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*— LAUNCHING THIS WEEK — *

NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory “Curiosity” Rover

• The low down
• Length : 9 feet / 2.8 meters
• Total Weight : 1,984 pounds / 900kg
• Weight of Scientific Instruments = 176 pounds / 80kg
• Launch vehicle Atlas V 541
• Mission duration 668 Martian sols (686 Earth days)
• Landing August 5, 2012 (planned)
• Power Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator (RTG), which were also used by the successful Mars landers Viking 1 and Viking 2 in 1976 [Plutonium–238]
• Designed to produce 125 watts of electrical power at the start of the mission, after 14 years, the electrical power output is down to 100 watts
• “Rover Compute Element” (RCE), contain radiation hardened memory to tolerate the extreme radiation environment from space and to safeguard against power-off cycles
• The onboard computer has 256 kB of EEPROM, 256 MB of DRAM, and 2 GB of flash memory
• Not going to use the ‘airbag’ landing that the other rovers have used
• Parachute slows the rover’s descent toward Mars [Diameter of 51 feet /16 meters]
• Rocket-powered backpack will lower the rover on a tether during the final moments before landing YouTube Video – @
• Instruments
• MSL Entry, Descent and Landing Instrumentation (MEDLI)
• MEDLI isn’t one of Curiosity’s 10 instruments
• will measure the temperatures and pressures the heat shield experiences as the MSL spacecraft streaks through the Martian sky
• will tell engineers how well the heat shield, and their models of the spacecraft’s trajectory, performed
• Mars Descent Imager (MARDI)
• small camera located on Curiosity’s main body, will record video of the rover’s descent to the Martian surface
• will click on a mile or two above the ground (when Curiosity jettisons its heat shield)
• instrument will then take video at five frames per second until the rover touches down
• footage will help the MSL team plan Curiosity’s Red Planet rovings
• should also provide information about the geological context of the landing site
• Mast Camera (MastCam)
• Capture high-resolution color pictures and video of the Martian landscape
• Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI)
• will function much like a high-powered magnifying glass
• instrument will take color pictures of features as tiny as 12.5 microns — smaller than the width of a human hair
• sits on the end of Curiosity’s five-jointed, 7-foot (2.1-meter) robotic arm
• Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM)
• makes up about half of the rover’s science payload
• The rover’s robotic arm will drop samples into via an inlet on the rover’s exterior
• it has three separate instruments — a mass spectrometer, a gas chromatograph and a laser spectrometer
• it can search for carbon-containing compounds, the building blocks of life as we know it
• it can also look for other elements associated with life on Earth (hydrogen, oxygen and nitrogen, ect)
• Chemistry and Mineralogy (CheMin)
• will identify different types of minerals on Mars and quantify their abundance
• help scientists better understand past environmental conditions on the Red Planet
• has an inlet on Curiosity’s exterior to accept samples delivered by the rover’s robotic arm
• shine a fine X-ray beam through the sample, identifying minerals’ crystalline structures based on how the X-rays diffract
• Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam)
• will fire a laser at Martian rocks from up to 30 feet (9 meters) away and analyze the composition of the vaporized bits
• help the mission team determine from afar whether or not they want to send the rover over to investigate a particular landform
• sits on Curiosity’s mast, along with a camera and a small telescope
• Three spectrographs sit in the rover’s body, connected to the mast components by fiber optics
• spectrographs will analyze the light emitted by excited electrons in the vaporized rock samples
• Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer (APXS)
• sits at the end of Curiosity’s arm, will measure the abundances of various chemical elements in Martian rocks and dirt
• will shoot out X-rays and helium nuclei
• the barrage will knock electrons in the sample out of their orbits, causing a release of X-rays
• Scientists will then be able to identify elements based on the characteristic energies of these emitted X-rays
• Dynamic Albedo of Neutrons (DAN)
• near the back of Curiosity’s main body, it will help the rover search for ice and water-logged minerals beneath the Martian surface
• The instrument will fire beams of neutrons at the ground, then note the speed at which these particles travel when they bounce back.
• Hydrogen atoms tend to slow neutrons down, so an abundance of sluggish neutrons would signal underground water or ice
• should be able to map out water concentrations as low as 0.1 percent at depths up to 6 feet (2 m)
• Radiation Assessment Detector (RAD)
• will measure and identify high-energy radiation of all types on the Red Planet, from fast-moving protons to gamma rays
• Rover Environmental Monitoring Station (REMS)
• Located partway up Curiosity’s mast, it is a Martian weather station
• it will measure atmospheric pressure, humidity, wind speed and direction, air temperature, ground temperature and ultraviolet radiation
• It will integrate all the weather data it collects into daily and seasonal reports
• Significance
• Curiosity will be five times as large, and carry more than ten times the mass of scientific instruments as the Mars Exploration Rovers Spirit or Opportunity
• Primary goal of the mission is to search for clues as to whether Mars was ever habitable
• The radiation detector is designed specifically to help prepare for future human exploration of Mars, measuring
• It will perform the first-ever precision landing on Mars
• It will be able to continue operating during the Martian winter, and will be able to handle the cold Martian winters more heartily
• the launch was delayed one day to allow time for the team to remove and replace a flight termination system battery
• The launch day of Nov 26 has a one hour and 43 minute launch window opens at 10:02 a.m. EST
• * Of Note*
• WATCH LAUNCH LIVE ONLINE @ JPL.NASA.GOV
• Mentioned in J@N Red Rover the send your name to Mars Participation Maps US and World
• Curiosity was selected, (in a public poll on the NASA website) which was submitted by a sixth-grader, Clara Ma, from Kansas in an essay contest
• An instrument on NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity can check for any water that might be bound into shallow underground minerals along the rover’s path.
• The generator for the instrument scouting for water will be able to emit a total of about 10 million pulses during the mission, with about 10 million neutrons at each pulse.
• We will be able to see how the shallow subsurface may differ from what the rover sees at the surface
• The rover based instrument measuring water will also offer calibration for the measurements that the gamma-ray and neutron detectors on Odyssey orbiting Mars shows
• Multimedia
• WATCH LAUNCH LIVE ONLINE @ JPL.NASA.GOV
• VIDEO @ YouTuve.com : Mars Science Laboratory (Curiosity Rover) Mission Animation
  
• VIDEO @ YouTuve.com : Mars in a Minute: Is Mars Really Red?
• VIDEO @ YouTuve.com : Building Curiosity: Landing System Drop Test
• VIDEO @ YouTuve.com : Mars Curiosity Rover – First Test Drive
• VIDEO @ YouTuve.com : Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity Rover Animation
• VIDEO @ YouTuve.com : Curiosity Update: Curiosity’s Stunt Double Takes a Spin
• ‘Curiosity Cam’ @ Ustream provided live video from the construction
• VIDEO : Curiosity Rover’s Perculiar Mars Landing Described @ Space.com
• VIDEO : New Mars Rover Powered by Plutonium @ Space.com
• VIDEO : New Mars Science Rover Landing Site – Birds Eye View @ Space.com
• VIDEO : Tumbleweed Rovers Could Explore Mars @Discovery News Videos
• Photo Gallery: Last Look at Mars Rover Curiosity Before Launch @Space.com
• Photos: Curiosity Rover, NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory @ Space.com
• Photos: Gale Crater on Mars, Curiosity Rover’s Landing Site @ Space.com
• Photos of Mars: The Amazing Red Planet @ Space.com
• Slide Show : When Discovery News Met Mars Rover ‘Curiosity’ @ Discovery.com
• Infographic : Inside Huge Mars Rover’s Sky Crane Landing @ Space.com
• Photo : Mock up’s size comparison @ NASA.gov
• Rendition Size comparison – landers @ NASA.gov
• Photo of parachute to be used @ NASA.gov
• Social Media
• Curiosity Rover @MarsCuriosity
• NASA JPL @NASAJPL
• Further Reading / In the News
• 11 Amazing Things NASA’s Huge Mars Rover Can Do @ Space.com
• Complete Coverage: NASA’s Huge New Rover Launching to Mars @ Space.com
• Mars Science Laboratory @ marsprogram.jpl.NASA.gov
• MSL launch delayed to Saturday, Nov. 26 @ NASA.gov
• A Mars Rover Named “Curiosity” @NASA.gov
• NASA’s Curiosity Set to Search for Signs of Martian Life @ universetoday.com
• 7 Biggest Mysteries of Mars @ Space.com
• New NASA missions to investigate how Mars turned hostile @ PhysOrg.com
• Journey to the Red Planet: A Mars Missions Timeline @ Space.com
• Mars rover carries device for underground scouting @ PhysOrg.com
• Mars Rover Curiosity Gets Sealed Up @ Discovery.com
• Could New Rover’s Wheels Deliver Germs to Mars? @ Discovery.com
  
• Curiosity Rover Testing in Harsh Mars-like Environment @ UniverseToday.com
• Encapsulating Curiosity for Martian Flight Test @ UniverseToday.com
• Assembling Curiosity’s Rocket to Mars @ UniverseToday.com
• Closing the Clamshell on a Martian Curiosity @ UniverseToday.com
• Curiosity Rover Bolted to Atlas Rocket – In Search of Martian Microbial Habitats @ UniverseToday.com
• NASA’s Next Mars Rover Hoisted Atop Rocket @ Space.com
• Curiosity Mars Rover Almost Complete @ UniverseToday.com
• Mars Science Laboratory @ Wikipedia.org

Jupiter’s ice-moon Europa

• The low down
• Patches of broken ice unique to the moon have puzzled scientists for over a decade
• Some have argued they are signs of a subterranean ocean breaking through, while others believe that the crust is too thick for the water to pierce
• studies of ice formations in Antarctica and Iceland have provided clues to the creation of these puzzling features
• Significance
• New research on Jupiter’s ice-covered moon Europa indicates the presence of a subsurface lake buried beneath frozen mounds of huge jumbled chunks of ice
• It’s estimate that one such lake contained as much water as all of the North America’s Great Lakes combined, about 1.5 miles (3 kilometers) beneath the surface.
• In Iceland, volcanoes lay beneath the ice. Their heat melts the base of glaciers and ice sheets, causing the surface to buckle in on itself and allowing stress fractures to form
• There’s no evidence for volcanoes on Europa, and the makeup of the ice is likely different from Earth’
• On Europa, it could be warm ice plumes coming up from below.
• Several liquid lakes are likely to exist near the surface today
• * Of Note*
• The material cycled into the ocean via these lakes may make Europa’s ocean even more habitable than previously imagined and the lakes may even be habitats themselves
• scientists finally have a model that demonstrates how Europa’s deep liquid ocean interacts with the ice near its surface
• Multimedia
• VIDEO From the Earth to (Jupiter’s) moon @ Space.com
• Europa’s “Great Lake.” @ Space.com
• Europa @Space.com
• Artist Rendition of Europa’s surface @ NASA/JPL-Caltech
• Topographic data shows the chaos terrain elevations above the surrounding surface. Credit NASA
• Chaos terrain on Europa points to subsurface lakes. (NASA/JPL/Ted Stryk)
• Europa’s “chaos terrain” @ YouTube.com
• Social Media
• NASA JPL @NASAJPL
• [UTAustin @UTAustin
• NASA’s Juno Mission @NASAJuno
• Further Reading / In the News
• Europa’s Hidden Great Lakes May Harbor Life @ UniverseToday
• ScienceShot: Icy Europa Looking More Inviting @ Science Magazine
• Jupiter Moon’s Buried Lakes Evoke Antarctica @ Space.com
• Scientists Find Evidence for Subsurface ‘Great Lake’ on Europa @ John Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory
• NASA Probe Data Show Evidence of Liquid Water on Icy Europa @ NASA
• Scientists Find Evidence for “Great Lake” on Europa and Potential New Habitat for Life @ University of Texas
• NASA Juno mission to Jupiter
• NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory

*— NEWS BYTE — *

Why are flies attracted to beer?

• The low down
• Insects use their taste system to glean important information about the quality and nutritive value of food sources
• Taste becomes important only after the fly makes physical contact with food
• A fly first locates food sources using its odor receptors – crucial for its long-range attraction to food
• Then, after landing on food, the fly uses its taste system to sample the food for suitability in terms of nutrition and toxicity
• Significance
• Flies are attracted to beer because they detect glycerol, a sweet-tasting compound that yeasts make during fermentation.
• A receptor (a protein that serves as a gatekeeper) that is associated with neurons located in the fly’s mouth-parts is instrumental in signaling a good taste for beer
• * Of Note*
• How do you get information from the chemical environment to the brain – not just in flies but other insects as well
• Social Media
• UC Riverside @UCRiverside
• Further Reading / In the News
• The buzz around beer @ PhysOrg
• University of California – Riverside

Amoeba-Sized Insect

• The low down
• The fairy wasp (Megaphragma mymaripenne), which at a mere 200 micrometers in length is one of the world’s smallest animals [roughly 2 strands of human hair / or 10 could fit between between pins in DIP]
• Roughly the size of an amoeba, the wasp shrink so small that it can avoid most predators and invade the eggs of other insects
• When the scientist compared the neurons of adult and pupae fairy wasps, he discovered that more than 95% of adult neurons lack a nucleus.
• Significance
• suggest that while a complete set of neurons is needed to grow, far less are required to live
• Further Reading / In the News
• ScienceShot: Amoeba-Sized Insect Is Missing Some Pieces @ Science Magazine

Voyager tune-up

• The low down
• Launched in 1977, Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 are each equipped with six sets, or pairs, of thrusters to control their movement
• Voyager 2 is currently using the two pairs of backup thrusters that control the pitch and yaw motion of the spacecraft
• Significance
• NASA’s Deep Space Network personnel sent commands to the Voyager 2 spacecraft Nov. 4 to switch to the backup set of thrusters that controls the roll of the spacecraft
• This will allow engineers to turn off the heater that keeps the fuel line to the primary thruster warm, saving about 12 watts of power
• Voyager 1 changed to the backup thrusters in 2004 and is now using all three sets of its backup thrusters
• * Of Note*
• The change will allow the 34-year-old spacecraft to reduce the amount of power it requires to operate, so that the spacecraft can continue to operate for another decade even as its available power continues to decline.
• Still, at the rate of decay, the Voyager spacecraft won’t have sufficient electric power to its instruments sometime by the mid–2020
• Multimedia
• Voyager 1 and 2 are now in the ‘Heliosheath’ @ NASA
• The Golden Record
• Voyager Images & Video @ NASA
• Voyager 2 flyby Animation – Neptune and Triton (1989) @YouTube
• Social Media
• NASAVoyager2 @NASAVoyager2
• Further Reading / In the News
• Voyager The Interstellar Mission @ NASA
• Voyager 2 to Switch to Backup Thruster Set @ NASA
• Venerable Voyager 2 Spacecraft Gets a Tune-up 14 billion Kilometers From Earth @ UniverseToday
• What is the Golden Record? @ NASA

To telescope or not to telescope for the holidays

• Types of Telescopes
• Newtonian reflector telescopes are good for observations of faint deep sky objects, such as Galaxies and Nebulae
• Refractor telescopes are good for achieving high power and contrast when viewing the planets and the moon
• Dobsonian Telescopes are one of the best choices for a general telescope
• Decoding Binocular Names
• defines how much magnification they provide and also the diameter of the big (or objective) lenses at the front of the binoculars.
• For example: 7×50 binoculars would yield a magnification of 7-times, with an objective lens diameter of 50 millimeters.
• Higher power isn’t everything it narrows the field of view, magnifies the dancing of the stars when the instrument is held in the hands, and is that much heavier
• In general
• Take note of how dark the skies in your backyard, or how far the person would have to go to find dark skies
• If possible get a hands on feel for what you want to purchase, keep in mind who’s going to be moving it around
• Planispheres and star charts are your friend. Find ones that are clearly labeled and have the types of objects on them that the person would be interested in
• Find a local club. Show up to a meeting, talk to the people…
• *Further Reading *
• The Holidays Are Coming! A Beginner’s Guide to Telescopes @ UniverserToday.com
• Dobsonian Telescopes @ Meteor Watch
• Newtonian Telescope @ Meteor Watch
• Refractor Telescopes @ Meteor Watch
• How to Choose a Telescope @ Sky&Telescope
• Buying a telescope @ Astronomy
• How to Choose a Telescope @ Discovery.com
• How to Choose a Telescope @ astronomy-education.com
• Choosing Binoculars @ astronomy-education.com

SCIENCE CALENDER

Looking back this week

• Nov 24, 1639 – 372 years ago : First Transit of Venus : Jeremiah Horrocks, an English astronomer and clergyman, measured a transit of Venus, the first ever to be observed.
• Nov 24, 1859 – 152 years ago : The Origin of Species : The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, Darwin’s groundbreaking book, was published in England to great acclaim
• Nov 26, 1885 – 126 years ago : First meteor photo : The first meteor trail was photographed in Prague, Czechoslovakia. On the next evening, 27 Nov, he declared “meteors were falling so thickly as the night advanced that it became almost impossible to enumerate them.”
• Nov 23, 1897 – 114 years ago : Pencil Sharpener : patent was issued for a pencil sharpener to its inventor , John Lee Love of Fall River, Mass.
• Nov 25–27, 1922 – 89 years ago : Tut’s tomb approached : Archaeologist Howard Carter opened the two doorways to the tomb of King Tutankamun. The sepulchral chamber itself was not opened until 16 Feb 1923
• Nov 29, 1961 – 50 years ago : Animal astronaut : Enos, a five-year-old chimpanzee, became the first chimp to orbit the Earth on a 2-orbit ride for 3-hr 20 min. During the flight, Enos carried out the lever-pulling performance and psychological tests that he had trained on for the past 16-months. NASA Animals in Space
• Nov 27, 2001 – 10 years ago : Sodium atmosphere : Sodium was detected in the atmosphere of an extrasolar planet by the Hubble Space Telescope. The planet, was the first transiting planet discovered (5 Nov 1999). It was later seen to have Oxygen, Carbon, and Hydrogen in it’s atmosphere. Osiris / HD 209458b

Looking up this week

• You might have seen …

• In arctic countries like Norway, they saw the last sunrise/sunset until January

• While sunspot activity has remained high, solar activity has been low recently

• Keep an eye out for …

• Wed, Nov 23 : The Moon will be at perigee, its closest point to Earth for its current orbit. It will pass less than 224,000 miles away, or about 15,000 miles closer than its average distance.

• Fri, Nov 25 : Antarctic Solar Eclipse – The Moon will pass in front of the sun, slightly off-center, producing a partial solar eclipse visible from Antarctica, Tasmania, and parts of South Africa and New Zealand. Maximum coverage occurs about 100 miles off the coast of Antarctica where the sun will appear to be a slender 9% crescent

• Sat, Nov 26 : At twilight, low in the SW sky you can see the thin crescent moon, and to the upper left is Venus.

• More on whats in the sky this week

• Sky&Telescope

• AstronomyNow

• SpaceWeather.com

• HeavensAbove

• StarDate.org