Frida Space

Yes, the dunes are the black field just above that big crater in the center low of the image AKA the lower part of the central "island" Unfortunately I'm on my phone so I don't really know how else to describe it. I hope it's clear

A relevant quote from Bill McKinnon: "Seeing dunes on Pluto -- if that is what they are -- would be completely wild, because Pluto’s atmosphere today is so thin. Either Pluto had a thicker atmosphere in the past, or some process we haven’t figured out is at work. It’s a head-scratcher."

Here they come! - - - Updated - - - Also, TWILIGHT due to haze layers on Pluto! Speaking of haze layers, here's a better view of them: Speaking of hazes, here's something unrelated to them... Charon! How could we forget of her. - - - Updated - - - My personal favorite is the second one, the "Dark Areas" closeup, because it really shows the difference between the ancient, heavily-cratered dark terrain and the young and "dynamic" glacial plain that is Spuntik Planum. - - - Updated - - - According to Press Release, second image might show what some scientists think might be a field of dunes. Yea, dunes.

@Xeno is doing a great job keeping us up to date w/ the Chinese space program amongst other things. He had already started a thread on Chang'e 4's lunar farside landing decision. http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/128859-It-s-confirmed-China-s-going-to-the-Lunar-farside%21

A mosaic of Occator crater + bright spots (made by assembling 2 images, I'm guessing at different exposures since the spots are so bright)

Just a quick update: On September 1st-2nd, JAXA's Hayabusa 2 completed 2 manoeuvres for a total of 12 hours to correct its trajectory that will bring the probe to perform an Earth gravity assist by December of this year. This is Hayabusa's, Earth's and 1999 JU3's positions as of Sept 1, 2015: In case you missed them, these are the most recent Hayabusa 2 manoeuvres: - March 3-March 20: 409 hours - June 2-June 7, 0:25 JST: 102 hours Total Delta-V: 60 m/s Correction Manoeuvre: - Sept 1-Sept 2: 12 hours Total: 523 hours -- almost 22 days! As you probably can tell, Hayabusa 2 has an ion propulsion system (with 4 engines).

Actually data downlink has been going on as planned throughout August (it's communicating right now on DSN Now). I guess you mean that the high speed data (images) resumes tomorrow?

Less spectacular but not less interesting (hadn't ever seen anything like this): the rocket casting a shadow onto its own exhaust plume From that same launch, obviously

SMAP's radar has been declared lost. What a shame, so early on. www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-soil-moisture-radar-ends-operations-mission-science-continues

First picture should come down a bit sooner than expected, around Sept. 5th. Don't know when it's going to be released. - - - Updated - - - Just to clarify, the lossless images won't come down before mid-November, so the September images should still lossy - - - Updated - - - Also, as NASA's press release doens't mention it, New Horizons has 130 m/s of DeltaV left. The October-November burn should be 56.8 +/- 1 m/s.

They said that it turned upside down because it re-inflated. Obviously wasn't meant to happen, but they said it's an easy fix.

Orion successfully landed after 1 drouge + 1 main chute were intentionally blocked from deploying. http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2015/08/orion-parachute-evaluates-failed-chute-scenarios/ http://www.theverge.com/2015/8/26/9209225/watching-a-spacecraft-fall-in-the-desert-with-two-failed-parachutes

From a NASA Uranus study: Several aspects of Uranus are unique in the solar system: 1. Its low rate of internal heat emission (per unit mass, Uranus’s heat flow is ~10 times lower than that of Neptune) suggests that much of the interior may not be convective and has correspondingly higher temperatures (Guillot 2005) 2. Its large obliquity (98°) applies an unusual seasonal forcing to the atmosphere. The insolation differences between summer and winter are very large, but the annual averaged insolation as a function of latitude is more uniform than on any other giant planet, although on average the poles do receive more sunlight than the equator (Figure 1-2). 3. It has a strongly tilted (~60° from its rotation axis) dipole magnetic field, which, near solstice, leads to a unique geometry that offers an ideal opportunity to study the coupling between the solar wind and planetary atmospheres. 4. Its magnetic field also appears to be generated well outside the planet’s core, as much as 70% of the way out from the planet’s center. (offset magnetic field) Uranus's satellite and rings systems are also unique. Uranus lacks the large satellites found around Jupiter and Saturn, and the much lower temperatures allow for different surface ices. Given the different formation and evolutionary paths of ice-giant as opposed to gas-giant systems, the Uranian satellites will shed light on the formation and conditions of the early solar system. The largest Uranian satellites, Titania and Oberon, may have deep interior oceans (Hussmann et al. 2006), so measurements to detect induced magnetic fields of the satellites are desired. Uranus is particularly suited to this type of investigation because its inclined dipole (~60°) induces large field variations in the satellites as the planet rotates. Despite Uranus's distance from the Sun and the satellites’ small sizes, there is evidence for significant tectonic activity, especially on small Ariel and smaller Miranda. In the case of Ariel, there is also evidence for viscous cryovolcanic flows, which have not been detected elsewhere in the solar system. Some of the smaller Uranian satellites are also dynamically interacting and perhaps unstable, with orbital changes seen between the 1980s and today. ---------------- Also in that paper, they analyzed possible trajectories. The last Jupiter gravity assist opportunity of the decade is in 2021, so they had to come up with other trajectories. However, as Jim Green said the mission(s) could launch even at the beginning of the 2030s, a Jupiter gravity assist could be possible for that decade. The trajectory they came up with involves a single Earth flyby: The Uranus Orbital Insertion (UOI) is done by aerobraking, slowing from 22 km/s at entry interface (~500 km altitude) to Mach 1 at about 60 km altitude (0.1 bar pressure) in about 1 minute.

Oh, my bad then! So yeah, that's true. But as New Horizons taught us, we can be surprised...

No need to be aggressive. I know very well the Discovery proposals, and everyone is allowed to have his own preferences. I personally would prefer a mission to Uranus and/or Neptune over most of the Discovery proposals. I find the ice giants much more fascinating than the Martian moons, more asteroids, Venus or comets (Discovery proposed destinations). The only proposals I'm really into are the ones to Io and Enceladus; in fact, I know ELF's PI very well. If you prefer to explore our own Moon or Phobos or Deimos or whatever instead of Uranus and Neptune, no problem. Everyone is allowed to have his own opinions, without having to say "inform yourself" if someone disagrees with you - - - Updated - - - With Plutonium production restarting, that shouldn't be a problem. Also, the SLS could cut flight times. But yes, obviously it would be harder than, say, going back to Venus. The question is: is exploring the ice giants worth it? Obviously everyone is entitled to have their own opinions. - - - Updated - - - That's very true, but I don't think a Flasghip mission every decade (Mars 2020 in the 2010-2020 decade, Europa in the 2020-2030 decade, and U-N in the 2030-2040 decade) should be too much of a problem. But I could be wrong. EDIT: After all, we are talking of a Flaship mission in the 2030s-40s. Serious funding probably won't start for the next 15 years.

I hope you named her Sycorax. On a serious note, that's really awesome! Congrats to you and your wife. - - - Updated - - - What do you mean by that? I just said that they should use the SLS to launch the Uranus-Neptune mission(s). How is that taking money away from planetary missions? And, just to be clear, I love planetary science and if it were for me I'd approve every single mission But even then, where else should we go? Uranus and Neptune are the less known big things in the solar system. Sure, Io and Titan are interesting, but there's not many more. - - - Updated - - - Now that's what I said. I said that in 2011 the Decadal Survey prioritized Mars, Europa and Uranus. The first two are currently underway. Jim Green himself said that he's "sure the Uranus-Neptune Mission will survive the next Decadal Survey". I never mentioned "Congress forcing NASA to explore the ice giants". I said the scientific community wants that.

This will be a Flasghip mission, it won't affect the Discovery and New Frontiers programs. If NASA sees it doesn't have enough money for two orbiters, then it will go for just one. Plus, calling Neptune and Uranus similar is like calling Jupiter and Saturn similar.

That's exactly what I was thinking... and even if for whatever reason we didn't find Uranus and Neptune appealing, I'm sure two Cassini-like missions would end up discovering so many unforeseen things that we would have to say "yea, we took the right decision by approving these missions". Plus, with Cassini and (especially) with Juno we are really focusing on fully understanding the origin of the solar system... without studying up close Uranus and Neptune we will be missing a huge part of the puzzle. The two ice giants, with their migrations and stuff, shaped all of the outer-outer solar system (KBOs and maybe even comets)... Maybe they even helped comets and asteroids hit Earth and bring water, organic molecules etc. And this is just one road... there are so many discoveries to be made!

How do you not want to know what happened to this small guy?? On a *more* serious note, aside from the fact that Uranus and Neptune are very different from Jupiter and Saturn (that's why they are classified as ice giants and not (only) as gas giants) and that we are finding a lot of ice giants in other solar systems, I'd go there just to see the moons up close. Aside from Miranda, there are so many things to discover. Proteus has a 20 km mountain! Plus, Triton! And a Cassini-like orbiter would find so many more wonders...

It launches in the "2020s". Could be as soon as 2022 (unlikely) or much later. But yes, as @MinimumSky5 said, the dates I wrote were for the science mission, not considering the cruise phase. Very true (and sad!)

On a relatively unrelated note, it's sad to see that the outer solar system will remain unexplored for possibly as much as 17 years! That's actually unbelievably sad, now that I think about it. 2004-2017 Cassini 2016-2017 Juno 2030-2033 JUICE 2030s Europa Mission

If you've been following OPAG, scientists have asked NASA (which in turn has asked JPL) to start preliminary studies of a Uranus/Neptune mission. One of the most convincing concepts so far is a dual, 4 bln dollar mission consisting of two separate orbiters. As this is a Flagship mission, to see serious progress we will have to wait until Mars 2020 and the Europa Mission are launched, but I'm seeing a lot of confidence this time round in the scientific community. The 2011 Decadal Survery already indicated Mars, Europa and Uranus as top destinations... well, the first two are happening, finally! With those two out, it seems likely that Uranus (and/or Neptune) will be elected as top priority destination in the next Decadal Survey, as in the years following the last Survey we have just found more and more reasons to explore Uranus and Neptune (compare them with Juno and Cassini data on Jupiter and Saturn, compare Triton to New Horizons' Pluto and KBOs, etc.). Jim Green said such a mission would launch at the end of the 2020s or at the beginning of the 2030s. I'm guessing it will have an approx. 10 year transfer, unless it launches on an SLS - which actually seems likely, as it would give the rocket-to-nowhere at least another launch, and a huge one too. I've been following OPAG live, but in case you want further information so far I found these two articles: http://spaceflightnow.com/2015/08/25/uranus-neptune-in-nasas-sights-for-new-robotic-mission/ http://futureplanets.blogspot.ca/2015/08/outer-planet-news.html I know I shouldn't be excited because, even if this mission gets all green lights, it will start returning data no earlier than the mid 2030s-2040s, but still, I can't wait!

Indeed, one engine failed at the end of June, and Dawn has sinced used its other engine(s?).

First images from HAMO. www.nasa.gov/jpl/dawn-sends-sharper-scenes-from-ceres I recall reading somewhere that it could be a pingo or something. Is that still geologically plausible?

If true, that's mind-blowing for me. I get the whole lottery machine example, but how did they find that out? I mean, did they perform some kind of experiment, and if yes, what? Or is it just an assumption, a theory based on no experimental evidence?