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December 24th, 2024
Map of the distribution of subsurface water ice in Cabeo Crater. Image credit: Department of Nuclear Planetology of the Space Research Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
New views of water ice resident in polar craters of the Moon have been issued by the Space Research Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
The data has been collected by the Russian Lunar Exploration Neutron Detector (LEND), an experiment on board NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) that was launched back in June 2009.
Based on measurements taken by the Russian neutron telescope onboard LRO, the features of water ice occurrence in the lunar polar craters Cabeo and Galimov were studied.
Large volume of data
According to a December 24 posting on the Press Service Bulletin of the Space Research Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences (IKI RAS), LEND has accumulated a large volume of neutron mapping data over 15 years of work.
In the soil of the polar crater Cabeo, the mass fraction of water ice is on average about 0.5%, and in some areas even 0.7%. Polar crater Cabeo coordinates are 35.5 W, 84.9 S.
“Such an area ‘enriched’ with water ice is located at the deepest point of the permanently shadowed section of the crater Cabeo,” the website explains. “The mass fraction of ice in the soil of this crater increases with depth, and ice is present in both sunlit and permanently shadowed areas of the surface.”
Galimov Crater. Image credit: Department of Nuclear Planetology of the Space Research Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
Crater ages
Russia’s LEND also observed the polar crater Galimov located closer to the equator at coordinates 126.59° W, 64.32° S. This feature is comparable to the Cabeo crater in age – 3.85 billion years. However, Galimov is nearly three times smaller in diameter than crater Cabeo, roughly 21 miles (34 kilometers) across.
“It turned out that there are no signs of water ice in the soil at its bottom. At the same time, the soil in the immediate vicinity of the crater contains water ice,” the posting adds.
The research work was carried out by a team of the Department of Nuclear Planetology of the Space Research Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences under the supervision of Igor Mitrofanov. Also cited in the research, Maxim Litvak, Anton Sanin, and Maya Dyachkova.
Installing Russia’s LEND device on the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) by NASA Goddard Space Flight Center specialists.
Image credit by IKI RAS
History of lunar permafrost
The scientists explain that the absence of ice in the Galimov crater basin is due to the eruption of hot magma, which took place between 0.2 and 1.0 billion years ago, as evidenced by cracks on the bottom of the crater.
“Thus, a comparison of these two craters showed that the polar glaciers on the Moon formed between 3.85 billion and 1.0 billion years ago,” the IKI RAS specialists point out.
The researchers add that additional study of the lunar soil using neutron orbital mapping data “will help to reconstruct in even greater detail the history of the appearance of permafrost on the Moon and also solve the practical problem of choosing the optimal location for a future lunar base.”
NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO).
Credit: NASA/GSFC
Fairly “wet” place
According to an overview of the work of LEND, maps of the prevalence of water in the lunar regolith at the north and south poles of the Moon have been developed.
“As its measurements show, the Moon turned out to be a fairly ‘wet’ place: in certain areas, under a layer of dry soil from several tens of centimeters to one meter thick, the content of water ice can be up to 5% by weight of the soil, which is more than in the Sahara Desert on Earth,” the IKI RAS website explains.
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Book Review: Lunar: A History of the Moon in Myths, Maps, and Matter, Edited by Matthew Shindell; The University of Chicago Press; Hardcover/Cloth, 256 pages; $65.00.
This is a unique, beautiful, inspiring, and vital volume – a book to help the reader prepare for humankind’s reintroduction to on-location Moon exploration. As noted author Dava Sobel writes in her foreword, you will be consumed by how the Moon is portrayed here, “a black-and-white world rendered in a riot of gorgeous colours.”
Central to the book are superb cartographical charts of the Moon, coupled with masterful text that highlights our celestial neighbor’s role in popular myth, culture and science.
Between 1962 and 1974, US Geological Survey illustrator-cartographers painstakingly and systematically mapped the Moon, laying out a visual welcome mat for early, pioneering robotic craft and then followed by human explorers.
National Air and Space Museum curator Matthew Shindell has pulled together an impressive, fabulous volume, touching on the significance of the Moon from the Stone Age to today. The book contains well-written contributions from scholars that cover a wide array of over 30 topics, such as: “The Moon in Ancient Egyptian Creation Myths,” “Understanding the Phases of the Moon,” to “‘Moonstruck’ – Lunacy and the Full Moon” and “The Feminine Symbolism of the Moon,” as well as “The Moon in Silent Cinema, and “‘Selling’ the Moon in the 1950s.”
In Shindell’s introduction, he writes that the book demonstrates that “the Moon has been and remains connected to almost every facet of human life. While it is impossible to predict precisely what is to come in the long relationship between humans and the Moon, what is clear is that the Moon will forever live in the human heart.”
There are 500 color plates within the pages of this large format — 10-1/2 x 14-3/8 – book that includes a set of endnotes, a glossary, sources of illustrations and a further reading list.
Again, this is a treasure of a book and the reader will find this volume a prized resource as humanity returns to and “reboots” the Moon!
For more information on this book, go to:
https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/L/bo240063025.html
A drone is seen over Ridge, New York, on the evening of Dec. 12, 2024.
Image credit: Grant Parpan/Newsday RM via Getty Images
All of the recent sightings of puzzling unidentified aircraft in New Jersey and other states have triggered yet another round of unanswered questions, along with fueling conspiracy theories.
For one, the odd objects have sparked a visual public mayday and melee – one that might be mirroring elements of the on-going Unidentified Anomalous Phenomenon (UAP) issue, of secretive saucer crashes by run amok alien crew members with expired driver licenses.
Image credit: Statista
Mischaracterization of what’s seen. Public anxiety about what’s not known. Government officials seemingly not clear on what’s happening. Toss in Capitol Hill lawmakers demanding answers about what to do next.
It’s all enough to give you a case of the high and low-altitude heebie-jeebies.
Go to my new Space.com story – “Planes, drones or UFOs: What are people seeing in the New Jersey sky?” – at:
Wait-a-Minute!
Image credit: Barbara David
Are we moving closer to the day of “downing” Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP), often tied to UFOs?
In the lexicon of what’s up in the sky that has become unidentifiable, there’s Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV), Unmanned Aerial System (UAS), and also “drones.”
Whatever is up with the wave of sky sightings, are there any lessons learned here to unravel today’s growing call for “Full Disclosure.”
Up close and personal! Scene from Earth vs. the Flying Saucers circa 1956.
Credit: Columbia Pictures
That mantra is in vogue and encompasses super-secret U.S. aerial activity and hush-hush classified technology. Then there are the fighter jet pilots that have filmed UAP. And what about the far more traditional claim of close encounters with alien vehicles and even out-of-control crashes of flying saucers?
It’s a wait-a-minute moment for sure.
Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder Dec. 19 briefing. Image credit: Senior Airman Madelyn Keech
Office of the Secretary of Defense Public Affairs
Drone busters
Word is that counter drone systems have begun to be deployed in New Jersey, a hotbed of activity and public bewilderment. There have been a limited number of visual sightings of drones over military facilities in New Jersey and elsewhere, including within restricted air space.
The now in the field anti-drone gear exhibits active and passive detection capabilities as well as other capabilities, namely serving as “drone busters” that basically disrupt signals and affects the ability of these systems to fly.
That’s the word from Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder, the Pentagon Press Secretary, during a December 19th press briefing.
Ryder said that the bottom line is that if our forces, our commanders observe UAS activity that they believe represents a threat, “they have the authority to conduct mitigation operations based on the capability at their location,” Ryder said. One of those capabilities, he added, could be the non-kinetic, interruption of signals, for example.
Image credit: Statista
Harmonize efforts
Military personnel are going to protect and defend the nation, said Ryder, in order to protect facilities or mitigate potential threats.
Ryder said that U.S. military is working closely with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, as we as the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to harmonize efforts.
Earlier in the week, the FAA noted that there are more than one million drones lawfully registered with the FAA in the United States. Moreover, there are thousands of commercial, hobbyist and law enforcement drones lawfully in the sky on any given day.
“With the technology landscape evolving, we expect that number to increase over time,” the FAA explained.
Image credit: U.S. Homeland Defense
Sightings to date
Given more than 5,000 reported drone sightings in the last few weeks the federal government is supporting state and local officials in investigating a number of these reports.
“We have sent advanced detection technology to the region. And we have sent trained visual observers,” said the FAA.
Sightings to date, the FAA explained, “include a combination of lawful commercial drones, hobbyist drones, and law enforcement drones, as well as manned fixed-wing aircraft, helicopters, and stars mistakenly reported as drones.”
Image credit: Yannick Peings, Marik von Rennenkampff/AIAA
However, the FAA is urging Congress to enact counter-UAS legislation that would extend and expand existing counter-drone authorities to identify and mitigate any threat that may emerge.
Who you gonna call?
All of this is sure to fan the flames of Deep State secrecy, be it UFOs, UAPs, drones, UAV, and UAS.
Put in the blender that the government is here to help sort all this out.
Sure, the truth may be out there, but clearly there’s need for a reality check.
Mental musical recollection: “If there’s something strange in your neighborhood…if there’s something weird and it don’t look good…who you gonna call?”
What’s your view?
Wait-a-Minute!
Image credit: Barbara David
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona
The Mars-circling NASA spacecraft – the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) – has used its super-powerful High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera system to catch a view of NASA’s now retired InSight Mars lander.
Built by Lockheed Martin Space Systems in Denver, InSight landed back in November 2018, carrying out duties to reveal details about the Red Planet’s Marsquakes, and plumbing the depths of Mars to acquire crust, mantle, and core data.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona
The new imagery — taken on October 23rd — show that the Mars lander’s solar panels have acquired the same reddish-brown hue as the rest of the planet, reports Andrew Good in the Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s (JPL) media department.
Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.
Credit: NASA
Dusty situation
Over the four years that the spacecraft collected science, engineers at NASA’s JPL, which led the mission, used images from InSight’s cameras and MRO’s HiRISE “to estimate how much dust was settling on the stationary lander’s solar panels, since dust affected its ability to generate power,” Good added.
Launched in August of 2005, the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) that’s onboard the MRO, is operated by the University of Arizona in Tucson. HiRISE was built by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. in Boulder, Colorado.
Return to life?
NASA retired InSight in December 2022. The lander ran out of power and stopped communicating with Earth during an extended mission. “But engineers continued listening for radio signals from the lander in case wind cleared enough dust from the spacecraft’s solar panels for its batteries to recharge,” Good added.
InSight’s first full selfie on Mars, taken on April 24, 2022.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
But since no communications from the lander have been detected over the past two years, NASA is stopping its listening for InSight at the end of this year.
The solar arrays on NASA’s InSight lander are deployed in this test inside a clean room at Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver. The image was taken on April 30, 2015.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Lockheed Martin Space
On December 18, 2024, the U.S. Department of Defense publicly released its annual report, Military and Security Developments Involving the People’s Republic of China (PRC).
This annual report to Congress features a number of space-related activities underway by China, from use of space for military purposes, reusable rocketry and space planes, to deep space exploration.
This report covers security and military developments involving the PRC through early 2024.
The report can be found here at:
Image credit: CCTV/CMSA/Inside Outer Space screengrab
China’s Shenzhou-19 crew carried out their first space walking duties outside the Tiangong space station. In doing so, they set a new record for the duration of EVAs by Chinese astronauts, said the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA).
Lasting nine hours, the Tuesday stroll was the longest among the 17 EVAs so far carried out in China’s human spaceflight program.
Image credit: CCTV/CMSA/Inside Outer Space screengrab
China launched the Shenzhou-19 crewed spaceship on October 30, sending three astronauts — Cai Xuzhe, Song Lingdong and Wang Haoze – to the orbiting outpost.
Debris shielding installation
Cai and Song were assigned the EVA tasks, while Wang assisted the outside twosome from inside the space station. It marked Cai’s third EVA in space, following his two spacewalks during his Shenzhou-14 mission in the second half of 2022.
Wang Haoze assisted EVA crew from inside the space station.
Image credit: CCTV/CMSA/Inside Outer Space screengrab
One central spacewalk task was installing debris shielding.
“The installation of the protective panels this time is mainly to protect the cables and pipelines of the thermal control equipment outside the Tianhe module from debris,” said Meng Lingzi, a staffer of the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation.
“During the development phase, the ground researchers conducted a full-process simulation verification of the entire task. The visibility, accessibility, and operability were all verified through ergonomic evaluations and underwater tests,” explained Meng in an interview with China Central Television (CCTV).
Image credit: CCTV/Inside Outer Space screengrab
Robotic arm
Given the dispersed installation locations of the protection devices on the station, the two astronauts carried out the task with one using the robotic arm while the other climbed outside the station to assist.
During the nine hours, the Shenzhou-19 crew also performed other tasks, such as inspecting extravehicular equipment and facilities.
Image credit: CCTV/CMSA/Inside Outer Space screengrab
The Shenzhou-19 crew is set to carry out a slew of scheduled space-science experiments and technical tests, while they will also undertake additional extravehicular activities and install payloads outside the space station, according to the CMSA.
Sent to the station for a six-month tour of duty, the Shenzhou-19 crew is expected to return to Earth in late April or early May.
Go to this CCTV video of the spacewalk at:
Two variants of Endurance have been detailed: Endurance-R (R for “Robotic”) would deliver samples to a separately landed robotic Earth Return Vehicle (ERV).
Endurance-A (A for “Astronaut”) would deliver the sample cache to Artemis astronauts near the lunar south pole. The crew would analyze and triage the samples, and return a subset to Earth for analyses in terrestrial laboratories.
Image credit: NASA
Introducing Endurance: An Enduring Long-distance Robotic Lunar Rover
It is robotic moon machinery on steroids.
Tagged as the Endurance sample return mission, it would collect bits and pieces from key lunar locations for later retrieval by NASA Artemis moonwalkers.
Furthermore, high-value collectibles snagged from those distant spots would be hauled back to Earth by astronauts.
Mobility options
Endurance rover would traverse the gigantic South Pole–Aitken (SPA) basin – a lunar landscape of promising geological surprises.
Image credit: NASA
NASA has begun blueprinting the Endurance rover to traverse the gigantic South Pole–Aitken (SPA) basin – a wonderland of promising geological surprises.
At the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), technical studies are underway to assess mobility options for a SPA sample return mission.
From a robotics standpoint – just how challenging is such an undertaking and how best to draw from rover missions of the past and those now underway?
For more information on this project, go to my new Space.com story — Meet Endurance, a pioneering NASA moon rover designed to survive the frigid lunar night – at:
An updated detailed map of the polar regions of the Moon is available, work done by researchers at the Geochemical Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences together with the Department of Lunar and Planetary Research of Moscow State University.
The map is based on a digital elevation model constructed using data from the laser altimeter of the American spacecraft Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter.
In addition, a high-resolution map displays the landing sites of all robotic spacecraft and piloted vehicles, indicated by conventional symbols on the map.
The map also shows the impact sites of the devices: the American GRAIL-A, GRAIL-B, LCROSS and Lunar Prospector, the Indian Chandrayaan-1 and Chandrayaan-2, and the Japanese Kaguya.
Lunar orbiter plans
Russia plans to send its Luna-26 orbiter to the Moon in 2027. It will conduct remote observation of the lunar surface. The main scientific objectives will be remote study of the lunar surface, construction of a topographic map of the lunar surface, and determine of the structure and composition of the subsurface.
Russia’s Luna-26 Moon orbiter. Image credit: Lavochkin
In addition, Luna-26 is to search for areas rich in hydrogen, determine the chemical and elemental composition of the regolith, appraise the heterogeneity of the lunar gravitational field, study the composition and dynamics of the exosphere, as well as study the interaction of the solar wind and the Moon. Also, the orbiter is to study lunar magnetic anomalies and the corresponding plasma dynamics, assess micrometeor streams and secondary dust clouds around the Moon.
The mapping work is available at:
http://portal.geokhi.ru/Lab41/SitePages/Maps-of-the-Moon.aspx
NASA has released a new document that highlights programmatic paradigm shifts in further exploration of the Red Planet over the next 20 years.
This plan was prepared for the NASA Science Mission Directorate’s Mars Exploration Program (MEP).
The report is titled Expanding the Horizons of Mars Science – A Plan for a Sustainable Science Program at Mars – Mars Exploration Program 2024-2044.
Core questions
Highlighted in the document are several “paradigm shift” prospects to further address several core questions that include:
- How has the habitability of Mars evolved over the history of the planet?
- Did life ever arise on Mars, and if so, does it exist today?
Those paradigm shifts underscored in the document include lower-cost Mars missions.
New Mars mobility capabilities like this single-axle rover can access high-risk terrain, such as steep slopes and caves – areas challenging or inaccessible for current Mars rovers. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Additionally, commercial services, the human exploration of the Red Planet, as well as international Mars ambitions are also flagged as paradigm shifts. “NASA is no longer one of the few with focused Mars exploration ambitions,” observes the report.
New, different model
“To remain a vanguard in Mars exploration, MEP must embrace a new, different model: the ability to send more—and more frequent—missions to Mars in an affordable and achievable manner, and to do so while cultivating a diversity of talent and engaging the public in opportunities to explore Mars,” the report points out.
The report lists a “Lower-Cost Mission” is approximately $100–$300 million, exclusive of the launch vehicle and mission operations.
A “Medium-Class Strategic Mission” is pegged at between approximately $1–$2 billion, exclusive of the launch vehicle and mission operations.
Rough lander concept for Mars.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Partnerships
As for tapping into commercial services, the report states that exploring Mars together “through new partnership models with the international, commercial, and academic communities is essential.”
This type of paradigm shift would mimic other innovative public-private partnership solutions such as NASA’s Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) and Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) endeavors.
Life on Mars
The search for life on Mars remains a significant undertaking, the document states.
“Any potential oasis for present life or preservation of ancient life are likely located in terrains that have historically been more challenging to access. Some of the most fascinating landscapes on Mars, for example, are found in the southern hemisphere, where the mean surface elevation has prevented robotic spacecraft from landing by traditional means.”
At the same time, there are other locales providing conditions potentially conducive to life, such as the subsurface (including caves, subsurface ice deposits, and volcanic environments), “where suitable chemistry and environmental conditions may have allowed life to gain a foothold,” the report adds.
Mars expedition probes the promise that Mars was a home address for past, possibly life today.
Credit: NASA
However, given the prospect of boots on Mars, NASA’s Mars Exploration Program “has a small window of opportunity to seek life in a pristine Martian environment, as human exploration may be possible as early as the late 2030s, following successes at the Moon.”
Challenge conventional thinking
Eric Ianson, Director of the NASA Mars Exploration Program, states in the report there’s need to “challenge conventional thinking and look to new and creative solutions for the exploration of Mars.”
This can include “seeking lower-cost science investigations, strengthening our infrastructure around Mars, seeking new enabling technologies, and creating an environment that broadens participation in Mars exploration,” Ianson states.
To review the report — Expanding the Horizons of Mars Science – A Plan for a Sustainable Science Program at Mars – Mars Exploration Program 2024-2044 — go to:
