Archive for the ‘Space News’ Category
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June 14th, 2023
Mars sample return to Earth – a major undertaking by NASA, the European Space Agency.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Now underway is a multi-nation, multi-billion dollar Mars Sample Return program, a project for the 2030’s to hurl to Earth a select smorgasbord of soil, rock and atmosphere from the Red Planet.
NASA and the European Space Agency are working together on the Mars Sample Return (MSR) campaign. The plan is for those gathered and contained Mars collectibles – roughly a pound of extraterrestrial goodies — to be plopped into the Utah Test and Training Range in west-central Utah.
Hot property
Proposed Utah landing zone (red ellipse) for the Mars sample return mission.
Image credit: NASA
But shooting back to Earth bits and pieces from Mars means how to deal with the potential for biological “hot property” – also called backward contamination. That term can heat up oratory and public unease, of people visualizing creepy-crawlies from that distant world munching away at Earth’s biosphere.
Once on Earth, Mars specimens will make their way to a sample receiving facility.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Arguably, it has the makings of a real-time replay of novelist Michael Crichton’s Andromeda Strain, transformed into a 1971 sci-fi film that dramatized the idea of alien organisms infecting the Earth.
For more information, go to my new Multiverse Media SpaceRef story — Martian Samples on Earth, Planetary Protection from Contamination Becomes Hot Issue – at:
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ESA Director Josef Aschbacher with China’s Zhang Kejian, head of the China National Space Administration sign agreement on June 8, 2023.
Image credit: CNSA
China’s next robotic Moon landing probe, Chang’e-6, will carry payloads from the French and Europeans.
The China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp revealed on Tuesday that two memorandums of understanding have been signed between the China National Space Administration (CNSA), the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales (CNES), the French space agency.
CNSA’s Zhang Kejian meets with Philippe Baptiste, chief of France’s CNES.
Image credit: CNSA
China’s Chang’e-6 mission is slated for takeoff in 2024, built to carry out sample-return from the lunar farside.
The European and French scientific instruments for lunar surface research are an ESA-supplied negative ion analyzer, while a detector to measure radon gas and its decay products on the Moon comes from CNES.
China’s last Moon mission, Chang’e-5, launched in 2020, retrieved and hauled back to Earth a total of 1,731 grams of lunar soil from the nearside.
Landing leg of Chang’e-5 Mooncraft.
Credit: CNSA/CLEP
Wait a Minute.
Image credit: Barbara David
If you have been abducted in space and time by the increasing government and public interest in Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs) – rightly or wrongly now dubbed Unidentified Anomalous Phenomenon (UAP) – tighten your seat belts and secure those tray tables as they need to be in an upright and locked position during takeoff and landing.
The scene is the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. On Monday, June 12, “Disclosure 2.0” was convened by Steven Greer, founder of the Disclosure Project.
Image credit: Disclosure Project/Inside Outer Space screengrab
Greer presented “definitive evidence” of illegal and unacknowledged black budget projects related to UFO/UAP operations in Washington D.C.
Whistleblowers, legal action
The event featured whistleblowers, locations of illegally operated UFO projects and corporations – and that’s not all.
Image credit: Disclosure Project/Inside Outer Space screengrab
Plans for a civilian initiated RICO (Racketeering Influenced Corrupt Organization) lawsuit against illegal military and corporate projects was announced and outlined. A newly formed Disclosure legal team is comprised of pro bono attorneys, legal professionals, and law students from a broad range of expertise and backgrounds to join in on this effort.
The Disclosure Project Legal Team for UFO Disclosure is focused on achieving widespread acknowledgment of UFOs, UAPs, and advanced energy technologies for solving the global climate crisis.
Spotlighted were the legal implications of filing a RICO lawsuit on behalf of those wronged by the actions of the “corrupt entities that have been controlling the UFO issue.”
Artwork of up-close encounter – a Fort Irwin incident based on “Top Secret military Witness.”
Image credit: Disclosure Project
Bumpy ride
During the event, some of the cataloged 119 crash/retrieval events of extraterrestrial vehicles were summarized and presented.
If the truth is out there…it’s going to be a bumpy ride to excavate reality when it comes to ET, close encounters of whatever kind, and sorting out purported government hanky-panky on this subject.
For the video of the National Press Club-held event, go to:
https://www.youtube.com/live/zDY7t6HihCw?feature=share
Let me know what you think!
Curiosity Left B Navigation Camera image acquired on Sol 3853, June 9, 2023.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover at Gale Crater is now performing Sol 3855 duties.
“Curiosity has been trying to work her way to the top of a canyon towards an interesting cluster of craters. Unfortunately the current terrain is extremely challenging, and the drives have been stopping short of their intended distance,” reports Lauren Edgar, a planetary geologist at the USGS Astrogeology Science Center in Flagstaff, Arizona.
Curiosity Right B Navigation Camera image taken on Sol 3854, June 9, 2023.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Incremental progress
“After multiple attempts to get uphill but making only incremental progress, the team decided today to try a new route,” Edgar adds. “The new route looks a lot less steep, which will hopefully help the rover make progress among the mixture of fines and bedrock blocks.”
Curiosity doesn’t have the help of traction mats and tow ropes! Despite these driving challenges, Edgar says, Curiosity has been conducting great science.
“During the recent drives the rover wheels have been creating scuffs in the soil, which provide an interesting opportunity to assess the composition of soil newly exposed by the rover wheels,” Edgar explains.
Curiosity Left B Navigation Camera image acquired on Sol 3854, June 10, 2023.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Sand slumps
Curiosity collected Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer (APXS) and Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) data on the soil target “Saul,” along with the robot’s Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam) and Mastcam observations of the sand slumps.
Curiosity Right B Navigation Camera image taken on Sol 3854, June 9, 2023.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
The team also planned a long distance ChemCam Remote Micro-Imager (RMI) mosaic towards Peace Vallis and the distant crater rim, and a number of environmental monitoring observations including cloud and dust devil movies and observations of atmospheric opacity.
Curiosity Right B Navigation Camera image taken on Sol 3854, June 9, 2023.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
New route
Edgar reports that planning last Friday involved the finding that although Curiosity drove roughly 16 feet (5 meters), “there was not sufficient progress to encourage us to continue on this route.”
So Curiosity collected final observations, setting its sights on a new route to the east.
Curiosity Right B Navigation Camera image taken on Sol 3854, June 9, 2023.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
A recent plan calls for ChemCam to assess the chemistry of two bedrock blocks in the rover’s workspace, and acquire long distance RMIs towards Peace Vallis.
Mastcam will acquire multispectral observations on a couple of rocks and veins, as well as stereo imaging of our workspace and a nearby crater.
Some additional environmental monitoring observations are sprinkled throughout the plan.
Curiosity Left B Navigation Camera image acquired on Sol 3854, June 9, 2023.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
“Then Curiosity will drive on the second sol,” Edgar concludes, “and we’re hoping to come in next week to some easier terrain ahead!”
UAP have been reported by Navy pilots unlike anything they have ever witnessed.
Image credit: Enigma Labs/Lt. Cmdr. Alex Dietrich
If you are trying to discern clarity about unidentified anomalous phenomena, or UAPs, it will take time, a hale and hearty dose of nit-picking scientific scrutiny, topped off by better data gathering and diagnostic tools.
And while you’re at it, toss in need for a tightly-defined lexicon that classifies the meaning of “anomalous.”
Blue-ribbon counsel
NASA recently convened a blue-ribbon counsel of 16 independent experts that span a number of scientific and technical communities. They offered their first-cut verdict on ways to get to the bottom of reported high-flying UAP.
Image credit: Scientific Coalition for UAP Studies
The publicly open, NASA TV and Internet broadcast, multiple-hour marathon of briefings, open discussion and media questioning marked the group’s preliminary observations. The aim is to wrap up their findings and recommendations by the end of July, published in a public report.
Go to my new Scientific American story – “Bad Data, Not Aliens, May Be behind UFO Surge, NASA Team Says – More and better data are required to solve the mystery of strange apparitions in the air, the sea and space, according to NASA’s Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena Independent Study team” – at:
Image credit: NASA
An Artemis III Moon landing site study group is trying to select where U.S. astronauts will “re-boot” our celestial next door neighbor.
If NASA planning remains on the rails politically, technically and dollar-wise, the United States is slated to plant new footprints on the Moon toward the end of 2025.
A spectacular, specially produced near-ground level oblique view of the “Connecting Ridge” between Shackleton and Henson craters. The lunar south pole (SP) occurs on the rim of Shackleton crater. The ridge along the rim of the South Pole-Aitken impact basin is a potential Artemis landing site (001) and another (004) occurs on the rim of Shackleton crater. (Image credit: ETHZ\LPI\Valentin T. Bickel and David A. Kring)
Safe and science-worthy
Following Artemis test landings, the Artemis III trek is intended to be the first of many human missions to the Artemis Polar Exploration Zone – the region poleward of 84° South latitude.
Selecting a safe and science-worthy landing region for Artemis III is a challenging task.
There’s no doubt that great discoveries lie ahead…and one potential surprise could be detecting life on the moon.
Go to my new Space.com story – “Will Artemis astronauts look for life on the moon? – Some hardy microbes might be able to survive on Earth’s nearest neighbor — likely after making the trek there with us” – at:
https://www.space.com/artemis-astronauts-search-life-on-moon
NASA Administrator Bill Nelson discusses lunar landing sites as he testifies during an April House Science, Space and Technology Committee hearing. One photo – multiple nations headed for lunar territory.
Image credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls
A number of nations are heading for the Moon – first with robotic craft, but then to establish “permanent facilities.” Count in China, Russia, as well as the U.S. among those countries hungry to not only set up a research base, but also “live off the land” by tapping into a suspected bounty of resources on the Moon.
Already identified are areas at the Moon’s south pole, termed Permanently Shadowed Regions (PSRs) that might be repositories of water ice. Once processed, these PSR-laden plots of ice could be utilized to sustain future human crews on the Moon’s crater-scared landscape. That icy supply of oxygen and hydrogen can be converted into rocket fuel and oxygen to breathe.
Rendering of Artemis astronauts exploring a lunar south pole crater. A water ice-rich resource ready for processing?
Image credit: NASA
There are those that assert a “space race” is underway. How serious is the situation and is there room for everyone – or perhaps the making of conflict regarding available resources, particularly at the lunar south pole?
For more information, go to my new Multiverse Media SpaceRef story — “Next Stop in Space Race 2.0 – South Pole of the Moon” – go to:
https://spaceref.com/science-and-exploration/space-race-2-south-pole-moon/
New Shenzhou-16 crew onboard with Shenzhou-15 astronauts during handover ceremonies.
Image credit: CCTV/CNSA/Inside Outer Space screengrab
China’s Shenzhou-15 crew is homeward bound, headed for a return to Earth later today.
Trained teams are at the Dongfeng Landing Site in north China, ready to handle the fiery reentry, atmospheric plunge and parachute recovery of the taikonaut trio: Fei Junlong, Deng Qingming and Zhang Lu.
This threesome entered China’s Tiangong space station on Nov. 30 last year for a six-month stay, as the fourth crew to operate the space station.
Shenzhou-15 undocks from space station. Image via China ‘N Asia Spaceflight
Complex topography
Located in the Gobi Desert in north China’s Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region near the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, the Dongfeng Landing Site covers 13,000 square meters of depopulated zone with complex topography notes China Central Television (CCTV).
Late last week, more than 10 search and rescue groups, five helicopters, and nearly 100 vehicles with different functions headed for their positions in the early hours of Thursday for the final all-element drills.
Image credit: CCTV/Inside Outer Space screengrab
Training and drills
“The results of this time’s joint drills were good. All the detachments followed orders from the command center in the entire process including takeoff, target searching and landing. Generally speaking, we have laid a solid foundation for the official retrieving mission with the previous training and drills,” said Chai Hua, aircraft commander of the commander plane of air forces in the mission of searching and receiving Shenzhou-15 crew.
“After all five comprehensive drills and more than 10 single-subject drills, we have made complete contingency plans for 29 kinds of injuries and emergencies. We are ready to welcome the astronauts back and ensure their safety,” said Gu Jianwen, team leader of Shenzhou medical rescue team.
Depiction of Shenzhou-16 spacecraft approaching docking port.
Image credit: CCTV/Inside Outer Space screengrab
New crew, supply craft re-docking
Meanwhile, onboard China’s Tiangong station, the newly arrived Shenzhou-16 crew — Jing Haipeng, Zhu Yangzhu and Gui Haichao – settled into their off-world setting. They are to perform scientific, maintenance and spacewalk duties during their 5-month space stint.
The Tianzhou-5 cargo spacecraft, launched and once docked with the orbital outpost, was undocked in early May to leave its port for its successor, the now docked Tianzhou-6 supply craft.
Image credit: Shujianyang Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA
Currently, the older Tianzhou-5 vehicle is flying alongside the station and will re-dock with the facility after the landing of the Shenzhou-15 crew.
Tianzhou-5 can provide propellants, solar power and waste storage for the station in the coming months.
At present, the three-module and three-ship configuration will remain in place for nearly half a year until the liftoff of the Shenzhou-17 piloted mission. Looking ahead, the plan is to expand Tiangong with additional modules, according to CCTV.
For video of Shenzhou-15 landing preparations, go to:
Live coverage via China Global Television Network (CGTN) at:
Moonlighter is a 3U CubeSat developed to enable real-time cyber security testing in orbit.
Image credit: The Aerospace Corporation
A tiny CubeSat is being sent into Earth orbit described as the world’s first and only “hacking sandbox in space.”
Called Moonlighter, the mid-size 3U nanosatellite has been designed and built by The Aerospace Corporation. It is slated to offer hackers the ability to perform tests that could identify methods for preventing the hacking of satellite systems in space.
The project is sponsored by the International Space Station (ISS) National Laboratory and supported by Nanoracks and will be used to introduce the nation’s top cyber professionals to help fill gaps in cyber security testing in space.
The Center for the Advancement of Science in Space, Inc. (CASIS) manages the ISS National Lab.
Repeatable, realistic, and secure
The world’s best hackers are able to do space-based cyber experiments that are repeatable, realistic, and secure.
Image credit: Hack-A-Sat 4
“When we say it’s a sandbox, Moonlighter is like a playground where we provide the space and the tools for professional hackers to perform cyber exercises and test out new technology,” said Aaron Myrick, project leader for The Aerospace Corporation. “We hope this will lead to more cyber-resilient architectures for future space missions.”
Moonlighter is among a set of payloads to be soon launched (targeted for Saturday, June 3) on a SpaceX Falcon 9 booster mission – the SpaceX commercial resupply mission, CRS-28.
Image credit: Hack-A-Sat 4/The Aerospace Corporation
Moonlighter will be part of Hack-A-Sat 4, an annual challenge supported by The Aerospace Corporation, the U.S. Air Force, and the U.S. Space Force. That challenge offers finalists the chance to hack the CubeSat in orbit during DEF CON, a convention for hackers held in August.
For more information on Hack-A-Sat 4, go to:
Curiosity’s location as of Sol 3846. Distance driven since landing is 18.65 miles/30.01 kilometers.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona
NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover at Gale Crater is now performing Sol 3847 duties.
“What do you do when you are driving through challenging terrain? Well, hit a new record!” That’s the word from Susanne Schwenzer, a planetary geologist at The Open University; Milton Keynes, U.K.
The robot has passed the 19 mile (30 kilometers) mark! “Way to go Curiosity!”
Curiosity Right B Navigation Camera image taken on Sol 3846, June 1, 2023.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Rover milestone
“That’s a Mars rover milestone only the NASA Opportunity rover has reached so far,” Schwenzer points out. “That was around June 2011 and just over 2610 sols into the mission with Opportunity on its way between Victoria and Endeavour Crater. At Endeavour crater Opportunity had driven a marathon on Mars – remember Marathon Valley?”
Curiosity Left B Navigation Camera image taken on Sol 3846, June 1, 2023.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Schwenzer adds that Curiosity driving is especially difficult for rover drivers right now. “One of us remarked they wouldn’t want to walk through there, let alone drive.”
Curiosity Front Hazard Avoidance Camera Left B image taken on Sol 3846, June 1, 2023.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Wheels on the ground
But rover drivers are experts, not only getting the robot to the next stop, Schwenzer reports, but also parking the Mars machinery with all wheels safely on the ground so that the robotic arm can be used.
“And we are making best use of the opportunity investigating target ‘Cujubim’ after using the DRT [Dust Removal Tool].”
There is a three spot Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer (APXS) raster on the target and of course Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) documentation. In addition, MAHLI looks at the target “Cumbal” to further document the sedimentary structures around Curiosity.
Curiosity Left B Navigation Camera image taken on Sol 3846, June 1, 2023.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Sedimentary structures
A recently acquired Remote Micro-Imager (RMI) photo illustrates some of those interesting things. “It shows the sedimentary structures, all the laminae, but also the nodules within, which will tell us a full story of how those rocks formed, one lamina at a time, and then there must have been another watery event forming the nodules,” Schwenzer observes.
Curiosity Chemistry & Camera (ChemCam) Remote Micro-Imager (RMI) image acquired on Sol 3846, June 1, 2023.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/LANL
A recent plan calls for two more RMIs looking into the distance to discern more of those sedimentary structures.
The rover’s Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam) is also keeping its laser busy on two bedrock targets, both also with nodules, which have the target names “Cariacau” and “Crique Yolande,” and there will be an AEGIS [Autonomous Exploration for Gathering Increased Science) after the drive. AEGIS is a software suite that permits the rover to autonomously detect and prioritize targets.
Curiosity Rear Hazard Avoidance Right B Camera photo taken on Sol 3846, June 1, 2023.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Environmental data
Also in the plan, Mastcam has two multispectral observations, one on the DRT spot, and one on target “Crique Rubin.” Mastcam further images targets “Cariacau” and “Paleomeu River,” and another target in front of the rover both to further document all the interesting features surrounding the vehicle.
In addition, the environmental theme group is to conduct the regular atmospheric monitoring, and also have the Dynamic Albedo of Neutrons (DAN) look for water in the underground and task the Mars Descent Imager (MARDI) to take an image after the drive.
“And now, raise a glass (or cup) with your favorite beverage,” Schwenzer concludes, “to wish the rover well navigating all the boulders ahead!”
