ESA : Surviving the long dark night of the Moon .- Sobreviviendo a la larga noche oscura de la Luna

http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Engineering_Technology/Surviving_the_long_dark_night_of_the_Moon

 

Earth from the Moon

Surviving the long dark night of the Moon

23 March 2017

Designers of future Moon missions and bases have to contend with a chilling challenge: how might their creations endure the fortnight-long lunar night? ESA has arrived at a low-cost way of surviving.

During prolonged night, when the surface is lit only by blue Earthlight, temperatures dip below –170ºC. Some locations at higher latitudes have shorter nights, though others have much longer or even permanent darkness.

Numerous robotic missions have perished during this prolonged cold. Russia’s Lunokhod-2 rover, for instance, failed to make it through the night in May 1973, its radioactive heater having gradually run down after four months of exploring.

The Apollo manned missions stayed on the surface only a few days at a time, and all during the early lunar morning. But future lunar settlers will have to live in the night as well as the day, bearing in mind that vital solar energy and heat would be unavailable during the 14 days of darkness.

 

ISS and the Moon

 

“Up until now, radioactive heat and power sources have been the preferred solution for lunar habitats,” explains ESA’s Moritz Fontaine. “But these would multiply the cost and complexity of any expedition.

“So we’re exploring a more sustainable solution, using the capacity of moondust to absorb and store energy when hit by sunlight, then releasing this energy during the lunar night.”

The basic concept involves multiple mirrors to channel sunlight into processed lunar regolith, into which a heat engine would be placed. Driven by the temperature difference, this heat engine would be kept running directly by the heat of the Sun during the day – illuminated surface temperatures rise well above 100ºC at the equator – while simultaneously storing excess heat in the soil.

Once night falls, the heat engine would be kept running in turn by the gradual release of the energy from the heated soil.

“The principle has been worked out in detail,” adds Moritz. “The next step, being undertaken through ESA’s General Studies Programme, is to perform numerical and simulation studies to put values on the heat storage and electricity provision the system would enable.

“The results should then allow the construction of a small demonstrator to test the concept in practice.”

ESA
Guillermo Gonzalo Sánchez Achutegui
ayabaca@gmail.com
ayabaca@hotmail.com
ayabaca@yahoo.com
Inscríbete en el Foro del blog y participa : A Vuelo De Un Quinde - El Foro!

ASTRONOMY: NASA Orbiter Catches Mars Sand Dunes in Motion

Hi My Friends: A VUELO DE UN QUINDE EL BLOG., Images from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) show sand dunes and ripples moving across the surface of Mars at dozens of locations and shifting up to several yards.

Movement in Martian Dune Field
A dune in the northern polar region of Mars shows significant changes between two images taken on June 25, 2008 and May 21, 2010 by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. This motion includes landslides and sand advancing at the dune front (upper left); changes in the position of the rest of the dune boundary relative to the fixed, underlying terrain; and changes in the position of ripples on the dune surface. This is one of several sites where the orbiter has observed shifting sand dunes and ripples. Previously, scientists thought sand on Mars was mostly immobile. It took the mission's High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) to take sharp enough images to finally see the movement. While dust is easily blown around the Red Planet, its thin atmosphere means that strong winds are required to move grains of sand. The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter is managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. The University of Arizona's Lunar and Planetary Laboratory operates HiRISE. The camera was built by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. in Boulder, Colo. Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Md., provided and operates CRISM. JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Ariz./JHUAPL › Full animation

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/MRO/multimedia/pia14880.html

Rippling Dune Front in Herschel Crater on Mars
A rippled dune front in Herschel Crater on Mars moved an average of about two meters (about two yards) between March 3, 2007 and December 1, 2010, as seen in these images from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. Note that the pattern of ripples on the dune surface has changed completely between the two images. Herschel Crater is located just south of the equator in the cratered highlands. This is one of several sites where the orbiter has observed shifting sand dunes and ripples. Previously, scientists thought sand on Mars was mostly immobile. It took the mission's High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) to take sharp enough images to finally see the movement. While dust is easily blown around the Red Planet, its thin atmosphere means that strong winds are required to move grains of sand. The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter is managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. The University of Arizona's Lunar and Planetary Laboratory operates HiRISE. The camera was built by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. in Boulder, Colo. Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Md., provided and operates CRISM. JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Ariz./JHUAPL › Full animation

Blowing in the Martian Wind
A rippled patch of sand in Becquerel Crater on Mars moved about two meters (about two yards) between November 24, 2006 and September 5, 2010, as observed in these images taken by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. The white line tracks the displacement between two ripples. Becquerel Crater is located just north of the equator in the Arabia Terra region. This is one of several sites where the orbiter has observed shifting sand dunes and ripples. Previously, scientists thought sand on Mars was mostly immobile. It took the mission's High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) to take sharp enough images to finally see the movement. While dust is easily blown around the Red Planet, its thin atmosphere means that strong winds are required to move grains of sand. The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter is managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. The University of Arizona's Lunar and Planetary Laboratory operates HiRISE. The camera was built by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. in Boulder, Colo. Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Md., provided and operates CRISM. JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.

 Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Ariz./JHUAPL › Full animation

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/MRO/multimedia/pia14876.html

Rippling Dune Front in Herschel Crater on Mars
A rippled dune front in Herschel Crater on Mars moved an average of about one meter (about one yard) between March 3, 2007 and December 1, 2010, as seen in these images from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. Note that the pattern of ripples on the dunesurface has changed completely between the two images. Herschel Crater is located just south of the equator in the cratered highlands. This is one of several sites where the orbiter has observed shifting sand dunes and ripples. Previously, scientists thought sand on Mars was mostly immobile. It took the mission's High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) to take sharp enough images to finally see the movement. While dust is easily blown around the Red Planet, its thin atmosphere means that strong winds are required to move grains of sand. The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter is managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. The University of Arizona's Lunar and Planetary Laboratory operates HiRISE. The camera was built by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. in Boulder, Colo. Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Md., provided and operates CRISM. JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.

 Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Ariz./JHUAPL › Full animation

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/MRO/multimedia/pia14879.html

Shifting Sand in Herschel Crater
The eastern margin of a rippled dune in Herschel Crater on Mars moved an average distance of three meters (about three yards) between March 3, 2007 and December 1, 2010, as seen by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. The white line tracks the displacement between two ripples. Herschel Crater is located just south of the equator in the cratered highlands. This is one of several sites where the orbiter has observed shifting sand dunes and ripples. Previously, scientists thought sand on Mars was mostly immobile. It took the mission's High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) to take sharp enough images to finally see the movement. While dust is easily blown around the Red Planet, its thin atmosphere means that strong winds are required to move grains of sand. The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter is managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. The University of Arizona's Lunar and Planetary Laboratory operates HiRISE. The camera was built by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. in Boulder, Colo. Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Md., provided and operates CRISM. JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Ariz./JHUAPL › Full animation.
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/MRO/multimedia/pia14877.html

PASADENA, Calif. -- Images from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter show sand dunes and ripples moving across the surface of Mars at dozens of locations and shifting up to several yards. These observations reveal the planet's sandy surface is more dynamic than previously thought.
"Mars either has more gusts of wind than we knew about before, or the winds are capable of transporting more sand," said Nathan Bridges, planetary scientist at the Johns Hopkins University's Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Md., and lead author of a paper on the finding published online in the journal Geology. "We used to think of the sand on Mars as relatively immobile, so these new observations are changing our whole perspective."
While red dust is known to swirl all around Mars in storms and dust devils, the planet's dark sand grains are larger and harder to move. Less than a decade ago, scientists thought the dunes and ripples on Mars either did not budge or moved too slowly for detection.
MRO was launched in 2005. Initial images from the spacecraft's High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera documented only a few cases of shifting sand dunes and ripples, collectively called bedforms. Now, after years of monitoring the Martian surface, the spacecraft has documented movements of a few yards (or meters) per year in dozens of locations across the planet.
The air on Mars is thin, so stronger gusts of wind are needed to push a grain of sand. Wind-tunnel experiments have shown that a patch of sand would take winds of about 80 mph (nearly 130 kilometers per hour) to move on Mars compared with only 10 mph (about 16 kilometers per hour) on Earth. Measurements from the meteorology experiments on NASA's Viking landers in the 1970s and early 1980s, in addition to climate models, showed such winds should be rare on Mars.
The first hints that Martian dunes move came from NASA's Mars Global Surveyor, which operated from 1997 to 2006. But the spacecraft's cameras lacked the resolution to definitively detect the changes. NASA's Mars Exploration Rovers also detected hints of shifting sand when they touched down on the Red Planet's surface in 2004. The mission team was surprised to see grains of sand dotting the rovers' solar panels. They also witnessed the rovers' track marks filling in with sand.
"Sand moves by hopping from place to place," said Matthew Golombek, a co-author of the new paper and a member of the Mars Exploration Rover and Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter teams at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "Before the rovers landed on Mars, we had no clear evidence of sand moving."
Not all of the sand on Mars is blowing in the wind. The study also identifies several areas where the bedforms did not move.
"The sand dunes where we didn't see movement today could have larger grains, or perhaps their surface layers are cemented together," said Bridges, who also is a member of the HiRISE team. "These studies show the benefit of long-term monitoring at high resolution."
According to scientists, the seemingly stationary areas might move on much larger time scales, triggered by climate cycles on Mars that last tens of thousands of years. The tilt of Mars' axis relative to its orbital plane can vary dramatically. This, combined with the oval shape of Mars' orbit, can cause extreme changes in the Martian climate, much greater than those experienced on Earth. Mars may once have been warm enough that the carbon dioxide now frozen in the polar ice caps could have been free to form a thicker atmosphere, leading to stronger winds capable of transporting sand.
HiRISE is operated by the University of Arizona in Tucson. The instrument was built by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. of Boulder, Colo. The Mars Exploration Rovers Opportunity and Spirit were built by JPL. JPL also manages the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and Mars Exploration Rover projects for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. Lockheed Martin Space Systems of Denver is NASA's industry partner for the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Project and built the spacecraft.
JPL is managed for NASA by the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.
MRO images and additional information is available online at: http://www.nasa.gov/mro and http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/mro/
For more information about NASA Mars missions, visit the Web at: www.nasa.gov/mars .
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/MRO/news/mro20111117.html
Guillermo Gonzalo Sánchez Achutegui
ayabaca@gmail.com

ayabaca@hotmail.com

ayabaca@yahoo.com

Inscríbete en el Foro del blog y participa : A Vuelo De Un Quinde - El Foro!

ASTRONOMY: A New Map of the Moon

Hi My Friends: A VUELO DE UN QUINDE EL BLOG., NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter science team released the highest resolution near-global topographic map of the moon ever created. NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter science team released the highest resolution near-global topographic map of the moon ever created. This new topographic map shows the surface shape and features over nearly the entire moon with a pixel scale close to 328 feet.Although the moon is Earth's closest neighbor, knowledge of its morphology is still limited. Due to the limitations of previous missions, a global map of the moon’s topography at high resolution has not existed until now. With LRO's Wide Angle Camera and the Lunar Orbiter Laser Altimeter instrument, scientists can now accurately portray the shape of the entire moon at high resolution.Image Credit: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center/DLR/ASU.
Guillermo Gonzalo Sánchez Achutegui
ayabaca@gmail.com
ayabaca@hotmail.com
ayabaca@yahoo.com
Inscríbete en el Foro del blog y participa : A Vuelo De Un Quinde - El Foro!

ASTRONOMY: International rendezvous in Lucca on global space exploration

Hi my Friends: A VUELO DE UN QUINDE EL BLOG., Discussions will focus on space exploration when ministers and heads of agencies of most of the world’s space-faring countries rendezvous on Thursday in Lucca, Italy.
Exploration missions heading to Moon and Mars - and beyond Credits: ESA - AOES Medialab

Discussions will focus on space exploration when ministers and heads of agencies of most of the world’s space-faring countries rendezvous on Thursday in Lucca, Italy. High-level representatives from 41 countries, including the 29 ESA and EU states, are invited on 10 November for the Third International Conference on Exploration and the first High-level International Space Exploration Platform.
The participants will build on the debate begun on a European level in Prague in 2009 and continued in Brussels last year during the first dedicated conferences.
The Brussels conference identified the need for policy discussions at international level and called for a first meeting of a High-level International Space Exploration Platform by the end of 2011, making the discussions truly global.

European Ministers in charge of Space matters, Heads of Space Agencies, representatives from European Member States and international Delegations gathered in Brussels at the 2nd International Conference on Space Exploration on 21 October 2010. Belgian Minister of Scientific Research Sabine Laruelle (centre first row) is flanked by Italian Undersecretary of State Giuseppe Pizza (on her left) and by ESA Director General Jean-Jacques Dordain (on her right).

Credits: Emmanuel Bourgois, October 2010

The prime objective in Lucca is to maintain the momentum of the first two conferences by beginning high-level dialogue on space exploration that should allow discussions on the development of a global exploration concept and the future of international collaboration.
The conference will examine potential fields for collaboration, starting with the ‘pillars’ of exploration, such as space transportation, manned and unmanned orbital infrastructures, robotic exploration and enabling technologies.
The conference is co-organised by the European Space Agency, the Chair of the ESA Ministerial Council – Italy – and the European Commission.
Events at the Palazzo Ducale in Lucca can be followed live via the webstream at webcast.ec.europa.eu/eutv/portal/space-conference_2011
Guillermo Gonzalo Sánchez Achutegui
ayabaca@gmail.com
ayabaca@hotmail.com
ayabaca@yahoo.com
Inscríbete en el Foro del blog y participa : A Vuelo De Un Quinde - El Foro!

ASTRONOMY: Earth's Moon

Hi myFriends: A VUELO DE UN QUINDE EL BLOG.,THE MOON OBSERVED FROM THE INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION, I KNOW IT CAN SEE VERY BEAUTIFUL AND IT HAS A CAPTIVATION .................I LOVE TO THIS WONDERFUL SATELLITE...... Photographed by the Expedition 28 crew aboard the International Space Station, this image shows the moon, the Earth's only natural satellite, at center with the limb of Earth near the bottom transitioning into the orange-colored troposphere, the lowest and most dense portion of the Earth's atmosphere. The troposphere ends abruptly at the tropopause, which appears in the image as the sharp boundary between the orange- and blue-colored atmosphere. The silvery-blue noctilucent clouds extend far above the Earth's troposphere.
Image Credit: NASA

Guillermo Gonzalo Sanchez Achutegui
ayabaca@gmail.com
ayabaca@hotmail.com

ayabaca@yahoo.com
Inscríbete en el Foro del blog y participa : A Vuelo De Un Quinde - El Foro!

"ORION"...........................UNA NAVE HACIA LA CONQUISTA DE LA LUNA CON HABITANTES PERMANENTES

Hola amigos: A VUELO DE UN QUINDE EL BLOG., el hombre siempre ha estado fascinado con el espacio; si nos remontamos a recordar a ese visionario novelista francés, JULIO VERNE, quien nos deleitó con la ciencia ficción y se anticipó a lo que sería después una realidad como: DE LA TIERRA A LA LUNA,( una recreación de la Nave "Orion", fuente: Blog de la Astronomía) que en aquellos tiempos jamás nadie se imaginaría ver volar una nave hacia la Luna, hecho que se hizo realidad después de 64 años de su muerte, cuando el astronauta , Neil Armstrong desciende del modulo lunar "Eagle" en el 20 de Julio de 1,969 y pisa por primera vez el suelo lunar, en la zona denominada "Mar de la Tranquilidad".

Ahora, ya todos los sueños del hombre en la conquista del espacio se están haciendo realidad, y justamente la NASA, con el Proyecto "CONSTELLATION", ha ideado una nave llamada :"ORION", que es una especie de Modulo Lunar totalmente modificado a los primeros visitantes en la Luna con el Proyecto Apolo; y en estos momentos la NASA está marketiando y exhibiendo un prototipo de ORION en el Paseo del National Mall de Washington, que está ubicado frente al Museo del Aire y el Espacio; para esta exposición la NASA ha enviado a sus mejores relacionistas públicos para explicar al público asistente todos los pormenores que el Programa CONSTELLATION se propone alcanzar, cuando se haga realidad habitar la Luna en 2,020.

El proyecto CONSTELLATION es muy ambicioso, la NASA pretende que vivir en la Luna sea una posibilidad compartida con toda la humanidad, desde luego hay el deseo de conocer que será del hombre en los años 2,040, cuando probablemente estemos haciendo planes para la conquista de Marte.

Algunos Datos de Nuestro Sátelite la Luna.---

a.--- La luna es nuestro único satélite de la tierra

b.--- La luna tarda en girar alrededor de la tierra 27 días 7 horas 43 minutos y 11.5 segundos

c.--- La distancia media entre la Tierra y la Luna es de 384,400 Kms.

d.--- La luna no tiene atmósfera y sus températuras oscilan entre 130ºC a -150ºC.

La nave ORION, cuyo diámetro es de 16.5 metros y con un peso de 8 toneladas, podrá llevar a la Estación Espacial Internacional E.E.I. hasta 6 tripulantes y a la Luna 4 tripulantes, y según lo ha planeado la NASA, esperan lograr con éxitos sus planes hacia la Luna para luego, buscar la posibilidad de enviar una nave tripulada hacia MARTE en 2,030.

Hay varias características que ORION se diferencia de los transbordadores que llegan al espacio adosados lateralmente al cohete impulsor; la nave ORION viajará como las cápsulas Apolo, montada en al cima de un cohete, los que según la NASA serán los Ares I y Ares V, así como su modelo de alunisaje el Altair.

Amigos como todo estará previsto que en 2,015 se haga el primer lanzamiento tripulado; y como es de multiuso, será un transporte para astronautas y suministros para la Estación Espacial Internacional E.E.I., y según los planes en 2,020 se hará realidad un nuevo alunisaje con tripulantes permanentes. Es muy probable que luego de este éxito lunar, aproximadamente en 2,040 los millonarios terrestres tengan su residencia para vacaciones en la Luna; nosotros por ejemplo ya elegimos nuestra residencia y se llamará : "Ayabaca'sMoon House"

Guillermo Gonzalo Sánchez Achutegui

ayabaca@gmail.com

ayabaca@hotmail.com

ayabaca@yahoo.com