Many folks would like to see us back on the Moon and developing its resources.

Tuesday, June 08, 2010

NASA's DC-8 Laboratory Heads to Australia for Hayabusa Re-entry - 06.07.10

Follow the updates for the Hayabusa Re-entry.
Watch those looking up by whatever means available.
- LRK -

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NASA's DC-8 Laboratory Heads to Australia for Hayabusa Re-entry - 06.07.10
http://www.nasa.gov/centers/dryden/status_reports/dc-8_status_06_07_10_prt.htm

A planeload of scientists and specialized instruments aboard NASA's DC-8 flying laboratory is scheduled to depart NASA’s Dryden Aircraft Operations Facility at Palmdale, Calif., for Australia Tuesday evening, June 8, to catch a glimpse of the fiery return of a Japanese spacecraft to Earth on June 13.

The group of astronomers from NASA, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and other institutions are flying to Melbourne, Australia to make final preparations for the highly anticipated return of JAXA's Hayabusa spacecraft, which may bring back to Earth a sample of the near-Earth asteroid Itokawa. Hayabusa is expected to re-enter the Earth's atmosphere and land in the Woomera Test Range in southern Australia late Sunday night, June 13.

The team of 27 astronomers will have their instruments focused out the DC-8's specialized windows as it cruises at an altitude of 39,000 feet, far above light pollution and clouds. Using their suite of spectroscopic and radiometric imaging instruments, they hope to get a clear reading on what happens during the fiery re-entry process when the spacecraft descends like an artificial meteor at more than 27,000 mph.

At the same time, ground-based observation teams will attempt to reconstruct the as-flown trajectory to correlate with the airborne imaging data.

Following its launch in 2003, Hayabusa arrived at Itokawa in September 2005 and observing the asteroid's shape, terrain, mineral composition, gravity and other aspects over the next 2  1/2  months. Hayabusa briefly touched down on Itokawa's surface that November to sample surface material.

NASA’s primary goal during the airborne mission is to study the re-entry of Hayabusa's 40-pound sample return capsule to enable heat shield designers and engineers gain technological insight for the development of NASA's future exploration vehicles.

Astronomers made similar airborne studies from NASA's DC-8 flying laboratory for the September 2008 re-entry of the European Space Agency's Automated Transfer Vehicle "Jules Verne," as well as the January 2006 Stardust sample return re-entry over Utah. During those missions, scientists studied the levels of radiation, light and out-gassing of the descending spacecraft, to better understand meteor and heat shield radiation mechanisms.

NASA's Science Mission Directorate is supporting the airborne observation of the Hayabusa SRC re-entry via the In-Space Propulsion Technology Project.

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http://www.redorbit.com/news/space/1876386/dc8_flying_laboratory_heading_to_australia_for_hayabusa_reentry/
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More information and images.
- LRK -

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http://www.nasa.gov/centers/dryden/multimedia/imagegallery/DC-8/index.html
Dryden Flight Research Center

DC-8 Image Gallery

DC-8
ED10-0145-34

Hayabusa re-entry imaging mission project scientist Peter Jenniskens of the SETI Institute and NASA's Ames Research Center and Christina Giannopapa of the Netherlands' Eindhoven University prepare lenses for one of the specialized cameras for installation on NASA's DC-8 flying laboratory

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Daily updates to Hayabusa.
- LRK -

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http://www.isas.jaxa.jp/home/hayabusa-live/
2010/06/09 12:53 JST: TCM-4 operation started, precise guidance to WPA
Category: 2010_English
Posted by: HayabusaLive
JAXA would like to announce that TCM-4 operation has commenced (12:30 June 9th, 2010 (JST)). It will take around 2 hours 30 minutes for ion thrusters to accelerate.

Hayabusa system is going well.

*TCM : Trajectory Correction Maneuver
*WPA : Woomera Prohibited Area

2010/06/09 12:53 JST: TCM-4 WPAへの精密誘導開始について
Category: News_jp
Posted by: HayabusaLive
はやぶさの運用に関して、6月9日 12:30(日本時間)にTCM-4を開始しました。
イオンエンジン噴射加速に約2時間30分を予定しています。

探査機の状態は良好です。

※TCM: Trajectory Correction Maneuver (軌道補正マヌーバ)
※WPA : Woomera Prohibited Area (豪州)

2010/06/09 09:00 JST: Today’s Hayabusa
Category: Location_jp
Posted by: HayabusaLive
Hayabusa is currently 1,989,730 km away from the Earth, located at 8h44m00s RA and
29.79 deg DEC (Constellation of Cancer), as of 00:00:00 UT, 09 Jun. 2010.
From Hayabusa’s point of view,
the Earth can be seen in a direction of Microscopium.

2010/06/09 09:00 JST: 本日の はやぶさ君
Category: Location_jp
Posted by: HayabusaLive
2010年06月09日00時00分00秒
(日本時間では、06月09日の09時00分00秒)現在のはやぶさ君は、
地球からの距離1,989,730 km、
赤経8h44m00s、赤緯29.79度(かに座)にいます。
はやぶさ君から見て地球の方向には、けんびきょう座が見えます。

2010/06/08 19:44 JST: TCM-4 operation decision
Category: 2010_English
Posted by: HayabusaLive
JAXA would like to announce that it was authorized to implement TCM-4.

It is scheduled to conduct on June 9th 12:30 (JST).

*TCM: Trajectory Correction Maneuver

2010/06/08 19:44 JST: TCM-4実施判断について
Category: News_jp
Posted by: HayabusaLive
はやぶさの運用に関して、TCM-4を実施することが決定しましたのでお知らせいたします。

なお、TCM-4は、6月9日 12:30(日本時間)開始を予定しております。

※TCM: Trajectory Correction Maneuver (軌道補正マヌーバ)

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I guess we will have to make the most of what our robot/spacecraft friends can do.
And if you enjoy Power Point Presentations, we probably will be seeing more of them..
http://www.nasa.gov/exploration/new_space_enterprise/home/workshop_home.html
May 25 - 26, 2010 Moody Gardens Hotel & Convention Center Galveston, TX
- LRK -

Thanks for looking up with me.
- LRK -

Web Site: http://lkellogg.vttoth.com/LarryRussellKellogg/
BlogSpot: http://kelloggserialreports.blogspot.com/
Comments accepted here - http://lunar-update.blogspot.com/
RSS link: http://kelloggserialreports.blogspot.com/atom.xml
Newsletter: https://news.altair.com/mailman/listinfo/lunar-update
==============================================================
http://www.jaxa.jp/projects/sat/muses_c/index_e.html
snip
HAYABUSA, which was launched on May 9, 2003,achieved its goal of arriving at the Itokawa asteroid and performing scientific observations. As a result, its mission was featured in the scientific magazine "Science" as a first Japanese mission to illustrate various new findings about the asteroid including its gravity and surface conditions. HAYABUSA is now under preparations for its return trip to the Earth in 2010.

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http://www.jaxa.jp/press/2010/06/20100605_hayabusa_e.html
The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) would like to announce that TCM-3 operation was successfully completed (1:44 p.m. June 5th, 2010 (JST)).
By this operation, Hayabusa was guided from Earth's outer rim toward WPA in Australia.

http://www.jaxa.jp/projects/sat/muses_c/index_e.html
Launch Date 13:29, May 9, 2003 (JST)

HAYABUSA (MUSES-C) has been developed to investigate asteroids.
HAYABUSA explored an asteroid named "Itokawa," after the late Dr. Hideo Itokawa, the father of Japan’s space development program. HAYABUSA is traveling through space using an ion engine.

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http://hayabusa.jaxa.jp/e/index.html
HAYABUSA - The Final Approach  -

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WHAT THE MIND CAN CONCEIVE, AND BELIEVE, IT WILL ACHIEVE - LRK

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Sunday, June 06, 2010

HAYABUSA heading to Australia

Wish the Japanese luck in retrieving the capsule.
- LRK -

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http://www.jaxa.jp/projects/sat/muses_c/index_e.html
June 5, 2010 Updated
HAYABUSA heading to Australia
JAXA confirmed that the third trajectory correction maneuver (TCM-3) was successfully carried out for the Asteroid Explorer "HAYABUSA" at 1:44 p.m. on June 5 (Japan Standard Time.) This operation completed the guidance of the HAYABUSA from the Earth's outer rim to the Woomera Prohibited Area in South Australia.

snip
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http://www.jaxa.jp/press/2010/06/20100605_hayabusa_e.html
The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) would like to announce that TCM-3 operation was successfully completed (1:44 p.m. June 5th, 2010 (JST)).
By this operation, Hayabusa was guided from Earth's outer rim toward WPA in Australia.

http://www.jaxa.jp/projects/sat/muses_c/index_e.html
Launch Date 13:29, May 9, 2003 (JST)

HAYABUSA (MUSES-C) has been developed to investigate asteroids.
HAYABUSA explored an asteroid named "Itokawa," after the late Dr. Hideo Itokawa, the father of Japan’s space development program.  HAYABUSA is traveling through space using an ion engine.

snip
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How long did it take the Japanese to send a spacecraft to an asteroid and back, about 7 years.
And that is with the assistance of an ion engine.
- LRK -

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http://www.jaxa.jp/projects/sat/muses_c/index_e.html
snip
HAYABUSA, which was launched on May 9, 2003,achieved its goal of arriving at the Itokawa asteroid and performing scientific observations. As a result, its mission was featured in the scientific magazine "Science" as a first Japanese mission to illustrate various new findings about the asteroid including its gravity and surface conditions. HAYABUSA is now under preparations for its return trip to the Earth in 2010.
snip
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Hmmmmm, In Russia we are practicing for a 520 day mission to Mars and back and here we have a mission to an Asteroid that took 7 years.  I wonder if we will practice that on the ground with humans who will want to twiddle their fingers for seven years to look at an asteroid up close and personal?

Radiation suits in order, hide in the water supply, tend the garden, recycle, recycle, recycle, for what, to say been there, done that?
Will we pick an asteroid that has a lot of nickel or platinum and bring it back to Earth orbit where it can be mined.  Or land it on the Moon where we won't be waiting, since we have been there already and done that.
- LRK -

http://www.permanent.com/a-geolog.htm
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http://chview.nova.org/station/ast-mine.htm
While asteroids are rich in the metals and minerals needed for needed for building space facilities, comets are rich sources of the water and carbon-based molecules needed to maintain life. According to John Lewis (a University of Arizona planetary scientist), for example, the smallest Earth-crossing asteroid 3554 Amun  (see orbit) is a mile-wide (2,000-meter) lump of iron, nickel, cobalt, platinum, and other metals; it contains 30 times as much metal as Humans have mined throughout history, although it is only the smallest of dozens of known metallic asteroids and worth perhaps US$ 20 trillion if mined slowly to meet demand at 2001 market prices.
snip
http://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/sbdb.cgi?sstr=amun;orb=1  3554 Amun (1986 EB)
http://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/sbdb.cgi?sstr=amun;orb=1;cov=0;log=0;cad=1#cad
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- LRK -

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http://www.csmonitor.com/Science/2010/0604/Falcon-9-launch-takes-place-after-aborted-attempt
Falcon 9 launch takes place after aborted attempt

 By Clara Moskowitz, SPACE.com Senior Writer / June 4, 2010

The brand new commercial Falcon 9 rocket soared into orbit from Florida on its maiden flight Friday, the first test for a new era of private vehicles that could one day send cargo – and possibly astronauts – into space.

snip
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Falcon 9 will at least get cargo to the ISS but then ESA can already do that and so will the Japanese and the Russians have been doing it for us for awhile.
http://www.esa.int/esaCP/SEMDYOK26DF_index_0.html
http://www.jaxa.jp/projects/rockets/h2b/index_e.html
http://onorbit.com/node/1246
- LRK -

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http://www.spacex.com/falcon9.php
Falcon 9 User's Guide (2.9 mb)

The Falcon launch vehicle family is designed to provide breakthrough advances in reliability, cost, flight environment and time to launch.  The primary design driver is and will remain reliability, as described in more detail below. We recognize that nothing is more important than getting our customer's spacecraft safely to its intended destination.

Like Falcon 1, Falcon 9 is a two stage, liquid oxygen and rocket grade kerosene (RP-1) powered launch vehicle. It uses the same engines, structural architecture (with a wider diameter), avionics and launch system.

snip
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I wonder how I say, "to the moon" in Chinese?
I guess I should get my Chinese dictionaries down and dust them off. or use Google -
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http://translate.google.com/#en|zh-CN|to%20the%20Moon

to the moon
到月球
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- LRK -

Thanks for looking up with me.
- LRK -

Web Site: http://lkellogg.vttoth.com/LarryRussellKellogg/
BlogSpot: http://kelloggserialreports.blogspot.com/
Comments accepted here - http://lunar-update.blogspot.com/
RSS link: http://kelloggserialreports.blogspot.com/atom.xml
Newsletter: https://news.altair.com/mailman/listinfo/lunar-update
==============================================================
-- Hatch closed! 18-month Mars500 mission has begun
http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewpr.html?pid=30962
-- Mars500: Goodbye Sun, goodbye Earth, we are leaving for Mars!
http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewsr.html?pid=34244

"Mars500, the first full-length simulated mission to Mars, started today in Moscow at 13:49 local
time (11:49 CET), when the six-man crew entered their 'spacecraft' and the hatch was closed.
The experiment will end in November 2011"

The mood was serious, intense but very determined in the Mars500 facility at the Institute of Biomedical Problems in Moscow this afternoon, as the crew of the Mars500 talked to the press and and then walked into the modules that will be their home for next 520 days.

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http://spaceandtelecomlaw.unl.edu/c/document_library/get_file?folderId=152502&name=DLFE-7251.pdf
Asteroid Mining Article References
Minerals of Interest Date: 2008.08.07

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http://www.nss.org/settlement/asteroids/sonter.html
The Technical and Economic Feasibility of Mining the Near-Earth Asteroids

M J Sonter. Presented at 49th International Astronautical Federation Congress, Sept 28 - Oct 2, 1998, Melbourne, Australia. Posted withpermission of the author.

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WHAT THE MIND CAN CONCEIVE, AND BELIEVE, IT WILL ACHIEVE - LRK

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Thursday, June 03, 2010

See you in 520 days – or today @esa.int

Well if I can't mention going to the Moon, maybe an article about simulating going the Mars will have to do.
Wherever you are going to find yourself in a confined space with a group of fellow humans, you have to be able to get along.  The long flight to Mars and back and a short stay there, will test your ability to control your emotions.

I found that a five week leadership course in the Navy with two others in my room was a real test.  One of my roommates was so neat you just wanted to scream, and of course I could never get my towels to hang perfectly.  Then getting a demerit for a chicken feather on your bed didn't help much either.  Not leaving your cramped quarters for 520 days will be hard even if you don't have to worry about being zapped by a Solar storm or hit by a meteorite.
- LRK -

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-- Hatch closed! 18-month Mars500 mission has begun
http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewpr.html?pid=30962
-- Mars500: Goodbye Sun, goodbye Earth, we are leaving for Mars!
http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewsr.html?pid=34244

"Mars500, the first full-length simulated mission to Mars, started today in Moscow at 13:49 local
time (11:49 CET), when the six-man crew entered their 'spacecraft' and the hatch was closed.  The experiment will end in November 2011"

The mood was serious, intense but very determined in the Mars500 facility at the Institute of Biomedical Problems in Moscow this afternoon, as the crew of the Mars500 talked to the press and and then walked into the modules that will be their home for next 520 days.

snip
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http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewsr.html?pid=34244
 Mars500: Goodbye Sun, goodbye Earth, we are leaving for Mars!

STATUS REPORT
Date Released: Thursday, June 3, 2010
Source: ESA Mars 500
http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Mars500/index.html
3 June 2010

This is the first entry of the Mars500 mission diary by European crewmembers Diego Urbina and Romain Charles.

Hello,

If you are reading these lines, I guess that you already know most of the technical characteristics of the Mars500 project. For our first diary, I would like to write some lines about our training and how it is from the inside.

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I hope you caught that this is being conducted in Russia.
- LRK -

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http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100602/ap_on_re_eu/eu_russia_mission_to_mars
Russia launching 520-day Mars mission simulation

 By VLADIMIR ISACHENKOV, Associated Press Writer Vladimir Isachenkov,
Associated Press Writer   – Wed Jun 2, 9:43 am ET

MOSCOW – A manned mission to Mars may be decades away, but an international team of researchers will try to experience what one might be like by locking themselves up in a windowless capsule for a year-and-half — the time needed for a roundtrip to the red planet.

The all-male crew of three Russians, a Frenchman, an Italian-Colombian and a Chinese won't endure weightlessness, but from Thursday they will live for 520 days in the spartan conditions of a mock spaceship and follow a harsh regimen of experiments and exercise.

The main task of the Mars-500 experiment is to study the effects of long isolation to help a real space crew of the future cope better with stress and fatigue.
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Meanwhile back on this side of the Atlantic a look in at the vegetable garden for those that would like to learn how to survive on what you can grow.  Fresh food from Earth to Mars would be a rarity.
- LRK -

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-- Live Webcams On Devon Island
http://www.onorbit.com/node/2252

"There are several webcams currently in operation on Devon Island in Support of the Arthur
Clarke Mars Greenhouse located at the HMP Research Station. The greenhouse was installed on
Devon Island in the summer of 2002. These webcams update once a day, conditions permitting,
through the greenhouse's autonomous systems using an MSAT satellite connection."
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 Other interesting items at the On Orbit web site as well.
http://www.onorbit.com/
- LRK -

Thanks for looking up with me.
- LRK -

Web Site: http://lkellogg.vttoth.com/LarryRussellKellogg/
BlogSpot: http://kelloggserialreports.blogspot.com/
Comments accepted here - http://lunar-update.blogspot.com/
RSS link: http://kelloggserialreports.blogspot.com/atom.xml
Newsletter: https://news.altair.com/mailman/listinfo/lunar-update
==============================================================
-- Preparations for First Falcon 9 Test Launch
http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewsr.html?pid=34234

"SpaceX is now targeting Friday, June 4th for its first test launch attempt of the Falcon 9 launch
vehicle The primary schedule driver for the first Falcon 9 test launch has been certification of the flight termination system (FTS). The FTS ensures that Air Force Range safety officials can command the destruction of the vehicle should it stray from its designated flight path."

snip
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-- NASA Spacecraft Burns for Home, Then Comet
http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewpr.html?pid=30935

"NASA's Deep Impact/Epoxi spacecraft has successfully performed a trajectory correction maneuver to refine its orbit prior to an upcoming Earth flyby June 27.  The maneuver, along with the Earth flyby, will place the spacecraft on a trajectory to fly past comet Hartley 2 on Nov. 4."

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Space journalist Sergey Leskov writes in today's Izvestia about the still-unnamed vehicle, here:
http://www.izvestia.ru/science/article3142448

RSC-Energiya has approved the design, but no word on when/if the Russian Space Agency will agree.

Drawing (14 k) here:    http://images.izvestia.ru/232852.jpg
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Translate
http://translate.google.com/#ru|en|
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WHAT THE MIND CAN CONCEIVE, AND BELIEVE, IT WILL ACHIEVE - LRK

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