News... In SPACE!

Water on Mars?

The presence of water in minerals on the red planet is helping space researchers, including scientists from Hopkins's Applied Physics Lab (APL), to determine where potential colonies could be supported on Mars.

The Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars (CRISM) has recently found evidence of hydrated silica, or opal, in areas of the planet which contained liquid water in the past. CRISM was designed and is operated by APL researchers.

The instrument, on the NASA-launched Mars Reconnaisance Orbiter, examines reflecting light from the surface of Mars. Every element absorbs and reflects a unique signature of wavelengths.

Observers can analyze the light reflected from distant objects such as planets or stars to determine their chemical makeup.

Interestingly, helium was discovered this way in 1868 by the French astronomer Pierre Janssen while he was looking at sunlight during an eclipse. Only later was helium also found to be a natural gas on Earth.

Sites of volcanic activity, meteor impact or dry riverbeds show material alterations from interactions with water. Dating of the observed hydrated minerals puts life on Earth existing while there was liquid water, and possibly life, on Mars.

In addition to perhaps supporting life in past epochs of Martian history, this water may help to support human explorers. Future human colony sites will likely be in a place like the Valles Marineris canyons where there is potential to use water resources from the ground.

Solar Sailing

Navigating a spacecraft, especially one that is millions of miles away and already off the intended path, requires cunning and ingenuity. Last month scientists at the Applied Physics Lab (APL) proved they have these skills and are on their way to perfecting the art of solar sailing.

MESSENGER, a NASA probe in orbit studying Mercury, last passed over a cratered area of the planet on Oct. 6.

Unlike its previous flybys, APL controllers have used the solar radiation to help guide the orbiter into the correct trajectory and do so without propulsion.

A solar panel collecting sunlight is the "sail" on MESSENGER. By changing the angle of the sail's orientation to the sun, scientists manipulated the amount of solar power and the direction of motion of the spacecraft.

The results were successful, getting the orbiter to only 1.4 kilometers away from the intended target, which is very precise for spacecraft navigation of this type.

Solar sailing has been proposed and developed by space scientists for decades, but the recent Mercury flyby represents an advancement in technique which will make this form of navigation a better candidate in future missions.