Leonard David's INSIDE OUTER SPACE

Archive for August, 2024

 

In an experiment carried out by a large radar facility, Earth’s Moon was “beam bathed” to appraise the equipment’s stability and performance abilities.

The result: high-resolution radar imaging of the lunar surface, made possible by the Tracking and Imaging Radar (TIRA), a central and important part of research at Fraunhofer FHR, and one of the leading and largest European research institutes in the area of high frequency and radar techniques.

The Fraunhofer Institute for High Frequency Physics and Radar Techniques FHR is headquartered in Wachtberg, Germany.

 

 

First light

The experiment is referred to as “First Light” with the Moon illuminated by the powerful 34-meter TIRA antenna. Echoes reflected from the lunar surface were received after roughly 2.6 seconds. Processing of the signals included use of real-time graphics processors using special software methods.

“By utilizing the motion of Earth and the Moon, a significantly larger, virtual aperture was created using the 34-meter antenna of the TIRA facility, thereby achieving high resolution imaging,” explains the institute in an August 22 statement.

This method of generating a synthetic antenna aperture enables coherent imaging of the entire visible Moon’s surface.

Satellite reentry

The Fraunhofer FHR regularly conducts assignments for the German Space Situational Awareness Center (GSSAC). The unique attributes of the institute’s radar work has proven useful for space debris appraisals, collision predictions, fragmentation event appraisals, as well as reentry forecasts.

For example, the group’s radar skills were utilized to image the European Space Agency’s European Remote Sensing satellite, ERS-2, prior to it auguring into the Earth’s atmosphere on February 21 of this year. For the first time, changes in the structure during re-entry were also captured in radar images.

 

ISS battery pallet

Similarly, Fraunhofer FHR kept an eye on the reentry of that discarded 2.6 ton battery pallet unleashed in 2021 from the International Space Station (ISS).  

The space observation radar TIRA observed the object during its final days on behalf of the joint GSSAC, providing meaningful radar data during its flyovers above Germany. TIRA likely snagged the final radar image of the battery. On March 8, a leftover from the reentry of that ISS pallet hit a house in Florida, later confirmed by NASA.

A U.S. Moon lander provider has a new contract under its belt, awarded monies via the NASA Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative program.

Intuitive Machines of Houston, Texas is receiving $116.9 million to deliver six NASA payloads to the lunar south pole in 2027.

“This marks the 10th CLPS delivery NASA has awarded, and the fourth planned for delivery to the South Pole of the Moon,” said Joel Kearns, deputy associate administrator for exploration, Science Mission Directorate, NASA Headquarters in Washington.

Timing is everything

Intuitive Machines is in the final assembly phase of its second lunar mission (IM-2) and is scheduled to deliver the completed lander to the launch facility in late 2024.

The IM-2 mission is designed to prospect for water ice and other volatiles on the Moon’s south pole. This lander is aimed at touchdown within an elliptical region on the Shackleton Connecting Ridge. To align with the landing site’s solar power conditions, the mission must be timed between November 2024 and January 2025. IM-2 is currently planned for late 2024.

In parallel, the company is continuing work on its third lunar mission and is preparing for systems integration and testing.

Instrument list

The lander will be outfitted with a projected 174 pounds (79 kilograms) of instruments:

NASA’s Lunar Explorer Instrument for Space Biology Applications will deliver yeast to the lunar surface and study its response to radiation and lunar gravity.

Package for Resource Observation and In-Situ Prospecting for Exploration, Characterization and Testing is a suite of instruments led by the European Space Agency that will drill down to 3.3 feet (1 meter) beneath the lunar surface, extract samples, and process them in-situ in a miniaturized laboratory, to identify possible volatiles (water, ice, or gas) trapped at extremely cold temperatures under the surface.

NASA Laser Retroreflector Array is a collection of eight retroreflectors that will enable lasers to precisely measure the distance between a spacecraft and the reflector on the lander. The array is a passive optical instrument and will function as a permanent location marker on the Moon for decades to come.

NASA Surface Exosphere Alterations by Landers will investigate the chemical response of lunar regolith to the thermal, physical, and chemical disturbances generated during a landing, and evaluate contaminants injected into the regolith by the lander. It will give insight into how a spacecraft landing might affect the composition of samples collected nearby.

NASA Fluxgate Magnetometer will characterize certain magnetic fields to improve the understanding of energy and particle pathways at the lunar surface and is managed by NASA Goddard.

University of Colorado/Boulder’s Lunar Compact Infrared Imaging System will deploy a radiometer – a device that measures infrared wavelengths of light – to explore the Moon’s surface composition, map its surface temperature distribution, and demonstrate the instrument’s feasibility for future lunar resource utilization activities. The imaging system is managed by the University’s Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP).

Successful Blue Origin Blastoff Today: New Shepard crewed suborbital mission NS-26, lifting off from Launch Site One in West Texas on August 29.

Blue Origin Completed its 26th Mission to space with six crew  onboard: Nicolina Elrick, Rob Ferl, Eugene Grin, Dr. Eiman Jahangir, Karsen Kitchen, and Ephraim Rabin.

Including today’s crew, the suborbital New Shepard has now flown 43 people into space.

Launch coverage/replay at: https://www.blueorigin.com/live

LITTLETON, Colorado – That touted “space is hard” dictate may need a meaning makeover given the use of “softgoods” to fashion inflatable airlocks and habitats for future lunar and Mars exploration needs.

Here at the Waterton Canyon facility of Lockheed Martin, testing of inflatable structures that offer advantages over all-metal counterparts is underway. A pathfinder unit built for airlock applications underwent pressurization and depressurization appraisals on August 14, as witnessed by this reporter.

The airlock design was put through multiple, gas-in/gas-out cycles to assess “creep” factors of its Vectran material makeup, thus understanding its operational life potential. Test engineers here have also put subscale softgoods habitat designs to the test, purposely bursting them to spotlight their robust nature.

The gas used for the inflation tests is nitrogen, taking only a few minutes to fully pressurize the unit, then becoming as rigid as steel.

 

 

Lockheed Martin is engaged in inflatable structure work as part of NASA’s Next Space Technologies for Exploration Partnerships (NextSTEP) program, a public-private joint venture initiative.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For more information, go to my new SpaceNews story – “With successful airlock test, Lockheed Martin invests in inflatable space structures” – at:

https://spacenews.com/successful-airlock-test-lockheed-martin-invests-inflatable-space-structures/

 

 

 

NASA’s Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover, or VIPER, was cancelled on July 17 by the space agency.

But in a wait-a-minute and ready-to-roll mode the rover continues to inch its way forward.

Commercial/international partners may be selected to fly the moon machine to the lunar south pole. In addition, Congressional lawmakers are taking a budgetary hard-look at the situation, prodded in part, by a save VIPER letter-writing campaign involving 4,800-plus shoot-for-the-Moon supporters.

 

 

Vacuum chamber

In the interim, VIPER recently entered thermal vacuum chamber testing to be completed by October.

The NASA decision to cancel the VIPER south pole Moon rover continues to stir up lunar exploration advocates, with the open letter to Congress requesting lawmakers to “refuse to authorize” the NASA verdict.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The open letter can be viewed at:

https://forms.gle/bRzoLN5P66Ge2vzN9

At this point in time, NASA had put in $450 million into VIPER.

“Continuation of VIPER would result in an increased cost that threatens cancellation or disruption to other CLPS missions,” the space agency statement explains. “NASA has notified Congress of the agency’s intent.” CLPS IS NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services initiative.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Go to the NASA VIPER cancellation statement at:

https://www.nasa.gov/news-release/nasa-ends-viper-project-continues-moon-exploration/

Partnership opportunity

NASA said it’s planning to disassemble and reuse VIPER’s instruments and components for future Moon missions.

Prior to disassembly, NASA’s open to expressions of interest from U.S. industry and international partners for use of the existing VIPER rover system at no cost to the government.

Go to the VIPER Rover Partnership Opportunity request at:

https://sam.gov/opp/ccc3285133aa4dbd877b9dcb53fab99c/view

Wait a Minute!
Image credit: Barbara David

The team for Japan’s Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM) has issued a notice of the end of spacecraft operations

The SLIM project attempted to communicate again with the long-lived Moon lander on August 22nd and 23rd, but received no response from the probe.

“As a result, it was determined that there was no prospect of communication being restored in the future, and so at around 10:40 pm on the 23rd, the project sent a command to halt SLIM’s activities, shutting down the signal.”

SLIM was an undertaking by specialists at the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA)/Institute of Space and Astronautical Science (ISAS).

Pinpoint landing technology

SLIM was launched last year on September 7, departing Earth atop an H-IIA launch vehicle from the Yoshinobu Launch Complex at JAXA’s Tanegashima Space Center.

SLIM made its lunar landing on January 19, 2024 making Japan the fifth country to soft-land a spacecraft on the Moon.

Surprisingly, the craft repeatedly regained electronic consciousness, surviving stints of super-cold and lengthy lunar nights.

All technical data on the navigation guidance leading to the landing, and navigation camera image data captured during the descent and on the lunar surface, necessary for future pinpoint landing technology, was obtained by the spacecraft mission.

 

Engine anomaly

During its lunar landing, the SLIM onboard software autonomously identified an engine anomaly. While controlling the horizontal position as much as possible, SLIM continued the descent with the other engine and moved gradually towards the east.

Subsequently, SLIM landed “upside down.”

SLIM had reached the Moon’s surface approximately 180 feet (55 meters) east of the original target landing site.

 

 

 

 

 

A Lunar Excursion Vehicle (LEV-1), a small robot deployed from SLIM, did carry out activities on the lunar surface. Telemetry data was sent directly to Earth from the small robot.

The LEV-1 executed planned leaping movements and direct communication with ground stations, including inter-robot test radio wave data transmission from the Transformable Lunar Robot (LEV-2, nicknamed “SORA-Q”).

Go to this informative video in Japanese showcasing the Transformable Lunar Robot at:

https://youtu.be/PupLqwt4d2o?si=Z8V4poXC2Tvx2zPG

About those Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP)!

The U.S. Defense Department has announced the selection of Jon Kosloski, to be appointed as the director of the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office, longhand for AARO. 

As the AARO director, Kosloski will head DoD’s efforts, in coordination with the Intelligence Community, “to minimize technical and intelligence surprise by synchronizing scientific, intelligence, and operational detection, identification, attribution, and mitigation of unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP) in the vicinity of national security areas.”

Kosloski brings to the AARO experience working in multiple scientific fields, including quantum optics and crypto-mathematics, as well as leading mission-oriented research and analysis teams.

In a statement, Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks said Kosloski brings to AARO the experience required “to enhance AARO’s efforts to research and explain unidentified anomalous phenomena to the Department, Congress, and the American people.”

The Defense Department said that AARO “will continue to examine the U.S. government historical record relating to UAP, as well as efforts to declassify and release UAP-related records to the greatest extent possible.”

Out the door – from Cedar Park, Texas and headed for the Moon.

That’s the Firefly Aerospace Blue Ghost Moon lander – as part of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative.

The lunar lander has arrived at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) for environmental testing before the lander ships to Cape Canaveral for a Q4 2024 launch.

Blue Ghost 1 is to tote 10 scientific instruments and technology demonstrations.

Following final testing, Firefly’s Blue Ghost will ship to Cape Canaveral, Florida, ahead of its launch on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket scheduled for the fourth quarter of 2024.

Long haul

Once off the ground, Blue Ghost will begin its transit to the Moon, including roughly a month in Earth orbit and two weeks in lunar orbit.

The spacecraft will then attempt a landing in Mare Crisium, a basin in the northeast quadrant on the Moon’s near side, before deploying and operating 10 instruments for a lunar day (14 Earth days) and more than 5 hours into the lunar night.

Lunar dusk looksee

Risa Schnautz, director of the firm’s marketing and communications, told Inside Outer Space: “Firefly will operate Blue Ghost for at least 5 hours into the lunar night in order to capture the lunar sunset and gather data about how the sun effects lunar regolith during lunar dusk conditions. After the lunar sunset, Firefly will continue to operate Blue Ghost into the lunar night as long as our stored battery power will allow us.”

For more details on Blue Ghost Mission 1 named Ghost Riders in the Sky, go to:

https://fireflyspace.com/missions/blue-ghost-mission-1/

 

 

 

The weather on Mars is not a welcoming factor for future expeditions. Yes, it’s a harsh, chilly, foreboding planet. The place is no paradise.

 

 

 

 

 

Standing on Mars, astronauts will be more exposed to space radiation than stay-at-home Earthlings. Why so?

The Red planet lacks a protective magnetosphere and is cocooned in thin air that is roughly one-percent of the thickness of Earth’s atmosphere.

This ambiance of nastiness lets in high-energy radiation, such as protons, ions, neutrons and gamma rays. The Sun does its part by churning out intense bursts of radiation called solar energetic particles, or SEPs.

Researchers at NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Space Weather Prediction Center in Boulder, Colorado are working on strategies for round-trip Mars expeditions to deal with Sun-spitting solar storms.

Go to my new Space.com story – “How can we protect humans on Mars from radiation from solar storms?” – at:

https://www.space.com/mars-protect-astronauts-solar-storm-radiation

 

Book Review: Still As Bright: An Illuminating History of the Moon, from Antiquity to Tomorrow by Christopher Cokinos; Pegasus Books; 2024; Hardcover, 448 pages; $32.00.

From the moment you open the cover of this volume, the reader is literally moonbound.

Author Cokinos has written a suburb book about our nightlight in the sky, Earth’s celestial partner, the Moon. His early eyepiece fascination with the Moon, dashing across the rugged lunar landscape via a three-inch reflector telescope stuck with him – and the reader is forever enriched thanks to that early attraction.

This book is true treasure thanks to his tasty style of poetic and philosophic prose and, as he observes that the Moon is more than a rock. It’s a story. Within the 13 chapters, you’ll find a rich tapestry of space exploration events that has captured – sometimes failing – to tell us the true story of our Moon.

The blend of Space Race anecdotes with the allure of our Moon that still propels our exploration instincts is skillfully told, underscoring humankind’s attributes, albeit sometimes also demonstrating our shortcomings.

“When I look at the Moon I see a scumble of violence and change that I register as terrain and that my mind knows is time,” the author writes. Elsewhere in the book you’ll find Cokinos grappling with the UN Outer Space Treaty, who owns the Moon debates, protecting cultural heritage sites on the Moon, and as he points out: “So if the Moon belongs to us, it means the first thing we do is talk with the lawyers.”

By completing this honest, witty and wondrous read, it’s a given you’ll never look at the Moon the same way again. “The Moon has proven to be a patient teacher,” Cokinos explains.

So grab this book and let’s all be students of the unknown together.

Christopher Cokinos is a Professor, Emeritus of English at the University of Arizona and is the author of The Fallen Sky: An Intimate History of Shooting Stars, as well as Hope Is the Thing with Feathers: A Personal Chronicle of Vanished Birds.  His articles, poems and essays about space and astronomy have been published in Sky & Telescope, the Los Angeles Times, has been featured in other venues, including NPR’s “All Things Considered.”

I want to spotlight a recent interview with Cokinos about this brilliant book. Take a view of “Talking with author Chris Cokinos about STILL AS BRIGHT” – a video from The Planetary Society’s Book Club, hosted by the firm-footed, but out of this world interviewer, Mat Kaplan, at:

https://www.planetary.org/video/talking-with-author-chris-cokinos

For more information on this book, go to:

http://www.pegasusbooks.com/books/still-as-bright-9781639365692-hardcover