NASA has selected two new ambitious space mission
Source:NASA space Agency has approved two new and interesting space mission. Within one scheduled landing of a flying spacecraft to Saturn's moon Titan, part of the other collection of soil samples from the surface of the comet. Both missions were selected among 12 proposals submitted as a possible continuation of the program New Frontiers.
The First mission is called "Dragonfly". It plans an unprecedented project of sending a robotic flying machine on one of Saturn's moons. Apparatus in the form of quadcopter will be equipped with scientific tools for search and analysis of large organic molecules. During the mission, the robot drone will be able to visit and explore many places on Titan and in total cover a distance of several hundred kilometers.
Big and cold moon of Saturn has a dense atmosphere and on its surface are the rivers and entire lakes of liquid methane. But not only interested scientists. There is a suspicion that under the icy crust of the satellite may be hiding an ocean of water.
"This environment has all the things we used to call the ingredients of life" — says lead researcher Elizabeth Turtle of the applied physics Laboratory at Johns Hopkins University.
"With the mission Dragonfly we will be able to assess how far I have advanced prebiotic chemistry."
The Second selected mission is called CAESAR (Comet Astrobiology Exploration SAmple Return), and return on comet 67P/Churyumov — Gerasimenko. The comet, as we already visited the spacecraft "Rosetta" the European space Agency in the framework of the mission 2014-2016.
After a rendezvous with a comet the size of mount Fuji, CAESAR spacecraft will collect samples of its surface and go back to Earth, where he will arrive in November 2038. It should be noted that NASA has already collected samples of the comet, the mission Stardust. However, in the framework of the new mission, the collection of samples is planned for the first time to produce directly with the ice surface of the comet, and not just particles left by the comet as it was before.
"Comets are not only among the most important from a scientific point of view, objects in the Solar system, but also the least studied among them" — says researcher Steve Squyers of Cornell University, who will be responsible for the mission of CAESAR.
This increased interest in comets is associated with the assumptions of scientists about what comet could deliver on the early Earth, with water and organic molecules, virtually laying the foundations of the origin of life on our planet.
Most scientists want to obtain samples of the so-called "volatile" molecules of the comet 67P/Churyumov — Gerasimenko, which is able to quickly move to a gaseous state. According to researchers, these particles may be the key to understand the nature of the origin and history of this comet.
The choice of the two missions were announced this week. Now they are about the conceptual stage, in which the scientists in charge of projects, will be able to work out the details. Unfortunately, to realize both the mission will fail. The final stage of the selection process and the selection of one of the two projects is scheduled for July 2019. For the actual implementation of the winning project will begin in 2025.
Among other potential missions proposed in the program New Frontiers have been suggestions for the study of Saturn and Venus, asteroids, around Jupiter, as well as sending Autonomous orbital spacecraft to Enceladus, another moon of Saturn.
Currently In the framework of the program New Frontiers are from three space missions: New horizons (studied the system of Pluto and is heading to the edge of the Solar system), "Juno" (the unit explores Jupiter) and "OSIRIS REx" (flies to meet with the asteroid Bennu, which will make the collection of soil samples, and return to Earth in 2023).
Recommended
The Americans on the moon: what everyone should know?
the Upcoming cosmonautics day is my favorite holiday. It marks the triumph of the human mind: in just four thousand years Homo Sapiens went from hunter-gatherers to space explorers. 12 April 1961 Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first man in ...
Why are some galaxies spiral shaped?
you Know what surprised me the most? The fact that we perceive the surrounding world as it is. Animals, plants, the laws of physics and the cosmos are perceived by many people as something so mundane and boring that they invent fairies, ghosts, monst...
Astronomers were able to see the death of another star system
In the cosmic ocean drifts a lot of mysteries about the existence of which we are unaware. One of these was uncovered five years ago, when astronomers have discovered a lonely star at a distance of 570 light years from Earth, the brightness of which ...
Related News
Elon Musk showed almost assembled booster, the Falcon Heavy
Elon Musk pictures almost fully assembled booster, the Falcon Heavy, which is at the spaceport Cape Canaveral in Florida (USA). Now we have the first opportunity to look at how will look the final result of years of work of SpaceX...
Manned spacecraft "Soyuz MS-07" successfully delivered cosmonauts to the ISS
Manned spacecraft "Soyuz MS-07" successfully docked to the International space station — the press service of the «Roskosmos». The ship arrived to the Russian segment of the International space station and then doc...
NASA tested the engine printed on a 3D printer
three-Dimensional printing is not only able to significantly reduce the cost of production, but also greatly facilitate the creation of many devices. Therefore, even large agencies are increasingly using when creating the device 3...
#photo of the day | Astronomers have shown that Mars "in full growth"
Scientists from the European space Agency has published a very unusual photo of Mars. The image was obtained orbital Martian probe Mars Express on 19 June, when the probe flew by the planet from North to South. The result was the ...
The Pentagon confirmed the existence of the program for the study of UFO encounters
If you are a fan of UFOlogy and science fiction television series the x-files, then this news surely will please you a lot. The Ministry of defense officially confirmed the existence of a program called "Advanced identification of...
10 reasons to believe in the existence of extraterrestrial life
Despite the skeptical views of the public majority, alien life forms – developed or at least simple – most likely exist somewhere in the vast expanses of the Universe. Moreover, many scientists agree that to deny it is pointless. ...
SpaceX successfully launched previously flown the Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon truck
Today, the company SpaceX launched from Cape Canaveral, the Falcon 9 rocket with space cargo ship Dragon, which will deliver cargo to the International space station crew. For this mission, SpaceX used a missile almost entirely co...
Can you solve the space debris problem by adding the module to self-destruct?
People know how to launch stuff into space — but not really bring them back. In low earth orbit, along with thousands of working satellites, there is a lot of debris: space debris, space debris, debris in higher orbits. According ...
10 scientific phenomena without which you would not have been
Every day we have the choice to accept his life, his existence, freedom and moments for granted or to Express appreciation and gratitude for the good things that surround us. The main thing that unites us is that we all live in on...
A NASA spokesman: we are not discussing the purchase of additional flights on Soyuz
the U.S. space Agency kirk schirman reported that NASA does not plan to buy from «Roskosmos» space ships «Union» moon — Space News. At the conference on the future launch to the ISS ship Dragon company S...
The new Zealand launch of the rocket with three satellites failed
a Private company founded by a native of New Zealand, Peter Beck, conducted the first tests of its carrier rocket light class "Electron" in may of this year. The first commercial launch (combined with the second trial) was schedul...
Blue Origin conducted a launch of a new modification of the rocket New Shepard
Private aerospace company Blue Origin went back to launching rockets after almost a year break and successfully made the launch of the New Shepard, and then the successful landing of the crew capsule. Suborbital rocket was launche...
Donald trump wants to send Americans to the moon
While Elon Musk to transport humanity to Mars, and Russia about the alien resources, the 45th President of the United States Donald trump signed a new Directive, claiming a space program for sending American astronauts to the moon...
"And Baba Yaga is against": Russia wants to ban the extraction of resources in space
Russia plans next year to submit for consideration in the UN a question on change "of the outer space Treaty" and the introduction at the legislative level a ban on the extraction of mineral resources on asteroids and the moon for...
10 disgusting facts about space travel
the Idea of traveling in space seems attractive. Many of us dreamed of becoming astronauts or even the first people on Mars, someone in his childhood, and someone still. Who wouldn't want to reach for the stars? And there are a fe...
In Russia can create your own reusable "Falcon 9"
Russia has started to develop a reusable rocket of the middle class, which will be the response created by the company SpaceX Elon musk carrier rocket Falcon 9. The development of reusable rockets are engaged in RSC "Energia" and ...
Relativity Space: our rocket is the largest item, printed on a 3D printer
the Startup Space Relativity began to print boosters. Now experts managed to create an almost monolithic structure with a minimum of individual parts, most of which are embedded in the solid body of the rocket. Tim Ellis, head of ...
The Boeing company intends to overtake SpaceX and the first to land people on Mars
the Race for Mars is gaining momentum. CEO of Boeing, one of the world's largest manufacturers of aviation, space and military equipment, believes that megarocket, which his company helps to create space Agency NASA to deliver ast...
Astronomers have discovered an anomalous black hole
a Team of astronomers from Massachusetts Institute of technology have discovered the most distant from our planet supermassive . It is located in the center of the bright quasar, the light from which reached Earth after 13 billion...
The aliens must be like us even more
an Alternate universe known as science fiction, gave our culture a whole menagerie of alien species. From Teddy bears like the ewoks to the evil creatures like "Aliens", our collective imagination peddled to us quite Hollywood ima...
Comments (0)
This article has no comment, be the first!