#EDL standing for Entry Descent and Landing

[g4laxy-drag0n]

Scientists torturing backronyms/acronyms happens a lot, actually (see my tags for examples)

Backronyms

Physicists suck at naming things (I can say this because I'm a MechE and I have had to deal with so many physicists), but occasionally they have a stroke of brilliance. Like, a friend of mine worked on a dark matter detector called DarkSide. That's so goofy that it wraps back around to good.

Anyway, there's this superconducting fusion reactor in france called WEST. It's notable for having first-wall shielding tiles (the innermost surface of the vacuum chamber, directly facing the fusion plasma) entirely made of tungsten.

There are a lot of materials used for plasma-facing components – tungsten, molybdenum, graphite, beryllium, various composites and combinations of the above – but it's pretty rare for a reactor to go full tungsten. It can take extremely high temperatures, but it's brittle and expensive, and "high-Z" (high molecular weight) impurities in the plasma cause their own issues. So, the main purpose of WEST is to investigate the viability of an all-tungsten first wall and divertor.

To that end, they tortured an acronym until they got it to work:

Tungsten Environment in Steady-state Tokamak

Or "WEST"

Get it?

GEW IW??

[sciencespies]

Can you spot the Perseverance rover in this breathtaking satellite image of Mars?

https://sciencespies.com/space/can-you-spot-the-perseverance-rover-in-this-breathtaking-satellite-image-of-mars/

Can you spot the Perseverance rover in this breathtaking satellite image of Mars?

A little over a week ago (18 February 2021), NASA’s Perseverance rover landed in the Jezero crater on the surface of Mars.

In what was truly a media circus, people from all over the world tuned to watch the live coverage of the rover landing. When Perseverance touched down, it wasn’t just the mission controllers at NASA who triumphantly jumped to their feet to cheer and applaud.

In the days that followed, the world was treated to all kinds of media that showed the surface of Mars and the descent.

The most recent comes from the Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO), which is part of the ESA-Roscosmos ExoMars program.

From its vantage point, high above the Martian skies, the TGO caught sight of Perseverance in the Jezero crater and acquired images that show the rover and other elements of its landing vehicle.

Since 2016, the TGO has orbited Mars and gathered vital data on the composition of its atmosphere. Specifically, TGO has been looking for traces of atmospheric methane and other gases that could be the result of geological or biological activity. These efforts are part of a larger effort to determine if life existed on Mars billions of years ago (and whether or not it still does).

In addition, the orbiter has conducted other important scientific operations, like relaying data from robotic missions on the surface and acquiring images of space.

On February 23, the TGO took advantage of its orbit to snap pictures with its Colour and Stereo Surface Imaging System (CaSSIS) that showed the Perseverance rover – as well as its parachute, heat shield, and descent stage elements – within the Jezero crater.

ExoMars orbiter images Perseverance landing site pillars. (ESA)

In the first image (above), the elements are discernible as a series of dark and bright pixels, which are indicated in the second image (below).

Close-up of Perseverance and mission elements in the Jezero crater. (ESA)

As you can see, the descent stage and heatshield are dark spots spaced around two smaller craters while the parachute and backshell are visibly bright spots in close proximity to each other.

The Perseverance rover, near the bottom center, is a relatively faint spot by a small ridge leading from one crater.

It is here that Perseverance will spend the next two years (which will likely be extended) searching for signs of past microbial life.

Based on its features, which include a preserved river delta and clay-rich sedimentary deposits, the Jezero crater is known to have hosted a standing body of water billions of years ago. For this reason, it was selected as the landing site for the mission, since it is believed to be a good place to find evidence of past life.

Perseverance will also conduct an ambitious and unprecedented operation, where it will collect samples of Martian rocks and soil and set them aside in a cache.

These will be returned to Earth by a separate ESA-NASA Mars Sample Return mission that will consist of a lander, a rover (to retrieve the samples), and small launcher (for launching them to orbit). Once there, an orbiter will pick them up and bring them home for analysis.

The ExoMars TGO also provided a significant amount of assistance for the Perseverance rover during its landing, such as data relay services. 

Videos of the landing, as well as imagery and sound recordings, were captured by instruments aboard the rover’s Entry, Descent, and Landing (EDL) vehicle.

These were sent back to Earth with the assistance of the TGO, as well as NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO).

The orbiter will continue to provide data relay support between Earth and Mars for future missions to the surface, particularly the the next ExoMars mission.

Known as ExoMars 2022, this mission will launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome on 20 September 2022, and arrive at the Red Planet by 10 June 2023. It will consist of the Russian Kazachok surface platform and the Rosalind Franklin rover.

Meanwhile, the Trace Gas Orbiter will continue to orbit Mars and conduct its own science operations, focusing on the analysis of Mars’ atmosphere and the search for gases that point the way towards past (or present) life.

Recently, the orbiter detected traces of hydrogen chloride gas leaving the planet’s atmosphere, indicating that this salt exists on the surface which made it to orbit.

On Earth, this process has been observed with sodium chloride salts, where salt water evaporates from our oceans and is pushed into the upper atmosphere by strong winds. The TGO has also monitored water vapor leaving the Martian atmosphere and escaping to space.

Together, these findings have provided new clues as to where the abundant surface water Mars had billions of years ago escaped to.

This article was originally published by Universe Today. Read the original article.

#Space

[frankmiller1]

Who Built InSight? The Engineers, Institutions and Companies that Manufactured the Latest Mars Lander

On May 5th of this year at 11:05 UTC, an Atlas V 401 rocket launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, flinging a 1,530-pound object away from our planet. A little over six months later, having travelled 301 million miles, InSight, which stands for Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport, approached the red planet’s dusty atmosphere, travelling at a rate of over 12,000 mph, and began EDL, or entry, descent and landing. NASA engineers refer... from Engineering http://www.engineering.com/AdvancedManufacturing/ArticleID/18079/Who-Built-InSight-The-Engineers-Institutions-and-Companies-that-Manufactured-the-Latest-Mars-Lander.aspx

[goarticletec-blog]

NASA InSight lander nails Mars touchdown after scary six minutes

New Post has been published on https://www.articletec.com/nasa-insight-lander-nails-mars-touchdown-after-scary-six-minutes/

NASA InSight lander nails Mars touchdown after scary six minutes

Robots are beginning to build up a substantial presence on Mars with the successful landing of NASA’s InSight spacecraft on the Red Planet on Monday. The touchdown at 11:54 a.m. PT followed a seven-month, 300 million-mile (485 million kilometer) journey from southern California that started back in May.

This illustration shows what InSight’s landing on Mars might look like. 

NASA

InSight is the first robot to land on Mars since 2012, when the Curiosity rover took two worlds by storm on one day. But unlike its wheeled cousins, InSight will be sticking in one place. Rather than rolling around on the surface, it will drill below it to investigate what is going on inside our neighbor. 

“It was intense,” NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine said following the landing, which included a nerve-wracking six-minute descent through the Martian atmosphere during which a high-speed parachute deployment and landing went off perfectly.

Bridenstine was on hand at mission control in NASA’s Jet Propulsion laboratory for the landing and also passed on congratulations from Vice President Mike Pence.

The lander is equipped with gear developed around the world to detect “Marsquakes” (earthquakes, but on Mars) and study the internal structure of the planet. 

“We’ve studied Mars from orbit and from the surface since 1965, learning about its weather, atmosphere, geology and surface chemistry,” said Lori Glaze, acting director of NASA’s Planetary Science Division in a statement. “Now we finally will explore inside Mars and deepen our understanding of our terrestrial neighbor as NASA prepares to send human explorers deeper into the solar system.”  

We’ve already gotten the first image from the surface. More important for the sustained success of the mission, NASA awaits confirmation that the lander’s two solar arrays have successfully deployed. To do this, InSight will need to wait a while until all the dust kicked up from landing has settled. 

Unfortunately, by the time the solar arrays are unfurled, the MarCO cubesats launched along with InSight and the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter will be out of view of Insight. That means that NASA will need to wait over five hours to get confirmation that Insight’s solar panels are up and working. 

Now playing: Watch this: NASA’s InSight mission is about to drill Mars

5:09

Below, follow the exciting moments leading up to InSight’s approach to the surface of our neighboring planet. 

11:55 a.m. PT: All the data relayed from InSight to Earth via MarCO and the MRO indicates that the landing went as expected. Next up, InSight will wait for the dust to settle, hopefully send back some photos of the surface and then begin to unfurl its solar panels. All that will take hours for NASA to confirm.

11:54 a.m. PT: TOUCHDOWN! No points, though. Just a new spacecraft on the surface of Mars.

11:53 a.m. PT: Almost there! 200 meters to landing!

11:51 a.m. PT: Mission control has received confirmation that the parachute has deployed. Now they’ll be checking that the speed is slowing as expected and the parachute is working. No sign of anything wrong so far.

11:52 a.m. PT: Insight now descending through the atmosphere at 1,000 meters per second. The parachute is about to deploy. This is the first spot where something could go catastrophically wrong.

11:49 a.m. PT: Insight is now in the Martian atmosphere and experiencing temperatures up to 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit. A lot of the radio call outs from mission control seem to be quite conscious of the international audience, adding details like this.

11:44 a.m. PT: Next up, things really begin to heat up, literally. The heat shield that protects Insight’s equipment will begin to “touch” the atmosphere and that friction will start to slow it down while also attempting to burn it to a crisp. Fortunately, 21st-century materials technology should prevent this from happening.

11:42 a.m. PT: InSight has now disconnected from its cruise stage and begun communicating with the MarCOs via its own on-board antenna. It’s also oriented itself to prepare for entering the atmosphere in a few minutes. Things are starting to get tense, but so far so good.

11:35 a.m. PT: Mission control just confirmed that we are now 20 minutes away from entry into the top of the Martian atmosphere.

11:32 a.m. PT: Mission control at NASA JPL has confirmed communication links with the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and both MarCO cubesats.

11:28 a.m. PT: If you want the feeling of being there yourself, NASA has this 360-degree live view of mission control. 

11:21 a.m. PT: We’re 20 minutes out from cruise stage separation, which is when the action really starts to heat up. From there, the spacecraft will orient itself for entering the thin Martian atmosphere and then for a brief but still hot and terrifying descent.

11:15 a.m. PT: According to InSight project manager Tom Hoffman, InSight will make use of three other spacecraft to communicate with mission control on Earth. One is the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, but there are also two small cubesats that were launched along with InSight in May to help relay data from InSight back to Earth. We’ll be hearing more about the two small satellites, named MarCO A and MarCO B, before and after landing.

11:11 a.m. PT: It’s a tradition, but not a superstition, to pass around peanuts at mission control leading up to a landing. NASA invites you to join in and have some peanuts at home (provided you aren’t allergic, of course.) 

11:05 a.m. PT: Coverage from mission control is now live as teams prepare for the entry, descent and landing phase of the mission (EDL).

The InSight mission and landing is being run from two control rooms: one at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, and another at Lockheed Martin in suburban Denver, Colorado. The company was the prime contractor in building InSight, which stands for Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport.

According to Christine Szalai from the EDL team at JPL mission control: EDL software update was sent to InSight yesterday to get the spacecraft’s on-board computers all the last minute data it needs to get to the surface safely. It will be handling its own landing essentially autonomously. 

10:45 a.m. PT: NASA’s live coverage of the landing from Mission Control will start soon. Meanwhile, NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine is on location and taking selfies:

CNET’s Holiday Gift Guide: The place to find the best tech gifts for 2018.

Best Black Friday 2018 deals: The best discounts we’ve found so far.

Source link