news 31/5/08

The Phoenix lander sent back new sharp color images from Mars late yesterday. Phoenix imaging scientists made a color mosaic of images taken by the lander's Surface Stereo Imager on landing day, May 25, and the first two full "sols," or martian days, after landing.
The panorama, now about one-third complete, shows a fish-eye perspective from the camera, a view from the lander itself all the way to the horizon. Phoenix adjusts its color vision with "Caltargets," calibrated color targets on disks mounted on the landing deck. Its color vision isn't quite like human color vision, but close.
"These images are very exciting to the science team," said the Surface Stereo Imager co-investigator Mark Lemmon of Texas A and M University. "We see the polygons we're looking for, and we're very excited to fill in the context with more site pan images that go beyond the workspace." Images to complete the panorama are planned today and tomorrow, Sols 3 and 4, Lemmon said.
"We appear to have landed where we have access to digging down a polygon trough the long way, digging across the trough, and digging into the center of a polygon. We've dedicated this polygon as the first national park system on Mars -- a "keep out" zone until we figure out how best to use this natural martian resource," Lemmon said.
Phoenix will use its robotic arm to dig first in another area seen in the panorama, an area outside the preserved polygon.
Robotic arm manager Bob Bonitz of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., explained how the arm is to be unstowed today. "It's a series of seven moves, beginning with rotating the wrist to release the forearm from its launch restraint. Another series of moves releases the elbow from its launch restraints and moves the elbow from underneath the biobarrier."
The robotic arm is a critical part of the Phoenix Mars mission. It is needed to trench into the icy layers of northern polar Mars and deliver samples to instruments that will analyze what Mars is made of, what its water is like, and whether it is or has ever been a possible habitat for life.
Scientists leading NASA's Phoenix Mars mission from the University of Arizona in Tucson sent commands to unstow its robotic arm and take more images of its landing site early today.
"Phoenix is in perfect health," JPL's Barry Goldstein, Phoenix project manager, said Wednesday morning, May 28.
The robotic arm's first movement was delayed by one day when Tuesday's commands from Earth did not get all the way to the Phoenix lander on Mars.
The commands went to NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter as planned, but the orbiter's Electra UHF radio system for relaying commands to Phoenix temporarily shut off. Without new commands, the lander instead carried out a set of activity commands sent Monday as a backup. Images and other information from those activities were successfully relayed back to Earth by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Tuesday evening

source : http://www.marsdaily.com/reports/Phoenix_Coming_Into_View_999.html

news28/5/2008

Craig Cooning, vice president and general manager of Boeing Space and Intelligence Systems (S and IS), said the division has made substantial progress in decreasing costs and operating more efficiently, but the delay in the award of several large government programs, coupled with other market conditions, are forcing the work force reduction. (File image of a heritage HS-601 satellite bus.)by Staff WritersSt. Louis MO (SPX) May 28, 2008Boeing says it will lay off approximately 750 employees in Southern California because of a downturn in its satellite assembly and integration business.
The reductions are primarily in the area of engineering, although all skills will be affected, and will affect workers mostly in El Segundo and Seal Beach, Calif. Boeing expects to issue 60-day notices in May for an initial group of 100 employees, with layoffs to occur in July.
Another group of employees will be notified at the end of June with redeployment occurring in July and August. Boeing is trying to redeploy many of the affected workers in California and at other sites where the company has suitable job openings.
Craig Cooning, vice president and general manager of Boeing Space and Intelligence Systems (S and IS), said the division has made substantial progress in decreasing costs and operating more efficiently, but the delay in the award of several large government programs, coupled with other market conditions, are forcing the work force reduction.
"The stretching out of government contract awards, along with a continuing lighter demand in the commercial marketplace for large, high-power satellites, has created a surplus in the work force that must be addressed now so that we are competitive," Cooning said. "The loss of any Boeing employee is truly a loss, so we will do as much as possible to help our employees locate other opportunities within Boeing."
The company will help affected employees find positions at other Boeing locations and provide career-counseling and outplacement services, such as resume writing and interviewing skills development.
"This is a difficult time for employees in our space systems organization, but we are committed to strengthening the business," said Cooning. "These reductions in force are necessary to accomplish that goal."
S and IS plans to have a work force of approximately 6,450 employees at the end of 2008, compared with its current count of 7,200

space news26/5/2008

SPACEMARTIntegral's EPOCH IPS Supports Merger Of Telesat And Loral Skynet Fleet Operation
Telesat largely attributes the success of the project to the expertise and effort of the Telesat Ottawa and Hawley operations teams, and the ability to leverage the flight proven EPOCH IPS system that was operational in Hawley.by Staff WritersLanham MD (SPX) May 26, 2008Integral Systems has announced that is has completed the initial phase of a contract with Telesat to support the Telesat activities associated with integrating the Loral Skynet and Telesat Canada satellite fleet operations under Telesat.
The operations for the Loral Skynet satellite fleet, consisting of three Telstar satellites owned by Loral Skynet and an additional six 3rd party satellites, have been transferred from the Hawley, Pennsylvania facility to the Ottawa, Ontario facility.
The combined Telesat satellite fleet operated from Ottawa now consists of 25 satellites, 11 satellites operated for Telesat and 14 satellites operated for other parties, making Telesat the 4th largest commercial fixed satellite services provider in the world.
The timeline for this integration project was greatly compressed due to delays that were encountered in receiving the required approvals to close the purchase of Telesat Canada by Loral Space and Communications, Inc. and Public Sector Pension Investment Board.
Integral was able to support Telesat personnel in installation and configuration of the EPOCH IPS in Canada as part of the transfer of existing satellite operations from the Skynet facilities shortly after the contract was awarded.
In less than a month, Telesat was successfully performing shadow operations for the majority of the Loral Skynet satellite fleet and transfer of full operations from Hawley to Ottawa was completed on schedule.
"Loral Skynet was one of Integral's first commercial customers and we have had a very good relationship with them for over 10 years and we are pleased to be able to continue that relationship with the new Telesat supporting their combined satellite fleet needs," said James Kramer, Director of Command and Control Systems in the Commercial Division at Integral Systems.
"The ease with which Telesat has been able to come up to speed on the EPOCH IPS system and integrate with their existing systems is a testament to both the skill of the Telesat personnel as well as to ease of use and operability of the EPOCH IPS."
Telesat largely attributes the success of the project to the expertise and effort of the Telesat Ottawa and Hawley operations teams, and the ability to leverage the flight proven EPOCH IPS system that was operational in Hawley.
With the support of Integral, Telesat has been able to implement a new system in the Ottawa Control Centre that utilizes the operationally tested capabilities and products used by Skynet thus minimizing the setup and validation time required.
"At the beginning of this project we had an aggressive goal to complete the integration of the nine Loral Skynet satellites within nine months of the closure of the Telesat sale," said David Wendling, Vice President Space System Department at Telesat.
"Despite the fact that the Telesat transaction closed four months later than anticipated, we were able to transition the operations of the Skynet fleet to Ottawa in late March as originally scheduled. The flexibility and capability of the EPOCH IPS system and the excellent support from ISI were key factors in the successful completion of the operations integration in record time."

intergalactic collision course

Interacting galaxies are commonplace throughout the universe, sometimes as dramatic collisions, other times as stealthy mergers that result in new galaxies.
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Chee Chee LeungApril 25, 2008
GALACTIC smash-ups from the nearby universe have been captured in a series of stunning snapshots from the Hubble Space Telescope.
Various stages of this galactic "dance" are revealed in the Hubble atlas — with some galaxies involved in dramatic collisions and others taking part in large-scale mergers.
Intricate shapes emerge as the galaxies meet, a process that Dr Andy Bunker from the Anglo-Australian Observatory explains is driven largely by gravity.
"They spiral around each other initially, and there's lots of interactions of the gas and dust, which can fuel black holes and turn on quasars."
The mergers are also thought to trigger bursts of star formation and can produce long "tidal tails" of gas and dust that stream around the galaxies.
But collisions between stars are rare because so much of a galaxy is empty space.
The galactic interactions, which occur over several hundred million years, were more common in the early universe when galaxies were closer together.
Astronomers now observe only about one in a million galaxies in the nearby universe during the act of colliding.
Our own galaxy, which contains the remnants of many smaller galaxies it gobbled up in the past, is devouring the Sagittarius dwarf galaxy. Even the Milky Way will eventually be swallowed up by its giant neighbour, Andromeda.
The two galaxies are speeding towards each other at about 500,000 kilometres an hour, and are expected to merge in about 2 billion years to form one giant elliptical galaxy dubbed the "Milkomeda". The new galaxy images were released overnight to mark the 18th anniversary of the launch of the Hubble Space Telescope. Most come from a study of luminous infrared galaxies

news25/5/2008

UCF Invention Onboard Phoenix Mars Lander Will Reveal True Colors
The color-calibration targets help scientists figure out the colors on Mars' surface. Built-in magnets keep away the dust. Photo: Courtesy of Dan Britt.by Staff WritersOrlando FL (SPX) May 23, 2008When NASA's Phoenix lander touches down on Mars Sunday, it will be carrying two special tools to give scientists their best look at the Red Planet's true colors.
They're called color-calibration targets and are about the size of hockey pucks. Each device is covered with color chips, designed by University of Central Florida Physics and Astronomy Professor Dan Britt and two students. When Phoenix's camera takes pictures of the terrain, it will also capture the calibration targets, allowing scientists to compare the colors in each photo and determine the actual hues.
Knowing the true colors allows spectroscopists, such as Britt, to determine what makes up the planet's terrain. The colors are one reason NASA says that liquid water once existed on Mars, and they help geologists analyze layers of rock deposited over thousands of years.
"Mars is a dusty place with a harsh climate," said Britt, who has worked on calibration targets for four other Mars missions. Over time, dust covered the previous targets and color chips, making it nearly impossible to decipher accurate hues.
So, for the first time, calibration targets on the Phoenix Mars have built-in magnets to repel the dust. Each magnet is about 100 times stronger than a refrigerator magnet and should keep the targets "clean" while the lander samples soils in the Martian arctic region.
While Britt created the color chips, the targets and magnets were designed by scientists from the University of Copenhagen in Denmark.
The lander is expected to reach its destination May 25, after a 422-million mile trip since its launching last August. Besides Britt's targets and a camera, Phoenix is equipped with a robotic arm that scientists hope will scoop up water ice thought to be just under Mars' surface.
With past color-calibration targets, Britt and his team -- which has included a University of Florida professor and UCF students -- have helped scientists learn more about Mars' surface, which Britt says is actually yellowish-brown and not red.
Britt started creating the color chips for Phoenix about three years ago in his lab at UCF. Made of rubbery silicon and paint pigments, the color chips were embedded in an aluminum casting and tested under extreme conditions -- intense ultraviolet light and depressurization -- before they left Earth last year.
Also new on several of the Phoenix lander's color targets is a special metal-infused coating created by Britt and UF chemistry professor Randolph S. Duran. The coating also should help keep away the dust, Britt says.
About a decade ago, Britt served as project manager and Deputy Imaging Team leader for the camera on NASA's Mars Pathfinder. He also participated in NASA's Deep Space One mission to encounter comet 19P/Borrelly in 2001.
Now, he's working on fluorescent colored chips for future calibration targets for the Mars Science Laboratory rover, scheduled to launch in fall 2009. They're expected to help scientists capture infrared photos of the terrain for future analysis of the mysterious, so-called "Red Planet