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| Photo: Ileana Johnson 2015 |
California is more concerned with smoking habits if you take
into account expensive signs posted everywhere announcing in big, bold letters
to those who can read English, “Warning: Birth Defects – Tobacco smoke is known
to the state of California to cause cancer and birth defects or other
reproductive harm.”
California is so protective of animals and planets, even
wolves and planet Earth need lawyers. Earthjustice was offering their services
through a beautiful ad at the airport for the traveling endangered wolves
culled by indiscriminate killing.
California was the golden state, the sunshine state, but the
gold has long run out, the luster is now tarnished, perhaps golden brown on
account of all the dead grasses from the three-year drought.
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| The new Cassini spacecraft JPL lab Photo: Ileana Johnson 2015 |
California still does something right, NASA’s Jet Propulsion
Laboratory in Pasadena. For over fifty
years, JPL‘s robotic missions have explored every planet in our solar system.
Today, in addition to monitoring Earth and exploring the solar system, JPL “probes
deep space in our galaxy and outward to the greater universe.” Managed by the
California Institute of Technology for NASA, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory is a
federally funded research and development center for domestic as well as
international entities.
JPL built many firsts:
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Mariner 2
in 1962, the first successful interplanetary spacecraft
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Mariner 9
in 1971, the first spacecraft to orbit another planet (Mars)
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Voyager 2
in 1979-1989, the first tour of the outer planets
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Galileo
in 1997, the first orbit of Jupiter
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Cassini in
2004, the first orbit of Saturn
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Deep
Impact in 2005, the first comet impact
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Voyager 1
in 2013, the first spacecraft to reach interstellar space
Cassini is a
cooperative mission of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space
Agency, with other hundreds of scientists and engineers from Europe and the
U.S. The spacecraft’s final orbits have
been named the Grand Finale.
The orbiter Cassini,
the largest interplanetary spacecraft built by NASA was launched on October 15,
1997, from Cape Canaveral in Florida, with a Huygens probe aboard owned by the European Space Agency. In 2017,
when the Grand Finale spacecraft
falls into Saturn’s atmosphere, it will end twenty years of extraordinary
mission of exploring Saturn, its rings, Titan, icy satellites, and the
magnetosphere. During the first decade of orbiting, 500 gigabytes of scientific
data were beamed to Earth through NASA’s Deep Space Network; Cassini made 200
orbits of Saturn, 132 close flybys of Saturn’s moons and discovered seven new
moons.
Top discoveries of Cassini
include:
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Huygens probe
onboard Cassini parachuted to Titan,
the first such landing on a moon in the outer solar system
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Icy plumes were found spraying from “tiger
stripe” fissures on Enceladus, one of Saturn’s moons
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The moons on Saturn were active and dynamic –
showing how planets and moons form
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Saturn’s largest moon, Titan, has rain, rivers,
lakes, and seas and is surrounded by thick, nitrogen-rich atmosphere, perhaps
similar to what Earth’s was like long ago
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Images of the northern storm of 2010-2011 which
covered Saturn for months
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Radio-wave patterns are not tied to Saturn’s
interior rotation
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Images of vertical structures inside the rings
piled more than 2 miles high
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Titan’s prebiotic chemistry
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Giant hurricanes at both Saturn’s poles
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North polar hexagon of Saturn
By the end of its 20-year mission, the new Cassini probe assembled with a much
larger antenna will make “detailed maps of Saturn’s gravity and magnetic
fields, revealing how the planet is composed on the inside,” how much material
is in the rings, and perhaps elucidate the mystery of how fast the interior of
the planet is rotating. It will take pictures of rings and clouds and “sample
icy ring particles being funneled into the atmosphere by Saturn’s magnetic
field.”
JPL also monitors the Earth’s climate through its GRACE-FO (Follow On in 2017) by tracking
Earth’s water in motion with more precise measuring instruments than its
predecessor GRACE. Tracking variations in gravity which was
assumed to be caused by the movement of water, JPL monitors changes in
underground water storage, water stored in lakes and rivers, soil moisture, ice
sheets and glaciers, and sea levels caused by adding water to oceans.
NASA's Aquarius spacecraft
Photo: Ileana Johnson 2015
As a man-made global warming skeptic, I was interested in
the mission of Aquarius. According to
JPL’s museum, Aquarius provides data
to “improve computer models” to help “researchers better understand our
climate.” NASA’s Aquarius takes
300,000 measurements per month “to advance our understanding of ocean
salinity’s role in Earth’s water cycle, ocean circulation, and climate.”
The spacecraft assembly area for the new Cassini was exhibiting a huge meringue
pie-like spacecraft. The huge room was at the time deserted.
The Science Division of JPL included four areas of research:
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Understanding
our Universe (from the Earth to the Planets and Beyond)
This included theoretical studies,
observations, laboratory experiments, data analysis, advanced instrument
development focused on current or future NASA missions.
JPL states, “Research areas include studying
the causes and effects of climate change on Earth, the origin and nature of
planetary bodies, the search for life beyond Earth, and the nature and
evolution of the universe – all vital scientific issues being addressed by
NASA.”
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Earth
Science
“JPL Earth scientists conduct research to
characterize and understand the atmosphere, land, and oceans on our home planet
in order to make better predictions of
future changes through the use of observations to improve models. Our
wide-ranging research topics include studies of the composition of the
atmosphere with a focus on greenhouse gases, air quality and ozone; the global
water, carbon and energy cycles, including clouds, snow, ice and vegetation;
ocean circulation and interactions between oceans, atmosphere and sea ice; and
earthquake fault systems, volcanic eruptions, and the composition of Earth’s
surface.”
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Planetary
Science
Understanding origins, evolution, structure
of planets, satellites, and smaller bodies in the solar system; geology and
geophysics of terrestrial planets, particularly Mars, satellites, planetary
atmospheres, comets, asteroids, properties of planetary ices, chemistry,
astrobiology, search for water beyond Earth; and instrument development for
future missions.
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Astrophysics
and Space Sciences
Studying the Sun and its heliosphere, solar
wind, formation of stars, formation of
planetary systems, exoplanets, formation, structure, and evolution of our own
galaxy, distant galaxies, the Universe; development of instruments to
“characterize astrophysical objects including exoplanets, proto-planetary
disks, interstellar molecular clouds, distant galaxies, black holes, and the
Cosmic Microwave Background, the relic radiation from the Big Bang.”
Mars was explored by twin rovers Spirit and Opportunity
which found evidence of long-term water near their landing site in 2004. Sojourner studied rocks, dust, and
weather on Mars during its 1997 mission. Opportunity’s
mission found that a meteorite had crashed into a 65-foot basin (Eagle Crater) previously
covered by a “body of salty water deep enough to splash in.” These Mars rovers
ranged in size from a footstool (Sojourner),
golf cart (Opportunity and Spirit), and an SUV (Curiosity).
Mariner 10
(1973-1975 missions) visited the scorched Mercury, the closest planet to the
sun. The rover found that “some deep craters may contain deposits of water ice
hidden from the heat of the Sun.”
According to JPL, “Venus shows what happens when a heavy
carbon dioxide atmosphere and thick clouds smother the surface of a volcanic
world. The clouds absorb heat from the Sun and from the surface and prevent it
from escaping. As a result, a runaway greenhouse suffocates the planet.
Volcanic eruptions have built low-level mountains, pancake-shaped domes and
ancient rivers of lava.” The Magellan mission and Earth-based radars help draw
the map of Venus.
JPL’s satellite Explorer
1 began its survey of Earth in 1958. The only planet that is largely
covered by salt water, Earth has only 2.5% fresh water. According to JPL, over
two-thirds of this fresh water is frozen in the icecaps of Antarctica and
Greenland. “Less than 1% of Earth’s fresh water is accessible for direct human
use.”
Earth’s crust, divided into tectonic plates, carries the
ocean and land on “their backs” so to speak. Earth is wrapped in an atmosphere
made up “almost entirely of nitrogen, a smaller amount of oxygen, and other
gases.” It is this combination that supports life on earth.
When reading this quote from JPL, Dr. Klaus Kaiser added, "One of these 'other gases' is carbon dioxide (CO2) on which all life on earth depends!"
When reading this quote from JPL, Dr. Klaus Kaiser added, "One of these 'other gases' is carbon dioxide (CO2) on which all life on earth depends!"
JPL tracks through its Jason
1 and Jason 2 the movement of
warm waves of water east across the Pacific every few years called El Nino,
measuring “the changes in sea surface height to an accuracy of 3.3 centimeters
(about 1.3 inches).”
Earth-observation satellites monitor the land, ocean, ice,
and atmosphere. It can see, for examples, how the Mississippi River Delta water
carries soil to the sea, creating mudflats and marshlands. Same satellites can
monitor hurricanes, their size, intensity, wind speeds, and motions. JPL’s
orbiting ASTER instrument can show soil erosion to shorelines.
Apollo 17 (1972) took the first ever full view picture of
Earth and the first-ever photograph of Earth’s south polar regions taken from
space. In 1978 SEASAT “set the stage for today’s ocean-observing satellites.”
A U.S.-French oceanography mission called TOPEX/Poseidon
measured “global sea surface height from
1992-2005. It provided data about the heat stored in the ocean, and the speed
and direction of the currents.” This
information provided short-term weather and global climate variations. Could
this be considered a base-line measurement?
To continue the work of TOPEX/Poseidon, Jason 1 was launched in 2001. This satellite monitors “global ocean
circulation, studies interactions between the ocean and atmosphere, improves
global climate predictions, and
monitors events such as El Nino.”
Launched in 1999, SEAWINDS “senses ripples caused by winds
near the ocean’s surface. Knowledge of wind speed and direction helps
scientists understand climate and weather patterns, changes in Arctic sea ice
and icebergs, and variations in snow and soil moisture levels on land.” (Museum
archives)
The most complete high resolution digital topographic
database of Earth was mapped by the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) on
the 11-day flight aboard the space shuttle Endeavour, the manned-space program
that was scrapped by the Obama Administration.
And there is our closest celestial neighbor, the Moon,
magnificently desolate and covered in millions of craters created by the impact
of asteroids and comets. JPL discovered in recent times that the Moon “holds at
least small amounts of water.” Galileo
surveyed the moon during its 1992 passing to Jupiter.
Galileo spacecraft
Photo: Ileana Johnson 2015
Galileo used a
400-Newton retrorocket to slow it down enough to be captured into orbit. The
propulsion system was provided by Germany and built by
Messerschmitt-Boelkow-Blohm (MBB).
JPL crashed three Ranger
spacecraft into the moon’s surface. Surveyor
missions were able to soft-land on the Moon and Surveyor 7 photographed the rim of Tycho Crater. This landing paved
the way for humans to land on the Moon, proving that a spacecraft “would not
sink into the lunar surface.”
According to JPL archives, the 1969 Apollo 12 lunar landing
was made by astronauts within 200 meters (656 feet) of Surveyor 3.
Venus was explored by Magellan
from 1989-1994 and was able to map its surface from orbit even though its
atmosphere was very thick. Flight controllers tested a maneuver called “aero-braking.”
Our solar system, moving through space at 250 kilometers
(155 miles) per second, is part of the Milky Way Galaxy, and was born about 4.6
billion years ago. The Sun, one of more
than 100 billion stars in the Milky Way Galaxy, is orbited by eight major
planets, their moons and rings, asteroids, comets, and dwarf planets.
“The Sun gives off energy created by reactions in a nuclear
furnace at its core. That power plant supplies virtually all the energy for our
solar system. Our star sustains life and
affects climate processes on Earth. Violent transfers of matter and energy
from the Sun to the Earth, such as solar flares, can disrupt our communications
systems and endanger astronauts.” (JPL Museum Archives)
Genesis collected
between 2001-2004 samples of the solar wind – a stream of charged particles
flowing out from the Sun. It returned them to Earth for analysis in
laboratories.”
Comets contain in their nucleus “the oldest material in the
solar system.” JPL’s Deep Space 1
spacecraft passed by Comet Borrelly in2001 and sent back interesting
photographs of jets forming a coma of dust and gases. “A comet is a time capsule from the formation
of the solar system.” Comet Hale-Bopp wowed millions in 1996-1997 with its “tails
of dust and blue plasma stretching across the sky for weeks.” In the year 4385,
this comet will come close to the Sun again.
Meteorites collected from Antarctica and around the globe
are metal or stone fragments that fall to Earth from asteroids, Earth’s Moon,
Mars, or comets.
JPL tracks asteroids, pieces of smaller planetary bodies made
of rock. Most are found in the Asteroid
Belt and some have orbits that bring them in close proximity to Earth. They can
be a few meters to over 900 kilometers across. The second most massive asteroid
is Vesta (530 km across). Most asteroid orbit the Sun in the Asteroid Belt
located between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter.
Jupiter is the largest planet in the solar system and is
made up of gas and clouds with ammonia crystals and other ices. Jupiter’s
strong gravitational pull keeps her moons and rings in check. Voyager
1 discovered Jupiter’s ring and the volcanoes on it.
Galileo Galilei looked at Saturn through his telescope in
early 17th century and declared that Saturn had “ears.” Voyager 1 spacecraft photographed with
high resolution this giant planet made of gas. The Hubble Space Telescope took
clear photographs that elucidated the mystery of its atmospheric composition.
Using data from Cassini’s
ultraviolet-sensitive instrument, a colorized version of Saturn’s rings was
drawn. Among the many moons embedded in Saturn’s rings, scientists at JPL have
studied Enceladus and Titan. Apparently Enceladus’ ice volcanoes spray frozen
particles into space through geyser-like vents. Titan has a smog-like
atmosphere which it is believed to resemble the “primordial Earth.”
The “ice giant” Uranus shrouded by methane was visited by Voyager 2. Uranus has the coldest
atmosphere of all the planets hence his moniker of a frigid world. “Uranus
orbits the Sun on its side.”
Voyager 2 visited Neptune in 1989 and its moon Triton, with
its “coldest surface in the solar system.” A “cantaloupe terrain” and “geysers
that spout dark material from beneath its surface of nitrogen ice” were also
discovered. A “near twin to Uranus,” Neptune has an atmosphere composed of
hydrogen and helium with traces of methane.
Pluto, a dwarf planet and member of the Kuiper Belt, is a
frigid world two-thirds the diameter of Earth’s Moon, with a methane ice
surface and a very thin atmosphere. Pluto makes one trip around the Sun in 248
years.
JPL's empty control room
Photo: Ileana Johnson 2015
The Space Flight Operations Facility, a National Historic
Landmark since 1985, controls dozens of missions. Each team of controllers is responsible
for communications to and from their assigned spacecraft via the sensitive
antennas of the Deep Space Network. These antennas swivel on their bases and
track spacecraft from horizon to horizon, dividing the earth into three
sections, both listening and talking to their targets. The largest antennas are
10 stories tall with dishes 230 feet across.
The Space Flight controllers coined a phrase that allows one
to say, once I visited the Space Flight Operations Facility, “I’ve been to the
center of the Universe.”
