Astronaut Twin Study Hints at Stress of Space Travel

Nature reports Astronaut twin study hints at stress of space travel "Preliminary results are in from NASA’s unprecedented twin study — a detailed probe of the genetic differences between astronaut Scott Kelly, who spent nearly a consecutive year in space, and his identical twin Mark. Measurements taken before, during and after Scott Kelly’s mission reveal changes in gene expression, DNA methylation and other biological markers that are likely to be attributable to his time in orbit."

We don't have a lot of details yet, but apparently the findings are interesting.

The Best Image of Saturn's Moon Daphnis Ever Taken

Phil Plait on The Best Image of Saturn's Moon Daphnis Ever Taken. And It's a Stunner.

That’s the highest-resolution image of Daphnis ever taken; for scale, the flying-saucer-shaped moon is about 8 x 8 x 6 km in size. Measured from sea level, Mount Everest is roughly the same size. You can see some structure to Daphnis; there’s a ridge around its equator that’s probably due to ring particles that have piled up there, and a second ridge at higher latitude. The soft appearance to the moon is probably due to the accumulation of small grains of ice from the rings that have coated it, filling in the craters and other features.

That gap in the rings is real. It’s called the Keeler Gap, and it’s about 30-40 km wide. The width of the gap appears foreshortened because Cassini was just above the ring plane when it took the shot; it’s actually several times wider than the moon is long.

But, oh, those ripples! That, my friends, is the result of gravity. It’s a complicated and intricate dance between moon and rings, but it’s worth learning the moves."

Cassini: Mission to Saturn: Saturn's Hexagon in Motion

Cassini: Mission to Saturn: Saturn’s Hexagon in Motion

The differences in this version of the movie, in which different wavelengths of light from ultraviolet to visible to infrared have been assigned colors, show a distinct contrast between the types of atmospheric particles inside and outside the hexagon. Inside the hexagon there are fewer large haze particles and a concentration of small haze particles, while outside the hexagon, the opposite is true. The jet stream that makes up the hexagon seems to act like a barrier, which results in something like the ‘ozone hole’ in the Antarctic.

This movie shows a view from directly over the north pole, keeping up with the rotation of the planet so that all the motion seen on the screen is the motion of the hexagonal jet stream or the storms inside of it, without any added motion from the spinning of the planet itself. The original images were re-projected to show this polar view.

The eight frames of the movie were captured over 10 hours on Dec.10, 2012. Each of the eight frames consists of 16 map-projected images (four per color filter, and four filters per frame) so the movie combines data from 128 images total."

We Did Not Evolve For Microgravity

io9 on Why Spaceflight Ruins Your Eyesight:

The problem, say researchers from the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, has to do with volume changes in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) found around the brain and spinal cord. Prolonged exposure to microgravity triggers a build-up of this fluid, causing the astronauts’ eyeballs to flatten, which can lead to myopia. A build-up of CSF also causes astronauts’ optic nerves to stick out, which is also not good, as the optic nerve sends signals to the brain from the retina. This is causing nearsightedness among long-duration astronauts, and it’s problem with no clear solution in sight (so to speak).

Space Station Fisheye Fly-Through 4K (Ultra HD)

Software Error Implicated in Crash of Mars Lander

Software Error Implicated in Crash of Mars Lander

Unlike the doomed Beagle 2 mission that was lost in 2003, Schiaparelli transmitted its status data to its mother ship—the Trace Gas Orbiter—during its descent. As reported in Nature News, an early look at the data points to a series of cascading software errors as the reason for the botched landing.

By all accounts the descent started well, with the lander decelerating rapidly as it brushed up against the Martian atmosphere, eventually deploying its parachute as planned. But things began to go squirrely just prior to the five-minute mark of the planned six-minute descent.

For reasons that are still a mystery, the lander ejected both its heat shield and parachute way ahead of schedule. Schiaparelli then engaged its thrusters for a painfully brief three-second burst—a procedure that was supposed to last for 30 seconds once the lander was just a few feet off the ground. The lander’s onboard computer, it would appear, seems to have thought it was close to the surface. Indeed, Schiaparelli even took the time to switch on some of its instruments, including tools to record the planet’s weather and electrical field.

The sad reality is that Schiaparelli was still somewhere between 1.25 to 2.5 miles above the surface when this happened, falling at a rate of about 185 mph (300 km/h). It struck the ground with tremendous force, resulting in an explosion—and a brand new surface feature."

Let's all say goodbye to the Philae comet lander, which we'll never hear from again

The Verge recommends Let's all say goodbye to the Philae comet lander, which we'll never hear from again "There’s still some time left before Europe’s Rosetta mission comes to an end in September, but it’s already time to say goodbye to the mission’s Philae lander — the first spacecraft ever to touch down on a comet. Tomorrow at 5AM ET, the European Space Agency will switch off the Electrical Support System Processor Unit (ESS) on the Rosetta spacecraft, which is currently orbiting around the comet that Philae landed on. The ESS is the system Rosetta uses to communicate with Philae, but researchers need to power it down to prepare for the end of the mission. Once it’s off, there will be no way for the two spacecraft to talk to each other."

Juno Reaches Jupiter

From July 4th, NASA's Juno spacecraft is now in orbit around Jupiter. "NASA’s Juno spacecraft has successfully entered Jupiter’s orbit, bringing it closer to the planet than any probe has come so far. The vehicle reached the gas giant’s north pole this evening, and NASA received confirmation that the vehicle had turned on its main engine at 11:18PM ET. The engine burned for 35 minutes, helping to slow the spacecraft down enough so that it was captured by Jupiter’s gravitational pull. NASA confirmed that the burn was successful at around 11:53PM ET and that Juno was in its intended 53-day orbit."

But now, Juno is in a highly elliptical orbit around Jupiter that takes 53 days to complete. For most of that orbit, the spacecraft will be far out from Jupiter, avoiding its intense radiation belts and debris field. But at the end of the 53-day cycle, Juno will swing back close to the planet again. During this close pass, the vehicle will first fly over the north pole and then swoop in close over Jupiter's equator — squeezing in between the radiation belts and the planet's surface. Juno then swings back out into space over the planet's south pole.

This whole sequence of events, known as the Perijove pass, will take just a few hours to complete. But it's during this time that Juno will conduct the most science over Jupiter. The spacecraft's onboard instruments will be measuring the amount of water in Jupiter's atmosphere, as well as the planet's gravity and magnetic field. These measurements will help NASA figure out if Jupiter has a dense core underneath its surface. All of these details can be used to piece together exactly how and when Jupiter formed more than 4 billion years ago.

The two big close to Jupiter swings are scheduled for Aug 27th and Oct 19th.

Are has more, After 1.7 billion miles Juno nails its Jupiter orbit to within tens of miles.

In reality, NASA also now sentenced its $1.1 billion (~£850M) spacecraft to die. Mission managers hope to get 37 orbits out of Juno over the next 20 months before radiation slowly breaks down its electronics and propulsion system. Even though a 1cm-thick wall of titanium encases the spacecraft’s electronics to provide some protection, a few of its nine instruments may begin to fail in as few as eight or 10 orbits. Before the spacecraft fails entirely engineers will place Juno into a slowly degrading orbit that will eventually force it to plunge into the planet. This is so that none of its potentially life bearing moons, such as Europa, might be contaminated.

In other NASA news, The Verge reports Hubble is capturing stunning photos of Jupiter’s giant auroras

The Surface of Pluto

"This is the most detailed view of Pluto’s terrain you’ll see for a very long time. This mosaic strip – extending across the hemisphere that faced the New Horizons spacecraft as it flew past Pluto on July 14, 2015 – now includes all of the highest-resolution images taken by the NASA probe. With a resolution of about 260 feet (80 meters) per pixel, the mosaic affords New Horizons scientists and the public the best opportunity to examine the fine details of the various types of terrain on Pluto, and determine the processes that formed and shaped them. "

Forget Starships: New Proposal Would Use 'Starchips' To Visit Alpha Centauri

NPR reports Forget Starships: New Proposal Would Use 'Starchips' To Visit Alpha Centauri

Physicist Stephen Hawking and billionaire Yuri Milner have a vision of interstellar exploration — taking place over the course of not thousands of years, but decades.

Together with a team of scientists, they suggest that within a generation, humans could send a probe to Alpha Centauri — more than 4.3 light-years away, or 25 trillion miles — on a trip that would take just over two decades. That's 1,000 times faster than the current fastest spacecraft, the scientists say.

They're thinking big — by thinking very small.

Instead of sending a car-size or piano-size probe, the 'Breakthrough Starshot' team is proposing a postage-stamp-size spacecraft — a 'starchip.' The project, announced by Hawking and Milner on Tuesday, would engineer a method for such a nanocraft to be propelled through space by a sail, pushed by a powerful laser aimed from Earth."

More details here, including a llist of challenges.

SpaceX successfully lands its rocket on a floating drone ship for the first time

The Verge reports SpaceX successfully lands its rocket on a floating drone ship for the first time "SpaceX has finally landed its Falcon 9 rocket on a drone ship at sea, after launching the vehicle into space this afternoon. It's the first time the company has been able to pull off an ocean landing, after four previous attempts ended in failure. Today's success is a crucial milestone for SpaceX, as it shows the company can land its rockets both on solid ground and ocean."

Video of the landing as well as a great explanation of why it's important and useful:

War in Space May Be Closer Than Ever

Scientific American says War in Space May Be Closer Than Ever

"For Krepon, the debate over the definitions of space weapons and the saber-rattling between Russia, China and the U.S. is unhelpfully eclipsing the more pressing issue of debris. ‘Everyone is talking about purposeful, man-made objects dedicated to warfighting in space, and it’s like we are back in the Cold War,’ Krepon says. ‘Meanwhile, there are about 20,000 weapons already up there in the form of debris. They’re not purposeful—they’re unguided. They’re not seeking out enemy satellites. They’re just whizzing around, doing what they do.’

The space environment, he says, must be protected as a global commons, similar to the Earth’s oceans and atmosphere. Space junk is very easy to make and very hard to clean up, so international efforts should focus on preventing its creation. Beyond the threat of deliberate destruction, the risk of accidental collisions and debris strikes will continue to grow as more nations launch and operate more satellites without rigorous international accountability and oversight. And as the chance of accidents increases, so too does the possibility of their being misinterpreted as deliberate, hostile actions in the high-tension cloak-and-dagger military struggle in space."

New Horizons says goodbye to Pluto with beautiful high-resolution photos

The Verge reports New Horizons says goodbye to Pluto with beautiful high-resolution photos

Phil Pliat offers some explanation, Pluto: Ice flows and a ring of light..

More from New Horizons | NASA.

16 surprising things NASA astronauts have revealed in Reddit AMAs

I'm not sure how surprising these are, but they were fun to read. Life in orbit: 16 surprising things NASA astronauts have revealed in Reddit AMAs.