Mars Spacecraft Positioned for Oort Cloud Comet ‘Siding Spring’ Flyby

Mars with its 2 functioning rovers (Opportunity, Curiosity) and 5 orbiters (Mars Odyssey, Mars Express, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, Mars Orbiter Mission, MAVEN) will experience comet ‘Siding Spring C/2013 A1′ flying by with closest approach October 19 at 18:27 UT. It is expected to pass at ~55 km/sec within 139,500 km of the surface (about 1/3 of the distance between the Moon and Earth). All 7 spacecraft will observe and analyze the comet, as will Hubble, Kepler, Swift, Spitzer, SOHO, Chandra, Hawai’i-based Infrared Telescope Facility, and others. Siding Spring originates from the Oort Cloud, estimated to span from beyond the orbit of Pluto to about 1/4 of the distance to Proxima Centauri, the closest Star. The exact size, shape and composition of the comet’s nucleus is unknown and no Oort Cloud comet has been observed up close before. All 5 orbiters have been positioned behind the planet for protection from potential dust particle impacts. There is also a chance Siding Spring may break apart due to Mars’ gravitational pull. For ~2.5 days as it approaches and flies by, the spacecraft will image the comet and collect data to characterize materials and distributions, meteor trails, interactions with the atmosphere, and effects on air temperature and clouds. (Image Credit: NASA, JPL, Caltech)

MONDAY

Oct 20 — ISS, LEO: Expedition 41 preparing for Russia EVA set for Oct 22, conducting in-flight events Oct 23, filling Progress 56 with waste for undocking Oct 27.

Oct 20 — Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, Moon Orbit: Imaging Chang’e-3 landing site, observing Moon for radiation; 20th data set release upcoming; recent data suggests Moon volcanic activity gradually slowed.

Oct 20 — Cassini OTM-394, Saturn Orbit: Spacecraft conducts Orbital Trim Maneuver #394 today.

Oct 20 — New Horizons, Pluto Trajectory: Traveling at 52,777 kph, now 265 days from Pluto / Charon closest approach; set to wake from hibernation Dec 7; three KBOs ~1.5B km from Pluto have been identified for potential exploration.

Oct 20 — Innovative Solutions In Space, Delft, The Netherlands: NewSpace company being contracted to launch 5 CubeSats for Korea Aerospace Research Institute in 2015 aboard its US partner Spaceflight Inc. Sherpa vehicle.

Oct 20 — Alba Orbital Ltd. (PocketQube Shop), Glasgow, United Kingdom: Offering commercial off-the-shelf components for 5-cm cubed, 150-gram spacecraft including new DHV Technology PocketQube Solar Panel.

Oct 20 — zero2infinity S.L., Cerdanyola del Vallès, Spain: Designing Bloostar nanosat launch system to ascend from seaship using balloon, then 3-stage rocket will put satellite into orbit; next high-altitude balloon launch campaign set for November in Cordoba, Spain.

Oct 20 — Up Aerospace, Launch SpaceLoft XL / Conestoga 1 (Earth Rise 6), Las Cruces NM: Up Aerospace to launch 6th Earth Rise mission (13th memorial spaceflight) for Celestis Inc; launch window 08:00 – 10:30 MDT.

China Chang’e Moon Program Advancing with Major Step Toward 2017 Sample Return

Chang’e-5 Sample Return Test Orbiter (CE5-T1), the fourth flight to the Moon of the ambitious and successful China Lunar Exploration Program, will launch on a Long March 3C/E rocket from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in southwest China on October 23. The spacecraft consists of the return vehicle, strikingly similar in appearance to the Shenzhou crew capsule, and a Service Module based on the CE2 orbiter design. This stack will be boosted into a parking orbit at about 200km altitude before re-ignition of the cryogenic upper stage for a 3-minute trans-lunar insertion burn. CE5-T1 will enter lunar orbit about 100 hours later. Various tests will be carried out before the craft fires engines to return toward Earth at 11.2km/s. The high speed Skip Re-entry demonstration is a complex procedure designed to reduce heat load and involves the capsule conducting an initial reentry to slow, then steering up to lift out of the atmosphere for a ballistic exospheric segment, followed by a gliding entry that slows the craft down enough to open parachutes and land accurately near Huofutan in Inner Mongolia. The full CE5 mission is set for 2017 and is intended to return up to 2kg of lunar material, including core samples collected via drilling mechanisms, to Earth. It is also widely seen as the final step before China attempts to meld its Human Space Flight program with the Lunar Exploration Program to initiate Human Moon missions. (Image Credit: CNSA, CAST, CASC, NASA, Harbin Institute of Technology, Xinhua)

Oct 20-23 — United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs, Mexican Space Agency, Baja California, Mexico: United Nations/Mexico Symposium on Basic Space Technology.

Oct 20-24 — Goddard Space Flight Center, NASA, Nagoya University, Nagoya, Japan: 5th International Fermi Symposium.

Oct 20 – Dec 12 — American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Space Frontier Foundation, Online: Commercial Space Executive Leadership Training Course; with instructors Dan Rasky and Bruce Pittman.

Oct 20 — Asteroid 2014 SM143: Near-Earth flyby (0.029 AU).

Continued from…

Oct 19-22 — Geological Society of America, Vancouver, British Colombia, Canada: 2014 Geological Society of America (GSA) Annual Meeting.

TUESDAY

Oct 21 — RSA, Launch Proton / Express AM6, Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan: Proton rocket with Breeze M upper stage to launch Express AM6 satellite for Russian Satellite Communications Co.

Oct 21 — The National Academies, Madison WI: Meeting: Development of a Strategic Vision and Implementation Plan for the U.S. Antarctic Program at the National Science Foundation.

Oct 21 — Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, Tucson AZ: LPL Colloquium: Early Solar System Material: Formation, Evolution and Exploration; presented by Dr. Jemma Davidson of Carnegie Institution for Science.

Oct 21 — Asteroid 2010 VQ: Near-Earth flyby (0.027 AU).

Oct 21 — Asteroid 2340 Hathor: Near-Earth flyby (0.048 AU).