Space probes

The MAVEN space probe at the moment of its launch (Photo NASA TV)

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The MAVEN (Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution) space probe has just been launched on an Atlas V 401 rocket from Cape Canaveral. The separation of the rocket stages happened smoothly and the spacecraft entered the orbit from which it will start its actual journey towards Mars.

The Mars Orbiter Mission prepared for the launch (Photo courtesy ISRO. All rights reserved)

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The Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) has just started with the launch from the Sriharikota base in the state of Andhra Pradesh, India. After less than one hour, the space probe has successfully inserted in the orbit scheduled for the first stage of its mission.

MOM is the first attempt of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), the Indian space agency, to show the technology necessary to an interplanetary mission, meaning those needed to develop the spacecraft and its instruments, send it to another planet and manage the various stages of its journey communicating with it. The space probe is informally nicknamed Mangalyaan, which in Sanskrit means Mars craft.

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Yesterday it was afternoon at ESA’s ESOC (European Space Operations Centre of ESA) in Darmstadt, Germany, when the last command was sent to the Planck Surveyor, the space telescope that provided us with the most detailed map of the early universe. This marked the end of its mission after being “parked” into a heliocentric orbit.

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Despite the temporary shutdown of federal activities in the USA that also affected the American NASA, the Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE) space probe entered lunar orbit on October 7, about a month after its launch. With federal activities remuming, in recent days it was possible to test the Lunar Laser Communications Demonstration (LLCD) installed on LADEE and it was a success.

The image created by Gordan Ugarkovic using photographs taken by the Cassini space probe (Image NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute/G. Ugarkovic)

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NASA’s Cassini space probe has taken a lot of pictures of the planet Saturn and its rings. It’s a show that keeps on fascinating us and Gordan Ugarkovic, a Croatian member of the UnmannedSpaceflight.com group, has brought together 36 photographs available in the Cassini mission archive to create a complete image of the planet as seen from its north pole, with its rings in evidence.