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BPEC CHATTER
OF THE WEEK!!!

It is my pleasure to present BPE's latest chatter of the week, many of you will already be familiar this chatter known to the community as 'Pindar 1'. What you may not know is that, according to him, he is the inventor of the 'Muon Gneerator", "A device that is now being studied by leading scientists throughout the world" stated Pindar in a recent interview held over the internet from his laboratory in the eccentric rolling hills of Mount Shasta, Calif. Pindar, who's real name is Glen Farnsworth holds a degree in electrical engineering and also worked in the sawmill industry before retiring. Sadly he suffered chemical exposure over many years as a result of poor understanding of manufactuing processes in the sawmill and was left partially disabled requiring oxygen making his life very difficult. To make matters worse, Pindar discovered that while experimenting with cutting edge technologies involved in building and testing the muon generator he was also exposed to very dangerous radiation that complicated his already comprimised medical state. For all his efforts and dedication to science we salute pindar and thank him for his contributions to the scientific community.

BPEC QUOTE
OF THE WEEK!!!
It is not the critic who counts, nor the man who points out how the strong man stumbled, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes short again and again, who knows great enthusiasms, great devotions, who spends himself in a worthy cause, who, at the best, knows in the end the triumph of high achievement and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat. - Theodore Roosevelt

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Jun 25, 2004 - Astronaut Mike Fincke and cosmonaut Gennady Padalka were forced to cut their spacewalk short on Thursday because of a leak in Fincke's primary oxygen bottle. The leak was discovered just minutes after the spacewalkers departed the station, and controllers on the ground hurried the two men back inside. Total spacewalking time: 14 minutes, 22 seconds. The goal of the spacewalk was to replace a Remote Power Controller Module (RPCM) which has a faulty circuit breaker for one of the station's gyroscopes. The repair could be attempted again as early as June 29. Link

Jun 25, 2004 - NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe announced a series of changes to the agency to better prepare it to fulfill President Bush's new vision for human space exploration; to "make it leaner and more focused on its goals." NASA will merge seven existing enterprises into four mission directorates, to create clearer lines of communication and authority: Exploration Systems, Space Operations, Aeronautics Research, and the Science Directorate. Further changes are on the way. Link

Jun 24, 2004 - The Supernova Integral Field Spectrograph (SNIFS), a new instrument designed to examine exploding stars, has observed its first target: supernova SN 2004cr. Mounted on board the University of Hawaii's 2.2 metre telescope on Mauna Kea, the instrument is designed to simultaneously observe a supernova, its home galaxy, and the surrounding sky. It should make very precise measurements of Type 1A supernovae, which are considered by astronomers to be "standard candles" - every explosion is the same brightness, so you can use them to measure the distance to galaxies. Link

Jun 23, 2004 - Although he was scheduled to become the third privately funded person to fly to the International Space Station, Gregory Olsen appears to have had his wings clipped. Officials from the Russian Space Agency said today that Olsen has been dropped from the program because of health concerns. This is unusual, because Olsen has already been training at Moscow's Star City for several months, and has already undergone many health tests. Olsen, the founder of Sensors Unlimited in New Jersey had been planning to perform some experiments while on board the station. Link

Jun 23, 2004 - A team of physicists from the University of California have built a cluster of nearly 300 computer processors capable of simulating some of the mysteries of the Universe. "The Space Simulator" has a theoretical performance of 1.5 teraflops, which places it at #344 on the list of the 500 fastest computers in the world. It was developed on a budget, though, at a cost of only $1,000 per processor; $500,000 for the whole cluster. It's been used to simulate the structure and evolution of the Universe, supernovae explosions, and X-ray emission from the centre of the galaxy. Link

Jun 22, 2004 - A few hours after the historic flight of SpaceShipOne, pilot Mike Melvill and designer Burt Rutan revealed that the trip to space wasn't worry free. Far from it, in fact. A technical glitch in the early moments of the rocket burn caused Melvill to lose control, and SpaceShipOne rolled back and forth. He was forced to switch to a backup system to keep the spaceship from being destroyed. Training and backup systems carried the day, though, and Melvill was able to regain control of SpaceShipOne, and gain enough altitude to just barely reach 100 km (62.5 miles). At least one more test flight is planned to ensure this mistake is resolved before risking the pilot and spacecraft on an official X Prize attempt. Link

Jun 22, 2004 - Cassini has turned to look at another of Saturn's moons; this time it's Iapetus. This image was taken on May 23, 2004, when Cassini was 20.2 million kilometres (12.5 million miles) from Iapetus. Although it's small and hazy in this picture, the moon is much larger than Phoebe, and measures 1436 km (892 miles) across. It was first photographed up close by the Voyager spacecraft, which found that it has a light and a dark side - this duality is just barely visible in this image. Link

Jun 21, 2004 - History was made today when test pilot Mike Melvill became the first private citizen to get his astronaut wings today when he flew Scaled Composites' SpaceShipOne (SS1) into space, reaching an altitude of more than 100 km (62.5 miles). Link

Jun 19, 2004 - Designed to test two of Einstein's predictions about the nature of gravity and relativity, NASA's Gravity Probe B spacecraft is about halfway through the initialization and checkout phase of its mission. Mission operators have transmitted more than 5,000 commands to the spacecraft, and everything seems to be functioning properly, including its gyroscopes and the targeting system that keeps it locked onto the guide star: IM Pegasi. If everything continues to go as planned, it should begin scientific operations in August, and deliver the final results in a year. Link

Jun 21, 2004 - Scientists have discovered that the currents in the Earth's oceans bear a striking resemblance to the bands of clouds in Jupiter's atmosphere. The clouds on Jupiter and the other gas giant planets form into bands which move in alternating directions from top to bottom. The similarity is more than coincidental, as both phenomena seem to be based on similar physical forces. This discovery could have implications in both climate research here on Earth, and the design of new space missions to explore the outer planets. Link

Jun 18, 2004 - Scientists are still digesting the volumes of data gathered by NASA's Stardust spacecraft when it buzzed past Comet Wild 2 earlier this year. They were expecting to see a dirty snowball, but found a much stranger place, with deep craters, steep cliffs, and dozens of blasting jets. Some features look ancient, perhaps created billions of years ago when life was just forming on Earth. Stardust collected particles from the comet when it flew past, and is now returning to Earth so scientists can study them in closer detail. Link

Jun 17, 2004 - All eyes will be on Mojave next week to see if Burt Rutan's SpaceShipOne can reach 100km (62 miles) of altitude, but another team in Texas could be hot on their heels. Armadillo Aerospace's John Carmack reported that a prototype of his team's rocket completed a successful test flight this week. The rocket lifted off from the launch pad, flew to a height of 40 metres (131 feet), and then returned to within less than 0.3 metres (1 foot) of its starting position. Carmack isn't sure his team will be able to meet the deadline to win the $10 million Ansari X Prize, but they may push to make an attempt if Rutan's team fails. Link

Jun 17, 2004 - NASA scientists coined the term "blueberries" to describe the tiny hematite balls found on Mars by Spirit and Opportunity over the last few months - it was one of the most powerful pieces of evidence that liquid water once flowed across the surface of Mars. Researchers from the University of Utah had a hunch these hematite concretions would turn up on the Red Planet, since there are similar conditions in Utah's national parks. The geologists believe the blueberries on Earth were formed 25 million years ago when minerals precipitated from groundwater flowing through sandstone. Link

Jun 16, 2004 - The Canadian-built MOST space telescope has shed new light on how stars like our own Sun can actually be quite turbulent, vibrating and flaring up unexpectedly. MOST tracked a star called eta Bootis for 28 straight days without interruption, and measured its brightness more than 250,000 times - 10 times more accurately than any previous instrument could reach. MOST should also assist planet hunters by watching how a star brightens and dims as planets pass in front of it, similar to Venus' recent transit across the face of the Sun. Link

Apr 6, 2004 - NASA ordered the Genesis spacecraft to close up its particle collectors this week, to prepare its sample-return capsule to enter the Earth's atmosphere. Over the last three years, Genesis has been collecting particles blown by the Sun on a special array made from exotic materials. This material should give scientists detailed information about the composition of the Sun. Genesis will release its capsule on September 8, 2004, and helicopter pilots will snag it in mid-air with giant hooks. Link

Jun 16, 2004 - After a long journey across rough terrain, NASA's Spirit Rover has finally reached the base of the Columbia Hills. It didn't wait long, though, and began climbing up the 90-metre (300 foot) high hills late last week. Scientists have identified several interesting rocks they'd like to study, including ones which look like they're disintegrating from the inside out, leaving a remnant "shell". Spirit is starting to show signs of wear; its right front wheel is slightly malfunctioning, and drawing much more power than the other wheels. Link

Jun 16, 2004 - When President Bush announced his new space exploration plan earlier this year, he tasked a special committee to figure out the best way to implement. After several months of research, including public forums and feedback from a wide range of space experts, the committee has released its findings in a 64-page document. The report contains eight findings and fourteen recommendations on how to implement the vision, which emphasizes the importance of a vibrant space exploration industry. Link

Jun 14, 2004 - In just one week Scaled Composite's SpaceShipOne will make an attempt to become the first privately-built vehicle to reach space - an altitude of 100 km (62 miles). Thousands of people are expected to show up at the runway in California's Mojave Desert to watch the launch and suborbital flight. This won't be an official attempt to win the Ansari X Prize; however, but the company is planning to try for the $10 million prize if this flight is successful. Billionaire Paul Allen has contributed $20 million to the development of SpaceShipOne. Link

Jun 10, 2004 - The 8-metre Gemini South telescope has been coated with pure silver to give it more resolution when viewing objects in the infrared spectrum. A total of only 50 grams (2 ounces) of the precious metal were required to coat the entire glass mirror, which had previously been covered with aluminum. It didn't require much silver, but it was extremely difficult to apply. Workers used devices called magnetrons which surround a pure metal bar with a cloud of gas which knocks atoms of silver and allows them to deposit on the mirror at a perfect thickness of 0.1 microns (1/200th the thickness of a human hair). Link

Jun 9, 2004 - Since its existence was first theorized in the 1960s, scientists have been searching for the mysterious Higgs boson. This subatomic particle is believed to be responsible for mass, and would help explain why objects feel inertia and have momentum. Unfortunately, physicists were unable to find the particle in the 1990s using the world's largest atom smashers. A new estimate for the particle's mass from Berkeley Lab explains why it might have eluded discovery. Fortunately, CERN's new Large Hadron Collider, due to start up in 2007 should have the ability to find the Higgs particle at a heavier mass. Link

Jun 10, 2004 - The European Space Agency has decided on how it will contribute to the construction of the next generation James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), due for launch in 2011. The Europeans will work with the USA on the Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI), which is one of four instruments on board JWST. MIRI will be used to study old and distant stellar populations, dust obscured regions of star formation, and comets and Kuiper Belt objects. JWST will be three times larger than Hubble and be able to resolve objects 10 to 100,000 times better depending on the wavelength and type of observation. Link

Jun 9, 2004 - Scheduled for launch in 2006, the New Horizons mission will finally get a close up view of Pluto, the only planet never visited by spacecraft. On board the robotic spacecraft will be the Solar Wind Around Pluto (SWAP) instrument, which will measure the interactions between Pluto and the high-speed stream of particles flowing out from the Sun called the solar wind. Since it'll be so far from the Sun, SWAP will be largest aperture device ever built to measure the solar wind. It'll have lots of time to measure; the trip to Pluto will take 9 years. Link

Jun 9, 2004 - Opportunity has been gingerly testing the edge of Endurance Crater to make sure it's stable enough for the rover to roll in without slipping down the slope. If that works out, the rover will enter the crater today and begin 2-3 weeks of scientific study, analyzing exposed layers of rock to get a better picture of water that covered the area millions of years ago. Scientists are expecting the crater will return a tremendous amount of scientific data because it's much deeper than Eagle Crater, which Opportunity first landed in when it arrived on Mars. Link

Jun 8, 2004 - NASA's Opportunity rover is continuing to circle the rocky rim of Endurance Crater, searching for the right place to try and go in. At its deepest point, the crater descends 20 metres (66 feet), so operators are looking for a sheet of stable rock that will stop the rover from slipping in the Martian sand. So far, it looks like the slope is 18 to 20 degrees, which is within the rover's ability to climb back out - just barely. In Eagle crater, where Opportunity landed, the rover was unable to get out from a 17-degree slope because of fine dust at the top of the crater's rim. Link

Jun 4, 2004 - NASA has given Opportunity the "thumbs up" to drive into Endurance crater; even though it might not be able to get back out again. There's just so much science in there that it's worth the risk. Opportunity has been investigating the rim of the crater since late May to find the best possible place to go in to avoid rolling over. The earliest chance to enter the crater will be next week, when it will drive to the southern edge of the crater and make a final check of the steepness of the slope. Link

Jun 4, 2004 - NASA's Cassini spacecraft is now less than a month away from its close encounter with Saturn and its moons. It's been traveling for almost seven years and on July 1, 2004 at 0230 UTC (10:30 pm EDT, June 30), the spacecraft will officially enter orbit around the Ringed Planet. On board Cassini are 12 instruments which will be used to analyze Saturn and its moons over the course of 4 years to understand their chemistry, magnetic fields, and interactions. Cassini is carrying a passenger; the European Space Agency's Huygens probe, which will be deployed on December 25, 2004 to land on the surface of Titan, Saturn's largest moon. Link

Jun 3, 2004 - We're only a few days away from an event that no person alive has ever seen: a transit of Venus across the surface of the Sun. On June 8, 2004, approximately 75% of people on Earth will be able to watch as the tiny black dot marches across the Sun over the course of about six hours. NASA and several observatories around the world have joined forces to broadcast the event live on the Internet for the benefit of those on the wrong side of the planet, or without the right equipment to watch it. If you don't see it this time, don't worry, it'll happen again on June 6, 2012 and then again in another 105 years. Link

Jun 2, 2004 - Well into their extra exploration time, NASA's Mars Exploration Rovers are continuing to make discoveries on the Red Planet. Spirit has nearly completed the journey to Columbia Hills, several kilometres from the landing spot, and it can already see what might be layered rock in an outcropping. On the other side of the planet, Opportunity is still on the rim of "Endurance Crater", searching for a potential entrance into the crater, and examining the texture of rocks. Link

Jun 2, 2004 - Astronomers from the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics have found what they believe is an intermediate sized black hole at the heart of a nebula in a nearby galaxy. Since black holes themselves are invisible, they located it because a spot inside the nebula is emitting a tremendous amount of X-rays, and illuminating a 100 light-year swath. By calculating the amount of X-rays pouring out, astronomers estimate that the black hole has about 25-40 solar masses. It's unknown how these intermediate-sized black holes form, since so few of them have ever been seen. Link

Jun 2, 2004 - The first privately built manned spacecraft will rocket into space on June 21 according to a recent announcement from Scaled Composites. The company's SpaceShipOne will fly to an altitude of 100 km (62 miles), and whoever pilots it will be the first private citizen to receive astronaut wings for heading into space. Although SpaceShipOne is aiming for the Ansari X-Prize, it won't be on this attempt, since the spacecraft will only be carrying the pilot. To win the prize, SpaceShipOne will need to carry the equivalent weight for two more passengers and complete the journey to space twice within two weeks. Link

Jun 1, 2004 - NASA announced on Tuesday that it was officially considering sending a robotic mission to save the Hubble Space Telescope, instead of de-orbiting it in a few years. The agency has called for proposals from the aerospace community to come up with a robot that can be controlled from the ground, and perform the complex upgrades and repairs that previously required astronauts. They need to hurry, though, since the observatory is expected to begin failing around 2007. Link

May 28, 2004 - NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope has peered through the dusty haze into the construction zones for new planets and found organic molecules. A team from the University of Rochester surveyed five very young stars in the constellation of Taurus and found these icy organic molecules around all of them. They also found a gap in the planetary disc around a million-year old star, which indicates that a young planet is already forming. This is much earlier than predicted by previous models of planet formation. Link

May 27, 2004 - Astronomers can measure the reflectivity of the Earth's atmosphere by watching "Earthshine" on the Moon. They found that a gradual dimming of this light from Earth reflected against the Moon matches the warming of the planet's lower atmosphere over the last two decades. The possibility that decreased cloud cover could cause climate change is still controversial, and many scientists are skeptical about this new research. Interestingly, the astronomers who produced this recent study have found that the trend is reversing, with Earthshine increasing again. Link

May 26, 2004 - The European Space Agency's Rosetta spacecraft is scheduled to meet up with Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko in 10 years. It'll get to do some science before then, however, starting with Comet LINEAR, which is 95 million kilometres away (59 million miles). On April 30, Rosetta took a photograph of the comet using its OSIRIS camera system, which was already scheduled for commissioning on that date. Rosetta studied the comet in different wavelengths, from ultraviolet to microwave, and took a high resolution image in blue light. Link

May 26, 2004 - NASA has released more detailed requirements for its upcoming mission to Jupiter's icy moons. The Jupiter Icy Moons Orbiter would travel to the Jovian system, and then spend time orbiting Callisto, Ganymede and Europa; each of which might have liquid oceans under their icy surfaces. The mission would be powered by a nuclear reactor, and use ion propulsion to get into and out of various orbits. The Request for Proposal has been delivered to Boeing, Lockheed Martin, and Northrop Grumman, and they have until July 16, 2004 to deliver their conceptual designs. Link

May 25, 2004 - It seems that when an asteroid struck the Earth 65 million years ago, the resulting heat pulse incinerated every dinosaur on the planet in just a few hours; only those that were in burrows or underwater likely survived. When the 10 km (6 mile) asteroid hit Chicxulub in the Yucatan, it struck with the force of 100 million megatons of TNT. A new paper published by several US university researchers calculates how ejected material would have heated the atmosphere to the equivalent of a global oven set on broil. Link

May 25, 2004 - It's been a month since NASA launched the Gravity Probe B; an experiment designed to test Einstein's predictions about gravity and relativity, and so far, the spacecraft is working well. It's in the correct orbit and will begin the science phase of its mission next month. It will continue taking precise measurements of the Earth's gravity over the next 13 months to test two predictions: how space and time are warped by our planet, and how the Earth drags space-time around with it as it rotates. Link

May 21, 2004 - While searching for near Earth-asteroids, astronomers at Lowell Observatory found an object which orbits closer to the Sun than any other asteroid. Designated 2004 JG6, the asteroid is probably between 500 - 1,000 metres in diameter (1,600 - 3,200 feet) and takes about six months to go around the Sun. Objects like this, which travel within Earth's orbit are called Apoheles, and they're very difficult to discover because they spend so much time near the Sun, invisible to telescopes in the daytime sky. Fortunately, 2004 JG6 poses no threat to Earth. Link

May 19, 2004 - NASA has been working for the past several months to implement the changes requested by the Columbia Accident Investigation Board. The Stafford-Covey Task Group released their second interim report today, which tracks the status of the Return to Flight effort. Three of the fifteen recommendations have been completed, and they expect to wrap up several more by the summer. One of the most difficult tasks so far has been to eliminate falling debris during launch - it was a piece of foam that fell off the fuel tank that critically damaged Columbia - engineers are worried that the only way to test if the problem has been fixed is by actually launching the shuttle. Link

May 18, 2004 - A team of amateur rocket builders accomplished a major feat this week; the first privately built rocket to reach the edge of space. The 6.5-metre (21 foot) unmanned rocket blasted off from its Nevada launch pad, and reached a speed of 6500 km/h (4000 m/h) in only 9 seconds. Based on this velocity, the Civilian Space Exploration Team (CSXT) calculated that it would have reached the official edge of space at 100 km (62.5 m). The CSXT team has detected the rocket's landing telemetry information, but hasn't been able to locate it on the ground yet. Link

May 17, 2004 - NASA's Opportunity rover is hard at work analyzing the rock that was blasted out of the "Endurance" crater. One rock, dubbed "Lion Stone" is unlike any of the others in the region. It was likely formed under wet conditions, like the exposed rock in Eagle Crater (where Opportunity landed), but it's a little different in mineralogy and colour. It might give researchers more conditions about the environment previous to the Eagle Crater rocks. NASA is still deciding whether or not to send the rover into the crater, as it might not be able to climb back out again. Link

May 17, 2004 - Researchers from the University of Arizona have recreated some of the chemicals thought to be in the atmosphere of Titan, Saturn's largest moon. It's unique in the Solar System, with a thick haze of hydrocarbons; some scientists believe it's a similar environment to our own planet's early history. They created these chemicals by bombarding an analog of Titan's atmosphere with electrons, which produces "tholins" (organic polymers). These have been detected from Earth-based telescopes. By dissolving these tholins in liquid water creates amino acids, which are the building blocks for life. Link

May 17, 2004 - On Tuesday, June 8, observers in Europe, Asia and Africa will be treated to a very rare event in astronomy: a transit of Venus across the surface of the Sun. The transit will begin at approximately 0520 UTC, and wrap up approximately 6 hours later. Don't look directly at the Sun, or through a telescope without a proper filter, as you can severely damage your eyes. The last transit happened on December 6, 1882, and the next will occur in 8 years; it will be visible from the Americas. Link

May 14, 2004 - The privately built SpaceShipOne completed another powered flight test on Thursday, this time achieving an altitude of 65 km. Built by Scaled Composites, and backed by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, SpaceShipOne is considered to be the top contender to win the $10 million Ansari X Prize which will be awarded to the first private reusable rocket capable of reaching an altitude of 100 km. Allen hinted that the space plane will begin attempts to win the prize next month. Link

May 7, 2004 - NASA is currently making a difficult decision about whether to send its Opportunity rover down into Endurance Crater, which is 130 metres wide, and deep enough that the rover might not be able to climb back out. It's clear that there's some interesting science to be gathered in the crater, including more exposed rock surfaces. Opportunity will crawl around the rim of the crater and search for an ideal ramp that it could use to enter and exit safely. Link

May 7, 2004 - X Prize candidate Canadian Arrow announced this week that they will begin unmanned flight tests of its rocket this summer. Over the course of four months, beginning in August, the team will test their rocket's abort system which enables the crew cabin to blast away from the rest of the rocket while it's on the pad. They will also test flight aerodynamics to ensure the rocket will be able to fly to its designed altitude as required by the X Prize. Link

May 6, 2004 - NASA's Cassini spacecraft has delivered some early images of Saturn's moon Titan; a mysterious world obscured by thick clouds. Some surface features only seen from Earth-based telescopes are now visible to Cassini. The spacecraft used its narrow angle camera's spectral filters, which are designed to penetrate the thick atmosphere to create the images. Cassini's first good opportunity to see Titan will be when the spacecraft enters orbit around Saturn in July; it'll fly past the moon at a distance of only 350,000 km. Link

May 6, 2004 - The privately funded X Prize received a helpful boost this week with a large investment from entrepreneurs Anousheh and Amir Ansari. The unspecified amount of money will be used to cover operation costs of the organization, including the insurance money that's backing the $10 million prize. The name of the prize has been changed to the Ansari X Prize, to recognize their contribution. 26 teams have registered to win the prize, which expires on January 1, 2005, if nobody can send their privately-built spacecraft into suborbital flight. Link

May 4, 2004 - NASA released a 180-degree view of Endurance Crater this week, a target Opportunity has been rolling towards for many days. After taking in the view, Opportunity will try a few spots around the rim of the 130-metre crater to see if it can drive down without rolling over - hopefully it'll be able to get back out again. Portions of the crater's sides appear almost paved with smooth rocks, while in other areas it has steep walls with exposed rock, similar to the crater Opportunity landed in. It should be a treasure trove of scientific data. Link

Apr 29, 2004 - Sometimes it takes a prize to really propel an industry forward, like with the historic Orteig Prize, which rewarded Charles Lindbergh $25,000 for crossing the Atlantic by airplane. In its most recent budget, NASA has set aside some budget to reward groups who accomplish certain milestones. The agency will be holding a workshop on June 15-16 in Washington D.C. to gather ideas and brainstorm on what kinds of goals will leverage this budget the furthest. Link

Apr 27, 2004 - NASA's Spirit Rover took some new panoramic images of the "Columbia Hills", still a distant 2 kilometres, and 52 days away. Once Spirit reaches the base of the hills, operators will have the rover analyze the composition of the terrain and then decide whether to have Spirit actually climb one of the mountains and look for exposed outcroppings of rock. These areas would offer scientists a series of windows into the processes that shaped the formation of this part of Mars. Link

Apr 23, 2004 - NASA has checked out its recently launched Gravity Probe B spacecraft, and everything seems to be working fine. The solar panels are producing enough power to run all of its electrical systems, and its communications systems are talking to operators on the ground. All four gyro suspension systems have been activated, and the gyros are now being prepared to gather scientific data. If all goes well, the spacecraft should confirm two predictions that Einstein made about general relativity: how the Earth bends space and time around it, and how it drags space and time as it rotates. Link

Apr 21, 2004 - Jupiter's stormy surface could be settling down, according to calculations by UC Berkeley physicist Philip Marcus. According to Marcus, Jupiter's temperature and the number of storms on its surface are directly connected. As the number of vortices decrease, its temperature should go up by about 10-degrees Celsius - warmer near the equator and cooler near the poles. This cycle seems to repeat itself about every 70 years. But don't worry; the Great Red Spot isn't going anywhere. Link

Apr 21, 2004 - A special NASA spacecraft designed to test two aspects of Einstein's General Theory of Relativity, Gravity Probe B, lifted off Tuesday from Vandenberg Air Force Base on board a Boeing Delta II rocket. The spacecraft was inserted into a perfectly circular polar orbit, and operators will begin calibrating its instruments over the next 60-days. If everything checks out, the spacecraft will begin making precise measurements about the effect of the Earth's gravity for 12 months - analysis of the data will take a further year. Link

Apr 19, 2004 - "It figures that if there was only one rock for what seems like miles in every direction, we'd find a way to hit it," said Steven Squyres, the principal investigator for the Mars Exploration Rover mission. He was describing an unusual object, later called "Bounce Rock" that Spirit bounced off of during its airbag landing. Scientists were split over whether this unusual object was a rock at all - they thought it could have been a piece of Spirit's landing equipment, or maybe even a meteorite. But when Spirit finally analyzed it up close, the case was closed: it's a rock that was probably blasted out of an impact crater 50 km away. Link

Apr 16, 2004 - Astronomers have used the enormous Keck telescope to capture several images of the hydrocarbon haze of Titan, Saturn's largest moon, and piece them together into a short movie. These observations will help scientists make sense of the data that the Huygens probe sends back as it descends through Titan's unusual atmosphere in early 2005 and hopefully survives to land on its surface. Titan is interesting because its atmosphere is very similar to conditions that probably existed early on Earth. Link

Apr 13, 2004 - With the announcement that the twin Mars Exploration Rovers have had their missions extended, scientists and engineers have big plans for the robots. The extended mission for Spirit will see the rover make the journey to the distant Columbia Hills. Opportunity will make a similarly long series of drives to reach Endurance Crater and then to some unusual "etched terrain" further to the South. One short term goal will be for the rovers to calibrate the dusty Martian skies by pointing their panoramic cameras up while overhead satellites look down. Link

Apr 11, 2004 - NASA has extended the mission for its Mars Exploration Rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, after Spirit met the success criteria for its mission. It spent a total of 90 days roaming the surface of Mars, and traveled a total distance of 600 metres. Opportunity will achieve its successful mission on April 26. This extension includes an additional $15 million in funding to keep operating the rovers until September. Even though the mission has been approved until then, the rovers could last much longer on the surface of Mars. Link

Apr 8, 2004 - Scientists have known for a long time now that the Earth's magnetic field unexpectedly reverses polarity over long periods of time, but how often this happens was still a mystery. Brad Clement, a geologist funded by the National Science Foundation, has concluded that the reversal seems to happen every 7,000 years, on average. He gathered this data by analyzing deep-ocean sediment cores. One surprise is that the variation seems to alter with latitude - the directional change takes half as long at low-latitude sites as it does at mid- to high-latitude sites. Link

Apr 8, 2004 - The US Department of Transportation announced this week that it has given Scaled Composites a license to fly its SpaceShipOne suborbital spacecraft. The license was issued on April 1, and allows Scaled to fly SpaceShipOne for the period of one year. This authorization is required for all the X-Prize contenders who plan to launch their vehicles within the United States. On April 8, SpaceShipOne completed its second supersonic test flight - this time it traveled up to Mach 2, beating its own record. Link

Apr 7, 2004 - It's been a little over a week since NASA's X-43A hypersonic research aircraft made its successful flight, and the flight data is really impressing the agency. The X-43A was accelerated on board a Pegasus rocket, and then it fired its airbreathing scramjet engine to briefly raise its speed to Mach 7 (8,575 kph). While the data proves that the engine definitely worked, reality differed from the engineers simulations in several respects; more flight tests are scheduled to better understand the dynamics of hypersonic flight. Link

Apr 6, 2004 - On March 22, 2004, the ESA/NASA SOHO solar observatory spacecraft observed its 750th comet since its launch in late 1995. SOHO has a special instrument that blocks out the glare of the Sun, and allows it to see comets that graze the Sun. Amateur astronomers from around the world analyze the photographs taken by SOHO, which are published on the Internet - more than 75% of the discoveries have been made by amateurs. This one was discovered by Sebastian Hönig from Germany. Link

Apr 1, 2004 - Although more than 100 planetary systems have been discovered, astronomers have only found large, Jupiter-sized planets. The real prize will be to discover Earth-sized planets in orbits where liquid water could be present. A new simulation by a team from Open University "injected" Earth-sized planets into the habitable zone of the star systems already discovered. About half of the systems already found could have Earth-sized planets in stable orbits in the habitable zone. It will still be several years before there are instruments built that can detect them. Link

Mar 29, 2004 - A NASA X-43A prototype scramjet aircraft performed a successful test on Saturday, reaching a top speed of Mach 7. The X-43A was mounted to the front of a Pegasus rocket which was dropped from a B-52 bomber. The rocket carried it to an altitude of 29,000 metres and then the X-43A fired its scramjet for 10 seconds, extinguishing its hydrogen fuel supply. It flew for a few more minutes to record aerodynamic data. Another test flight is scheduled for later this year. Link

Mar 26, 2004 - Theorists are working madly to develop the new "Theory of Everything" that will tie together all the forces in the Universe into one unified explanation. Experimenters are also working to come up with ways to test these various theories, and narrow down the ones that actually predict what happens in Nature. One upcoming experiment called LATOR will test how the Sun's gravity bends light emitted by mini-satellites - it will be so precise that many theories will be invalidated if it doesn't find deviations from Einstein's predictions. " Link

Mar 25, 2004 - As you've probably heard, NASA has cancelled a future mission to service the Hubble Space Telescope. This means that Hubble will likely stop functioning in the next few years. If you're interested in convincing NASA to continue missions to Hubble, you'll want to contact your member of congress and encourage them to sponsor H. Res 550. Here's the full text of the resolution. Right now there are 41 members of congress who support the resolution, but organizers want to get to 100 to make an impact. They need to sign the resolution by April 1, 2004. You can call your member of congress by calling the congressional switchboard at 202-224-3121. Ask to speak to his or her Legislative Assistant in charge of space policy, and then explain to that person that the congressman should become a cosponsor of H. Res 550. Link

Mar 24, 2004 - NASA has scheduled March 27 for the next flight for the experimental X-43A research vehicle. The unpiloted 4-metre prototype will be carried to supersonic speeds on the front of a Pegasus rocket. It will then fly under its own power using an air-breathing scramjet engine to reach Mach 7. A scramjet scoops oxygen from the air as it flies, and uses this to combust its fuel. This is the second test of a X-43A prototype; the first was destroyed because of a problem with the Pegasus booster. Link

Mar 23, 2004 - NASA's Opportunity has crawled out of the crater it landed in, and turned back to survey its old home. Getting out of the hole wasn't as easy as NASA originally thought it was going to be. The Opportunity made an attempt to drive out of the crater, but the slope was so steep it slipped back down. Operators finally found a route that was gentle enough for the rover to get out and onto the plains above. The 22-metre crater has been named "Eagle Crater" Link

Mar 17, 2004 - Space tourism company Space Adventures announced this week that they're shopping around for a potential spaceport location. They're considering sites around the world, and the facility would include a launch pad (or runway) for sub-orbital flights, a spaceflight training centre, and other activities. Space Adventures has already taken over 100 reservations for sub-orbital flights; they just need a vehicle. link

Mar 17, 2004 - The NASA/ESA Ulysses spacecraft's power is starting to run down, and soon it won't have enough to keep itself warm. When the spacecraft was first launched in 1990 to study the Sun, its reactor produced 285 watts of power, but now almost 14 years later, it's down to 207 watts. If it gets too much lower, the spacecraft won't be able to operate the heaters that keep the fuel flowing. Without this fuel, it won't be able to orient its main antenna towards the Earth to transfer data. Link

Mar 11, 2004 - With all this attention on Spirit and Opportunity, it's easy to forget that robotic exploration of Mars is just getting started. NASA has plans for several more missions in the works, taking advantage of the launch windows that happen every two years. Next up: Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, which is due to launch in 2005. It will take images of the Martian surface at a resolution small enough to see a beach ball. 2007 will see the launch of Phoenix, which will put a lander on the surface to search for organic molecules and water in the Martian soil. And then the Mars Science Laboratory is due to launch in 2009, which will be a rover the size of a minivan, designed to crawl the surface for up to two years. Link

Mar 11, 2004 - The European Space Agency announced its decision today for the two asteroids that Rosetta will fly past on its way to meet up with Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. The first target is Steins, which is fairly small; only a few kilometres across - Rosetta will pass it by 1,700 km on Sept. 5, 2008. The second asteroid is Lutetia; a 100 km asteroid which Rosetta will pass within 3,000 km on July 10, 2010. Rosetta will then reach Comet 67P/CG in 2014. Link

Mar 5, 2004 - The US House of Representatives today approved bill H.R. 3752, The Commercial Space Launch Amendments Act of 2004. This bill gives the FAA authority to license commercial suborbital launches, such as the vehicles being developed by groups competing to win the X-Prize. This should make it easier for companies to test new kinds of reusable suborbital vehicles. The bill will now go to Senate for consideration before it becomes law. Link

Mar 9, 2004 - New NASA-funded research has revealed how bone loss from long-duration spaceflight can increase the risk of injury to astronauts. A research team used three-dimensional X-ray scans to study the bones in 14 US and Russian crewmembers of the International Space Station. They found that the astronauts lost up to 2.7% of their bone mass every month, and additional exercise would be necessary to decrease the loss. This research will also help study the loss of bone density in the elderly. link

Mar 2, 2004 - NASA announced today that liquid water once soaked the environment around Opportunity's landing site, raising the chances that life once existed on the Red Planet. This announcement came from Opportunity's detailed examination of a region of exposed rock on the side of the crater it landed in. By analyzing the rock with every instrument at its disposal, scientists now have conclusive evidence that liquid water once acted on this rock, changing its texture and chemistry. Opportunity's next job will be to determine if the rocky outcrop was actually formed by water, or if it's volcanic in origin. This means that there was probably a long period of time on Mars where the environment would have supported life. link

Feb 26, 2004 - The Mars rovers are starting to generate less power these days because Mars is starting to slip into Winter. In order to compensate for the reduced amount of light falling on the rovers' solar panels, engineers have begun a new lower-power communications plan. The rovers will only receive information in the morning, and transmit through Mars Odyssey twice a day. The rovers will also take more naps during the day to conserve battery power. Link

Feb 16, 2004 - According to researcher Ralph Lorenz, Saturn's moon Titan could help teach scientists about how oceans and weather work on the Earth. Titan is thought to have oceans of liquid methane, but they are created under a completely different environment from our own familiar oceans. When Cassini and the Huygens probe arrive at the Saturn system in 2004, they will begin gathering data about Titan and its oceans and weather, and help answer questions like: how deep are its oceans? do they form steep cliffs or shallow beaches? and what effect does Saturn's huge gravity have? link

Feb 14, 2004 - A Boeing-built Titan IV-B rocket lifted off from Florida's Cape Canaveral on Saturday afternoon, carrying a Defense Support Program satellite into orbit. The rocket lifted off at 1850 UTC (1:50 pm EST), and the satellite was placed into a geosynchronous orbit seven hours later. The DSP-22 satellite is equipped with sensitive heat detection instruments, designed to spot the heat of launching missiles. This constellation of military satellites first launched in the 1970s, and the final one is due to go up in early 2005. Link

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Jan 29, 2004 - Researchers from the Australian National University have created a prototype thruster that could offer a new form of propulsion for spacecraft. The thruster is called the Helicon Double Layer Thruster (HDLT), and it works by passing hydrogen atoms through a magnetic field to create a beam of plasma. Like an ion engine, it's electrically powered and very efficient - solar arrays could provide the energy to power the thruster. Other agencies, including NASA, are working on plasma thrusters, but this is the first to be proven to work with hydrogen. Link

Jan 29, 2004 - NASA controllers gave Opportunity the commands on Wednesday that would begin the process of getting the rover to stand up from its compact landing configuration. The rover has untucked its front wheels and latched its suspension system in place. Controllers are going to try and tilt the landing platform forward 5-degrees to make it easier for Opportunity to roll of the platform next week - possibly as early as Sunday or Monday. Repairs are continuing on Spirit, but operators don't have full control of the lander yet. Link

Jan 22, 2004 - NASA engineers have been working overtime to reestablish communications with the Spirit rover after it mysteriously stopped talking to mission control on Wednesday just before it executed an experiment to grind a few millimeters into a rock. They did receive a reassuring confirmation on Thursday that Spirit was receiving transmissions from Earth; although, it hasn't sent any data back yet. The engineers aren't sure what caused the problem, but since they did get that confirmation, it's probably not in the power system, radio, transmitter or some software. A very slow communications link was established on Friday morning, but it's still unclear exactly what's wrong or if it's repairable. Link

Jan 22, 2004 - A thunderstorm in Australia has hampered communications between NASA and the Spirit rover on Mars. The rover was supposed to use its Rock Abrasion Tool (RAT) to grind into the rock 5 mm, but the weather interfered with the commands sent from Earth. When it doesn't receive orders from Earth, Spirit goes into a stasis mode where it runs checks on its systems, and takes photographs of its surroundings. Engineers are hoping to try again tonight. Link

16 January 2004 - "WASHINGTON -- Two days after U.S. President George W. Bush unveiled a new NASA vision requiring a shift in the space agency’s spending priorities, NASA announced that it was curtailing any further space shuttle missions to the Hubble Space Telescope. Launched aboard the space shuttle in 1990, Hubble has been serviced by astronauts four times since then. The last such mission was in 2002. NASA had planned to visit Hubble one last time in 2006 to change out instruments and replace its gyroscopes with the intent of keeping the telescope in service until at least 2011, when its heir apparent, the James Webb Space Telescope, is expected to launch." Link

Jan 14, 2004 - As predicted for several months, US President George W. Bush announced his plan for the future human exploration of space. Bush was joined by NASA administrator Sean O'Keefe and the press briefing was introduced by the commander of Expedition 8, Michael Foale - currently aboard the International Space Station. Under the new plan, the United States would complete its work on the International Space Station by 2010, which is being developed by 15 countries, and then retire the space shuttle fleet. In tandem with this, NASA will develop a new program of human space exploration which will eventually return humans to the Moon. Link

Jan 12, 2004 - After several attempts to collapse the airbag which is blocking Spirit's exit from the lander, controllers have given up that plan. Instead, they've decided to have the rover exit from one of the platform's alternate ramps. In order to take this northeastern route, the rover will have to back up and then perform a three-point turn in the tight space. Controllers will also fire a pyro device which will sever an umbilical cord connecting the rover to the lander. If everything goes as planned, Spirit will roll off the lander on the evening of January 14. Link

Jan 9, 2004 - President Bush is set to announce next week that the United States will return to a bold human space exploration program. The proposed plan will see the completion of the International Space Station as soon as possible, humans returning to the Moon by 2013, the construction of a base on the Moon. The long term plan will see astronauts visit asteroids, and eventually, a human journey to Mars. As part of this plan, the US will need to develop a whole new group of spacecraft, but they'll use European rockets in the interim. The President will ask Congress for an additional $800 million for NASA in 2005, and then increase NASA's budget by 5% over the next five years. Link

Jan 3, 2004 - NASA controllers confirmed that the Spirit rover successfully landed on Mars today. The spacecraft passed through the atmosphere, deployed its parachute, fired its retrorockets, and then bounced along the Martian surface protected by airbags - its landing time was January 4 at 0435 UTC (11:35 pm EST January 3). Pictures from the Martian surface are expected soon. Spirit will spend at least 90 days traveling around the surface of Mars, searching for evidence of past water with several scientific instruments. The next rover, Opportunity, is expected to land on January 24.link

Jan 2, 2004 - The Stardust spacecraft made history today when it passed through the tail of Comet Wild-2, and took some of the best pictures of a comet ever seen. During the flyby, Stardust got within only 230 kilometers of the comet's nucleus, and captured just a few grams of particles from Wild-2's tail. The collected particles, which are stored in a sample return capsule, will be brought back to Earth in 2006; it'll touchdown at a US Air Force testing range in Utah. Link

Life Found Under 1,350 Metres of Rock Jan 2, 2004 - A team of scientists has discovered bacteria in a hole drilled more than 4,000 feet deep in volcanic rock on the island of Hawaii near Hilo, in an environment they say could be analogous to conditions on Mars and other planets. Bacteria are being discovered in some of Earth's most inhospitable places, from miles below the ocean's surface to deep within Arctic glaciers. The latest discovery is one of the deepest drill holes in which scientists have discovered living organisms encased within volcanic rock, said Martin R. Fisk, a professor in the College of Oceanic and Atmospheric Sciences at Oregon State University. Results of the study were published in the December issue of Geochemistry, Geophysics and Geosystems, a journal published by the American Geophysical Union and the Geochemical Society. "We identified the bacteria in a core sample taken at 1,350 meters," said Fisk, who is lead author on the article. "We think there could be bacteria living at the bottom of the hole, some 3,000 meters below the surface. If microorganisms can live in these kinds of conditions on Earth, it is conceivable they could exist below the surface on Mars as well." The study was funded by NASA, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology and Oregon State University, and included researchers from OSU, JPL, the Kinohi Institute in Pasadena, Calif., and the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. The scientists found the bacteria in core samples retrieved during a study done through the Hawaii Scientific Drilling Program, a major scientific undertaking run by the Cal Tech, the University of California-Berkeley and the University of Hawaii, and funded by the National Science Foundation. Link

Jan 2, 2004 - The search for Beagle 2 continues. Operators announced on December 31 that the British lander had failed to report in for the eighth time. At this point, the lander will have switched to a new mode where it tries to communicate twice a day. Although unlikely, it's possible that Beagle 2's onboard timer was reset during the landing, which would mean it was trying to communicate out of sync with Mars Odyssey and Earth-based radio telescopes. Mars Express will start searching on January 5, which operators believe will bring their best chances of finding it. Link

Dec 31, 2003 - In less than 2 days, NASA's Stardust spacecraft will fly past Comet Wild 2 - on January 2 at 0740 UTC (2:40 am EST). The spacecraft has already entered the comet's halo; the cloud of dust and gas surrounding its nucleus. This is a dangerous part of the journey because the spacecraft could collide with particles from the comet which are moving at 6.1 kilometres per second. In order to minimize any damage, Stardust has several shields made of composite material which dissipate the energy from colliding particles. The spacecraft will collect particles from the comet and then return them to Earth in 2006. Link

Dec 29, 2003 - Lord Sainsbury, the UK Minister of Science and Technology reinforced today that they haven't given up hope on Beagle 2, and continue to be optimistic that the lander will be found. A "tiger team" of engineers and scientists are working through all the scenarios that could help to explain what's wrong with Beagle 2 (other than it's all smashed up on the Martian surface). One theory is that the lander might have fallen into a kilometre-sized crater which was in the landing zone; although, the chances of this happening are pretty remote. link

Dec 28, 2003 - Unlike its missing passenger, Beagle 2, controllers from the European Space Agency know exactly where Mars Express is - exactly where they want it. The spacecraft is currently on a wide equatorial orbit which brings it as close as 400 km and then out to 188,000 km away from the planet. Engineers are preparing the spacecraft for a further burn of its main engine which will bring the spacecraft into a closer polar orbit around Mars. Once Mars Express modifies its orbit, it will be the best candidate to communicate with the missing Beagle 2; starting January 4, 2004.link

Dec 23, 2003 - A new ion engine design, under consideration for NASA's Jupiter Icy Moons Orbiter mission, has been successfully tested. This was the first performance test of the Nuclear Electric Xenon Ion System, which will use a nuclear reactor to generate electricity for the spacecraft's ion engine - previous ion engines, like on Deep Space 1 and SMART-1 are solar powered. The new engine operated with 10 times the thrust of Deep Space 1, and should be able to run for 10 years; enough time to visit each of Jupiter's icy moons which are potential candidates for life. Link

Nov 21, 2003 - The Canadian Arrow X PRIZE Team has successfully tested the rocket engine that is designed to, in the coming months, take passengers into space. The test, conducted late last evening at a test site north of London confirms that the Canadian Arrow Team has successfully reengineered a World War II rocket design into a modern technology that is capable of winning the $10 million X PRIZE. "Our team has spent five years researching, designing and building toward the test we performed tonight," said Canadian Arrow Team Leader Geoff Sheerin. "We had a perfect ignition and good clean burn. There were a lot of smiles here, that's for sure." link

Oct 28, 2003 - The third most powerful solar X-ray flare on record, a remarkable X17.2 category explosion, erupted from sunspot 10486 on Tuesday, 28 October 2003. This is the second largest X-ray flare ever seen by the ESA/NASA SOHO spacecraft, after the major X20 solar flare of April 2001. Regular observations of X-ray flares began in the 1970s. This explosion hurled a ‘coronal mass ejection’ (CME) almost directly toward Earth, which could trigger bright aurorae when the material reaches us in about a day. The Earth was immediately affected by intense X-ray radiation, which ionised the upper layers of the atmosphere, causing serious disruption to radio communications. The high-energy particles that followed (called a 'proton storm') could upset satellites by interfering with their electronics systems and damaging exposed components. During these storms, astronauts are advised to reduce exposure, particularly during spacewalks. Our atmosphere protects people on the Earth, but passengers and crews on commercial jets at high latitudes could receive exposure equivalent to a normal medical chest X-ray. Link

Oct 21, 2003 - The European Space Agency's SMART-1 spacecraft has completed its 50th orbit of the Earth; operating its ion engine for more than 560 hours. The engine can only fire for half of the orbit because the spacecraft needs to raise its orbit until it reaches the Moon. ESA controllers have performed a series of tests on the spacecraft, and almost everything seems to be working perfectly - there's a minor problem with its star-tracker. The spacecraft is expected to reach the Moon by March 2005, when it will begin mapping surface minerals and ice. Link

Oct 20, 2003 - The possibility of a 30-metre telescope moved closer to reality this week when the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation awarded $17.5 million to fund the detailed design study. Planned for completion in 2012, the Thirty-Metre Telescope will have nine times the light-gathering power of the 10-metre Keck observatory; the largest in the world. With its adaptive optics capacity, it should be able to produce images which are 12 times sharper than the Hubble Space Telescope. The building site hasn’t been chosen yet, but it will probably be in Mexico, Hawaii or Chile. Link

Solar maximum came and went a couple years ago, but you wouldn't guess it to look at the Sun right now. In the last few days a huge sunspot complex has grown as large as the planet Jupiter. It's the most prominent spot to appear on the Sun in years, and it has already produced powerful solar-flare activity. Link

Telltale X-rays from iron may reveal if black holes are spinning or not, according to astronomers using NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and the European Space Agency's XMM-Newton Observatory. The Marshall Center manages the Chandra program. link

SIRTF Successfully Focused
Oct 14, 2003 - The Space Infrared Telescope Facility, NASA's fourth and final Great Observatory, has been successfully focused. This crucial milestone – which will enable the observatory's infrared eyes to see the cosmos in clear detail – was achieved after a series of delicate adjustments were made to the telescope's secondary mirror

Galactic Wind Connects Galaxies Nov 21, 2003 - Image credit: Hubble It was the 17th Century English preacher and poet John Donne who wrote the immortal lines "No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main." Today, astronomers have determined we also do not live in an "island Universe" - that is, a Universe in which the vast agglomerations of gas and stars known as galaxies are wholly independent of the influence of neighboring galaxies and their surrounding environment. Sylvain Veilleux, an astronomer at the University of Maryland, and his colleagues have found important new evidence to support the connectedness of galaxies in the form of unexpectedly large-scale "galactic winds" blowing off of galaxies, altering their surroundings out to distances much farther than previously thought. Galactic winds are the streams of charged particles that blow off of galaxies. Link

One of the enduring and exciting episodes of the planetary exploration came to an abrupt end when the Galileo spacecraft plunged into the atmosphere of the gas giant Jupiter.
With its fuel supply nearly gone, the craft was intentionally commanded to the collision course with Jupiter to eliminate any chance of a future impact with Europa that could contaminate the icy moon, which is likely to have a subsurface ocean and possibly life.

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