Archive for the ‘Space News’ Category
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December 15th, 2023
Possible design of China’s space plane.
Source: Homem do Espaco/Twitter
Update: SpaceX is now targeting no earlier than Thursday, December 28 for Falcon Heavy to launch the U.S. Space Force X-37B (USSF-52) to orbit from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
China’s reusable experimental spacecraft was lofted into orbit via a Long March 2F carrier rocket on Thursday from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in Northwest China’s Gobi Desert.
As reported by the China News Network, this vehicle’s mission is the third that China has made public: first orbital test of a trial vehicle took place in September 2020, with the craft in orbit for just under two days.
The second test started in August 2022 and the spaceplane stayed in the Earth’s orbit for 276 days before landing in May 2023.
Both spacecraft in the previous two tests – it is not known whether they were of the same type – were launched by a Long March 2F rocket from the Jiuquan center, as noted by the China News Network.
China has had a long-standing interest in reusable space planes.
Courtesy: Jean Deville/China Aerospace Blog
No word on duration of flight
Thursday’s launch of the secretive craft was the 22nd flight of the Long March 2F rocket, typically used to launch China’s Shenzhou crewed spaceships.
The Long March 2F booster has a carrying capacity of just over 8 metric tons for delivery into low Earth orbit.
There is no word as to the duration of this new mission of the experimental vehicle.
According to Robert Christy of Orbital Focus, the Chinese craft’s mission duration may exceed one year.
Uncrewed military space plane featuring the United States Space Force logo for the first time.
Image credit: U.S. Space Force/Courtesy Photo
X-37B delayed flight
Meanwhile, the launch of the U.S. Space Force X-37B military space plane remains in limbo (see update above). According to SpaceX, the flight of USSF-52/X-37B/Orbital Test Vehicle-7 is standing down to perform additional system checkouts.
“The payload remains healthy while teams work toward the next best launch opportunity,” adds a SpaceX communiqué.
Image credit: SpaceX
This will be the fifth launch and landing of the Falcon Heavy side boosters, which previously supported USSF-44, USSF-67, Hughes JUPTER 3, and NASA’s Psyche mission.
Following booster separation, Falcon Heavy’s two side boosters will land on SpaceX’s Landing Zones 1 and at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.
Image credit: SpaceX
For a view of this X-37B robotic craft, and the mission’s known tasks, go to:
U.S. Military Space Plane: Next Mission – What Will It Do?
https://www.leonarddavid.com/u-s-military-space-plane-next-mission-what-will-it-do/
For a perspective on China’s reusable spacecraft – “May be like US’s X-37B,” go to:
https://www.leonarddavid.com/chinas-reusable-spacecraft-may-be-like-uss-x-37b/
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Asteroid Bennu as viewed in this mosaic montage using images from NASA OSIRIS-REx return sample spacecraft.
Image credit: NASA/Goddard/University of Arizona
In the last several years, a spate of up-close encounters and smash-ups with various asteroids has taken place. Interestingly, the rubble pile composition of asteroids has been surprising in several cases.
Asteroid probes from several nations have found countless pieces of gravel and boulders loosely bound together by the object’s own small gravity field.
This revelation is drifting through the planetary defense community. How best to deal with incoming space rocks that are double-trouble: Bad for Earth, but also tough to deal with due to their makeup?
Go to my new Space.com story – “Could we defend Earth against a ‘rubble pile’ asteroid?” at:
https://www.space.com/asteroids-rubble-piles-earth-planetary-defense
The Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) in northern Chile’s Atacama desert.
Credit: ESO/B. Tafreshi (twanight.org)
The question of whether we might one day make contact with an extraterrestrial intelligence, whether near or far seems close at hand.
A new research paper examines the social consequences of first contact with other star folk and calls for humanity to prepare for an encounter with an extraterrestrial intelligence.
First of all, the consequences of a first contact strongly depend on the way it takes place. The paper offers the view that first contact with extraterrestrials poses considerable risks for humanity. Additionally, a first contact event could also take place without being culturally recognized.
Image credit: Andreas Anton, et al.
This intriguing research paper published in Acta Astronautica is led by Andreas Anton of the Institute for Frontier Areas of Psychology and Mental Health in Freiburg, Germany.
Scenarios
Anton and colleagues serve up a set of scenarios:
The signal scenario is the basis of SETI programs in which radio astronomers search for extraterrestrial civilizations. It assumes that radio telescopes pick up artificial signals from the far reaches of space.
The technosignature scenario is one where future powerful telescopes will find evidence of past or present extra-terrestrial technology.
Image credit: SETI Post-detection Hub
The artifact scenario assumes that one day, somewhere in our solar system (or even on Earth itself), we will come across the material remains – such as a space probe – of an extraterrestrial civilization.
The encounter scenario involves the appearance of an extraterrestrial spacecraft in near-Earth space that can be assumed, based on its flight maneuvers or other actions, to be controlled by a (biological or artificial) intelligence.
Biological beings or artificial intelligence?
The prospect of an encounter scenario, the paper points out, raises an important question: Whether the alien technology is controlled by a biological life form or an artificial intelligence.
The late Frank Drake with cosmic equation to gauge the presence of intelligent life in the cosmos. The Drake Equation identifies specific factors believed to play a role in the development of civilizations in our galaxy.
Image credit: SETI Institute
“A biological life form, we suspect, could potentially cause greater anxiety, as the immediate question would be what ‘they’ want here. It also has an inbuilt assumption that they have a relatively nearby base or have superfast travel (maybe faster than light) and would thus be very far ahead of us technologically. However, the question of whether the encounter is with a biological life form or the emissaries of a machine civilization could remain unresolved for a long time,” Anton and co-authors suggest.
Be prepared
The paper concludes with acknowledging that the more we know about the Universe and the further we penetrate into the cosmos through our own research activities, “the more likely it is that we will be confronted with alien civilizations, their signals or their legacies.”
That being the case, the order of the day, the researchers suggest there seems need to be prepared as a global society for this scenario.
“In the political sphere, the question of how to deal with this discovery and possible communication with extraterrestrial civilizations would lead to a global discourse,” notes the paper. “International cooperation would be essential to develop a unified approach to dealing with this new reality.”
This research paper – “Meeting extraterrestrials: Scenarios of first contact from the perspective of exosociology” – is available at:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S009457652300629X?via%3Dihub
More power to you! LUNARSABER is a Honeybee Robotics concept selected by DARPA’s LunA-10 program. LUNARSABER utilizes onboard gimbaled lights to illuminate local terrain during lunar night.
Image credit: Honeybee Robotics
A lighthouse for the Moon – what a bright idea.
In long-form engineering speak it is called Lunar Utility Navigation with Advanced Remote Sensing and Autonomous Beaming for Energy Redistribution.
But in a muted, dimmed down word it’s just called LUNARSABER.
The idea comes from Honeybee Robotics, a concept selected as part of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s 10-year Lunar Architecture (LunA-10) initiative.
Check out my new Space.com story — Massive ‘lighthouses’ on the moon could light the way for future lunar astronauts – at:
https://www.space.com/moon-lighthouse-technology-honeybee-robotics
Image credit: Lightroom
A new show has opened at London’s Lightroom that offers a unique new perspective on humankind’s past and future voyages to the Moon.
The Moonwalkers: A Journey With Tom Hanks is a collaboration between the movie actor, Chris Riley (writing), Andy Saunders (Apollo Remastered imagery), Anne Nikitin (music) and 59 Productions.
The world premier took place on December 5 in London, a work that tells the stories of the Apollo missions in intimate detail. Joining Hanks at the premiere, the three-person Artemis II crew.
Image credit: Lightroom
Powerful projection
The Moonwalkers also provides an insight into the impending return of crewed surface missions by going behind-the-scenes of the Artemis program, including interviews between Tom Hanks and Artemis astronauts.
Lightroom’s powerful projection and audio technology transforms the immense space into a vehicle for a spectacular immersive voyage to our closest celestial neighbor – the Moon.
Image credit: Lightroom
The Moonwalkers is a combination of storytelling by Tom Hanks, co-written by Chris Riley, along with a splendid score from Anne Nikitin, and visuals from the seminal book by Andy Saunders: Apollo Remastered.
Images are projected at huge scale at Lightroom, London. The 800-speaker system pulsates during the Saturn V launch sequence. Once at the Moon, panoramic images envelop the viewer.
For more information, go to this sites:
https://lightroom.uk/whats-on/the-moonwalkers/
https://youtu.be/M7No_LSfeQM?si=IEghRVMpz2-umVTK
https://youtu.be/ZgdLYHsNNmU?si=SnJnD4t007OLwBdi
Original NASA footage and breath-taking images from Andy Saunders’ Apollo Remastered.
Image credit: Black Dog & Leventhal
NOAA image of humpback whale encounter.
Image credit: NOAA
You could say it’s a “whale of an idea” – but that sound’s corn-fried fishy as an opening line for a search for extraterrestrial intelligence story.
But a team of scientists from the SETI Institute, University of California Davis and the Alaska Whale Foundation, had a close encounter with a non-human intelligence of the aquatic kind.
A Whale-SETI team has been studying humpback whale communication systems and a new paper on the work has been published, led by Brenda McCowan of U.C. Davis, a professor in the university’s school of veterinary medicine and a core scientist in neuroscience and behavior.
Intelligence filters
The Whale-SETI research is being done in an effort to develop “intelligence filters” for other star folk out there in the cosmological ether.
Image credit: Brenda McCowan, et al.
According to the recently published research, in response to a recorded humpback “contact” call played into the sea via an underwater speaker, a humpback whale given the name Twain approached and circled the team’s boat, while responding in a conversational style to the whale “greeting signal.”
Playback call
According to a SETI Institute statement, “during the 20-minute exchange, Twain responded to each playback call and matched the interval variations between each signal.”
The Whale-SETI team is studying intelligent, terrestrial, non-human communication systems to develop filters to apply to any extraterrestrial signals received.
Image credit: Jodi Frediani
Important assumption
“Because of current limitations on technology, an important assumption of the search for extraterrestrial intelligence is that extraterrestrials will be interested in making contact and so target human receivers,” said Laurance Doyle of the SETI Institute, a coauthor on the paper.
“This important assumption is certainly supported by the behavior of humpback whales,” Doyle said.
Other members of the Whale-SETI group and coauthors of the paper are Josie Hubbard, Lisa Walker, and Jodi Frediani, with specialties in animal intelligences, humpback whale song analysis, and photography and behavior of humpback whales, respectively.
To access the paper in a recent issue of the journal Peer J. entitled: “Interactive Bioacoustic Playback as a Tool for Detecting and Exploring Nonhuman Intelligence: ‘Conversing’ with an Alaskan Humpback Whale,” go to:
https://peerj.com/articles/16349/
Image credit: UCLA SETI
Image credit: CCTV/Inside Outer Space screengrab
It was a busy weekend for China rocketeers on the path to developing reusable launch capability.
Now underway is testing of the Hyperbola-2 methane-liquid oxygen reusable verification stage, built to evaluate its ability of vertical liftoff and landing. Testing is being performed in the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwestern China.
On Sunday, its second flight was performed. The initial test for vertical liftoff and landing was conducted in early November.
Image credit: CCTV/Inside Outer Space screengrab
Interstellar Glory
Ji Haibo, chief designer of Hyperbola 2Y at Interstellar Glory, said that after tests on the ground, they are planning to conduct one at sea next year, telling China Central Television (CCTV) that the proven reusable technologies will be applied in Hyperbola-3, a 70-meter-tall rocket powered by methane and liquid oxygen, and the rocket will be used in projects such as satellite internet.
The recent test flight of the Hyperbola-2 methane-liquid oxygen reusable verification stage is to fully evaluate the reusability of the rocket, said Jiang Yi, Designer of Liquid Rockets at Interstellar Glory.
Image credit: CCTV/Inside Outer Space screengrab
Low-cost, reusable rocketry
On Saturday, LandSpace’s Zhuque-2 Y-3 carrier rocket was successfully launched into space from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China, sending three satellites into orbit.
It was the third flight mission of the Zhuque-2 carrier rocket.
Dai Zheng, deputy chief designer and deputy commander of Zhuque-2 carrier rocket.
Image credit: CCTV/Inside Outer Space screengrab
Saturday’s successful launch of China’s liquid oxygen methane-fueled rocket Zhuque-2 Y3 marked a breakthrough in the development of low-cost reusable commercial rockets, which is crucial to expanding the space traffic portal in the future for the aerospace industry, said Dai Zheng, deputy chief designer of the rocket.
Stainless steel
Developed by the Chinese rocket company LandSpace, Zhuque-2 is China’s first medium-sized rocket powered by liquid oxygen and methane. Its upgraded version has an increased liftoff weight that meets the demand for low-Earth orbit satellite deployment and spacecraft launches.
Image credit: Dongfang Hour
China’s methane-powered Zhuque-3 reusable carrier rocket is expected to take on its maiden flight in 2025.
The Zhuque-3 rocket will use Tianque methane engines developed by LandSpace. Its first stage will have nine Tianque-12B engines, which may be reused for up to 20 times. Zhuque-3’s second stage will employ a Tianque-15B vacuum engine.
The Zhuque-3 carrier rocket will be China’s first rocket made of stainless steel and will have a liftoff weight of about 660 tons and a carrying capacity of 21.3 tons.
Single-stage reusability
“The Zhuque-3 carrier rocket is a large-sized single-stage liquid oxygen methane reusable launch vehicle specifically developed in response to the market demand within the context of construction of China’s national satellite-based internet project,” said Zhang Changwu, CEO of LandSpace.
“We are also expected to achieve the milestone of product delivery in 2025. For the Zhuque-3 carrier rocket, we have made numerous breakthroughs in the fundamental experiments for making it. We have achieved groundbreaking progress in the rocket’s material, the upgrade of the thrust of the rocket engine and the algorithm for single-stage reusability,” Zhang told CCTV.
Go to this video focused on testing the Hyperbola-2 methane-liquid oxygen reusable verification stage at:
https://youtu.be/8wbxGIZ97LU?si=i3zOJ9ARvDMojPvN
Go to this video spotlighting launch of LandSpace’s ZhuQue-2 booster.
Apollo 11 footprint on the Moon.
Image credit: NASA
“That’s one small step”… but anthropologists and geologists at the University of Kansas say it’s time to recognize that humans have left their environmental footprint on the Moon, declaring it the “Lunar Anthropocene.”
The idea is much the same as the discussion of the Anthropocene on Earth, that is the exploration of how much humans have impacted our planet, states Justin Holcomb, a postdoctoral researcher with the Kansas Geological Survey (KGS) at KU.
“The consensus is on Earth the Anthropocene began at some point in the past, whether hundreds of thousands of years ago or in the 1950s. Similarly, on the Moon, we argue the Lunar Anthropocene already has commenced,” Holcomb points out in a university press statement.
Examples of archaeological artifacts and features on the Moon. a) Crater formed by impact of USA’s Ranger 6 lunar probe in 1964; b) USA’s Apollo 13 Saturn IVB upper stage impact site from 1970; c) Israel’s Beresheet Moon lander crash site from attempted soft landing in 2019; d) China’s Chang’e 4 lunar lander, launched in 2018: e) Photograph and partial footprint left behind by astronaut Charles Duke during USA’s Apollo 16 mission in 1972; f) USA’s Apollo 16 Lunar Surface Magnetometer; g) USA’s NASA Surveyor 3 probe that landed in 1967 and footprints from Apollo 12 which occurred over three years later, resulting in the recovery of some lunar probe components; h) Tracks of Russia’s Lunokhod 2 rover deployed during the 1973 Luna 21 mission.
Image credit: Justin Holcomb, et al.
Lunar halo
Holcomb collaborated on the idea, published as a comment within the journal Nature Geoscience, co-written by Rolfe Mandel, University Distinguished Professor of Anthropology and senior scientist with KGS, and Karl Wegmann, associate professor of marine, earth and atmospheric sciences at North Carolina State University.
“We want to prevent massive damage or a delay of its recognition until we can measure a significant lunar halo caused by human activities, which would be too late,” Holcomb adds.
Holcomb said he hopes the Lunar Anthropocene concept might help dispel the myth that the Moon is an unchanging environment, barely impacted by humanity.
Artistic depiction of NASA astronauts at the lunar south pole carrying out early work to establish an Artemis Base Camp.
Image credit: NASA
Space heritage
“In the context of the new space race, the lunar landscape will be entirely different in 50 years,” Holcomb said. “Multiple countries will be present, leading to numerous challenges. Our goal is to dispel the lunar-static myth and emphasize the importance of our impact, not only in the past but ongoing and in the future. We aim to initiate discussions about our impact on the lunar surface before it’s too late.”
The field of “space heritage” would aim to preserve or catalog items such as footprints, rovers, flags…yes, even golf balls, that already dot the lunar topside.
Other evidence for human activity on the Moon includes bags of human excreta, scientific equipment, photographs and religious texts, Holcomb and colleagues write.
The first picture Neil Armstrong took during the Apollo 11 moonwalk shows a jettison bag under Eagle’s descent stage.
Credit: NASA
Humanity’s journey
“Footprints and rover wheel tracks are extensions of the human presence on the Moon and should be considered important cultural features of our species’ dispersal across our Solar System,” their paper explains.
“As archaeologists, we perceive footprints on the Moon as an extension of humanity’s journey out of Africa, a pivotal milestone in our species’ existence,” Holcomb said.
“These imprints are intertwined with the overarching narrative of evolution,” Holcomb continued. “It’s within this framework we seek to capture the interest of not only planetary scientists but also archaeologists and anthropologists who may not typically engage in discussions about planetary science.”
To access the comment – “The case for a lunar anthropocene” published in Nature Geoscience, go to:
Watch this cis-lunar space! To what extent will a future lunar framework support military prowess?
Image credit: NASA/ESA, Matthias Maurer
Over the last few years, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, better known as DARPA, has increasingly zeroed-in on the Moon.
A trio of proactive DARPA Moon-related undertakings has been welcomed in some quarters.
On the other hand, could such initiatives trigger worries and spark counter-actions by other nations to install military might at the Earth’s moon?
What’s up with saluting the Moon for strategic, military purposes?
Go to my new Space.com story – “Why is there so much military interest in the moon?” — at:
A young Carl Sagan sketched
this conception of future
space travel in the mid-1940s,
when he was 10 to 13 years
old. Courtesy of Druyan-Sagan
Associates Inc. All rights
reserved/Manuscript Division
Among the 595,000 items in the Seth MacFarlane Collection of the Carl Sagan and Ann Druyan Archive in the Library of Congress is a childhood drawing titled “The Evolution of Interstellar Flight.”
When Carl Sagan was 10 to 13 years old, sometime between 1944 and 1947, that drawing was created, an artistic vision of adventurers crossing the galaxy.
So notes Sahar Kazmi, a writer-editor in the Office of the Chief Information Officer, detailing this and other Carl Sagan childhood drawings of space travel in the November-December issue of the Library of Congress Magazine.
Savvy visions
“In one of the most thrilling notes of foresight from the young Sagan, three astronauts appear at the bottom right corner of the page. Their uniforms feature bubble helmets, thick jumpsuits and backpacks with antennae — familiar sights to modern readers, but unexpectedly savvy visions from a school kid in the 1940s,” Kazmi explains.
“That boyish wonder never left Sagan,” Kazmi adds. “Today, his enchantment with the cosmos lives on in an impressive body of work, ready to inspire a new generation of dreamers.”
Rock and Roll legend Chuck Berry with Carl Sagan at a Voyager 2 Neptune flyby celebration in August 1989. Berry’s “Johnny B. Goode” is the only rock song on the interstellar spacecrafts Voyagers 1 and 2.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech.
