On Tuesday, the team discussed the research in progress concerning an ongoing investigation of perchlorate salts detected in soil analyzed by the wet chemistry laboratory aboard the Phoenix Lander.

“Finding perchlorates is neither good nor bad for life, but it does make us reassess how we think about life on Mars,” said Michael Hecht of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. Hecht is the lead scientist for the Microscopy, Electrochemistry and Conductivity Analyzer, the instrument that includes the wet chemistry laboratory.

Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona/Texas A&M University
Image acquired by NASA’s Phoenix Mars Lander shows the trench informally called “Snow White.”

Two samples were delivered to the Wet Chemistry Laboratory, which is part of Phoenix’s Microscopy, Electrochemistry, and Conductivity Analyzer. The first sample was taken from the surface area just left of the trench and informally named “Rosy Red.” The second sample, informally named “Sorceress,” was taken from the center of the “Snow White” trench.

“The Phoenix project has decided to take an unusual step” in talking about the research when its scientists are only about half-way through the data collection phase and have not yet had time to complete data analysis or perform needed laboratory work, said Phoenix principal investigator Peter Smith of the University of Arizona, Tucson. Scientists are still at the stage where they are examining multiple hypotheses, given evidence that the soil contains perchlorate.

“We decided to show the public science in action because of the extreme interest in the Phoenix mission, which is searching for a habitable environment on the northern plains of Mars,” Smith added. “Right now, we don’t know whether finding perchlorate is good news or bad news for possible life on Mars.”

Perchlorate is an ion, or charged particle. It is also an oxidant, that is, it can release oxygen, but it is not a powerful one. Perchlorates are found naturally on Earth at such places as Chile’s hyper-arid Atacama Desert.

“We have water,” said William Boynton of the University of Arizona, lead scientist for the Thermal and Evolved-Gas Analyzer, or TEGA. “We’ve seen evidence for this water ice before in observations by the Mars Odyssey orbiter and in disappearing chunks observed by Phoenix last month, but this is the first time Martian water has been touched and tasted.”

Photo credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University Arizona/Texas A&M University

With enticing results so far and the spacecraft in good shape, NASA also announced operational funding for the mission will extend through Sept. 30. The original prime mission of three months ends in late August. The mission extension adds five weeks to the 90 days of the prime mission.

“Phoenix is healthy and the projections for solar power look good, so we want to take full advantage of having this resource in one of the most interesting locations on Mars,” said Michael Meyer, chief scientist for the Mars Exploration Program at NASA Headquarters in Washington.

The soil sample came from a trench approximately 2 inches deep. When the robotic arm first reached that depth, it hit a hard layer of frozen soil. Two attempts to deliver samples of icy soil on days when fresh material was exposed were foiled when the samples became stuck inside the scoop. Most of the material in Wednesday’s sample had been exposed to the air for two days, letting some of the water in the sample vaporize away and making the soil easier to handle.

“Mars is giving us some surprises,” said Phoenix principal investigator Peter Smith of the University of Arizona. “We’re excited because surprises are where discoveries come from. One surprise is how the soil is behaving. The ice-rich layers stick to the scoop when poised in the sun above the deck, different from what we expected from all the Mars simulation testing we’ve done. That has presented challenges for delivering samples, but we’re finding ways to work with it and we’re gathering lots of information to help us understand this soil.”

Since landing on May 25, Phoenix has been studying soil with a chemistry lab, TEGA, a microscope, a conductivity probe and cameras. Besides confirming the 2002 finding from orbit of water ice near the surface and deciphering the newly observed stickiness, the science team is trying to determine whether the water ice ever thaws enough to be available for biology and if carbon-containing chemicals and other raw materials for life are present.

The mission is examining the sky as well as the ground. A Canadian instrument is using a laser beam to study dust and clouds overhead.

“It’s a 30-watt light bulb giving us a laser show on Mars,” said Victoria Hipkin of the Canadian Space Agency.

A full-circle, color panorama of Phoenix’s surroundings also has been completed by the spacecraft.

“The details and patterns we see in the ground show an ice-dominated terrain as far as the eye can see,” said Mark Lemmon of Texas A&M University, lead scientist for Phoenix’s Surface Stereo Imager camera. “They help us plan measurements we’re making within reach of the robotic arm and interpret those measurements on a wider scale.”

Source: NASA - The University of Arizona.

Using an instrument on NASA’s Cassini orbiter, they discovered that a lake-like feature in the south polar region of Saturn’s moon, Titan, is truly wet. The lake is about 235 kilometers, or 150 miles, long.

The visual and infrared mapping spectrometer, or VIMS, an instrument run from The University Arizona, identifies the chemical composition of objects by the way matter reflects light.

Above image caption: (Right image half): the visual and infrared mapping spectrometer (VIMS) aboard NASA’s Cassini orbiter captured this detailed, partial view of Titan’s Ontario Lacus at 5 microns wavelength from 1,100 kilometers away, or about 680 miles away, on Dec. 4, 2007. Only part of the lake is visible on Titan’s sunlit side. What appears to be a ‘beach’ is seen in the lower right of the image, below the bright lake shoreline. LEFT IMAGE: Cassini’s Imaging Science System took this image of Lacus Ontario in June 2005.

Credit: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona Left image - NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute

When VIMS observed the lake, named Ontario Lacus, it detected ethane, a simple hydrocarbon that Titan experts have long been searching for. The ethane is in liquid solution with methane, nitrogen and other low-molecular weight hydrocarbons.

“This is the first observation that really pins down that Titan has a surface lake filled with liquid,” VIMS principal investigator and professor Robert H. Brown of UA’s Lunar and Planetary Laboratory said. Brown and his team report their results in the July 31 issue of the journal Nature.

“Detection of liquid ethane in Ontario Lacus confirms a long-held idea that lakes and seas filled with methane and ethane exist on Titan,” said Larry Soderblom of the U.S. Geological Survey, Flagstaff, Ariz.

The fact that the VIMS could detect the spectral signatures of ethane on the moon’s dimly lit surface while viewing at a highly slanted angle through Titan’s thick atmosphere “raises expectations for exciting future lake discoveries by the infrared spectrometer,” Soderblom, an interdisciplinary Cassini scientist, said.

The ubiquitous hydrocarbon haze in Titan’s atmosphere hinders the view to Titan’s surface. But there are transparent atmospheric “windows” at certain infrared light wavelengths through which Cassini’s VIMS can see to the ground. VIMS observed Ontario Lacus on Cassini’s 38th close flyby of Titan in December 2007.

The lake is roughly 20,000 square kilometers, or 7,800 square miles, just slightly larger than North America’s Lake Ontario, Brown said. Infrared spectroscopy doesn’t tell the researchers how deep the lake is, other than it must be at least a centimeter or two, or about three-quarters of an inch, deep.

“We know the lake is liquid because it reflects essentially no light at 5-micron wavelengths,” Brown said. “It was hard for us to accept the fact that the feature was so black when we first saw it. More than 99.9 percent of the light that reaches the lake never gets out again. For it to be that dark, the surface has to be extremely quiescent, mirror smooth. No naturally produced solid could be that smooth.”

VIMS observations at 2-micron wavelengths shows the lake holds ethane. The scientists saw the specific signature of ethane as a dip at the precise wavelength that ethane absorbs infrared light. Tiny ethane particles almost as fine as cigarette smoke are apparently filtering out of the atmosphere and into the lake, Brown said.

Ethane is a simple hydrocarbon produced when ultraviolet light from the sun breaks up its parent molecule, methane, in Titan’s methane-rich, mostly nitrogen atmosphere.

Before the Cassini mission, several scientists thought that Titan would be awash in global oceans of ethane and other light hydrocarbons, the byproducts of photolysis, or the action of ultraviolet light on methane over 4.5 billion years of solar system history. But 40 close flybys of Titan by the Cassini spacecraft show no such oceans exist.

The observations also suggest the lake is evaporating. The lake is ringed by a dark beach, where the black lake merges with the bright shoreline.

“We can see there’s a shelf, a beach, that is being exposed as the lake evaporates,” Brown said.

That the beach is darker than the shoreline could mean that the “sand” on the beach is wet with organics, or it could be covered with a thin layer of liquid organics, he said.

The VIMS measurements rule out the presence of water ice, ammonia, ammonia hydrate and carbon dioxide in Ontario Lacus.

The VIMS result gives researchers new insight on Titan’s chemistry and weather dynamics.

Titan, which is one-and-a-half times the size of Earth’s moon and bigger than either Mercury or Pluto, is one of the most fascinating bodies in the solar system when it comes to exploring environments that may give rise to life.

Cassini cameras and radar and the UA-built camera aboard the European Space Agency’s Huygens probe that landed on Titan in January 2005 have shown that methane saturates and drains from Titan’s atmosphere, creating river-like and lake-like features on the surface. Just as water cycles through the hydrologic regime on Earth, methane cycles through a methanological cycle on Titan.

Source: University of Arizona.

The new study suggests that the water came from the Moon’s interior and was delivered to the surface via volcanic eruptions over 3 billion years ago. The finding calls into question some critical aspects of the “giant impact” theory of the Moon’s formation and may have implications for the origin of possible water reservoirs at the Moon’s poles. The research is published in the July 10, 2008, issue of Nature.

It is believed that the Moon was formed when a Mars-size body collided with Earth some 4.5 billion years ago. This “giant impact” melted both objects and sent molten debris into orbit around the Earth, some of which coalesced to form the Moon. Under this scenario, the heat from the giant impact would have vaporized the light elements.

Over the past forty years there have been significant efforts to determine the content and origin of the volatile contents in the lunar samples. There is reliable evidence that the Moon’s interior contains sulfur, some chlorine, fluorine, and carbon. Yet the evidence for indigenous H2O has remained elusive, consistent with the general consensus that the Moon is dry.

The research team, with scientists from Brown University, Carnegie Institution for Science, and Case Western Reserve University, took advantage of new methods for analyzing lunar samples to detect tiny amounts of water. Co-author of the paper, Erik Hauri of the Carnegie’s Department of Terrestrial Magnetism, developed new techniques that can detect extremely minute quantities of water in glasses and minerals by the technology called secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS). These technical advances were made in collaboration with engineers from Cameca Instruments (France), who manufactured the NanoSIMS instrument used to make these challenging measurements.

“For the past four decades, the limit for detecting water in lunar samples was about 50 parts per million (ppm) at best,” explained Hauri. “We developed a way to detect as little as 5 ppm of water. We were really surprised to find a great deal more in these tiny glass beads, up to 46 ppm.”

One glass bead told the tale of what happened. The researchers found that the volatiles decreased from the tiny sphere’s core to its rim—a difference that indicates that some 95% of the water was lost during the volcanic activity. James Van Orman, a former Carnegie postdoc now at Case Western Reserve University, was one of the team members who wrote the numerical model. “We looked at many factors over a wide range of cooling rates that would affect all the volatiles simultaneously and came up with the right mix. A droplet cooling at a rate of about 3° F to 6° F per second over 2 to 5 minutes between the time of eruption and when the material was quenched or rapidly cooled matched the profiles for all the volatiles, including the loss of about 95% of the water,” he said.

The researchers estimated that there was originally about 750 ppm of water in the magma at the time of eruption. “Since the Moon was thought to be perfectly dehydrated, this is a giant leap from previous estimates,” continued Hauri. “It suggests the intriguing possibility that the Moon’s interior might have had as much water as the Earth’s upper mantle. But even more intriguing: If the Moon’s volcanoes released 95% of their water, where did all that water go?”

Since the Moon’s gravity is too feeble to retain an atmosphere, the researchers speculate that some of the water vapor from the eruptions was probably forced into space, but some may also have drifted toward the cold poles of the Moon where ice may be present in permanently shadowed craters. Several previous lunar missions have suggested the presence of ice at both poles. Unless it is very deep, lunar groundwater is unlikely to exist since the Sun heats most of the Moon’s surface to over 200°F (100°C).

Lead author of the study, Alberto Saal of Brown University remarked: “Beyond the evidence for the presence of water in the interior of the Moon, which I found extremely exciting, I learned that the contributions from scientists from other disciplines has the potential to produce unexpected results. Such a scientist is able not only to ask questions that no one has asked before, but also can challenge hypotheses that are embedded in the thinking of the scientists working in the field for many years. Our case is a typical example. When I suggested we measure volatiles in lunar material, everyone I talked to thought that such proposal was a futile endeavor. We ‘knew’ the Moon was dry.”

Many scientists have believed the Moon’s polar ice, if there, originated from impacts of water-rich meteoroids and comets that struck the Moon’s surface over its history. The new study suggests that some of this water could have come from lunar volcanic eruptions. Verifying that water is at the Moon’s poles is one goal of the NASA Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (http://lro.gsfc.nasa.gov/) mission, due to launch later this year. And it is the primary objective of the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (http://lcross.arc.nasa.gov/) with a 2009 launch date. Verification of water on the Moon’s surface is an important step in progress toward an eventual manned lunar outpost.

 Source:Carnegie Institution.

Its mission is to continue charting sea level, a vital indicator of global climate change. It’s hoped the data it gathers will improve weather, climate and ocean forecasts.

“Sea-level measurements from space have come of age,” said Michael Freilich, director of the Earth Science Division in NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, Washington. “Precision measurements from this mission will improve our knowledge of global and regional sea-level changes and enable more accurate weather, ocean and climate forecasts.”

Measurements of sea-surface height, or ocean surface topography, reveal the speed and direction of ocean currents and tell scientists how much of the sun’s energy is stored by the ocean.

OSTM/Jason 2’s expected lifetime of at least three years will extend into the next decade the continuous record of these data started in 1992 by NASA and the French space agency Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales, or CNES, with the TOPEX/Poseidon mission.

To learn more about OSTM/Jason 2, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/ostm

Photo Credit: Artist’s concept of OSTM/Jason-2 in space (NASA/JPL-Calech)

“It must be ice,” said Phoenix Principal Investigator Peter Smith of the University of Arizona, Tucson. “These little clumps completely disappearing over the course of a few days, that is perfect evidence that it’s ice. There had been some question whether the bright material was salt. Salt can’t do that.”

The chunks were left at the bottom of a trench informally called “Dodo-Goldilocks” when Phoenix’s Robotic Arm enlarged that trench on June 15, during the 20th Martian day, or sol, since landing. Several were gone when Phoenix looked at the trench early today, on Sol 24.

Image above caption: This color image was acquired by NASA’s Phoenix Mars Lander’s Surface Stereo Imager on the 19th day of the mission, or Sol 19 (June 13, 2008), after the May 25, 2008, landing. This image shows one trench informally called “Dodo-Goldilocks” after two digs (dug on Sol 18, or June 12, 2008) by Phoenix’s Robotic Arm. The trench is 22 centimeters (8.7 inches) wide and 35 centimeters (13.8 inches) long. At its deepest point, the trench is 7 to 8 centimeters (2.7 to 3 inches) deep.

White material, possibly ice, is located only at the upper portion of the trench, indicating that it is not continuous throughout the excavated site. According to scientists, the trench might be exposing a ledge, or only a portion of a slab, of the white material.

The Phoenix Mission is led by the University of Arizona, Tucson, on behalf of NASA. Project management of the mission is by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. Spacecraft development is by Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver.

Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona/Texas A&M University

Also early today, digging in a different trench, the Robotic Arm connected with a hard surface that has scientists excited about the prospect of next uncovering an icy layer.

The Phoenix science team spent Thursday analyzing new images and data successfully returned from the lander earlier in the day.

Studying the initial findings from the new “Snow White 2″ trench, located to the right of “Snow White 1,” Ray Arvidson of Washington University in St. Louis, co-investigator for the robotic arm, said, “We have dug a trench and uncovered a hard layer at the same depth as the ice layer in our other trench.”

On Sol 24, Phoenix extended the first trench in the middle of a polygon at the “Wonderland” site. While digging, the Robotic Arm came upon a firm layer, and after three attempts to dig further, the arm went into a holding position. Such an action is expected when the Robotic Arm comes upon a hard surface.

Meanwhile, the spacecraft team at Lockheed Martin Space Systems in Denver is preparing a software patch to send to Phoenix in a few days so scientific data can again be saved onboard overnight when needed. Because of a large amount a duplicative file-maintenance data generated by the spacecraft Tuesday, the team is taking the precaution of not storing science data in Phoenix’s flash memory, and instead downlinking it at the end of every day, until the conditions that produced those duplicative data files are corrected.

“We now understand what happened, and we can fix it with a software patch,” said Phoenix Project Manager Barry Goldstein of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena. “Our three-month schedule has 30 days of margin for contingencies like this, and we have used only one contingency day out of 24 sols. The mission is well ahead of schedule. We are making excellent progress toward full mission success.”

Source: The Phoenix Mission.

Moreover, looking at their entire sample studied with HARPS, the astronomers count a total of 45 candidate planets with a mass below 30 Earth masses and an orbital period shorter than 50 days. This implies that one solar-like star out of three harbours such planets.

“Does every single star harbour planets and, if yes, how many?” wonders planet hunter Michel Mayor from Geneva Observatory. “We may not yet know the answer but we are making huge progress towards it.”

Since the discovery in 1995 of a planet around the star 51 Pegasi by Mayor and Didier Queloz, more than 270 exoplanets have been found, mostly around solar-like stars. Most of these planets are giants, such as Jupiter or Saturn, and current statistics show that about 1 out of 14 stars harbours this kind of planet.

“With the advent of much more precise instruments such as the HARPS spectrograph on ESO’s 3.6-m telescope at La Silla, we can now discover smaller planets, with masses between 2 and 10 times the Earth’s mass,” says Stéphane Udry, one of Mayor’s colleagues. Such planets are called super-Earths, as they are more massive than the Earth but less massive than Uranus and Neptune (about 15 Earth masses).

The group of astronomers have now discovered a system of three super-Earths around a rather normal star, which is slightly less massive than our Sun, and is located 42 light-years away towards the southern Doradus and Pictor constellations.

“We have made very precise measurements of the velocity of the star HD 40307 over the last five years, which clearly reveal the presence of three planets,” says Mayor.

The planets, having 4.2, 6.7, and 9.4 times the mass of the Earth, orbit the star with periods of 4.3, 9.6, and 20.4 days, respectively.

“The perturbations induced by the planets are really tiny - the mass of the smallest planets is one hundred thousand times smaller than that of the star - and only the high sensitivity of HARPS made it possible to detect them,” says co-author François Bouchy, from the Institut d’Astrophysique de Paris, France.

Indeed, each planet induces a motion of the star of only a few metres per second.

Meanwhile, the team of astronomers announced yet another discovery of two more planetary systems, also with the HARPS spectrograph. In one, a super-Earth (7.5 Earth masses) orbits the star HD 181433 in 9.5 days. This star also hosts a Jupiter-like planet with a period close to 3 years. The second system contains a 22 Earth-mass planet having a period of 4 days and a Saturn-like planet with a 3-year period as well.

“Clearly these planets are only the tip of the iceberg,” says Mayor. “The analysis of all the stars studied with HARPS shows that about one third of all solar-like stars have either super-Earth or Neptune-like planets with orbital periods shorter than 50 days.”

A planet in a tight, short-period orbit is indeed easier to find than one in a wide, long-period orbit.

“It is most probable that there are many other planets present: not only super-Earth and Neptune-like planets with longer periods, but also Earth-like planets that we cannot detect yet. Add to it the Jupiter-like planets already known, and you may well arrive at the conclusion that planets are ubiquitous,” Udry concluded.

Source:ESO.

Their return to Earth ended the latest construction mission to the International Space Station.

Commander Mark Kelly and Pilot Ken Ham were at the controls of Discovery as it glided through Florida skies to touch down on time at 11:15 a.m. EDT.

Image above: Space shuttle Discovery lands at Kennedy Space Center, Fla. Photo credit: NASA/Kevin O’Connell

The crew including Kelly and Ham, along with Mission Specialists Karen Nyberg, Ron Garan, Mike Fossum and Japan’s Akihiko Hoshide spent 14 days in orbit installing the Japanese Pressurized Module to the space station. The module is the largest section of the Japanese laboratory called “Kibo,” or hope. Garrett Reisman also returned onboard Discovery. He spent three months living on the space station.

After a night at Kennedy, the crew will fly to Ellington Field near NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston.

NASA’s next shuttle flight is slated for October when the crew of STS-125 is to service the Hubble Space Telescope.

The mission, designated STS-124, is the second of three flights to launch components to complete the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s Kibo laboratory. Discovery is carrying Kibo’s tour bus-sized Japanese Pressurized Module, or JPM, which will be the station’s largest module. The shuttle astronauts will work with the three-member station crew and ground teams around the world to install the JPM and Kibo’s robotic arm system.

Shortly before launch, Commander Mark Kelly thanked the teams that helped make the launch possible. “We’re going to deliver Kibo, or hope, to the space station,” Kelly said. “And while we tend to live for today, the discoveries from Kibo will certainly offer hope for tomorrow.”

Image above: Space shuttle Discovery thunders off the launch pad at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Photo credit: NASA TV

Joining Kelly on Discovery’s 14-day flight are Pilot Ken Ham and Mission Specialists Karen Nyberg, Ron Garan, Mike Fossum, Greg Chamitoff and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Akihiko Hoshide. Garan and Fossum will conduct three spacewalks during the mission. Chamitoff will replace current station crew member Garrett Reisman, who has lived on the outpost since mid-March. Chamitoff will return to Earth on Endeavour’s STS-126 mission, targeted for Nov. 10.

NASA is providing continuous television and Internet coverage of Discovery’s mission, which is the 123rd shuttle flight, the 35th for Discovery and the 26th shuttle mission to the station.

NASA Television features live mission events, daily mission status news conferences and 24-hour commentary. NASA TV is webcast at: www.nasa.gov/ntv

NASA’s Web coverage of STS-124 includes current mission information, interactive features, and news conference images, graphics and videos. Mission coverage, including the latest NASA TV schedule, also is available on the main space shuttle Web site at: www.nasa.gov/shuttle

Daily news conferences with STS-124 mission managers take place at NASA’s Johnson Space Center, Houston. During normal business hours of 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. EDT Monday through Friday, reporters may ask questions from participating NASA locations. Please contact your preferred NASA facility by its daily close of business to confirm its availability before each event.

Johnson will operate a phone bridge for media briefings that occur outside of the normal business hours. To be eligible to use this service, reporters must possess a valid media credential issued by a NASA center or for the STS-124 mission. Media planning to use the service must contact the Johnson newsroom at 281-483-5111 no later than 15 minutes prior to the start of a briefing in which they wish to participate. Newsroom personnel will verify their credentials and transfer them to the phone bridge. The capacity of the phone bridge is limited and will be available on a first-come, first-serve basis.

For information about other NASA missions and activities, visit: www.nasa.gov

Launch is scheduled for 5:02 p.m. EDT and there are no reported technical issues or weather concerns at the launch pad at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Image above: From the left are astronauts Gregory E. Chamitoff, Michael E. Fossum, both STS-124 mission specialists; Kenneth T. Ham, pilot; Mark E. Kelly, commander; Karen L. Nyberg, Ronald J. Garan and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s (JAXA) Akihiko Hoshide, all mission specialists. Credit: NASA

Meet the Crew

Navy Cmdr. Mark E. Kelly will command the STS-124 shuttle mission to deliver the Pressurized Module and robotic arm of the Japanese Experiment Module, known as “Kibo” (hope), to the International Space Station. Navy Cmdr. Kenneth T. Ham will serve as the pilot. Mission specialists will include NASA astronauts Karen L. Nyberg; Air Force Col. Ronald J. Garan Jr.; and Air Force Reserve Col. Michael E. Fossum. Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut Akihiko Hoshide also will serve as a mission specialist.

Navy Cmdr. Stephen G. Bowen was previously named to the STS-124 crew but has been reassigned to STS-126. The change allows room for the STS-124 mission to rotate a space station resident.

Astronaut Gregory E. Chamitoff is scheduled to fly to the station as a mission specialist on STS-124. He will take Astronaut Garrett E. Reisman’s place as an Expedition 17 flight engineer and return to Earth on shuttle mission STS-126.

The STS-124 mission is the second of three flights that will launch components to complete the Kibo laboratory. The mission will include two spacewalks to install the new lab and its remote manipulator system. The lab’s logistics module, which will have been installed in a temporary location during STS-123, will be attached to the new lab.

STS-124 is the 26th shuttle mission to the International Space Station.

Mission Highlights

SPACEWALKS Each will last approximately 6.5 hours.
• On flight day 4, Garan and Fossum will transfer the Orbiter Boom Sensor System back to the shuttle
from its temporary location of the station’s truss, or backbone. The crew will then prepare the JPM for
its removal from the shuttle’s payload bay. Later that day, the JPM will be installed on the port side of
Harmony. The spacewalkers also will do some work on the starboard Solar Alpha Rotary Joint, which
has had limited ability for several months. Garan will install a replacement trundle bearing assembly,
while Fossum inspects a potentially damaged area on the joint. Fossum also will test techniques to
clean the surface of the joint’s race ring.
• On flight day 6, Garan and Fossum will install covers and external television equipment on the JPM
and remove covers on the RMS, which will be deployed on flight day 8. The spacewalkers also will
prepare for the flight day 7 relocation of the JLM.
• On flight day 9, Garan and Fossum will primarily work to replace a failed nitrogen tank assembly on
the station’s truss with a spare that was temporarily stored on one of the station external stowage platforms.
They also will retrieve a failed camera system on the truss.

FACTS & FIGURES
• STS-124 is the 123rd space shuttle flight, the 26th flight to the station, the 35th flight for Discovery and
the third flight in 2008.
• The Kibo laboratory—which means “hope” in Japanese—is the country’s major contribution to the station
and will enhance the research capabilities of the space station.
• The JPM will be the largest habitable module on the space station and is equipped with its own airlock
and robotic arm for external experiments.
• The final components of Kibo will be assembled in space on shuttle mission STS-127.
• The RMS main arm can handle up to 14,000 pounds of hardware. The small fine arm, when attached
to the main arm, handles more delicate operations. Each arm has six joints that mimic the movements
of a human arm.
• The JPM is 36.7 feet long and 14.4 feet in diameter, about the size of a large tour bus.
• The main arm measures 32.5 feet long, and the small fine arm measures 6.2 feet.
• Kibo experiments and systems are operated from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s
control center called the Space Station Integration and Promotion Center, just north of Tokyo.
• Experiments in Kibo focus on space medicine, biology, Earth observations, material production, biotechnology
and communications research.
• To help prevent the glove cuts seen in recent missions from recurring, both spacewalkers will wear
gloves with special patches on the thumb and index finger for the first time. The patches are made of
the same protective vectran material already used in the palm of the gloves, but in a much tighter
weave. In this form, the fabric is called TurtleSkin. It is up to four times more resistant to damage.