Life-Bearing Lake discovered on Icy Jupiter Moon Europa

    A large lake discovered just below Europa's icy shell may provide a habitat for life.

As this Galileo probe image shows, Europa's icy surface is cracked and jumbled -- an indication of a sub-surface heat source. Click to enlarge this image. NASA

New research shows the jumbled ice blocks crowning the surface of Jupiter's icy moon Europa are signs of a large liquid lake the volume of the North American Great Lakes just below the surface, a key finding in the search for places where life might exist beyond Earth.
Drawing from studies of underground volcanoes in Iceland and Antarctica, scientists ran computer models to see if the chaotic formations on Europa's surface could be explained by the same geologic processes seen on Earth.
"We looked at melt underneath the ice and the fracture and collapse of ice shelves," Britney Schmidt, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Texas at Austin's Institute for Geophysics, told Discovery News.
"We come with these large pockets of water that form lakes. As they melt they actually break up the ice above it, like what you see on Earth," she said.
"This is certainly the best model so far," Paul Schenk, a staff scientist with the Lunar and Planetary Institute in Houston, wrote in an email to Discovery News. "If we go back with penetrating radar instruments we should be able to see into the ice shell, determine the stratigraphy of the layers in the shell and verify which models works best."
Europa, which is slightly smaller than Earth's moon, is believed to have a large ocean of salty water deep beneath its frozen crust. These recently discovered lakes appear to be embedded closer to the surface.
"Europa has more water than all of Earth's oceans," planetary scientist Simon Kattenhorn, with the University of Idaho, exclaimed.
While the ocean itself is of interest to scientists searching for life beyond Earth, a mechanism to churn the surface ice and subsurface water makes Europa an even more compelling target.
The vigorous mixing of ice and water provides one mechanism for nutrients and energy to get from the frozen surface to the ocean below.
"It's exciting for biology," Schmidt said.
A mission to Europa is second on planetary scientists' wish list after a sample return mission from Mars.
"Europa is likely to have a deep ocean of liquid water beneath its icy crust, making it an object of enormous interest as a possible abode for life," planetary scientist Steve Squyres, with Cornell University, testified at a Congressional hearing this week.
Schmidt's research will be published in a future issue of Nature and appears on the publication's website Wednesday.

© Discovery News
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Sweet Spot for Life's Chemistry Discovered

Astronomers home in on places ripe for formation of complex organic molecules.

Some young stars have been found to be cranking out the production of methanol, an chemical that could support life's chemistry. NASA

When scientists realized early Earth didn't have the right ingredients for life on its own, they started looking in space for the complex organic molecules needed to get things going.

Of particular interest is methanol, which can trigger the more complex chemistry that leads to amino acids, the building blocks for proteins and life.

"Methanol is the most complex molecule you can form at the really low temperatures in interstellar space," astronomer Douglas Whittet, with Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, told Discovery News. "When you put methanol into a newly forming star system, you have some heat from a proto-sun and that's when methanol really takes off. It's the springboard for more exciting chemistry that follows."

In other words, find the methanol and scientists believe you find the chemical pathways to life.

"Searching for methanol in various regions in space will tell researchers where to look for other complex organic molecules, which will eventually lead to the formation of life," astronomer Sachindev Shenoy, with NASA's Ames Research Center in California, told Discovery News.

But where to look?
A new analysis by Whittet and colleagues shows there is a "sweet spot" around a few young stars where methanol production is cranking. What seems to be key is how fast molecules can reach dust grains, which serve as a scaffolding of sorts for chemical reactions.

"The rate of molecule accumulation on the particles can result in an organic boom or a literal dead end," Whittet said.

Not all young stars are suited for organic chemistry. Whittet's team found a range of methanol concentrations in clouds from practically zero to about 30 percent.

If molecules build up too quickly on the surfaces of dust grains, there's not enough time for chemical reactions to occur before they are buried by other molecules. If the buildup is too slow, there are fewer chances for chemical reactions.

The research has implications for understanding where to look for life and suggests it may be more plentiful, from a chemistry point of view, than previously thought.

"The clouds we're observing appear to harbor more favorable conditions for life than the pre-solar cloud from which our solar system formed. And there is life in our solar system," Amanda Cook, a post-doctoral research fellow at NASA Ames, told Discovery News. "The implication is that life may have an even easier time taking root, so to speak, in other parts of the galaxy."
The research will be published Sunday in The Astrophysical Journal.

DISCOVERY NEWS

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Failed Russian Mars Probe Could Crash to Earth in January

An artist's impression of Phobos-Grunt in Mars orbit.

Russia's failed Mars probe could come crashing down to Earth in January unless scientists can find a way to blast it out of low-Earth orbit, the head of the Roscosmos space agency said Monday.
The unmanned Phobos-Grunt spacecraft blasted off toward the Red Planet last Wednesday where it was hoped to bring back rock and soil samples from the moon Phobos.
But its engines failed to put in the correct course, and the craft only managed to reach an orbit about 125 miles from Earth. Scientists were still trying to regain communication with spacecraft.
"We estimate that the Phobos-Grunt will fly until January, and to make it perform its mission, we still have time until the beginning of December," Roscosmos general director Vladimir Popovkin was quoted as saying by the Ria Novosti news agency.
Popovkin said there was little chance that the probe would hit a populated area when it crashed down.
"There are 7.5 metric tons of fuel in the aluminum tanks on board. We have no doubts that they will explode [and destroy the probe] upon re-entry," Popovkin said. "It is highly unlikely that its parts would reach Earth."

| NewsCore

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Mystery of Moon's Lost Magnetism Solved?

One of the abiding mysteries of our moon is why it apparently once had a magnetic field. Now two teams of scientists have offered two separate, but potentially complementary, explanations.

This illustration shows one suggested mechanism for creating an ancient magnetic field on the moon. In this scenario, impacting space rocks on the moon would create instability in the moon's core that could lead to a dynamo that creates a magnetic field. credit: M.-H. Deproost, ORB, Belgique

When Apollo astronauts brought back samples of moon rocks from their lunar landing missions in the 1960s and '70s, some of them shocked scientists by being magnetic. That means that individual rocks might have a magnetic north and south pole and a small magnetic field of their own.
This can happen to rocks with the right minerals inside them, if they cool in the presence of a magnetic field. The problem is, scientists had no idea that the moon had ever had a magnetic field, and were at a loss to explain how that might have happened.

A magnetic field is generated by what's called a dynamo, which is caused by the fluid motion of a conducting material, such as liquid iron. In the case of the Earth's magnetic field, this motion occurs in the planet's outer core, and is caused by the convection of heat.
But the moon isn't large enough for convection to take place. Scientists were at a loss to explain what else might generate the required liquid motion of iron inside the moon, until now.
Stirring it up
In one new proposal, Christina Dwyer of the University of California, Santa Cruz, and her colleagues suggest that the moon's solid-rock middle layer, called its mantle, stirs up its liquid iron core. The researchers think this happens because the moon's core and its mantle rotate around slightly different axes, and the boundary between them is not quite spherical, so their relative motion causes the fluid to mix around.
The strength of this stirring is determined by the angle between the core and the mantle, and the distance between the Earth and the moon, because the tidal gravitational tug from the Earth causes the moon's mantle to rotate differently than the core.

This model would explain why the moon used to have a magnetic field, but no longer does. That's because the angle between the mantle and the core has narrowed over time, while the distance between the moon and the Earth has widened, causing the tidal forces to steadily decrease. While these forces used to be enough to generate a dynamo inside the moon, they aren't anymore.
Based on their calculations, the researchers estimate the lunar magnetic field might have lasted for about a billion years, somewhere between around 2.7 billion and 4.2 billion years ago.
"Based on what we know about stirring, and everything we know about fluid motion, we can find no reason that this would not work," Dwyer told SPACE.com. "All the flags are go, and now this needs to be taken to the next level to get tested."
Dwyer said her research team had studied the basic scenario, but hopes that scientists who specialize in modeling the complex physics of dynamos will now step in to investigate whether this could explain what happened on the moon.
The researchers reported their theory in the Nov. 10 issue of the journal Nature.

Violent impacts
But theirs isn't the only possible solution to the moon's mystery.
In the same issue of Nature, Michael Le Bars of the French National Center for Scientific Research and the Université Aix-Marseille in France, along with his colleagues, propose another explanation for the ancient lunar magnetic field.

Le Bars' team also suggests that the moon's mantle might have stirred up the liquid in its core. However, they offer a different impetus for this stirring. Instead of tidal interactions between the Earth and the moon, the researchers posit that impacts by large space rocks slamming into the moon have changed its rotation rate, causing differential motion between the mantle and the core.

While the first scenario would cause steady stirring while the Earth and moon were the right distance apart, the second picture would induce brief periods of especially strong stirring of the core, creating spikes of a magnetic field on the moon.
While either option may be correct, it's also possible that both mechanisms played a role in causing an ancient magnetic field on the moon.

"The two studies are thought-provoking and may be complementary," Dominique Jault, a researcher at ETH Zürich in Switzerland and the Université Joseph-Fourier in France, who was not involved in either new study, wrote in an accompanying essay in the same issue of Nature. "Future palaeomagnetic experiments on samples from very old lunar rocks will enable their theories to be tested."
Via Space.com

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Boeing to Build Spacecraft at Shuttle Hangar

Helping pave the road for the future of commercial spaceflight, Boeing is hard at work on the research and development of a new space capsule aimed at flying people to the International Space Station.

Boeing Space Capsule Design

ORLANDO, Fla. –  Boeing will announce an agreement with Space Florida on Monday to lease the hangar that housed the space shuttles to build similar craft that will bring people and cargo to space.
The deal with the state's space agency will create 140 jobs in the next 18 months and 550 jobs by 2015 in an area that's lost jobs as the space shuttle program was retired earlier this year, according to Gov. Rick Scott's office and President Barack Obama's administration.
"Florida has five decades of leadership in the space industry, which makes our state the logical place for the next phase of space travel and exploration," Scott said in prepared remarks obtained by The Associated Press. "Boeing's choice of Florida for its Commercial Crew program headquarters is evidence Florida has the world-class facilities and workforce expertise needed for aerospace companies to succeed."
Likewise, the Obama administration praised the agreement between the Chicago-based Boeing and Space Florida.
"The next era of space exploration won't wait, and so we can't wait for Congress to do its job and give our space program the funding it needs. That's why my administration will be pressing forward, in partnership with Space Florida and the private sector, to create jobs and make sure America continues to lead the world in exploration and discovery," Obama said in prepared remarks obtained by The Associated Press.
The reusable space capsules will be able to bring up to seven people into space. Right now, the United States doesn't have a way to transport people or cargo to the International Space Station.
Since phasing out the space shuttle program earlier this year, NASA is relying entirely on Russia to get American and other astronauts to the space station.
Obama's administration is criticizing Congress for not approving his request for $40 million in economic assistance for the region and $850 million for the Commercial Crew project.
"Neither NASA nor the Space Coast can afford to stand still. We must be aggressive in pursuing this next generation of space exploration -- and the jobs and innovation that will accompany it," NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said in prepared remarks.
Scott, however, is criticizing the Obama administration for letting NASA's manned space program lapse.
"Our country is now completely dependent on Russia for travel to and from space. A private business would never let any part of its operations be dependent on someone else.
Fortunately, the space transportation systems being developed by private companies like Boeing will rocket the United States back to forefront of the space industry and help reignite job growth," Scott said in his remarks.

| Associated Press

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Nearby Planet-Forming Disk Holds Water for Thousands of Oceans

An illustration depicting the sprawling cloud of cold water vapor that astronomers have detected around the burgeoning solar system at the nearby star TW Hydrae. The cold water vapor could could eventually deliver oceans to dry planets that are forming in the system. (Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/T. Pyle (SSC/Caltech))
For the first time, astronomers have detected around a burgeoning solar system a sprawling cloud of water vapor that's cold enough to form comets, which could eventually deliver oceans to dry planets.
Water is an essential ingredient for life. Scientists have found thousands of Earth-oceans' worth of it within the planet-forming disk surrounding the star TW Hydrae. TW Hydrae is 176 light years away in the constellation Hydra and is the closest solar-system-to-be.
University of Michigan astronomy professor Ted Bergin is a co-author of a paper on the findings published in the Oct. 21 edition of Science.
The researchers used the Heterodyne Instrument for the Far-Infrared (HIFI) on the orbiting Hershel Space Observatory to detect the chemical signature of water.
"This tells us that the key materials that life needs are present in a system before planets are born," said Bergin, a HIFI co-investigator. "We expected this to be the case, but now we know it is because have directly detected it. We can see it."
Scientists had previously found warm water vapor in planet-forming disks close to the central star. But until now, evidence for vast quantities of water extending into the cooler, far reaches of disks where comets and giant planets take shape had not emerged. The more water available in disks for icy comets to form, the greater the chances that large amounts will eventually reach new planets through impacts.
"The detection of water sticking to dust grains throughout the planet-forming disk would be similar to events in our own solar system's evolution, where over millions of years, these dust grains would then coalesce to form comets. These would be a prime delivery mechanism for water on planetary bodies," said principal investigator Michiel Hogerheijde of Leiden University in the Netherlands.
Other recent findings from HIFI support the theory that comets delivered a significant portion of Earth's oceans. Researchers found that the ice on a comet called Hartley 2 has the same chemical composition as our oceans.
HIFI is helping astronomers gain a better understanding of how water comes to terrestrial planets -- Earth and beyond. If TW Hydrae and its icy disk are representative of many other young star systems, as researchers think they are, then the process for creating planets around numerous stars with abundant water throughout the universe appears to be in place, NASA officials say.
University of Michigan.

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Scientists Discover Ozone Layer On Venus

Starting its scientific surveying in July 2006, the European Space Agency's(ESA) Venus Express has been carrying out the most detailed study of the planet's thick and complex atmosphere to date. CREDIT: ESA

A European spacecraft has discovered an ozone layer high in the sweltering atmosphere of Venus, a new study reveals.
The discovery will help astronomers better understand the composition of Venus' murky atmosphere, and by comparing it to the atmospheres of Earth and Mars, the findings could even help shape the search for life on other planets, the researchers said.
The European Space Agency's Venus Express spacecraft detected ozone, which is a molecule containing three oxygen atoms, while gazing at stars that can be seen at the very edge of the planet through its atmosphere.
"This detection gives us an important constraint on understanding the chemistry of Venus's atmosphere," study leader Franck Montmessin, of the Laboratoire Atmosphères, Milieux, Observations Spatiales (LATMOS) in France, said in a statement.
Venus Atmosphere

Artist’s impression of the detection of ozone on Venus’ night side. CREDIT: ESA/AOES Medialab

Ozone layer on Venus
The probe's Spectroscopy for Investigation of Characteristics of the Atmosphere of Venus (SPICAV) scrutinized the starlight for key characteristics of gases in the atmosphere as it is absorbed at different wavelengths. The Venus Express SPICAV instrument discovered the ozone because it absorbed some of the ultraviolet light from the stars, the researchers said.
The findings were presented Oct. 6 at the joint meeting of the European Planetary Science Congress and the American Astronomical Society's Division for Planetary Sciences in Nantes, France.
Computer models show that the ozone on Venus forms when sunlight breaks up carbon dioxide molecules, which releases oxygen atoms. Winds in the atmosphere of Venus sweep these atoms around to the night side of the planet, where they can combine to form two-atom oxygen molecules, as well as three-atom ozone molecules.
The discovery will help scientists better characterize the chemistry of Venus' atmosphere, but it could also be useful for astronomers searching for life on other worlds, the researchers said.
By comparing the properties of Venus' atmosphere with equivalent layers of the atmospheres of Earth and Mars, scientists could narrow down their search for life on other planets, Montmessin explained.
The research will be detailed in the November issue of the journal Icarus.

credit: SPACE.Com

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The Moon Is Bursting With Precious Titanium

    Credit: NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University

    A new map of the moon has uncovered a trove of areas rich in titanium, which could one day be mined.

THE GIST

• New maps show rich abundances of titanium in the solidified lava flows on the moon.
• The element is mostly found in a mineral that also contains iron and oxygen.
• Titanium deposits, which could be mined for future use, also reveal history of moon’s volcanic eruptions.

The discovery was made thanks to a camera aboard the US Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, which swept the surface of the Moon, scrutinising it in seven different light wavelengths. Click to enlarge this image.
Lava flows that turned into rocks on the moon are enriched with titanium in concentrations far higher than what is found on Earth. The precious material could be used to construct equipment for lunar and other spacecraft.
Detailed maps from a robotic NASA science satellite circling the moon show deposits as rich as about 18 percent, planetary geologist Jeffrey Gillis-Davis, with the University of Hawaii, told Discovery News.
“Up to 3 percent is considered high on Earth,” he said.
Why parts of the moon are so flush with titanium is a bit of a mystery, but scientists are taking advantage of the find to figure out the moon’s volcanic history. As the moon cooled and solidified, some elements, like titanium, didn’t mix well so they formed as a separate layer inside. The titanium was later tossed onto the moon’s surface during volcanic eruptions.
“I can identify all these different lava flows because they have a different composition, and that different composition is likely reflecting different sources within the mantle that it came from,” Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter associate project scientist Noah Petro, with NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., told Discovery News.
Prized on Earth for its strength, ability to resist corrosion and light weight, titanium on the moon, which is mostly found in mineral called ilmenite, could be mined and processed for future use.
The compound, which contains titanium, iron and oxygen, could be heated to free the oxygen so it could be used for breathing or making rocket fuel. It also is studded with particles from the solar wind, including hydrogen and a rare form of helium, called helium 3, a fuel for a proposed fusion reactor.
“One of the things you want to do before you go back to the moon is figure out where your resources are and what your resources are,” Gillis-Davis said.
Scientists’ first confirmation that titanium exists on the moon came from analysis of the samples brought back by NASA’s Apollo missions. Six landings occurred between 1969 through 1972. Two previous robotic probes, Clementine and Lunar Prospector, added a global perspective. Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, or LRO, is making maps using a different imaging technique and with higher resolution than previously possible.
The spacecraft currently is orbiting 50 kilometers (31 miles) above the moon. At the end of the year, LRO will be shifted into an elliptical, fuel-saving orbit that drifts as far as 130 miles from the moon. The team is expected to submit a proposal to extend operations beyond 2012.
The research was presented at the European Planetary Science Congress in France last week.
(Discovery News )

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A Day on Neptune Is Just 16 Hours Long, Study Reveals

Not long after Neptune completed its first orbit around the sun since its discovery in 1846, scientists have managed to calculate the exact length of one day on the distant gas giant planet.

Unlike their rocky counterparts, gas giants have long challenged astronomers when it comes to calculating their rotation.

Neptune's Great Dark Spot, accompanied by white high-altitude clouds, as seen by a Voyager spacecraft. CREDIT: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Mercury, Venus, and Mars are essentially solid spinning rock, but huge gas giants move more like spinning liquids, sloshing and swirling around a small rocky core. While features on rocky, terrestrial planets are literally etched in stone, outer planets have features that appear to dance on top of the constantly moving clouds.
Karkoschka examined more than 500 images of Neptune that were taken by the Hubble Space Telescope. Two cloud formations, similar to Jupiter's famous Red Spot, stood out — the South Polar Feature and the South Polar Wave.
After studying the Hubble images, taken over a span of 20 years, Karkoschka determined that these distinct features appeared precisely on schedule.
He decided to widen his search to a series of more detailed images taken in 1989 by NASA's Voyager spacecraft. In these images, Karkoschka found six additional features on Neptune that rotated with regularity. [Infographic: Inside Gas Giant Neptune]"I thought the extraordinary regularity of Neptune's rotation indicated by the two features was something really special," Karkoschka said in a statement.
"Now we have eight features that are locked together on one planet, and that is really exciting," Karkoschka said.
The details of the study were published in the September edition of the journal Icarus.
As the Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 spacecraft flew past Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune in the 1980s, they captured radio signals produced by the gas giants' magnetic fields. But their information, which was originally used to calculate the rotation of the outer planets, was scanty.
"Voyager 2 only flew by Neptune, so its measurements are limited," Ravit Helled of Tel-Aviv University in Israel told SPACE.com in an email interview.
NASA's Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 spacecraft were both launched in 1977 to study Jupiter, Saturn and their moons. Nearly 34 years after their launch, the two probes continue to deliver key information as they journey out to the solar system's edge.
Helled, who was not part of Karkoschka's research, studies the formation, evolution, and rotation of the planets.
Fifteen years after the Voyager flyby, Cassini's trip to Saturn revealed a complex magnetic field that had slowed down slightly. The large mass and angular momentum of the planet meant it was extremely unlikely that the planet's rotation would have decreased so noticeably.
Adding to the confusion, a later discovery by Cassini revealed that Saturn's northern and southern hemispheres were rotating at different speeds.
Measuring a planet's rotation

 Different images emphasize the features on Neptune. By tracking features such as the Great Dark Spot and South Polar Feature, astronomers were able to refine measurements of the length of Neptune's day. CREDIT: E. Karkoschka/The University of Arizona

These differences on Saturn were considered likely on Neptune, and when estimates of Neptune's day were affected by suspect radio signals, astronomers needed another way to calculate how long it takes the planet to rotate on its axis.
Enter Karkoschka's painstaking analysis of Neptune's visible features. This method will help astronomers understand more than just how often the sun rises and sets on the Neptune, the researcher said.
Refined measurements of the blue giant's rotation will help astronomers gain a better understanding of how its mass is distributed. A faster rotation implies that more of the mass is closer to the center than previously thought, which could change existing models of the exterior planets.
"Uranus and Neptune are extremely interesting planets, and we must know more about them," Helled said. "Especially now, when so many planets outside the solar system are discovered and there is a great effort in understanding the nature of planets."
SPACE.com

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NASA announces world’s biggest-ever rocket to take man to Mars and beyond

With the curtain coming down on the Space Shuttle Program, NASA has set its sights on the future with the announcement of a heavy-lift launch vehicle that is designed to take man beyond the moon to explore near-Earth asteroids, Mars and its moons, and beyond. Dubbed the Space Launch System (SLS) its configuration harks back to the Saturn V rocket-based systems employed to propel Apollo astronauts to the moon but also incorporates technology developed in the Shuttle Program.
The SLS will use a liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen propulsion system, which will include the RS-25D/E from the Space Shuttle Program for the core stage and the Saturn V-derived J-2X rocket engine for the upper stage. However, initial development flights will also use solid rocket boosters. The SLS will have an initial lift capacity of 70 metric tons (154,324 lbs), which NASA points out is roughly the weight of 40 SUVs. An evolved SLS will then see lift capacity increased to 130 metric tons (286,600 lbs), which by NASA's logic would be roughly the weight of 75 SUVs.
The initial SLS will weigh 2,500 metric tons (5.5 million pounds) and stand taller than the Statue of Liberty, at 97.5 m (320 ft) high. At liftoff it will generate 8.4 million pounds of thrust, which is 10 percent more than the Saturn V. The subsequent evolved SLS will weigh 2,950 metric tons (6.5 million pounds) and stand 122 m (400 ft) high. At liftoff it will generate 9.2 million pounds of thrust, which is 20 percent more than the Saturn V at liftoff.

NASA says the SLS's architecture provides a launch vehicle that can be adapted to suit different missions through the use of different core stage, upper stage, and first-stage booster combinations. This flexibility is designed to allow it to more economically carry the Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle, as well as cargo, equipment and science experiments to as low as Earth's orbit and as far as Mars and beyond. While NASA is looking to save money by having private companies ferry astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS), the SLS will also serve as a backup for commercial and international partner transportation services to the ISS.
The SLS was unveiled by NASA Administrator Charles Bolden and several members of Congress on Wednesday, with Bolden saying, "President Obama challenged us to be bold and dream big, and that's exactly what we are doing at NASA. While I was proud to fly on the space shuttle, tomorrow's explorers will now dream of one day walking on Mars."
Dreaming big is fine, but with an estimated cost of US$18 billion just for the next five years and the U.S. Government constantly modifying NASA's budget, it remains to be seen whether NASA will be able to make its dream reality. NASA stresses that the SLS architecture benefits from significantly reduced development and operations costs as it leverages existing capabilities resulting from the Space Shuttle and Constellation Programs. NASA says the early developmental flights may take advantage of existing solid boosters and other existing hardware, while a competition will be held to develop the boosters.
"NASA has been making steady progress toward realizing the president's goal of deep space exploration, while doing so in a more affordable way," NASA Deputy Administrator Lori Garver said. "We have been driving down the costs on the Space Launch System and Orion contracts by adopting new ways of doing business and project hundreds of millions of dollars of savings each year."
The first SLS unmanned developmental flight is targeted for the end of 2017 with the first manned flight penciled in for 2021. NASA then aims to follow up with a manned mission to a nearby asteroid around 2025 and one to Mars in the 2030s.

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Space science/China Set to Launch Its Own Space Station

China is just days away from launching an ambitious rival to the International Space Station, pictured above. A rocket launch carrying an unmanned test module named Tiangong 1 — literally, “Heavenly Palace 1” — is scheduled for this week. Allegedly, the 8.5-ton Tiangong 1 module is designed to practice autonomous rendezvous ops in orbit, in order to prep for a manned space base around 2020. But China-watchers and space specialists are trying to figure out if there’s an additional agenda for the Heavenly Palace.

Will it be a spacelab equipped strictly for scientific research? Is there a military mission? Is it a jobs program for China’s “large, young, highly motivated and growing population of space scientists and engineers?” (That’s how Gregory Kulacki, from the Union of Concerned Scientists, describes China’s space workforce.) Is the whole space-station program really just a PR ploy? Or some or all of the above?
The short answer is, we don’t know. The “opacity” of this and Beijing’s other space initiatives “should raise questions about Chinese intentions,” Dean Cheng, an analyst with the hawkish Heritage Foundation, tells Danger Room. One thing is for sure: Beijing has been awfully busy in space, with more and more satellite launches plus occasional spacewalks and even plans for a putting a man on the moon by 2030.
Jeffrey Wasserstrom, a University of California professor and author of China in the 21st Century, has a theory about Beijing’s obsession with spectacle, whether a massive engineering project, the Olympics or the theatrical unveiling of a new stealth-fighter prototype. Spectacles “play a role in confirming a vision, based partly in official myth but also in tangible reality, that China is a once-powerful country that was laid low for a time and has now risen again to a more natural status,” Wasserstrom wrote.
But that doesn’t necessarily mean Beijing intends to start a new space race against the U.S., which recently announced plans for new, gigantic rockets and a possible manned mission to an asteroid or even Mars. “China’s progress is steady but slow,” Cheng says. “Manned launches every other year hardly suggests a space-race mentality. At the same time, however, these are steady improvements, from a single man to two-man to three-man. The Tiangong spacelab … will mark another step forwards for China’s manned space program.” Photo credit: NASA  & Story credit : Gizmag

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NASA's GRAIL mission will map the Moon's gravity

After its planned launch this morning was canceled due to upper wind levels, a Delta II rocket carrying NASA's Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) has been rescheduled to tomorrow morning. The GRAIL mission will incorporate two unmanned spacecraft - GRAIL-A and GRAIL-B - which will fly in formation over the Moon's surface, measuring variations in its gravity. Using this data, scientists hope to learn more about the Moon's thermal history, and how other rocky planets within the inner solar system developed.

Each of the spacecraft are about the size of a washing machine, and have a combined weight of just 1,600 pounds (726 kg). They will be riding side-by-side aboard the rocket, and will be deployed separately once it reaches orbit. GRAILs A and B should take three and a half months to reach the Moon, with A scheduled to arrive this New Year's Eve, and B following on New Year's Day of next year.

After spending five weeks establishing their lunar orbit, the two spacecraft will be maneuvered into formation, and the three month science phase of the mission will begin. During that time, the Moon will rotate three times beneath the orbiters, each 27-day rotation constituting one mapping cycle.

Using a precision formation-flying technique, the twin GRAIL spacecraft will map the moon's gravitational field, as depicted in this artist's rendering

Each time the lead spacecraft encounters a gravitational mass, it will speed up and move forward. When the second spacecraft encounters that same mass, it will also speed up and catch back up with its counterpart. By comparing the differences in the distances between the two units, for each of the three mapping cycles, variations in the Moon's gravitational fields can be determined.

Middle school students will also have the chance to obtain photos of requested lunar targets, via GRAIL's onboard MoonKAM system.

All images courtesy NASA

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