Chandrayaan-2 Mission to Lunar South Pole Area Continues, ETA Sep 7
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MONDAYHighlights… Aug 12 — NewSpace: SpaceX Starhopper prototype after August test hops will contribute parts to Starship Mark I for orbital flights to follow Aug 24 announcement. Aug 12 — Solar System: Data from Keck Telescope and Gemini North Observatory on Mauna Kea indicate that volcano Loki Patera on Io erupts with 500-day regular cycle. Aug 12 — Galaxy: Studies reveal that Milky Way has twisted shape and could contain millions of black holes. Aug 12 — Global: iSpace will participate in the ESA PROSPECT experiment aboard Luna-27 mission to mine water from lunar South Pole. Aug 12 — USA: Commercial Lunar Payload Services calls for industry to provide small and mid-sized lunar landers. Aug 12 — Hawai’i: Mauna Kea telescope employees face challenges maintaining telescopes while all observations are suspended; big telescope project handicapped by lack of Hawaiian name. Aug 12 — Parker Solar Probe, Heliocentric Orbit: NASA craft to come within 6.16M km of the Sun, well within the orbit of Mercury and ~7 times closer than any spacecraft has before – reaches 1st full year in Space today; launched Aug 12, 2018. Aug 12 — Institute for Science and Engineer Educators, UC Santa Cruz, Kahului HI: Akamai Workforce Initiative 2019 Internship Symposium Maui; featuring presentations by interns from Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope, IfA, Maui High Performance Computing Center, others; 09:00-12:00. Aug 12-14 — NASA Astrobiology Institute, Lunar and Planetary Institute, Houston TX: Workshop Without Walls: Searching for Signs of Subsurface Life on Mars (Extinct and Extant). |
= All times
for terrestrial events in local time unless noted.
= All times for international terrestrial events in local time unless noted.
= All times for space events, and…
= All times for international space / astro events in Hawaii Standard Time unless noted. Add 10 hours to obtain UT (‘Universal Time’).
Weekly Planet Watch – Evening Planets: Jupiter (S), Saturn (SE); Morning Planets: Uranus (SE), Neptune (S).
International Space Elevator Consortium Meeting in Seattle Museum of FlightInternational Space Elevator Consortium meets August 16-18 at Seattle Museum of Flight, where the Apollo 11 Columbia spacecraft is currently on display. An elevator to geosynchronous orbit is a subject of discussion since Konstantin Tsiolkovsky in 1895, Yuri Artsutanov in 1959, and Arthur Clarke in 1979. ISEC, a global organization headed by Peter Swan (L) and affiliated with National Space Society, has been in operation since it’s first meeting in Redmond, Washington in 2008. With a mission to promote the development and construction of a space elevator, ISEC coordinates with the Japanese Space Elevator Association and the EuroSpaceward organization founded by Brad Edwards (R). ISEC organizes research presentations at the International Academy of Astronautics and International Astronautical Federation Congress, while stimulating STEM activities like a Family Science Fest. Elevators are seen as a revolutionary and efficient way to space for humanity. The tower will have to extend beyond the 35,786-km geostationary orbit to provide a counterweight. Construction of an elevator to Earth orbit awaits development and mass production of high-tensile strength materials like carbon nanotubes. A 56,000-km elevator to the Moon’s L1 Lagrangian point could be built with existing materials in the low lunar gravity. A Mars elevator would be only 13,634 km high, but would coincide with the 9,376 km orbit of Phobos. In future decades several space elevators could be connected by a Ringworld, coincidentally linking Earth’s most populous nations in a giant peace symbol. (Image Credits: Obayashi Corporation, ISEC, IAF, Seattle Space Needle, EuroSpaceward, Museum of Flight)
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Aug 12-15 — Merton College, Merton College, Jesus College, McGill University, Europlanet, Oxford, United Kingdom: ExoClimes V Conference: The Diversity of Planetary Atmospheres.
Aug 12-15 — Chiba Institute of Technology, Osaka Sangyo University, Nagoya University, Narashino, Japan: 12th Meeting on Cosmic Dust. Aug 12 — Moon: 0.31° E of Saturn, 01:00. Aug 12 — Jupiter: 6.9° NE of Antares; 05:00. Aug 12 — Perseid Meteor Shower Peak: Appearing to radiate from constellation Perseus, shower can produce up to 110 meteors per hour, which are fast, bright and frequently leave persistent trains. Aug 12 — Apollo Asteroid 454094 (2013 BZ45): Near-Earth Flyby (0.044 AU) Continued from…Jan 2019 – Sep 2020 — New Horizons, Kuiper Belt: Full data from spacecraft 7 instruments during KBO Ultima Thule flyby to be transmitted to Earth over this time period. Apr 13 – Sep 2 — Smithsonian Institution, Museum of Flight, Multiple Locations: Destination Moon, traveling exhibition of historic Apollo 11 artifacts. Jun 24 – Aug 23 — International Space University, ESA, Strasbourg, France: ISU 32nd Space Studies Program (SSP 2019). NET Aug – Nov — Hayabusa2, Asteroid 162173 Ryugu: JAXA Hayabusa2 with 2 sample returns planned to remain at Asteroid for observations during this time period, then return to Earth. Aug 11-15 — AAS, AIAA, Portland ME: 2019 AAS/AIAA Astrodynamics Specialist Conference. Aug 11-17 — Recontres du Vietnam, Quy Nhon University, International Center for Interdisciplinary Science and Education (ICISE), Quy Nhon, Vietnam: 15th Recontres du Vietnam: Cosmology. |
TUESDAY
Aug 13-16 — University of Washington – Seattle, Seattle WA: 6th Dark Matter @ LHC 2019 Workshop.
Aug 13 — Venus: at superior conjunction with Sun, 20:00.
Aug 13 — Aten Asteroid 2017 QK18: Near-Earth Flyby (0.076 AU)
WEDNESDAY
Aug 14 — Chandrayaan-2 Trans-Lunar Injection Maneuver: India 2nd Moon mission of lander & rover weighing 3,290 kg to attempt maneuver today toward planned ~Sep 7 landing at 70° S latitude ~600 km from lunar South Pole between craters Manzinus C and Simpelius N.
Aug 14 — Institute for Science and Engineer Educators, UC Santa Cruz, Hilo HI: Akamai Workforce Initiative 2019 Internship Symposium Hilo; featuring presentations by interns from PISCES, IfA, Gemini, Subaru, SMKA, HELCO; 09:00-12:00 at Hilo Hawaiian Hotel.
THURSDAY
Aug 15 — Marshall Space Flight Center, Michoud Assembly Facility, New Orleans LA: Status of Rocket For First Artemis Lunar Mission; NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine will meet with members of the Space Launch System program and media guests in front of the first SLS core stage, 11:30.
Aug 15 — Keck Observatory, Event Horizon Telescope Group, Waimea HI: Powehi, Hawaii and the Event Horizon Telescope, talk story on the groundbreaking image of black hole Powehi and the role of Mauna Kea observatories with Geoffrey Bower from Event Horizon Telescope Group, Jessica Dempsey from East Asia Observatory, Larry Kimura of UH Hilo, and Doug Simons of CFHT, free, 18:30.
Aug 15 — Star Gaze Hawaii, Waikoloa HI: Stargazing at Hilton Waikoloa Village Resort; adults US$40, kids $20, 20:00.
Aug 15 — Venus: At brightest magnitude -3.92°, 02:00.
Aug 15 — Moon: Full (Sturgeon Moon), 02:30.
FRIDAY
Aug 16 — Institute for Science and Engineer Educators, UC Santa Cruz, Waimea HI: Akamai Workforce Initiative 2019 Internship Symposium Waimea-Kona; featuring presentations by interns from CFHT, W. M. Keck Observatory, Cyanotech, Liquid Robotics; 09:00-12:00 at Keck.
Aug 16-18 — International Space Elevator Consortium, Seattle WA: 2019 Space Elevator Conference: Outreach and Early Experimentation Support; and Family Science Fest.
Aug 16-18 — AIAA, Purdue University, West Lafayette IN: AIAA Rocket Testing Workshop.
SATURDAY
Aug 17 — International Lunar Observatory Association, Hilo HI: Galaxy Forum Hawai’i 2019 Hilo: Astronomy from the Moon and on Hawaii 21st Century Business and Education Communities; free, 10:00am – 12:00pm, at ‘Imiloa Astronomy Center.
Aug 17 — Maunakea Observatories, ‘Imiloa Astronomy Center, Mauna Kea HI: Kamaʻāina Observatory Experience; Hawai’i Cultural Practitioner Leilehua Yuen to give Hawaiian cultural perspective on Mauna Kea and opportunity to ride to the summit and tour 2 observatories; may be Postponed.
Aug 17 — Moon: At apogee (distance 405,650 km), 01:00; 3.5° SSE of Neptune, 07:00.
Aug 17 — Mars: 0.66° NNE of Regulus, 13:00.
Aug 17 — Apollo Asteroid 141593 (2002 HK12): Near-Earth Flyby (0.062 AU)
SUNDAY
Aug 18-25 — CosmoCruise, Venice, Italy: CosmoCruise 2019; program aboard Costa Delizioza in Adriatic Sea “From the Early to Late Universe” with speakers including Joseph Silk of Oxford and Stacy McGaugh of Case Western Reserve University to talk about cosmology and origins of the universe.
Aug 18 — Kappa Cygnids Meteor Shower Peak: Shower appears to line up in sky by Cygnus and star Kappa Cygni, typically produces slow (25 km/sec) mostly faint meteors 3-5 per hour with a few very bright meteors.