The Official Space Exploration Thread

[DSJ™]

Mars lander's robotic arm touches soil



This view from the Surface Stereo Imager on NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander shows the first impression –- dubbed Yeti and shaped like a wide footprint -- made on the Martian soil by the robotic arm scoop on Sol 6, the sixth Martian day of the mission, (May 31, 2008). Touching the ground is the first step toward scooping up soil and ice and delivering the samples to the lander's onboard experiments. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona.

[Matt_Fury]

Great...a little Martian inappropriate touching!   

[Darth_Anton]

I wonder why a scoop in stead of a drill? You'd think a drill could be made to penetrate deeper.

[Matt_Fury]

Mechanically, I think too much could go wrong with a drill + collection equipment as opposed to just a scoop.

[DSJ™]

Shuttle brings new resident, toilet fix to space station

They have a crew on the ISP that has to go poo really bad! 



A camera outside the International Space Station caught this view of the shuttle Discovery backdropped by Earth during docking on June 2, 2008. Japan's massive Kibo laboratory module is visible in the payload bay. Credit: NASA TV.



The space shuttle Discovery is shown docked at the International Space Station on June 2, 2008 during NASA's STS-124 mission. Credit: NASA TV.

I wonder why a scoop in stead of a drill? You'd think a drill could be made to penetrate deeper.

They are taking baby steps, testing out the equipment to make sure things are working properly. Also using the scoop loosens & scraps away anything soft to get to the meat of it. Drilling will come in time. 

First the nearly eight-foot (2.3 meters) robotic arm uses a backhoe motion to clear away loose regolith and expose the icy layer. A blade on the front of the scoop can try a bit of scraping, but the real digging for ice samples requires a small drill in the back of the scoop.

The spring-loaded drill is sprung against the ground and turned on, rotating and grinding against the icy soil using the spring's pressure. Wrist movements push the loosened ice samples into a chamber for further testing.

"Within about a minute or so, it kicks a fair amount of material into the scoop or chamber," said Peter Smith, Phoenix principal investigator at the University of Arizona, Tucson. Smith added that the drill would do its excavation two or three times.

The robotic arm also has scraper blades on the bottom that can clear away material and continue tearing up the icy regolith, Gross said. The arm can dig down as far as 20 inches (0.5 meters), the deepest that anyone has gone on Mars

This image from NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander's Robotic Arm Camera (RAC) shows material from the Martian surface captured by the Robotic Arm (RA) scoop during its first test dig and dump on the seventh Martian day of the mission, or Sol 7 (June 1, 2008). The test sample shown was taken from the digging area informally known as "Knave of Hearts."

Scientists speculate that the white patches on the right side of the image could possibly be ice or salts that precipitated into the soil. Scientists also speculate that this white material is probably the same material seen in previous images from under the lander in which an upper surface of an ice table was observed. The color for this image was acquired by illuminating the RA scoop with a set of red, green, and blue light-emitting diodes (LEDs). Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona/Max Planck Institute.



This color image, acquired by NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander's Surface Stereo Imager on Sol 7, the seventh day of the mission (June 1, 2008), shows the so-called "Knave of Hearts" first-dig test area to the north of the lander. The Robotic Arm's scraping blade left a small horizontal depression above where the sample was taken. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona/Texas A&M University.

[DSJ™]

Launch Pad Suffers 'Severe Damage' During Liftoff Of Shuttle Discovery



This image shows launch pad debris blown into nearby waters as the shuttle Discovery lifted off from Pad 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center on May 31, 2008. Credit: Ben Cooper.



Debris from NASA's Pad 39A launch site lies strewn near the pad’s perimeter fence after the shuttle Discovery’s May 31, 2008 launch. Credit: NASA.



This image, taken after the shuttle Discovery’s May 31, 2008 launch from Pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center, shows the extend of damage and lost wall material caused during the liftoff. Credit: NASA.

[DSJ™]

Shuttle astronauts venture outside



Image above: The International Space Station's robot arm moves the Japanese Pressurized Module from space shuttle Discovery's payload bay to its new home on the station. Photo credit: NASA TV.

[Matt_Fury]

Man...they're going to have a tough time if the assembly instructions are in Japanese. 

[Darth_Anton]

Man...they're going to have a tough time if the assembly instructions are in Japanese. 

Hey, after that Mars mission failed a few years back because of confusion over metric vs english specifications, you never know.   

[DSJ™]

Space station toilet trouble fixed

Well that's a relief!     



The space station's robotic arm grabs the Japanese Kibo module to move it from the cargo bay of the space shuttle Discovery to its new spot on the Harmony node of the International Space Station (ISS). Credit NASA TV.



This view of space shuttle Discovery's tail section was taken on flight day 3 by the Expedition 17 crew aboard the International Space Station. The image provides partial views of the shuttle's main engines, orbital maneuvering system pods, vertical stabilizer, the payload bay door panels and the second component of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's Kibo laboratory, which was installed on flight day 4. Before docking, STS-124 commander Mark Kelly flew the shuttle through a roll pitch maneuver to allow the space station crew a good view of Discovery's heat shield. Using digital still cameras equipped with both 400 and 800 millimeter lenses, the station crew took a number of photos of the shuttle's thermal protection system and sent them to teams on the ground for analysis. A 400 millimeter lens was used for this image. Credit: NASA.

Mars lander ordered to scoop soil



Two views of the trench dug by the Phoenix Robotic Arm, with the top image taken on June 1, 2008 and the bottom image taken on June 3, 2008. NASA Ames Viz software allows for interactive movement around terrain images and measurement of features. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona.



Three locations to the right of the test dig area are identified for the first samples to be delivered to the Thermal and Evolved Gas Analyzer (TEGA), the Wet Chemistry Lab (WCL), and the Optical Microscope (OM) on the Phoenix Mars Lander. The sampling areas are informally named "Baby Bear," "Mama Bear," and "Papa Bear." Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona.



The second dig and dump test of Phoenix's Robotic Arm revealed whitish material at the bottom of the dig area known as the "Knave of Hearts." The Science Team is debating whether this is a salt layer or the top of an ice table. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona.

[Matt_Fury]

In other news, the toilet on the international space station has been repaired.  Russian ground control gave the order to try it out....did they really need to do that?

[BrentS]

In other news, the toilet on the international space station has been repaired. 

First order of business was a courtesy flush, followed by the uttering of "hey, can you spare a square?"

[Matt_Fury]

Funny stuff Brent, but it is a good illustration on how nothing is routine in orbit or beyond.  The littlest things can become major problems up there.

[DSJ™]

Astronauts conduct second spacewalk



STS-124 Mission Specialist Mike Fossum exits the Quest airlock beginning the mission's second spacewalk. Photo credit: NASA TV.




Astronaut Mike Fossum used a digital camera to create this self-portrait during the STS-124 mission's first scheduled spacewalk. During the six-hour, 48-minute spacewalk, Fossum and fellow astronaut Ron Garan prepared the Kibo Japanese Pressurized Module for its installation to the space station. Kibo was officially opened during a ceremony performed by astronaut Akihiko Hoshide and the Expedition 17 and STS-124 crew the following day, Wednesday, June 4, 2008.

During the spacewalk, Fossum and Garan also loosened restraints holding the Orbiter Boom Sensor System in its temporary stowage location on the space station's starboard truss, demonstrated cleaning techniques for the Solar Alpha Rotary Joint's (SARJ) race ring and installed a replacement SARJ Trundle Bearing Assembly. Credit: NASA.



This image was taken on June 3, 2008 to examine dust that had fallen onto an exposed surface. The translucent particle highlighted at bottom center is of comparable size to white particles in a Martian soil sample (upper pictures) seen two sols earlier inside the scoop of Phoenix's Robotic Arm as imaged by the lander's Robotic Arm Camera. The white particles may be examples of the abundant salts found in the Martian soil by previous missions. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona.



The color image was taken on June 3, 2008. Comparison with a black-and-white image (left) acquired during Phoenix's flight from Earth to Mars, identifies new particles deposited during the landing event. The particles are presumably samples from the Martian surface, although contamination from the lander itself cannot be ruled out. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona.



This mosaic of four side-by-side microscope images (one a color composite) was acquired by the Optical Microscope, a part of the Microscopy, Electrochemistry, and Conductivity Analyzer (MECA) instrument suite on NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander. Taken on the ninth Martian day of the mission, or Sol 9 (June 3, 2008), the image shows a 3 millimeter (0.12 inch) diameter silicone target after it has been exposed to dust kicked up by the landing. It is the highest resolution image of dust and sand ever acquired on Mars. The silicone substrate provides a sticky surface for holding the particles to be examined by the microscope. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona.

[DSJ™]

The Discovery Channel presents a 6 part mini series When We Left Earth starting this Sunday. Discovery will air 2 episode segments for 3 Sundays.

CLICK HERE to watch the cinema promotional trailer for When We Left Earth.

When We Left Earth is the story of mankind’s greatest adventure, leaving the earth and living in space. For the first time this series has digitally re-mastered the original film and audio recordings from NASA’s vault, including and all the key on-board footage filmed by the astronauts themselves. From John Glenn's Mercury mission to orbit the earth, to Neil Armstrong’s first historic steps on the moon, to the unprecedented spacewalks required to repair the Hubble telescope, these epic stories are shown in stunning clarity and told by the astronauts and engineers who were there.