, to participate in.

Today, and until the April 11, the question is what do you value more at spacEurope?
The alternatives in which you can vote are:
-Regular written interviews;
-Mission special features ;
-Video posts
-Audio posts
-Opinion articles
-Live Q’n’As

If there is another item you would like to make reference to, in this case we expect you to inform us, via e-mail, of your preference.

Weekend is just ahead, enjoy it the best way you can and don’t forget to get your Phoenix and ATV homework made!

Now…back to space.