Archive for the ‘Space News’ Category
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October 17th, 2023
Wait a Minute!
Image credit: Barbara David
There has been a long research trail in deciphering what happens when Earth’s atmosphere is intruded by incoming, human-made space debris.
Much of this past research involved modeling and squeaking out potential and early warning sign findings.
Enter new rarefied research.
Unnatural dust
The just-issued results in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), an investigation led by Dan Murphy, a researcher at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), is welcomed and cautionary news.
Image credit: NOAA
This investigative team of experts detected more than 20 elements in ratios that mirror those used in spacecraft alloys. They found that the mass of lithium, aluminum, copper and lead from spacecraft reentry far exceeded those metals found in “natural” cosmic dust.
Their appraisal flagged the fact that nearly 10% of large sulfuric acid particles — the particles that help protect and buffer the ozone layer — contained aluminum and other spacecraft metals.
Atmospherics
As part of NASA’s Airborne Science Program, NOAA’s Murphy and his group flew a WB-57 airplane to sample the atmosphere 11.8 miles (19 kilometers) above the ground in Alaska, where circumpolar clouds tend to form.
Purdue University’s Daniel Cziczo, professor and department head of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences, is a member of that research group and subsequent report.
Chemical Science Laboratory’s Mike Lawler installs the PALMS (Particle Analysis by Laser Mass Spectrometry) instrument into the nose of the WB-57. Photo: Chelsea Thompson, NOAA
Atmospheric measurements were also made by Cziczo and his group from an ER-2 aircraft over the continental United States. By flying those instruments only the freshest, most undisturbed air is sampled.
“We are finding this human-made material in what we consider a pristine area of the atmosphere,” said Cziczo in a Purdue statement. “And if something is changing in the stratosphere — this stable region of the atmosphere — that deserves a closer look.”
Meteorite smoke
Over the years, one response to early thinking about human-made clutter “burning up” in the Earth’s atmosphere was flagging the load of meteoritic material already saturating our biosphere.
“Shooting stars streak through the atmosphere,” Cziczo said. “Often, the meteor burns up in the atmosphere and doesn’t even become a meteorite and reach the planet. So the material it was made from stays in the atmosphere in the form of ions. They form very hot gas, which starts to cool and condense as molecules and fall into the stratosphere. The molecules find each other and knit together and form what we call meteorite smoke.”
Falcon 9 booster topped with sixty Starlink satellites.
Credit: SpaceX
Chemical fingerprint
Purdue’s Cziczo adds, however, that scientists recently started noticing that the chemical fingerprint of these meteoritic particles was starting to change.
That prompted researchers to ask: ‘Well, what changed?’ because meteorite composition hasn’t changed. But the number of spacecraft has, Cziczo responds.
According to the published paper: “The space industry has entered an era of rapid growth. With tens of thousands of small satellites planned for low Earth orbit, that increased mass will be divided into many more reentry events. Given that 10% of stratospheric particles now contain enhanced aluminum, with many more reentry events, it is likely that in the next few decades, the percentage of stratospheric sulfuric acid particles that contain aluminum and other metals from satellite reentry will be comparable to the roughly 50% that now contain meteoric metals.”
What next?
As pointed out in the Purdue statement, there’s an estimate floating about that as many as 50,000 more satellites may reach orbit by 2030.
Space debris plunges to Earth, burning its way through the atmosphere.
Image credit: The Aerospace Corporation
The NOAA research team calculates that in the next few decades, up to half of stratospheric sulfuric acid particles would contain metals from reentry.
But what impact that could have on the atmosphere, the ozone layer and life on Earth is yet to be evaluated.
“Changes to the atmosphere can be difficult to study and complex to understand,” Cziczo said. “But what this research shows us is that the impact of human occupation and human spaceflight on the planet may be significant — perhaps more significant than we have yet imagined. Understanding our planet is one of the most urgent research priorities there is.”
This newly published research in PNAS – found at: https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2313374120 — was supported by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration climate funding and NOAA’s Earth’s Radiation Budget Initiative and NOAA’s Chemical Sciences Laboratory. This work also involved NASA grant money, as well as grant money from the UK Natural Environment Research Council.
Bottom line – more work to be done. What next? And how best to perform those studies?
Bottom line (2) – watch this space.
Taking the fall. Space hardware dives into Earth’s atmosphere with some fragments making their way to the ground.
Image credit: ESA/D.Ducros
Posted in 
Image credit: NOAA Graphic/Chelsea Thompson
Scientists have linked exotic metal particles in the upper atmosphere to re-entering rockets and satellite leftovers.
The just-issued findings come from work by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
Measurements show that about 10% of the aerosol particles in the stratosphere contain aluminum and other metals that originated from the “burn-up” of satellites and rocket stages during reentry, according to the NOAA work.
While direct health or environmental impacts at ground level are seen as unlikely, these measurements have broad implications for the stratosphere and higher altitudes.
Research plane
The new NOAA work explains that, with many more launches planned in the coming decades, metals from spacecraft reentry could induce changes in the stratospheric aerosol layer.
NOAA researchers made use of data collected by a high-altitude research plane over the Arctic during a NOAA Chemical Science Laboratory mission called Stratospheric Aerosol processes, Budget and Radiative Effects or SABRE.
Chemical Science Laboratory’s Mike Lawler installs the PALMS (Particle Analysis by Laser Mass Spectrometry) instrument into the nose of the WB-57. Photo: Chelsea Thompson, NOAA
This NASA WB-57 research aircraft found aluminum and exotic metals embedded in about 10 percent of sulfuric acid particles, which comprise the large majority of particles in the stratosphere. Researchers were able to match the ratio of rare elements they measured to special alloys used in rockets and satellites.
That sealed the deal, confirming their source as metal vaporized from spacecraft reentering Earth’s atmosphere.
Distinct elements
“This discovery by NOAA scientists represents the first time that stratospheric pollution has been unquestionably linked to reentry of space debris,” reported NOAA in a statement.
For example, NOAA stated that Niobium and hafnium do not occur as free elements in nature, but are refined from mineral ores. They are used in semiconductors and superalloys.
Credit: ESA
“In addition to these two unusual elements,” the NOAA statement adds, “a significant number of particles contained copper, lithium and aluminum at concentrations far exceeding the abundance found in meteorics, or ‘space dust.’”
“The combination of aluminum and copper, plus niobium and hafnium, which are used in heat-resistant, high-performance alloys, pointed us to the aerospace industry,’’ said Dan Murphy, a NOAA scientist and leader of the appraisal.
All in all, scientists identified over 20 distinct elements from spacecraft and satellite reentry in particles sampled during SABRE, including, silver, iron, lead, magnesium, titanium, beryllium, chromium, nickel, zinc and lithium.
To view the research results, go to – “Metals from spacecraft reentry in stratospheric aerosol particles” – at: https://www.pnas.org/doi/full/10.1073/pnas.2313374120
Curiosity Right B Navigation Camera photo acquired on Sol 3976, October 13, 2023.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover at Gale Crater is now performing Sol 3977 duties.
Curiosity is now in position to start new drill operations, as early as this weekend, reports Conor Hayes, a graduate student at York University in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
“Drilling and the activities that accompany it can be quite power-intensive, which means that we have less flexibility in planning other observations,” Hayes notes.
A Left Navcam image from sol 3974, October 11, 2023, showing off the nameplate on the rover’s arm and Curiosity’s next drill target “Sequoia” just right of center.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Drill target
To initiate the robot’s next drilling stint, the plan calls for unstowing the rover’s arm to do some pre-drilling investigation of the drill target “Sequoia.”
This includes use of the Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer (APXS) as well as Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) imaging before and after clearing away the dust on Sequoia with the Dust Removal Tool (DRT), Hayes adds.
Curiosity Front Hazard Avoidance Camera Left B image taken on Sol 3975, October 12, 2023.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
“We will then perform what’s known as a ‘preload test’ where we will place the drill down on Sequoia (without activating the drill) to see how the rock responds to that force,” Hayes reports. “The results of the preload test will be documented by MAHLI.”
The recently scripted plan calls for use of the Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) device to investigate the target “Saddlehorn,” take some Mastcam images of the future site of the Sequoia drill hole, and image the Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) Instrument Suite inlet covers with Mastcam and Navcam.
Curiosity Right B Navigation Camera photo of inlet covers taken on Sol 3975, October 12, 2023.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
The first sol of this plan (Sol 3975) finishes off with some evening APXS integrations.
Curiosity ChemCam Remote Micro-Imager (RMI) photo taken on Sol 3976, October 13, 2023.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/LANL
Atmospheric dust
On the second sol of the plan (Sol 3976), the rover was slated to wake up and perform Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam) activities, including a LIBS observation of “Kern River,” some passive (no LIBS) observations with Remote Micro-Imager (RMI) imaging of Sequoia, and RMI imaging of the upper Gediz Vallis ridge, Hayes points out.
Curiosity Right B Navigation Camera photo acquired on Sol 3976, October 13, 2023.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
The robot’s Mastcam will then document the aftermath of the two LIBS activities in this plan.
“We will finish off with a 4×1 Navcam mosaic of the north crater rim,” Hayes reports, “to measure the amount of dust in the atmosphere between the rover and the edge of Gale Crater.”
Also on the plan, routine observations from the Rover Environmental Monitoring Station (REMS), Radiation Assessment Detector (RAD) and the Dynamic Albedo of Neutrons (DAN) tools “as we look forward to drilling another hole in the Martian surface in the coming sols,” Hayes concludes.
In an effort to increase the affordability of Artemis, NASA is preparing to award a sole-sourced services contract, known as the Exploration Production and Operations Contract (EPOC), to Deep Space Transport, LLC (DST)—a newly formed joint venture of The Boeing Company and Northrop Grumman Systems Corporation—for the production, systems integration, and launch of at least 5 and up to 10 Space Launch System (SLS) flights beginning with Artemis V scheduled for 2029.
What’s the view of NASA’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) and its recommendations?
The OIG analysis shows a single SLS Block 1B will cost at least $2.5 billion to produce—not including Systems Engineering and Integration costs—and NASA’s aspirational goal to achieve a cost savings of 50 percent is “highly unrealistic.”
Out of sight SLS costs.
Image credit: NASA
Potential cost reduction
That said, moving SLS production from separate cost-reimbursable contracts to a combined commercial services approach may “potentially reduce” SLS production costs in the long term if a fixed-price contract is used to codify a reduced price. However, the Agency has yet to determine the extent to which fixed-price contracts will be used with Deep Space Transport, LLC, the OIG report observes.
Considering the $4.3 billion cost increase NASA Incurred with cost-reimbursable contracts used to build the space flight systems for the first Artemis mission, continuing to use this type of contract under EPOC calls into question the suitability, affordability, and effectiveness of NASA’s contracting approach to SLS production, the OIG report points out.
Also, NASA’s ability to negotiate less costly services with Deep Space Transport, LLC will be hindered by the lack of competition given EPOC is not subject to competition but rather sole sourced to the existing SLS contractors, the OIG report notes.
Read the full NASA OIG report at: https://oig.nasa.gov/docs/IG-24-001.pdf
Image credit: PAVER Consortium
The European Space Agency’s Paving the road for large area sintering of regolith (PAVER) project has investigated the feasibility of melting regolith for lunar roadmaking.
Paved surfaces on the Moon, such as roads and landing pads, are possible using a sunlight-focusing Frensel lens to melt lunar regolith.
No word yet on patching potholes.
PAVER consortium consists of Germany’s BAM Institute of Materials Research and Testing with Aalen University in Germany, LIQUIFER Systems Group in Austria and Germany’s Clausthal University of Technology, with support from the Institute of Materials Physics in Space of the German Aerospace Center, DLR.
Image credit: PAVER consortium/LIQUIFER Systems Group
Image credit: DARPA/Inside Outer Space Archives
When talking about the Moon, throw some LOGIC into the mix.
In this case it’s the Lunar Operating Guidelines for Infrastructure Consortium or LOGIC for short.
This consortium is being put in place by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. Better known as DARPA, its purpose is to develop operational guidelines and pathways to close interoperability gaps for commercial lunar infrastructure.
Watch this space! Image credit: ESA Matthias Maurer
Stakeholders
DARPA intends to bring “international stakeholders across industry, academia, and government to identify critical lunar infrastructure interoperability and interface needs,” the agency explains in a statement.
The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) will administer LOGIC, providing technical leadership and management of the consortium.
“We are proud to support DARPA and NASA in achieving their integrated goals in the cislunar domain,” said Bobby Braun, head of APL’s Space Exploration Sector.
“Whether for scientific, security or economic objectives, development of cislunar technology has long been a focus at APL. We are excited to apply our team’s capabilities to the benefit of our nation,” said Braun.
The U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is moving forward on the Novel Orbital and Moon Manufacturing, Materials and Mass-efficient Design (NOM4D) program. (Image credit: DARPA)
NASA is tied in through APL’s operation of the civil space agency’s Lunar Surface Innovation Initiative (LSII) and Lunar Surface Innovation Consortium (LSIC) in which hundreds of universities and businesses are participating in NASA’s Artemis lunar exploration program.
NOM4D, LunA-10, LOGIC
Over several years, DARPA has increasingly zeroed-in on the Moon.
Last year, DARPA selected teams for its Novel Orbital Moon Manufacturing, Materials, and Mass Efficient Design (NOM4D) program.
Image credit: DARPA/Inside Outer Space Archive
More recently, DARPA initiated the 10-Year Lunar Architecture (LunA-10) Capability Study to spur the development of a future civil lunar framework for peaceful U.S. and international use.
DARPA said that LunA-10 seeks to rapidly develop foundational technology concepts “that move away from individual scientific efforts within isolated, self-sufficient systems, toward a series of shareable, scalable systems that interoperate — minimizing lunar footprint and creating monetizable services for future lunar users.”
On the horizon
“Widespread exploration and commerce on and around the Moon are on the horizon,” said Michael “Orbit” Nayak, program manager in DARPA’s Strategic Technology Office.
Wanted: Interoperability standards for commercial lunar infrastructure.
Image credit: DARPA
“With LunA-10, we’re studying the technologies that can help to get us there – and interoperability needs to be part of the picture from the start,” Nayak added.
“While other efforts focus on technology development,,” Nayak said, “LOGIC will zero in how systems work together. We’re looking for maximum participation from the public and private sectors and from international stakeholders.”
Wait a Minute!
Image credit: Barbara David
Often linked (perhaps wrongly so) to alien-occupied flying saucers that have stopovers on Earth from the outer reaches of deep space is an equally puzzling enigma: Unidentified Anomalous Phenomenon, or UAP.
Image credit: SCU
Specialized sensors are now being dispatched into the field. This gear is built to sight UAP and decipher what’s behind frequent sightings in certain hot spots of activity. For years now, the UAP mystery has blossomed, driven in-part by military pilots that have recalled their related encounters.
Image credit: RAND
Congressional hearings, specially set up military organizations, even NASA itself – all have been engaged in their own close-encounters with UAP. So far, a consistent cry is “more data.”
For a “data driven” story on what’s up with figuring out UAP, go to my new Space.com story – “Unidentified anomalous phenomena: Hot spots and the quest for better UFO data” – at:
https://www.space.com/unidentified-anomalous-phenomena-hot-spots-quest-data
Near-Earth asteroid Bennu is 1,600 feet (500 meters) wide and contains hydrated minerals, according to scientists working on the NASA OSIRIS-REx spacecraft mission.
Image credit: NASA/Goddard/University of Arizona
The early science look at NASA’s OSIRIS-REx (Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification and Security – Regolith Explorer) has begun. Initial studies of the 4.5-billion-year-old asteroid Bennu sample collected show evidence of high-carbon content and water, which together could indicate the building blocks of life on Earth may be found in the rock. Still to come, opening up the large canister that holds the majority of the asteroid collectibles.
Also, go to my Scientific American story at: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/osiris-rexs-asteroid-samples-are-finally-down-to-earth/
Image credit: NASA TV/Inside Outer Space
Image credit: NASA TV/Inside Outer Space
Image credit: NASA TV/Inside Outer Space
Image credit: NASA TV/Inside Outer Space
Image credit: NASA TV/Inside Outer Space
Image credit: Mars Guy
NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover at Jezero Crater has found features resembling reef-like structures.
Mars Guy reports that, in the very place it might be reasonable to expect, Perseverance discovered circular rock structures resembling ones formed by microbial communities in some lakes on Earth. “This exciting possibility called for a closer look.”
Image credit: Mars Guy/Simeon Schmauß
Go to this video at:
https://youtu.be/7lwarWtXABA?si=t3va5cA2c9PSSpoA
Curiosity’s location as of Sol 3972. Distance driven to date 19.3 miles/31.06 kilometers.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona
NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover at Gale Crater has just started Sol 3973 duties.
“Winter is almost half over in Gale, but this rover doesn’t hibernate,” reports Natalie Moore, mission operations specialist at Malin Space Science Systems, based in San Diego, California.
The last time the rover stopped for more than a few sols was at the Ubajara drill site back in early May, almost a kilometer and 150 sols ago.
Curiosity Left B Navigation Camera photo acquired on Sol 3972, October 9, 2023.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
“Now, five months later, we’re approaching our next drill site in this area of alternating banded layers dispersed across lithified sand,” Moore added. “The scientist jury is still out on which block is their favorite, but the operations team is already preparing to begin a two-to-three week drill campaign in the near future. With solar conjunction fast approaching, it’ll be interesting to see how much of a drill campaign we can fit between now and November 11th.”
Curiosity Left B Navigation Camera photo acquired on Sol 3972, October 9, 2023.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Two-sol plan
For the recently scripted two-sol (Sols 3968-3969) unrestricted plan, Moore said there’s a remote science block containing two Navcam activities to measure the atmospheric opacity and search for dust devils, noting “we’ve seen some large ones recently!”
Mastcam will follow up with a mono, Mastcam Right-only mosaic of the upper Gediz Vallis ridge that Curiosity has been driving parallel to since a crater cluster campaign.
The robot’s Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam) is to finish off the block with a 5×1 Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) raster on a nodular bedrock target named “Black Giant,” with Mastcam Right scheduled to document the effort afterwards.
Curiosity Left B Navigation Camera photo acquired on Sol 3972, October 9, 2023.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Filter wheel stalled
On sol 3953 (September 20th, 2023) the Mastcam-34mm (Mastcam Left) filter wheel stalled between filters L0 (clear) and L1 (green) while running a multispectral atmospheric opacity (tau) imaging sequence, explains Moore.
“Since then, the Mastcam team has been sending a series of diagnostic commands with varying motor drive parameters, in an effort to characterize the problem and get the filter wheel back to the L0 position where it is most often used,” Moore said. “To date, some progress has been made, and the team is hopeful that the L0 position will be reached soon.”
Analysis will then continue to determine if the filter wheel can be safely returned to normal service. “Remember, this rover has been outside Earth’s protection since late 2011! This isn’t the first time our engineering team fixed something remotely and it won’t be the last,” Moore reported.
Curiosity Front Hazard Avoidance Camera Left B image taken on Sol 3971, October 8, 2023.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Evening integration
After another Mastcam Left diagnostic activity was set to complete, the first arm backbone was slated to kick off and includes two contact science targets: “Helen Lake” (a less dusty dark-toned layer) and “Marion Peak” (a slightly dustier dark-toned layer).
The rover’s Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) was scheduled to take a full-suite of images on Helen Lake from 25, 5, and 2centimeters away and another mini-suite of images on Marion Peak from 25 centimeters and 5 centimeters away.
After the imaging, the robot’s arm turret was to spin to the Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer (APXS) frame for their evening integrations on the two targets.
Curiosity Mars Hand Lens Imager photo produced on Sol 3972, October 9, 2023.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
Nap the night away
The first orbiter to pass over Curiosity will be the [European Space Agency] Trace Gas Orbiter, which should send data packages back to Earth.
“We mostly nap the night away, and on the second sol we’ll wake up with another remote sensing block starting again with a Navcam dust devil movie. Mastcam will follow up this time with some near-field mosaics of sand troughs between blocks, and ChemCam will shoot their second LIBS target named “Bridgeport” on a smoother piece of bedrock,” Moore explained.
With Curiosity’s arm activities done, rover operators will be ready to drive and potentially end up near the rover’s next drill site.
