NASA's Curiosity finds life's building blocks on MARS surface

The Curiosity rover of NASA has found organic chemicals which are the carbon-containing building blocks of life on the Red Planet - MARS.  The discovery does not confirm the existence of life on MARS or has existed earlier on MARS.  But this marks the first time that organics have been confirmed on MARS.  The Curiosity Project Scientist Mr. John Grotzinger of California Institute of Technology said "This is really a great moment for the Mission".  

The SAM ( Sample Analysis at MARS ) instrument has detected chlorobenzene and several other carbon compounds containing chlorine in the samples from a rock called "Cumberland" which was drilled by Curiosity in May, 2013.

The SAM instrument uses a tiny oven to cook the samples, and then analyze the gases that come out.  The NASA scientists say that it is impossible at present whether the Cumberland organics were produced by living organisms.  But this discovery will definitely help them to guide the planning efforts for NASA's 2020 Mars Rover mission which aims to collect samples on MARS to be returned to Earth.  

The NASA scientists also discovered the detection of methane levels in MARS atmosphere.  Curiosity landed on MARS in August, 2012.  It is now exploring the foothills of Mount Sharp, which rises 5.5 Kilometers above the surface of MARS from the center of the huge Gale crater.

ISRO Successfully launches its heaviest launch vehicle GSLV MARK-III

ISRO successfully tested the atmospheric re-entry of a crew module after its heaviest launch vehicle GSLV Mark-III lifted off from Sriharikota on 18th December, 2014.  This success helps India to realize its ambition to send humans into space.


The Crew module separated exactly after 5.4 minutes after lift-off at 09:30 AM IST from the second launch pad of Satish Dhawan Space Center, Sriharikota.  The module separated from the rocket at a height of 126 Km and re-entered into earth's atmosphere.  The Crew module safely splashes down into the sea near Andaman and Nicobar islands.

The Crew module descended in a ballistic mode and splashed down in Bay of Bengal around 180 Kms away from Indira point, the southern tip of Andaman and Nicobar islands.  The LVM3-X rocket with active S200 and L110 propulsion stages and a passive C25 stage with dummy engine carried the CARE ( Crew module Atmospheric Re-entry Experiment ) as its payload.

The Crew module weighs 3.7 tonnes and it is a 2.7 meter tall cup cake shaped with a diameter of 3.1 meters.  The module which features aluminum alloy internal structure with composite panels and ablative thermal protection systems, was made to safely drop down into the sea by specially made parachutes.  The experiment witnessed the largest parachute in action every made in the country.  The main parachute which helped the Crew module touch the waters at a speed of 7 meters per second was 31 meters in diameter.

The GSLV Mark-III accelerated the CARE module to a velocity of around 5.3 kilometers per second ( 12,000 miles per hour ) and a projected apogee of 126 kilometers which was achieved at the time of separation of the stage.  The CARE module activated its control systems immediately after separating from the rocket.  

Here is a video of the GLSV Mark-III launch.

NASA installs the first zero gravity 3D printer in International Space Station

NASA has successfully installed the World's first zero gravity 3D printer on the International Space Station to help the astronauts experiment with additive manufacturing in micro gravity.  

NASA astronaut Barry Wilmore installed the 3D printer, designed and built by Made In Space, inside the Microgravity Science Glovebox (MSG) on the ISS.  The printer was launched in September aboard the SpaceX 4 resupply mission to the ISS.

Philae lander lands on the comet

A small robotic lander released from European Space Agency's Rosetta probe touched down on the comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko on wednesday 12th November, 2014 after 7-hour descent, by gently colliding and tumbling to the surface of the comet.  

The Philae lander hit the surface of two and half mile wide comet at a speed of 2 miles per hour.  The gravity on the comet is 1,00,000 times less than that of on earth.  Shortly after its deployment, Philae sent the first photo of the comet. 

This is one of the great success for ESA which launched Rosetta spacecraft more than 10 years ago from the Kourou launch port in French Guiana.  After launching in March, 2004 the spacecraft and Philae lander travelled more than 6 billion kilometers to catch up the comet which orbits the sun at speeds of upto 1,35,00 Km per hour

Here is a video about Philae lander by ESA.

Robotic Probe landing on a comet for the first time next week

European scientists and engineers are getting ready for a soft landing of a robotic probe on the surface of a comet for the first time.  This will happen next week.

The ESA's spacecraft "Rosetta" is just a few days away from releasing its Philae lander onto the surface of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko.  Scientists are getting to soft land the lander on 12th November,2014 on the surface of the comet.  

If the mission is successful, the Philae landing will be the first time humans have ever soft landed a probe on a comet's surface.  The lander will study the surface of the comet and the Rosetta probe will study the comet from the orbit.  

It is not easy to land the lander on the surface of the comet.  It has taken 10 years for the probe to catch up with the comet.  A number of specific commands must be executed in order to ensure that Rosetta does not crash into the comet and Philae will arrive at its landing site safely.  Rosetta should release the Philae when the two spacecrafts are flying about 22.5 kilometers from the center of the comet.  The scientists have to wait 10 hours before finding out whether the landing would be successful. 

The scientists and the teams are fully prepared to accomplish the difficult task of landing Philae on comet.  TheRosetta is expected to stay with the comet as it makes its closest approach with the sun in August, 2015.  The spacecraft will beam back scientific data to Earth which could help scientists understand about comets and early solar system. The instruments on Rosetta already revealed that comets smell like rotten eggs. 

The Rosetta was launched to space in 2004 on a  6.4 billion kilometers journey to the comet.  It has reached the comet in August, 2014.  Here is an artist's impression of Philae lander on the surface of comet.



Here is a video showing how the Rosetta will land the Philae lander on the comet. 

3rd navigation Satellite ( IRNSS-1C) launched by India on 16th October, 2014

The third navigation satellite, IRNSS-1C was launched by India on thursday early morning at 01:32 hrs IST ( 16th October, 2014).  The ISRO's work horse Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle, PSLV gave the country and the ISRO yet another text book launch at exactly 20.25 minutes after the PSLV-C26 lifted off with IRNSS-1C Satellite from Sriharikota at 01:32 hrs IST.  The spacecraft was placed into its intended orbit.

The IRNSS-1C is a part of Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS) which is a constellation of Geosynchronous satellites which the ISRO has been deploying to provide navigation data to India and the surrounding region.  The first satellite of the series IRNSS-1A was launched last July with seven satellites scheduled for completion by end of 2015.

The IRNSS-1C has a total mass of 1,425 Kgs including the weight of the fuel.  The spacecraft has a mass of only 600 Kgs without fuel.  The remaining 825 Kg is the weight taken up by the propellant for the apogee motors and manoeuvring engines.  The spacecraft is designed for a life period of 10 years operations.  The spacecraft generates 1600 watts of power through its twin solar arrays.  The satellite broadcasts L5 and S band navigation signals.  

This is the 27th successful mission of PSLV.  Hon'ble Minister of State Dr. Jitendra Singh witnessed the launch from the Mission Control Center at Sriharikota.   After the lift-off of PSLV-C26 with the ignition of the first stage, the important flight events, namely, stage and strap-on ignitions, heat-shield separation, stage and strap-on separations and satellite injection, took place as planned. After a flight of about 20 minutes 18 seconds, IRNSS-1C Satellite, weighing 1425 kg, was injected to an elliptical orbit of 282.56 km X 20,670 km, which is very close to the intended orbit. 

Russian Rocket Soyuz ST-B launches Galileo Satellites into wrong orbit

Arianspace has confirmed on Friday 22nd August, 2014 that two satellites for Europe's Galileo Navigation network were released into wrong orbit after launching aboard a Soyuz St-B rocket from french Guiana.

The Russian Rocket Soyuz ST-B has launched the Galileo satelllites from European Space port in Kourou, French Guiana on Friday 22nd August, 2014.  How ever the launch of two FOC-M1 ( FM01 and FM02) satellites which took place at 12:27 UTC did not result in a correct orbital injection.  Controllers are now looking for options to save the satellites.

There was no clarity whether the two satellites have enough fuel to make up for the orbit injection errors.  The Russian built Soyuz ST-B launch vehicle carrying the Galileo satellites blasted off from French Guiana in South America at 08:27 AM EDT ( !2:27 GMT).  The Soyuz rocket's three booster stages gave way to a Russian Fregat-MT upper stage less than 10 minutes after lift off.  The Fregat was programmed to fire two times to propel the Galileo satellites into a circular medium earth orbit tilted at an angle of 55 degrees to the equator.   

The Fregat upper stage consists of six spherical tanks arrayed in a circle ( four for propellant, two containing avionics) with trusses passing through the tanks to provide structural support.  The stage is independent from the Soyuz's lower three stages having its own guidance, navigation, control, tracking and telemetry systems.  The Fregat uses earth storable propellants ( UDMH/NTO) and can be restarted up to 20 times in flight - enabling it to carry out complex mission profiles.  It can provide 3-axis stabilization or perform a spin-up of the spacecraft payload.

US military orbital tracking data indicated that the Galileo satellites launched by Soyuz on Friday were flying in lower orbit than planned.  The officials confirmed launch anomaly on Friday.  Arianspace said that investigations into the launch anomaly are underway and more information will be provided after analysis of the flight data.

The $7.2 billion Galileo network will consist of 30 satellites when completed.  At least 24 satellites are required for independent global navigation coverage.  ESA officials said before Firday's launch that two more Galileo satellites were being prepared for lift off on another Soyuz launcher in December, 2014.  Another 8 spacecrafts were on track for launches on Soyuz or Arian 5 next year.( 2015).

Here is a video of the launch of GAlileo satellites......