Archive for the ‘Space News’ Category
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March 19th, 2023
Image credit: Roscosmos
That compromised Russian Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft is returning to Earth – in un-crewed manner — at the end of the month. The craft experienced a coolant leak attached to the International Space Station last year, putting to question safe transport of crew members back to terra firma.
Meanwhile, cosmonauts onboard the ISS have been readying the Soyuz MS-22 to re-enter the Earth’s atmosphere without crew. Payload containers have been installed in the Soyuz descent vehicle in preparation of “thermal testing” of the vehicle.
Image credit: Roscosmos
Russia’s Roscosmos reports that Dmitry Petelin, together with cosmonaut colleague Sergei Prokopiev, recently put on Sokol KV-2 spacesuits to enter and test the Soyuz MS-22 prior to its end-of-March fiery return and parachute landing to awaiting recovery crews.
Radiator pipeline
Back on December 15, 2022, the external contour of the radiator of the thermal control system of the Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft was depressurized. Specialists later determined that the damage was purportedly caused by a micrometeoroid impact.
The vehicle’s radiator pipeline spewed its coolant out into space, compromising the overall integrity of the craft to return crew members safe and sound to Earth by keeping the interior of the Soyuz in a comfy temperature range.
Coolant spraying instrument-assembly compartment of the Soyuz spacecraft.
Image credit: NASA
As for the cause of the coolant loss, studies aided by robotic arm-mounted cameras were carried out. Up-close looks found a tiny hole in the Soyuz MS-22 radiator less than 1 millimeter in size, created by an impactor zooming through space at a speed of 7,000 meters per second, according to Russian space specialists.
Discarded compartment
In bringing back the Soyuz MS-22 descent vehicle, that process entails discarding the troubled instrument-assembly compartment of the ship – so it cannot be evaluated by hands-on experts here on Earth.
The three major components of the Soyuz are the spherical-shaped orbital module, the bell-shaped descent vehicle and the cylindrical-shaped instrument assembly module from which solar panels protrude.
Like the orbital module, the intermediate section of the instrumentation/propulsion module separates from the Soyuz descent module after the final deorbit maneuver and “burns up” in Earth’s atmosphere upon reentry.
Image credit: NASA
Posted in 
An artist’s impression of Uranus and its five largest moons (innermost to outermost) Miranda, Ariel, Umbriel, Titania and Oberon.
Image credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins APL/Mike Yakovlev
Researchers have reanalyzed nearly 40-year-old data accumulated by NASA’s Voyager 2 and now speculate that two moons of Uranus may have oceans beneath their icy surfaces.
The moons – Ariel and Miranda — may be releasing energetic particles into space, according to a new study led by specialists at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland.
Even better is that Uranus is a newly recommended target for a NASA flagship mission over the coming decade.
Unknown, mysterious mechanism
Accepted for publication in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, and detailed last week at the annual Lunar and Planetary Science Conference, the research suggests that one or two of Uranus’ 27 moons — Ariel and/or Miranda — are adding plasma into the space environment through an unknown and mysterious mechanism.
Miranda, a moon of Uranus.
Image credit: Voyager 2/NASA/JPL
Scientists took another look into particle data collected by the APL-built Low-Energy Charged Particle (LECP) instrument carried by Voyager 2, uncovering something peculiar: a trapped population of energetic particles the spacecraft had observed while departing Uranus.
During its approximately three-day flyby of Uranus in 1986, Voyager 2 captured the only on-the-spot observations of the planet and its system.
Tantalizing explanation
One tantalizing explanation for the particles is that one or both moons have oceans beneath their icy surfaces and are actively spewing material, possibly through plumes.
The team suspects the particles arise from Ariel and/or Miranda through either a vapor plume or through sputtering — a process where high-energy particles hit a surface, ejecting other particles into space.
As for what’s taking place on Ariel and/or Miranda, “right now, it’s about 50-50 whether it’s just one or the other,” reports Ian Cohen, a space scientist at APL and the lead author of the new study.
“What was interesting was that these particles were so extremely confined near Uranus’ magnetic equator,” Cohen said in an APL statement. Magnetic waves within the system would normally cause them to spread out in latitude, he explained, but these particles were all cramped near the equator between the moons Ariel and Miranda.
The complex terrain of Ariel is viewed in this image, the best Voyager 2 color picture of the Uranian moon.
Image credit: Voyager 2/NASA/JPL
Eruptions of water?
Originally, scientists attributed these features to Voyager 2 flying through a chance stream of plasma being “injected” from the distant tail of the planet’s magnetosphere. But that explanation doesn’t hold, Cohen said. “An injection would normally have a much broader spread of particles than what was observed.”
Scientists had previously suspected Uranus’ five largest moons — Ariel and Miranda included — may have subsurface oceans. Voyager 2 images of both moons show physical signs of geologic resurfacing, including possible eruptions of water that froze on the surface.
The rehashed Voyager 2 data and determining the source of the particles has given rise to the potential of there being an active ocean moon there, Cohen said. “We can always do more comprehensive modeling, but until we have new data, the conclusion will always be limited.”
This new research potentially hints that the Uranian magnetosphere may harbor an ocean world like those known or believed to exist at the other Giant Planets.
For more information, go to – “A localized and surprising source of energetic ions in the Uranian magnetosphere 1 between Miranda and Ariel” – at:
Curiosity Mars Hand Lens Imager photo produced on Sol 3771 March 16, 2023.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover at Gale Crater is now performing Sol 3772 duties.
The Red Planet robot is leaving Tapo Caparo and is beginning something new, reports Catherine O’Connell-Cooper, a planetary geologist at the University of New Brunswick; Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada.
“But… actually, we are not going very far,” O’Connell-Cooper adds. “Whilst sitting at Tapo Caparo, we spent some time looking around at the neighborhood using Mastcam and [Chemistry and Camera] ChemCam imaging. Not too far away, we spotted a workspace that includes two types of bedrock – finely laminated bedrock (which is what we just drilled) and some bedrock with abundant nodules but apparently no laminations.”
Curiosity Front Hazard Avoidance Camera Right B image captured on Sol 3771, March 16, 2023. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
This may mark a transition from one unit to another, O’Connell-Cooper notes, so a new plan called for a rover drive over to that area in order to get this workspace into the upcoming weekend plan.
Float rock
The plan scripts a Touch and Go, doing the very last contact science on the research wish list and then moving on.
Curiosity Front Hazard Avoidance Camera Left B image captured on Sol 3771, March 16, 2023. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
The Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer (APXS) is to analyze a float rock (“Tucupita”) which was previously analyzed by ChemCam, who will use Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) to look at another float rock (“Uaimiti”) for comparison.
As the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) team acquired images of Tucupita in last Monday’s plan to facilitate APXS placement, they were able to fit it in a MAHLI-only target, looking at another float stone (“Tamanaco”) which is slightly closer to the rover.
Curiosity Left B Navigation Camera image taken on Sol 3771, March 16, 2023.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Imaging the buttes
“As we have been here for several sols, we have already imaged the buttes around us with Mastcam and the ChemCam’s long distance imager [Remote Micro-Imager] (RMI), but once we leave, obviously the view will change,” O’Connell-Cooper notes. “So, before we leave, we will get one final set of images from this viewpoint of the “Chenapau” butte (Mastcam) and a large channel feature further afield (RMI).”
Curiosity Left B Navigation Camera image taken on Sol 3771, March 16, 2023.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
As always, the environmental theme group continues their monitoring of environmental conditions in Gale. Navcam will complete a dust devil (wind vortice) survey, and Mastcam will look at dust in the atmosphere (tau measurement).
Curiosity Left B Navigation Camera image taken on Sol 3771, March 16, 2023.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Back on the road
“It will be good to be back on the road, even if we are just heading further along the Marker Band,” O’Connell-Cooper reports.
The Marker Band (including this drill site) has been the site of lots of exciting science, some of which was presented this week at a special session at the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference in Texas, marking Curiosity’s ten years of active roving in Gale. O’Connell-Cooper
“However, there is so much amazing data and images to work on from the Marker Band,” O’Connell-Cooper concludes, “we will be talking about for many years to come!”
Image credit: Rolls-Royce/Inside Outer Space screengrab
The UK Space Agency has provided funding to Rolls-Royce into how nuclear power could be used to support a future Moon base for astronauts.
Specialists at Rolls-Royce are engaged in developing a “Micro-Reactor” program, a key technology to help sustain future Moon missions and enhance their scientific value.
The UK Space Agency has announced $3.5 million (£2.9 million) of new funding for the project which will deliver an initial demonstration of a UK lunar modular nuclear reactor. This follows an over $300,000 (£249,000) study funded by the UK Space Agency in 2022.
According to a company statement, Rolls-Royce plan to have a reactor ready for transport to the Moon by 2029.
Image credit: Rolls-Royce
Small, lightweight
Relatively small and lightweight compared to other power systems, a nuclear micro-reactor for the Moon could enable continuous power regardless of location, available sunlight, and other environmental conditions.
Rolls-Royce will be working alongside a variety of collaborators including the University of Oxford, University of Bangor, University of Brighton, University of Sheffield’s Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (AMRC) and Nuclear AMRC.
The funding enables Rolls-Royce to focus on three key features of the Micro-Reactor: the fuel used to generate heat, the method of heat transfer and technology to convert that heat into electricity, according to a company statement.
Image credit: Rolls-Royce
The aim of the research work – beyond Moon needs — is to create a power and propulsion capability for multiple markets and operator needs.
Increasing lunar stay-time
Scientists and engineers at Rolls-Royce are working on the Micro-Reactor program to further technology that will provide power needed for humans to live and work on the Moon. All space missions depend on a power source, to support systems for communications, life-support and science experiments. Nuclear power has the potential to dramatically increase the duration of future lunar missions and their scientific value.
The UK Space Agency announced the $3.5 million (£2.9 million) of new funding for the project which will deliver an initial demonstration of a UK lunar modular nuclear reactor. This follows an over $300,000 (£249,000) study funded by the UK Space Agency in 2022.
The aim is to create a world-leading power and propulsion capability for multiple markets and operator needs, alongside a clean, green and long-term power source.
Image credit: NASA
Further down the road
Abi Clayton, Director of Future Programs for Rolls-Royce said: “This funding will bring us further down the road in making the Micro-Reactor a reality, with the technology bringing immense benefits for both space and Earth. The technology will deliver the capability to support commercial and defense use cases alongside providing a solution to decarbonise industry and provide clean, safe and reliable energy.”
The partnership with Rolls-Royce comes after the UK Space Agency recently announced over $60 million (£51 million) of funding available for UK companies to develop communication and navigation services for missions to the Moon, as part of the European Space Agency’s Moonlight program, which aims to launch a constellation of satellites into orbit around the Moon.
Image credit: ESA
Those Moon-circling satellites would allow future astronauts, rovers, science experiments and other equipment to communicate, share large amounts of data including high-definition video, and navigate safely across the lunar surface.
In a related development, earlier this week, as part of the AUKUS trilateral agreement between Australia, the UK and the US, it was announced that Rolls-Royce Submarines Ltd will provide reactors for Australia’s nuclear powered submarines.
For video on this lunar power source, go to:
Image credit: CCTV/Inside Outer Space screengrab
China continues to scope out a future international lunar research station, one that will carry out lunar-based Earth observations and perform lunar resource utilization.
Zou Yongliao, head of the lunar and deep space exploration division of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, revealed the goals at a recent national space conference, as reported by China Science Daily.
Image credit: CCTV/Inside Outer Space screengrab
China plans to establish a basic model for a lunar research station based on two planned robotic exploration missions by 2028. Subsequently that research will expand into an international one, with objectives mainly involve studying the Moon’s evolution, exploring star formation and activities, and observing the sun and Earth from the Moon.
Historical necessity
Zou also mentioned the performance of scientific experiments, like growing plants on the lunar surface, and the utilization of lunar resources, such as Moon minerals and solar energy, the China Science Daily report adds. “The scientist noted that the Moon is still the “main field” of deep space exploration and the construction of an international lunar research station was a historical necessity.”
China is pushing forward on its crewed Moon exploration planning, reportedly making breakthroughs in key technologies that are required and intends to promote this year a research and development agenda toward a crewed Moon landing mission.
Image credit: GLOBALink/Inside Outer Space screengrab
Station operations: new chapter
Meanwhile, closer to home and in Earth orbit, China is pushing forward on the country’s space station as it enters a new chapter of application and development.
China’s Global Times reports that the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA) China has scheduled the next set of launches this year to the orbiting complex: the Tianzhou-6 cargo spacecraft and the Shenzhou-16 and -17 crewed space missions.
Image credit: CGTN/Inside Outer Space screengrab
Upcoming missions
China will launch the Tianzhou-6 cargo spacecraft in May, and the spacecraft has already been transported to Wenchang Space Launch Site in South China’s Hainan Province.
The current Shenzhou-15 crew of three is expected to return to Earth in June.
The crew members for Shenzhou-16, Shenzhou-17 have been selected and they are now training for the missions, the CMSA stated.
The CMSA highlighted that the first batch of international experiment projects that were jointly selected by the agency and the United Nation Office for Outer Space Affairs, will be uploaded to the China orbiting outpost this year.
Credit: OneWeb
When OneWeb and Russia’s Roscosmos cut off cooperation last year, stranded at the Baikonur Cosmodrome were 36 OneWeb satellites to be lofted into orbit via a Soyuz booster.
According to Novosti-Kosmonavtiki citing a Reuters story, the head of OneWeb, Neil Masterson, has abandoned attempts to return the satellites from Baikonur.
The British company reportedly has practically stopped trying to return its satellites worth about $50 million from the Baikonur Cosmodrome.
Soyuz rocket removal, topped by OneWeb satellites back in March 2022.
Image credit: Roscosmos via Twitter
Future fate
As posted by Novosti-kosmonavtiki: “I don’t waste time thinking about it. We have completely switched to other tasks. Their return would be valuable, but I can say that I won’t get them back for the foreseeable future,” Masterson said.
Masterson added that the question of the future fate of the satellites may be resolved in the course of intergovernmental negotiations in the future. He also called it “an insignificant problem” the fact that Russia gained access to commercial technologies that OneWeb uses in its satellites.
“In July last year, Masterson, along with some other top managers of Western companies, was included in the Russian sanctions lists in response to sanctions by the United States and other Western countries against Russian business,” the Novosti-kosmonavtiki posting says.
To access the Reuters story, go to:
The annual report of worldwide threats to the national security of the United States has been issued by the U.S. Office of the Director of National Intelligence.
This 2023 Annual Threat Assessment Report includes appraisals of China and Russian space activities.
Overall, the report states that China is steadily progressing toward its goal of becoming a world-class space leader, with the intent to match or surpass the United States by 2045. Even by 2030, China probably will achieve world-class status in all but a few space technology areas.
Image credit: CGTN/Inside Outer Space screengrab
“China’s space activities are designed to advance its global standing and strengthen its attempts to erode U.S. influence across military, technological, economic, and diplomatic spheres,” states the report, adding:
— China’s space station began assembly and crewed missions in 2021, and reached full operational capability in 2022. Beijing plans to conduct additional lunar exploration missions, and it intends to establish a robotic research station on the Moon and later, an intermittently crewed lunar base.
— The People’s Liberation Army (PLA) will continue to integrate space services—such as satellite reconnaissance and positioning, navigation, and timing—and satellite communications into its weapons and command-and-control systems in an effort to erode the U.S. military’s information advantage.
China’s first commercial carrier rocket departs the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, northwest China.
Credit: CCTV-Plus
Commercial space
“China’s commercial space sector is growing quickly and is on pace to become a major global competitor by 2030. Beijing’s policies to encourage private investment in space activities have influenced a broad range of firms to enter the commercial market. State-owned enterprises and their subsidiaries will remain the primary players in the Chinese commercial space sector, which also includes research and development spinoffs, established companies, and a growing number of startups,” noting:
— Some Chinese commercial space companies will attempt to compete by providing services in niche markets with little or no global competition, such as hyperspectral imaging, and also will continue attempts to undercut the price of Western firms in more competitive markets. Counterspace operations will be integral to potential PLA military campaigns, and China has counterspace weapons capabilities intended to target U.S. and allied satellites. The PLA is fielding new destructive and nondestructive ground- and space-based antisatellite (ASAT) weapons.
China sea launch. Credit: CCTV/Inside Outer Space screengrab
— China already has fielded ground-based counterspace capabilities including electronic warfare systems, directed energy weapons, and ASAT missiles intended to disrupt, damage, and destroy target satellites. China also has conducted orbital technology demonstrations, which while not counterspace weapons tests, prove China’s ability to operate future space-based counterspace weapons.
Russia’s space-sector problems
Concerning Russia’s space activities, the intelligence report notes that Russia will remain a key space competitor, “but it may have difficulty achieving its long-term space goals because of the effects of additional international sanctions and export controls following its invasion of Ukraine, a myriad of domestic space-sector problems, and increasingly strained competition for program resources within Russia.”
Roscosmos chief, Yuri Borisov.
Image credit: Roscosmos
“Moscow probably will focus on prioritizing and integrating space services—such as communications; positioning, navigation, and timing; geolocation; and intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance—deemed critical to its national security,” the report adds.
— Moscow is capable of employing its civil and commercial remote sensing satellites to supplement military-dedicated capabilities that reduce the U.S. ability to perform sensitive military activities undetected. In addition to improving its launch capability, it is working to support human spaceflight and future deep space missions.
— Russia warned during a UN meeting in October 2022 that commercial infrastructure in outer space used for military purposes “can become a legitimate target for retaliation.”
Credit: SpaceX/Starlink
“Russia continues to train its military space elements and field new antisatellite weapons to disrupt and degrade U.S. and allied space capabilities. It is developing, testing, and fielding an array of nondestructive and destructive counterspace weapons—including jamming and cyberspace capabilities, directed energy weapons, on-orbit capabilities, and ground-based ASAT capabilities—to try to target U.S. and allied satellites,” states the report.
Similar to the space sector, resource and technology challenges could have an impact on the quality and quantity of Russia’s future counterspace capabilities, with the report observing:
— Russia is investing in electronic warfare and directed energy weapons to counter Western on-orbit These systems work by disrupting or disabling adversary C4ISR capabilities and by disrupting GPS, tactical and satellite communications, and radars. Russia also continues to develop ground-based ASAT missiles capable of destroying space targets in low Earth orbit.
To access the full report — 2023 Annual Threat Assessment Report – go to:
https://www.dni.gov/files/ODNI/documents/assessments/ATA-2023-Unclassified-Report.pdf
Interpretation of the “Relict Glacier” features. Image credit: Lee Pascal et al. 2023/SETI Institute
Remains of a modern glacier near Mars’ equator have been found. The finding implies water ice is possibly present at low latitudes on the Red Planet…even today.
The announcement comes from the now-in-session 54th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference being held in The Woodlands, Texas.
Scientists at the gathering revealed the discovery of a relict glacier near Mars’ equator.
Shallow depths
“This discovery raises the possibility that ice may still exist at shallow depths in the area, which could have significant implications for future human exploration. This discovery suggests that Mars’ recent history may have been more watery than previously thought, which could have implications for understanding the planet’s habitability,” explains a press statement from the SETI Institute.
Credit: Bryan Versteeg
“What we’ve found is not ice, but a salt deposit with the detailed morphologic features of a glacier. What we think happened here is that salt formed on top of a glacier while preserving the shape of the ice below, down to details like crevasse fields and moraine bands,” said Pascal Lee, a planetary scientist with the SETI Institute and the Mars Institute, and the lead author of the study.
The glacier is estimated to be 4 miles (6 kilometers) long and up to 2.5 miles (4 kilometers) wide. This finding suggests that Mars’ recent history may have been more watery than previously thought. If so, the discovery could have implications for understanding the planet’s habitability.
Implications
If there is still water ice preserved at shallow depths at a low latitude on Mars, there would be implications for science and human exploration.
“The desire to land humans at a location where they might be able to extract water ice from the ground has been pushing mission planners to consider higher latitude sites,” Lee adds. “But the latter environments are typically colder and more challenging for humans and robots. If there were equatorial locations where ice might be found at shallow depth, then we’d have the best of both environments: warmer conditions for human exploration and still access to ice.”
A proposed International Mars Ice Mapper (I-MIM) mission concept along with four relay orbiters to spot and relay to Earth data regarding buried water ice on the Red Planet.
Image credit: NASA
Lee cautions, however, that more work still needs to be done.
“We now have to determine if, and how much, water ice might actually be present in this relict glacier, and whether other light-toned deposits might also have, or have had, ice-rich substrates,” Lee concludes.
“Identifying adequate and accessible water-ice reserves enables the identification of candidate sites for potential scientific discoveries worthy of sending humans. It also enables the identification of water-ice
resources to meet human operational needs on the Martian surface,” as noted in the final report of the International Mars Ice Mapper (I-MIM) mission concept.
Image credit: NASA
Curiosity Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) photo produced on Sol 3767 March 12, 2023.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover at Gale Crater is now performing Sol 3770 duties.
A recent two sol scripted plan (Sols 3769-3770) called for the robot to wrap up its remaining drill campaign and workspace liens at the Tapo Caparo site.
Curiosity Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) photo produced on Sol 3769, March 15, 2023.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
A weekend plan ran successfully, “though we had a known issue which caused several of our remote sensing activities planned for the weekend to not execute,” reports Elena Amador-French, Science Operations Coordinator at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. A more recent plan was therefore “jam packed with recovering any remaining remote sensing observations of our area and some contact science.”
Curiosity Right B Navigation Camera image taken on Sol 3769, March 14, 2023.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Float rock
For Curiosity’s robotic arm work, the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) instrument was slated to look at two targets: “Tucupita” and “Mariapiri.”
Also, the plan called for use of the Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer (APXS) instrument to investigate the composition of “Mariapiri” and an offset position of drill tailings.
“Tucupita is an interesting potential float rock in our workspace. A float rock is an out of place rock that does not appear to be part of the greater bedrock. On Earth (and Mars) these can appear after eroding from a different stratigraphic unit, for example,” Amador-French adds.
Curiosity Right B Nav Camera photo acquired on Sol 3768, March 13, 2023.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
“Comparing the difference in composition and texture of Tucupita compared to the bedrock in the workspace can provide clues into how the region has eroded over millions of years,” Amador-French reports. “The Mariapiri target is a small fracture that formed after we drilled Tapo Caparo. This fracture provides a small window into what the subsurface looks like texturally in the area.”
Curiosity Right B Navigation Camera photo taken on Sol 3766, March 11, 2023.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Image credit: Roscosmos/NASA
For the second time in a month, the Russian-provided Progress MS-22 resupply spacecraft took the International Space Station (ISS) away from a collision with space debris.
Coupled to the ISS, the Progress and its engines fired for 135 seconds, giving out an impulse to boost the orbiting facility to 260 miles (419 kilometers), explains a Roscosmos Telegram posting.
“For the entire time of the station’s flight, 336 corrections were made to the altitude of its orbit (of which 35 were for the purpose of evading space debris), including 185 with the help of our Progress,” the Roscosmos posting adds.
Credit: The Aerospace Corporation’s Space Safety Institute
Dangerous situations
According to Maxim Penkov, Advisor to the General Director of TsNIIMash JSC, “the automated system for warning about dangerous situations in near-Earth space in 2022 recorded more than 16 thousand approaches of the ISS and Russian spacecraft with dangerous objects in orbit,” as reported by Russia’s TASS news agency.
Penkov adds that five space debris avoidance maneuvers were performed for the ISS, which “prevented the loss of a unique space complex worth more than 200 billion dollars, and also ensured the life and health of the station crew.”
