Archive for November, 2020
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November 10th, 2020
Image taken by Curiosity’s Left Navigation Camera on Sol 2933, November 5, 2020 showing the next set of benches in the distance, perhaps meter-scale stair steps carved into the landscape.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover is now performing Sol 2938 tasks.
Curiosity Left B Navigation Camera photo taken on Sol 2937, November 9, 2020.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Abigail Fraeman, a planetary geologist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, reports that the rover’s latest drive has placed it on top of one of the “rock benches” that are present throughout the area. A visual bonus: the views are just gorgeous.
“There are dinner plate-sized patches of layered bedrock in the rover’s workspace, which are quite a contrast to the pebble filled workspace we saw at our last location,” Fraeman adds. “We can also see the next set of benches in the distance, and I think they look like meter-scale stair steps carved into the landscape.”
Curiosity Front Hazard Avoidance Camera Right B image acquired on Sol 2937, November 9, 2020.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Sedimentary structures
A recent plan had the robot take advantage of the spectacular view and acquire a 108 frame Mastcam stereo mosaic.
Curiosity Rear Hazard Avoidance Camera Right B image taken on Sol 2937, November 9, 2020.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
“This mosaic will help us further distinguish the sedimentary structures preserved in the rocks in this unique topographic region and it will enable us to find the best areas for closer investigations in later sols,” Fraeman explains.
Scientists will also take some time to learn more about the bedrock of the “benchtop” by collecting Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) and Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer (APXS) observations of targets named “Muckle Minn” and “Hunt Hill,” and Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam) observations of “Smugglers Cave,” “Achnashellach,” and “Achosnich.”
Curiosity Right B Navigation Camera photo taken on Sol 2937, November 9, 2020.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
“We will supplement the mega-Mastcam mosaic with two smaller mosaics of areas near the rover named “Voe” and “Roe,”” Fraeman notes.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona
Driving to the northeast
After completing science activities, the rover is on tap for driving along the “benchtop” to the northeast for roughly 148 feet (45 meters) and take a large set of post-drive images that will be used to help with this week’s planning.
“In parallel to all of these geological studies, we will continue to monitor the environment around the rover with a series of Navcam and Mastcam observations and standard set of pressure and temperature measurements,” Fraeman concludes.
Curiosity Right B Navigation Camera photo taken on Sol 2937, November 9, 2020.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Road map
A new rover road map has been posted showing the route driven by Curiosity through the 2936 Martian day, or sol, of the rover’s mission on Mars (November 8, 2020).
Curiosity Right B Navigation Camera photo taken on Sol 2937, November 9, 2020.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Numbering of the dots along the line indicate the sol number of each drive. North is up. The scale bar is 1 kilometer (~0.62 mile).
From Sol 2933 to Sol 2936, Curiosity had driven a straight line distance of about 123.14 feet (37.53 meters), bringing the rover’s total odometry for the mission to 14.47 miles (23.29 kilometers).
Curiosity Right B Navigation Camera photo taken on Sol 2937, November 9, 2020.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
The base image from the map is from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment Camera (HiRISE) onboard NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.
Posted in 
Credit: Space Port Japan Association, Dentsu, Canaria and Noiz Architects
The creation of Space Port Japan is being advanced, a move to make the country a base for future space travel business.
Credit: Space Port Japan Association, Dentsu, Canaria and Noiz Architects
This proposal for a complex commercial facility connects conventional means of transportation with the operation of commercial horizontal takeoff and landing spacecraft.
Also in the planning is to have the Space Port City Concept support various learning and discovery venues about space, research and business bases.
A Space Port Japan Association membership includes the Obayashi Corporation, Dentsu Inc., Airbus Japan, Nippon Television Network Corporation and the Mitsubishi Estate.
Credit: Space Port Japan Association, Dentsu, Canaria and Noiz Architects
According to a Space Port Japan document, “Spaceport City will be a place of unlimited dramas and sensations. The city will finally open in 202X.”
To help float the idea of such a facility, Tokyo-based Noiz Architects has crafted a series of renderings showing the space port anchored in Tokyo Bay.
For more information, go to:
https://www.spaceport-japan.org/
Pre-launch photo shows X-37B ready for 6th mission of the space plane program.
Credit: Boeing
A secretive military X-37B space plane has flown over 175 days in Earth orbit and is now under the wing of a newly established U.S. Space Force unit called Delta 9.
Delta 9, a component of the U.S. Space Force, was established and activated July 24, 2020.
Credit: U.S. Space Force
“Delta 9 Detachment 1 oversees operations of the X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle, an experimental program designed to demonstrate technologies for a reliable, reusable, unmanned space test platform for the U.S. Space Force,” according to a fact sheet issued by Schriever Air Force Base in Colorado. Delta 9 consists of three active duty squadrons headquartered at Schriever.
“The mission of Delta 9 is to prepare, present, and project assigned and attached forces for the purpose of conducting protect and defend operations and providing national decision authorities with response options to deter and, when necessary, defeat orbital threats,” the fact sheet explains. “Additionally, Delta 9 supports Space Domain Awareness by conducting space-based battlespace characterization operations and also conducts on-orbit experimentation and technology demonstrations for the U.S. Space Force.”
Credit: Boeing/Inside Outer Space Screengrab
The Drive’s “The War Zone” website first reported X-37B’s new home.
Milestone-setting space plane
Here’s a roster of X-37B missions, also labeled as Orbital Test Vehicles (OTVs):
OTV-1 launched on April 22, 2010 and landed on December 3, 2010, spending over 224 days on orbit.
OTV-2 launched on March 5, 2011 and landed on June 16, 2012, spending over 468 days on orbit.
Credit: Boeing/Watch U.S. Fly
OTV-3 launched on December 11, 2012 and landed on October 17, 2014, spending over 674 days on-orbit.
OTV-4 launched on May 20, 2015 and landed on May 7, 2015, spending nearly 718 days on-orbit.
OTV-5 launched on September 7, 2017 and landed on October 27, 2019, spending nearly 780 days on-orbit.
Technicians tend Air Force X-37B space plane after tarmac touchdown.
Credit: U.S. Air Force
Launchers and landings
The first four missions launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida atop an Atlas V booster.
The fifth mission launched from Kennedy Space Center on a SpaceX Falcon 9 booster.
The now orbiting OTV-6, also called USSF-7 for the U.S. Space Force, was launched by an Atlas-V 501 booster.
OTV-1, OTV-2, and OTV-3 missions landed at Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, while the OTV-4 and OTV-5 missions landed at Kennedy Space Center, Florida.
Total time on orbit for all five previous missions adds up to 2,865 days – or 7 years and 10 months.
Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) has pioneered “sandwich” modules that are far more efficient for space solar power.
Credit: NRL/Jamie Hartman
Payloads
The currently flying OTV-6 mission was lofted on May 17, 2020 and is the first to use a service module to host experiments. The service module is an attachment to the aft of the vehicle that allows additional experimental payload capability to be carried to orbit.
One experiment onboard the space plane that was announced is from the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL), an investigation into transforming solar power into radio frequency microwave energy. The experiment itself is called the Photovoltaic Radio-frequency Antenna Module, PRAM for short.
Along with toting NRL’s PRAM into Earth orbit, the X-37B also deployed the FalconSat-8, a small satellite developed by the U.S. Air Force Academy and sponsored by the Air Force Research Laboratory to conduct several experiments on orbit.
The FalconSat-8 is an educational platform that will carry five experimental payloads for the United States Air Force Academy (USAFA) to operate.
In addition, two NASA experiments are also onboard to study the effects of the space environment on a materials sample plate and seeds used to grow food.
Credit: CCTV/Inside Outer Space screengrab
A Long March-6 launch vehicle launched 13 satellites from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center, Shanxi Province, northern China, on November 6, 2020. The main payload consisted of 10 commercial remote sensing satellites developed by Satellogic (Argentine). Credit: China Central Television (CCTV).
Go to: https://youtu.be/sWC-_EvMCtE
Credit: Galactic Energy/SciNewsRo/CCTV/Inside Outer Space screengrab
For its maiden launch, the Ceres-1 launch vehicle launched the Tianqi-11 satellite from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, Gansu Province, northwest China, on November 7, 2020. Ceres-1 is a small solid propellant launch vehicle developed by Galactic Energy, a private aerospace company headquartered in Beijing) to carry a payload of up to 350 kg to low Earth orbit (LEO). Credit: Galactic Energy/SciNewsRo/CCTV.
Go to: https://youtu.be/EDNBoz5aIyY
NASA’s Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security-Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx) spacecraft.
Credit: NASA/Goddard/University of Arizona
NASA’s Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, and Security–Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx) mission is slated to head back to Earth, delivering its precious cargo of newly acquired Bennu asteroid samples – but the probe may have a new target in 2029.
Credit: USRA/LPI
“We have developed a mission design that allows us to put the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft into orbit around asteroid Apophis in 2029,” reports Dante Lauretta, OSIRIS-REx principal investigator at the University of Arizona, Tucson.
Why Apophis?
The 350-meter asteroid Apophis is an object 5-times larger and 100-times more massive than the Tunguska impactor. Currently, this big bruiser of a space rock is set to miss the Earth on Friday, April 13, 2029.
Apophis is named for the demon serpent who personified evil and chaos in ancient Egyptian mythology.
The object’s close flyby distance at an altitude of 31,000 kilometers (closer than geosynchronous satellites; about one-tenth the lunar distance) provides a once-per-thousand-year natural experiment as a learning opportunity for not only science, but planetary defense.
Distance between the Apophis asteroid and Earth at the time of the asteroid’s closest approach. The blue dots are the many human-made satellites that orbit our planet, and the pink represents the crewed International Space Station.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Poster child for planetary defense
“Our current challenge is to perform detailed studies of what physical effects, if any, may be induced on Apophis by Earth’s tidal forces,” explains Richard Binzell of the Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
The 2029 encounter opportunity makes Apophis the “poster child for planetary defense,” Binzell adds, “transitioning the field to a new era from space situational awareness to space situational understanding.”
Binzell was the scientific lead at last week’s Apophis T–9 Years: Knowledge Opportunities for the Science of Planetary Defense, virtually held November 4–6, organized by the Universities Space Research Association’s Lunar and Planetary Institute, the Nice Observatory in France, and MIT.
Eye of the illustrator captures asteroid Apophis near Earth.
Credit: Dan Durda – FIAAA
Gravity assist
Late last month, OSIRIS-REx successfully stowed the spacecraft’s Sample Return Capsule (SRC) and its stash of asteroid Bennu samples. The spacecraft is targeting delivery of the SRC to Earth on September 24, 2023.
Apophis’ size and gravitational field are comparable in magnitude to those of Bennu, and much of OSIRIS-REx’s concept of operations will be relevant, noted Lauretta of the OSIRIS-REx project.
At Earth return, the spacecraft will have a substantial amount of oomph to allow for the optical acquisition of Apophis on April 8, 2029. An Earth gravity assist maneuver can place the spacecraft on a rendezvous trajectory that arrives at Apophis on April 21, 2029.
Low-cost opportunity
Once in the vicinity of Apophis, the science payload of OSIRIS-REx is capable of characterizing the object’s surface.
“This low-cost opportunity allows for the OSIRIS-REx payload to perform a detailed characterization of this potentially hazardous asteroid, comparable to that achieved at Bennu,” Lauretta reports. Apophis’ size and gravitational field are comparable in magnitude to those of Bennu, and much of OSIRIS-REx’s operational skills would be pertinent, he notes.
The idea is now on the table, but much more work is needed to plot out this potential add-on to the overall mission of OSIRIS-REx, explains Lauretta.
Credit: Danielle Futselaar, artsource.nl.jpg
Those Fast Radio Bursts, or FRBs, are among the most unexplained astronomical phenomena ever observed.
The powerful, millisecond-duration radio waves come from deep space and are among the brightest sources ever seen in the sky – and then disappear.
China’s Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Telescope (FAST).
Credit: Bojun Wang, Jinchen Jiang & Qisheng Cui
FAST-paced research
Recent work done at the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Telescope (FAST) in Guizhou, China appears to have aced out one theory on their origin – that FRBs are similar to gamma-ray bursts (GRBs), the most powerful explosions in the universe.
There’s growing support for a pulsar-like model and the mechanisms of producing FRBs are being greatly narrowed down.
Now in vogue to power FRBs are magnetars – incredibly dense, city-sized neutron stars that possess the most powerful magnetic fields in the universe. Magnetars occasionally make short X-ray or soft gamma-ray bursts through dissipation of magnetic fields.
The new Outrigger telescope will work in conjunction with the existing Canadian Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment (CHIME).
Credit: CHIME
Outrigger
Whatever the case for FRBs, it’s clear more research is needed.
So enter a new telescope at Green Bank Observatory in West Virginia, designed to improve localization of Fast Radio Bursts. At present, most FRB positions are so imprecise it’s unclear which galaxy they come from.
That’s the objective of the new telescope, called Outrigger, backed by the National Science Foundation. It can determine the particular galaxy that has an FRB, as well as localize the source to a specific region within the galaxy.
CHIMEing in
According to a West Virginia University news release, when Outrigger is built, the facility will work in conjunction with the existing Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment (CHIME) telescope, which is located half a continent away in British Columbia, to triangulate the locations of FRBs.
To search for FRBs, CHIME continuously scans 1024 separate points on the sky. The new Outrigger telescope will have only one cylinder but will monitor the same area of the sky as the original CHIME telescope.
By using very long baseline interferometry techniques, the intent is to localize where FRBs come from. Also, additional outriggers are expected to be built later, allowing even sharper localization of radio bursts.
For more information, go to:
https://www.unlv.edu/news/release/astronomers-discover-clues-unveil-mystery-fast-radio-bursts
Up and outward bound.
Credit: SpaceX
There is need for an appropriate scientific program to measure launch and reentry plumes and conduct laboratory measurements of the microphysics of all the different particle types generated from launch to reentry.
The effort would be a government and commercial partnership.
Spacecraft reentry: Atmospherics Credit: CORDS
Indeed, very little is known about reentry dust production, the microphysics of the particles and how reentry dust could affect climate and ozone.
Go to my co-authored Space Opinion piece with Martin N. Ross of The Aerospace Corporation, published in Scientific American on November 6, 2020:
An Underappreciated Danger of the New Space Age – Global Air Pollution by Martin Ross and Leonard David at:
A new document by the International Space Exploration Coordination Group (ISECG) spotlights the future of Moon exploration as one scenario with three phases:
- Phase 1: Boots on the Moon
- Phase 2: Expanding and Building
- Phase 3: Sustained Lunar Opportunities
A Global Exploration Roadmap (GER) supplement updates a 2018 report, reflecting the activities of several new ISECG space organizations that have set new national priorities and intensified and accelerated lunar exploration plans. All this activity extends and refines the ISECG Lunar Surface Exploration Scenario, the document explains.
Credit: ISECG
Coordination forum
The ISECG is a voluntary, non-binding coordination forum of space agencies. Since the 2018 GER release, the number of ISECG agencies has increased from 15 to 24.
The supplement is divided into five chapters that highlight the growing global momentum in exploring the Moon. Chapters update lunar exploration plans, objectives, and scenarios, as well as noting the increasing industrial capabilities to augment Moon exploration within the private sector.
To access this informative document that details the number of countries involved in spearheading Moon exploration, go to:
https://www.globalspaceexploration.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/GER_2020_supplement.pdf
Curiosity Front Hazard Avoidance Camera Left B image taken on Sol 2932, November 4, 2020.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover is now performing Sol 2933 tasks.
Curiosity Right B Navigation Camera image acquired on Sol 2932, November 4, 2020.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
“The rubbly terrain that Curiosity is currently driving over is reminiscent of other rubbly terrain encountered within the ‘Glen Torridon’ area and continues to be relatively easy to drive on,” reports Lucy Thompson, a planetary geologist at the University of New Brunswick; Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada.
Curiosity drove a further 105 feet (32 meters) away from the “Mary Anning” and “Groken” drill site location.
Curiosity Right B Navigation Camera image acquired on Sol 2932, November 4, 2020.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
“As we drive back towards the planned route to the sulfate unit, the main focus is to document the textures, relationships and chemistry of the rocks we encounter,” Thompson adds.
Previous terrains
The rover’s Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer (APXS) has analyzed the pebble “Rachan” from the Sol 2931 rubbly workspace, with an APXS measurement on the rock target “Mail Beach”slated in the robot’s current workspace.
The Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) is also set to take close-up images of Mail Beach and scientists will be able to compare the composition and texture to Rachan and other rocks from previous rubbly terrains within Glen Torridon.
Curiosity Right B Navigation Camera image acquired on Sol 2932, November 4, 2020.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Also planned is a Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam) We also planned a ChemCam Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) measurement and accompanying Mastcam documentation imaging of the “Windy Standard” rock target, which will complement the APXS and MAHLI observations.
Textures and relationships
Thompson says that the science team also planned three large Mastcam mosaics (including “Corbett”) to document the textures and relationships between the more resistant bedrock ledges and the lower ground in this area.
Curiosity Chemistry & Camera Remote Micro-Imager (RMI) photo acquired on Sol 2932, November 4, 2020.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/LANL
There are questions to pursue, Thompson adds: “Do these ledges represent a slightly different rock type that was perhaps deposited in a slightly different environment to the more typical low relief terrain? Are they more cemented and harder than surrounding rocks as a result of post-depositional processes? Might they provide clues as to what is happening as we get closer to the sulfate unit, that we are on route to?”
Resistant ledges
A planned drive should take Curiosity to another of the resistant ledges for interrogation by many of the robot’s instruments in the upcoming weekend plan.
To give Mars researchers a hint at the chemistry of the rocks at the end of the drive, Thompson explains, a post-drive ChemCam Autonomous Exploration for Gathering Increased Science (AEGIS) observation will be acquired. A planned post-drive Mars Descent Imager (MARDI) image will also give scientists a sense of what the ground beneath the rover’s wheels looks like.
Curiosity Mast Camera Left image taken on Sol 2931, November 3, 2020.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
Dust devil survey
The environmental group was also busy planning observations of the atmosphere. These include a Mastcam basic tau mosaic pointed towards the sun and a Navcam line of sight observation, dust devil survey and suprahorizon movie.
Standard Rover Environmental Monitoring Station (REMS), Radiation Assessment Detector (RAD), and Dynamic Albedo of Neutrons (DAN) passive and active measurements are also scripted.
Lastly, Curiosity’s Chemistry & Mineralogy X-Ray Diffraction/X-Ray Fluorescence Instrument (CheMin) will dump the Groken drill fines, as they are done with their analysis of the sample, Thompson concludes.
Space traveler Deinococcus radiodurans recovered after 1 year of exposure to low Earth orbit (LEO) outside the International Space Station during the Tanpopo space Mission.
Credit: Tetyana Milojevic
The extraordinarily resistant bacterium Deinococcus radiodurans has been found to withstand harsh environmental conditions present in outer space.
This bacterium was exposed in low Earth orbit (LEO) for one year outside the International Space Station (ISS) to investigate microbial survival and space travel. In addition, a ground-based simulation experiment with conditions, mirroring those from low Earth orbit, was performed.
The exposure panels were on board the SpaceX Dragon commercial cargo spaceship, which launched on April 15, 2015 from Cape Canaveral by the Space-X Falcon-9 rocket. They were manually attached to the exposed experiment handrail attachment mechanism (ExHAM) on the Japanese exposure facility of the ISS, which was transferred to its final position on May 26, 2015.
Earth orbiting research lab, internal and external – the International Space Station (ISS).
Credit: NASA
Panspermia hypothesis
Studies of extremophiles suggest that they may migrate between planets and distribute life across the Universe, underlying the panspermia hypothesis or interplanetary transfer of life.
“These investigations help us to understand the mechanisms and processes through which life can exist beyond Earth, expanding our knowledge how to survive and adapt in the hostile environment of outer space,” explains Tetyana Milojevic, a head of the Space Biochemistry group at the University of Vienna and a corresponding author of the study.
“The results suggest that survival of D. radiodurans in LEO for a longer period is possible due to its efficient molecular response system and indicate that even longer, farther journeys are achievable for organisms with such capabilities,” Milojevic explains in a University of Vienna statement.
Credit: NASA
Mars atmosphere
The researchers that performed the experiment note that results may increase awareness regarding planetary protection concerns on, for instance, the Martian atmosphere.
In addition, the results of the Tanpopo orbital mission should be considered in the context of planetary protection concerns and the development of new sterilization techniques for future space missions.
To read the paper – “Molecular repertoire of Deinococcus radiodurans after 1 year of exposure outside the International Space Station within the Tanpopo mission” – go to the journal Microbiome at:
https://microbiomejournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s40168-020-00927-5
