Archive for the ‘Space News’ Category
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July 21st, 2023
OSIRIS-REx spacecraft at Bennu.
Credit: NASA/University of Arizona
LITTLETON, Colorado – As NASA’s first mission to collect a sample from an asteroid screams toward Earth, recovery teams are practicing steps needed to assure that those bits of extraterrestrial flotsam safely arrive on Earth for detailed scientific inspection.
Mock sample return capsule is inspected in the field by a recovery team member.
Image credit: Barbara David
The scene is here at the Lockheed Martin Space campus; a sprawling facility populated by major aerospace expertise at the ready for deep diving exploration of the solar system.
It’s a busy time to help prepare for arrival of a spacecraft from afar – NASA’s Origins Spectral Interpretation Resource Identification Security Regolith Explorer, or mercifully shortened to OSIRIS-REx.
Cleanroom procedures are practiced at Lockheed Martin in readiness for Utah landing of OSIRIS-REx capsule containing asteroid material.
Image credit: Leonard David
For more information, go to my new Space.com story – “Asteroid sample incoming: OSIRIS-REx team preps for September landing of Bennu bits – Touchdown will occur in Utah on Sept. 24” at:
https://www.space.com/osiris-rex-sample-return-landing-practice
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Image credit: GLOBALink/Inside Outer Space screengrab
China’s Shenzhou-16 crew completed their first spacewalk, installing and adjusting camera devices outside the Tiangong space station, according to the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA).
The taikonaut spacewalkers were mission commander Major General Jing Haipeng and spaceflight engineer Colonel Zhu Yangzhu. Professor Gui Haichao, the mission’s science payload specialist, stayed inside the space station to provide support.
After their eight-hour spacewalk, Jing and Zhu returned to the Wentian science module.
Image credit: CGTN/Inside Outer Space screengrab
Returning in November
While this was the first spacewalk by the crew, this was the 13th spacewalk carried out by Chinese astronauts.
China’s Shenzhou-16 crew.
Image credit: CCTV/Inside Outer Space screengrab
The CMSA said that Jing and Zhu, among tasks, mounted a support frame for a panoramic camera outside the Tianhe core module. The twosome also unlocked and moved two panoramic cameras outside the Mengtian science module.
The Shenzhou-16 trio arrived at China’s Tiangong space station on May 30, expected to remain in Earth orbit for a five-month stint in space, returning to Earth in November.
Go to these videos that highlight the spacewalk and crew activities at:
Image credit: Barbara David
Wait a minute – here we go again!
Next week, the House Oversight Committee’s National Security Subcommittee in Congress will hold a hearing on Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena, or UAP.
The July 26 hearing is titled “Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena: Implications on National Security, Public Safety, and Government Transparency.”
Image credit: Yannick Peings, Marik von Rennenkampff/AIAA
Firsthand accounts
According to a statement the subcommittee hearing “will explore firsthand accounts of unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP) and assess the federal government’s transparency and accountability regarding UAPs’ possible threats to U.S. national security.”
A key effort of the hearing is to bring transparency to the issue of UAPs.
“The Pentagon and Washington bureaucrats have kept this information hidden for decades, and we’re finally going to shed some light on it. We’re bringing in credible witnesses who can provide public testimony because the American people deserve the truth. We’re done with the cover-ups,” said Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.).
Show and tell time
Hearing witnesses are:
- Ryan Graves, Executive Director, Americans for Safe Aerospace
- Retired Commander David Fravor, Former Commanding Officer, Black Aces Squadron, U.S. Navy
- David Grusch, Former National Reconnaissance Office officer and representative, Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena Task Force, Department of Defense
Grusch has recently claimed, citing unnamed officials, that the U.S. has retrieved “intact and partially intact” vehicles of non-human origin and that the U.S. federal government maintains a hush-hush recovery program that has stashed away exotic spacecraft, even dead pilots.
Shown at Congressional hearing, Video 1 2021 flyby movie showing a purported UAP.
Credit: Counterterrorism, Counterintelligence, and Counterproliferation Subcommittee/Inside Outer Space screengrab
American public: in the dark
In 2022, at the direction of Congress, the Department of Defense created the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) to investigate UAP reports.
According to the statement, the federal government spends millions of dollars examining UAPs yet refuses to be forthcoming with the American people as it continues to declassify certain videos and studies on various UAP incidents with little clarity on the subject’s origins.”
“The status quo on the part of the U.S. government has been to leave the American public in the dark regarding information about UAPs, refuse to answer questions posed by whistleblowers, avoid the concerns Americans have about the possible threats UAPs pose to our national security and public safety, and default to extreme and unnecessary over-classification,” said Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.).
UAP have been reported by Navy pilots unlike anything they have ever witnessed.
Image credit: Enigma Labs/Lt. Cmdr. Alex Dietrich
Lawmaker Luna added: “If the last few months have taught me anything, it is that this is an issue that matters to Americans. It also impacts the transparency and accountability our government is supposed to grant to the people who it serves. I look forward to bringing this topic to light.”
Image credit: Statista
Solve this mystery
“My goal is to share my experience, but also elevate the voices of other pilots who are seeing UAP every day and deserve answers,” said Ryan Graves in a Americans for Safe Aerospace statement. More than 30 commercial aircrew and military UAP witnesses have approached the Americans for Safe Aerospace, he said, and the group is working to help share their reports with Congress and the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office.
“It is encouraging to see Congress taking UAP witnesses seriously,” Graves added. “For too long stigma has clouded transparency on this topic, and I am encouraged by the continued pressure from elected officials to solve this mystery.”
The July 26 hearing begins at 10:00 a.m. Eastern Time, open to the public and live-streamed online at:
Image credit: Congressional Record/Inside Outer Space screengrab
UAP disclosure act
On July 13, in the Congressional Record of the U.S. Senate, a “UAP Disclosure Act of 2023” calls for public disclosure of all Federal, State, and local government, commercial industry, academic, and private sector endeavors that have collected, exploited, or used reverse engineer technologies of unknown origin or examined biological evidence of living or deceased non-human intelligence that pre-dates the date of the enactment of this Act.
The term ‘‘non-human intelligence’’ means, according to the Act, any sentient intelligent non-human lifeform regardless of nature or ultimate origin that may be presumed responsible for unidentified anomalous phenomena or of which the Federal Government has become aware.
Up close and personal! Scene from Earth vs. the Flying Saucers circa 1956.
Credit: Columbia Pictures
Object observables
In addition, the Act says that the term ‘‘unidentified anomalous phenomena’’ includes what were previously described as flying discs; flying saucers; unidentified aerial phenomena; unidentified flying objects (UFOs); and unidentified submerged objects (USOs).
The Act also stated that UAP are differentiated from both attributed and temporarily non-attributed objects by one or more of the following observables:
- Instantaneous acceleration absent apparent inertia.
- Hypersonic velocity absent a thermal signature and sonic shockwave.
- Transmedium (such as space-to-ground and air-to-undersea) travel.
- Positive lift contrary to known aerodynamic principles.
- Multispectral signature control.
- Physical or invasive biological effects to close observers and the environment.
To take a look at details of the UAP Disclosure Act of 2023, go to:
https://www.congress.gov/118/crec/2023/07/13/169/120/CREC-2023-07-13-pt1-PgS2953.pdf
NASA’s Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security-Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx) spacecraft.
Credit: NASA/Goddard/University of Arizona
Practice makes perfect, as they say.
NASA’s first mission to collect a sample from an asteroid — Origins Spectral Interpretation Resource Identification Security Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx) – is zipping its way back to Earth.
Utah drop zone landscape.
Image credit:
OSIRIS-REx collected specimens of asteroid Bennu in October 2020.
Drop zone
Loaded with those precious collectibles, the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft will drop off its sample return capsule on September 24.
Recovery team practice to prepare sample return capsule for helicopter pickup.
Image credit: NASA/Keegan Barber
The desert drop zone: The Department of Defense’s Utah Test and Training Range.
Image credit: NASA/Keegan Barber
Early this week, recovery teams toured the projected landing ellipse in Utah, as well as performed a lengthy to-do list for the real recovery of the capsule, including airlifting the cosmic cargo via helicopter to an awaiting clean room.
Image credit: NASA/Keegan Barber
Image credit: NASA/Keegan Barber
Immersive Mars Issue of Tech Briefs:
Mars: Past, Present, Future; NASA’s New, Resilient Approach to Moon, Mars Exploration; Robotic Exploration of Caves on Mars; Developing High–Fidelity Martian Regolith Simulants; Astronaut Smart Glove for Mars EVA Spacesuits; Earthly Twin Offers Test Bed for NASA’s Peserverance Mars Rover; and 3D–Printed Mars Habitat Simulated on Earth.
Go to:
https://www.nxtbook.com/smg/techbriefs/23TB07/index.php#/p/Intro
This outcrop in the center of image reminds one of a lion, lying on its side. Curiosity Front Hazard Avoidance Camera Right B photo taken on Sol 3892, July 19, 2023.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover at Gale Crater has just begun performing Sol 3893 tasks.
A recent weekend drive successfully brought the robot some 90 feet (28 meters), bringing it closer to the “crater cluster,” a series of small craters grouped close together, reports Catherine O’Connell-Cooper, a planetary geologist at the University of New Brunswick; Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada.
Cluster close-ups
“These craters were created by meteoroid impacts, probably from a single meteoroid that broke up before it reached the surface,” O’Connell-Cooper adds. “So this mini campaign will bring us as close as possible to the cluster, for lots and lots of imaging to be analyzed, which will allow us to characterize the craters and potentially get an understanding of their origin. Hopefully we will even get close enough to get contact science on some material up here.”
Curiosity Chemistry & Camera (ChemCam) Remote Micro-Imager (RMI) photo taken on Sol 3892, July 19, 2023.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/LANL
Curiosity Chemistry & Camera (ChemCam) Remote Micro-Imager (RMI) photo taken on Sol 3892, July 19, 2023.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/LANL
Curiosity Front Hazard Avoidance Camera Left B image taken on Sol 3892, July 19, 2023.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Distinct layers
Curiosity recently focused instruments on one target, labeled as the “Lion’s Mane.”
Bedrock here — and all of the rover’s recent workspaces — typically has two variations, O’Connell-Cooper adds. The bulk of the outcrop is made up of blocks which are usually layered and often have lots of nodules – as can be seen in the body of the “lion.”
Then there are often minor occurrences of a more platy, brittle looking material. The head of the lion and its shaggy mane is made up of this material, where it has weathered into several distinct layers with ragged edges, O’Connell-Cooper points out.
This second type of outcrop was to be studied by the rover’s Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer (APXS), first integrated over the target “Nasia” (located on the top of the “lion’s head”) and then Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam) will use Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) on the same spot. This will be followed by using the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) and Mastcam imaging of the same target.
Curiosity Left B Navigation Camera image taken on Sol 3891, July 18, 2023.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Interactions: rock, regolith, sand
O’Connell-Cooper reports that Mastcam was slated to also take two small mosaics (3 images each) in the near field of the workspace – “Zarelia” will look at some nearby laminated float blocks and the “Troughs” mosaic will look at… you guessed it …. some troughs.
Curiosity Left B Navigation Camera image taken on Sol 3891, July 18, 2023.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
“More specifically, it will look at interactions between rock and regolith and sand in the workspace. Mastcam will also take a larger mosaic (a “15×3” mosaic, i.e., 3 rows of 15 images) focusing on the crater cluster,” O’Connell-Cooper adds.
Curiosity Left B Navigation Camera image acquired on Sol 3892, July 19, 2023.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Martian clouds
Meanwhile, the environmental theme group is busy as always.
“Mastcam will take a pair of tau measurements (measuring dust in the atmosphere), whilst Navcam will take a series of movies,” O’Connell-Cooper, notes, “examining martian clouds, their properties and abundances. The cloud ‘zenith’ movie looks directly upwards to look at clouds and their direction, whilst the ‘suprahorizon’ movie is targeted in a more horizontal direction, looking at clouds and variations in optical depth in the atmosphere above the southern rim of the crater.”
The Dynamic Albedo of Neutrons (DAN) and Rover Environmental Monitoring Station (REMS) measurements round out the environmental science plan.
Following this, the robot is slated to drive about 98 feet (30 meters), “skirting along the edge of the crater cluster, and setting us for further characterization of the crater cluster on Wednesday,” O’Connell-Cooper concludes.
Image credit: NASA
It is an early, up-front message from 20th century Apollo moonwalkers.
The Moon is one big dust bowl. It can jam up machines. It is abrasive to delicate science gear, and adheres to space suits. It’s also a hazard to humans breathing in the stuff within the comfy confines of a lunar habitat after a hard day’s work on the Moon’s surface.
Apollo 17 helmets and dusty spacesuits stuffed inside lunar lander following the last human treks on the Moon in December 1972.
Credit: NASA
“Mitigation technologies that quickly and effectively remove dust particles (down to microns in size) with minimal consumables, as well as meet tight mass, volume, and power constraints, are needed for future long-term lunar exploration,” explains Charles T. Pett, a PhD student
in aerospace engineering at the University of Maryland.
Lunar dust haunted Apollo moonwalkers. Can that dust offer a way to mitigate climate change on Earth?
Image credit: NASA/Azita Valinia
Handheld device
To tackle the talcum powder-like Moon dust, enter the “Gecko Roller” – a handheld device that functions in the same way as a common terrestrial lint roller.
The idea was inspired by studying the skin membrane of a gecko, a small lizard. Due to a multitude of microscopic hairs on their feet, these little critters can cling and climb with great finesse.
Pett and his research colleagues suggest a bit of biomimicry.
Top left shows topographical characteristics of gecko toes. Bottom left, scanning electron microscope images of manufactured gecko skin microstructure. Right, Gecko Roller after removing flour from a hard surface. Image credits: C. T. Pett, et al.
Cling appeal
“The synthetic gecko skin membrane is a silicone elastomer with micron-scale molded hair-like structures that increase the adhesion between the dust and the elastomer,” the research team explains. “The Gecko Roller requires no power when operated by an astronaut, but can become reusable via electrostatic cleaning if power is available.”
In preliminary work, the Gecko Roller has shown its cling appeal to effectively remove dust from hard surfaces, as well as a spacesuit fabric swatch at lab temperature and pressure.
Someone tell GEICO that the Gecko Roller is a dust busting insurance policy need for 21st century Moon walking crews.
Image credit: GEICO
Image credit: Roscosmos
Russia’s Luna-25 robotic Moon lander continues to make preparations for its launch from the Vostochny cosmodrome.
Recently, electrical and other spacecraft checkouts were carried out (from July 12 to July 16) with Russia’s Roscosmos adding that “the results are positive and without any comments!”
Liftoff of Luna-25 by a Soyuz-2.1b rocket with a Fregat upper stage is scheduled for August.
Luna-25 is Russia’s re-rendezvous with Moon exploration, picking up where the former Soviet Union left off in 1976.
South pole landing
The spacecraft is to try out technology for soft landing, take and analyze the soil and conduct other scientific research, as well as study the upper layer of the surface regolith in the region of the south pole of the Moon, as well as the lunar exosphere.
Image credit: Roscosmos
In terms of landing, Luna-25 is fundamentally different from its predecessors. Former Soviet lunar stations landed on the Moon in the equatorial zone. The new station should gently plop down on the Moon “in the circumpolar region with complex terrain,” notes Roscosmos.
Image credit: Roscosmos
Public poll
Meanwhile, a public poll has been taken to give a name to the talisman and its magical powers. Out of three top candidates, “Moon”; “Fox”; and “Sonata” are in the running, with “Sonata” in the lead, according to a Roscosmos Telegraph posting.
For more information on this upcoming mission, go to my new Space.com story “Russia’s Luna-25 moon lander reaches launch site for a reported August 11 liftoff” at:
https://www.space.com/russia-moon-mission-luna-25-at-launch-site
Image credit: China Manned Space Engineering Office
The China Manned Space Agency (CMSA) on Monday issued an announcement to solicit proposals for payloads to be carried by the country’s human Moon mission set to take place in 2030.
According to the CMSA, the lunar lander will carry scientific payloads solicited from research institutions, universities and high-tech enterprises.
Investigative fields would include lunar geology and lunar physics, observation, space life sciences, as well as deep drilling on the lunar surface and utilization of lunar resources, the CMSA stated, as reported by the Global Times and Xinhua news groups.
Image credit: China Manned Space Engineering Office
Lunar rover
Chinese astronauts will be able to explore the surface of the Moon using a two-seater lunar rover which will be able to collect samples within a range of 6 miles (10 kilometers), according to Zhang Hailian, deputy chief designer with the CMSA.
Zhang said that in addition to the two-person lunar rover, China also plans to launch a lunar mobile laboratory with large-scale mobile capabilities. It will be able to operate uncrewed on the lunar surface for a considerable time, and will be equipped to support the short-term stay of astronauts.
Image credit: China Manned Space Engineering Office
Preliminary plans
In recent days, China space experts have been detailing the country’s humans-to-the-Moon exploration plans, although cited as preliminary.
Last week, a preliminary plan for landing a Chinese crew on the Moon before 2030 was outlined, based on use of two carrier rockets to transfer a Moon lander and a crewed spacecraft into lunar orbit.
The two would then rendezvous and dock with each other. Crew transfer into the Moon lander would be done in lunar orbit. After crew touchdown on the Moon and lunar tasks are finished, the explorers would then rocket back into lunar orbit to dock with their orbiting spacecraft for return to Earth.
Image credit: China Manned Space Engineering Office
According to China Central Television (CCTV), Chinese researchers are working on the development of the Long March-10 carrier rocket, a new generation of piloted spacecraft, a lunar lander, a lunar landing spacesuit, a wheeled lunar rover for Moon explorers, and other equipment, citing Zhang speaking at a recent space industry forum in Wuhan, capital of central China’s Hubei Province.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter has relayed some new imagery, acquired on July 14.
A black and white image was taken by the mini-chopper’s Navigation Camera mounted in the helicopter’s fuselage and pointed directly downward to track the ground during flight.
The color image was produced by Ingenuity’s high-resolution color camera mounted in the helicopter’s fuselage and pointed approximately 22 degrees below the horizon.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Mars rocks!
Meanwhile, a “stunning discovery” by the Perseverance Mars rover may flip the script regarding the oldest rocks in Jezero crater.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Mars Guy
Where they formed from a thick lava flow or lava lake that once filled the crater?
New data challenges that idea, suggests Mars Guy.
Go to this new video at:
