NASA launched a sounding rocket to study atmosphere of Venus

We all know that NASA has launched the MAVEN (Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution) Mission from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida on 18th November, 2013.   After a week after launching MAVEN, NASA has sent a sounding rocket to probe the atmosphere of VENUS.

The Venus Spectral Rocket or VeSpR for short,  was launched successfully from White Sand Missile Range on 25th November, 2013.  The VeSpR will study the present day escape of water from the atmosphere of Venus and relate it to the past abundance of water on Venus by measuring the Hydrogen above 90 Kms. on Venus. 
 

VeSpR is a two-stage system, combining a Terrier missile - originally built as a surface-to-air missile and later repurposed to support science missions - and a Black Brant model Mk1 sounding rocket with a telescope inside developed by the Center for Space Physics at Boston University.  Integration took place at NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia.

The Terrier stage fires for only 6 seconds after launch before it burns out and separates from the Mk 1, having accelerating from zero to 2100 km/hr (1300 mph).  The Black Brant coasts upward for 6 seconds, before firing for about 30 seconds, taking the payload to a speed of over 7800 km/hr (4800 mph). At that point the rocket is 46 km high, but it already has enough speed to coast upward for almost four more minutes, reaching its peak of 300 km (186 miles) before starting its descent back to Earth. The payload made its final descent with a parachute and touch down about 80 km (50 miles) downrange of the launch site, where it can be recovered.


The Venus Spectral Rocket Experiment (VeSpR) collected data on 27 November 2013, on the escape of water from Venus' atmosphere during the flight of the suborbital rocket. The sounding rocket carried the telescope above most of Earth's atmosphere where it could observe ultraviolet light from Venus that would normally be absorbed by Earth's atmosphere. Total flight time was less than 10 minutes, and the telescope can be recovered and reused.  Here is some general information about the Venus Spectral Rocket Mission.

Organization	NASA
Major contractors	Boston University
Launch date	27 November 2013 01:50 UTC
Launched from	White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico
Launch vehicle	1st stage: Terrier missile 2nd stage: Black Brant
Mission length	Science phase: 10 minutes
Orbit height	300 km
Telescope style	Cassegrain design
Wavelength	Ultraviolet
Diameter	35 cm
Website	www.bu.edu/csp/PASS/vespr/index.html

Japan's Robot Kirobo chats with Astronaut in Space (ISS)

The first humanoid robot in space made a small talk with a Japanese Astronaut in the International Space Station on 6th December, 2013 and said that it had no problem with the zero gravity on the International Space Station.

The video footage released recently by the Robot's developers on 20th Dec., 2013 showed Kirobo performing its first mission on ISS, talking in Japanese language with the Astronaut Mr. Koichi Wakata to test its autonomous conversation functions.   The astronaut
 
The Astronaut Koichi Wakata of Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) asks the robot how it feels about being in zero-gravity environment.  The robot replied "I'm used to it now, no problem at all".      The scientists will be recording and collecting data on the astronaut's conversation with Kirobo in the next few months to study how humans and robots might live alongside each other during long space journeys in future.


Here is a translation of the conversation between the astronaut and the robot on 6th Dec., 2013 in International Space Station.  

Wakata: How did you get out here into space, Kirobo?
Kirobo: On a Kounotori from Tanegashima.
Wakata: Oh, so you flew all the way into space on a bird? [In Japanese, "kounotori" means "white stork." The transfer vehicle that brought Kirobo to the space station in August was named Kounotori 4.]
Kirobo: It wasn't a bird; it was the Kounotori rocket.
Wakata: It's incredible that you came here all by yourself.
Kirobo: Well, I'm a robot!
Kirobo arrived at the orbiting lab on Aug. 9, 2013, as part of an unmanned Japanese cargo delivery that launched from the Tanegashima Space Center in southern Japan. Shortly after, the robot uttered its first words in space.


"On August 21, 2013, a robot took one small step toward a brighter future for all," Kirobo said in a video message, riffing on Apollo astronaut Neil Armstrong's famous "one small step" line.

But since the robot is trained only to speak in Japanese, Kirobo had to wait until Wakata arrived at the space station on 7th Nov., 2013 to chat face to face with a human.  Wakata, 50 is the Japan's first commander of the space station in March.  He is scheduled to come back to Earth in May, 2014.  Kirobo will be returning in December, 2014 back to Earth. 

Here is a video showing the historic conversation between the Kirobo and the Japanese Astronaut.


 

Facts and Figures of International Space Station

The ISS or the International Space Station is the largest international scientific project ever conceived.  The ISS was built by USA, Russia, Japan, Canada and 11 European countries.  The ISS is powered by solar panels which generate 110 Kilo watts of power once completed. 


The International Space Station marked its 10th anniversary of continuous human occupation on Nov. 2, 2010.  Since Expedition 1, which launched Oct. 31, 2000, and docked Nov. 2, the space station has been visited by 204 individuals.

At the time of the anniversary, the station’s odometer read more than 1.5 billion statute miles (the equivalent of eight round trips to the Sun), over the course of 57,361 orbits around the Earth.   Here are some of the important facts and figures about the International Space Station.

The ISS is not only an orbiting laboratory, but it is also a space port for many international spacecrafts.  As of June, 2013, there have been:

•  37 Space Shuttle launches to the ISS
• 89 Russian Launches
• 3 Japanese HTV's 
• 3 European ATVs
• 1 test flight and 2 operational flights by SpacX's Dragon

ATV is nothing but the Automated Transfer Vehicle is an expendable, pressurized unmanned resupply spacecraft developed by the European Space Agency (ESA).  ATVs are designed to supply the International Space Station (ISS) with propellant, water, air, payloads, and experiments. ATVs can also reboost the station into a higher orbit.
 
Totally 174 space walks have been  conducted in support of the ISS assembly totaling about 1,100 hours or nearly 45 days.  The Internatinal Space Station including its solar arrays, spans an area of a Foot Ball field and weights 924,739 pounds.  The livable room size of the space station at present is more than a six-bedroom house and it has two bath rooms, a gymnasium and a 360 degree bay window.   Additional launches will continue to update these facts and figures.

Facts about ISS

• Length of the Module :  167.3 feet ( 51 meters)
• The ISS measures 357 feet end-to-end. That’s equivalent to the length of a football field including the end zones
• Length of Solar array : 239.4 feet (73 meters)
• Habitable volume : 13,696 cubic feet ( 388 cubic meters)
• Total power generated : 84 Kilo watts ( 8 solar arrays)
• Pressurized Volume : 32,333 cubic fet ( 916 cubic meters)
• Lines of Computer Code: approximately 2.3 million
• Surface area of Solar arrays of ISS is equal to US Senate Chamber 3 times over
• ISS is larger than a 6-bed room house
• Solar array wing span is 240 feet which is more than Boeing 777 ( 212 feet)
• Till now more than 115 space flights were conducted on 5 different types of Launch vehicles over the course of ISS construction
• ISS is 4 times as large as Russian Space Station Mir and 5 times as large as US Skylab
• The weight of ISS is almost 1 million pounds ( 925,000 pounds).  This is equal to more than 320 auto mobiles.
• 3.3 million lines of software code on the ground support 1.8 million lines of flight software code.
• The electrical power system has 8 miles of wires connecting the system
• 1.5 million lines of flight software code runs on 44 computers in the ISS's US segment alone communicating via 100 data networks transferring 400,000 signals ( e.g. pressure, or temperature measurements etc.)
• Main U.S. control computers have 1.5 gigabytes of total main hard drive storage in the U.S. segment compared to modern PCs, which have ~500 gigabyte hard drives.
• The entire 55-foot robot arm assembly is capable of lifting 220,000 pounds, which is the weight of a space shuttle orbiter.
• The 75 to 90 kilowatts of power for the ISS is supplied by an acre of solar panels.
• Over the next 20 years, there will be 260 ISS spacewalks. There have only been 174 spacewalks in NASA history.

Is the Universe going to collapse sooner than expected?

The Universe and the entire world as we know it today may one day collapse with the Earth shrinking into a very hot hard ball.  The Scientists have warned the risk of a collapse is now greater than previously thought with the process already happening somewhere in the Universe.
 
According to scientists, they have predicted the collapse of the Universe.  Everything in it will compress into a hard and small ball.  The Physicists from the University of Southern Denmark have calculated the possibility of a collapsing happening right now in the Universe.  The scientist believe a radical shift in forces in the Universe may cause all particles to change and become extremely heavy.  This includes every particle in every galaxy, solar system, planets and everything on Earth will be millions or billions of times heavier than their current weight.  When this happens, scientists believe that it will cause disaster since the new and heavier weight will squeeze everything into an extremely hot and heavy ball.  


According to scientists, the violent process is known as a phase transition which is similar to water turning into steam or a magnet heating up and losing its ability to attract metallic objects. The phase transition will begin in a subatomic particle known as Higgs boson, which normally has an ultra-dense state. It could bubble up suddenly in the universe at a certain time and place.

China's Jade Rabbit lunar rover sends first photos from moon

We all know that China's Jade Rabbit rover has soft landed on the surface of the Moon on 14th December, 2013.  This is the first lunar soft landing after nearly 4 decades.  The Jade Rabbit was deployed at 4:35 AM ( 2035 GMT Saturday) several hours after the Chang'e 3 probe landed on the moon.   

The rover and the lander started taking photos of each other late sunday including the photos of the bright red and yellow stars of the Chinese flag on the Jade Rabbit.  The photographing work began at about 11:42 M after the rover moved to a place a few meters away from the lander.


The colour pictures were transmitted to the Beijing Aerospace Control Center where the Chinese President watched the broadcast.  China is planning to establish a permanent space station by 2020 and planning to send human to the moon. 

Ma Xingrui, chief commander of China's lunar programme, declared the mission a "complete success" after the photographs showed the lander and rover were working, Xinhua said.

The main reason behind the China's lunar mission is to extract the moon's resources with the moon believed to hold Uranium, Titanium and other mineral resources. and also the possibility of solar power generation.

The China Central Television (CCTV) has aired video taken by the lander showing the rover leaving tracks in the dust as it gently coasted on to the moon's surface and rolled away.  The probe has touched down on a 400 kilometer wide plain known as Sinus Iridum or the Bay of rainbows.  Before landing the probe slowed down from 1.7 Kms per second and then hovered for 20 seconds, using sensors and 3D imaging to identify a flat area. The thrusters were then deployed 100 meters from the moon surface to gently guide the craft into its position.  The landing process started at 9:00 PM on 14th December, 2013 for about 12 minutes.  The Chang'e 3 unfolded the solar panels 4 minutes after landing so that lander and rover get the power.


The rover will be spending 3 months exploring moon's surface and looking for natural resources.  It can climb slopes of upto 30 degrees and travel at 200 meters per hour.

China lands Jade Rabbit robot rover on Moon

China has successfully landed a craft carrying a robotic rover on the surface of the Moon, the first soft landing there for 37 years.   

On Saturday afternoon (GMT) (14.12.2013) , a landing module used thrusters to touch down, marking the latest step in China's ambitious space exploration programme.
Several hours later, the lander will deploy a robotic rover called Yutu, which translates as "Jade Rabbit".    The touchdown took place on a flat plain called Sinus Iridum.    The Chang'e-3 mission launched atop a Chinese-developed Long March 3B rocket on 1 December from Xichang in the country's south.

The Chinese television showed the pictures of the Moon's surface as the lander touched down.  This is the third robotic rover mission to land on Moon.  But the Chinese  vehicle carries a more sophisticated payload than previous missions, including ground-penetrating radar which will gather measurements of the lunar soil and crust.

The landing module reduced its speed at about 15 Km from the Moon surface.  When the landing module reached a distance of 100 meters from lunar surface, the craft fired thrusters to slow down its descent.  The lander switched off its thrusters at a distance of 4 m., and fell on the lunar surface.  The Jade Rabbit was expected to be deployed several hours after touchdown, driving down a ramp lowered by the landing module.

 Reports suggest the lander and rover will photograph each other at some point on Sunday.
According to Chinese space scientists, the mission is designed to test new technologies, gather scientific data and build intellectual expertise, as well as scouting for mineral resources that could eventually be mined.

Here is a photograph of moon surface taken on Dec. 14, 2013 by the on-board camera of the lunar probe  Chang'e-3 on the screen of the Beijing Aerospace Control Center in Beijing, capital of China.  

New signs of Water on Mars - found by Curiosity

Each and every new rover, lander or orbiters sent to MARS in recent times are finding out more evidence of water on the Red Planet.  We all know that water is necessary for life but whether any thing has ever lived on Mars is still a mystery.  

The Curiosity Rover's landing site on Mars, the Gale Crater used to hold a lake of water as announced by scientists on 11th Dec., 2013 at the American Geophysical Union meting in San Franscisco.  Scientists analyzed the photographs taken by the Mars Rconnaissance Orbiter and they report that liquid water appears to be darkening the slopes of mountains near the Martian equator - the first time strong indication of present-day water being seen in this region. 

Curiosity found evidence for a former lake, about the size of one of New York State's Finger Lakes, in a region called Yellowknife Bay. There, the rover drilled two holes to study subsurface geology and chemistry. By baking these rock samples in its SAM (Sample Analysis at Mars) oven and analyzing the gases they produced, Curiosity found carbon dioxide and nitric oxide. Although some quantities of these molecules could have been contamination from Earth, the large amounts seen by SAM suggest they exist on Mars. "This is really important," said Jennifer Eigenbrode of NASA Goddard Space Flight Center at the press conference. "Carbon and nitrogen are required by all life-forms. Therefore [Yellowknife Bay] could have supported life."

 Water was not just a fixture of Mars' past—it could be surprisingly abundant in the present as well. In 2001 researchers announced they had seen what looked like flowing water on mid-latitude Martian slopes. Now the same team, led by Alfred McEwen of the University of Arizona, reports similar dark slope features near the equator based on observations from orbit by MRO. "If our interpretation that this is due to water is correct, then it means the near-surface equatorial region is wetter than we thought," McEwen says. "This is really puzzling. It implies there's a surprisingly active water cycle, given that it hasn’t rained in so long there."

China's first lunar rover will be landing on moon on 14th December, 2013

We all know that the China's first lunar mission - Chang'e 3  was launched on 2nd December, 2013.   The space module carrying China's first lunar rover is scheduled to land on the moon on Saturday, 14th Dec., 2013. 


The spacecraft is scheduled to make a touchdown on the Moon's surface 12 days after the Chang'e 3 Mission blasted off from Xichang Satellite Launch Center in China.   The Chang'e 3 will be carrying out a soft landing on the lunar surface on the evening of 14th December, 2013. 



This task is going to be the most difficult task of the mission as per the space authorities of China.  The rover is called as Yutu or Jade Rabbit.  With this landing, China is aiming to become the 3rd country to carry out a rover mission to Moon, after USA and Russia decades ago.

 The rover - Jade Rabbit reached the lunar orbit on Friday after 112 hours after it was launched from China.  The rover is expected to land on Moon on 14th December, 2013 and will be searching for natural resources.

The Chang'e 3 spacecraft will be making a power-assisted or a "Soft" lunar landing at Simus Iridum, or the Bay of Rainbows which is a site selected because of its relatively level terrain.  The Jade Rabbit rover will roll out of the spacecraft to collect the soil samples and survey the lunar surface to search for resources for about 3 months. 

The scientists say that one focus of China's lunar soil analysis is the level of Helium-3, which is an isotope which can be used in nuclear fusion in future.  Earth contains only 15 tons of Helium-3 which is expected to be available in large quantities on moon.  Space scientists in China say that theoretically there is helium-3 on moon, but it is difficult to extract it.  You need to dig very deep into Moon's soil and then heat the soil to hundreds of degrees so that Helium-3 can be released.
 

First privately funded Robotic Mission to Mars by Mars One by 2018 - Lander and Orbiter

One non-profit foundation, The Mars One plans to establish a permanent human settlement on the Red Planet - Mars in the mid 2020's with people interested in one-way trip to Mars.  The foundation has taken a major step today when they announced their plans to launch the first privately funded space missions to Mars in 2018.

Mr. Mas Lansdorp, Mars One Co-Founder and CEO announced their plan to launch two missions to Mars in 2018 consisting of a robotic lander and an orbiting communication satellite which is essential for transmitting the data collected on the Red planet.  This is going to be the first private mission to Mars.

 Lansdorp stated that Mars One has signed contracts with Lockheed Martin and Surrey Satelite technology Ltd (SSTL) to develop mission concept studies - both the companies are leading aerospace companies with vast experience in building satellites.  The 2018 Mars lander would be a technology demonstrator with a scoop, cameras and a solar array for powering the satellite.   The structure of the spacecraft would be based on NASA's highly successful 2007 Phoenix Mars Lander built by Lockheed Martin.

 Lockheed Martin engineers will work for the next 3 to 4 months to study mission concepts as well as how to stack the orbiter and lander on the launcher.   The lander will provide proof of concept for some of the technologies that are important for a permanent human settlement on Mars,” said Lansdorp.

Two examples involve experiments to extract water into a usable form and construction of a thin film solar array to provide additional power to the spacecraft and eventual human colonists.
It would include a Phoenix like scoop to collect soils for the water extraction experiment and cameras for continuous video recording transmitted by the accompanying orbiter.

For the 2018 lander, Mars One also plans to include an experiment from a worldwide university challenge and items from several Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) challenge winners.

Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd. (SSTL) was selected to studying orbiter concepts that will provide a high bandwidth communications system in a Mars synchronous orbit and will be used to relay data and a live video feed from the lander on the surface of Mars back to Earth, according to Sir Martin Sweeting, Executive Chairman of SSTL.

There are still many unknowns at this stage including the sources for all the significant funding required by Mars One to transform their concepts into actual flight hardware. 

“Crowdfunding and crowdsourcing activities are important means to do that,” said Lansdorp.
At the briefing, Lansdorp stated that Mars One has started an Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign. The goal is to raise $400,000 by Jan. 25, 2014.

Mars One is looking for sponsors and partners. They also plan a TV show to help select the winners of the first human crew to Mars from over 200,000 applicants from countries spread all across Earth.
The preliminary 2018 mission study contracts with Lockheed and Surry are valued at $260,000 and $80,000 respectively.

First trajectory correction for India's Mars Orbiter Mission to be carried out on 11th Dec., 2013

 The first trajectory correction manoeuvre will be carried out on India first interplanetary mission, the Mars Orbiter on 11th December, 2013.  The Mars orbiter is traveling in the intended trajectory, but ISRO has planned four trajectory corrections to fine tune it so as to keep it in the correct track.  The first trajectory correction manouvre will be carried out today i.e. 11th Dec., 2013.   The second correction is expected to be done in April, 2014 and then the third in September, 2014.

 As per the latest news,  the Mars Orbiter Mission is cruising with a velocity of about 32.8 Kms per second.   The propulsion system of MoM will be using Monomthyl Hydrazine as fuel and dinotrogen tetroxide as oxidizer. The targeted mission life of Mars Orbiter Mission is about 6 months after Mars Orbit insertion.

Comet ISON - The comet of the century

We may witness one of the most spectacular sights in the night sky in the next few days for a generation or more.   Astronomers are hoping that from 5th December, 2013 onwards, a comet will appear on the eastern horizon - The Comet ISON.  It is expected that for the whole month of December, 2013, millions of people across the northern hemisphere should be able to see its tail, which is several million kilo meters long stretching across the dawn sky.

 The ISON comet has come from the Oort cloud, a belt of comets on the very edge of our solar system where it has been for 4.6 billion years.  One of the special about the Comet ISON is that it is a "sun grazer".  Most of the comets pass through the solar system every decade, but very few pass through the corona of the Sun.  Comet ISON will do that.

 When the comet passes through the corona of the Sun many interesting astronomers are watching it.  It is not know what will be the effect of the great heat and gravitational force of the Sun on the comet.   But according to Dr. Mathew Knight, from the Lowell Observatory in Arizona, who has been watching the comet for the past one year has worked out three scenarios to explain what ISON will do in the coming week.

1. Scenario One :  The comet could suffer the same fate as Comet Lovejoy which went around the Sun in 2011.  The gravity of Sun pulled one side of the comet's nucleus more strongly than the other side there by stretching the comet apart.  As Lovejoy emerged from the corona of the Sun, it exploded.  Same thing may happen to Comet ISON.  But it depends on its size.  A nucleus of 2 Kms. or under puts a comet at great risk.  Astronomers estimate that ISON is almost exactly 2 Kms. so it is right on the border line of risk. 

2. Scenario Two :  ISON might behave like Comet Encke.  This comet has orbited the Sun about 70 times since it was observed a few centuries ago. The comet is fast using up its ice and gases and is fizzling out.  Even though ISON is going to pass the Sun only onc, Dr. Knight fears that it could suffer the same fate.

3.  Scenario three :  This is the scenario that most of the people are hoping for.  This is what happened to Comet Ikeya-Seki in 1965.  As the comet went through the Sun's corona, the heat ignited the gases deep in its nucleus and a few days after it emerged from the corona, a huge tail has developed behind it.  Millions of people were thrilled by the great event.  

If ISON puts on a stunning display like Ikeya Seki did, it will help scientists answer some of the questions about our origin.  Spectrometry will allow us to analyze the chemical composition of the ices on ISON and from that data, we can work out how the Solar System was formed 4.6 billion years ago.  It is also possible to study its water signature,  to provide crucial data informing the argument about whether our water came to Earth on comets, or accretion from below the planet's surface. There is even chance that scientists will observe the chemical precursors of amino acids which are the molecules which form the building blocks of life.  Experiments in the NASA laboratories shown that these building blocks of life can be created in the hostile environment of a comet's nucleus.  Could comets be the agents which transport these life building blocks across the cosmos??  

You can now follow the comet's progress on the internet.  Let us hope that ISON will be talked about for the years to come - as the comet of the century.  Here are some details about the comet ISON.

 Details of Comet Ison

• Discovered on 21 September 2012 by Vitali Nevski and Artyom Novichonok
• A so-called "sungrazer", it approaches our star at a distance of just 1.2 million km from the surface
• Ison brushes past the Sun on 28 November; the heat at "perihelion" is expected to exceed 2,000C
• The encounter could cause Ison to break up completely, but if it survives, the comet could put on a bright display in the sky during December

SpaceX successfully launches commercial satellite

For many decades, the space race was seen as a national pride.  All the space missions till now were done by Government agencies like NASA, ESA or ISRO.  For  example, the first man in space, Soviet Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin was said to be a Citizen of the World by Kremlin.  Americans grin in triumph when Neil Armstrong set foot on the moon and forced Soviet leaders to grit their teeth.  Even today national pride is fueling space launches.   For example in China and India all the space missions are treated as national pride.

 Now the space race has entered into private field too.  The private spaceflight company, SpaceX launched a commercial satellite from Florida on tuesday, 3rd December, 2013 after two delays due to technical  problems. The upgraded SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket has launched the huge SES-8 communications Spacecraft into the orbit from the launch pad at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station at 5:41 PM EST (22:41 GMT).   The mission marks SpaceX's first Florida launch of its Falcon 9 rocket, its first major communications satellite launch and its first flight to a geostationary transfer orbit


The launch of Tuesday was SpaceX's third attempt to launch the SES-8 spacecraft for satellite communications provider SES World Skies.  SpaceX aborted the two earlier launch attempts last week, first on Nov. 25 and again on Nov. 28, due to technical glitches.  The company has entered into commercial market by launching the 3500 Kg. SES-8 satellite into its intended orbit. The SES-8 is a hybird Ku and Ka Band spacecraft built to provide high-definition telecommunications services to the customers in South Asia and Pacific regions.

SpaceX has earlier launched six Falcon 9 rockets but most of them were either test flights or missions for NASA to deliver cargo to the International Space Station.  The 2-stage Falcon 9 rocket called as Falcon 9 V1.1 is 224.4 feet tall.  Its protective payload fairing is 17 feet wide large enough to fit a bus inside.  The first test flight was made on 29th September to launch a space weather monitoring satellite for Canadian Space Agency from SpaceX's launch pad at California's Air Force Base.

Launch Video

 

NASA's Hubble Telescope finds signs of water on 5 alien planets

NASA's Hubble Telescope has detected water in the atmospheres of five alien planets which are beyond our solar system.   

These five planets are Jupiter size planets which are very hot and unlikely to host life.  But this finding of water in other extra solar planets marks a step forward in search of distant planets which may be capable of supporting life.

 Two research teams of NASA used the wide field camera 3 of Hubble to analyze starlight passing through the atmospheres of five hot Jupiter like planets which are known as
WASP-17b, HD209458b, WASP-12b, WASP-19b and XO-1b.  The atmospheres of all the five planets showed the signs of water with the strongest signs found in the air of
WASP-17b and HD209458b..

China's Chang'e 3 Moon Mission Launched succesfully on 2nd December, 2013

China has launched its first ever extra terrestrial landing craft into the orbit en route for the moon.   Chang'e 3 mission operated by China National Space Administration incorporates a robotic lander and a rover.  Chang'e 3 was successfully launched on 2nd December, 2013 at 01:30 AM local time from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in the Sichuan province of China.  The time of launch is 17:30 GMT on 1st Dec., 2013.  

This is the second phase of Chinese lunar exploration program.  This is the first lunar land rover and is the first spacecraft in 37 years to make a soft landing on the Moon since the Russia's Luna 24 Mission in 1976.  Chang'e is named after the goddess of Moon as per Chinese mythology and is a follow up of Chang'e 1 and Chang'e 2 lunar orbiters.  The lunar rover is called Yutu or Jade Rabbit, a name selected in an online poll that comes from a Chinese myth about a white rabbit that lives on the Moon.

The Chang'e lunar probe including the Yutu or Jade Rabbit buggy, blasted off on board an enhanced Long March-3B rocket.  The State Television showed a live broadcast of the rocket lifting off.

If every thing goes well, the rover will conduct geological surveys and search  for natural resources.  This is the  China's first spacecraft to make a soft landing beyond Earth, and will be touching down on the Moon in Mid-December, 2013.

The China's first moon orbiter was launched in 2007 - Chang'e 1 which took images of the Moon's surface and analyzed the distribution of elements.  Chinese scientists have discussed about the possibility of sending humans to the Moon some time around 2020.


The Jade Rabbit rover or Yutu will spend three months exploring the surface of Moon.  Here is a photograph of the Jade Rabbit Rover.

The launch video of Chang'e 3 Moon Mission of China can be seen below.

 

Isro Mars Orbiter Mission (MoM) Successfully placed in Mars Transfer Trajectory

One of the major mile stones in the India's space history has been crossed.  The ISRO Mom (Mars orbiter mission) has completed its 23 minute long liquid engine firing for entering into Mars Transfer Trajectory.   This will impart an incremental velocity of 648 m/s while consuming 198 Kg of fuel.  This activity started on today, 1st December, 2013 at 00:49 hrs IST and completed after 23 minutes.

The critical manoeuvre to place the MoM was successfully carried out.  So the earth orbiting phase of the spacecraft has ended and the MoM is on its way towards the Red Planet (MARS) after a journey of about 10 months.  The trans-Mars injection is a crucial event which is intended to place the MoM into an orbit around the sun marking the first step towards the 300 day journey to reach the orbit of MARS after crossing nearly 680 Million Kilometers.


ISRO planned to make four corrections in the course of the spacecraft's journey to Mars before it is expected to reach Mars in September, 2014.  This is to correct any deviations along the path towards Mars.

The MARS Orbiter Mission is being continuously monitored by ISRO from their deep space network antennae at Bangalore.  We all know that PSLV-C25 has successfully placed  the 1350 Kg Mars Orbiter Mission into the orbit around earth on 5th November, 2013 at 14:38 hrs.

Curiosity Electrical issue solved

The  electrical issue of Curiosity has been resolved.  The root cause of change in voltage of the vehicle was found out.  NASA has resumed the science activities of Curiosity from yesterday.

The decision to resume science activities resulted from the success of work to diagnose the likely root cause of a Nov. 17 change in voltage on the vehicle. The voltage change itself did not affect the rover safety or health. The vehicle's electrical system has a "floating bus" design feature to tolerate a range of voltage differences between the vehicle's chassis—its mechanical frame—and the 32-volt power lines that deliver electricity throughout the rover. This protects the rover from electrical shorts.

Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2013-11-curiosity-electrical-issue.html#jCp

The decision to resume science activities resulted from the success of work to diagnose the likely root cause of a Nov. 17 change in voltage on the vehicle. The voltage change itself did not affect the rover safety or health. The vehicle's electrical system has a "floating bus" design feature to tolerate a range of voltage differences between the vehicle's chassis—its mechanical frame—and the 32-volt power lines that deliver electricity throughout the rover. This protects the rover from electrical shorts.

Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2013-11-curiosity-electrical-issue.html#jCp

The decision to resume science activities resulted from the success of work to diagnose the likely root cause of a Nov. 17 change in voltage on the vehicle. The voltage change itself did not affect the rover safety or health. The vehicle's electrical system has a "floating bus" design feature to tolerate a range of voltage differences between the vehicle's chassis—its mechanical frame—and the 32-volt power lines that deliver electricity throughout the rover. This protects the rover from electrical shorts.

Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2013-11-curiosity-electrical-issue.html#jCp

The decision to resume science activities resulted from the success of work to diagnose the likely root cause of a Nov. 17 change in voltage on the vehicle. The voltage change itself did not affect the rover safety or health. The vehicle's electrical system has a "floating bus" design feature to tolerate a range of voltage differences between the vehicle's chassis—its mechanical frame—and the 32-volt power lines that deliver electricity throughout the rover. This protects the rover from electrical shorts.

Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2013-11-curiosity-electrical-issue.html#jCp

The decision to resume science activities resulted from the success of work to diagnose the likely root cause of a Nov. 17 change in voltage on the vehicle. The voltage change itself did not affect the rover safety or health. The vehicle's electrical system has a "floating bus" design feature to tolerate a range of voltage differences between the vehicle's chassis—its mechanical frame—and the 32-volt power lines that deliver electricity throughout the rover. This protects the rover from electrical shorts.

Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2013-11-curiosity-electrical-issue.html#jCp

The decision to resume science activities resulted from the success of work to diagnose the likely root cause of a Nov. 17 change in voltage on the vehicle. The voltage change itself did not affect the rover safety or health. The vehicle's electrical system has a "floating bus" design feature to tolerate a range of voltage differences between the vehicle's chassis—its mechanical frame—and the 32-volt power lines that deliver electricity throughout the rover. This protects the rover from electrical shorts.

Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2013-11-curiosity-electrical-issue.html#jCp

Mars Rover Curiosity Sidelined by Electrical Glitch

Electrical problem has cropped up over the last week end in the NASA's Curiosity rover.  The rover stopped gathering data for few days.  The Mission team noticed a change in the voltage difference between the body of the rover and its electricity distributing power bus  on 17th November, 2013.  The team suspect that the culprit may be a "soft short", which is a sort of electrical leak through partially conductive material.  Curiosity is standing down temporarily while engineers are trying to understand what is the cause of electrical glitch.

The mission team said that the vehicle is safe and stable and fully capable of operating at its present condition but they are taking precautions to investigate the problem.  The voltage difference between the power bus and the Curiosity chasis was about 11 volts when the rover touched down inside Mars's Gale crater in August, 2012.  Now the voltage difference dropped to about 4 volts.

The issue appears to be unrelated to the software glitch that caused Curiosity to reboot its computer and go into a protective "safe mode" earlier this month, said the Mission team.
Curiosity's primary task is to determine if Mars has ever been capable of supporting microbial life. Mission scientists have already achieved this goal, finding that an area near the rover's landing site called Yellowknife Bay was indeed habitable billions of years ago.

The 1 ton rover is now on the task of long drive from Yellowknife Bay to towering Mount Sharp whose foot hills hold a record of Mars' changing environmental conditions over time. If everything goes well as per plan, Curiosity must reach Mountain's base by the middle of 2014.

NASA's Curiosity Rover's Self Portrait at 'John Klein' Drilling Site

The picture shown above is the self-portrait of NASA's Mars rover Curiosity which was taken by the rover's Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) during th 177th Martian day or so, of Curiosity's work on Mars ( 3rd Feb., 2013).

The Rover was positioned on a flat outcrop called "John Klein" which was a place selected for the first rock-drilling activities by Curiosity. The rover's robotic arm is not visible in the picture. The MAHLI which took the images was mounted on a turret at the end of the arm. 

Curiosity comes out of Safe Mode

The NASA's Mars Rover Curiosity has come out of the safe mode successfully and is back to its normal surface operations.  The Curiosity had been in Safe Mode since 7th November, 2013 when an un expected software reboot occurred during a communications pass with the orbiter.   The Mission operations recommenced on 14th Nov., 2013.

Rajeev Joshi who is a Software and Systems Engineer for Curiiosity Mission at JPL said that they have returned to normal engineering operations.  The Curiosity team was able to determine the root cause of the software root cause after analyzing the data returned by the spacecraft.  An error in existing onboard software resulted in an error in a catalog file.  This has caused an un expected reset when the catalog was processed by a new version of flight software which was installed on 7th Nov., 2013.  The team was able to simulate the problem on the ground. 

NASA's Curiosity performs Software Reboot

The Mars rover Curiosity of NASA has experienced an unexpected software reboot ( also called as a warm reset) on 7th November, 2013 during a communications pass while it was sending scientific data to the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter for downlinking later on to Earth.  The reboot occurred after about 4 hours when a new flight software had been temporarily loaded into the Rover's memory.   


The telemetry data later downlinked from the rover indicated that  warm reset was performed as expected in responce to an un anticipated event.  The warm reset is executed by flight software when it identifies any problem with one of its operations.  The reset restarts the flight software into its initial state.  A team from NASA is working out towards understanding the cause of the reset and to return the rover for normal operations.  This is the first time that the rover has executed a fault related warm rest during its 16 months of Mars surface operations.

NASA's Curiosity Mars Rover Approaches 'Cooperstown' in last week of October, 2013

The NASA's MARS Rover Curiosity has completed its first two-day autonomous drive on 28th Oct, 2013 which begins the movement of the rover to a good place for pictures useful for selecting the next target. 

The Rover chooses a safe route when it drives autonomously to the designated points using its on-board computer to analyze the stereo images which it takes during the pauses in the drive. The Mars Rover Curiosity has come to about 80 meters away from "Cooperstown".  This is a place which is suitable candidate for the examination with on-board instruments on the Rover's arm.   Curiosity has not used its arm-mounted instruments to examine a target since 22nd Sept., 2013 while departing from a place called "Darwin".  The researchers used the arm's camera and spectrometer for four days at Darwin on 22nd Sept., 2013.  

The low ridge that appears as a dark band below the horizon in the center in the above picture  is a Martian outcrop called "Cooperstown," a possible site for contact inspection with tools on the robotic arm of NASA's Mars rover Curiosity.

The mission's main destination is the Mount Sharp.  Curiosity began its trek of 8.6 Kms starting from an area where it worked for first half of 2013, heading towards Mount Sharp.  The NASA research team used the images from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter to plot the route and choose a few points of special interest along the way which include Darwin and Cooperstown.


One of the key activities planned for the first week of November, 2013 is uploading a new version of onboard Software - the third such upgrade since landing of the rover.  The software updates allow continued advances in the capabilities of the rover.  The version prepared for upload in first week of November, 2013  includes, for example, improvements in what information the rover can store overnight to resume autonomous driving the next day. It also expands capabilities for using the robotic arm while parked on slopes. The team expects that to be crucial for investigations on Mount Sharp.

NASA Curiosity confirms MARS origin of some meteorites

NASA's Mars Curiosity  examined the Martian atmosphere recently in the month of October, 2013 and it confirms that some meteorites that have dropped to Earth are really from the Red planet.

The new measurement of the inert gas argon in Mars's atmosphere by NASA's Curiosity provides an evidence of the origin of Mars meteorites.  The new measurement is a high precision count of the two forms of argon - Argon 36   and Argon 38 which were measured by the Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) instrument on-board the rover.  These two isotopes of Argon exist naturally throughout the solar system.   The lighter form of Argon was taken away more readily because it rises to the top of atmosphere more easily and requires less energy to escape.  This has left Martian atmosphere enriched with heavier isotope of Argon (Argon 38).  The correct Argon ratio measured by SAM is 4.2.  One of the reason scientists are so interested in the argon ratio in the Martian meteorites is that it was - before Curiosity -- the best measure of how much atmosphere Mars has lost since the Red planet's wetter, warmer days billions of years ago.  Figuring out the Mars's atmospheric loss would enable us to better understand how Mars transformed from a once water-rich planet like Earth into today's drier, colder and less habitable world.

While argon makes up only a tiny fraction of the gas lost to space from Mars, it is special because it's a noble gas. That means the gas is inert, not reacting with other elements or compounds, and therefore a more straightforward tracer of the history of the Martian atmosphere. 

"Other isotopes measured by SAM on Curiosity also support the loss of atmosphere, but none so directly as argon," said Atreya. "Argon is the clearest signature of atmospheric loss because it's chemically inert and does not interact or exchange with the Martian surface or the interior. This was a key measurement that we wanted to carry out on SAM."

The Curiosity measurements do not directly measure the current rate of atmospheric escape, but NASA's next mission to Mars, the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution Mission (MAVEN), is designed to do so. As part of this mission,  NASA has launched the MAVEN on 18th November, 2013.  More details of NASA's MARS MAVEN Mission.

Some interesting facts about black holes

Black holes are one of the most fascinating objects in the universe.  The black holes have three "layers" - the outer and inner event horizon and the singularity.  The event horizon is the boundary around the mouth of the black hole where the light loses its ability to escape.  Once any particle crosses the event horizon, it can not escape.  The gravity is constant across event horizon.  The inner region of a black hole is the place where its mass lies and is known as Singularity.  This is a single place in space where the mass of the black hole is concentrated.  Here are some of the interesting facts about the black holes.

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• If you fall into a black hole, the strong gravity would stretch you like a spaghetti.  You will die before you reach singularity.
• Black holes do not such.  Suction is caused by pulling something into vacuum.  But objects simply fall into a black hole.
• The first object to be considered as a black hole is Cygnus X-1.  Rockets carrying Geiger counters discovered 8 new x-ray sources.  In the year 1971, scientists detected radio emissions coming from Cygnus X-1 and it was identified as a black hole
•  If a star passes too close to a black hole, it can be torn apart
• Astronomers estimate that there may be 10 million to a billion stellar black holes with masses equal to 3 times of our Sun in the Milky Way Galaxy.
• The life cycle of most of the stars end up being a white dwarf or a neutron star.  but the black holes are the last evolutionary stage in the life time of a star
• There are 3 types of black holes - Stellar, Super massive and Intermediate black holes depending on their mass
•  As the black holes have strong gravity which pulls all of the light into its center, black holes can not be seen.
• The black holes too follow the laws of gravitation.  So in order to affect our Earth, the orbit of a  black hole has to be very near to solar system which is not likely,.
• Astronomers believe that our own Milky way galaxy has a super massive black hole at the center.
• One interesting fact is that black holes can not such all the matter in the universe.  Each black hole has its own event horizon similar to the gravitational field of a planet.  If the matter is not in the horizon, it will never get sucked into the black hole.
•  The giant black  hole at the center of Milky Way galaxy weighs about 4 million Suns.  But fortunately it is 30,000 light years away from us
• There is a belief that black hole eventually evaporate.  Black holes emit radiation.  The energy that produces radiation comes from the mass of the black hole. As the radiation is emitted, a black holes loses its mass.  So the black holes becomes smaller as it emits radiation. In effect, a black hole evaporates more quickly as it shrinks.

What are Black Holes?

The Black holes are one of the strange and most fascinating objects found in outer space.  The Black holes are cold remnants of dead stars with extreme density with such a strong gravitational attraction that even light cannot escape from the Black Hole if it comes near it.



The famous scientist Albert Einstein first predicted black holes in the year 1916 with his general theory of relativity.  The word "black hole" was coined in the year 1967 by American Astronomer John Wheeler.  The first black hole was discovered in the year 1971.

There is a mathematically defined surface called Event Horizon around black hole which marks the point of no return.  The hole is called "black" because it absorbs all the light which hits the horizon and reflects nothing.  

Most of the stars end up as white dwarfs or neutron stars.  The black holes are the last evolutionary stage in the lifetime of big stars which had been at least 10 or 15 times bigger than our Sun.  When these giant stars reach their final stages of their life, they often detonate into what is known as supernovae.  This kind of explosion scatters most of the star into the void of space but leaves behind a large "cold" remnant on which fusion no longer takes place.  In younger stars, nuclear fusion creates energy and a constant outward pressure exists in balance with the inward pull of gravity caused by star's own mass.  But in dead remnants of stars, no force opposes gravity - so the star begins to collapse in upon itself.


When there is no force to check gravity, the black hole shrinks to zero volume - at which point it is infinitely dense.  Even the light from such a star is unable to escape due to the immense gravitational pull.  The own light of the star gets trapped in it and the dark star becomes known as black hole.

The black holes are very small in size.  For example, a black hole with a mass equal to that of our Sun would have a 2-mile radius.  As they are very small and dark at a far off distance, we can not observe them directly.  But extremely large black holes do exist at the center of some of the galaxies.  These large black holes have mass of 10 to 100 billion Suns. 

 

Types of Black holes

 

 You can find three types of black holes.  1. Stellar black holes,    2. Super massive black holes,   3.  Intermediate black holes.
 

 The Stellar black holes are small but deadly.  When a star burns through the last of its fuel, it may find itself collapsing. For smaller stars, up to about three times the sun's mass, the new core will be a neutron star or a white dwarf. But when a larger star collapses, it continues to fall in on itself to create a stellar black hole.  Black holes formed by the collapse of individual stars are (relatively) small, but incredibly dense. Such an object packs three times or more the mass of the sun into a city-size range. This leads to a crazy amount of gravitational force pulling on objects around it. Black holes consume the dust and gas from the galaxy around them, growing in size.

Small black holes populate the universe but their cousins, Super massive black holes dominate.  The super massive black holes are millions or even billions of times as massive as our Sun but have a radius similar to that of Earth's closest star.  These kind of black holes are thought of lying in the center of every galaxy including our Milky Way galaxy.  Scientists are not sure how much large such black holes are.  Once they are formed, they easily gather the mass from the dust and gas around them, the material which is plentiful at the center of galaxies allowing them to grow to large sizes.  The super massive black holes may be a result of merging together of hundreds of tiny black holes.  Large gas clouds may also be responsible collapsing together and rapidly  gathering mass.  A third option may be the collapse of a group of stars all falling together.


The intermediate black holes were recently found by scientists.  Earlier they felt that black holes existed in small and large sizes.  This kind of intermediate black holes can be formed when stars in a cluster collide in a chain reaction.  Several of these intermediate black holes forming in same region could fall together in the center of a galaxy to create a super massive black hole.

Here is a video showing how a black hole is formed...
 

NASA's MAVEN Mission set of for Mars

The US Space Agency, NASA has launched its newest Mars Probe towards the Red plant on Monday, 18th November, 2013.   The mission objective of MAVEN is to determine how the Martian atmosphere transformed the world into the desolate wasteland it is today.

A perfect launch on an Atlas V rocket has sent the MAVEN spacecraft on her way to Mars.  The robotic spacecraft called as "Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution Probe (MAVEN) was launched atop Atlas 5 rocket from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station at 01:28 PM EST (!8:28 GMT) beginning its 10 month journey to the Mars.

The spacecraft coasted for about half an hour following the two stage burn of Atlas and Centaur.  The Centaur was fired again to place MAVEN on a direct-to-Mars trajectory.  The MAVEN after separating from Centaur quickly established contact with Earth through the low gain antenna.  The solar panels were deployed few minutes later and started charging the batteries.

The signals of MAVEN were picked up by two 34-meter Deep Space Network antennae in Australia shortly after the launch.  The MAVEN spacecraft is going to study Mars's high atmosphere and try to understand the processes which robbed the world of most of its air.  Evidence shows that the Red planet once had a thick blanket of gases which supported presence of liquid water at its surface.  Today the air pressure is very low that free water would instantly boil away.  

The MAVEN spacecraft was released from Atlas 53 minutes after leaving the Cape Canaveral launch pad.   The MAVEN will perform four trajectory corrections during the course of long cruise with the first scheduled on 3rd December, 2013.  These manouvres ensure that the orbiter will arrive at right place and time to go into the orbit around Mars on 22nd sept, 2014.

 Maven also carries equipment to relay data to Earth from Curiosity and other Mars rovers  

Here is a Video showing the lift off  of MAVEN on 18th November, 2013.

First image from Indian Mars Orbiter Spacecraft

The Indian Mars orbiter is still in Earth's orbit.  The spacecraft is being prepared to depart to Mars on 1st December, 2013.   The on board camera was switched on recently and the first image of Earth was taken by Mars Orbiter Spacecraft.   You can see below the image of India - the birth place of the Mars Orbiter.

Animation of Mars Orbiter Mission

Here is a simple animation of Mars Orbiter Spacecraft on how it will be put into Mars orbit.  Here is the link to the animation.  :  http://sankara.net/mom.html

Fifth orbit raising activity of Indian Mars Orbiter Spacecraft completed on 16th Nov, 2013

The fifth orbit raising manuovre of Mars Orbiter Spacecraft started at 01;27 hrs on 16th November, 2013.  The on-board liquid apogee motor was burned for 243.5 seconds and now the spacecraft apogee was changed from 118642 Kms to 192874 Kms.

The third orbit raising activity was completed on 9th November, 2013. ( 02:10L 43 Hrs IST  for 707 seconds).  The change in Apogee during this activity was from 40186 Kms to 71636 Kms.


The fourth  orbit raising activity was completed on 11th November, 2013. The apogee of Mars orbiter Spacecraft was raised from 71,636 Kms to 78,276 Kms by giving an incremental velocity of 35 meters / seconds ( as against 130 m/s originally planned to raise apogee to about 1,00,000 Kms). 

Second orbit raising manoeuvre completed on 8th Nov., 2013

Another milestone in ISRO MoM has been completed on 8th November, 2013.  The second orbit raising manoeuvre of Mars Orbiter Spacecraft started at 02:18:51 hrs IST on 8th November, 2013 with a burn time of 570.6 seconds of Liquid apogee motor has been completed successfully.    With this activity, the on-board motor of Mars Orbiter was fired for 570.6 seconds taking up the Mars Orbiter to 40,186 km apogee (farthest point to the Earth) from the earlier levels of 28,814 km.

 The first orbit raising activity was completed on 7th November, 2013.  The Mars Orbiter was launched on 5th November, 2013 by ISRO from Sriharikota.   The spacecraft was placed in an elliptical orbit with a perigee of 248.4 Km and an apogee of 23,550 Km with an inclination of 19.27 degrees to the equator.

 The 1,340 Kg Mars Orbiter spacecraft carries 852 Kg of fuel on board.  It is expected that around 360 Kg of fuel is likely to be expended on the six orbit raising activities.  During the final orbit raising activity, the satellite will be put on Mars Transfer Trajectory on 1st December, 2013.  It is expected that the satellite will travel to the viscinity of Mars in Sptember, 2014 after 300 days of deep space journey.

The motors of the spacecraft will be fired once again when the spacecraft is near Mars in the reverse direction to slow it down and allow it to be captured by Martian gravity into an orbit around the red planet.

First orbit raising manoeuvre completed on 7th Nov., 2013

The first orbit-raising manoeuvre of India's Mars Orbiter Spacecraft was performed at 01:17 hrs Indian Standard Time (IST) early on 7th November, 2013).  The 440 Newton Liquid Engine of the spacecraft was fired for 416 seconds by commanding it from Spacecraft Control Centre (SCC) at Bangalore. With this engine firing, the spacecraft's apogee (farthest point to Earth) has been raised to 28,825 km, while its perigee (nearest point to Earth) is at 252 km. It may be recalled that Mars Orbiter Spacecraft, India's first interplanetary spacecraft, was launched into an elliptical earth orbit with a perigee of 248.4 km and an apogee of 23,550 km, inclined at an angle of 19.27 deg to the equator by India's Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle in its twenty fifth flight (PSLV-C25). The achieved orbit was very close to the intended one.  All systems onboard the spacecraft are functioning normally. Further orbit raising maneuvers using the 440 Newton Liquid Engine are planned in the coming few days following which the spacecraft will be put on Mars Transfer Trajectory on December 01, 2013. This enables Mars orbiter spacecraft to travel to the vicinity of Mars in September 2014 after a 300 day journey in deep space. At that time, the 440 Newton Liquid Engine is fired again to slow down the spacecraft to enable it to be captured by Martian gravity into an orbit around it.

Facts about NASA's Mars Curiosity

The Mars Science Laboratory and its rover counter piece, Curiosity is one of the most ambitious Mars Mission flown by NASA.   One of the prime objective of the Curiosity is to find out if the red planet is or was suitable for life.  One more objective of the Curiosity is study about Mars's environment.

The size of Curiosity allows it to carry out lot of scientific experiments which will be able to analyze, take pictures or any rock within the reach of its 7 foot long arm.  Curiosity is 9 feet 10 inches long and 9 feet 1 inch wide and it is about 7 feet high.  The weight of Curiosity is 900 Kg.  The wheels of Curiosity have a 20 inch diameter.

The Curiosity is a six-wheeled robot of the size of a car.   The main mission objective of this Curiosity is to find out if Mars has supported small life forms...  and also if humans can survive on the red planet some day in future!!   The Curiosity has most of the senses of the humans..  The parts of Curiosity are very much similar to what a human would need to explore the red planet ( the brain, eyes, body, arm, legs etc...).  Here are some more details of Mars Curiosity.

• Name of the Mission : Mars Science Laboratory
• Rover Name : Curiosity Rover
• Size : 10 feet long, 9 feet wide and 7 feet tall
•  Reach of the arm : 7 feet
• Features : Geology lab, Rocker-bogie suspension, laser to vaporize rocks and a number of cameras
• Objective : To search places on Mars for past or present conditions favorable for life
• Date of launch : 26th November, 2011 7:02 AM PST
• Landing date : 5th August, 2012   10:32 PDT
• Length of Mission on Mars : One Mars year or about 23 Earth Months

The complete details of the Mission can be downloaded from Mars Science Laboratory Facts.

Read more about Curiosity below.

1. Curiosity landed one minute ahead of its scheduled after 36 weeks in space.   NASA put the official landing time on Mars' surface as 1:32 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time on Aug. 6, one minute later than the time the space agency estimated months ago. 

2. The Curiosity landed on the target, which is at the foot of a mountain which is 3 miles tall and 96 miles wide in the Gale crater.  


3. A relay system was employed by NASA to receive confirmation of the landing. The direct line of communications was obstructed by the Earth's horizon as the landing craft approached Mars' surface. So, the Mars Odyssey orbiter, which had been repositioned a few weeks ago to better monitor the landing, relayed confirmation to the space agency's Deep Space Network antenna station in Canberra, Australia, which in turn relayed the news to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California. 

4.  Just few minutes after its landing, th Curiosity has sent its first view of Mars,   a wide-angle scene of rocky ground near the front of the rover.  Later on it starting transmitting high resolution color images after deploying its mast.   The rover has 17 cameras in all.

5.  The Curiosity rover changed its speed when it entered the final stage of its journey.  The space craft approached Mars at a speed of 8000 miles per hour and then when it hit the top of Mar's atmosphere, the planet's gravity pulled it at a speed of 13,200 miles per hour.  The rover slowed down to 1.7 miles per hour as it touched down the surface by using its "Sky crane" landing technique.

6.  The weather was excellent at the time of descent even though there was a threat of a dust storm.

7. The Curiosity was lowered in a delicate sequence of events by thruster rockets, a 51 foot wide parachute and nylon cords.

8. The Curiosity carries 10 scientific instruments some of them were being used on Mars mission for the first time.  One such instrument was laser firing instrument which can check the elemental composition of the rocks from a distance. It will use a drill and scoop at the end of a robotic arm to gather soil and rock interiors, then move the samples to its lab instruments. 

9. The total cost of Curiosity mission is around $2.5 billions as per NASA which include the spacecraft development, science investigations and the cost of launch and the operations.