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February 11th, 2022
Credit: University of Würzburg/IFEX
A center has been established that includes the study of Unidentified Aerial Phenomenon, or UAPs.
The Interdisciplinary Research Center for EXtraterrestrial Studies (IFEX) is anchored at Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg (JMU), one of the largest universities in Germany.
IFEX focuses on extraterrestrial research projects in the context of science and technology and their innovative application on Earth and in space.
“We want to promote the research on UAP in an interdisciplinary framework, carry out our own projects and seek cooperation with relevant institutions and authorities, such as the Max Planck Society, the German Aerospace Centre DLR, the Luftfahrt-Bundesamt LBA, or the Deutscher Wetterdienst,” says IFEX chairman Hakan Kayal, professor of space technology at the University of Würzburg.
SkyCAM-5 camera system.
Credit: Hakan Kayal/Universität Würzburg
Camera system
Kayal has a long-standing interest in UAPs. Recently, he installed a new camera system on the Hubland campus in Würzburg to detect unknown celestial phenomena using artificial intelligence methods.
Overall, the IFEX work area includes exploration of space, objects in our solar system, stars, galaxies, and the universe as a whole, search for signs of life, search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI), research on Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAP) as well as further interdisciplinary cooperation and dissemination of extraterrestrial studies.
The research on Unidentified Aerial Phenomena involves development and operating systems for detection, evaluation and analysis, including the investigation of outstanding cases.
Since January 25, 2022, research on UAP has been one of the center’s official goals, put in motion after the JMU Senate approved a corresponding extension of the IFEX statute.
For more information, go to:
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Russia’s Luna-25 Moon lander.
Credit: RSC Energia/Roscosmos
Russia is ready to reactivate its moon exploration agenda, a former Soviet Union enterprise that ended decades ago. The last in the row of pioneering USSR lunar missions was Luna 24 – lobbing back to Earth in 1976 roughly six ounces of near-side collectibles.
The country’s Luna-25 is set to kick-start a sequence of lunar outings that also involves Europe as well as China. A larger plan now being scripted is Russian collaboration with China on building an International Lunar Research Station, intended to be operational by 2035.
For more details, go to my new Space.com story – “Russia aims to rekindle moon program with lunar lander launch this July – Luna 25 will touch down in the moon’s south polar region” – at:
https://www.space.com/russia-rekindle-moon-program-luna-25-launch
Curiosity’s location as of Sol 3381. Distance driven since landing is16.9 miles/27.19 kilometers.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona
NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover at Gale Crater is now wrapping up Sol 3382 duties.
Catherine O’Connell-Cooper, a planetary geologist at the University of New Brunswick; Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada, reports the robot is continuing its trek towards the “Greenheugh pediment.”
Curiosity Left B Navigation Camera image taken on Sol 3381, February 9, 2022.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
“We passed along this area on our detour to The Prow, and our sedimentologists have a long list of imaging wishes, features which caught their eyes on the initial pass through and which we now get the chance to really examine in detail as we skirt along the base of the pediment.
Stitched together from 28 images, this view was captured on April 9, 2020, Sol 2729 after the rover ascended a steep slope, part of a geologic feature called “Greenheugh Pediment.”
The rover’s Mast Camera, or Mastcam, provided the panorama.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
New vantage point
From a new vantage point, the rover’s Mastcam and Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam) are imaging the buttes and hills around it, Mastcam focusing on the “Blackcraig” and “Maringma” buttes, and ChemCam taking long distance imagery of the pediment.
Curiosity Left B Navigation Camera image taken on Sol 3381, February 9, 2022.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
“We are also adding to our geochemical analyses along here too,” O’Connell-Cooper adds.
Curiosity Left B Navigation Camera image taken on Sol 3381, February 9, 2022.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Curiosity’s Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer (APXS) and the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) are to analyze the bedrock target “Tantallon Castle” and ChemCam will examine the target “Corpach Wreck.”
Curiosity Left B Navigation Camera image taken on Sol 3381, February 9, 2022.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Retraced steps
“Our past couple of drives have been in the order of [164 -197 feet] 50-60 meters as we retraced our steps over known terrain, but as we get closer to the pediment and the steep climb up, our drives will slow down,” O’Connell-Cooper adds.
Recently, an all star, all female, rover planning team planned a drive of nearly 80 feet (24 meters) drive, O’Connell-Cooper reports, “shorter than recent drives, but which will take over an hour as we slowly pick our way forward!”
Credit: SpaceX/Starlink
What goes up…comes down. That’s the case for dozens of just-lofted SpaceX Starlink satellites.
SpaceX issued this statement about the situation:
On Thursday, February 3 at 1:13 p.m. EST, Falcon 9 launched 49 Starlink satellites to low Earth orbit from Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A) at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Falcon 9’s second stage deployed the satellites into their intended orbit, with a perigee of approximately 210 kilometers above Earth, and each satellite achieved controlled flight.
SpaceX deploys its satellites into these lower orbits so that in the very rare case any satellite does not pass initial system checkouts it will quickly be deorbited by atmospheric drag. While the low deployment altitude requires more capable satellites at a considerable cost to us, it’s the right thing to do to maintain a sustainable space environment.
Starlink satellites.
Credit: SpaceX
Warming atmosphere
Unfortunately, the satellites deployed on Thursday were significantly impacted by a geomagnetic storm on Friday. These storms cause the atmosphere to warm and atmospheric density at our low deployment altitudes to increase. In fact, onboard GPS suggests the escalation speed and severity of the storm caused atmospheric drag to increase up to 50 percent higher than during previous launches. The Starlink team commanded the satellites into a safe-mode where they would fly edge-on (like a sheet of paper) to minimize drag—to effectively “take cover from the storm”—and continued to work closely with the Space Force’s 18th Space Control Squadron and LeoLabs to provide updates on the satellites based on ground radars.
Preliminary analysis show the increased drag at the low altitudes prevented the satellites from leaving safe-mode to begin orbit raising maneuvers, and up to 40 of the satellites will reenter or already have reentered the Earth’s atmosphere. The deorbiting satellites pose zero collision risk with other satellites and by design demise upon atmospheric reentry—meaning no orbital debris is created and no satellite parts hit the ground. This unique situation demonstrates the great lengths the Starlink team has gone to ensure the system is on the leading edge of on-orbit debris mitigation.
Curiosity’s location on Sol 3379. Distance driven at that time is 16.86 miles/27.14 kilometers.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona
NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover at Gale Crater is now performing Sol 3381 duties.
Reports Michelle Minitti, a planetary geologist at Framework in Silver Spring, Maryland: “After our adventures further uphill, Curiosity is backing down hill to get to the start of the path she will take up to the “Greenheugh Pediment.” We are still surrounded by amazing stratigraphy and have the benefit of having been through here before.”
Curiosity Mast Camera Left image taken on Sol 3379, February 7, 2022.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
Curiosity Mast Camera Left image taken on Sol 3379, February 7, 2022.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
Curiosity Mast Camera Left image taken on Sol 3379, February 7, 2022.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
Mars researchers are eager to fill in missing pieces of terrain, and follow up interesting observations.
Curiosity’s Mastcam and Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam) imaging fills both needs.
Curiosity Mast Camera Left image taken on Sol 3379, February 7, 2022.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
Curiosity Mast Camera Left image taken on Sol 3379, February 7, 2022.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
Maringma butte
“Mastcam will acquire stereo mosaics across the base of “Maringma” butte, and across another butte east of our current location,” Minitti adds. “Both mosaics are aimed at imaging sedimentary structures in these vertical exposures.”
In complementary fashion, ChemCam will cover the eastern butte layering with a 10×1 Remote Micro-Imager (RMI)
mosaic. “Mastcam will also image a stretch of tilted bedrock layers, dubbed “Plomo,” that stretch uphill away from the rover,” Minitti explains.
Curiosity Front Hazard Avoidance Camera Right B image taken on Sol 3379, February 7, 2022.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Closer to the rover, ChemCam, the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI)
And Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer (APXS) were also busy at this stop.
Spread the wealth
Typically on a “touch and go” sol, scientists look at a given target with APXS and MAHLI, and then shoot another target with ChemCam to, in effect, Minitti says, “spread the wealth of data we acquire across a workspace.”
In part, because scientists have ChemCam, APXS, and MAHLI data from this area from their first pass, researchers had the opportunity to focus all three instruments on “El Dorado.”
Curiosity Left B Navigation Camera image acquired on Sol 3379, February 7, 2022.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
“We hope between APXS, MAHLI, and ChemCam, one instrument strikes gold at this prominent bedrock layer,” Minitti reports.
Down hill
After the robot’s drive down hill, the Dynamic Albedo of Neutrons (DAN) will acquire both active and passive measurements, the Mars Descent Imager (MARDI) will acquire an image of the terrain under the left front wheel, ChemCam will autonomously shoot a target in the rover vicinity, and Mastcam will acquire a sky survey, Minitti explains.
Front Hazard Avoidance Camera Left B image taken on Sol 3378, February 6, 2022.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Curiosity’s Rover Environmental Monitoring Station (REMS) and
Radiation Assessment Detector (RAD) will continually monitor the environment as the robot starts to move out of winter in Gale Crater, Minitti concludes.
Credit: Dewesoft
The research team at Dewesoft analyzed data as to which governments, organizations, and companies own the most satellites in our orbit.
How many satellites are in space?
As noted by the Dewesoft team, there are thousands of satellites in the sky above us at this moment, orbiting Earth.
Satellites have many uses for the government, military, and even civilians. They provide us the ability to have things like Internet access, television, GPS, and much more.
They also have scientific purposes such as Earth and space observation and provide the means for high-level technology development.
SpaceX – in the lead
More than half of the 4,550 satellites orbiting Earth are used for communications purposes, and that number will continue to rise as tech billionaires look to bring high-speed Internet access to every corner of our planet.
Dewesoft analyzed data collected by the UCS Satellite Database, ESRI, and the Space Foundation to create a list of the 50 owners of the most satellites orbiting Earth.
Credit: SpaceX/Starlink
As of Sept. 1, 2021, SpaceX is leading the race, with their Starlink satellite program planning to send more than a thousand new satellites into orbit every year. SpaceX owns an incredible 36% of the satellites in orbit around Earth.
Dewesoft develops and manufactures versatile, easy-to-use data acquisition systems – tools for test and measurement engineers. They are headquartered in Solovenia in southern Central Europe.
For detailed information from Dewesoft, go to:
https://dewesoft.com/daq/every-satellite-orbiting-earth-and-who-owns-them
Credit: ISRO
India appears ready to rekindle its Moon exploration program, apparently eyeing this August to loft the country’s Chandrayaan-3 mission.
Jitendra Singh, Minister of State, Science and Technology, has stated that the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) is readying its third lunar exploration mission.
“Many related hardware and their special tests are successfully completed, the launch is scheduled for August 2022,” Singh said in a statement to India’s lower house of the Parliament.
Credit: ISRO
Landing location
Reportedly, India’s GSLV Mk 3 booster will hurl the Chandrayaan-3, consisting of a lander and rover, from the Satish Dhawan Space Center.
India’s Chandrayaan-2’s Vikram lander and its rover.
Credit: ISRO
The lunar South Pole site that saw the crash landing of Chandraayan-2 is being targeted, according to some reports.
In 2019, India’s Chandrayaan-2’s Vikram lander and its rover plowed into the lunar landscape and were destroyed. In that mission, an orbiter was successfully placed into lunar orbit. Still operating, it will help in communications for the upcoming Chandrayaan-3 landing attempt.
Chandrayaan-2’s Moon orbiter.
Credit: ISRO
According to the ISRO website: “The Lunar South pole is especially interesting because of the lunar surface area that remains in shadow is much larger than that at the North Pole. There could be a possibility of presence of water in permanently shadowed areas around it. In addition, South Pole region has craters that are cold traps and contain a fossil record of the early Solar System.”
Curiosity’s location as of Sol 3376. Distance driven since landing is 16.82 miles/27.06 kilometers
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona
NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover at Gale Crater is now performing Sol 3378 tasks.
Reports Abigail Fraeman, a planetary geologist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the robot is leaving “The Prow” in its rearview mirror.
Curiosity Left B Navigation Camera image acquired on Sol 3377, February 4, 2022.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
“We’ll be checking off the last item on our ‘Prow vicinity investigation’ to-do list” with Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) and Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer (APXS) observations on two bedrock targets named “Aji” and “Erico,” as well as Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam) observations on a tilted block named “Cucurital” and bedrock target named “Rockstone.”
Curiosity Right B Navigation Camera photo taken on Sol 3377, February 4, 2022.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Lots of images
“We’re also collecting a lot of images at this location,” Fraeman adds, with five planned Mastcam mosaics consisting of 494 individual frames between them, a 5×1 ChemCam Remote Micro-Imager (RMI) mosaic, and Mastcam context images of the Cucurital and Rockstone ChemCam targets.
“Not enough imaging for you? We’ll snap even more Mastcam photos after our drive, with a 180 degree mosaic (that’s an additional 55 Mastcam frames for those keeping score at home) on top of our standard suite of post-drive images,” Fraeman explains.
Curiosity Right B Navigation Camera photo taken on Sol 3377, February 4, 2022.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Weekend plan
The weekend plan rounds out with some observations to monitor the environment around the rover, Fraeman adds, including a ChemCam passive sky observation on the third sol of the plan that will measure the composition of gases in the atmosphere.
Curiosity Right B Navigation Camera photo taken on Sol 3377, February 4, 2022.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Now that Mars researchers have wrapped up their activities in the area, the planned drive is sending the rover several meters north, back the way it came.
Curiosity Right B Navigation Camera photo taken on Sol 3377, February 4, 2022.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
“We are aiming for a passageway that will allow us to ascend back onto the Greenheugh pediment. Once we climb up, we’ll leave the Mt. Sharp group rocks behind for a while and get to explore the very different period of Mars’ history that is preserved in the Greenheugh pediment and superposed Gediz Vallis ridge,” Fraeman concludes.
Credit: CCTV/Inside Outer Space screengrab
China’s Mars orbiter, the Tianwen-1, has sent a selfie video showcasing the Beijing Olympic, Paralympic emblems that are attached to the spacecraft.
The video released on Friday celebrates the official opening of the Beijing 2022 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games via the Red Planet mission.
Technicians place emblems on the Tianwen-1 Mars orbiter prior to spacecraft launch in July 2020.
Credit: CNSA
The Tianwen-I probe carries the Five Stars Red Flag, as well as the other emblems.
For a short video, go to:
SpaceX Starlink satellites over Carson National Forest, New Mexico, photographed soon after launch.
Credit: Mike Lewinsky/Creative Commons Attribution 2.0
The International Astronomical Union has announced the creation of a new
“Centre for the Protection of the Dark and Quiet Sky from Satellite Constellation Interference.”
The International Astronomical Union (IAU) is deeply concerned about the increasing number of launched and planned satellite constellations in mainly low Earth orbits.
IAU has chosen the SKA Observatory (SKAO) and National Science Foundation’s NOIRLab to co-host the new center.
Leading voice
The new center will coordinate collaborative multidisciplinary international efforts with institutions and individuals and works across multiple geographic areas “to help mitigate the negative impact of satellite constellations on ground-based optical and radio astronomy observations as well as humanity’s enjoyment of the night sky,” an IAU statement explains.
The center is to become the leading voice for astronomical matters that relate to the protection of the dark and quiet sky from satellite constellations.
SpaceX Starlink constellation pass overhead near Carson National Forest, New Mexico, photographed soon after launch.
Credit: Mike Lewinsky/Creative Commons Attribution 2.0
Global coordination
Debra Elmegreen, IAU President, notes: “The new Centre is an important step towards ensuring that technological advances do not inadvertently impede our study and enjoyment of the sky. I am confident that the Centre co-hosts can facilitate global coordination and bring together the necessary expertise from many sectors for this vital effort.”
NSF’s NOIRLab is the U.S. center for ground-based optical astronomy, and the SKA Observatory is an intergovernmental organization headquartered in the UK tasked with delivering the world’s most powerful networks of radio telescopes in Australia and South Africa.
For more details, go to: https://www.iau.org/news/pressreleases/detail/iau2201/
