Archive for the ‘Space News’ Category
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January 12th, 2022
Credit: Breakthrough Listen/Danielle Futselaar
There are key advantages of a radio telescope in lunar orbit, or on the surface of the lunar farside, for conducting the search for extraterrestrial intelligence – to give an ear for technosignatures from other starfolk.
A new research paper on the topic has been led by Berkeley SETI undergraduate intern Eric Michaud. Breakthrough Listen has submitted the white paper on lunar opportunities for SETI to the National Academy of Sciences Planetary Science and Astrobiology Decadal Survey.
A related paper was also submitted to the NASA Artemis III mission Science Definition Team.
Credit: Breakthrough Listen
Primary advantage
Shielded from the buzz and crackle of radio interference emanating from Earth, a Moon-based telescope would be a powerful new tool in the arsenal of technosignature science. The concept would be able to detect radio frequencies that are inaccessible to Earth-based observatories due to our planet’s ionosphere.
“The primary advantage for SETI is that the body of the Moon provides an excellent shield against terrestrial radio frequency interference,” the paper explains.
Earth satellite interference
Critically, the paper points out, recent trends conspire to make such a mission “not only increasingly feasible, but also increasingly necessary.”
First of all, an ever greater number of satellites being put in Earth orbit, such as the SpaceX StarLink constellation, may contribute tens of thousands of new satellites to the already Radio Frequency Interference (RFI)-dense swarm around the Earth. “This will further complicate Earth-surface-based SETI observation campaigns,” the paper argues.
Starlink satellites.
Credit: SpaceX
However, the same economic and technological forces which are enabling this ramping up of satellite launches — the reduction in satellite launch costs and the popularization of smaller satellite buses — also makes a lunar SETI mission more feasible.
Small organizations now routinely place relatively inexpensive satellites into orbit.
Rough blueprint
The newly issued paper flags the HawkEye 360, a small company based out of Virginia. The group has managed to design, build, and launch three satellites for the purpose of detecting and precisely locating radio sources on the surface of the Earth.
Credit: HawkEye 360 is a Radio Frequency (RF) data analytics company
“These missions and others form a rough blueprint for, and signal the increasing feasibility of, sending a small instrument dedicated to SETI to the Moon. Such a mission would enable a detailed survey of the lunar RFI environment, and act as a proof of concept for more sophisticated missions in the future,” the paper suggests.
A lunar SETI mission,” the paper concludes, “would mark the beginning of a new era in the history of SETI, where an increasing human presence in space is accompanied by an expanding ability to discover extraterrestrial life other than our own.”
To read the full paper — Overview – Lunar Opportunities for SETI – go to:
http://seti.berkeley.edu/lunarseti/Lunar_Opportunities_for_SETI.pdf
Read the paper — SETI from the Lunar South Pole — at:
https://ericjmichaud.com/moon-south-pole.pdf
For more information concerning Breakthrough Listen, go to:
https://breakthroughinitiatives.org/initiative/1
Also, go to this informative video that details the initiative at:
Posted in 
Curiosity Right B Navigation Camera image taken on Sol 3352, January 10, 2022.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover at Gale Crater is now performing Sol 3353 duties.
“On the second sol of the weekend plan, Curiosity took an unexpected break,” reports Michelle Minitti, a planetary geologist at Framework in Silver Spring, Maryland.
The robot stopped its arm motion on the way to deploying the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) to image the wheels for their regular check up.
“As such, her arm is jutted up in the air,” Minitti adds, “and the rest of the rover stayed there the rest of the weekend. The science and engineering teams very much care that Curiosity is waving her hand in the air, and quickly set about recovering the arm so we could complete wheel imaging and our drive to ‘The Prow.’”
Curiosity Left B Navigation Camera photo taken on Sol 3353, January 11, 2022.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Interesting bedrock and structures
Before take two of wheel imaging and the drive, Minitti explains that there was an opportunity to gather more data from the interesting bedrock and structures on this area.
On the plan was use of the Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam) to shoot “Sucre,” a horizon filled with resistant nodules, to see if the nodules belie a chemistry change.
Curiosity Left B Navigation Camera photo taken on Sol 3353, January 11, 2022.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
ChemCam was then slated to acquire Remote Micro-Imager (RMI) mosaics of two different parts of The Prow, “Ptari” and “Panari,” “to give us more insight into the structure we are heading toward,” Minitti reports.
Curiosity’s Mastcam will support ChemCam by imaging Sucre and another target from the weekend, a dark, flat resistant feature that was targeted by ChemCam autonomously.
Curiosity Left B Navigation Camera photo taken on Sol 3353, January 11, 2022.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Prominent layering
Mastcam is to keep additionally busy with stereo mosaics of “Indio” and “Mutum,” – “both areas with prominent layering that might help reveal the orientation of the bedrock, and a single image of ‘Maverick Rock,’ which earned its name from the complex mix of bedrock that appears present within,” Minitti adds.
Curiosity Left B Navigation Camera photo taken on Sol 3353, January 11, 2022.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Throughout the plan, there’s monitoring of the environment below and above the robot with the Dynamic Albedo of Neutrons (DAN) experiment passive and active, regular Rover Environmental Monitoring Station (REMS) measurements, and use of the Radiation Assessment Detector (RAD), a Mastcam image to keep tabs on the amount of dust in the atmosphere, and Navcam images to look for dust devils and clouds.
Curiosity Left B Navigation Camera photo taken on Sol 3353, January 11, 2022.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
“We expect that when we return for planning,” Minitti concludes, “we will have all these science goodies in the bag, as well as new wheel images and a new parking spot by The Prow. Stay tuned!”
Curiosity Right B Navigation Camera photo taken on Sol 3353, January 11, 2022.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
A new report from NASA’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) flags a number of issues regarding the space agency’s astronaut corps.
The processes NASA uses to size, train, and assign astronauts to specific missions are primarily calibrated toward meeting the current needs of the International Space Station.
“However, the astronaut corps is projected to fall below its targeted size or minimum manifest requirement in fiscal year (FY) 2022 and FY 2023 due to attrition and additional space flight manifest needs,” the OIG report notes.
More concerning, the report adds, the Astronaut Office calculated that the corps size would exactly equal the number of flight manifest seats NASA will need in FY 2022. “As a result, the Agency may not have a sufficient number of additional astronauts available for unanticipated attrition and crew reassignments or ground roles such as engaging in program development.”
In light of the expanding space flight opportunities anticipated for the Artemis missions, “the corps might be at risk of being misaligned in the future, resulting in disruptive crew reorganizations or mission delays.
A number of recommendations are provided in the Final Report – IG-22-007.
To read the full report, NASA’s Management of Its Astronaut Corps, go to:
X-37B Air Force space plane.
Credit: Boeing/Inside Outer Space Screengrab
The U.S. Air Force’s robotic space drone, the X-37B, has flown more than 600 days circuiting the Earth.
This craft is labeled Orbital Test Vehicle (OTV-6), also called USSF-7 for the U.S. Space Force, and was launched on May 17, 2020 by an Atlas-V 501 booster.
As for the vehicle’s primary agenda that remains classified, although some of its onboard experiments were identified pre-launch.
Air Force X-37B space plane.
Credit: Boeing
Known payloads
One experiment onboard the space plane 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.
In addition, 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.
Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) has pioneered “sandwich” modules that are used in space solar power experiments.
Credit: NRL/Jamie Hartman
Also onboard are two NASA experiments, one to study the effects of the space environment on a materials sample plate and a payload of seeds.
OTV-6 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.
Track record
There’s no official word on when the military space plane mission will return to Earth, but the craft might be headed for a record-setting duration in orbit, eclipsing 780 days in space.
X-37B breaks record, lands after 780 days in orbit
The Air Force’s X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle Mission 5 successfully landed at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center Shuttle Landing Facility Oct. 27, 2019.
Credit: U.S. Air Force
Originally designed for missions of 270 days, the X-37B has set endurance records during each of its five previous flights.
Earlier flights in the X-37B program are:
OTV-1: launched on April 22, 2010 and landed on December 3, 2010, chalking up over 224 days on orbit.
OTV-2: launched on March 5, 2011 and landed on June 16, 2012, spending over 468 days on orbit.
OTV-3: lofted 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: placed into orbit on September 7, 2017 and landed on October 27, 2019, spending nearly 780 days on-orbit.
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 the Kennedy Space Center, Florida.
The unpiloted mini-shuttle has a height of 9.6 feet (2.9 m), a length of 29.3 feet (8.9 m), a wingspan of 14 feet, 11 inches (4.5 meters) and weighs roughly 11,000 pounds (4,990 kg). There are two vehicles that constitute the X-37B program, designed and built by Boeing.
Reusable technologies
According to a Boeing fact sheet, “the X-37B is one of the world’s newest and most advanced re-entry spacecraft, designed to operate in low-Earth orbit, 150 to 500 miles above the Earth. The vehicle is the first since the Space Shuttle with the ability to return experiments to Earth for further inspection and analysis. This United States Air Force unmanned space vehicle explores reusable vehicle technologies that support long-term space objectives.”
According to Boeing, the autonomous vehicle features many elements that mark a first use in space, including:
- Avionics designed to automate all de-orbit and landing functions.
- Flight controls and brakes using all electro-mechanical actuation; no hydraulics on board.
- Built using a lighter composite structure, rather than traditional aluminum.
- New generation of high-temperature wing leading-edge tiles and toughened uni-piece fibrous refractory oxidation-resistant ceramic (TUFROC) tiles.
- Advanced conformal reusable insulation (CRI) blankets.
- Toughened uni-piece fibrous insulation (TUFI) impregnated silica tiles.
“The X-37B has a lifting body-style and landing profile that is similar to the Space Shuttle, but the vehicle is one-fourth the size. The X-37B design combines the best of aircraft and spacecraft into an affordable system that is easy to operate and maintain,” states Boeing.
Space test platform
The X-37B program is flown under the wing of a U.S. Space Force unit called Delta 9, established and activated July 24, 2020.
Credit: U.S. Air Force/Boeing
“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.
Credit: U.S. Air Force/Boeing
“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.”
Go to this new video of OTV-6 flying overhead on January 11, 2022 by satellite tracker, Kevin Fetter, at:
NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover at Gale Crater is now performing Sol 3351 tasks.
Recent imagery shows the robot’s surroundings:
Curiosity Mast Camera Right imagery taken on Sol 3350, January 8, 2022
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
Curiosity Mast Camera Left image taken on Sol 3349, January 7, 2022.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
Curiosity Mast Camera Left image taken on Sol 3349, January 7, 2022.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
Curiosity Mast Camera Left image taken on Sol 3349, January 7, 2022.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
Curiosity Mast Camera Left image taken on Sol 3349, January 7, 2022.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
Curiosity Mast Camera Left image taken on Sol 3349, January 7, 2022.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
Landing leg of Chang’e-5 lander.
Credit: CNSA/CLEP
China’s Chang’e-5 lunar lander has provided the first on-location detection of water on the Moon.
The finding was published in Science Advances on January 7, written by a joint research team led by Lin Yangting and Lin Honglei from the Institute of Geology and Geophysics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (IGGCAS).
Data acquired by the Chang’e-5 observed water signals in reflectance spectral data from the lunar surface.
China’s Chang’e-5 robotic sample return mission.
Credit: CNSA/CLEP
Spectral reflectance
China’s Chang’e-5 spacecraft landed in the Northern Oceanus Procellarum basin on the Moon on December 1, 2020 and successfully returned to Earth 1.731-kilograms of lunar collectibles on December 17, 2020.
The spacecraft landed on one of the youngest mare basalts, located at a mid-high latitude on the Moon.
Chang’e-5 descent stage seen just before sunset on Februray 7, 2021.
Credit: NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University
Before sampling and returning the lunar specimens to Earth, the lunar mineralogical spectrometer onboard the lunar lander performed spectral reflectance measurements of the regolith and of a rock, thereby providing the extraordinary opportunity to detect lunar surface water.
Parts per million (ppm)
A quantitative spectral analysis indicates that the lunar soil at the landing site contains less than 120 ppm of water – mostly attributed to solar wind implantation. This is consistent with the preliminary analysis of the returned Chang’e-5 samples.
Context images and water content at the Chang’e-5 landing site
Credit: Lin Honglei
In contrast, however a light and vesicular rock — a light-colored and surface-pitted rock (named as CE5-Rock) — that was also analyzed revealed an estimated roughly 180 ppm of water, thus suggesting an additional water source from the lunar interior.
According to the research, “the results of compositional and orbital remote sensing analyses show that the rock may have been excavated from an older basaltic unit and ejected to the landing site of Chang’e-5. Therefore, the lower water content of the soil, as compared to the higher water content of the rock fragment, suggests that degassing of the mantle reservoir beneath the Chang’e-5 landing site took place.”
Chang’e-5 return capsule holding lunar specimens.
Credit: National Astronomical Observatories, CAS
Researchers from the National Space Science Center of CAS, the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, the Shanghai Institute of Technical Physics of CAS and Nanjing University were also involved in the study.
To view the research paper – “In situ detection of water on the Moon by the Chang’E-5 lander” – go to:
Curiosity Left B Navigation Camera photo taken on Sol 3348, January 6, 2022.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover at Gale Crater is now performing Sol 3349 duties.
Lucy Thompson, a planetary geologist at University of New Brunswick; Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada, reports another successful drive on Mars by the robot.
Curiosity Chemistry & Camera RMI taken on Sol 3349, January 7, 2022.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/LANL
The drive resulted in a dusty bedrock workspace with nodules and small raised ridges in front of the rover, Thompson adds. “Curiosity also has a view towards larger scale, dark, resistant ridges that we have noticed within the more subdued and lighter colored, more typical bedrock in this area.”
Curiosity Mast Camera Left image acquired on Sol 3347, January 5, 2022.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
Curiosity Mast Camera Left image acquired on Sol 3347, January 5, 2022.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
Small, raised ridges
Thompson notes that the science team decided to investigate the chemistry and texture of one of the small, raised ridges in the workspace (“El Fosso”) with the Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer (APXS) and the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI).
Collection of Mast Camera Right and Left imagery taken on Sol 3347, January 5, 2022.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
“Is the ridge there because of the presence of a harder, more resistant mineral that might have formed as fluid flowed through the rock? Determining the chemistry of the feature could help to figure out why the ridge is there,” Thompson explains.
To complement this observation, the bedrock target “Kamarkawarai” will be analyzed with the Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam) Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) and imaged with the rover’s Mastcam.
Mast Camera Right photo taken on Sol 3347, January 5, 2022.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
Movement of sand
Looking further afield, Curiosity is slated to image one of the larger scale, dark, resistant ridges with a ChemCam Remote Micro-Imager (RMI) mosaic.
A planned drive is expected to take Curiosity closer to one of these ridges, which Mars researchers hope to investigate in future plans.
Mastcam is scheduled to document an area that may have been the site of recent movement of sand around a block (“The Pit”), as well as an area of a butte that may contain cross bedding (“Maringma”).
Curiosity Mast Camera Right image acquired on Sol 3347, January 5, 2022.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
Increase in dust
“Our plan was also full of atmospheric and environmental observations, particularly as we are expecting an increase in dust within the atmosphere as a regional storm passes by. We planned Mastcam basic tau, crater rim extinction and sky survey observations as well as a Navcam line of sight observation and suprahorizon movie,” Thompson reports.
Curiosity Mast Camera Right image acquired on Sol 3347, January 5, 2022.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
After the rover’s drive, the plan calls for acquiring a DAN active measurement and a MARDI observation to document the terrain beneath the rover. Standard Dynamic Albedo of Neutrons (DAN), Rover Environmental Monitoring Station (REMS) and Radiation Assessment Detector (RAD) activities round out the plan.
“Today was one of those planning days when everything went smoothly. It is not always easy to place the APXS and MAHLI instruments (situated on the end of the robotic arm) on the rocks that we want to investigate,” Thompson points out. “We have to ensure the safety of our instruments and the rover,” and it was relatively easy to place APXS and MAHLI on a target of interest.
The targeted landing zone for Ingenuity’s Flight 19 can be seen in this Return-To-Earth (RTE) camera image from Flight 9. The targeted landing spot is in the center of the image, just below the rover tracks.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
NASA’s Ingenuity rotorcraft is slated to take place no earlier than today, Friday, January 7.
Martin Cacan, Ingenuity Pilot at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, reports the scout vehicle will fly out of the South Séítah basin, across the dividing ridge, and up onto the main plateau.
The precise landing target for Flight 19 is near the landing site of Flight 8.
Fault protection parameters
“While short, the flight has a challenging start due to featureless sandy terrain that the helicopter currently sits on,” Cacan explains. “Initially chosen for the lack of rocks to land safely, the area is actually so devoid of rock that warnings were reported during Flight 18 landing due to insufficient features to track in the vision navigation. As a result, fault protection parameters will be updated to mitigate the risk of a premature landing mid-ascent.”
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
This 19th flight is set to last about 100 seconds at a groundspeed of 2.2 mph (1 meter per second) and altitude of 33 feet (10 meters) while taking 9 new, high-resolution Return-To-Earth (RTE) images.
“The final act of the flight is to turn nearly 180 degrees to flip the RTE camera to a forward-facing orientation for future flights toward the river delta,” Cacan adds.
Credit: CCTV/Inside Outer Space screengrab
China has tested a key step in completing its space station by the end of this year.
A mechanical arm of China’s Tianhe core module shifted the Tianzhou-2 cargo spacecraft, then re-docked and locked the hardware to the core cabin.
The China Manned Space Agency (CMSA) said early Thursday morning that the experiment will be applied in the subsequent assembly and construction of the space station in orbit.
The process took about 47 minutes and was the first time that China has used the space station robotic arm to operate a large spacecraft in orbit for a “transposition” test. It is the first such maneuver of the robotic arm that measures 33-feet (10-meters) long and that’s able to lift objects weighing up to 20 tons.
Credit: GLOBALink/Inside Outer Space screengrab
Breakthrough technology
After being unlocked and separated from the Tianhe core module, the Tianzhou-2 cargo spacecraft was dragged by the mechanical arm, taking the sphere center of the core module’s node cabin as the center of the circle for plane transposition.
Then, a reverse operation was performed until the cargo spacecraft re-docked and locked with the core cabin, reports China Central Television (CCTV). The robotic arm is installed on the Tianhe core module.
The precursor evaluation will be utilized when China launches two lab modules – the Wentian and Mengtian lab modules — to the station construction site later this year.
Credit: CNSA/CMG/CCTV/Inside Outer Space screengrab
“If transposition fails or is unavailable, the whole scale will probably be limited. This is a technology in which we must make breakthrough in the course of building the entire space station,” Shi Jixin, deputy chief designer of the space station at the Fifth Academy under the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC) told CCTV. “The entire space station can be built on schedule only when we make the technological breakthrough,” Shi said.
First, the robotic arm crawled to its berth port near the node cabin of the core module two days ahead of schedule in preparation for the transposition test. After that, the Tianzhou-2 cargo spacecraft was grabbed by the robotic arm.
“I use a robotic arm to push the cargo spacecraft to unlock, and then reverse it and make it return to re-dock, and finally complete the lock,” said Shi.
Trial testing
Shi said that during the transposition test, one end of the robotic arm was connected to the core module and the other end to the Tianzhou-2 cargo spacecraft, which is unstable and might cause damage to the robotic arm just like a pole carrying two elephants. Therefore, technical researchers have carried out a dedicated design for the transposition test.
China’s space station is projected to be completed in late 2022.
Credit: CAST
“First, I set it upright, and then reverse it at a 90-degree angle, so that the windward side is the smallest and the operation in orbit has a minimal aerodynamic disturbance. It stands up like a pendulum, and the module is actually gradient-stable, which means that no matter which way I flip it, it will stay on its vertical axis,” Shi told CCTV.
Xu Xiaoping, deputy chief designer of the cargo spacecraft system of the Fifth Academy of China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC) added: “Before carrying out the test in space, we had conducted trial tests on the ground to simulate the space test.”
Xu noted that he mechanical arm of the space station has assisted astronauts in four extravehicular activities. The test conducted Thursday was a test of the mechanical arm’s capability of transposition of the cargo spacecraft.
Large load
“The mechanical arm has never carried such a large load. In the past, an astronaut out of the spacecraft plus the space suit carried by a mechanical arm usually weighed about 300 kilograms. This time the load weighs nearly nine tons. Such a heavy load is also a test to the mechanical arm,” said Shi.
Shi said that the space station system is in good condition, and the maneuver will also prepare Tianhe to dock the Wentian and Mengtian lab modules.
Credit: CCTV/Inside Outer Space screengrab
“It is a joint validation of multiple systems,” Shi explained. “First, in the process of docking, the speed of the mechanical arm in fact is not high enough. Thus, the GNC [guidance, navigation and control] subsystem is needed to accelerate the speed, so that docking could be successfully completed. After docking, the cargo spacecraft needs to be re-docked and captured, and then the mechanical arm will withdraw after the locking [is] completed. Therefore, multiple systems involved in this process will be verified in the test.”
Two modes
“Astronauts control the cargo spacecraft in the core module, and carry out manual remote operation to conduct withdrawal and docking tests. At present, there are two modes of cargo spaceship rendezvous and docking. The automatic rendezvous and docking would be carried out if everything goes well. If any abnormality occurs, we also have the backup means of manual remote operation. So this operation in fact is mainly for the in-orbit verification of the backup means,” said Yang Sheng, general chief of the cargo-freighter system, Fifth Academy of CASC.
After completing all missions, Tianzhou-2 will separate from the space station core module, taking away stored waste and human excrement before eventually departing from orbit and burning up upon re-entry into the Earth’s atmosphere. This is also one of the key technologies of the space station construction.
Repositioned
Tianzhou-2 cargo spacecraft.
Credit: CCTV/Inside Outer Space screengrab
“Depending on its overall consumption and lifespan, Tianzhou-2 will choose the proper time to separate from the space station core module and burn up the waste upon re-entry into the Earth’s atmosphere. So, Tianzhou-2 is entrusted with the most and hardest tasks, and thus will stay relatively longer in orbit,” said Yang.
China sent the cargo craft Tianzhou-2 into space on May 29 last year from the southern island province of Hainan, to deliver life support supplies for astronauts, spacesuits for extra-vehicular activities, and space-science equipment among other supplies, and also to replenish Tianhe’s propellant.
On September 18 of last year, the Tianzhou-2 cargo craft separated from the rear docking port of Tianhe and docked with its front docking port.
The space station core module Tianhe was launched on April 29, 2021.
Shenzhou-13 crew members.
Credit: CNS/Inside Outer Space screengrab
Busy year
Upon its completion at the end of this year, Tiangong (Heavenly Palace) will consist of three main components; a core module attached to two space labs, and will have a combined weight of nearly 70 tons.
China’s station is scheduled to operate for 15 years in a low-Earth orbit about 250-miles (400-kilometers) above the planet.
Six launches this year involve Shenzhou-14 and Shenzhou-15 crewed missions to the Tiangong orbiting outpost, the Tianzhou-4 and 5 robotic cargo spaceships and the two large space labs that will be docked to the facility.
China Daily reports that the first of the six to be launched will be Tianzhou-4, which will be followed by the Shenzhou-14 piloted spacecraft. Then the two space labs — Wentian (Quest for the Heavens) and Mengtian (Dreaming of the Heavens) — will be launched to complete the station. The fifth launch will be Tianzhou-5 and the final will be the Shenzhou-15 crew.
To watch newly released videos of this testing phase of China’s space station construction and life onboard the facility, go to:
An alliance of experts in space, sports and the entertainment industry are designing and developing original games exclusively for zero or micro-gravity playing fields.
The group has already singled out a number of prospective game concepts, from guiding a magnetic ball through hoops in space to space dodge ball between opposing teams, as well as racing the clock to tie an increasingly-complicated series of knots while tethered to a teammate.
Visionary artist, Pat Rawlings, sees the moon’s one sixth gravity as an excellent environment for athletic competitions that are hampered by Earth’s stifling and ever-tugging gravity.
Credit: NASA/Pat Rawlings
Watch this space! The International Space Station has prompted an array of “sporting ideas” for fun and relaxation.
Credit: NASA
For more information, go to my new Space.com story — “Let the space games begin! Ideas for off-Earth sports move to center court – Space dodge ball would be pretty fun,” at
