Archive for the ‘Space News’ Category
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February 16th, 2023
An example of amateur pico-ballooning is this Naval Academy amateur radio balloon experiment.
Image credit: Bob Bruninga, WB4APR
The amateur radio community is a buzz about those unidentified flying object shoot downs.
In one case, the object blasted out of the sky over Canada, Yukon by a U.S. Air Force jet might have been an amateur radio pico balloon, specifically K9YO-15, launched from Independence Grove Forest Preserve in Libertyville, Illinois, north of Chicago.
K9YO-15 was apparently on its seventh circumnavigation of the globe after being aloft for 123 days.
The sky high K9YO-15 balloon made use of a silver mylar 32″ sphere, available for a low-price of $13.33.
Since the pico balloon has not been heard from for several days, amateurs are calling Pico Balloon K9YO, for now: “Missing in Action.” Pico Balloon K9YO was last reported on February 11th near Hagemeister Island in the U.S. state of Alaska.
According to one posting, the Pentagon has said the object shot down over Canada was a “small metallic balloon with a tethered payload” – seemingly a match for a pico balloon.
Meanwhile, check out this May 11, 2020 YouTube posting showing one group’s 9th attempt to send a small balloon around the world. “Two weeks ago our balloon crashed in China so we are trying again. It reports its position back to us every 10 minutes as long as it is in sunlight.”
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Image credit: UCLA SETI
A new crowdsource project is calling upon citizen scientists to search for life in the universe.
The University of California’s UCLA SETI effort will give members of the public an opportunity to help scientists find signs of extraterrestrial intelligence by classifying radio signals that may have been emitted up to tens of thousands of light-years away and collected by a radio telescope.
No special training or education is needed to participate. (No need for those earphones used in the movie Contact).
Image credit: Warner Brothers
According to a UCLA statement, Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) scientists use a radio telescope that observes thousands of stars in the sky, yielding around 5 million signal detections per hour.
Image credit: UCLA SETI
Potential signs
To date, the group has observed 42,000 stars and detected over 64 million radio signals. Their automated data processing software discards about 99.5% of the signals as having been produced either deliberately or as side effects of human technologies.
However, the remaining 10,000 detections per hour “constitute potential signs of alien technology, and the new project is designed to identify the most promising signals among them,” the UCLA statement adds.
The project was designed by UCLA SETI using the Zooniverse platform, with funding from the Planetary Society and NASA’s Citizen Science Seed Funding Program.
For more information, and to sign up, go to:
https://www.zooniverse.org/projects/ucla-seti-group/are-we-alone-in-the-universe
Image credit: UCLA SETI
Image credit: C-SPAN/Inside Outer Space screengrab
Head of Senate Intelligence, Senator Marco Rubio, discusses recent classified briefing on the downing events that have caught public and military attention.
The lawmaker calls for access by scientists to the collected data, information that should be cross-referenced and made public.
Meanwhile, take a read of my Scientific American story, noting the new dedicated observatories and crowdsourced smartphone apps that will study strange sightings in the sky. But questionable data quality and a lack of shared research standards remain key challenges…
Go to: “Scientists Try to Get Serious about Studying UFOs. Good Luck with That” at:
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/scientists-try-to-get-serious-about-studying-ufos-good-luck-with-that/
For Senator Rubio’s comments, go to:
Go to C-Span link at: https://twitter.com/i/status/1625717882578472962
And also:
Image credit: Shujianyang Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA
China’s future space station plans include sending two piloted spacecraft and one or two cargo spacecraft into space every year.
This plan will be followed after the full completion of the country’s space station construction achieved in late 2022.
A statement from the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA) indicates that the country’s space station project has officially entered the “application and development stage.”
Image credit: CNSA/CMSA/CCTV/Inside Outer Space screengrab
Upcoming piloted flights
According to the flight mission plan, the Shenzhou-16 piloted spacecraft will be launched in May and be docked at the radial port of the core module.
The Shenzhou-17 crewed spacecraft will be launched in October, docking at the front port of the core module.
According to China Central Television (CCTV), during the two crewed flight missions this year, the Shenzhou-16 and Shenzhou-17 taikonauts will conduct spacewalking chores and perform cargo airlock extravehicular missions.
In addition, they will carry out in-space science experiments and technical experiments, CCTV adds. There will also be work on platform management, astronaut support, and science education activities.
Image credit:
20th Century Fox
It has been a bunch of busy days for identified and unidentified flying objects scooting across Canadian and U.S. territory, and other locations too.
After that sky-high saga of a purported Chinese spy balloon being shot down off the coast of South Carolina, the follow-up acts involve the U.S. military downing three unidentified flying objects over Alaska, Canada and Michigan.
Statista, a major provider of market and consumer data, offers some looks at all the high-altitude anxiety about what’s going down in the skies above.
Image credit: Statista
“And while U.S. officials are still figuring out what the flying objects shot down on the weekend were and what purpose they served, unidentified flying objects, or unidentified aerial phenomena, as they are officially called, are not as rare as one might think,” explains Statista’s Felix Richter.
Meteorological equipment?
According to public information collected by open-source intelligence accounts, that Chinese balloon likely made its way across the states of Wyoming, South Dakota, Nebraska and Kentucky, says Katharina Buchholz, a Statista Data Journalist.
“It is less likely but also possible that it traveled across Colorado, Iowa or Georgia. Due to the weather on location as well as the very high altitude that the balloon was traveling at – 50,000 to 70,000 feet compared to an airplane at usually 30,000-40,000 feet – it was not always spotted,” Buchholz explains.
It remains unclear what led to the balloon’s voyage across the United States, with Chinese officials stating that the balloon’s journey was an accident and that is was in fact a piece of meteorological equipment.
Image credit: USNI News
Testing capabilities and reactions?
“Theories to what the balloon could have been doing over the country include China testing U.S. counter-surveillance capabilities and reactions,” Buchholz adds.
Citing ANI and Nikkei Asia as sources, Buccholz says that, through the balloon’s flight, China could have found out how fast military and intelligence sources detect intrusions into U.S. airspace and also how speedy the response.
“The second part of this tactic could also include a psychological component,” Buchholz says. “Chinese military planes are also known to repeatedly intrude into Taiwan’s air defense identification zone, soliciting reactions from Taiwan. Russian also has a long history of similar behavior of fighter planes around NATO countries.”
Image credit: Statista
Detected and destroyed
“As our chart shows, three more objects have since been detected and destroyed,” adds Statista’s Anna Fleck.
“These have all been smaller than the giant balloon and are reported to have different characteristics. According to officials, the object on Feb. 10 flew without any kind of propulsion or control system, while the object on Feb. 11 was described as cylindrical in shape and about the size of a Volkswagen Beetle. The fourth object, shot down yesterday over Lake Huron, was reportedly octagonal and had strings attached to it. It is currently unknown where the latest three objects originated from or what they were designed to do.”
Fleck writes that the series of incidents has also raised the question of whether more objects are indeed flying over the U.S. than usual.
Perhaps more are simply being identified and scrutinized, since the U.S. air defense altered their radar systems after the balloon’s detection to also detect smaller and slower-moving objects, Fleck adds. “Either way, regardless of the intention behind their creation, having objects flying at altitude is a clear flight hazard.”
Image credit: Statista
Balloons, drones…and?
There’s a lot going on in the sky, according to data from the U.S. Office of the Director of National Intelligence, observes Matthias Brandt, also a Data Journalist for Statista.
“According to them, over 350 flying objects were sighted over the USA from March 2021 to August 2022,” Brandt notes.
“Of these, 163 were initially classified as balloons or balloon-like,” writes Brandt. “Another 26 sightings could be due to drones. However, no initial classification was possible for almost half of the aerial phenomena.”
Alien hysteria
Meanwhile, Richter has looked into public attitudes concerning unidentified flying objects (UFOs) and extraterrestrial visits.
“The fact that General Glen VanHerck, commander of U.S. Northern Command and the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD), refused to “rule out anything” when asked if extraterrestrials could be involved in the latest incidents didn’t exactly help stifle the budding alien hysteria,” Richter suggests.
Image credit: Statista
Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre did her best to calm everybody down in a White House press briefing on Monday, Richter adds, with Jean-Pierre saying that “there is no — again, no indication of aliens or extraterrestrial activity with these recent takedowns. And it was important for us to say that from here because we’ve been hearing a lot about it.”
Poll results
Looking at the results of an Ipsos poll conducted across 36 countries in late 2022, Richter points out that it doesn’t come as a surprise that the latest incidents involving unidentified flying objects sparked some lively speculation online.
When asked whether or not they think it’s likely that aliens would visit Earth in 2023, an average of 18 percent of respondents said that they considered extraterrestrial visitors a likely scenario for 2023. Respondents from India and China were particularly open-minded when it comes to alien visitors, while people in Great Britain and Japan were among the largest skeptics, Richter writes.
For more information on Statista and its creative infographics, go to:
Roscosmos chief, Yuri Borisov.
Image credit: Roscosmos
Russian space officials have decided to postpone the liftoff of a Soyuz MS-23 spacecraft in uncrewed mode until next month.
That decision was made due to an “emergency situation” involving a February 11th situation that cropped up with the Progress MS-21 supply ship now docked to the International Space Station (ISS).
Roscosmos chief, Yuri Borisov, spoke about the issues that have occurred in recent months at the ISS – a coolant leak from the thermal control system in the piloted Soyuz MS-22 late last year and more recently, a problem with the automated Progress MS-21 spacecraft.
Skin in the game: Soyuz MS-22 coolant leak image from last December.
Image credit: NASA
Commission of experts
Roscosmos notes that there’s been “a violation of the outer skin” of the vehicles.
Meanwhile, a commission of experts is working on the Progress MS-21 case.
“Until the cause of the emergency situation is determined, a decision was made to postpone the launch of the Soyuz MS-23 spacecraft in unmanned mode until March 2023,” notes a Roscosmos Telegram posting. “We emphasize that nothing threatens the life and health of the crew.”
Soyuz craft undergoing preparation for Feb. 20 launch in uncrewed mode, now pushed to next month.
Image credit: RSC Energia
Systematic error?
In an earlier Roscosmos posting, former cosmonaut Sergey Krikalev addressed the situation with the compromised Progress MS-21. That vehicle has been docked to the station for several months, launched from Baikonur on October 26 atop a Soyuz-2.1a carrier rocket.
Former cosmonaut, Sergei Krikalev.
Image credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls
According to Krikalev, by inspecting in detail the leak on the Progress MS-21 radiator, the intent is to find out the cause of its occurrence. There is need to make sure that this is not a systematic error, because it may affect the following ships, he noted in a Roscosmos Telegram communiqué.
The compromised Progress MS-21 has been slated to be ditched in the ocean on February 18 – but not clear if that remains to be the case.
Image credit: Roscosmos
Image credit: USNI NewsFor the past week or so, the public has been witness to an aerial assault of sorts, flying objects that are, for the most part, labeled as unidentified, take on different shapes and sizes, are shot down with recovered pieces being analyzed, even “back engineered” to cough up the goods as to where they come from and what they are doing drifting about in our atmospheric firmament.
Image credit: Scientific Coalition for UAP Studies
For the past week or so, the public has been witness to an aerial assault of sorts, flying objects that are, for the most part, tagged as unidentified, take on different shapes and sizes, are shot down with recovered pieces being studied, even “back engineered” to cough up the goods as to where they come from and what they are doing drifting about in our atmospheric firmament.
The language and grammar whirlpool about these lofty incursions should give rise to more reflection about Unidentified Flying Objects as well as the new nomenclature, Unidentified Aerial Phenomenon, or UAP for short.
The on-going reveal regarding these sky-high visitations means what to the UAP/UFO community?
Are there any lessons learned from these incidents and takeaways from pilot descriptions of the objects?
UAP have been reported by Navy pilots unlike anything they have ever witnessed.
Image credit: Enigma Labs/Lt. Cmdr. Alex Dietrich
There are those that will surely portray these new close-encounters as part of an ultra-classified government plan to prepare the citizenry for “full-disclosure.” That is, yep, Earth is on the receiving end of stopover vessels from the vastness beyond sight, sound, and dimension of mind.
But just how much shadow, how much substance, are we dealing with here?
Eyewitness accounts
A leading doubting Thomas and nemesis of all the uptick in UFO and UAP uproar is Mick West, a writer, skeptical investigator and a former video game programmer.
“The varied pilot reports we’ve seen in the media illustrate how difficult it is to get information about encounters with slow-moving objects from eyewitness accounts,” West told Inside Outer Space.
“The difficulty of judging the speed of an object without knowing its distance is greatly compounded in an encounter with unfamiliar balloons where the pilots do not know how big they are,” West says.
West points to both congressional testimony and the recent output and on-going work of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) and the newly established All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO).
Released in January, the ODNI’s 2022 Annual Report on Unidentified Aerial Phenomena is available at:
https://www.odni.gov/files/ODNI/documents/assessments/Unclassified-2022-Annual-Report-UAP.pdf
Low information zone
Balloons are a common source of pilot reports of UFOs/UAPs, says West.
A wayward balloon is a likely explanation for the “GoFast” UFO video, released in 2018, which seems to show an object moving at high speed over the ocean, but actually shows a much slower object, West adds.
GOFAST
Credit: DOD/U.S. Navy/Inside Outer Space screengrab
UFO reports emerge because of a lack of information, West continues, existing in the so-called “Low Information Zone” or LIZ – the set of conditions where an object is just too far away, small, fast, blurred, or out of focus to determine exactly what it is.
“NORAD’s radar has always had a significant LIZ, where radar returns of low quality, or that resembled birds, balloons, or other airborne clutter, have been filtered out as distractions to the primary mission of detecting incoming conventional aircraft and missiles,” West says.
Expensive, dangerous shoot downs
“The furor over the large Chinese balloon has prompted NORAD to modify or eliminate the filters to attempt to better capture similar incursions,” West says. “This has resulted in low-information objects being selected from the LIZ for investigation. Many of these will be innocuous items, like stray balloons, potentially even of U.S. origin.”
Some items may be previously undetected adversary incursions, West concludes. “Disambiguating these will represent a significant challenge. Unfortunately, the perceived need to take rapid action will result in expensive and dangerous shoot-downs of a variety of objects based on limited information.”
Shown at Congressional hearing, Video 1 2021 flyby movie showing a purported UAP.
Credit: Counterterrorism, Counterintelligence, and Counterproliferation Subcommittee/Inside Outer Space screengrab
Aerial excitement
All the chatter related to balloon shoot downs and UAP talk has also caught the attention of noted UFO disbeliever Robert Sheaffer. He’s an author, freelance writer, and skeptical investigator of all manner of bogus claims.
The ongoing aerial excitement involving balloons means, either that the Chinese have just now dramatically increased their balloon-launching activities, or else that such balloons are no longer being ignored,” Sheaffer explains, “and it’s more likely the latter.”
Sheaffer points out that the pilots, and other official personnel, seem quite clueless about what is being seen.
As noted in one CNN report, there have been some pilots claiming to have seen no identifiable propulsion on the object. Those pilots could not explain how the object was staying in the air, despite its cruising at an altitude of 40,000 feet.
“An object that is lighter than air does not need ‘propulsion’ to remain aloft,” Sheaffer responds.
FLIR
Credit: DOD/U.S. Navy/Inside Outer Space screengrab
GIMBAL/“Tic Tac”
Credit: DOD/U.S. Navy
“In recent years the Chinese have developed small inflatable drones that could possibly account for some sightings,” Sheaffer adds.
Effects of perspective
Similar in view to West, the question of “balloons” is relevant to the UAP video release of the so-called “go fast” object, Sheaffer points out, which may well be a balloon that drifted out over the ocean.
“That object is indeed ‘going fast’ with respect to the camera — perhaps 400 miles per hour — but relative to the ground, it is almost stationary,” Sheaffer says. “The aircraft is passing the object at a high rate of speed, which makes the object appear to be moving rapidly in the opposite direction.”
The fact that Navy pilots did not realize this, says Sheaffer suggests that those pilots don’t understand simple effects of perspective. “And the fact that the Pentagon’s ‘UAP experts’ failed to realize what was happening demonstrates their complete incompetence in such matters,” he feels.
As for the other two publicly released videos — called the Tic Tac and the Gimbal – “they are probably the infrared signatures of distant jet aircraft, and have nothing to do with balloons,” Sheaffer concludes.
Credit: Piplsay
Curiosity Left B Navigation Camera photo taken on Sol 3738, February 10, 2023.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover at Gale Crater is now performing Sol 3740 duties.
Rover investigators are working through the best strategy for new drilling – that’s the report from Abigail Fraeman, a planetary geologist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
Researchers are collecting additional contact science and remote sensing data from around the future Dinira drill target.
Curiosity Right B Navigation Camera image acquired on Sol 3739, February 11, 2023.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Flat area
“Fortunately, there’s no shortage of interesting things to look at from our current position, so the science team had lots of fun deciding on what rocks to observe,” Fraeman notes.
The plan calls for gathering composition and fine scale texture data on a flat area near Dinira by using the Dust Removal Tool, the Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer (APXS) and the robot’s Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) on a target named “Yakarinta.”
Curiosity Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) photo produced on Sol 3739, February 12, 2023
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
“We’ll also take the opportunity to learn more about the resistant features on the top of this rock, using APXS and MAHLI on a target named ‘Itu’ as well as a ChemCam [Chemistry and Camera] observation of a target called ‘Los Caracoles.’”
Curiosity Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) photo produced on Sol 3739, February 12, 2023
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
Rare opportunity
“A nearby block that was churned up by the rover’s wheels gives us a rare opportunity to see a freshly exposed face of the Marker Band rocks, so we’ll take advantage by collecting a ChemCam and MAHLI observation of this rock on targets named ‘Macuanatapurucuara’ and ‘Uraricaá’ respectively,” Fraeman reports. Also on tap is use of ChemCam to observe a nearby block named “El Pato,” and Mastcam will acquire lots of mosaics of the surrounding area.
Curiosity Chemistry & Camera (ChemCam) Remote Micro-Imager (RMI) photo taken on Sol 3739, Febuary 11, 2023.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/LANL
Looking up
“Curiosity will additionally be looking up several times this weekend as ‘noctilucent cloud season’ has returned to Gale crater! Noctilucent (Latin for “night shining”) clouds light up right around sunset, and we first found them several years ago forming very high in the sky during the early winter months at Gale crater,” Fraeman notes.
Curiosity Right B Navigation Camera images taken on Sol 3737 February 10, 2023
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
“These clouds are likely made of carbon dioxide ice,” Fraeman concludes, “and we’ll be monitoring them for the next few weeks. We have already caught some great images this season!”
Former cosmonaut, Sergey Krikalev.
Image credit: NASA
Former cosmonaut Sergey Krikalev has addressed the situation with the compromised Progress MS-21 on the International Space Station – described as a coolant leak from the thermal control on the cargo ship.
Progress MS-21 has been docked to the station for several months, launched from Baikonur on October 26 atop a Soyuz-2.1a carrier rocket.
According to Krikalev, experts are currently thinking about how to inspect in detail the leak on the Progress MS-21 radiator in order to find out the cause of its occurrence. There is need to make sure that this is not a systematic error, because it may affect the following ships, he noted in a Roscosmos Telegram communiqué.
So far, the situation with Progress MS-21 has not led to a change in the ISS flight program. The situation on board the ISS after the depressurization of the Progress MS-21 spacecraft is calm, Roscosmos adds.
The compromised Progress MS-21 is to be ditched in the ocean on February 18, and the plans to do so have not changed.
China balloon launch site?: A StratoCat twitter says that after 12 hours of painstakingly searching, mile after mile, all Inner Mongolia using Apple maps, the location of the a Chinese balloon launch facility has been found – tied to that alleged surveillance “spy” aerial mission over the United States that was later shot down over U.S. east coast waters. It is located in the Siziwang Banner, 85 miles (138 kilometers) north of Hohhot. Image credit: StratoCat
Mars collectibles: NASA’s Perseverance rover at Jezero Crater has placed a “depot” of 10 samples on the surface of Mars. The sealed tubes contain a diverse sampling of geology at the rover’s exploration zone, and may be picked up and returned to Earth in the 2030’s. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
High and mighty: NASA’s Mars helicopter continues to show off its scouting skills at Jezero Crater. Mars Guy notes that recent software upgrades allow Ingenuity to fly over rugged terrain while autonomously adjusting its altitude. Image credit: Mars Guy
Go to video at: https://youtu.be/lo-m7zmZczk
Hissy fit: Russian space specialists have recorded a depressurization in the Progress MS-21 cargo ship, which is scheduled to undock from the International Space Station on February 18. The passage hatch from the ISS to the ship is closed, thus the Progress MS-21 is isolated from the total volume of the station. All equipment scheduled for removal is already in the ship. The reasons for its depressurization are being investigated. “The temperature regime and pressure on board the ISS are normal, nothing threatens the life and health of the crew,” explains a Roscosmos posting via Telegram. “This incident had no effect on today’s docking with the ISS of the Progress MS-22 cargo spacecraft and will not affect the station’s future flight program.” Image of Progress MS-22 docking to ISS via Roscosmos.
