Due to budgeting issues and certain design drawbacks, #NASA has announced that it will move the launch of the #Orion #spacecraft. - http://clapway.com/2015/09/17/nasa-orion-flight123/

Due to budgeting issues and certain design drawbacks, NASA has recently announced that it will move the launch of the Orion capsule – originally set to head to launch in the summer of 2021 – to 2023. The space agency hopes that Orion, anticipated to become the first manned spacecraft to go into deep space beyond the moon, will eventually pave the way for a crew landing on Mars in the early 2030s.

NASA Delays Orion Capsule Mission by Two Years!

NASA has already made a multi-billion dollar investment into the project, but the space agency is planning on investing an additional $6.77 billion between this year and the year of the launch. The extra funds will allow NASA to produce two more capsules in order to send a crewed test flight, scheduled for April 2023, before an official manned mission.

NASA is Committed to a Mars Landing

Charles Bolden, NASA’s administrator, declared in a statement that Orion is a key piece of the flexible architecture that will enable humanity to eventually set foot on Mars. The agency is committed to constructing the spacecraft, along with the other equipment that is needed, in order to make this dream a reality. However, there are still factors that need to be straightened out, such as management issues, technical drawbacks and budgetary problems (this is the most expensive project in U.S. space exploration history) before the agency’s plan can be carried out safely and efficiently.

Orion’s Next Step

Currently, the plan is to send Orion to space in December 2018; the unmanned spacecraft will be carried by the $7 billion Space Launch System Rocket (its launch was also delayed by a year). Orion will fly in lunar orbit before moving on to meet with a boulder selected robotically from the surface of an asteroid. From there, it will be set into orbit, farther from the moon.

At the moment, there is already an ongoing debate about whether or not Orion can meet its April 2023 launch dates, prompting the agency to conduct a technical review of the capsule. NASA, however, remains optimistic and declares that its engineers are working on the possibility of launching Orion earlier rather than later.

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NASA Delays Manned Orion Flight by Two Years

After its historic flyby of #Pluto, NASA scientists have finally chosen where #NewHorizons is headed next: a comet named 2014 #MU69. - http://clapway.com/2015/08/30/new-horizons-new-mission-101/

NEW HORIZONS SPACECRAFT HAS A NEW TARGET!

After its historic flyby of Pluto, NASA scientists have finally chosen where New Horizons is headed next. Named 2014 MU69, and it was one of two objects resembling a comet presently under consideration for the mission. The agency will put the plans under review before officially giving a green light on the extension of the mission, which has so far captured very thorough images and data of not only the dwarf planet (coming as close as 7,767 miles from it) on July 14th, but also of its moons Charon, Styx, Nix, Kerberos and Hydra. It has brought forth details that will revolutionize many sciences, revealed the dwarf planet’s face at a distance shorter than ever before, limning the characteristics of its landscapes and that of its moons.

WHERE EXACTLY IS THE NEW HORIZONS HEADED?

2014 MU69 is about one billion miles beyond Pluto, and it’s thought to be one of the building blocks that causes dwarf planets such as Pluto to form. 2014 MU69 and its surrounding objects make up a region of our Solar System called the Kuiper Belt, which is a deep-freeze sample of what the cosmic neighborhood looked like when it formed, approximately 4.6 billion years ago. With this knowledge, we may be able to draw more precise conclusions as to our solar system’s past, and we might just be able to infer about its future.

The Future of the New Horizons Spacecraft

John Grunsfield, head of NASA’s Science Mission doctorate, has big plans for the current mission and its future ones. “Even as (…) the data from the exciting encounter with this new world is being streamed back to Earth, we are looking outward to the next destination for this intrepid explorer,” he says in a statement, and adds that they “”expect it to be much less expensive than the prime mission, while still providing new and exciting science.”

The head investigator of the mission, Alan Stern, declared that the 2014 MU was a “great choice” for a new trajectory, and that said journey would cost less fuel to reach its destination and would in turn preserve enough to flyby or protect against any unforeseen events. According to NASA, the probe’s power system is designed to operate for many more years and its scientific instruments were designed to operate in light levels much lower than it will experience during the 2014 MU69 flyby. The New Horizons carries enough fuel to operate until and perhaps even beyond 2020, which gives it plenty of time to carry out a few more ground-breaking flybys.

The space probe will undergo a series of engine burns to set its course toward 2014 MU69 in late October and early November, and its arrival date at 2014 MU69 is currently set for January 1st, 2019.

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The New Horizons Spacecraft Gets A New Mission

Classic #Pac-man -- eating up all the junk in space! - http://clapway.com/2015/07/06/switzerland-wants-to-send-pac-man-to-space-to-eat-space-junk-224/

The Swiss have devised a plan to clean up space junk and it involves sending Pac-Man to do the job.

SPACE IS COVERED IN GARBAGE

Space is littered with all sorts of garbage like old satellites and used rockets. NASA continually tracks more than 500,000 pieces of space debris. Many of these pieces are small, but they still pose a large threat to spacecraft and to the International Space Station.

NASA and other space organizations, both public and private, are developing ideas and technologies for dealing with the growing problem of space junk.

THE PAC-MAN SOLUTION

The Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL) launched its CleanSpace One project in 2012 to facilitate the goal of removing space junk from orbit. After exploring possible ways to remedy the problem, EPFL has devised its “Pac-Man” solution.

The idea behind this solution is to launch a special satellite into space. Once there, a net is deployed, enabling the satellite to gobble up a piece of space junk.

“This system is more reliable and offers a larger margin for maneuvering than a claw or an articulated hand,” explains Michel Lauria, professor of industrial technology at Hepia Geneva.

GOING OUT IN A BLAZE OF GLORY

After this “Pac-Man” satellite captures its target space junk, the two objects will go out in a blaze of glory. The objects will de-orbit and combust in the Earth’s atmosphere.

The interesting design and function of the giant Pac-Man satellite was a collaboration between microengineering students from Hepia Geneva, and students and professors from the University of Applied Science Valais and the University of Applied Sciences and Arts Western Switzerland.

LAUNCHING IN 2018

Researchers say the CleanSpace One Pac-Man solution could be ready to launch as soon as 2018. The development team has already passed the prototype stage and is ready to develop engineering models for extensive testing.

The target space debris for this mission will be EPFL’s own SwissCube satellite that has been in orbit for more than five years.

Featured Pac-man in Space image also by writer Jason McClellan.

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Switzerland Wants to Send Pac-Man to Space to Eat Space Junk

#NewHorizons temporarily loses communication. - http://clapway.com/2015/07/05/nasa-temporarily-loses-contact-with-new-horizons-probe/

NASA’s New Horizons probe suffered a glitch that resulted in a temporary loss of communication between the probe and mission control.

RADIO SILENCE

The Pluto-bound spacecraft experienced a computer malfunction at 1:54 p.m. ET on Saturday, July 4 that disrupted radio contact between New Horizons and the mission control team at Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Maryland.

Fortunately, the probe’s autopilot functioned as designed and was able to force itself into safe mode and switch to its backup computer after detecting the glitch. So the radio silence only lasted approximately 80 minutes.

INVESTIGATING THE GLITCH

NASA assembled the New Horizons Anomaly Review Board at 4:00 p.m. ET on July 4 to review data and assess the cause of the unexpected computer glitch. Preliminary data shows the probe is healthy and still on its proper course.

The team hopes the available information will be enough to properly diagnose and remedy the issue in order to return the spacecraft to its regular operating mode.

LOST TIME

New Horizons is unable to collect any scientific data until NASA can return the probe to its full-functioning mode.

The spacecraft is nearly three billion miles away from Earth. Because of this vast distance, it takes four-and-a-half hours for radio communication from Earth to reach the spacecraft, and four-and-a-half hours for messages to return. This nine-hour communication delay means that lots of data collection time has been lost due to the computer glitch. NASA is unsure how long it will take to restore normal operations, but it says full recovery is expected to take “from one to several days.”

ON TO PLUTO

If, in fact, NASA’s New Horizons Anomaly Review Board determines that the New Horizons spacecraft is still on course, and no corrections are needed, it is possible that the probe is still on schedule for its Pluto flyby on July 14. The spacecraft is also scheduled to pass by Pluto’s moons.

This historic mission will provide scientists with the first-ever close-up images and data from Pluto and its moons. Hopefully the New Horizons Anomaly Review Board will be able to restore New Horizons to a fully functioning spacecraft without much delay.

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NASA Temporarily Loses Contact With New Horizons Probe