Leonard David's INSIDE OUTER SPACE

Archive for the ‘Space News’ Category

The Lunar Surface Electromagnetics Explorer “LuSEE Night” is a low frequency radio astronomy experiment to be emplaced on the farside of the Moon by the NASA Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program in late 2025 or early 2026.

LuSEE-Night is a radio telescope developed in collaboration between NASA and the Department of Energy (DOE), with Brookhaven Lab leading DOE’s role in the project. DOE’s Lawrence Berkeley National Lab is providing key technical support.

Signals into spectra

“LuSEE-Night is not a standard radio telescope,” says Anže Slosar, a Brookhaven physicist.

“It’s more of a radio receiver. It will work like an FM radio, picking up radio signals in a similar frequency band. The spectrometer is at the heart of it. Like a radio tuner, it can separate out radiofrequencies, and it turns signals into spectra,” Slosar states in a Brookhaven Lab statement.

The Dark Ages are an early era of cosmological history starting about 380,000 years after the Big Bang. Though radio waves from the Dark Ages still linger in space, the abundance of radio interference on Earth has masked these signals from scientists seeking to study them.

Radio noise

If cosmologists could detect radio waves from the Dark Ages they could help uncover answers to several significant questions, such as the nature of dark energy or the formation of the universe itself.

Shielded from the buzz and static of Earth broadcasting, the Moon’s farside is a place where there’s enough radio silence for the Dark Ages signal to be detected.

“By physically being on the lunar surface and taking measurements at the right time, several external sources of radio interference will be removed, including radio noise from the Sun, Earth, Jupiter, and Saturn,” according to a NASA website statement on the project.

A communications relay satellite will launch with LuSEE. 

Suited for spaceflight

Brookhaven is leading the DOE effort to construct the whole telescope.

“We will build out LuSEE-Night’s electronics, procure the batteries, solar panels, and communications equipment, and ensure all components of the instrument are cohesive and suited for spaceflight,” explains Brookhaven scientist Sven Herrmann, the LuSEE-Night Construction Project Manager for DOE’s part of the mission and a researcher at the Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology.

“We will handle the inner equipment assembly, [and] then ship the pieces to UC Berkeley’s Space Sciences Laboratory for end integration,” Herrmann adds. “NASA will coordinate the launch through its Commercial Lunar Payload Services program, which leverages private companies to provide the transport to the Moon.”

While LuSEE-Night is primarily considered a pathfinder, it is designed to collect data for two years. LuSEE-Night could exceed its main goal and detect the Dark Ages signal on its own, or even uncover new and unexpected mysteries hidden deep in the cosmos along the way, according to the Brookhaven statement.

Game changer

Jack Burns is a LuSEE-Night co-investigator and institutional principal investigator at the University of Colorado, Boulder. The work there is mainly focused on development of a software pipeline for modeling the instrument, its environs, and data analysis.

“LuSEE-night is very much a multi-institutional, multi-agency collaboration,” Burns told Inside Outer Space. “DOE’s participation and funding is important to allow us to observe during the night on the far side of the Moon for the first time by carrying about 88 pounds (40 kilograms) of batteries. This is a game-changer permitting us to observe during the quietest time on the Moon (no Sun and no Earth radio frequency interference (RFI) and to potentially investigate the unexplored Dark Ages and Cosmic Dawn of the early Universe.”

Burns also noted his work on the Radio wave Observations at the Lunar Surface of the Electron Sheath (ROLSES) science instrument. ROLSES is now scheduled to land on the Moon in late June on a CLPS Intuitive Machines IM-1 lander, hurled to its lunar destination via a SpaceX Falcon booster.

This mission will likely be the first to land at the South Pole of the Moon, Burns adds, on the CLPS lander. The ROLSES IM-1 mission data gathering does not depend on a relay spacecraft. The IM-1 landing locale is within view of Earth.

 

 

Those radiation-measuring female mannequins, Helga and Zohar, are back in Cologne, Germany – fresh from their journey around the Moon.

Positioned within the NASA Artemis 1’s Orion spacecraft, the astronaut “phantoms” are built to provide a three-dimensional image of the radiation exposure of the female body during a flight to the Moon and back.

The Matroshka AstroRad Radiation Experiment (MARE) project was led by the German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt; DLR) at its Institute of Aerospace Medicine.

DLR is the national aeronautics and space research centre of the Federal Republic of Germany.

Next step

Reports Thomas Berger, head of the MARE experiment at the DLR Institute of Aerospace Medicine, a next step is to start the evaluation of the more than 12,000 passive radiation detectors made of small crystals located throughout the two measuring bodies.

“We will now dismantle the mannequins and remove the passive radiation sensors in each ‘slice’,” Berger explains in a DLR press statement.

The procedure involves examining and evaluating the information stored within the individual crystals using DLR laboratory equipment.

Reading out the information stored by the crystals creates a three-dimensional image of the human body that reveals the overall radiation exposure experienced by bones and organs during a flight to the Moon and back.

Vested interest

The study is also investigating the effectiveness of the shielding provided by the radiation vest worn by Zohar, provided by the Israel Space Agency (ISA), made by the Israeli company StemRad.

“We will see how effective the shielding effect was by comparing the radiation exposure of Helga, who wore no vest, and Zohar, who was equipped with the protective vest,” Berger explains.

The two mannequins each consist of 38 slices and contain organs and bones of different densities made of plastic. Zohar was provided by the ISA.

 

Measurement data

Berger added that the extensive evaluation of the data will now take several months. Detailed results are expected by the beginning of next year.

“We can already see that some of our assumptions about radiation exposure during lunar travel are confirmed,” Berger adds. “Now that we have access to all of the available measurement data, we can begin to draw more detailed conclusions.”

According to Anke Kaysser-Pyzalla, Chair of the DLR Executive Board: “Radiation exposure is one of the main unsolved medical challenges of human spaceflight. We need to understand it more precisely to develop effective measures to protect humans in space.”

 

NASA’s Perseverance rover is busily wheeling and dealing with Mars at Jezero Crater, picking up samples of that way off world.

Some of these extraterrestrial goodies are to be express-rocketed to Earth in the 2030’s. Getting that precious freight back to Earth and evaluated in labs is an international and elaborate affair guided by collaboration between NASA and the European Space Agency.

Moolah for Mars

Of course, the Mars Sample Return interplanetary relay enterprise is a high-roller undertaking. It will demand lots of moolah, in the multi-billions of dollars.

But the prospective scientific payoff is palpable. Investigators are eager to scope out the bits, pieces, and atmosphere of the Red Planet that will be hurled to Earth.

What are the possible “take away messages” from Mars by heaving samples our way?

Go to my new Space.com article – “The Big Reveal: What’s Ahead in Returning Samples from Mars?” – at:

https://www.space.com/mars-sample-return-whats-ahead

NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover at Gale Crater is now performing Sol 3763 duties.

A recent report from Natalie Moore, a mission operations specialist at Malin Space Science Systems in San Diego, California, notes the work of the Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) Instrument Suite team. They were deciding whether to proceed with further analysis of the newly acquired Tapo Caparo drill sample.

“Just in case they decided against it, last Friday’s team put together two options for our plan today,” Moore adds, the second option requiring rover planner, the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI), and Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer (APXS) activities to help wrap up this drill campaign.

That planning involves the timing of orbital spacecraft passes above Gale crater, which can sometimes mean a pretty long day for the tactical planning team.

However, the SAM team decided quickly that they were “go” for further sample analysis, which meant no robotic arm activities could be planned (since the rover is still carrying sample from drilling), Moore explains.

Nap time

“We are now at the stage of our drill sol path where we have to be careful about how much battery power we’re using,” Moore notes, so a recent plan includes a lot of nap time for the Mars robot.

“We have just a single, roughly one hour remote science block with two Mastcam stereo multispectral targets, a Mastcam stereo mosaic to extend coverage near the drill hole,” and a Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam) Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) target with corresponding Mastcam documentation image of the laser shots.

“It’s rare that there are no Navcam activities, but they too were released from planning after priorities were discussed for the limited remote science time we can afford today,” Moore adds.

Hungry for power

After remote science concludes, Curiosity was slated to be mostly asleep until the plan’s main — and hungriest for power — activity from SAM kicks off.

“SAM’s gas chromatograph ‘column clean’ activity will increase the intended column’s internal temperature until contaminants are removed to prepare for further sample drop off and full GCMS [Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry] later this week,” Moore reports. “I like to think of this as ‘washing our hands before eating,’ but for about 4.5 hours. After SAM finishes cleaning their column, our rover will sleep some more until the next plan starts at 09:49 after sunrise.”

Staring at images

What does a “Mission Operations Specialist” like Moore do on slower days of Curiosity work?

 

 

“Besides writing these few [report] words, I’m spending the rest of my day staring at images we’ve taken here” from Mastcam, MAHLI and the Mars Descent Imager (MARDI) “in that order, usually,” Moore notes, “organizing my shift notes for next time, and chipping away at a python-based interface that will hopefully help the Mastcam team visualize our data more easily.”

 

 

Movie director Steven Spielberg shares a provocative theory about UFOs, and gives careful consideration to TV’s Stephen Colbert’s pitch for a sequel to his landmark 1982 film, “E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial.”

For more information on Spielberg’s speculation about UFOs, go to this segment of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert at:

“There’s Something Out There” – Steven Spielberg on Alien Visitors, and an “E.T.” Sequel

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZgUed2YirEk

For a follow-on update on Spielberg’s conjecture, go to my Space.com story from January 20, 2020 at:

“Are the aliens us? UFOs may be piloted by time-traveling humans, book argues”

https://www.space.com/aliens-time-traveling-humans-ufo-hypothesis.html

At the National Museum of China in Beijing, the “30 years of achievements exhibition” of China’s Human Space Program presented concepts of a human lunar lander, a new-generation spacecraft, and the Long March-10 concept launch vehicle.

Image credits: China Central Television (CCTV)/China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC)/Inside Outer Space screengrab.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For a video spotlighting China’s humans-to-the-Moon effort, go to:

https://youtu.be/GHiLdaJ2J0w

 

The European Southern Observatory (ESO) and other astronomy groups are petitioning the United Nations to address the impact of satellites on dark and quiet skies.

An international collaboration involving ESO has submitted a paper to the United Nations Committee on Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (COPUOS) proposing a new “Expert Group” to protect dark and quiet skies.

The call for a new Expert Group is to push forward on monitoring the impact of satellites on astronomy and seeks inputs from global stakeholders to make recommendations to help mitigate their sky pollution concerns.

Dark sky reserves and radio quiet zones 

“The proliferation of satellites launched into orbit around the Earth has improved our ability to communicate globally instantaneously; however, there are concerns about the impact these technologies have on astronomical observations and the preservation of dark and quiet skies,” explains an ESO statement.

The statement flags the fact that there are over 8,000 active and defunct satellites orbiting the Earth and this number will continue to grow. As many as 100,000 satellites could be launched in the coming decade. These new satellites are encroaching on the few remaining dark sky reserves and radio quiet zones.

“Astronomers have already begun to notice the effects of the dramatic increases in space traffic. Even from remote locations — specifically chosen to isolate telescopes from unwanted light pollution — satellites interfere with optical and infrared observations,” the ESO statement adds. “These satellites also transmit and receive radio signals which is especially concerning for radio telescopes, such as the highly sensitive Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array of which ESO is a partner.”

Mitigation steps

The ESO statement notes that some companies have made efforts to mitigate these effects, such as use of less-reflective material in satellite construction or changing the orientation of satellites in space.

A proactive step would have companies provide astronomers with higher accuracy information about the location of satellites so that observatories can take this into account to decide when and where to point their telescopes.

“While these potential solutions show promise, they will require a coordinated effort between satellite industry, governments, and astronomers,” the ESO statement continues. “A cooperative approach involving all stakeholders is an effective way to reach a satisfactory balance between the need for the evolution of the low-Earth orbit space economy and the need protect the science of astronomy and the pristine visibility of the night sky.”

Cascade effect

Andrew Williams, co-lead of the policy hub of the International Astronomical Union’s (IAU) Center for the Protection of the Dark and Quiet Sky from Satellite Constellation Interference, stated that there is a cascade effect from the discussions at COPUOS that can influence governments and companies to act.

 

“From the substantial number of countries from all regions of the globe that voiced support for our proposal, we are hopeful we can find a way forward at the main session of the committee,” Williams says.

The mission of the IAU Center is to coordinate efforts and unify voices across the global astronomical community with regard to the protection of the dark and quiet sky from satellite constellation interference.

A “Conference Room Paper on the Protection of Dark and Quiet Skies for science and society” has been endorsed by Chile, Spain, Slovakia, Bulgaria, Dominican Republic, Peru, South Africa, in addition to ESO, the International Astronomical Union (IAU) and the Square Kilometer Array Observatory (SKAO).

That paper is available at:

https://www.unoosa.org/res/oosadoc/data/documents/2023/aac_105c_12023crp/aac_105c_12023crp_18rev_1_0_html/AC105_C1_2023_CRP18Rev01E.pdf

 

China’s Shenzhou-15 crew has carried out a second spacewalk outside the country’s Tiangong space station.

According to the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA), Fei Junlong, commander of the mission, along with colleague Zhang Lu, have completed the spacewalk and have returned to the station’s Wentian lab module.

The third crew member, Deng Qingming, stayed inside the orbiting outpost to provide support for the spacewalking twosome.

Science experiments

The three astronauts were sent to the country’s space station in late November last year. Over the past three months, they have fulfilled multiple tasks, ranging from spacewalks to scientific experiment cabinet tests and cargo exit tasks in the Wentian and Mengtian lab modules.

In addition, experiments and testing in the fields of space science research and application are progressing steadily as planned, according to China Central Television (CCTV).

Combustion, skin epidermis tests

“In coordination with the ground team, the astronauts successfully performed the first in-orbit ignition test with Mengtian’s combustion cabinet, which carries a device to measure the velocity field in the combustion region,” CCTV reports. “The test has verified the functions of the experiment system and the accuracy of the experiment process, laying a foundation for follow-up projects.”

In addition, the astronaut trio has obtained the three-dimensional structural images of their skin epidermis and superficial dermis with the country’s self-developed two-photon microscope.

“The event marked the success of the in-orbit verification experiments of the two-photon microscope, providing a promising tool for future health monitoring of astronauts in orbit,” CCTV reports.

Gravity loses its grip

The very first ball of flame was ignited on Feb. 16 aboard Mengtian, one of the two lab modules that make up the basic T-shaped structure of the space station along with the core module, with camera footage capturing the stunning and rarely-seen image in an environment where gravity loses its grip on materials of all forms.

Using methane as fuel, the test was carried out in the lab module’s combustion cabinet, which is designed for conducting experiments that involve fire.

Underlying physics

According to experts, CCTV reports, the flame, dome-shaped or spherical, looked different from that on Earth because of a lack of buoyancy and meager oxygen flow.

The test allows scientists to learn about the underlying physics behind flame structure and behavior. Moreover, finding out about how fire spreads and behaves in space is crucial for the safety of future astronauts on the space station and for understanding and controlling fire on Earth.

The combustion science experiment system on board the space station was designed by the Institute of Engineering Thermophysics under the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Mengtian modules

China plans to carry out more than 40 combustion experiments on board the space station by the end of this year.

Launched in October 2022, the Mengtian lab module is used for studying microgravity and carrying out experiments in fluid physics, materials science, combustion science and fundamental physics. It has completed more than 50 tasks as planned over the months.

In the next three months, the Shenzhou-15 mission will continue to carry out experiments and tests, and conduct extravehicular activities (EVAs) as well as cargo exit tasks.

Wait a minute!

A number of Moon exploration missions by numbers of nations are planned for the next decade. The target areas of the Moon being eyed are likely to be a handful of small sites of interest, to carry out science investigations as well as process lunar materials to churn out construction materials, rocket fuel, oxygen and water, etc.

Is there potential for creating risks of crowding and interference at these special lunar locales?

 

A research paper explores that prospect.

“Concentrated lunar resources: imminent implications for governance and justice,” has been made available by The Royal Society in the United Kingdom. The paper appeared in a special issue of the journal Philosophical Transaction A, published in 2020.

Small regions

“Many of the useful and valuable resources on the Moon are concentrated into a modest number (tens) of quite small regions (in the order of a few kilometers),” the research paper notes.

Locations of interest include the Peaks of Eternal Light, the coldest of the cold traps on the Moon and smooth areas on the lunar far side.

“Over the next decade, forms of interference and related disputes and conflicts over these concentrated resources may arise, as many actors, sovereign, philanthropic and commercial, descend onto just a handful of small, high-value sites on the lunar surface,” the research paper suggests.

Lead author is astrophysicist Martin Elvis of Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Need for action

“The need for action is perhaps most acutely felt by the astronomy community,” the paper explains. “If astronomers do not take the initiative to identify and raise awareness of the scientific and public interest in protecting unique lunar features now, they may find themselves unable to do so once these features are under threat from interference and crowding.”

 

Astronomers will find common cause with other scientists, such as astrobiologists, and other researchers for whom planetary protection measures are crucial. “The scientific community today faces both an opportunity and a responsibility to help guard precious lunar sites from the irreversible damage threatened by crowding and interference,” the paper observes.

Extraterrestrial commons

When is the appropriate time to begin developing a governance framework? Now says Elvis and colleagues, suggesting that a study of commons on Earth can provide lessons applicable to efforts at governing lunar sites of interest.

Lessons from the management and mismanagement of terrestrial commons, the paper adds, suggest that “action should be taken now rather than later, or at least now as well as later, to develop the governance structures needed to prevent (and later on contain) avoidable and undesirable problems of crowding and interference.”

Diverse actors

How to responsibly coordinate diverse actors’ activities on the Moon requires recognizing and accommodating their distinct interests and purposes.

“Any proposed governance arrangement may have to contend with irreducible practical and conceptual tensions between different actors’ designs: scientific, commercial and human-exploration activities may often be incompatible with each other,” the paper explains. “Moreover, it is likely that these varied actors’ plans are best served by different governance arrangements.”

To read the full paper – “Concentrated lunar resources: imminent implications for governance and justice” – go to:

https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsta.2019.0563

 

The ispace Hakuto-R Mission 1 lunar lander is now on a trajectory to the Moon with a scheduled landing for the end of April – the first privately-led Japanese mission to attempt to land on the lunar landscape.

This Moon-bound probe was launched in December of last year via a SpaceX Falcon 9 booster and has now become “the farthest commercial operating spacecraft to travel into deep space, according to the organization.

In a statement released today, the ispace flight team is expecting to complete all deep space orbital maneuvers before lunar orbit insertion around mid-March.

 

Toted by the M1 lander is a Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) transforming robot ball, as well as a Rashid lunar rover from the United Arab Emirates.

 

 

 

Follow-on missions

The company has offices in Japan, Luxembourg, and the United States and is also working on Mission 2 and Mission 3 of their lunar exploration program.

Mission 2, a lander/rover, is planned for 2024 and Mission 3 is targeted for 2025.

ispace has also launched a lunar data business concept to support new customers as a gateway to conduct commerce on the Moon. Part of the ispace business model is to provide reliable lunar transportation and data services, based on lessons learned from Mission 1.

 

 

 

For an up-close look at the ispace series 1 lunar lander, go to:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q49UdKvoj8I

Also, go to this ispace 2040 “vision movie” at:

https://youtu.be/r7CW92i0z_o