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Unmanned Missions
/ Galileo / Ulysses
RSA /
NASDA /
ESA
Russian Space Agency * Japanese Space Agency * European Space Agency.
ASI
Italian Space Agency Web server.
Jonathan's Space Report. A weekly e-mail report.
After several years of preparation, the initial release of the JSR Launch Vehicle Database is now online!
SPACER.COM - daily news from the frontier.
The Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous (NEAR) spacecraft had its historic encounter with asteroid 433 Eros, in spite of malfunctions. NEAR will be the first spacecraft to go into orbit around a minor planet. On December 20th, 1998 NEAR was commanded to make the first of three planned trajectory corrections to cozy the spacecraft up to the 32-by-13-kilometer asteroid. But problems with software on the spacecraft a week before Christmas have delayed its approach to the asteroid until 2000..Chandra - formerly the Advanced X-Ray Astrophysical Facility (AXAF) will be the most sophisticated X-ray observatory ever built. Affectionately named after Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, it is designed to observe X-rays from high energy regions of the universe, such as hot gas in the remnants of exploded stars. Chandrasekhar, known to the world as Chandra, means “moon” or “luminous” in Sanskrit. He won the Nobel Prize for physics in 1983 for his study of the processes governing the evolution of stars.
The Chandra X-ray Observatory will help astronomers gain new insights into the structure and evolution of the universe by studying powerful sources of X-rays such as exploding stars, matter falling into black holes and other exotic celestial objects. X-rays are an invisible form of light produced by multimillion-degree gas. Chandra will provide X-ray images that are 50 times more detailed than previous missions. At more than 45 feet in length and weighing more than 5 tons, it will be one of the largest objects ever placed in Earth orbit by the space shuttle.
Web Links The Chandra X-ray Observatory Center at Harvard University is the official home page for Chandra.
Kennedy Space Center carries the latest information on Chandra's launch preparations.
Exploring the X-ray Universe, the NASA/Marshall Chandra web site.
Countdown to Discovery. the Chandra newsroom.
X-ray astronomy at NASA/Marshall.
Chandra project science page has technical details and links to related web sites.
The Chandra Science Center at Harvard University will control Chandra operations.
X-ray calibration web site has plenty of techncial information about the telescope's high-resolution mirror assembly.
TRW Space & Electronics Group built Chandra.First X-ray light will be around three weeks after launch," Dr. Martin Weisskopf, the Chandra project scientist at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center said. The delay is necessary for safety. Spacecraft normally are given a couple of days to adjust to the space environment and let the last traces of air trickle out and thus avoid electrical arcing when systems are powered up and tested.
ASC - User Support
STS-93 - AXAF Deployment Mission Home Page:
Currently scheduled for launch in Spring, 1999
STARDUST Launched aboard a Boeing Delta 7426 rocket from Complex 17, Cape Canaveral Air Station, on Feb. 6, 1999, STARDUST will use a unique medium called aerogel to capture comet particles flying off the nucleus of Comet Wild 2 in January 2004, plus collect interstellar dust for later analysis. The collected samples will return to Earth in a re-entry capsule to be jettisoned as it swings by Earth in January 2006.Here are pictures as workers get ready to lower the
sample return capsule onto the Stardust spacecraft.
Scientists have long sought a direct sample of a comet particle because these icy bodies are thought to be nearly pristine examples of the original material from which the Sun and planets were born 4.6 billion years ago. Stardust's mission is to travel to within 150 kilometers (100 miles) of the nucleus of Comet Wild-2 (pronounced "Vilt-2"), gather comet dust particles and deliver them back to Earth. En route to the comet, Stardust will attempt to capture interstellar particles that are believed to be blowing through the solar system. In January 2006, mission plans call for the Stardust sample return capsule to parachute to a designated landing spot in the Utah desert .Both Stardust microchips, the first of which contained 136,000 names collected a year ago, had been installed on the spacecraft at Lockheed Martin Astronautics, Denver, CO.
STARDUST is the first sample return from beyond the reaches of the Moon.
Other Discovery missions:
Pluto Express
A unique camera that will take some of the first pictures of Earth's invisible magnetic shield is being prepared for flight on Feb. 15, 2000. The mission, called IMAGE, will explore a region of space where the aurora is energized.Unlike most other science missions, all the data from IMAGE's instruments will be made available to anyone as soon as it arrives. Traditionally, NASA has given the principal investigator exclusive use of the data for up to a year after it arrives.Other missions:
Giotto Launch Date: 02 July 1985
Launch Vehicle: Ariane
Planned on-orbit mass: 582.7 kg
Power System: Solar cell array of 196 W
The Giotto mission was designed to study Comet P/Halley, and also studied Comet P/Grigg-Skjellerup during its extended mission.
The spacecraft encountered Halley on March 13, 1986, at a distance of 0.89 AU from the sun and 0.98 AU from the Earth and an angle of 107 degrees from the comet-sun line. The goal was to come within 500 km of Halley's comet at closest encounter. The actual closest approach was measured at 596 km. The spacecraft had a dust shield consisting of a front sheet of Aluminum (1 mm thick) and a 12 mm Kelvar near sheet separated by 25 cm, which could withstand impacts of particles up to 0.1 g. The scientific payload was comprised of ten hardware experiments: a narrow-angle camera, three mass spectrometers for neutrals, ions and dust, various dust detectors, a photopolarimeter and a set of plasma experiments. All experiments performed well and returned a wealth of new scientific results, of which perhaps the most important was the clear identification of the cometary nucleus. Fourteen seconds before closest approach, Giotto was hit by a `large' dust particle. The impact caused the spacecraft angular momentum vector to shift 0.9 degrees. Scientific data were received intermittently for the next 32 minutes.
Ron Baalke's Weekly Galileo Update.
SSI Education and Public Outreach Website.
Jupiter Moon Events for 1998
Galileo Quick-Look Fact Sheets For GEM
Quick-Look Facts Sheets for each orbit of
Galileo's extended mission (GEM) has just been
added to the home page:http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/galileo/quick_look.html
During the Galileo Europa Mission, there will be 8 encounters with Europa, 4 encounters with Callisto, and finally ending with 2 Io encounters. Each fact sheets include a diagram of the encounter trajectory, time and distance from the target object, science highlights, flyby geometry, and timeline of events.
JPL's
Near-Earth Asteroid Tracking (NEAT)
program
The Planetary Society Web recently posted an interesting article on a near-miss of Earth by -- asteroid 1998 EG --Their SETI program.
The Asteroid Threat by the NSS.
Victor Noto of Kissimmee, Florida continues to follow this story.
Home of SPACELINKALL IMAGES obtained by the Galileo Solid State Imaging (SSI) system during the spacecraft's first seven orbits (G1, G2, C3, E4, E6, G7) of Jupiter are now validated and available at the Planetary Image Atlas.
Select the option:
"Galileo SSI REDRs of Earth and the Moon, Venus, Gaspra, Ida, and Jupiter and its satellites" A special Countdown to Europa home page is now available on the Galileo Home Page:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/galileo/countdown/
Cassini's mission to Saturn
The Mission is creating a lot of controversy.
Read the story behind the controversy.Related sites:
Note: Pages will open in a new browser window
Mars Pathfinder successfully landed July 4th 1997.
Early Views of the Martian Surface from the Mars Orbiter Camera of Mars Global Surveyor .GSFC's Mars Pathfinder MISSION Home Page.
- Their image Cache
SUMMER 1997’s BIG WEB HIT -- MARS PHOTOS --
Images, links, articles, games, and more online at NASA’s Observatorium,
see “Mystic Mars”
Mars Missions Year 2000 and beyond!
LIVE From MARS. A Passport to Knowledge project.
More Mars stuff, including a Mars Atlas from the Ames Research center.
The Hubble Space Telescope observes the Mars Pathfinder Landing Site.
Where it all started - The site that survived a million hits!
MSFC - SPACELINK has some excellent info on Mars.Mars Global Surveyor, which launched on Nov. 7th 1996, arrived on time and in good health on September 11th, 1997. Mir to Mars LIVE Webcast, Monday March 23rd, 1998
The most recent Mars Global Surveyor Mission Status Reports, are available from JPL.
In Regards to "The Face on Mars": [Editor's note: This report was prepared by the Office of the Flight Operations Manager, Mars Surveyor Operations Project, Jet Propulsion Laboratory.] April 24, 1998 The Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft has completed the last three attempts to image the Cydonia region of Mars, the two Viking lander sites and the Mars Pathfinder landing site. Global Surveyor captured the final image of Cydonia as the spacecraft passed over the area at a distance of about 392 kilometers (244 miles). The images contain additional portions of "The City," a locale sporting a variety of geological features sometimes identified as "mounds," the "city square," the "pyramid" and the "fortress." This area, photographed more than 20 years ago by the Viking orbiters, has been of public interest because it is adjacent to the so-called "Face on Mars." The images are posted on JPL's Mars news site at http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/marsnews, on the Mars Global Surveyor project home page at http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov, and on NASA's Planetary Photojournal site at http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov.LIVE from Mars Archive.
is going into orbit over the poles of the Sun.
Find out about the first spacecraft to leave the plane of the Solar System.
The National Space Science Data Center, the University of California at Los Angeles, and the University of Arizona also have Ulysses information at:
http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/nssdc_news/toc.html
http://www.igpp.ucla.edu/
http://xlr8.lpl.arizona.edu/ulysses.htmlMore on the Sun:
The Yohkoh and Spartan 201 homepages have interesting images of the Sun.
http://www.space.lockheed.com/SXT/homepage.html
http://umbra.gsfc.nasa.gov/spartan
Deep Space 1
TRAJECTORY INCLUDES ASTEROID FLYBYJune 5, 1998 - Mission planners for NASA's Deep Space 1 have selected a near-Earth asteroid, 1992 KD, as a flyby destination. Last April, NASA announced that the launch date for this technology validation mission was to be rescheduled from July 21 to October 15, with the launch period extending to October 30. Deep Space 1 is scheduled to fly by the newly chosen asteroid 1992 KD on July 28, 1999. This asteroid was chosen from more than 100 flyby possibilities. Its elliptical orbit curves within and outside of Mars' orbit of the Sun, at its farthest going out more than three times farther from the Sun than Earth. Although scientists believe its diameter is approximately three kilometers, they know little else about the body. With this flyby, they can learn more about its shape, size, surface composition, mineralogy, terrain and rotation speed.Latest Hubble Space telescope images.
http://oposite.stsci.edu/pubinfo/Pictures.html
Clementine Mission home page.
Dale Robinson runs the Robinson Lunar Observatory.
Lunar Prospector
Lunar Prospector will conduct a one-year primary mission, mapping the surface composition and internal structure, volatile activity, and magnetic and gravity fields of the Moon from an altitude of approximately 63 miles. Additional mapping at altitudes as low as 6 miles above the lunar surface is planned over the following 6 months. Lunar Prospector is expected to provide definitive evidence of the presence or absence of water ice in the shaded lunar polar regions.Here's a diagram of the spacecraft. When Prospector finally runs out of fuel, it will crash on the lunar surface. But, it won't be alone when this happens. One ounce of the ashes of famed planetary scientist Dr. Eugene Shoemaker is aboard the craft. Cool LinksWant more Moon Stuff? or the Planets?
More Space Stuff:
October 16th, 1997 - NASA announced two Small Explorer Missions to investigate flares on the Sun and the evolution of galaxies.
COBE - Cosmic Background Explorer. (Microwave)
IRAS - InfraRed Astronomy Satellite.
CosmoBrain has alot of links.
SEAWIFS
- Cool Earth images, from Space. With Interactive interface!
WHAT'S NEW at SeaWIFS.
The Earth at night - from the Exploratorium.
Views of the Solar System:ProSpace.Org - the Citizen's Space Lobby.
Planet Earth
CNN is hosting the DISCOVERY - HUBBLE Digital Theater.
Find some "cool stuff from the Cosmos", including the Space Exploration Gallery.
Canadian Space Agency. I don't care what you say -
CANADA's COOL! If your interest lies in SSTO (Single Stage to Orbit) spacecraft, try the
Reusable Launch Vehicle Technology Program Home Page.
Space Transportation Programs - Art Gallery has *very cool* images.Here's an example:
