6 - 2024 - Tamfis

Perseverance Mars rover digs into intriguing ‘Bright Angel’ rock formation (photo)

NASA Space Technology

NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover acquired this image with its Front Right Hazard Avoidance Camera A on June 16, 2024. It shows the area in front of the rover at a site called Bright Angel, with the arm extended as the PIXL instrument investigates the surface.(Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech)

Last week, after braving a field of sand dunes and traversing the desiccated remnants of an ancient river, NASA’s Perseverance rover reached the shining rock outcropping on the Martian horizon that the rover’s operators have named “Bright Angel.”

Perseverance has now begun its scientific investigation of a very unique place in its surroundings. Its first action: digging into the ground, scanning and imaging the Mars soil with X-rays. Over the coming months, scientists will parse the data that Perseverance sends back.

Bright Angel got its name for being an unusually light-colored patch of rock in images taken from orbit. Against the Martian landscape, the outcropping’s dramatic appearance caught scientists’ eyes.

The patch’s site at the edge of Neretva Vallis, a dried river channel that feeds into Perseverance’s Jezero Crater landing site — and a channel that Perseverance had trailed for weeks — suggested that Bright Angel might harbor interesting details about Mars’ wetter past.

As Perseverance approached Bright Angel, the rover’s operators and mission scientists on Earth got their first close-up looks at the place. Some scientists think that Bright Angel’s rocks represent older material that was exposed by now-vanished water eroding the ground.

After several days of sightseeing and photo-taking, Perseverance began to dig, lowering its high-speed drill into the ground. The rover then cleared the dust away by blasting it with nitrogen gas. Performing such a shallow dig, which scientists call an abrasionallows the rover to clear a circle of the Martian surface’s weathered outer layer and get at the pristine rock below.

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On this spot, Perseverance deployed its PIXL instrument, a device that lights up the Martian surface with an X-ray beam and measures the light that bounces back. It’s too soon for scientists to have processed the data, but over the coming months, they will analyze it to learn more about how Bright Angel formed and how it relates to Neretva Vallis’ former river.

Now, Perseverance’s science team will determine if the rover should take an even more drastic step — determining whether samples from Bright Angel will make fine additions to its collection. If so, a planned return campaign may deliver Bright Angel rocks back to Earth.

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Rahul Rao is a graduate of New York University’s SHERP and a freelance science writer, regularly covering physics, space, and infrastructure. His work has appeared in Gizmodo, Popular Science, Inverse, IEEE Spectrum, and Continuum. He enjoys riding trains for fun, and he has seen every surviving episode of Doctor Who. He holds a masters degree in science writing from New York University’s Science, Health and Environmental Reporting Program (SHERP) and earned a bachelors degree from Vanderbilt University, where he studied English and physics.

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NASA again delays Starliner undocking, return to Earth

NASA Space Technology

The Starliner spacecraft on NASA’s Boeing Crew Flight Test is pictured docked to the Harmony module’s forward port as the International Space Station orbited 263 miles above the Mediterranean Sea. Image: NASA.

NASA and Boeing managers have again decided to extend the Starliner crew capsule’s stay at the International Space Station, passing up a June 26 re-entry to allow more time for analysis and testing to make sure helium leaks and thruster failures are fully understood, officials said late Friday.

NASA plans to hold a formal re-entry readiness review before setting a new landing target date. Given the on-going analysis, the Starliner’s undocking and return to Earth likely will slip past two already planned space station spacewalks on Monday and July 2.

In the meantime, Starliner commander Barry “Butch” Wilmore and co-pilot Sunita Williams are still cleared to undock and fly home at any time if a station malfunction or other issue crops up that requires a quick departure. As such, officials say they are not stranded in space.

“We are taking our time and following our standard mission management team process,” Steve Stich, manager of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, said in a statement. “We are letting the data drive our decision making relative to managing the small helium system leaks and thruster performance we observed during rendezvous and docking.”

In addition, he said, given the extended duration of the Starliner mission “it is appropriate for us to complete an agency-level review, similar to what was done ahead of the NASA’s SpaceX Demo-2 return after two months on orbit, to document the agency’s formal acceptance on proceeding as planned.”

NASA’s Boeing Crew Flight Test astronauts (from top) Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams pose for a portrait inside the vestibule between the forward port on the International Space Station’s Harmony module and Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft. Image: NASA

He was referring to the first flight of astronauts aboard SpaceX’s Crew Dragon ferry ship in 2020. But the Demo-2 mission did not experience problems like the ones noted so far in the Starliner’s first piloted test flight.

The issue for Starliner troubleshooters is that the helium leakage and the thrusters in question are located in the Starliner’s drum-shaped service module, which is attached to the base of the crew capsule. The service module is jettisoned prior to re-entry and burns up in the atmosphere.

Given that engineers will not be able to examine the actual hardware after the fact, NASA and Boeing managers want to give them as much time as possible to review telemetry, to continue testing and to polish contingency scenarios in case additional problems show up after undocking.

They also want to learn as much as possible about what might be needed to prevent similar problems in downstream flights. NASA managers were hoping to certify the Starliner for operational crew rotation flights to the ISS starting early next year, but it’s not yet clear if that’s remains a realistic goal.

In any case, Stich said the Starliner “is performing well in orbit while docked to the space station.”

“We are strategically using the extra time to clear a path for some critical station activities while completing readiness for Butch and Suni’s return on Starliner and gaining valuable insight into the system upgrades we will want to make for post-certification missions.”

Already running four years behind schedule, the Starliner was launched June 5, a month later than planned due to minor problems with its Atlas 5 rocket, trouble with a countdown computer and because of an initial helium leak in the system used to pressurize the capsule’s thrusters.

NASA and Boeing managers decided the leak was too small to pose a safety threat and the ship was cleared for launch. Once in orbit and on the way to the space station, however, four more helium leaks developed and the Starliner’s flight computer took seven maneuvering jets off line when the telemetry did not match pre-launch expectations.

One thruster was deemed unusable going forward, but the others were successfully test fired last Saturday. That “hot-fire” test gave engineers confidence the jets needed for post-undocking maneuvers and the critical de-orbit “burn” will work as needed to drop the ship out of orbit for re-entry.

Likewise, officials said they were confident the helium leaks could be managed even if one or more gets worse after undocking. Only seven hours of helium is needed for the return to Earth and the Starliner has more than 10 times that amount left on board.

Boeing Starliner Strands 2 Astronauts on International Space Station

NASA Space Technology

NASA announced on Tuesday that astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore will be returning from the International Space Station no earlier than June 26. The pair launched on June 6 in the Boeing Starliner’s first crewed flight and were slated to return after a week, according to CNN. However, NASA has now delayed the return twice to buy time to understand better the issues the spacecraft experienced during its trip to the station.

The June 6 launch was already a pushed-back ascent as NASA delayed the Starliner debut mission on May 6, just two hours before the launch. The agency ordered the delay to replace a pressure regulation valve on the Atlas V rocket’s liquid oxygen tank. When the launch finally happened, the spacecraft suffered helium leaks and its thrusters unexpectedly stopped working on approach to the ISS. On the delay, Space.com reports:

“We want to give our teams a little bit more time to look at the data, do some analysis and make sure we’re really ready to come home,” Steve Stich, manager of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, said during a livestreamed teleconference with reporters today. Starliner can undock in case of emergency, but otherwise, testing is ongoing to learn more about the vehicle’s systems.
Stich reiterated that five of Starliner’s 28 reaction control thrusters failed during the final phase of the ISS rendezvous on June 6, though four of them eventually came back online. (Starliner succeeded on its second docking try, which occurred several hours later on June 6.) Evaluation of what happened is ongoing. As part of that effort, Boeing and NASA ground team members performed a thruster hot-fire test over the weekend alongside the astronauts, and, after that, Stich said, everyone “feels very confident.”

Stich also mentioned that the Starliner could spend up to 45 days docked to the ISS if necessary. Prolonged stays on the station aren’t completely out of the ordinary. The debut mission of SpaceX’s CrewDragon faced similar delays in orbit. Re-entries are incredibly dangerous with proven spacecraft. It’s better to be safe than sorry on the Starliner’s debut mission.

Boeing Starliner’s return to Earth delayed again

NASA Space Technology

NASA said on Friday the Boeing Starliner’s return to Earth from the International Space Station, which was scheduled for next week, has been delayed again.

The delay of the rescheduled June 26 return will allow more time for the review of the thruster malfunctions and helium leaks that caused the first delay, it said.

Starliner’s first crewed mission to the ISS, which had initially been scheduled to last about eight days, has been extended to a date yet to be determined.

The spaceship blasted off from Florida atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket on June 5 following years of delays and safety scares, as well as two aborted launch attempts that came as astronauts were strapped in and ready to go.

“NASA and Boeing leadership are adjusting the return to Earth of the Starliner Crew Flight Test spacecraft,” NASA said in a blog post late Friday.

“The move off Wednesday, June 26, deconflicts Starliner’s undocking and landing from a series of planned International Space Station spacewalks while allowing mission teams time to review propulsion system data,” it said.

NASA’s Commercial Crew Program manager Steve Stich said, “We are taking our time and following our standard mission management team process.”

“We are letting the data drive our decision making relative to managing the small helium system leaks and thruster performance we observed during rendezvous and docking,” he said.

Stitch said Starliner, which is crewed by two astronauts, Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, both ex-US Navy test pilots, is “performing well in orbit while docked to the space station”.

NASA said the crew was not in a hurry to leave the station because it is well stocked with supplies and the “station’s schedule is relatively open through mid-August”.

The initial ISS docking was delayed by more than an hour after some of Starliner’s thrusters that provide fine maneuvering initially failed to kick in.

It was known there was one helium leak affecting Starliner before the launch. While non-combustible, helium provides pressure to the propulsion system.

However, other leaks emerged during the flight.

2024 AFP

Citation:Boeing Starliner’s return to Earth delayed again (2024, June 22)retrieved 23 June 2024from https://phys.org/news/2024-06-boeing-starliner-earth-delayed.html

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Daily Archives: June 23, 2024

Perseverance Mars rover digs into intriguing ‘Bright Angel’ rock formation (photo)

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NASA again delays Starliner undocking, return to Earth

Boeing Starliner Strands 2 Astronauts on International Space Station

Boeing Starliner’s return to Earth delayed again