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.