Thunderstorm clouds may reach the lower stratosphere, affecting the exchange of greenhouse gases between the troposphere and stratosphere. This region of the atmosphere is difficult to access experimentally, and our knowledge of the processes taking place here is incomplete. We recently recorded color video footage of thunderstorms over the Bay of Bengal from the International Space Station. The observations show a multitude of blue, kilometer‐scale, discharges at the cloud top layer at ~18 km altitude and a pulsating blue discharge propagating into the stratosphere reaching ~40 km altitude. The emissions are related to the so‐called blue jets, blue starters, and possibly pixies. The observations are the first of their kind and give a new perspective on the electrical activity at the top of tropical thunderstorms; further, they underscore that thunderstorm discharges directly perturb the chemistry of the stratosphere with possible implications for the Earth's radiation balance.
Pinpoint landing (defined for the purpose of this discussion as landing within 1km of a preselected target) is a key Advanced Entry, Descent and Landing (EDL) technology for future Mars landers. Key scientific goals for Mars exploration, such as the search for water and characterization of aqueous processes on Mars, the study of mineralogy and weathering of the Martian surface and the search for preserved biosignatures in Martian rocks, require placing landers at pre-defined locations of greatest scientific interest. The capability to land within 1 km of a pre-defined landing site will improve safety and enable landing within roving range of sites of scientific interest while avoiding hazardous areas. A critical component of the closed-loop guidance, navigation and control (GN&C) system required for pinpoint landing is position and velocity estimation in real time. Spacecraftto-spacecraft navigation will take advantage of the UHF link between two spacecraft (i.e. to an orbiter from an approaching lander for EDL telemetry relay) to build radiometric data, specifically the total count carrier phase of the Doppler shifted 2-Way coherent UHF signal, that are processed to determine position and velocity in real time. The improved onboard state knowledge provided by spacecraft-to-spacecraft navigation will reduce the landed position error and improve the performance of entry guidance. Results from the first of two years planned for this effort are documented here, including selection and documentation of prototype algorithms that will go forward into flight code along with analysis results used to define the algorithm set.
A NASA Mars technology project is described that is building a prototype embedded real time Mars approach navigation capability which can be hosted on the Mars Network's Electra transceiver. The paper motivates the reason for doing real time Mars approach navigation via a set of analyses demonstrating its utility for enabling Mars pinpoint landing (< 1-km landing error). The development approach, software design, and test results are discussed. Finally, the way forward towards a flight demonstration on MSL is presented
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