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#1 Re: Unmanned probes » MAVEN Launch | Nov 18, 2013 1:28 p.m. EST » 2020-05-26 21:14:39

SpaceNut wrote:

Well he does exist. last visited 2018-01-12 17:29:30 a lot has changed since you took up you present scientific hat and thank you that payload of articles to read.

Mars still has secrets to be had and we need man there with these tools to find them quicker.

Hi, SpaceNut! Glad to see you're still around here.

I've been keeping myself busy doing Mars science, but with the SpaceX launch coming up this week I was reminded of this forum and thought I'd pop in and see what's up.

#2 Re: Unmanned probes » MAVEN Launch | Nov 18, 2013 1:28 p.m. EST » 2020-05-26 14:53:53

One of the most common but unexpected (at least by the IUVS team) types of aurora that MAVEN has seen are proton aurora.

You can read the discovery paper in Nature Astronomy here:

Deighan, et al. Discovery of a proton aurora at Mars. Nat Astron 2, 802–807 (2018).
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41550-018-0538-5

A less formal 'behind-the-scenes' blog post with some nice illustrations and the paper's main figures here:

A New Type of Aurora at Mars
https://go.nature.com/2LI1rjt

NASA press release here:

NASA’s MAVEN Spacecraft Finds That “Stolen” Electrons Enable Unusual Aurora on Mars
https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/godd … ton-aurora

And a very nice statistical follow-up study by a grad student at Embry-Riddle:

Hughes, et al. Proton Aurora on Mars: A Dayside Phenomenon Pervasive in Southern Summer. JGR, 124, 12 (2019).
https://doi.org/10.1029/2019JA027140

46b085e6-c4a3-4227-addd-35d3505d6b2b.gif

#3 Re: Science, Technology, and Astronomy » Sodium-Iron battery? » 2018-01-12 16:29:30

Terraformer, maybe I am mistaken, but what you describe sounds similar to a nickel-iron battery, though they use a nickel cathode instead of carbon (obviously), and usually employ a potassium hydroxide solution (though it appears sodium hydroxide can also be used).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nickel%E2 … on_battery

It seems some researchers have recently worked on updating this old technology by adding carbon to the mix:

https://news.stanford.edu/news/2012/jun … 62612.html

So it seems that you have hit upon a good idea, and the details are in the engineering.

#4 Re: Not So Free Chat » Long Time No Post » 2018-01-11 22:19:02

JoshNH4H wrote:

Hey Midoshi,

You've been missed!  Your posts in the Minimal Martian Terraformed Atmospheres thread especially stand out to me as some of the most insightful things I've read on this forum.

Thank you, Josh. I'll try to keep up the good work, though I admit I'll have to get my head back in the game. I spend most of my time thinking about the current atmosphere these days, but it inevitably makes one wonder about what was and what might someday be.

#5 Re: Not So Free Chat » Long Time No Post » 2018-01-11 22:15:48

Oldfart1939 wrote:

Hey Midoshi!

I see a Colorado address in connection with your name/registration. Just to let you know, there is an active Mars Society chapter in Boulder. Meetings are the 3rd Monday of the month on the University of Colorado Campus in the Environmental Design Building. There are frequent professional speakers from the astrophysics and engineering community surrounding Boulder.

I use the Oldfart1939 handle from convenience. Feel free to contact me privately for directions.

Rodger A. Raubach  Ph.D.

Thanks for the invite! Yes, I'm in Colorado and it would be easy for me attend those Boulder meetings now that I know where they are (or it would be, if my Mondays weren't so busy with regular meetings!). I know the campus well. I will have to see if I can work it into my schedule.

How do you prefer to be referred to on the forum?

#6 Re: Not So Free Chat » Long Time No Post » 2018-01-11 22:07:53

Terraformer wrote:

Could Mars possess methane clathrates, that could be responsible for seasonal emissions of methane?

There are definitely people studying that possibility. As I understand it, it's a bit of head-scratcher how you get the cryospheric temperature and pressure conditions where the clathrate is relatively stable but still somehow partially decomposes in response to seasonal forcing at the surface.

#7 Re: Not So Free Chat » Long Time No Post » 2018-01-11 22:00:25

SpaceNut wrote:

Has the search for the seasonal methane come to any location for where it is eminating?
Is the detection of ice (water) / hydrogen measurement actually the source of the methane for the season?
Are there any conclusion as to whether it is possible to brace up the low magnetic field of mars?

There were some talks on the status of the methane problem at the American Geophysical Union meeting in December, and I managed to see some of them. The hint of seasonality just adds to the list of things we can't adequately explain. I think the only detection that has information about a geographic localization is still Mike Mumma's Earth based observations. Some of the current lines of interest are discussed in a recent Science article that you may be interested in: link. One of my colleagues on MAVEN is quoted. We will indeed be taking the observations on January 24 mentioned in the article to test the cometary source hypothesis. If we see something (we're not hopeful, but you gotta try, right?) there would certainly be a press release. I would be sure to bring it to the forum as soon as the embargo lifted.

I expect we'll start getting closure on the methane mystery when Trace Gas Orbiter starts their science mission this year. Or maybe things will just get more complicated. Either way, I'm very much looking forward to that!

With regard to the magnetic field, might you be referring to this work led by Jim Green? It's a fascinating idea, but there are some inaccurate verbal statements that sort of muddied the media coverage.

#8 Re: Not So Free Chat » Long Time No Post » 2018-01-11 21:32:14

What a warm welcome back; thank you all!

I see some interesting questions which I will do my best to answer, though I may not get to them all tonight.

louis wrote:

So - a few questions for you, if you wish to answer them:

1.  Do you dismiss all artefact identification in Mars photos as pareidolia or other misinterpretation?

2.  Do you dismiss all catastrophic explanations for loss of Mars's atmosphere?

3. What's your take on the Elizondo Announcement about UFO identification?

4.  Do you think the proposals of Musk/Space X for their Mars Mission are credible?

5.  Do you think there will be a strong lobby to prevent human missions to Mars in order to prevent contamination with earth micro-organisms?

1. I haven't seen any alleged artifacts that couldn't be explained to my personal satisfaction as pareidolia/misinterpretation/instrumental. Given the natural curiosity of scientists and my personal interactions with the rover teams, its a fantastic notion (to me, at least) that they wouldn't examine something if it were credible.

2. I wouldn't rule out catastrophic explanations for loss of the Martian atmosphere, but by their nature they are difficult to quantify. I do not think it can be the sole explanation of atmospheric loss.

3. The existence of the program that Mr. Elizondo led isn't surprising to me, as the military would naturally want to keep an eye on unidentified objects in its airspace. I'm not particularly convinced by assertions that the recorded objects exhibit properties which can only be explained by extraterrestrial construction, though some of the behavior is quite impressive.

4. I expect that SpaceX will deliver on some (but probably not all) of their Mars goals, and that the schedule will drag out. Those are just practical realities when attempting something as difficult as they are. I wish them the best of luck in their endeavors (and hope to someday get an instrument as a payload on one of their Mars missions!).

5. I doubt that sufficient anti-manned-Mars-mission sentiment would coalesce around contamination to stop the attempt, though it might slow it down or limit landing sites/dictate protocols. For example, the current rovers are not sufficiently well decontaminated to be allowed to investigate water and/or a habitable environment even if they were to find it. For the Viking lander mission they had to autoclave the whole spacecraft inside a bioshield before launching it, because it was specifically looking for evidence of extant habitability/life.

#9 Not So Free Chat » Long Time No Post » 2018-01-09 23:30:00

Midoshi
Replies: 15

Hi, Folks!

I'm having a relatively quiet post-holiday week and got to reminiscing about this place. Great to see that it's still active! I see a lot of the old regulars and a lot of new(er) active posters as well.

For those who don't know me, I used to be a regular on the forums here about 4-7 years ago (edit: wait, I registered over 10 years ago?? time flies...) I'm a planetary scientist working on the MAVEN mission which studies the upper atmosphere of Mars and how its loss to space has caused the planet's climate to evolve over time. More recently, I have also been involved with the Emirates Mars Mission (EMM), which is due to launch in 2020.

I don't have as much free time as I used to (careers tend to cause one to pick up responsibilities...), but I hope to find some time to post here again starting this year. If there are any questions about what I do professionally, feel free to ask in this thread.

Looking forward to talking to some old acquaintances and making some new ones!

#10 Re: Unmanned probes » MAVEN Launch | Nov 18, 2013 1:28 p.m. EST » 2015-02-10 23:41:25

MAVEN has begun lowering its orbit as part of its first Deep Dip maneuver! Today we successfully performed a burn to reduce periapsis from 155 km to 133 km, and tomorrow we'll have another one to bring us down to 125 km. All the instruments are working well, and we should get some great data over the next week!

We'll be updating daily on Twitter and Facebook:
https://twitter.com/maven2mars
https://www.facebook.com/MAVEN2Mars

#11 Re: Unmanned probes » MAVEN Launch | Nov 18, 2013 1:28 p.m. EST » 2014-09-22 21:22:18

Thanks, guys!

We have already started collecting data with a few instruments, and hope to make a press release in the near future. The primary business this week is lowering the period of our 35 hour orbit capture to our nominal 4.5 hour science orbit. After that we'll deploy the booms and start running tests over the next few weeks. There will be a break in mid-October to make some special observations of Comet Siding Spring and its effect on Mars as it flys by. By early November we will start our nominal science operations and start getting back a constant stream of data on the upper Martian atmosphere.

#12 Re: Unmanned probes » MAVEN Launch | Nov 18, 2013 1:28 p.m. EST » 2014-09-21 23:17:09

WHOOO! WE'RE IN ORBIT!

GO MAVEN!

Now to get ready for SCIENCE!

#13 Re: Unmanned probes » MAVEN Launch | Nov 18, 2013 1:28 p.m. EST » 2014-09-16 23:56:33

GW Johnson wrote:

Hi Midoshi!  That's good news about Maven.  Keep us posted.

These forums have been awfully quiet lately.  Have you noticed?

GW

Hi, GW! I have noticed it's been on the quiet side here lately...I'm guessing the start of a new semester is preoccupying the users who are students or teachers.


Be sure to tune into NASA TV tomorrow at 1pm ET for the MAVEN Pre Mars Orbit Insertion News Briefing. Should be a good way to gear up for the weekend!

#14 Re: Unmanned probes » MAVEN Launch | Nov 18, 2013 1:28 p.m. EST » 2014-09-14 15:46:50

MAVEN is almost to Mars!

Mars Orbital Insertion (MOI) will occur a week from now at 9pm ET on the evening of Sunday, September 21st. There will be live coverage on NASA TV, and lots of parties at participating institutions across the country to celebrate the event. Hope you can all find the time to tune in and watch!

#15 Re: Not So Free Chat » World Cup 2014 » 2014-06-26 22:37:03

Soccer is the sport I most enjoy playing, but I've ever followed the professional leagues very closely. That said, I have been keeping track of the scores this World Cup, and watching the highlights after the fact. I might even try to watch the elimination round live.

#16 Re: Interplanetary transportation » Orion (CEV / SM) - status » 2014-05-22 00:08:08

RobertDyck wrote:
SpaceNut wrote:

Good old ITAR...even with friendly nations that we call friend and Partners....

Hear Hear!

Indeed. I'm in Europe for a meeting with colleagues right now, and we Americans seriously had to consider the possibility that we dismiss our hosts from the room at one point due to ITAR. Ridiculous.

#17 Re: Unmanned probes » Perseverance New 2020 Mars Rover based on MSL » 2014-02-14 13:54:56

GW Johnson wrote:

Hi Midoshi:

Do you have a feel for how deep these core samples will be extracted? 

GW

The proposals for instruments are in review right now, and while I know some people who submitted, they were more of the remote sensing variety. At this stage in the process you have to personally know someone directly involved to have an idea of what's on the table.

One decent guess would be a drilling instrument similar to that on MSL, which can only penetrate up to 5 cm into a target. I know that quite a few Europeans have submitted proposals, so there may be the possibility of an ExoMars type drill which could sample down to 2 meters.

These depths may seem somewhat inadequate given that you need to dig about 3 meters on Mars to get to a depth where organics could be stable against cosmic radiation over geologic time scales. However, one of the discoveries of MSL is that by driving up to the foot of a scarp undergoing active erosion ("active" being on a geologic scale) and digging to a relatively shallow depth you should be able to sample very old material that hasn't been exposed to cosmic radiation for very long. For more details you can check out this video from last year's AGU meeting, starting at 27:18 at watch for a few minutes:

http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/news/whats … ewsID=1564

#18 Re: Unmanned probes » Perseverance New 2020 Mars Rover based on MSL » 2014-02-13 11:12:19

Number04 wrote:

Why isn't the Mars Exploration Rover chassis used as a template? MSL is awesome, don't get me wrong, but the MER has shown it's incredibility capable and the R&D costs are done. (Yes, modernizing the systems would cost money, but not nearly as much) With SpaceX aiming for Mars, couldn't NASA build a fleet of special purpose MERs? That sounds much more cost effective to me.

In the case of the 2020 rover, there are already built spare parts from MSL available. This is similar to the situation of the Phoenix mission, where the lander had already been built as part of an earlier mission (although in that case the earlier mission had been canceled).

I hear this idea to just clone successful missions (such as the MERs) all the time. Every time I bring it up to an engineer or a scientist who has actually lead a mission, they sigh, roll their eyes and admit it's a nice idea in theory, but it rarely works in practice. With the high quality control, complex subsystem integration, and very specific operational parameters that space missions need, even relatively small changes/improvements to a previous mission profile require a lot of time and money to implement. In most cases, for not much more work you can get a better end product if you just do the whole thing from scratch rather than upgrade piecemeal and shoehorn a previous instrument or platform to fit a new mission.

That said, the space industry is really big on HERITAGE. If your proposed mission shares a lot of systems with a previous successful mission, it is far, far more likely to be selected, to be in budget, and be successful than if you are just going from a pure paper design. So, the idea of recycling previous missions is already done, in a sense.

#19 Re: Unmanned probes » MAVEN Launch | Nov 18, 2013 1:28 p.m. EST » 2014-02-04 22:45:02

The MAVEN mission was originally slated for 1 Martian year to sample full seasonal variability, however it was cut back to 1 Earth year during the proposal process to improve the chances of selection (e.g. less money) since it could still achieve its primary objectives in that timeframe. The other reason for the relatively short nominal mission is that MAVEN will have its periapsis considerably lower than most Mars orbiters (150 km, as mentioned above), and those deep dips to 125 km are essentially aerobraking altitudes. That is why the solar panels have a swept look to them, to make the craft more aerodynamic at those altitudes. It takes a considerable amount of fuel to raise the orbit after each dip, and even keep it in its nominal orbit over the course of a year, so fuel limitations translate into mission duration limitations.

After the nominal mission we will ultimately raise periapsis to ensure an orbit with long term stability. This is key, because MAVEN's main purpose after being a Mars science mission is to serve as a communications relay for future surface missions (our current fleet of birds is getting a bit long in the tooth...). In fact, this aspect is so critical to NASA's Mars Program that it was what allowed MAVEN to continue preparing for launch in the midst of the government shutdown last year.


SpaceNut, humans are not going to significantly effect the thickness of Mars' atmosphere through making rocket fuel any time soon. For one thing, the exhaust is ejected back toward the planet in order to make the spacecraft leave it (Newton's 3rd Law). Also, a fun number to put the magnitude of the atmosphere in perspective: it would take humans close to 1000 years at current CO2 production rates to generate the mass of CO2 that makes up the current Martian atmosphere. It's pretty substantial.

#20 Re: Life on Mars » P. articus can easily survive Martian radiation levels! » 2014-02-03 19:19:38

It is pretty remarkable the things of which those little guys are capable.

For some reason, desiccant resistant microbes also generally tend to also be highly resistant to radiation. Probably due to needing a better DNA repair system to handle the extreme intracellular conditions.  I always considered this a double plus for any seeding of Mars (accidental or man-made).

#21 Re: Unmanned probes » MAVEN Launch | Nov 18, 2013 1:28 p.m. EST » 2014-01-27 23:51:28

It's been a busy month here on MAVEN...time for an update!

I can now proudly say that every instrument aboard MAVEN has been successfully turned on and demonstrated full capability. The NGIMS saw residual atmospheric gas in their chamber, the Particles and Fields package observed the solar wind and interplanetary magnetic field, and IUVS took thousands of images of the Lyman-alpha spectral feature of interplanetary hydrogen across part of the sky.

As of January 1st we are now in Phase E of the project, meaning that money is now being shifted from engineering to science.

We are now looking forward to transitioning to "late cruise" and exercising the instruments a bit more. At the beginning of April the IUVS will pick some UV bright stars to look at (for example, B-type stars like Spica). This will help us calibrate the instrument and prepare for stellar occultation observations of Mars' atmosphere.

#22 Re: Unmanned probes » MAVEN Launch | Nov 18, 2013 1:28 p.m. EST » 2013-12-04 19:33:08

Hey guys, some updates:

We successfully carried out TCM-1 (Trajectory Correction Maneuver) yesterday, so now we really are aimed at Mars. At launch we intentionally put the spacecraft into a transfer orbit that will miss Mars until NASA's Planetary Protection determines that we pass their requirements for avoiding contamination.

Also, earlier today we turned on the NGIMS and IUVS instruments for the first time. Everything looks great, and the IUVS team was able to get "first light" observing the Lyman-alpha line from interplanetary atomic hydrogen in the solar wind. We are all very excited (and relieved)! Tomorrow the Particles and Fields Package will turn on, and we'll see if the rest of the instruments work.

Next week IUVS will try making some observations of what is left of comet ISON. It was disappointing that it disintegrated after perihelion, but we'll go ahead and see what we can see.

If you want to stay up-to-date with MAVEN, the Twitter feed is pretty good: https://twitter.com/MAVEN2Mars

#23 Re: Unmanned probes » MAVEN Launch | Nov 18, 2013 1:28 p.m. EST » 2013-11-18 15:05:19

Thanks everyone!!!

I just got back with friends and family from viewing the launch from the causeway. It was truly thrilling. Feeling the rockets' rumbling resonate in your chest at a distance of a couple miles is quite the experience. And such a bright exhaust, like there was a miniature sun mounted on the bottom of the rocket. It really was an awesome sight.

In the next few days we will take MAVEN out of safe mode and begin the "cruise" phase of the mission. We'll be doing instrument checkout the first week of December, and after that the IUVS instrument will see about snapping a few shots of comet ISON as it passes by Earth. Hopefully we'll get some spectacular results...even before getting to Mars!

#24 Re: Unmanned probes » MAVEN Launch | Nov 18, 2013 1:28 p.m. EST » 2013-11-12 18:38:41

Since I'm a MAVEN project scientist, I'll be flying down to the Cape tomorrow to get ready for our pre-flight meetings/preparations. Very exciting! Hope you can all find the time to watch the launch next Monday.

#25 Unmanned probes » MAVEN Launch | Nov 18, 2013 1:28 p.m. EST » 2013-11-12 18:34:18

Midoshi
Replies: 54

The launch window for the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN (MAVEN) mission from Cape Canaveral opens on November 18th at 1:28pm EST. Growing out of a collaboration between the University of Colorado Boulder and the University of California Berkeley, MAVEN is a New Frontiers mission which aims to understand how Mars' upper atmosphere is being lost to space and how this has impacted the evolution of the Martian climate over the history of the solar system. The spacecraft was built by Lockheed Martin and the project is managed by the Goddard Spaceflight Center.

Don't forget to watch the launch on NASA TV!

You can find out more about MAVEN online at NASA and the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics.

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