Issue #14 (March 2017)
NGC 6357: A cosmic ‘winter’ wonderland
Although there are no seasons in space, this cosmic vista invokes thoughts of a frosty winter landscape. It is, in fact, a region called NGC 6357 where radiation from hot, young stars is energizing the cooler gas in the cloud that surrounds them. This composite image contains X-ray data from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and …
India lofts 104 satellites to set single-launch record
In a record-breaking flight, ISRO’s Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) successfully orbited the 714 kg Cartosat-2 Series satellite along with 103 co-passenger satellites on February 15 from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, India. PSLV-C37 lifted off at 9:28 am IST, as planned, from the First Launch Pad. After a flight of 16 minutes …
Why did Schiaparelli crash during landing?
Contact with the ExoMars Schiaparelli lander was lost during its attempt to make it to the surface last October. It was later discovered that the lander had crashed into the surface of the Red Planet. A large volume of data recovered from the Mars lander shows that the atmospheric entry and associated braking occurred exactly …
Skimming an alien atmosphere
After the smooth arrival of ESA’s latest Mars orbiter, mission controllers are now preparing it for the ultimate challenge: dipping into the Red Planet’s atmosphere to reach its final orbit. The ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter is on a multiyear mission to understand the tiny amounts of methane and other gases in Mars’ atmosphere that could …
Record number of missions at the Red Planet
So, the ‘Great Galactic Ghoul’ strikes again? This tongue-in-cheek entity is invoked by NASA scientists and engineers when missions experience difficulties, especially at Mars. After a seven month journey for ESA’s first ExoMars mission, contact with its Schiaparelli Lander was lost just before its scheduled touch-down on 19th October last year, although its Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) successfully entered into orbit around the Red Planet and is functioning well. However, rather than the work of a cosmic ‘gremlin’, the …
SpaceX set to debut Falcon Heavy this year
After a ‘very fast fire’, a four-month hiatus, a complicated anomaly, and a general shaking of confidence, SpaceX was finally able to launch – and land – their Falcon 9 rocket once again last month. This is the first of 27 missions for 2017, a slate of launches that will not only introduce the final version of …