Category: International

ISS Coolant Loop Problem May Delay Orbital's Cargo Resupply Launch

ISS Coolant Loop Problem May Delay Orbital's Cargo Resupply Launch

By Marcia Smith | Posted: December 12, 2013 12:00 am ET | Last Updated: December 12, 2013 3:28 pm ET

A problem with a flow control valve on one of the two International Space Station (ISS) coolant loops may delay the planned launch next week of Orbital Sciences Corporation’s Cygnus cargo resupply spacecraft.  The launch is currently scheduled for December 18.

Kenny Todd, ISS Mission Operations Integration Manager, said in an interview on NASA’s Space Station Live program this morning that the agency is still diagnosing the problem and determining what must be done to fix it.   Until more is known, he is delaying a “go/no-go” decision on Orbital’s launch because whenever another vehicle arrives at the ISS, certain levels of systems redundancy are required and NASA cannot meet those criteria under current circumstances.  NASA will revisit the situation on Monday and determine if a launch delay is necessary.

The launch window for this mission, designated Orbital-1 or simply Orb-1, is the company’s first flight of the Antares rocket and Cygnus spacecraft under NASA’s Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) contract.  Orbital has named this specific Cygnus spacecraft in honor of C. Gordon “Gordo” Fullerton, the former astronaut who passed away in August.  At one point in his career, Fullerton flew NASA NB-52B aircraft that were used to deploy Orbital’s air-launched Pegasus rocket.

Todd said the launch window for the Cygnus launch runs through December 21 or 22, and, if necessary, the launch could be delayed until the next launch window.   None of the 3,217 pounds of cargo on this mission is critical to ISS operations, Todd said.

The coolant loop malfunctioned yesterday.  ISS has two external thermal control loops that use ammonia as a coolant.  The ammonia must be kept at the proper temperature to ensure that when it flows through a heat exchanger, water that is also in the heat exchanger does not freeze.  If the ammonia becomes too cold, the system automatically shuts off.  That’s what happened yesterday. 

Ground-based engineers began to troubleshoot the issue and traced it back to a flow control valve in one of the loops, but they are still trying to determine exactly what went wrong and what is needed to fix it.   Meanwhile, the 6-person crew is safe and ISS is in a stable configuration, Todd said.  Still, NASA would like to get the loop working “sooner rather than later.”   All critical ISS systems can operate on just one loop, but both are needed for all systems to work and for redundancy.  NASA has moved all the critical systems over to the functioning loop, but some systems in Node 2 (Harmony), Japan’s Kibo module, and Europe’s Columbus module had to be turned off.

The ISS experienced a coolant loop problem in 2010 and Todd acknowledged that at first glance people might assume this is similar.  In 2010, however, a pump failed.  In this case, it is a flow control valve that “is in the same housing, but is a different piece of hardware” that regulates the temperature of the ammonia rather than moving the ammonia through the system like the pump.  NASA does not know whether a spacewalk is needed to repair the problem this time as it was in 2010, but, if so, Todd says the “choreography” will be similar and replacement pump modules are aboard.  He stressed that NASA needs to ensure that its spacesuits are in good order.   The last time the U.S. spacesuits were used, European Space Agency astronaut Luca Parmitano’s spacesuit filled with water because of a failure in its cooling system.

The video of this morning’s interview with Todd is posted on NASA’s YouTube channel.

Last Updated: Dec 12, 2013 3:28 pm ET
House Committee Approves Bill Requiring Congressional Approval Before Terminating JWST, ISS, SLS or Orion

House Committee Approves Bill Requiring Congressional Approval Before Terminating JWST, ISS, SLS or Orion

By Marcia Smith | Posted: December 11, 2013 12:00 am ET | Last Updated: December 11, 2013 5:36 pm ET

The House Science, Space and Technology Committee approved today a bill that changes how NASA would manage termination of four of its major programs if such a decision were made.  The committee first adopted an amendment that adds the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) to the three human spaceflight programs covered in the original bill — the International Space Station (ISS), the Space Launch System (SLS) and the Orion crew spacecraft.

The bill, H.R. 3625, initially had two major thrusts:  to require the Administration to obtain congressional approval before terminating SLS, Orion or the ISS, and to prohibit contractors on those programs from setting aside appropriated funds to cover costs the government would have to pay in the event it did terminate any of those programs for the convenience of the government — called termination liability costs.  

Rep. Mo Brooks (R-AL) said when he introduced the bill that contractors on SLS, Orion and ISS are reserving a total of $507 million that Congress appropriated rather than using the money to implement those programs.

The committee was scheduled to mark up the bill on December 5 at the same time it considered three other unrelated bills.   When it came time to mark up this bill, however, committee chairman Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX) announced that more time was needed for Republicans and Democrats to reach agreement and recessed the markup.

The markup was scheduled to resume yesterday, but government offices in Washington, DC were closed because of a snowstorm, so it was rescheduled for today.

The markup lasted less than 10 minutes and the amendment and bill were adopted by voice vote. 

The major change made by the amendment, which was offered by Smith, is adding JWST to the list of programs covered by the bill.  Smith said in his opening remarks that JWST was added at the request of Rep. Donna Edwards (D-MD), the top Democrat on the Space Subcommittee who represents a district in Maryland close to NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center where JWST is managed.    One section of the amendment states that although JWST is “making steady progress,” it also “confronts a number of challenging integration tests that will stress a congressionally imposed development cost cap.”

JWST has been very controversial because of significant cost overruns and schedule slips.   In 2011, Congress imposed a cap of $8 billion for development of the spacecraft in the FY2012 appropriations act that included NASA (P.L. 112-55).   The program has encountered a number of technical problems since then, but NASA insists that it has sufficient cost and schedule reserve that they will not impact the cost cap or the 2018 launch date.  The language added by Edwards could be construed as suggesting that such optimism may not be warranted.

Another change made by the amendment replaces language that would have voided existing contract provisions that provide for payment of termination liability costs in a manner inconsistent with the bill.  The new language simply states that funds being held in reserve for termination liability “shall be promptly used” for executing the program. 

The bill also makes clear that it is the intent of Congress to authorize appropriations to cover termination liability if, in fact, Congress agrees that the Administration should terminate a contract and that it is the Administration’s responsibility to spend such funds for that purpose.

Terminating contracts for the convenience of the government is rare.  As the findings section of the bill states, in FY2010, the government terminated “28 of 16,343 active contracts and orders — a termination rate of about 0.17 percent.”

Last Updated: Dec 11, 2013 5:36 pm ET
China Suffers Rare Satellite Launch Failure

China Suffers Rare Satellite Launch Failure

By Marcia Smith | Posted: December 9, 2013 12:00 am ET | Last Updated: December 9, 2013 5:38 pm ET

A Chinese Long March 4B rocket failed to place a remote sensing satellite into orbit today, a rare launch failure for China.

The joint Chinese-Brazilian Ziyuan I-03 satellite lifted off from China’s Taiyuan launch site at 11:26 am today, December 9, Beijing time (10:26 pm yesterday Eastern Standard Time).  China’s news agency Xinhua quoted unnamed sources, however, as saying “The rocket malfunctioned  during the flight, and the satellite failed to enter orbit.”

Ziyuan I-03 is also called CBERS-3.   It is the latest in a series of Chinese-Brazilian satellites under the China-Brazil Earth Remote Sensing (CBERS) program.  Ziyuan I-01 (CBERS-1), Ziyuan I-02 (CBERS-2), and Ziyuan I-02B (CBERS-2B) were launched in 1999, 2003, and 2007, respectively, according to the website of Brazil’s space agency INPE.  The satellite that was lost today carried what INPE describes as “the first satellite camera entirely developed and produced in Brazil” called MUX, which is a 20-meter resolution multispectral camera.    NASASpaceflight.com lists three other sensors on the satellite, a Brazilian Panchromatic and Multispectral Camera (PanMUX), a Chinese Infrared System (IRS) and a Chinese Wide-Field Imager (WFI).

China has been enjoying a long string of launch successes.  Its last failure of any version of the Long March was in August 2011 when a Long March 2C failed to place Shijian-11-04 into orbit.  Jonathan McDowell’s Jonathan’s Space Report said a second stage engine malfunctioned in that case.   The Long March 4B used today has not had a failure since 1999 according to SpaceflightNow.com.

Last Updated: Dec 09, 2013 5:38 pm ET
House and Senate Committees Reach Compromise on 2014 Defense Authorization Bill

House and Senate Committees Reach Compromise on 2014 Defense Authorization Bill

By Marcia Smith | Posted: December 9, 2013 12:00 am ET | Last Updated: December 9, 2013 6:59 pm ET

The chairmen of the House and Senate Armed Services Committees announced today that their committees, at least, have reached compromise on the FY2014 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA).  The House passed its version in June, but the Senate version got stuck in partisan debate over amendments when it was brought to the floor for a vote just before Thanksgiving.

Republican House Armed Services Committees (HASC) chairman Rep. Howard “Buck” McKeon (R-CA) and Democratic Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC) chairman Sen. Carl Levin (D-MI) held a press conference today and released a fact sheet spelling out key aspects of the agreement.  While it is only between the committees at this point and does not ensure the bill will clear Congress by the end of this week, it could speed the process along.  The House currently plans to adjourn for the rest of the year on Friday.

The annual defense authorization bill is one of the few authorization bills that always clears Congress despite the depth of political gridlock.   It enjoys a 51-year record of success because members of both parties on both sides of Capitol Hill consider defense issues to be such a high priority.  Nonetheless, with the clock ticking, concern has been growing that this year might be the exception.

The plan apparently is for the House to pass the compromise bill this week before it leaves town and the Senate to pass it next week.  However, that would mean no changes could be made in the Senate since the House no longer will be in session to approve a revised version.  That could be a risky strategy since many Senators had amendments they wanted to offer to the SASC version of the bill.  That was the main obstacle in getting it through the Senate last month.  Still, if enough people want a bill, even one that is far from perfect, it could work.  Or if there were relatively minor changes, it is conceivable that the House could reconvene to consider an amended version, perhaps hoping to pass it by voice vote so not all members would need to return to town.

In any case, the nine page fact sheet makes several statements about certain national security space issues, but provides little other detail.  Under the heading Accountability for Vital Strategic Programs and Assets, it says: 

  • “The NDAA also reforms DOD’s business process with commercial satellite companies ensuring that strategic competitors do not gain inadvertent access to vital systems or information.”
  • “Additionally, the NDAA requires the DOD to develop a strategy to lower the cost, thorough [sic] through multi-year procurement, of commercial satellite services.”
  • “In order to protect national security, the NDAA prohibits the President from approving the installation of Russian satellite ground stations in the United States that pose a threat to U.S. national security.”
  • “Additionally, the NDAA supports key national security space activities, including an emphasis on space protection and Operationally Responsive Space (ORS) programs in light of increasing foreign threats, as well as support for fair competition on the evolved expendable launch vehicle program.”

Although the fact sheet does not provide details, the third bullet probably refers to the debate over whether monitor stations for Russia’s GLONASS navigation satellite system should be placed in the United States as proposed by the State Department but opposed by DOD and CIA.

The bill would fund DOD at $552.1 billion for FY2014, plus another $80.7 billion for Overseas Contingency Operations (e.g. the war in Afghanistan).

Last Updated: Dec 09, 2013 6:59 pm ET
Space Policy Events for the Week of December 9-13, 2013 – UPDATE

Space Policy Events for the Week of December 9-13, 2013 – UPDATE

By Marcia Smith | Posted: December 8, 2013 12:00 am ET | Last Updated: December 9, 2013 3:21 pm ET

The following events may be of interest in the week ahead.  The House and Senate both are in session. 

During the Week

The House is scheduled to adjourn for the year on Friday; the Senate plans to be here one more week after that.  If those schedules hold, this is the last week in 2013 that they both will be in session and thus able to get legislation passed and to the White House.   Many Senators say that of all the pending legislation, they really want to get the FY2014 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) passed, but they didn’t make much progress before the Thanksgiving break because of partisan disputes over amendments.  The House passed its version in June.  This is the one authorization bill that always gets through no matter how tough the political times — a 51-year record.  Will this year be the exception? 

Friday, December 13, is not only the last scheduled day for the House to meet this year, but is also the deadline for the budget conference committee to reach agreement on federal funding for FY2014, at least.   The conference committee was created as part of the deal to reopen the government in October and even at the time few were optimistic it would meet that deadline.   Nothing has changed.  

Lots of interesting events this week, including a Senate Commerce subcommittee hearing on “weather readiness” that includes Tom Young reporting on his Independent Review Team that is watching over NOAA’s weather satellite programs.  That’s on Thursday at 10:30 am.  Note that It’s not in the committee’s regular hearing room in the Russell Building, but in G-50 Dirksen.  The previous day, a House subcommittee will hold a hearing on “A Factual Look at the Relationship Between Climate and Weather.”   The witnesses have not been announced yet, so it’s not clear how much if any of that deals with satellite issues.

Separately, the House Science, Space and Technology Committee may resume its markup of the bill that affects how NASA handles termination liability for its major human spaceflight programs (SLS, Orion and ISS).  The committee approved three bills on Thursday, but when it came to this one, chairman Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX) said more time was needed for Republicans and Democrats to work out their differences so the bill has bipartisan support.  He tentatively set Tuesday at 2:00 pm EST to resume the markup, but it is not definite.  At stake is how $507 million in the hands of contractors will be spent — to execute the programs or held in reserve in case the government terminates the contracts.

Across the country in San Francisco all week, the American Geophysical Union (AGU) annual meeting is certain to be chock full of fascinating scientific findings.   Many press conferences are scheduled and will be livestreamed.   We created a list of those that are probably most interesting to the space community, but the full list is on the AGU website, so you can pick your own.  That website has a tab labeled “Webstreaming.”  Click on that to listen in.

Meanwhile, the NASA Advisory Council (NAC) and several of its committees are meeting down in Florida, at Kennedy Space Center.  NASA is restructuring NAC, getting rid of three committees and merging a fourth (Commercial Space) into one of the remaining committees.   The way NASA and NAC chairman Steve Squyres describe the situation it’s a done deal, but there might be some discussion of why the decision was made and its implications.   NAC itself meets on Wednesday and Thursday.   The NAC meeting and most NAC committee meetings are available via WebEx and telecom.  See our calendar entries for instructions on how to tune in.  NASA has not posted an agenda for the NAC meeting yet.  Hopefully it will before the meeting takes place.  If so, it should be posted on the NAC website.

Those and many more meetings of interest are in the list below.  These are the ones we know of as of Sunday morning.  We’re posting this a bit early today because there’s a nasty ice storm coming this afternoon and there’s a chance of losing power, so we wanted to get this up on the website before anything bad happens.

Monday, December 9

Monday-Tuesday, December 9-10

Monday-Friday, December 9-13

  • American Geophysical Union (AGU) annual meeting, San Francisco, CA.  Note there are press conferences each day that will be webcast.  Here are three examples that may be of interest:
       
    • Monday — Update from Gale Crater:  Results from the Mars Curiosity Rover, 9:00-10:00 am PST (12:00-1:00 pm EST)
    • Tuesday — Science from Juno’s Earth Flyby, 10:30 – 11:30 am PST (1:30-2:30 pm EST)
    • Thursday — Titan as You’ve Never Seen it Before:  New Results from the Cassini Mission to Saturn, 11:30-12:30 pm PST (2:30-3:30 pm EST)

Tuesday, December 10

Tuesday-Wednesday, December 10-11

Wednesday, December 11

Wednesday-Thursday, December 11-12

Thursday, December 12

Friday, December 13

Last Updated: Dec 09, 2013 3:21 pm ET
NASA Plans Major Restructuring of NASA Advisory Council

NASA Plans Major Restructuring of NASA Advisory Council

By Marcia Smith | Posted: December 4, 2013 12:00 am ET | Last Updated: December 4, 2013 5:02 pm ET

NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden has decided to significantly restructure the NASA Advisory Council (NAC), which provides independent external advice to the agency.   Three of the NAC’s eight committees will be eliminated, including the Education and Public Outreach Committee, and the activities of a fourth — the Commercial Space Committee — will be merged with another.

NASA just renewed the NAC charter in October, making only minor changes to the number of times a year it meets (three instead of four) and reducing its level of funding.  That renewal kept the same committees NAC has had since Bolden became Administrator:  Aeronautics; Audit, Finance, and Analysis; Commercial Space; Education and Public Outreach; Human Exploration and Operations; Information Technology Infrastructure; Science; and Technology and Innovation.

A blog post by NAC Chairman Steve Squyres posted on NASA’s website reveals a decision to eliminate three committees:  Audit, Finance, and Analysis; Education and Public Outreach; and IT Infrastructure.  Squyres distinguishes between the elimination of those three committees and the fate of the Commercial Space Committee, which he describes as being “merged” with the Human Exploration and Operations Committee. 

The new committee lineup will be:

  • Science
  • Aeronautics
  • Technology, Innovation and Engineering
  • Human Exploration and Operations
  • Institutional

NAC will also set up two task forces — one on STEM Education and another Big Data.  They will have “a focused task and limited duration.”

NAC reports to the NASA Administrator and every iteration of the NAC structure and membership reflects each Administrator’s personal preferences on how he obtains advice.  During Bolden’s tenure, the membership of NAC has been the NAC chairman plus the chairs of the eight NAC committees he created.  (The chairs of the National Research Council’s Space Studies Board and Aeronautics and Space Engineering Board are ex officio members of NAC as well.) 

Now, with only five committees, several ‘at-large’ members will be added. They are to provide “strategic insight and expert advice across the work of the entire Agency” according to Squyres.

Squyres says the decision was made after “a recent internal review” by Bolden.  “The restructuring process … will begin immediately and will be fully realized over the next several months. As Chairman of NAC, I’m looking forward to putting this new structure in place.”

NAC’s next meeting is at Kennedy Space Center, FL on December 11-12.  A detailed agenda has not yet been posted, but an overall agenda posted in the Federal Register shows that it will discuss topics in each of the areas of the original eight committees except for commercial space. 

Last Updated: Dec 04, 2013 5:02 pm ET
China Successfully Launches Moon Probe Chang'e-3

China Successfully Launches Moon Probe Chang'e-3

By Marcia Smith | Posted: December 1, 2013 12:00 am ET | Last Updated: December 1, 2013 1:07 pm ET

China successfully launched the Chang’e-3 lunar probe today, December 1, on time at 12:30 pm Eastern Standard Time (December 2, 1:30 am in Beijing).  The probe is China’s first that is designed to make a survivable landing on the Moon and will deploy a 6-wheeled rover named Yutu.

Chang’e is China’s mythological goddess of the Moon, who travels with her pet rabbit, Yutu, hence the name of the rover.

The European Space Agency is helping China track the probe and says that arrival in lunar orbit is expected on December 6 and landing on December 14. 

This is China’s third lunar probe.  Chang’e-1 in 2007 orbited the Moon and was commanded to impact the Moon after its mission was completed.  Chang’e-2, launched in 2010, orbited the Moon and then was redirected to encounter the asteroid Toutatis.  It continues its journey in space and is currently 60 million kilometers from Earth.

Many countries have launched probes to flyby, impact, orbit or land on the Moon: the United States, Russia/Soviet Union, Japan, and India, as well as the European Space Agency.   The Soviet Union landed two robotic rovers and three robotic sample return missions. 

The United States is the only country to land not ony robotic spacecraft on the Moon, but people.   Six two-man Apollo crews landed on the Moon between 1969 and 1972.  The last three Apollo crews (Apollo 15, 16, and 17) brought rovers — “moon buggies” — with them that they used to traverse greater distances that could be covered on foot.

Last Updated: Dec 01, 2013 1:07 pm ET
Space Policy Events for the Week of December 2-6, 2013

Space Policy Events for the Week of December 2-6, 2013

By Marcia Smith | Posted: December 1, 2013 12:00 am ET | Last Updated: December 3, 2013 2:55 pm ET

This article has been corrected since its original publication.  See note at end.

The following events may be of interest in the week ahead.  The House is in session.  The Senate is in recess, scheduled to return next week.

During the Week

Tomorrow (Monday), the House is scheduled to vote on the bill (H.R. 3547) to extend third party liability indemnification for one year.  It is the first of three bills to be considered under suspension of the rules.  The House meets at 2:00 pm ET, but votes are postponed until 6:00 pm.

Also tomorrow, SpaceX may try again to launch the SES-8 communications satellite.   Three attempts on Monday, November 25,  and two on Thursday (Thanksgiving Day) didn’t succeed for various reasons.   The company has not officially announced a new launch date and time, saying only that Monday is the earliest it will go.   The launch window is open from 5:41 – 7:07 pm ET if they are, indeed, ready to try again.  A lot is riding on the success of this launch.

Also during the week, hopefully members of the budget conference committee will be trying to find a solution to the nation’s deficit situation so the FY2014 budget, at least, can be finalized even if they cannot reach agreement on a long term solution.   Whatever hope there was — and it wasn’t much — is fading, however, as the committee’s December 13 deadline nears.  December 13 is also the last day the House is scheduled to be in session for this year.   Since the Senate does not return until December 9, there is little time for anything to happen.  The current Continuing Resolution expires on January 15, 2014, the day that another round of sequester cuts takes effect if Congress does not act to stop it.   The story hasn’t changed — no one likes the sequester, but no agreement appears achievable on an alternative because Democrats want to reduce the deficit through a combination of spending cuts and tax increases while Republicans want only spending cuts. 

Many House committees are holding hearings on Obamacare this week, but the House Science, Space and Technology Committee will have one on a more uplifting subject — astrobiology — on Wednesday.

Those and other events we know of as of Sunday afternoon are listed below.

Monday, December 2

Tuesday, December 3

Tuesday-Wednesday, December 3-4

  • NAC Science Committee, NASA HQ, Washington, DC
    • December 3, 8:30 am – 4:00 pm ET
    • December 4, 8:30 am – 3:00 pm ET

Wednesday, December 4

Wednesday-Thursday, December 4-5

Thursday, December 5

Friday, December 6

 CORRECTION:  In an earlier version, we mistakenly listed the WSBR luncheon with Stephane Israel for December 4.  Instead it was December 3.  Our apologies.

Last Updated: Dec 03, 2013 2:55 pm ET
China Readies Its First Lunar Rover, Chang'e-3, for Launch Tomorrow

China Readies Its First Lunar Rover, Chang'e-3, for Launch Tomorrow

By Marcia Smith | Posted: November 30, 2013 12:00 am ET | Last Updated: November 30, 2013 6:58 pm ET

China plans to launch its first lunar rover early tomorrow afternoon (Sunday) Eastern Standard Time (Monday, December 2, Beijing time).  Chang’e-3 is the country’s third lunar probe, but the first designed to make a survivable landing on the surface and it will deliver a 6-wheeled rover.

Launch on a Long March-3B rocket from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center is scheduled for 12:30 pm EST (1730 GMT, or 1:30 am Monday in Beijing).   Chang’e is China’s mythological goddess of the Moon.  The rover is named Yutu, or Jade Rabbit, after Chang’e’s pet white rabbit.  China says there are two narrow launch windows each day for three consecutive days.

The lander is equipped with cameras and a near-ultraviolet telescope.  The rover has a radar attached to its bottom that will “explore 100 to 200 meters beneath the moon’s surface” according to China’s press service Xinhua.

As its designation implies, this is China’s third robotic lunar mission. Chang’e-1 was launched in October 2007 and orbited the Moon until March 2009 when it was commanded to crash into the surface.  Chang’e-2, launched in October 2010, also orbited the Moon, taking 1.5 meter resolution images of Sinus Iridum, the site where Chang’e-3 will land.   When Chang’e-2’s primary mission was completed, the spacecraft was redirected to fly to the asteroid Toutatis where it collected 10-meter imagery.  That spacecraft is currently 60 million kilometers (km) from Earth and China expects to stay in contact with it until it reaches 300 million km.

The plan is for Chang’e-3 to land on the lunar surface at Sinus Iridum in mid-December.   It is powered by a plutonium-238 radioisotope thermal generator (RTG).  NASA has used RTGs for decades for spacecraft that journey too far from the Sun or spend long periods of “night” on the Moon or planetary surfaces to use solar power.   This is the first time China is using one, however.

The European Space Agency (ESA) will help China track Chang’e-3 and reports that the spacecraft will reach lunar orbit on December 6 and land on December 14.

Since the beginning of the Space Age in the late 1950s, many, many robotic spacecraft have been sent to fly by, impact, orbit or land on the Moon by a number of countries.  Only the United States, however, has landed people there.

The Soviet Union was the first country to send a probe to the Moon successfully, in 1959.  That began an intense robotic lunar program that lasted until 1976 and included three sample return missions (Luna 16, 20 and 24) and two rovers (Lunokhod 1 and 2).  Lunokhod 2, launched in 1973, still holds the record for the longest distance traveled by a robotic rover on the Moon or Mars.   Measurements using recent high resolution images taken by the U.S. Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) of Lunokhod-2’s tracks show that it traveled 42 km (26 miles).  NASA’s Opportunity rover on Mars is getting close — it has traveled about 38 km (24 miles).   The distance China expectes Yutu to traverse has not been made public.

The United States also successfully launched many robotic spacecraft to the Moon in the 1960s, including several landers in the Surveyor series, but they paled in comparison to the six landings of astronauts — Apollo 11, 12, 14, 15, 16 and 17 between 1969 and 1972. The last three crews (Apollo 15, 16, and 17) had rovers — “moon buggies” — to take them further from their landing sites than possible on foot.   In total, the Apollo crews returned over 380 kilograms of lunar material to Earth for study (by comparison, the three robotic Soviet sample return missions brought back a total of 330 grams).

The Soviet Union’s Luna 24 in 1976, the final sample return mission, was the last spacecraft to make a survivable lunar landing.    From that point until the mid-1990s, there was little interest in the Moon   Then, beginning with Clementine in 1994, the United States resumed robotic lunar exploration using orbiters.  Two are operating there today:  LRO, launched in 2009, and the Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE), launched in September and quite recently placed into its operational lunar orbit.  

Others that have launched lunar orbiters are the European Space Agency (SMART-1,2004), Japan (Kaguya, 2007), and India (Chandrayaan-1, 2008).  None of those is operating any longer.  Nor are the U.S. Lunar Prospector or GRAIL missions, which were commanded to impact the lunar surface at the end of their missions (as did SMART-1, the LCROSS probe launched with LRO, and an impact probe launched with Chandrayaan-1).

China’s plans to send a series of robotic probes to the Moon are not new.  Almost a decade ago it announced a three-step plan for a spacecraft to orbit the Moon in 2007, a rover in 2010, and a sample return mission around 2020.   It achieved the first goal with Chang’e-1, but, based on that schedule, is three years late with its rover. 

 

Last Updated: Nov 30, 2013 6:58 pm ET
India's Mars Probe Departs Earth for Trek to Red Planet

India's Mars Probe Departs Earth for Trek to Red Planet

By Marcia Smith | Posted: November 30, 2013 12:00 am ET | Last Updated: November 30, 2013 4:14 pm ET

India’s Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) successfully fired its engine for 23 minutes today, November 30 Eastern Standard Time (EST;  December 1 Indian Standard Time), to begin its 10 month trek to Mars.

MOM, or Mangalyaan-1 as it is sometimes called, has been circling Earth since launch on November 5.  A series of engine burns gradually raised the orbit until it was in the proper position for trans-Mars injection (TMI) — the engine burn conducted today.

Arrival at Mars is scheduled for September 2014.  MOM will enter an elliptical, rather than circular, orbit around Mars that is 350 x 80,000 kilometers.  MOM carries five scientific instruments, including one that will search for methane in the atmosphere, but is primarily a technology test to demonstrate that India can build and launch a spacecraft that attains Martian orbit.   If successful, it will be the first Asian country to do so.   Japan’s attempt to place a spacecraft (Nozomi) in orbit around Mars failed.  China had a small orbiter (Yinghuo-1) on Russia’s doomed Phobos-Grunt mission.  

Europe, Russia/Soviet Union and the United States have successfully placed spacecraft in Martian orbit.  The U.S. Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and Odyssey spacecraft, and Europe’s Mars Express, are currently operating there, and NASA’s MAVEN is on the way (it will arrive at Mars about the same time as MOM).    Only the United States has successfully landed spacecraft on the surface.  Two are currently operating:  Opportunity and Curiosity.  Several other U.S. and Russian/Soviet Mars probes, and one other European Mars spacecraft, failed.  

Wary planetary scientists joke about the Galactic Ghoul, a monster inhabiting space that eats Mars-bound spacecraft.  Time will tell if MOM avoids it.

Last Updated: Nov 30, 2013 4:14 pm ET

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