Lunokhod

Lunokhod 1 (Луноход, moon walker in Russian) was the first of two unmanned lunar rovers landed on the Moon by the Soviet Union as part of its Lunokhod program. The spacecraft which carried Lunokhod 1 was named Luna 17. Lunokhod was the first roving remote-controlled robot to land on another world.

Rover description

Lunokhod 1 was a lunar vehicle formed of a tub-like compartment with a large convex lid on eight independently powered wheels. Its length was 2.3 metres. Lunokhod was equipped with a cone-shaped antenna, a highly directional helical antenna, four television cameras, and special extendable devices to impact the lunar soil for soil density and mechanical property tests. An X-ray spectrometer, an X-ray telescope, cosmic ray detectors, and a laser device were also included. The vehicle was powered by batteries which were recharged during the lunar day by a solar cell array mounted on the underside of the lid. During the lunar nights, the lid was closed and a Polonium-210 heat source kept the internal components at operating temperature. Lunokhod was intended to operate through three lunar days (approximately 3 Earth months) but actually operated for eleven lunar days.

Luna 17 was launched on November 10, 1970 at 14:44:01 UTC. After reaching earth parking orbit, the final stage of Luna 17's launching rocket fired to place it into a trajectory towards the Moon (1970-11-10 at 14:54 UTC). After two course correction maneuvers (on November 12 and 14), it entered lunar orbit on November 15, 1970 at 22:00 UTC.

During its 322 Earth days of operations, Lunokhod traveled 10540 metres and returned more than 20000 TV images and 206 high-resolution panoramas. In addition, Lunokhod 1 performed twenty-five soil analysis with its RIFMA x-ray fluorescence spectrometer and used its penetrometer at 500 different locations.

Phoenix

MRO (Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter) imaged Phoenix suspended from its parachute during descent through the Martian atmosphere.

phoenix.lpl.arizona.edu



Phoenix is a robotic spacecraft on a space exploration mission on Mars under the Mars Scout Program. The scientists conducting the mission are using instruments aboard the Phoenix lander to search for environments suitable for microbial life on Mars, and to research the history of water there. The multi-agency program is headed by the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory at the University of Arizona, under the direction of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The program is a partnership of universities in the United States, Canada, Switzerland, Denmark, Germany, the United Kingdom, NASA, the Canadian Space Agency, the Finnish Meteorological Institute, Lockheed Martin Space Systems, MacDonald Dettwiler & Associates (MDA) and other aerospace companies.



Phoenix is the sixth successful landing on Mars, out of twelve total attempts (seven of which were American). It is the third successful static lander and the first since Viking 2, and as of 2008 the most recent spacecraft to land successfully on Mars. It is also the first successful landing on a polar region of Mars.

Project Constellation

NASA Project Constellation

Project Constellation is a NASA program to create a new generation of spacecraft for human spaceflight, consisting primarily of the Ares I and Ares V launch vehicles, the Orion crew capsule, the Earth Departure Stage and the Altair lunar lander. These spacecraft will be capable of performing a variety of missions, from Space Station resupply to lunar landings.

Most of the Constellation hardware is based on systems originally developed for the Space Shuttle, although Orion's two-part crew and service module system is heavily influenced by the earlier Apollo Spacecraft, and it uses engines derived from the Saturn V and Delta IV rockets. Proposed Constellation missions may employ both Earth Orbit Rendezvous and Lunar Orbit Rendezvous techniques.

Constellation Program

NASA has formed the Constellation Program to achieve the objectives of maintaining American presence in low Earth orbit, returning to the Moon for purposes of establishing an outpost, and laying the foundation to explore Mars and beyond in the first half of the 21st century. The Constellation Program's heritage rests on the successes and lessons learned from NASA’s previous human spaceflight programs: Mercury, Gemini, Apollo, Space Shuttle and the International Space Station (ISS).

Spacecraft

Orion will consist of two main parts, a Crew Module (CM) similar to the Apollo Command Module capable of holding four to six crew members, and a cylindrical Service Module (SM) containing the primary propulsion systems and consumable supplies. The Orion CM will be reusable for up to 10 flights, allowing NASA to construct a fleet of Orion CMs.

Current plans call for the phased introduction of Orion variants tailored for specific missions. The Block I Orion will be employed for ISS crew rotation and resupply and other Earth orbit missions, while the Block II and III variants will be designed for deep-space exploration.

Launch vehicles

As currently envisioned, the Orion spacecraft will be launched into a low earth orbit using the proposed Ares I rocket (the "Stick"). Formerly referred to as the Crew Launch Vehicle (CLV), the Ares I consists of a single Solid Rocket Booster (SRB) derived from the boosters used in the Space Shuttle system, connected at its upper end by an interstage support assembly to a new liquid-fueled second stage powered by an uprated Apollo-era J-2X rocket engine. The Orion spacecraft would be lifted into orbit atop this "stack", while a larger launch vehicle (the proposed Ares V) would be used to launch the heavier Earth Departure Stage and Altair.

In January 2007, NASA announced that a different launch vehicle design, the Ares IV, was actively under consideration for the program. If chosen, the Ares IV might replace both the Ares I and the Ares V launch vehicles for some Constellation launches at later dates, or all of them altogether.

Rosetta (ESA)

Ariane 5 Launch of Rosetta spacecraft

Rosetta is a European Space Agency-led robotic spacecraft mission launched in 2004 intended to study the comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Rosetta consists of two main elements: the Rosetta space probe and the Philae lander. The probe is named after the Rosetta Stone, as it is hoped the mission will help unlock the secrets of how our solar system looked before planets formed. The lander is named after the Nile island Philae where an obelisk was found that helped decipher the Rosetta Stone.


3-D Reconstruction of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko's nucleus from Hubble telescope observations

Timeline for the mission after its launch:

* First Earth fly-by (March 2005)
* February 25, 2007 Mars fly-by
* November 13, 2007 Second Earth fly-by
* September 5, 2008 - flyby of asteroid 2867 Šteins
* Third Earth fly-by (November 2009)
* July 10, 2010 - flyby of asteroid 21 Lutetia
* Deep-space hibernation (May 2011 - January 2014)
* Comet approach (January-May 2014)
* Comet mapping / Characterisation (August 2014)
* Landing on the comet (November 2014)
* Escorting the comet around the Sun (November 2014 - December 2015)