Philae Lander Awakening from Deep Sleep in the Cold Shadows of Comet 67P

Scientists from the European Space Agency (ESA) will attempt to make contact with the stricken Philae lander for the first time in nearly four months.

""The spacecraft successfully touched down on comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko in November last year, but an unexpectedly bouncy landing left it stranded in an area far colder and with far less sunlight than scientists had originally planned. The craft was able to carry out a number of experiments over the next three days, but eventually entered a low power state before it ran out of power. Now, as the comet draws closer to the Sun and receives more heat and light, scientists are hopeful it will awaken again in the coming weeks, to finish off the work it started.

"Philae currently receives about twice as much solar energy as it did in November last year," says the lander's project manager Stephan Ulamec. "It will probably still be too cold for the lander to wake up, but it is worth trying. The prospects will improve with each passing day."

For Philae to wake up completely, the interior of the craft must be at least -45ºC and its solar panels must be receiving a minimum of 5.5 watts of power. Once its core systems realize that these criteria have been met, the lander will attempt to charge its battery, switching on its receiver every 30 minutes to listen for instructions from the orbiting Rosetta. Scientists say it's possible that Philae has already woken up, but that the lander doesn't yet have enough power to communicate with Rosetta.

"At this time, we do not yet know that the lander is awake," says Koen Geurts of the Rosetta control center. "To send us an answer, Philae must also turn its transmitter – and that requires additional power.""

Between the 11th and 20th of March, Rosetta will make a number of flybys during Philae's daytime — that is, when the side of the comet its on is exposed to sunlight. A day on 67P currently lasts 12.4 hours and scientists believe that Philae is only exposed to the Sun for 1.3 hours every day — not even half of what was planned for. If initial communication is made in the next few weeks, scientists can begin checking on Philae's condition.

30 Minutes to Transmission:

http://www.theverge.com/2015/3/11/8189569/philae-lander-waking-first-attempt

SpaceX's Robotic Dragon Resupply Spacecraft Arrives at International Space Station with Groceries

""SpaceX's robotic Dragon resupply spacecraft has arrived at the International Space Station after a two-day orbital chase.

NASA astronaut Barry "Butch" Wilmore, commander of the station's current Expedition 42, grappled Dragon using the orbiting outpost's huge robotic arm at 5:54 a.m. EST (1054 GMT) on Monday (Jan. 12). Crew members will next install Dragon on the Earth-facing port of the station's Harmony module.

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Once installation is complete, astronauts will begin offloading the 5,200 pounds (2,360 kilograms) of food, spare parts and scientific experiments that Dragon brought up on this mission, the fifth of 12 unmanned cargo flights SpaceX plans to fly to the space station under a $1.6 billion deal with NASA. [See photos from SpaceX's fifth Dragon cargo launch]

SpaceX launched the Dragon capsule early Saturday (Jan. 10) atop a Falcon 9 rocket that lifted off from Florida's Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. After the rocket sent Dragon on its way, SpaceX attempted to bring the Falcon 9's first stage back to Earth for a pinpoint landing on an "autonomous spaceport drone ship" in the Atlantic Ocean, as part of the company's effort to develop reusable-rocket technology.

The rocket stage came down on target but hit the drone ship too hard Saturday. SpaceX will try the bold maneuver again on future launches, company representatives said.

Dragon is unmanned, but the capsule did bring a number of living passengers up to the orbiting lab. For example, it hauled an experiment that will look at how microgravity affects the wound-healing abilities of flatworms, and two others that will study how plants grow in space.""

Main Article:

http://news.discovery.com/space/private-spaceflight/spacex-dragon-capsule-delivers-supplies-to-space-station-150112.htm

Hardware Entering Key Test Phase for the James Webb Space Telescope Flagship Program Project

James Webb Space Telescope 

hardware entering key test phase

January 7, 2015 by Chris Bergin

""An array of high tech instruments are being put through their paces ahead of becoming part of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). The successor to the Hubble Space Telescope – JWST engineers are currently testing hardware to ensure it will be able to function properly 1.5 million miles from Earth. The spacecraft is preparing for a launch late in 2018.

JWST:

The JWST is one of NASA’s flagship programs and will be tasked with investigating the birth and evolution of galaxies, and the formation of stars and planets.

Set for launch in October, 2018 via an Ariane 5 launch vehicle, JWST will be the scientific successor to the Hubble and Spitzer Space Telescopes.

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The hugely expensive project came close to cancellation in 2011, after the program suffered with schedule slips and budget overruns. With $3 billion already spent on the JWST program, along with 75 percent of its hardware already in production, the telescope was given a stay of execution, albeit with costs capped at $8 billion.

It was originally forecast to cost just $1.6 billion.

The project has NASA, ESA and the CSA as the lead partners, but includes a collaboration of about 17 countries in total.

To be located 1.5 million kilometers from Earth at the Earth-Sun Lagrangian point L2, JWST’s 6.5-meter diameter primary mirror – a gold coated beryllium reflector – and four specialized instruments ensure the spacecraft will provide unprecedented resolution and sensitivity from long-wavelength visible to the mid-infrared.

Unlike Hubble’s single monolithic primary mirror, JWST’s primary mirror is made up of 18 individual, adjustable segments that will be aligned in space.

The spacecraft’s array of instrumentation is currently being tested to ensure it can survive the extremes of space, with the most recent test involving the Near Infrared Camera (NIRCam) instrument, which is the primary imager covering the infrared wavelength range 0.6 to 5 microns.

NIRCam will detect light from the earliest stars and galaxies in the process of formation, the population of stars in nearby galaxies, as well as young stars in the Milky Way and Kuiper Belt objects.

NIRCam is equipped with coronagraphs, instruments that allow astronomers to take pictures of very faint objects around a central bright object, like stellar systems. Its coronagraphs work by blocking a brighter object’s light, making it possible to view the dimmer object nearby.

With the coronagraphs, astronomers hope to determine the characteristics of planets orbiting nearby stars, which is of great interest over recent years,thanks to the discoveries made by NASA’s Kepler spacecraft. ""

Find out more @ nasaspaceflight.com

Secretive US X-37B Space Plane Could Evolve to Carry Astronauts

""LONG BEACH, Calif. — The maker of the X-37B robotic space plane has outlined new plans for the spacecraft and a scaled-up version to support space station cargo deliveries or even carry astronauts into orbit.

The Boeing X-37B robotic space plane — also known as the Orbital Test Vehicle or OTV — is being operated by the U.S. Air Force Rapid Capabilities Office, toting top-secret payloads into Earth orbit.

An X-37B OTV and derivatives plan was outlined here by Arthur Grantz, chief engineer, Experimental Systems Group at Boeing Space and Intelligence Systems in Seal Beach, Calif. He spoke at Space 2011, a conference organized by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA).""

http://www.space.com/13230-secretive-37b-space-plane-future-astronauts.html