Articles by: SPC

September 3-9, 2018 / Vol 37, No 36 / Hawai`i Island, USA

Jupiter Observations with Juno; Looking Toward Solar System Complete Exploration

Juno is heading into its 14th science flyby of gas giant Jupiter on September 7 to come within 3,500 km of cloud tops – where the magnetic field is 20 times stronger than that of Earth. It is working to collect data on Jupiter core, composition, radio waves, auroras, polar regions, wind and radiation dynamics. Jupiter accounts for more than 70% of total planetary mass in the SS, is 143,000-km wide, averages 5.2 AU from the Sun making one full revolution every 12 years, with temperatures of -145° C in the clouds to an estimated 24,000° C at its core, wind speeds from 310 km/h to >645 km/h, and gravity 2.4 times the force than Earth. It is home to the Great Red Spot located 22° S of equator, 3 rings and 79 known moons – some of the most geologically active and potentially habitable in the SS. Rainfalls of diamonds may occur on Jupiter, as well as on Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. Juno is expected to remain at Jupiter until at least Aug 2021. Future craft include ESA Jupiter Icy Moon Explorer (JUICE) launching 2022, followed by NASA Europa Clipper ~2022, and CNSA Jupiter mission 2036. Visions for Solar System Complete exploration are being advanced by New Horizons investigation of the Kuiper Belt, the “3rd Zone” which extends between 30-50 AU. Orbital missions to Uranus, Neptune and Pluto systems are needed to solve mysteries of these planets and SS evolution. (Image Credits: NASA, JPL, Caltech)

MONDAY

Highlights…
Sep 3 — ISS, 405-km LEO: Expedition 56 preparing for HTV-7 arrival, maintaining Extravehicular Mobility Units for upcoming EVAs, performing morning retina scans, working with Materials Science Research Rack which can heat samples to 1,372° C; Alexander Gerst conducting inflight interviews with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier this week.

Sep 3 — NewSpace: Orbit Fab CEO Daniel Faber details 1st mission launching NET 2019 to LEO to develop orbital propellant depots technologies; SpaceX in final stages of Crew Dragon hardware preparations, testing before 1st demo; SSL to perform feasibility study on manufacturing satellites in space.

Sep 3 — Solar System: Dawn continues to dip as low as 35 km over Ceres surface & send data back to Earth as fuel reserve dwindles; Opportunity team listening for communications from craft since its hiatus beginning June 10 due to global dust storm; Parker Solar Probe speeding toward Venus Flyby #1, mission plans for 24 orbits of Sun.

Sep 3 — Galaxy: Extremely Large Telescope development on track for 2024 first light to study 1st galaxies in Universe; ALMA observations of galaxy COSMOS-AzTEC-1 indicate it produces stars 1,000 times faster than Milky Way, perhaps due to ‘clumpy gas’ gravitational pull; BICEP2 South Pole telescope & Planck data may show remnants of black holes from a defunct universe.

Sep 3 — Global: KhalifaSat, 1st satellite fully built by UAE, being shipped to Japan Tanegashima Space Center for launch Oct 29; USA and Brazil to share Space Situational Awareness services and information; ISRO, Antrix to include commercial sectors in Small Satellite Launch Vehicle development, flights planned for 2019.

Sep 3 — USA: Commercial Crew program may see Astronaut launches to ISS overlap with Soyuz flights which are contracted until Jan 2020; Orion capsule at KSC undergoing checks, will be integrated step-by-step into full spacecraft; Florida Tech & Beijing Institute of Technology developing space policy partnership, Andy Aldrin led recent summer program.

Sep 3 — Hawai’i: Astrobiologists visiting Hawaii Island Lo’ihi seafloor to perform SUBSEA deep space icy moon analog studies; CFHT / Gemini time exchange proposal applications open for 2019; ATLAS network will expand to southern hemisphere.

= 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: Venus (WSW), Mars (SE), Jupiter (SW), Saturn (S), Uranus (E), Neptune (SE); Morning Planets: Mercury (ENE).

Maui, Hawai`i Hosts Inaugural Emer-Gen and Annual AMOS Conferences in Partnership with SGAC

The 1st annual Emer-Gen Conference, a joint initiative of Advanced Maui Optical and Space Surveillance Technologies (AMOS) and the Space Generation Advisory Council (SGAC), will be held in Maui September 9-11 with an anticipated 30 young professionals and students 35 and under interested in careers in space science. The program will offer opportunities to expand skills and remain abreast of recent scientific developments by way of mentoring from space specialists, networking, expert-led technical short courses and workshops, and professional development sessions. Main topics to be covered are communications in diverse settings, effective leadership, space traffic management, risk assessments, space debris and mitigation analysis using ESA DRAMA software, operational analytics, theory and application, space surveillance and tracking, and space situational awareness. Over 40 presenters include (L-R) Secure World Foundation Washington Office Director Victoria Samson, ESA/ESOC Space Debris Analyst Tim Flohrer, and Francois Laporte of CNES. Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, and University of Hawai`i are among 29 exhibitors. Directly following the inaugural Emer-Gen event is the 19th Annual AMOS Conference September 11-14 opening with a keynote address by Major General Stephen Whiting. The conference is a cross section of government, private, and academic participation and is expected to have ~1,000 in attendance with a Wednesday Livestream opening session in designated overflow rooms. (Image Credits: AMOS, NASA, Secure World Foundation, ESA, J. Mai, CNES, Space Ops, County of Maui)

Sep 3-7 — ESO, Nicolaus Copernicus Astronomical Center (CAMK-PAN), Warsaw, Poland: ESO Workshop: A Revolution in Stellar Physics with Gaia and Large Surveys.

Sep 3-7 — Royal Observatory, Edinburgh University, et al, Edinburgh, United Kingdom: Meeting: The Wonders of Star Formation – A Tribute to Hans Zinnecker.

Sep 3 — Apollo Asteroid 2015 FP118: Near-Earth Flyby (0.031 AU)

Sep 3 — Apollo Asteroid 2018 QA: Near-Earth Flyby (0.045 AU)

Sep 3 — Apollo Asteroid 2017 DQ35: Near-Earth Flyby (0.099 AU)

Continued from…

Jul 8 – Oct 9 — NAOC, National Aquatic Center “Water Cube”, Beijing, China: Lunar Exploration Technology Exhibition featuring 10-meter diameter Moon, lunar imagery, ‘moonlight’ and surround sound composition.

Sep 2-6 — University of Bologna, National Institute for Astrophysics (INAF), Bologna, Italy: Conference: Views on the Interstellar Medium in Galaxies in the ALMA Era.

TUESDAY

Sep 4-6 — Tampere University of Technology, Academy of Finland, Heureka Finnish Science Centre, et al, Tampere, Finland: Asteroids and Comets – Inside Out Workshop (ACIO18).

Sep 4-6 — Samara National Research University, Russian Academy of Cosmonautics, International Academy of Astronautics, Roscosmos, IAF, Samara, Russia: 4th International Conference: Scientific and Technological Experiments on Automatic Space Vehicles and Small Satellites (SPEXP).

Sep 4-7 — University of Oxford, Goddard Space Flight Center, NASA, Oxford, United Kingdom: Conference: From First Stars to Life – Science with the Origins Space Telescope.

Sep 4 — Moon: 3.7° S of M35, 06:00.

Sep 4 — Venus: At aphelion (0.7282 AU from Sun), 22:00.

WEDNESDAY

Sep 5 — Voyager 1, Interstellar Space: NASA spacecraft begins 42nd year in space today, launched Sep 5, 1977; farthest spacecraft from Earth, first to reach interstellar space.

Sep 5-6 — Radboud University, Noordwijk, The Netherlands: Space VLBI Workshop.

Sep 5-7 — Astronomical Institute of Slovak Academy of Sciences, Stara Lesna, Slovakia: Workshop: Physics of Comets after the Rosetta Mission – Unresolved Problems.

Sep 5-7 — DARPA, National Harbor MD: D60 – Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) 60th Anniversary conference; at Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center.

Sep 5 — Moon: 11.4° S of Castor, 14:00; 7.7° S of Pollux, 18:00.

Sep 5 — Mercury: 1.00° NNE of Regulus, 17:00.

THURSDAY

Sep 6 — Johnson Space Center, NASA, Houston TX: Expedition 58/59 Crew Press Conference; featuring Astronauts David Saint-Jacques, Jeremy Hansen, Anne C. McClain, Oleg Kononenko – and Canadarm2 operation simulation.

Sep 6 — Cornell University, Ithaca NY: Lecture: The Gould’s Belt Distances Survey (GOBELINS) and a Few Other Cools Things VLBI Can Do For You; by Laurent Loinard from National University of Mexico.

Sep 6, 7 — Jet Propulsion Laboratory, NASA, Caltech, Pasadena CA: von Kármán Lecture Series 2018: NASA@60: The Role of the Robots; with moderator Preston Dyches, and panelists Rob Manning, Julie Webster, Charles Norton, Anne Marinan.

Sep 6 — Moon: 1.1° SSW of Beehive Cluster, 16:00.

FRIDAY

Sep 7 — Juno, Perijove 15 / 14th Science Flyby, Jupiter Orbit: NASA craft in 53-day orbit to come within ~3,500 km of Jupiter cloud tops during Perijove 15, its 15th close flyby of Jupiter and 14th science flyby with instruments turned on.

Sep 7 — Canada Institute – The Wilson Center, Washington DC: Over the Horizon: A New Era for Canada-U.S. Space Cooperation?

Sep 7 — Moon: At perigee (360,917 km), 15:24.

Sep 7 — Neptune: At opposition 08:00, magnitude 7.8.

Sep 7 — Apollo Asteroid 2008 PW4: Near-Earth Flyby (0.075 AU)

Sep 7 — Amor Asteroid 2007 RZ8: Near-Earth Flyby (0.096 AU)

SATURDAY

Sep 8-9 — SpaceX, Launch Falcon 9 / Telstar 18 Vantage, SLC-40 Cape Canaveral FL: SpaceX Falcon 9 to launch communications satellite for Telesat from Launch Complex 40 and attempt booster landing aboard ‘Of Course I Still Love You’ drone ship in Atlantic Ocean; launch window 23:28 – 03:28.

Sep 8 — Mauna Kea Visitor Information Station, Mauna Kea HI (2,800 meters): Star Gazing program, 19:00-22:00, weather permitting, free.

Sep 8 — Tucson L5 Space Society – NSS Chapter, Tucson AZ: Tucson L5 Space Society monthly meeting.

Sep 8-16 — Merritt Astronomical Society, Loon Lake, Saskatchewan, Canada: Merritt Fall Star Quest 2018.

Sep 8 — Moon: 1.7° NNE of Regulus. 04:00; 0.89° NNE of Mercury, 13:00.

SUNDAY

Sep 9-11 — Maui Economic Development Board, Inc, SGAC, Maui HI: Emer-Gen 1st Annual Conference; designed for professionals and students under 35 interested in careers in space, includes networking, mentoring, courses, and professional development sessions.

Sep 9-15 — National Engineering University of Lima, National University of Saint Anthony the Abbot in Cuzco, Ollantaytambo, Peru: 8th International Workshop on Astronomy and Relativistic Astrophysics (IWARA2018).

Sep 9-16 — Association of Space Explorers, Minsk, Belarus: 31st Planetary Congress of the ASE: Creating the Future of Space.

Sep 9 — Moon: New Moon, 08:02.

Sep 9 — Epsilon Perseid Meteor Shower Peak: Appearing to radiate from the constellation Perseid the September Epsilon Perseids can reach up to 5 per hour traveling at ~65 km per second; very favorable viewing in 2018 due to New Moon.