India GSLV Launch of Insat 3DR Satellite to See Rocket Enter Full-Service

The India Space Research Organization is set to launch a GSLV Mark II on the F05 mission from Satish Dhawan Space Center carrying the India National Satellite 3D Repeat geostationary weather satellite on September 10 (reset from Aug 28). It is hoped to be the 3rd straight success for the medium-lift Geostationary Satellite Launch System, with its indigenously-built cryogenic 3rd stage engine representing a considerable technological achievement and culminating 20 years of rocketry development for one of the six major spacefaring powers. The GSLV Mark II system is essential for a number of primary aspirations of ISRO, including the 2017 Chandrayaan-2 Moon landing mission and future Human Spaceflight development. If it can match the reliability and commercial success of the smaller PSLV rocket series that has proven to be a workhorse of the India space age it could significantly broaden the market for affordable access to space worldwide. Insat 3DR is the 6th flight unit of the Insat-3 series of meteorological satellites and is intended for 35,786-km Geostationary orbit at longitude 74° E to provide data from a 6-channel imager and 19-channel sounder. It will be operated by the Indian National Satellite System. Additional functions include search and rescue operation support and relay services for terrestrial data collection platforms. (Image Credit: ISRO)

MONDAY

Aug 29 — ISS, LEO: Expedition 48 crew preparing for U.S. EVA 37 planned for Thursday, working with heart function, plant growth, mouse epigenetics & student experiments; Williams, Ovchinin, Skripochka performing Lower Body Negative Pressure exercises to prepare for return to Earth Sep 6, Williams will have a record breaking total of 534 cumulative days in space.

Aug 29 — Chang’e-3 Lander & Yutu Rover, Guang Han Gong, Sinus Iridum / Mare Imbrium, 44.12°N 19.51°W, Moon Surface: China spacecraft in Lunar Night 34 approaching 3rd full year on Moon; Chang’e-5T1 in circular Moon orbit continues conducting remote sensing & imaging of surface for future lunar missions.

Aug 29 — Juno, Jupiter Orbit: NASA craft more than half-way through 1st orbit of Jupiter, will be heading into Period Reduction Phase to enter planned 14-day period Science Orbit starting Nov 16; has traveled more than 2.903 billion km.

Aug 29 — SpaceX, Hawthorne CA: NewSpace company displaying its first successfully recovered booster outside of HQ, planning to construct new building at Cape Canaveral, recovering / unloading ISS gear & experiments from Dragon CRS-9 landing, CEO Elon Musk plans to reveal Mars settlement plans at 67th IAC Sep 27.

Aug 29 — Breakthrough Initiatives, International Locations: Founded by Yuri Milner & Stephen Hawking, project Breakthrough Starshot US$100M proposal to develop spacecraft fleet able to fly to Alpha Centauri at 20% the speed of light (215 million km/h) may gain additional support as ESO & other observatories find clear evidence during Pale Red Dot Campaign of potentially habitable planet ‘Proxima b’ orbiting Proxima Centauri.

Aug 29 — Team Indus, Bengaluru, India: GLXP Team with 85 engineers & 15 former ISRO scientists sponsoring Lab2Moon competition for young adults to fly 250-gram experiment to ‘catalyze humankind’s evolution into a sustainable Multi World Species’ on developing lunar lander; hoping to use PSLV for launch for 30-day journey to Moon, 15-day surface operations.

Barringer Meteor Crater Impacting Lunar, Planetary Students

The Barringer Meteor Crater Field Training and Research Program is being held September 3-11 in Arizona, 71 km east of Flagstaff / Lowell Observatory. David Kring, Senior Staff Scientist for the Lunar Exploration Initiative, will be the instructor for graduate college students in geology and planetary science programs to learn about impact cratering processes, work on research projects and explore the rugged, rocky terrain at Barringer crater which is 1.186 km in diameter, 170 meters deep and surrounded by a rim that rises 45 meters. The crater is thought to have been formed by a 50-meter diameter, nickel-iron meteorite striking with an impact energy of ~10 megatons over 50,000 years ago. It is the first officially recognized crater formed from a natural celestial body. Daniel Barringer argued the crater was formed by an impact and spent 27 years starting in 1903 looking for a large deposit of meteoric iron. Eugene Shoemaker confirmed Barringer’s hypothesis in 1960, co-discovered Comet Shoemaker–Levy 9 which impacted Jupiter in 1994, and provided support to Lunar Ranger and Apollo Missions. Impact events are linked to the formation of the Solar System and exosolar systems, changes in atmospheres, and delivery of minerals, chemicals and the building blocks of life. This training program hosted by the Center for Lunar Science and Exploration of Lunar and Planetary Institute alternates between Barringer Crater, Sudbury Impact Structure in Canada and Zuni-Bandera Volcanic Field in New Mexico to train new generations of explorers for the Moon and beyond. (Image Credit: S. Torgerson, LPI Center for Lunar Science and Exploration, J. Garber, NASA, Viking, USGS, D. Davis, JPL)

Aug 29 — Hawaii Space Exploration Analog and Simulation (HI-SEAS),

Aug 29 – Sep 2 — University of Kiel, EU Horizon 2020 Research & Innovation Programme, Kiel, Germany: HESPERIA Summer School: Understanding Solar Eruptions and Extreme Space Weather Events – The Physics.

Aug 29 – Sep 4 — University of Western Ontario, Centre for Planetary Science and Exploration, London, Ontario, Canada: 7th Annual Planetary Science Short Course.

Aug 29 — Moon: 4.3° S of Beehive Cluster, 12:00.

Aug 29 — Apollo Asteroid 2016 PA40: Near-Earth flyby (0.037 AU).

Continued from…

Aug 7 – Sep 30 — Airbus, Perlan Project, Teachers in Space, El Calafate, Argentina: Teachers in Space Ground Crew Education Program; team members will fly experiments at 27,500-meter altitudes in air as thin as Mars atmosphere, verify operations and retrieve data for posting to internet.

Aug 27 – Sep 4 — IGC Foundation, UNESCO, Exxaro, et al, Cape Town, South Africa: 35th International Geological Congress; at Cape Town International Convention Centre.

Aug 28 – Sep 18 — Aspen Center for Physics, Aspen CO: Workshop: Approaching the Stellar Astrophysical Limits of Exoplanet Detection – Getting to 10 cm/s.

TUESDAY

Aug 30 — Van Allen Probes, LEO: Spacecraft begin 5th year in space today, launched 2012; adding to the understanding of Earth radiation belt environment and its variability.

Aug 30 — Lunar and Planetary Institute, University of Arizona, Tucson AZ: LPL Colloquium: Asteroid Science in a CubeSat – A Milligravity Centrifuge and Meteor Monitor; Erik Asphaug and Jekan Thanga from ASU, 15:45-16:45.