Archive for July, 2024
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July 2nd, 2024
Image credit: Astronautfoods.com
BOULDER, Colorado – As I get older by the day, you do wonder about the term “shelf life.”
Meanwhile, this year, Astronaut Foods is celebrating five decades past when they soft-landed Astronaut Ice Cream into freeze-dried fandom. No refrigeration needed. And a three-year shelf life!
Since its launch in 1974, developed alongside NASA, this delicacy was my only connection with getting a taste of space travel.
Yes, even earlier, there were those toothpaste-tubes filled with whatever. That eventually broke down with astronauts sneaking in sandwiches onboard their spacecraft.
Image credit: Astronautfoods.com
Enduring appeal
I just got word that Astronaut Foods is “over the Moon” this year in commemorating the 50th anniversary of Astronaut Ice Cream.
These “out-of-this-world treats,” the company explains, have earned their place in the hearts of many “as a symbol of innovation, curiosity, and the enduring spirit of exploration.”
Ron Smith is co-owner and founder of American Outdoor Products, a family-owned, Boulder, Colorado-based company. Astronaut Foods is in its 3rd generation of family ownership with the Smith Family.
Image credit: Astronautfoods.com
Smith said in a press statement that, as people experienced it, “Astronaut Ice Cream quickly became one of the best-selling products in museums, science centers, and gift shops across the U.S. It has withstood the test of time, proving its enduring appeal and becoming a beloved treat for generations.”
Cosmic crunch
In dipping into the company’s freeze-dried products, I see you can snag creamy ice cream sandwiches with a cosmic crunch.
“No freezer needed and a three year shelf life. Perfect for a trip to Mars and back!”
I’m in…depending on my own “off-Earth, out-of-body” travel itinerary.
For more information, go to:
Also, check out this fascinating video: “The History of Food in Space” at:
https://astronautfoods.com/pages/the-history-of-food-in-space
Hungry man, Leonard David.
Image credit: Leonard David
Posted in 
Artist’s view of two Artemis astronauts at work on the lunar surface.
Image credit: NASA
Earth’s neighboring Moon is far from being a “been there, done that” world even taking into account a dozen Apollo moonwalking visitors between 1969 and 1972.
There is now a convergence of reasons to return to the Moon, not only for science, but for economic and security motives, as well as signaling global leadership through international partnerships.
Image credit: NASA
Array of issues
The Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) is home of a Lunar Surface Innovation Consortium, funded by NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate (STMD). That consortium is tackling an array of issues for STMD’s Lunar Surface Innovation Initiative.
APL focus group meetings pay attention to all manner of lunar challenges: From appraising surface power hardware on the Moon to utilization of on-the-spot lunar resources to churn out oxygen and other products, like rocket propellant.
Credit: NASA
Deep dives
The specialized focus groups also make deep dives into excavation and construction ideas, curbing dust problems, and dealing with the moon’s extreme and brutal environment.
Rounding out the focus group topic list is how human and robotic systems will be employed to access hard to get to lunar sites, like probing subsurface caves and lava tubes.
Image credit: NASA
For more details, go to my new SpaceNews story – “How the Applied Physics Laboratory is tackling Artemis Moon exploration” – at:
Samples of asteroid Bennu are now undergoing intensive study at the University of Arizona and other labs.
(Image credit: Chris Richards/University of Arizona Communications)
Initial analyses of NASA’s OSIRIS-REx asteroid sample return mission is rippling through the scientific community.
In the early morning hours of September 24, 2023, NASA’s first sample return mission of bits and pieces of asteroid Bennu successfully parachuted into the Department of Defense Dugway Proving Ground in the Utah Test and Training Range, roughly 80 miles west of Salt Lake City, Utah.
OSIRIS-REx sample return capsule is seen shortly after touching down in the desert, Sunday, Sept. 24, 2023, at the Department of Defense’s Utah Test and Training Range. The sample was collected from the asteroid Bennu in October 2020 by NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft.
Image credit: NASA/Keegan Barber
That extraterrestrial freight from afar came capsule-contained courtesy of the Origins Spectral Interpretation Resource Identification Security Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx) mission.
A preliminary truth-be-told scientific look at the asteroid specimens is just out within the pages of The Meteoritical Society’s journal, Meteoritics & Planetary Science.
The opened science canister in the glovebox at NASA’s Johnson Space Center. The cylindrical Touch-and-Go Sample Acquisition Mechanism (TAGSAM) head is positioned in the center of the avionics deck. Dark particles and dust can be seen on the avionics deck, the top of TAGSAM (including on circular witness plates), and the inside of the canister’s lid.
Image credit: NASA/ASU
Question-raising regolith
“The distinct hydrogen, carbon, and nitrogen isotopic compositions of Bennu’s regolith raise questions about its formation and evolution,” reports a team led by OSIRIS-REx lead investigator, Dante Lauretta of the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory at the University of Arizona in Tucson.
“Further investigation into these isotopic signatures could provide valuable insights into the history of Bennu and its parent body,” Lauretta and colleagues report.
Examples of inspected samples.
Image credits: NASA/Goddard/University of Arizona
Examples of boulder types on Bennu.
Image credits: NASA/Goddard/University of Arizona
First-look findings
“Our first-look findings highlight the importance of sample return missions in unraveling the geological and geochemical intricacies of asteroids like Bennu—whose low-density materials are probably underrepresented in the meteorite record—and their implications for the formation and evolution of the solar system,” the researchers add.
Nonetheless, the data gained by initial looks, “are only the tip of the iceberg,” Lauretta and colleagues explain. “There is likely more about the sample that we do not know than we do know.”
Major surprise
Taking her look at the new report is Nathalie Cabrol, Director of the Carl Sagan Center at the SETI Institute in Mountain View, California.
“Simply awesome,” Cabrol says in an X posting.
One major surprise Cabrol adds: “Bennu contains minerals similar to those found at the mid-Atlantic ridge on Earth, indicating that this little asteroid was once part of a bigger, water-rich world.”
Go to The Meteoritical Society’s journal, Meteoritics & Planetary Science to access — “Asteroid (101955) Bennu in the laboratory: Properties of the sample collected by OSIRIS-REx” — at:
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/maps.14227
Dante Lauretta, OSIRIS-REx’s principal investigator from the University of Arizona holds a mock up of the asteroid collection device – TAGSAM.
Image credit: Barbara David
Image credit: Barbara David
Wait-a-Minute!
It turns out – one group’s space junk is another person’s viewing hot spot.
The Glamping Collective in North Carolina was on the receiving end last May of leftovers from the SpaceX Dragon Crew-7 mission to the International Space Station.
Image credit: Rae Anne/The Glamping Collective
On May 22, a member of the Glamping Collective landscaping crew discovered the space clutter. “The debris was discovered about a half mile up our Sunset Summit Trail,” according to a Collective posting. “We invite you to come experience this yourself!”
In early June, the Clyde, North Carolina-based organization began displaying the space clutter.
Image credit: Glamping Collective
Snack pack
“The Glamping Collective has long been known as an incredible place to enjoy the night sky and stargazing! The Milky Way Galaxy can be even be seen around our fire pits, or on the Sunset Summit Trail on clear summer nights.”
Also, when completing your booking look for their Galactic Glamping Snack Pack “to complete your out of this world experience!”
Go to: https://www.theglampingcollective.com/
Image credit: SpaceX
NASA later issued a release confirming the re-entry of the Dragon spacecraft trunk hardware following its service mission to the International Space Station.
“Most recently, the trunks that supported SpaceX’s 30th commercial services resupply and Crew-7 missions re-entered over Saudi Arabia and North Carolina, respectively,” the NASA release stated. “NASA is unaware of any structural damage or injuries resulting from these findings.”
SpaceX hot line
For its part, SpaceX has established a “SpaceX debris hot line” as well as a “recovery@spaceX.com” email address.
“If you believe you have identified a piece of debris, please do not attempt to handle or retrieve the debris directly. Instead, please either email or leave a voice mail here with your name, number, and a brief description of what you have discovered and where,” the phone message explains.
Dragon Trunk debris recovered in Canada. Image credit: CTV/Inside Outer Space screengrab
“Teams are actively monitoring both message boxes and will ensure the notification is handled appropriately,” the recording adds. “If you have concerns about an immediate hazard, please contact your local law enforcement agency. Thank you, your assistance is greatly appreciated.”
Confirmed SpaceX debris found in Australia.
Photo courtesy: Brad Tucker
Trunk deliverables
For more details on this North Carolina incident, as well as other findings of Dragon trunk deliverables in Canada and Australia, go to:
1)
More SpaceX Space Trunk Debris Found?
https://www.leonarddavid.com/42221-2/
2)
More Trunk Space: New SpaceX Debris Found?
https://www.leonarddavid.com/trunk-space-new-spacex-debris-found/
3)
SpaceX Dragon Debris – Trunk Junk Recovered in Canada?
https://www.leonarddavid.com/spacex-dragon-debris-trunk-junk-recovered-in-canada/
4)
For a view of my recent SpaceNews story – “Uncontrolled reentry of space debris poses a real and growing threat” – go to:
https://spacenews.com/uncontrolled-reentry-of-space-debris-poses-a-real-and-growing-threat/
Image credit: CNSA/CCTV/Inside Outer Space screengrab
Coming to full-stop after a 53-day space sojourn to the Moon and back, China’s Chang’e-6 return capsule stuffed with its cache of lunar specimens parachuted into a pre-selected site within Siziwang Banner in north China’s Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.
The scientific catch of the day were samples from the unexplored southern mare plain of the Moon’s Apollo basin interior, in the northeast interior of the far side South Pole-Aitken (SPA) Basin.
Earth’s Moon as viewed from the International Space Station.
Image credit: NASA
Chain reaction
But the just landed specimens from the far side of the Moon also signals technological knowhow and while plowing new ground for the country’s space exploration capacity, it is also sparking a chain-reaction in both scientific and policy-making circles within the U.S.
For details, please read my new Aviation Week & Space Technology article – “Far-Side Moon Samples Set China’s Future In Stone” – at:
https://aviationweek.com/defense-space/space/far-side-moon-samples-set-chinas-future-stone
