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Posts Tagged ‘NASA’s’

NASA’s Juno spacecraft recently captured a stunning image of Jupiter

24 Feb

Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS

With all the recent excitement surrounding NASA’s Perseverance rover landing on Mars and new images, we’ve got space on the brain. This month, NASA published a beautiful image of the gas giant Jupiter that its Juno spacecraft captured in late 2020.

NASA’s Juno spacecraft has been orbiting Jupiter since July 5, 2016. The spacecraft was launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on August 5, 2011. The latest image, seen below, was captured on December 30, 2020, during Juno’s 31st close flyby of Jupiter.

‘Citizen scientist Tanya Oleksuik created this color-enhanced image using data from the JunoCam camera…At the time, the spacecraft was about 31,000 mi (about 50,000 km) from the planet’s cloud tops, at a latitude of about 50° South.’ Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS. Click to enlarge.

This excellent shot shows Jupiter’s turbulent atmosphere and includes several of Jupiter’s southern jet streams. Jupiter’s famous Great Red Spot is visible on the horizon as well. With the aid of imagery and the numerous scientific instruments onboard Juno, scientists discovered that the planet’s atmospheric jet streams extend further than previously thought. Recent evidence shows that the jet streams and belts penetrate up to 1,800 mi (3,000 km) down into the planet.

JunoCam (JCM) is a visible-light camera/telescope. Malin Space Science Systems built the camera. It has a field of view of 58° and includes four filters, three of which are used for visible light photography. The camera is fixed to Juno, so it gets one chance for observation when Juno orbits Jupiter. JCM uses a Kodak image sensor, the Kodak KAI-2020, and records 1,600 x 1,200 pixel images, which is fewer than 2MP. Due to the incredible distance of Juno from Earth, which is more than 550 million miles, only limited data can be transmitted from Juno to Earth during each 11-day orbital cycle.

Image credit: NASA. Click to enlarge.

Citizens are encouraged to download and process JunoCam images. Raw images are available to view and download here. If you’d like to learn more about NASA Citizen Science projects, visit the dedicated Citizen Science website.

Artist concept of Juno. Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech

The Juno mission’s primary objective is to improve our understanding of Jupiter’s origin and evolution. Juno and its onboard instruments are used to determine how much water is in Jupiter’s atmosphere, analyze the planet’s atmosphere, map magnetic and gravity fields, explore the planet’s magnetosphere, and more. As of now, the Juno mission is due to end in September 2025, so there’ll be plenty of more images to come in the next few years. You can learn more about Juno here.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

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NASA’s ambitious Perseverance rover lands on Mars and sends back its first images

19 Feb

The first image sent back to Earth from Perseverance following its successful landing on Mars. You can see Perseverance’s shadow in the foreground. Image credit: NASA

On July 30, 2020, NASA launched its Mars Perseverance Rover on an Atlas V rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. Yesterday, February 18, 2021, Perseverance landed successfully on the red planet.

The 2,260-pound (1,025kg) rover touched down with precision at an ancient river delta site in Jezero Crater. Perseverance is exploring an area where a lake existed nearly 4 billion years ago. The Perseverance mission has numerous objectives, including exploring its geologically diverse landing site, assessing ancient habitability, seeking signs of ancient life, gathering rock and soil samples, and demonstrating technology for future exploration by robots and humans alike.

Map showing Perseverance’s landing site at the Jezero Crater on Mars. Image credit: NASA

In the video below, you can see mission control react when Perseverance landed on Mars. Mission control was recorded using an Insta360 Pro 2 camera. When using a compatible browser, you can rotate the camera around mission control. The moment of elation is around the 1:46:00 mark. It’s an emotional moment for the team, and it’s cool to see it captured in 360 degrees.

Perseverance will spend at least one Martian year (about two Earth years) exploring the landing site region. Onboard are seven instruments, including the MastCam-Z, SuperCam, Planetary Instrument for X-ray Lithochemistry (PIXL), and Scanning Habitable Environments with Raman and Luminescence for Organics and Chemicals (SHERLOC). The Mastcam-Z is an advanced camera system with panoramic and stereoscopic imaging capabilities. The camera, which can zoom, will analyze the minerals of the Martian surface. SuperCam is provides imaging, chemical composition analysis, and mineralogy at a distance.

Engineers working on Perseverance. Image credit: NASA

PIXL is an X-ray fluorescence spectrometer and high-resolution imager. PIXL will map the elemental composition of surface materials. SHERLOC provides fine-scale imaging and uses an ultraviolet laser to map mineralogy and organic compounds. SHERLOC is the first UV Raman spectrometer to land on Mars. SHERLOC also includes a high-res color camera for microscopic imaging of Mars’ surface.

Mission control. Image credit: NASA

It’s difficult to overstate what an accomplishment it is to land not only NASA’s most ambitious Mars rover yet, but also to do so during a pandemic. As Chelsea Gohd writes for Space.com, ‘This mission didn’t just propel technology and science forward, it demonstrated the incredible Perseverance of the human spirit. Despite everything, the teams at NASA were able to accomplish this incredible feat, which, even in ‘normal times,’ would have been difficult.’ Matt Wallace of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) shared a similar sentiment following Perseverance’s successful landing, ‘It’s been a tough year. It’s been tough to do this mission in this environment. But the team, like they have with every other challenge, has stepped up to it…’

An illustration of the Perseverance rover. Image credit: NASA

If NASA had been forced to delay the launch from last July, the launch window would have been pushed back 26 months due to planetary alignment. Perseverance is a $ 2.7B mission, so a more than two-year delay is a tough pill to swallow. Instead, NASA was swift to enact COVID protocols, which came with unique challenges and ultimately allowed the mission to continue as scheduled.

This is the first image Perseverance sent back to Earth following its successful landing on Mars. Image credit: NASA

Back to yesterday’s historic landing. Perseverance, or ‘Percy’ as some at mission control call the rover, landed at 3:55 p.m. ET. The landing went smoothly, and Percy wasted no time sending its first image back to Earth. Perseverance then sent a second image, showing the view from the rear of the spacecraft. Both images were captured using onboard ‘hazard cameras,’ and the protective covers were still in place. Future images will be more detailed and impressive, but these are nonetheless important photos. The images will be used to help the team very precisely locate Perseverance’s landing site on the Martian surface.

The second image shows the view from the rear of Perseverance. Image credit: NASA

For Perseverance, the next few days on Mars will be spent exploring the area. Its handlers will come to grips with the area and stabilize the rover’s onboard systems, including communications systems that will allow specialized software to be uploaded from Earth.

A 3D-printed model of MastCam-Z. Image credit: NASA

Per Space.com, ‘Perservance’s head-like, instrument-laden mast will also be deployed in these first few sols, allowing capture of great new imagery. For example, the rover’s MastCam-Z camera system is scheduled to take its first color panorama on sol 3.’ Mars 2020 deputy project manager Jennifer Trosper says that NASA will do about four days transitioning to new software before digging its teeth into planned scientific endeavors. It’s taken a considerable amount of time, money, and work to get to this point so that the team won’t rush anything.

As you can see in this diagram, Perseverance includes a lot of onboard instruments and equipment. Among other objectives, the rover will use its instruments to analyze and gather information on the chemical and mineral composition of the Martian surface. Image credit: NASA

Perseverance includes an onboard helicopter, Ingenuity. The four-pound helicopter will drop from the rover soon and, if all goes well, become the blueprint for future extraterrestrial exploration.

An illustration of NASA’s new Mars helicopter, Ingenuity. Its maiden flight will mark the first powered flight on another world. Image credit: NASA

If you want to take part in the celebration of Perseverance’s successful landing, NASA has set up a Mars Photo Booth. You can upload a selfie and place yourself on Mars, in mission control, or in front of a handful of other backgrounds.

There’s a lot to look forward to over the next Martian year (and hopefully longer). Perseverance includes 23 cameras, so we should be treated to some amazing imagery throughout 2021 and beyond.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

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This iOS 14 widget adds NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day to your homescreen

04 Oct

With the release of Apple’s iOS 14, users can finally add widgets to their homescreen and subsequent pages, paving the way for unique ways to customize your iOS device. Inspired by a widget from iOS Reddit client Apollo, developer Mark Hambly decided to make his own to show off the beautiful astrophotography of NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD) project.

A collection of various layouts you can achieve using the new widgets in iOS 14.

The aptly named APOD app, which is free to download (and ad-free), will refresh every day with the latest image(s) from NASA’s APOD feed. You can customize the widget to show up as a 2×2 square, 2×4 rectangle or a 4×4 square to squeeze it into whatever homescreen setup you’ve customized. The widget offers the option to show the current APOD, a random APOD or cycle through a collection of your favorite APOD images you’ve marked within the app.

You can pick between the APOD, a random APOD from the past or a collection of Favorite APOD images you’ve saved.

If you want additional information on the image being displayed, you can tap on the widget and it will take you into the app, where you’ll see the image’s title, the date it was released and the description provided by NASA. You can also browse through the Astronomy Picture of the Day by date and even tap the ‘Random’ button that will surprise you from a past image.

The app is still in its infancy, as it was quickly developed ‘over a few evenings’ as part of a personal hackathon, so if you do come across the bug, just report it to the developer through the app’s settings. The app is available in the iOS App Store.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

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NASA’s Mars 2020 Perseverance mission to carry more cameras than any interplanetary mission in history

30 Jul

Tomorrow morning, NASA is expected to launch its Mars 2020 mission, which will take the Perseverance rover to the Red Planet to search for signs of ancient life, collect terrain samples for potential return to Earth and overall provide a better look at the Martian surface.

A United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket with NASA’s Mars 2020 Perseverance rover onboard is seen on the launch pad at Space Launch Complex 41. Credit: NASA/Joel Kowsky

Amongst dozens of other pieces of equipment, the Perseverance rover features a record-breaking 19 cameras that NASA says ‘will deliver images of the [Martian] landscape in breathtaking detail.’ There are four additional cameras onboard other parts of the spacecraft that will be used for entry, descent and landing. These additional cameras will ‘potentially [allow] engineers to put together a high-definition view of the landing process after the rover safely touches down on Mars, according to NASA’s fact sheet.

An overview of the tools on board the Perseverance rover.

NASA breaks down how each of the cameras aboard the Perseverance rover will be used:

19 cameras total on the rover: 9 for engineering (color); 3 for entry, descent and landing (1 black-and-white dedicated to Terrain-Relative Navigation and 2 color for public engagement and engineering reconstruction of entry, descent and landing); 2 for Mastcam-Z (color with zoom); 1 for SuperCam (color); 2 for SHERLOC (color); 1 for PIXL (black-and-white with some color capabilities); and 1 for MEDA (black-and-white)

3 cameras on the back shell: all color, all looking up to capture parachute inflation

1 camera on the descent stage: color, looking down to view the rover from above

Students Alex Mather, at left, and Vaneeza Rupani, stand near the countdown clock at the News Center at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on July 28, 2020. Mather named the Perseverance rover, and Rupani named the Ingenuity helicopter. Credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett

Hitching a ride with the Perseverance rover is Ingenuity, the Mars Helicopter, which NASA hopes will ‘be the first flyer on another world.’ The 1.8kg (4lb) helicopter is this mission’s technology demonstration, which is separate experiment designed to test interplanetary technology.

The UAV features two 1.2m (4ft) carbon-fiber blades that will spin at roughly 2,400rpm on counter-rotating motors — about eight times faster than the blades spin on a standard helicopter here on Earth. While Ingenuity is a separate experiment from the Mars 2020 Perseverance mission, the helicopter will have two cameras onboard: one color camera with ‘an oblique view for terrain images’ and one black-and-white camera for navigation.

As it has with previous Mars missions, NASA plans to make both raw and processed images captured during the mission available for the public to download on the mission’s website.

A ‘Quick Facts’ overview of the Mars 2020 mission.

The Perseverance rover and Ingenuity helicopter are set to land on Mars on February 18, 2021, after which its primary mission will last ‘at least’ one Mars year (approximately 687 Earth days). You can find out more about the Mars 2020 mission on the NASA website and watch the launch live tomorrow if all goes to plan.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

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Go on a 4K video tour of Mars with images captured by NASA’s Mars rovers

23 Jul

ElderFox Documentaries has compiled a 4K UHD video tour of Mars using ultra-high resolution images and photo mosaics captured by NASA’s Mars rovers. It’s a stunning look at the Martian landscape and a great way to view another world nearly 34 million miles away.

The video is technically a slideshow, as there are massive technical constraints limiting NASA’s ability to record and transmit high-resolution video from Mars to earth. As NASA points out, it can take about 20 hours to transmit 250 megabits directly back to earth. There is an eight-minute window during each Martian day (sol) in which the rover can send the same 250 megabits of data to the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter as it passes overhead. As ElderFox Documentaries notes, at those transmission speeds and considering that ‘nothing really moves on Mars,’ it makes more sense to send images back home rather than video files.

In the video above, we see images captured by three different NASA Mars rovers: Spirit, Opportunity and Curiosity. In the bottom left corner of the video tour, ElderFox has noted the Mars rover used to capture the images and the location on Mars in which they were captured.

If you want to see more of Mars, we have a lot more to show you. In March, NASA shared the highest-resolution panoramic image of Mars ever captured by its Curiosity rover. You can see a video NASA published below. In July 2017, Curiosity captured images of clouds above the Martian landscape. Earlier that year, space enthusiast Jan Fröjdman turned NASA anaglyph images into a simulated flight video using 33,000 reference points and NASA’s own depth information. You see that incredible video here.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

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NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft captures image of Earth from 71 million miles away

18 Jan

NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft, which achieved a record orbit at asteroid Bennu earlier this month, has returned an image that, at first glance, is unremarkable. The photo, below, features two bright dots — the larger one on the right is Bennu, and the smaller one on the left is Earth and the moon as seen from a distance of 114 million kilometers / 71 million miles.

The image was captured by OSIRIS-REx’s black and white NavCam1 camera on December 19, 2018, according to the Bennu mission website. The asteroid’s brightness is due to the image’s five second exposure time, which was long enough to make both the Earth and moon visible.

Photo provided by NASA

The OSIRIS-REx probe has been tasked with exploring Bennu, a large asteroid located around 70 million miles from Earth. On December 31, OSIRIS-REx became the first spacecraft to successfully orbit an object as small as Bennu, where it will remain before briefly touching down in 2020 to acquire a small sample.

The spacecraft has returned a number of images to its team on Earth, including close-up shots of the asteroid’s rocky surface. The latest image joins the iconic Pale Blue Dot photo as a rare example of space photography that puts Earth’s tiny place in the universe into perspective. Future images from OSIRIS-REx will be shared in the mission’s Gallery.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

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NASA’s InSight lander shares its first photos from the surface of Mars

28 Nov

Photo via NASA/JPL-Caltech/Lockheed Martin, used under Public Domain

It took six months and more than 300 million miles, but NASA’s InSight lander is now safe and sound on the surface of Mars and transmitting back the first bits of data to scientists here on Earth.

Among the first observations sent back to Earth from Mars is a collection of 1-megapixel photos captured with its onboard Instrument Deployment Camera (IDC). The images, which were transmitted by relaying the data to NASA’s Odyssey orbiter that’s currently orbiting Mars before being sent back down to NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, are the first of many that will be transmitted back to Earth during InSight’s two-year mission to study the interior of Mars.

The first publicly-shared photo sent back was one captured before the lens cap was removed from the camera, as evident from the dust covering the image.

My first picture on #Mars! My lens cover isn’t off yet, but I just had to show you a first look at my new home. More status updates:https://t.co/tYcLE3tkkS #MarsLanding pic.twitter.com/G15bJjMYxa

— NASAInSight (@NASAInSight) November 26, 2018

The second image shared by NASA shows off a bit of the spacecraft itself with Elysium Planitia, a large plain on the equator of Mars that’s located in the Elysium and Aeolis quadrangles, in the background.

There’s a quiet beauty here. Looking forward to exploring my new home. #MarsLanding pic.twitter.com/mfClzsfJJr

— NASAInSight (@NASAInSight) November 27, 2018

The landing site, which is approximately 370 miles north of where NASA’s Curiosity rover is rolling around the Martian surface, will now be scanned and covered with various scientific instruments as part of InSight’s mission to ‘probe the mysteries of Mars’s deep interior and help answer geophysical questions about the planet’s structure, composition and how it formed,’ as noted by The New York Times.

To keep up with the InSight mission, visit NASA’s InSight mission page and follow the verified InSight Twitter account.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

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Turning the Black Sea blue: NASA’s image of the day shows phytoplankton bloom

13 Jun

NASA’s image of the day is a composite, taken by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on its Aqua satellite. It shows phytoplankton swirling in the currents of the Black Sea. Credit: NASA/Jeff Schmaltz, LANCE/EOSDIS Rapid Response

The Black Sea is one of the largest bodies of water on earth, measuring 168,500 square miles, and it turns out not to be black at all. NASA’s appropriately-named Aqua satellite captured this shot last month, showing the deep blues and turquoise colors of the Sea from an orbital altitude of 438 miles. This is actually a composite image, made up of multiple photographs taken during several passes over the region.

The light-colored swirls are billions of phytoplankton – floating microscopic organisms plated with calcium carbonate.

Flat-Pack Life Support: NASA’s Inflatable Hydroponic Space Greenhouse

15 May

[ By WebUrbanist in Conceptual & Futuristic & Technology. ]

A key development in the quest to create sustainable ecosystems in space, this expandable greenhouse prototype aims to generate essential food and oxygen for long-term astronaut travel.

Recently, Peggy Whitson broke the record for longest stay in space (534 days) and astronauts have started growing their own vegetables on the International Space Station. This collapsible growing unit aims to take things to the next level, enabling longer-term settlements on places including the moon and Mars.

Developed by NASA and agricultural researchers at the University of Arizona, the test unit spans 7 by 18 feet. Its primary functions: convert carbon dioxide from crew, support plant photosynthesis. This bio-regenerative approach to life support is an essential system for recycling scarce resources off-planet.

It also takes its queues directly from our own world: “We’re mimicking what the plants would have if they were on Earth, and using of these processes for life support. The entire system of the lunar greenhouse does represent, in a small way, the biological systems that are here on earth.”

But a big trick to the design is simply its portability: materials take up space, so engineering minimal frameworks that will work when the system is expanded is critical to getting space greenhouses into (and out of) orbit in the first place.

Meanwhile, on the ISS, astronauts continue to grow (and consume) plants outside of Earth’s normal gravity, paving the way for a better understanding of how agriculture will really work off-planet in the future.

[ By WebUrbanist in Conceptual & Futuristic & Technology. ]

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Chain Mail for Space: NASA’s 4D-Printed Metal Fabric Deflects Debris

08 May

[ By WebUrbanist in Conceptual & Futuristic & Technology. ]

NASA’s latest futuristic textile is made of metal but can fold and change shape, protecting a wearer (or covered craft) from dangerous collisions that could tear holes in people or ships.

The woven metal is made up of a squares on the surface that are linked together on the back, but thanks to clever manufacturing the entire system can be created at once (rather than stitched together). With printers sent into space, this means astronauts could recycle and rebuild the material for different applications on demand.

“We call it 4D printing because we can print both the geometry and the function of these materials,” explains Polit Casillas. “If 20th century manufacturing was driven by mass production, then this is the mass production of functions.”

Developed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, this versatile textile has thermal protective properties as well, able to to keep machinery and people warm. Despite its flexibility, the mail retains a high tensile strength and can reflect or absorb light for heat control depending on which side faces outward.

360Photography

Posts Tagged ‘NASA’s’

NASA’s Juno spacecraft recently captured a stunning image of Jupiter

NASA’s ambitious Perseverance rover lands on Mars and sends back its first images

This iOS 14 widget adds NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day to your homescreen

NASA’s Mars 2020 Perseverance mission to carry more cameras than any interplanetary mission in history

Go on a 4K video tour of Mars with images captured by NASA’s Mars rovers

NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft captures image of Earth from 71 million miles away

NASA’s InSight lander shares its first photos from the surface of Mars

Turning the Black Sea blue: NASA’s image of the day shows phytoplankton bloom

Flat-Pack Life Support: NASA’s Inflatable Hydroponic Space Greenhouse

Chain Mail for Space: NASA’s 4D-Printed Metal Fabric Deflects Debris

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