Archive for the ‘Space News’ Category
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February 9th, 2023
Credit: ISS/NASA
And here we thought that the dust on the Moon was a nuisance for future lunar expeditions.
It still is, but Moon dust launched from the lunar surface — or from a space station positioned between Earth and the Sun — could reduce enough solar radiation to mitigate the impacts of climate change.
That’s the proposal from scientists at the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian and the University of Utah exploring the potential of using dust to shield sunlight.
Simulated stream of dust launched between Earth and the Sun. This dust cloud is shown as it crosses the disk of the Sun, viewed from Earth. Streams like this one, including those launched from the Moon’s surface, can act as a temporary sunshade.
Artwork credit: Ben Bromley/University of Utah
Endless supply
The research paper, published today in the journal PLOS Climate, describes different properties of dust particles, quantities of dust and the orbits that would be best suited for shading Earth.
There’s need for an endless supply of new dust batches to blast into orbit every few days after the initial spray dissipates.
Researchers found that launching dust from Earth to a way station at a Lagrange point between Earth and the Sun would be most effective – but would involve an astronomical price tag and substantial effort.
Lunar dust haunted Apollo moonwalkers. Can that dust offer a way to mitigate climate change on Earth?
Image credit: NASA/Azita Valinia/Inside Outer Space screengrab
Casting a shadow
According to the team, a sunshield’s overall effectiveness would depend on its ability to sustain an orbit that casts a shadow on Earth.
Two scenarios were found to be promising: Use of a space station platform at the L1 Lagrange point and shooting lunar dust from a platform on the surface of the Moon towards the sun.
The team found that the inherent properties of lunar dust were just right to effectively work as a sunshield.
For detailed information on the proposal – “Dust as a solar shield” – go to:
https://journals.plos.org/climate/article?id=10.1371/journal.pclm.0000133
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Soyuz craft undergoing preparation for Feb. 20 launch in uncrewed mode.
Image credit: RSC Energia
Russia’s pilotless Soyuz MS-23 spacecraft is being prepared for its upcoming launch at Baikonur.
Refueling of the ship with fuel and compressed gases is being wrapped up, with liftoff of the “rescue” craft atop a Soyuz-2.1a carrier rocket set for February 20 at 04:57:53 Moscow time.
According to a Roscosmos Telegram posting, the Soyuz has been returned to the assembly and testing building of the 254th site of the cosmodrome and installed at the workplace for stowage of delivered cargo, checking the tightness of hatches, installing screen-vacuum thermal insulation on the surface of the compartments, control weighing and docking with the transitional compartment of the launch vehicle.
Image credit: RSC Energia
Uncrewed mode
The Soyuz MS-23 is flying in an uncrewed-mode as a replacement craft for a compromised Soyuz MS-22 craft now docked at the International Space Station. That vehicle suffered a coolant leak last December that prompted a fast-paced checkout and launch of the Soyuz MS-23.
Soyuz MS-22 coolant leak image from last December.
Image credit: NASA
Due to a possible meteoroid strike, the vehicle’s radiator pipeline discharged crucial coolant into free space, putting to question the overall integrity and safety of the craft to return crew members back to Earth.
CAPSTONE
Image credit: NASA
NASA’s Moon mission mouthful, the Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System Technology Operations and Navigation Experiment, is doing just fine.
Mercifully called CAPSTONE for short, the CubeSat has been operating in a Near Rectilinear Halo Orbit (NRHO) for 85 days – completing approximately 12.5 orbits since arrival November 13th of last year.
The microwave oven–sized spacecraft, tipping the scales at a modest 55 pounds, is serving as the first spacecraft to test the unique, NRHO lunar orbit. Advanced Space of Westminster, Colorado owns and operates the spacecraft for the entirety of its mission.
The spacecraft has operated successfully through two lunar eclipses, Advanced Space explains, which present a challenge for the spacecraft thermal and power systems. Other notable events include the successful execution of 2 maintenance maneuvers to keep CAPSTONE in its desired orbit.
Dylan Schmidt, CAPSTONE assembly integration and test lead, right, and Lachlan Moore, systems integration engineer, left, install solar panels onto the CAPSTONE spacecraft at Tyvak Nano-Satellite Systems, Inc., in Irvine, California.
New cadence
According to Advanced Space, mission operators had originally planned to execute an orbital maintenance maneuver each revolution of the orbit. A new cadence has been selected to help reduce operational risk and complexity.
“This updated operational approach maintains the required orbit phasing for the mission and demonstrates the robustness of the design strategy for these maneuvers,” Advanced Space adds. This design strategy has been developed by the NASA team supporting the space agency’s cislunar Gateway mini-space station project at the Johnson Space Center.
NASA’s cis-lunar Gateway facility.
Image credit: NASA
Cross-link attempt
In other CAPSTONE updates, the mission team successfully completed interface testing with the NASA Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) ground systems.
During the first attempt to obtain cross-link measurements on January 18th, LRO received a signal from CAPSTONE. However, the CAPSTONE radio system did not collect crosslink ranging measurements from the returned signal.
This initial try using the Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System (CAPS) software is informing subsequent work that will be further evaluated on upcoming attempts.
Jeffrey Parker, chief technology officer of Advanced Space (left) explains the CAPSTONE mission to U.S. Senator John Hickenlooper over a full-size model of the spacecraft.
Image credit: Advanced Space/Jason Johnson
CAPSTONE recovered from an anomaly on January 26th that resulted in the spacecraft being unable to receive commands from ground operators. This issue was cleared by the on-board fault protection system as designed on February 6th and the system has returned to normal operations.
“Lessons learned from this anomaly will result in operational procedure changes to speed recovery from any future similar anomalies,” Advanced Space reports.
Moon orbiting Lunar Flashlight.
Credit: NASA/JPL
That troubled NASA Lunar Flashlight mission is facing an uphill battle in achieving its primary goals.
The Lunar Flashlight team decided to attempt lunar flybys using any remaining thrust that the probe’s out of kilter propulsion system can deliver.
This new attempt is designed to get the CubeSat into high Earth orbit, which includes periodic flybys of the lunar south pole once a month to collect data. The team plans to begin maneuvers on Thursday, and, if successful, the expected first science pass will now be in June.
Image credit: NASA GSFC Arizona State University
Stretch science goal
The CubeSat launched on Dec. 11, 2022, to demonstrate several new technologies with what NASA is now characterizing as “a stretch science goal” of detecting surface ice at the Moon’s south pole.
Shortly into Lunar Flashlight’s journey, the mission operations team discovered three of its four thrusters were underperforming.
“The rest of the CubeSat’s onboard systems are fully functional, and the mission recently successfully tested its four-laser reflectometer,” a NASA posting explains. “This mini-instrument is the first of its kind and is designed and calibrated to seek out surface ice inside the permanently shadowed craters at the Moon’s south pole.”
Blue Origin New Shepard reusable booster design.
Credit: Blue Origin/Screengrab Inside Outer Space
Which state has the most commercial space launches?
What launch site is the busiest?
How many companies are licensed to conduct launch and reentry operations?
You can find answers to all these questions and more by exploring the interactive commercial space data section of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Fact Book.
Image credit: FAA
This data visualization went live today.
Have fun exploring!
Go to:
https://explore.dot.gov/t/FAA/views/FAAFactBookCommercialSpaceTransportation/Main?%3Aembed=yes#3
Artwork of Ingenuity Mars helicopter.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter at Jezero Crater acquired new imagery during its 42nd flight on February 5 using its navigation camera mounted in the helicopter’s fuselage and pointed directly downward to track the ground during flight.
Distance flown by the mini-chopper to date: roughly 27,688 feet (8,439 meters), chalking up roughly 70 minutes of total flight time to date.
Flight 42 saw the craft fly for 137.2 seconds, reaching an altitude of roughly 33 feet (10 meters), covering a distance of approximately 814 feet (248 meters), according to JPL stats.
Flight image credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Flight image credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Flight image credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Image credit: Shujianyang Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA
China’s Shenzhou-15 taikonauts are preparing to carry out their first spacewalking tasks for outfitting the country’s Tiangong space station.
The extravehicular activities are to occur within the next few days, according to the China Manned Space Agency.
This current trio has been living in orbit for 70 days since they entered the space station combination on Nov. 30, 2022.
Last stage of construction
Since boarding the orbital complex, the three-person crew have completed various tasks, including in-orbit crew rotation with the Shenzhou-14 crew, tests of scientific experiment cabinets, and spacecraft equipment inspections. They also performed medical checks, weightlessness protection workouts and a series of space science experiments, according to China Central Television (CCTV).
Image credit: CNSA/CCTV
The three Shenzhou-15 crew members are Fei Junlong, Deng Qingming and Zhang Lu.
Their six-month mission is aimed at wrapping up the last stage of the space station construction and starting the first stage of its application and development, noted CCTV.
China’s space station features a basic three-module, T-configuration consisting of a core module and two lab modules: Wentian and Mengtian.
Taking the fall. Space hardware dives into Earth’s atmosphere with some fragments making their way to the ground.
Image credit: ESA/D.Ducros
There’s an uptick in reports of people finding downed space junk on Earth. Over the years, some recovered wreckage from incoming rocket bodies and spacecraft has been trucked into research facilities for intensive scrutiny.
A main propellant tank of the second stage of a Delta 2 launch vehicle landed near Georgetown, Texas in January 1997.
Image credit: NASA Orbital Debris Program Office
Up close inspection of the scraps from afar is aiding research into the fiery and destructive reentry process.
One research avenue is to establish design alternatives that would cause incoming space hardware to “disintegrate” during their plummet through Earth’s atmosphere – called “design for demise” in space rubbish vernacular.
Chunks of space junk rained down in Australia, later identified as SpaceX leftovers from its Crew-1 Mission that flew in 2020-2021.
Photo courtesy: Brad Tucker
For more information, go to my new Space.com story – “How fallen space junk could aid the fight against orbital debris – Up-close inspection of space debris here on Earth is helping scientists better understand the destructive reentry process” – at:
https://www.space.com/fallen-space-junk-help-fight-orbital-debris
Image credit: Scientific Coalition for UAP Studies
There is an increased uptick in research focused on Unidentified Aerial Phenomenon, or UAP. In many ways, serious looks into UAP is the classic unveiling of a riddle wrapped up in an enigma.
The pace of government interest in UAP is palpable – underscored by the recent release by the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), a required-by-law annual report on UAP to Congress. That report flags the fact that UAP reporting is on the increase, thus allowing more opportunities to apply rigorous analysis and resolve events.
Also diving in to study UAP is a NASA blue ribbon study group. Their task is to focus on identifying available data, how best to collect future data, and how NASA can use that data to move the scientific understanding of UAPs forward.
Enigma Labs is offering a new public platform for sighting reports of unidentified aerial objects.
Image credit: Enigma Labs
Government attention to UAP is but one element in an ever-expanding network of private undertakings keen on scoping out sky strangeness.
Go to my new Scientific American story – “Scientists Try to Get Serious about Studying UFOs. Good Luck with That – New dedicated observatories and crowd sourced smartphone apps will study strange sightings in the sky. But questionable data quality and a lack of shared research standards remain key challenges” – at:
Image credit: USNI News
Video stills are in circulation of the Chinese balloon after it was hit with an AIM-9X anti-air missile fired from a F-22 Raptor on Feb. 4, 2023.
The Raptor was dispatched from the 149 Fighter Squadron based at Langley Air Force Base.
Used to down the balloon was a single AIM-9X Sidewinder missile, fired from the jet flying at 58,000 feet to hit the China-lofted balloon that was afloat at 62,000 feet.
Post-shoot down, a trio of Navy warships, service divers and the FBI are on the hunt for the wreckage of a high-altitude Chinese spy balloon. The leftovers of the balloon, about the size of three school buses, are spread over a seven-mile debris field in shallow water in the Atlantic.
Go to: https://youtu.be/VNVhLhq3CEQ
Off coast of South Carolina
In a statement released yesterday by Secretary of Defense, Lloyd J. Austin III, he said that U.S. fighter aircraft assigned to U.S. Northern Command successfully brought down the high altitude surveillance balloon launched by and belonging to the People’s Republic of China (PRC) over the water off the coast of South Carolina in U.S. airspace.
Austin said that “the Department of Defense developed options to take down the balloon safely over our territorial waters, while closely monitoring its path and intelligence collection activities.”
An F-22 Raptor fighter delivered the knock-out punch.
Image credit: DoD
Loitering
This current case showcased China’s willingness to place the balloon over the continental United States for an extended period of time.
Furthermore, it was noted in Pentagon briefings that the U.S. military has sufficient authority to take action under Title 10 against unmanned aerial systems of which this balloon would be a part. That’s 10 U.S.C. 130i – “Protection of certain facilities and assets from unmanned aircraft.”
Image credit: U.S. Homeland Defense
It was also announced that U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken deferred the taking of an upcoming trip to China in response to the balloon overflight of the United States.
A State Department official has noted the decision to postpone the China trip:
“We do acknowledge – we note the PRC’s statement of regret, but again, the presence of this balloon in our airspace is clearly unacceptable and a clear violation of our sovereignty. And our clear assessment was that under these current conditions it wouldn’t be constructive to visit Beijing at this time. But I’ll also reiterate that this is a postponement, and the Secretary plans to travel at the earliest appropriate opportunity when conditions allow.”
As explained earlier by Air Force Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder, the balloon was toting surveillance gear as well as a payload, Ryder said, not elaborating about the payload.
“Once the balloon was detected, we acted immediately to protect against the collection of sensitive information,” Ryder added.
Chinese balloon taken by Frank Melliere near Modoc, Illinois.
Image credit: Frank Melliere/Twitter/Facebook
“We know this is a Chinese balloon and that it has the ability to maneuver,” said Ryder, the Pentagon Press Secretary.
China reaction
China’s Ministry of National Defense on Sunday called the U.S. “overreacting” after a U.S. fighter jet shot down a Chinese unmanned airship that China said unintendedly entered the U.S. airspace days ago.
“We express our solemn protest against this U.S. approach and reserve the right to use the necessary means to deal with similar situations,” said Tan Kefei, a spokesperson for China’s Ministry of National Defense on Sunday.
The Chinese government said the civilian airship was used for research, mainly meteorological purposes and was deviated far from its planned course, affected by the Westerlies and with limited self-steering capability.
Image credit: Scientific Coalition for UAP Studies
UAP lessons learned?
Any relevance to the sky-high banter regarding Unidentified Aerial Phenomenon, or UAP – the new term often tied to UFOs?
As noted by Robert Powell, Executive Board Member of the Scientific Coalition for UAP Studies, the recent unclassified report by the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) has 336 new UAP reports as mentioned in their report of a couple of weeks ago.
“They did not supply detailed information on any of them. Reason — national security. No photos, no shapes, no locations, nothing,” Powell told Inside Outer Space.
“Now we have a Chinese balloon and suddenly national security is no longer a problem. We immediately identify it and make a lot of information public. They can supply a photo, its path over the U.S., let us know they shot it down — all sorts of information,” Powell said. “So if the government can supply this information on a Chinese balloon, why can’t it supply similar information on any of these 336 reports?”
Meanwhile, an informative update on the Chinese balloon flying over the USA and an answer on what it might have been has been produced by John Powell of JP Aerospace.
