China to launch Mars probe in July

China announced that it will launch its first Mars mission probe in July this year, China Youth Daily reported Thursday, adding that this is the first time the country disclosed the launch month of its Mars exploration program. The Mars probe will be sent by the Long March-5 Y4 carrier rocket, said the newspaper, citing sources from the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC). The Long March-5 Y4 rocket has recently completed a 100-second test for its high thrust hydrogen-oxygen engine, which is the last engine examination before the final assembly. According to the CASC, China will send a probe to orbit and land and deploy a rover on Mars. In 2020, the Long March-5 rocket will carry out several missions, including the Mars probe launch and the lunar sample return. A total of 24 high thrust hydrogen-oxygen rocket engine tests will be conducted this year for these missions.

Russia to supply US with six RD-180 rocket engines this year

Russian rocket engine manufacturer NPO Energomash plans to ship six RD-180 rocket engines to the United States this year, government procurement website data shows. The RD-180 engines will be used to power the first stage of the Atlas V launch vehicles. In December, Energomash said that it shipped a total of six RD-180 rocket engines to the United States in 2019. In October, Roscosmos subsidiary Energomash was preparing to deliver three more RD-180 engines for use with Atlas V launch vehicles. Previously, Energomash already shipped three RD-180 rocket engines to the US in June as part of a separate contract. Since 1999, Lockheed Martin Atlas III and Atlas V launch vehicles have made at least 86 flights using the RD-180. According to Energomash figures, the US has now received 116 such engines. The RD-180 is a derivative of the RD-170/171 series of rocket engines, created for the super-heavy Energiya launch vehicle, which could shuttle up to 100 tonnes of cargo into Low Earth orbit, and which was used to launch the Buran shuttle into space. In the late 1980s, this rocket was envisioned as the launch vehicle which would send up new space stations into orbit to succeed the Mir and to prepare for missions to the Moon and Mars.

China's space station core module, manned spacecraft arrive at launch site

A core module prototype of China's space station and a prototype of China's new-generation manned spacecraft arrived at the launch site in south China's Hainan Province after a week of ocean and rail transport, the China Manned Space Engineering Office (CMSEO) announced Monday. The core module will take part in joint rehearsals with the Long March-5B carrier rocket at the Wenchang Space Launch Center while the new manned spacecraft will be launched by the rocket's maiden flight in the first half of this year. This means the building of China's space station in space will begin soon, the CMSEO said. The core module, named Tianhe (harmony of the heavens), will function as the command and control center of the space station. It is 16.6 meters long with a diameter of 4.2 meters and a takeoff weight of 22.5 tonnes. As the largest spacecraft ever developed by China, Tianhe will accommodate three astronauts and serve as a space laboratory to carry out scientific research and technological verifications, the CMSEO said. The new-generation manned spacecraft is 8.8 meters long and has a takeoff weight of 21.6 tonnes. It will be used for transporting crew to the space station and to conduct China's future manned lunar missions. China is scheduled to complete the construction of the space station around 2022.

The Long March-5B rocket is scheduled to arrive at the launch site in early February, the CMSEO said.

Lockheed Martin Ships Mobile Communications Satellite To Launch Site

Lockheed Martin shipped its third satellite based on the modernized LM 2100 bus to French Guiana for launch aboard an Ariane V rocket. JCSAT-17 will provide flexible mobile communications services to users in Japan and the surrounding region. Arianespace will launch JCSAT-17 from its spaceport in Kourou. JCSAT-17 is the first Mobile Satellite Service (MSS) communications satellite built on the modernized LM 2100, which includes 26 innovations that make the satellite more powerful, flexible and versatile in orbit. A reprogrammable mission processor adds flexibility as mission needs change. Lockheed Martin is currently manufacturing five modernized LM 2100-based satellites for commercial and government customers. "Following two successful launches of LM 2100 commercial communications satellites, Lockheed Martin is proud to deliver JCSAT-17 to SKY Perfect JSAT Corporation (SJC), which will add a tremendous amount of new connectivity for users in Japan," said Guy Beutelschies, Lockheed Martin's Vice President for Communication Satellite Solutions. "This satellite will help grow Japan's advanced economy by adding new options for mobility, bandwidth where it's needed, and reliable connections." The satellite's payload incorporates S-band and C-band transponders with a flexible processor along with 18m mesh reflector, enabling assured communications continuity during high-volume events. The satellite also features robust Ku-band connectivity.

JCSAT-17 is the eighth satellite built by Lockheed Martin for SJC, beginning with NSAT-110, JCSAT-9 through JCSAT-13 and JCSAT-110R.

NASA rings in busy new year in Florida to prepare for Artemis Missions

NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida will have a busy year preparing facilities, ground support equipment and space hardware for the launch of Artemis I, the first uncrewed launch of the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and the Orion spacecraft. In 2020, Exploration Ground Systems (EGS) activities will ramp up as launch hardware arrives and teams put systems in place for Artemis I and II missions. Launch countdown simulations will continue to ramp up in 2020 to train and certify the launch control team for Artemis missions. The types of simulations will build on one another and will walk through the final portions of the launch countdown sequence, called the terminal countdown. Integrated simulations will tie in all NASA centers working the mission to ensure all members of the team are ready to work together, including Mission Control at Johnson Space Center in Houston, and the SLS Engineering Support Center at Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama. Simulations will begin at the end of January and will occur up through one week before launch, with an average of one training exercise each month. Much of the work in 2020 will be to complete a punch list of detail work inside the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB). This includes cleaning the platforms and making minor repairs to any platform hardware that will be near flight hardware as the facility prepares for arrival of SLS components and stacking operations. "We are at a very significant point in NASA's Artemis mission," said Mike Bolger, program manager of EGS. "The EGS team has finished mobile launcher testing at the launch pad and will finish testing at the VAB in January. At that point, all of the launch infrastructure will be tested and ready for operations."

Launch Complex 39B
Teams will continue work on a new emergency egress system for Pad 39B where flight or ground crew could board a basket with a braking system at the crew access level of the mobile launcher. The crew would ride the basket down a cable and come to a stop near a bunker to the west of the pad surface, providing quick escape in the unlikely event of an emergency. The design phase began in 2019 and construction will be complete in time to support crewed Artemis missions.

The pad is currently getting a liquid hydrogen upgrade. The project involves the integration of a new 1.4 million gallon, liquid hydrogen (LH2) storage sphere into the existing Launch Complex 39B system. The new LH2 sphere will work with the current LH2 sphere to supply LH2 for Artemis II and beyond. The larger tank will allow NASA to attempt SLS launches on three consecutive days, instead of opportunities two out of three days, in the event of a scrub. The newer technology reduces liquid hydrogen burn-off, allowing more launch attempts before having to refill the larger tank. Construction began in 2019 and will be complete prior to Artemis II.

Orion Underway Recovery Test 8
The integrated recovery team of NASA, EGS, Lockheed Martin and the U.S. Navy, along with additional contractor support, will head out to sea off the coast of California in March to conduct the eighth Underway Recovery Test. Using a Navy ship with a well deck and several small boats, the primary objective is to validate Orion recovery operations for Artemis I - including procedures and timelines, and practicing different scenarios.

Orion Spacecraft
This spring, the Orion spacecraft for Artemis I will return from NASA's unique test facility at Plum Brook Station in Ohio, where it is currently undergoing environmental testing inside the vacuum chamber that simulates the harsh environment of space.

Inside the Neil Armstrong Operations and Checkout (O and C) Building at Kennedy, technicians will install the spacecraft's solar array wings before performing final checkouts. EGS will begin Orion ground processing and stacking activities later in the year.

The team will process and fuel Orion in the Multi-Purpose Processing Facility then transfer it over to the Launch Abort System Facility where engineers will attach the launch abort system. Orion will then roll out to the VAB for inspections before stacking Orion on top of the SLS rocket.

In its early processing stages, the Artemis II crew module milestones inside the O and C include propulsion tank installation, a pressure test and subsystems installations in the spring. The initial power-on of the crew module will occur in early fall. The heat shield that will protect the first crewed mission of Orion will be completed and installed by the end of the year. Processing and testing of the crew module adapter - the ring that connects to the European Service Module - for Artemis II will happen in the first half of the year prior to the arrival of the European Service Module in the fall.

Space Launch System
Training activities with pathfinders, or full-scale replicas, of the SLS core stage and booster segments occurred in 2019, and more training with various pathfinder segments and hardware will continue. In 2020, training will involve stacking inert booster segments on the mobile launcher in the VAB.

Hardware for SLS will continue to arrive for processing and integration in various Kennedy facilities. This year all ten of the solid propellant booster segments will arrive by train from their Northrop Grumman manufacturing facility in Promontory, Utah.

The launch vehicle stage adapter, which will connect the SLS core stage to the interim cryogenic propulsion stage, will arrive by barge. The booster aft skirts - which contain the thrust vector control system that steers the rocket - will trek from the Booster Fabrication Facility to the Rotation, Processing and Surge Facility where they will be attached to the aft exit cones.

The exit cones are attached to the bottommost part of each of the twin boosters to provide extra thrust to the boosters and protect the aft skirts from the thermal environment during launch.

The core stage of the SLS rocket will undergo a Green Run test campaign over several months in the B-2 test stand at the agency's Stennis Space Center in Mississippi. Following Green Run completion, the 225,000-pound core stage will leave Stennis and arrive at Kennedy on the Pegasus barge. The core stage and solid rocket boosters will then be integrated inside the VAB.

Mobile Launcher 2
In 2019, NASA awarded a contract for Mobile Launcher 2 to Bechtel National Inc. of Reston, Virginia. The ground structure that will be used to assemble, process and launch the second and more powerful configuration of the SLS rocket, called Block 1B, is in its early stages of design and development and will be ready for Artemis IV.

Artemis I will be the first in a series of increasingly challenging missions that will enable human exploration to the Moon and Mars. In 2020, the mission will truly begin to take shape as hardware arrives and stacking operations begin inside the VAB.

"The operations team is writing procedures, training, and preparing for flight hardware processing," Bolger said. "When the SLS and Orion are turned over to EGS later this year, Kennedy will be ready!"

Future Artemis missions will establish a sustainable presence at the Moon for decades to come, and Kennedy teams will move forward in 2020 to build the infrastructure and make those missions possible.

Mars loses water to space during warm, stormy seasons

All kinds of geological formations on Mars, alluvial fans, dry lake beds and eroded river valleys, suggest the Red Planet once hosted an abundance of water. Today, the water is mostly gone. What's left is largely locked up in the planet's polar ice caps. Scientists have been trying to figure out where all the water went and how fast it disappeared. New research, published this week in the journal Science, suggests Mars' seasonality may have dictated the rate at which water vapor was able to escape from the atmosphere and into space. In addition to the water trapped in the Red Planet's ice caps, trace amounts of water vapor persist in the Martian atmosphere. If these tiny water crystals rise high enough into the atmosphere, they can dissipate into space. To better understand this mechanism of water loss, scientists used data collected by the NASA spacecraft ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter to produce vertical distribution of water in the Martian atmosphere. "TGO uses solar occultation method," researcher Anna Fedorova, an astrophysicist at the Space Research Institute in Moscow, told UPI in an email. "The presence of water vapor and their amount are determined using the spectroscopic signatures near 1.38 micrometer [infrared bands] by the NIR/ACS spectrometer." In other words, TGO studies how sunlight is absorbed as it passes through the Martian atmosphere in order to detect the presence of H2O. "The results were obtained using the analysis of absorption features of H2O and CO2 gases," Fedorova said. "For each occultation we have the vertical profiles of H2O density and temperature from CO2."

Scientists surveyed the data for links between temperature and water distribution and found the Martian atmosphere became supersaturated during the warmest portions of its orbit. Their findings suggest water is more likely to rise into the upper atmosphere and escape to space when Mars is warmer and wetter.

Authors of the new study suspect their findings will improve a variety of Martian climate models.

"Saturation is one of the key points in the water transport on Mars," Fedorova told UPI. "The climate models have to be updated to predict such levels of supersaturation and perform the necessary adjustments."

So far, TGO has only collected water vapor distribution data during Mars warm season, so there isn't enough data to understand the full picture of seasonal water distribution on Mars.

"We don't have information that the cold aphelion season is less supersaturated," Fedorova said.

That data will be available soon, and when it is, scientists will have more analysis to do.

India says it will try again to land on moon

The Indian Space Research Organization chairman Kailasavadivoo Sivan said the country will move ahead with a new space mission to the moon despite a failed attempt in 2019. The Chandrayaan-3 space mission, set to take place no later than early 2021, will include an upgraded space vehicle with a new propulsion module, moon lander and rover, Sivan said on Wednesday. India will be trying to become the fourth country to make a "soft landing" on the moon, behind the United States, the former Soviet Union and China. The unmanned lunar landing is part of India's bigger goal of launching its own astronauts into space by 2022. India's Minister of State Jitendra Singh said India gathered a great deal of information from the Chandrayaan-2 mission that will help it in the space agency's upcoming mission. "Yes, the lander and rover mission will most likely happen in 2020," Singh said. "However, as I have said before, the Chandrayaan-2 mission cannot be called a failure as we have learned a lot from it. "There is no country in the world that has landed on its first attempt. The U.S. took several attempts. But we will not need so many attempts." India already has scored a number of firsts for Asian nations. It became the first to reach Mars in 2014 when it placed one of its probes in orbit around Earth's neighbor. India then put a record of 104 satellites in space on one mission.

The country then touted its space defense capabilities when it announced in 2019 that it shot down one of its own satellites as a test of the anti-satellite protocol.

Solar sail in earth orbit is big breakthrough for China

The Shenyang Institute of Automation (SIA) announced on Thursday that China's first solar sail, SIASAIL-I, has successfully verified a number of key technologies in orbit, a big breakthrough in China's solar sail development. The solar sail developed by the institute of the Chinese Academy of Sciences based in Northeast China's Liaoning province is a spacecraft powered by the reflected light pressure of the sun on the spacecraft's membrane. Because it does not consume additional chemical fuel, a solar sail is considered to be the one and only spacecraft that may reach outside the solar system. It can be applied to a wide range of fields, including asteroid exploration, geomagnetic storm monitoring, solar polar exploration and space debris removal. On July 20, 2001, Cosmos-1, the world's first solar sail spacecraft, was launched from a Russian nuclear submarine. Other countries, like Japan, the United States and the United Kingdom, have since carried out research on the technology and application of solar sails in orbit. Founded in 1958, SIA focuses on robotics, industrial automation and optoelectronic information processing technology. As the cradle of China's robot industry, the institute leads the research and development of Chinese robot technology. SIA started scientific research on the design of space flexible deployment mechanism in 2011. SIASAIL-I is one of the first products. Liu Jinguo, deputy director of the SIA Space Automation Technology Research Office, led the team in the design, technical verification and environmental tests of the solar sail.

Liu said that they managed to fold the flexible membrane and put it into the deployment machine, which is smaller than a billiard ball.

After the satellite platform is put into orbit, scientists carry out technical verification through two-stage deployment. At the first stage, the solar sail body is pushed out of the satellite platform and turned 90 degrees.

The second stage is to erect masts and gradually spread the sail. The unfolded solar sail is about 0.6 square meters, which is equivalent to the size of eight Macbook airs laptop computers.

According to SIA, data and pictures returned from the satellite show that the key technology test of "SIASAIL-I" solar sail is progressing smoothly and successfully, including tests on the micro-satellite deployment system, and flexible sail membrane material.

SIA will further strengthen cooperation with relevant units at home and abroad and strive to realize China's first space science exploration mission based on a solar sail.