Leonard David's INSIDE OUTER SPACE

Archive for the ‘Space News’ Category

 

 

A new report — The SpaceTech Economy – Ready for Liftoff — advises that the Global SpaceTech Ecosystem – worth $386 billion in 2021 and $1 trillion+ by 2030 “has seen a sharp maturity curve in the last few years, but there is belief it is set to move to an accelerated growth path in the coming decade, driven by the confluence of “five megatrends.”

To access this free report issued by Intro-act, Inc., go to:

https://www.intro-act.com/download/report.php?id=MTE=

 

China’s lunar exploration program has revealed how volcanism takes place on Earth’s Moon.

Bits and pieces of the Moon were rocketed back to Earth in December 2020 via the country’s Chang’e-5 lunar mission. Detailed looks at those returned samples continue to offer new perspectives on the Moon’s volcanic history.

One new finding: young volcanoes surprisingly took shape on the cooling Moon two billion years ago.

Young lunar volcanism

A new study has been published on in the journal Science Advances showing that the mantle melting-point depression due to the presence of fusible, easily-melted components could generate young lunar volcanism.

The new work was carried out by the Institute of Geology and Geophysics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (IGGCAS). A team of researchers scrutinized 27 Chang’e-5 basalt clasts to calculate the original ingredients of those samples. A clast is defined as a fragment of an older rock, now broken up and embedded in a younger one.

According to the just-released paper, the Chang’E-5 mission “has demonstrated that lunar volcanism was still active until two billion years ago, much younger than the previous isotopically dated lunar basalts.”

Ruling out a theory

How the small Moon retained enough heat to drive such late volcanism is unknown.

The study team found that the young Chang’e-5-source magma might have higher calcium oxide and titanium dioxide contents than magmas in older samples returned by the Apollo lunar landing missions decades ago.

 

 

The Chang’e-5 lunar samples rule out the theory that the Moon has been geologically dead after the formation of Apollo returned-to-Earth samples from at least 3 billion years ago.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

To view the entire paper – “Fusible mantle cumulates trigger young mare volcanism on the cooling Moon” – go to:

https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.abn2103

NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover at Gale Crater is currently performing Sol 3629 duties.

The robot is now at a new location, with new targets and new viewsheds to investigate, reports Alex Innanen, an atmospheric scientist at York University; Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

“Power was a bit tight, especially for the first sol with two hours of science time, a drive, and arm activities. Still, we managed to pack in lots of targeted science before driving away,” Innanen added.

Bedrock target

On tap is a look at a bedrock target called “Pacu” with the Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer (APXS), as well as making a Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam) Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) observation. ChemCam will be rounding out their sol’s imaging with a long distance mosaic of “Los Brincos.” Mastcam is also getting in on the action, with the similarly named “Arapari” and “Arapixi,” as well as “Baganara Island.”

The environmental team is also surveying the location, trying to catch dust devils.

The Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) is returning to Pacu before the rover drive’s off.

 

Untargeted science

“Just because we’ve driven to a new location doesn’t mean we have to wait to plan more science,” Innanen explains. “After driving in the middle of the plan, such as on the second sol in this plan [Sols 3628-3629], we can still do ‘untargeted’ science, which just means we don’t have the benefit of seeing exactly what our new location looks like.”

Lastly, a suprahorizon cloud movie, a dust devil movie, a full tau observation and a line of sight at the crater rim is slated.

ChemCam is also using AEGIS to autonomously select a target for analysis, Innanen concludes. AEGIS stands for Autonomous Exploration for Gathering Increased Science) – a software suite that permits the rover to autonomously detect and prioritize targets.

 

NASA’s Unidentified Aerial Phenomena study has moved forward. The space agency has selected 16 individuals to participate in its independent study team on unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP).

NASA defines UAP as “observations of events in the sky that cannot be identified as aircraft or as known natural phenomena.” 

The independent study will begin on Monday, Oct. 24.

In a NASA statement:

“Over the course of nine months, the independent study team will lay the groundwork for future study on the nature of UAPs for NASA and other organizations. To do this, the team will identify how data gathered by civilian government entities, commercial data, and data from other sources can potentially be analyzed to shed light on UAPs. It will then recommend a roadmap for potential UAP data analysis by the agency going forward.

The study will focus solely on unclassified data. A full report containing the team’s findings will be released to the public in mid-2023.”

Study team

The members of NASA’s independent study team on unidentified aerial phenomena are:

David Spergel was selected to chair NASA’s independent study on unidentified aerial phenomena. He is the president of the Simons Foundation where he was the founding director of its Flatiron Institute for Computational Astrophysics. His interests range from the search for planets and nearby stars to the shape of the universe. He has measured the age, shape and composition of the universe and played a key role in establishing the standard model of cosmology. A MacArthur “Genius” Fellow, Spergel has been cited in publications more than 100,000 times.

Anamaria Berea is an associate professor of Computational and Data Science at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia. She is a research affiliate with the SETI Institute in Mountain View, California, and a research investigator with Blue Marble Space Institute of Science in Seattle. Her research is focused on the emergence of communication in complex living systems and on data science applications in astrobiology, for the science of both biosignatures and technosignatures. She uses a wide range of computational methods to uncover fundamental patterns in the data. ​​

Federica Bianco is a joint professor at the University of Delaware in the Department of Physics and Astrophysics, the Biden School of Public Policy and Administration and the Urban Observatory. She is a cross-disciplinary scientist with a focus on using data-science to study the universe and find solutions to urban-based problems on earth. She also coordinates more than 1,500 scientists for the 2023 Large Synoptic Survey Telescope Science Collaboration to study the night sky in the southern hemisphere and discover new galaxies and stars. She has been published in more than 100 peer-reviewed papers and received that Department of Energy’s “Innovative Development in Energy-Related Applied Science” grant.   

Paula Bontempi has been a biological oceanographer for more than 25 years. She is the sixth dean and the second woman to lead the Graduate School of Oceanography at the University of Rhode Island (URI). She is also a professor of oceanography at URI. She spent eighteen years at NASA and was appointed acting deputy director of NASA’s Earth Science Division for the Science Mission Directorate. She also led NASA’s research on ocean biology, biogeochemistry, the carbon cycle and ecosystems, as well as many NASA Earth observing satellite missions in marine science. She is a fellow of The Oceanography Society.

Reggie Brothers is the operating partner at AE Industrial Partners in Boca Raton, Florida. He previously served as CEO and board member of BigBear.ai in Columbia, Maryland. Brothers also was the executive vice president and chief technology officer of Peraton, as well as a principal with the Chertoff Group. Prior to his time in the private sector, he served as the undersecretary for Science and Technology at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Research at the Department of Defense. Brothers is also a Distinguished Fellow at Georgetown’s Center for Security and Emerging Technology and he is a member of the Visiting Committee for Sponsored Research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Jen Buss is the CEO of the Potomac Institute of Policy Studies in Arlington, Virginia. Before she became CEO, Buss worked extensively with NASA to explore policy issues and strategic planning processes for astronaut medical care and cancer diagnostics and therapeutics. She is nationally recognized as an authority in her field for science and technology trends analysis and policy solutions.

Nadia Drake is a freelance science journalist and contributing writer at National Geographic. She also regularly writes for Scientific American, and specializes in covering astronomy, astrophysics, planetary sciences, and jungles. She has won journalism awards for her work in National Geographic including the David N. Schramm Award from the High Energy Astrophysics Division of the American Astronomical Society and the Jonathan Eberhart award from the AAS Division of Planetary Sciences. Drake holds a doctorate in genetics from Cornell University.

Mike Gold is the executive vice president of Civil Space and External Affairs at Redwire in Jacksonville, Florida. Prior to Redwire, Gold held multiple leadership roles at NASA, including associate administrator for Space Policy and Partnerships, acting associate administrator for the Office of International and Interagency Relations and senior advisor to the Administrator for International and Legal Affairs. He led for NASA, jointly with the Department of State, the creation and execution of the Artemis Accords, which established the norms of behavior in space. He also led the negotiation and adoption of binding international agreements for the lunar Gateway, the creation of new planetary protocols and the first purchase by NASA of a lunar resource. Gold was awarded NASA’s Outstanding Leadership Medal for his work in 2020.Additionally, Gold was appointed by the U.S. Secretary of Transportation to serve as Chair of the Commercial Space Transportation Advisory Committee from 2012 until he joined NASA in 2019. 

David Grinspoon is a senior scientist at the Planetary Science Institute in Tuscon, Arizona, and serves as a frequent advisor to NASA on space exploration. He is on science teams for several interplanetary spacecraft missions including the DAVINCI mission to Venus. He is the former inaugural Baruch S. Blumberg NASA/Library of Congress Chair in Astrobiology. His research focuses on comparative planetology especially regarding climate evolution and the implications of habitability on earth-like planets. He was awarded the Carl Sagan Medal by the American Astronomical Society and he is an elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He is also an adjunct professor of Astrophysical and Planetary Science at the University of Colorado in Boulder, Colorado, as well as Georgetown University in Washington.

Scott Kelly is a former NASA astronaut, test pilot, fighter pilot, and retired U.S. Navy captain. He commanded the International Space Station Expeditions 26, 45, and 46. He was also the pilot of Space Shuttle Discovery for the third Hubble Servicing Mission. He was selected for a year-long mission to the space station where he set the record at the time for the total accumulated number of days spent in space. Prior to NASA, Kelly was the first pilot to fly the F-14 with a new digital flight control system. He flew the F-14 Tomcat in fighter squadron VF-143 aboard the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower. He is a two-time New York Times bestselling author and was recognized by Time magazine in 2015 as one of the most influential people in the world.

Matt Mountain is the president of The Association of Universities for Research and Astronomy, known as AURA. At AURA, Mountain oversees a consortium of 44 universities nationwide and four international affiliates who help NASA and the National Science Foundation build and operate observatories including NASA’s Hubble Telescope and James Webb Space Telescope. He also serves as a telescope scientist for Webb and is a member of its Science Working Group. He is the former director of The Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, and the International Gemini Observatory in Hilo, Hawaii. 

Warren Randolph is the deputy executive director of the Federal Aviation Administration’s Accident Investigation and Prevention for Aviation Safety department. He has an extensive background in aviation safety at the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and is currently responsible for setting and implementing safety management system principles and using data to inform the assessment of future hazards and emerging safety risks. Prior to the FAA, Randolph served as an aerodynamicist for the U.S. Coast Guard and the U.S. Air Force for multiple flight simulations.

Walter Scott is the executive vice president and chief technology officer of Maxar in Westminster, Colorado, a space technology company that specializes in earth intelligence and space infrastructure. In 1992, he founded DigitalGlobe which became part of Maxar in 2017. He has held leadership positions at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Livermore, California and was the president of Scott Consulting. In 2021, he was inducted into the David W. Thompson Lecture in Space Commerce by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics.

Joshua Semeter is a professor of electrical and computer engineering as well as the director of the Center for Space Physics at Boston University. At Boston University, he researches interactions between Earth’s ionosphere and the space environment. Activities in Semeter’s lab include the development of optical and magnetic sensor technologies, radar experiment design and signal processing, and the application of tomographic and other inversion techniques to the analysis of distributed, multi-mode measurements of the space environment.

Karlin Toner is the acting executive director of the FAA’s Office of Aviation Policy and Plans. Previously, she served as the director of the FAA’s global strategy where she led the FAA’s international strategy and managed threats to international civil aviation. Prior to the FAA, Toner served at NASA in multiple leadership positions including director of the Airspace Systems Program at NASA Headquarters. She is a NASA Exceptional Achievement Medal recipient and is an associate fellow for the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics.

Shelley Wright is an associate professor of physics at the University of California, San Diego’s Center for Astrophysics and Space Studies. She specializes in galaxies, supermassive black holes and building optical and infrared instruments for telescopes using adaptive optics such as integral field spectrographs. She is a Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) researcher and instrumentalist. She is also the principal investigator for the UC San Diego Optical Infrared Laboratory. Previously, she was an assistant professor at the University of Toronto’s Dunlap Institute.  

For more information on NASA’s UAP undertaking, go to:

https://science.nasa.gov/uap/faqs

 

Getting hardware and science gear down and dirty on Mars is an expensive proposition – be it via airbags, retrorockets or a “rover on a rope” technique called the Sky Crane.

Put aside for a moment the multi-billion dollar campaign to extract rock, soil, and atmospheric samples from the Red Planet, hauling those collectibles back to Earth for detailed study. That Mars Sample Return project promises to be a financially “big ticket,” money-hungry endeavor.

 

 

Lander/shock absorber in one

Enter the SHIELD, for Simplified High Impact Energy Landing Device.

It’s a collapsible Mars lander designed to intentionally crash land on the Red Planet, absorbing the impact and protecting onboard science devices.

“SHIELD is basically both a lander and a shock absorber in one,” said Louis Giersch, the primary investigator for SHIELD. Still being evaluated is what kinds of science instruments make sense, be they weather sensors, cameras, mass spectrometers, or other micro-devices.

SHIELD’s goal is to make doable a broad suite of potential missions. For example, the technology could potentially allow NASA to put down dozens of individual robots over a relatively short timespan, dotting the distant planet with landers.

Giant sling

To help confirm SHIELD can guard sensitive electronics during a head-on crash landing, a drop tower at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) is being used. It features a giant sling – called a bow launch system – that can hurl an object into the surface at the same speeds reached during a Mars landing.

 

The bow launcher has slammed SHIELD into the ground at roughly 110 miles per hour (177 kilometers per hour) – the velocity that a Mars lander reaches near the surface after being slowed by atmospheric drag.

As follow-on, the next step is designing the rest of a lander in 2023 and seeing just how far the SHIELD idea can go forward…straight into Mars!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For a video depicting the SHIELD testing, go to:

https://youtu.be/tkejVTkAnXc

Also, go to these stories I’ve written that spotlight the emerging role of low-cost missions to open up Mars to a new era of exploration.

Go to:

• “NASA rethinks its Mars strategy” at:

https://aerospaceamerica.aiaa.org/features/nasa-rethinks-its-mars-strategy/

• “Mars on the cheap: Scientists working to revolutionize access to the Red Planet – The concepts include souped-up Mars helicopters and inexpensive orbiters and landers” at:

https://www.space.com/cheap-mars-exploration-mission-ideas

 

The prestigious American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) has established an Unidentified Aerospace Phenomena Community of Interest.

Its mission is to improve aviation safety by enhancing scientific knowledge of, and mitigating barriers to, the study of Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAP).

AIAA represents 30,000 aerospace professionals.

Ryan Graves, a former Navy F/A-18F pilot, is the first Chair of the Unidentified Aerospace Phenomena Community of Interest.

Study teams

The AIAA study group is focused on team building in a trio of UAP topics:

• Hardware Factors: Serves as a neutral focal point enhancing activities that integrate aviation safety related UAP data and analysis into relevant scientific/engineering aspects of aviation development, design, and safety planning across the aviation/space systems environment.
• Outreach: Interacts with appropriate AIAA Committees, government agencies, academic institutions, and international researchers and organizations associated with the scientific/engineering study and understanding of UAP.
• Human Factors: Engages with the scientific and engineering research community to assist with educating the Aerospace community relative to aerospace safety factors of UAP.

 

 

 

 

 

What’s in our skies?

“As we further our understanding of what’s in our skies,” Graves said in a website posting, “we must ensure timely access to these new safety insights across the military, commercial, and general aviation safety landscapes. It will take a diverse set of skills to advance our mission to enable us to reduce stigma, increase reporting, and integrate the findings into air and space policies.”

Graves in an AIAA statement notes that as a former LT U.S. Navy F/A-18F pilot, “I have experienced first-hand the persistent risk to aerospace safety posed by UAP.”

AIAA can apply its technical skill sets, Graves added, to improve aerospace safety and our understanding of UAP.

“The AIAA believes there is an urgent and critical imperative to improve aerospace safety by improving scientific knowledge and study of UAP,” Graves added.”

Volunteer status

In an AIAA statement sent to Inside Outer Space regarding the Unidentified Aerospace Phenomena (UAP) Community of Interest (COI), this group was approved in 2022 “to facilitate interested parties to exchange ideas on the topic.”

A small group of AIAA members have volunteered to lead the group.

“The UAP COI is focused on improving aviation safety by enhancing scientific knowledge of, and mitigating barriers to, the study of UAP. They do this through presenting material at AIAA forums and maintaining an active dialogue among members,” the AIAA statement explains.

Leaders of the UAP COI are acting in a volunteer role “and they do not represent AIAA nor its membership as official spokespeople. Their opinions are their own and not that of the Institute overall and should not be attributed to AIAA,” the statement concludes.

For more information on the AIAA UAP study group, go to:

https://www.aiaauap.org/

For an overview article — ‘New territory’: America’s top aerospace sleuths join UFO hunt -the country’s largest organization of technical experts has concluded that recent incursions pose a safety hazard to aircraft in Politico, go to:

https://www.politico.com/news/2022/10/19/new-territory-americas-top-aerospace-sleuths-join-ufo-hunt-00062588

Active spacecraft face greater chances of collision with space debris as a result of reduced density in the upper atmosphere.

A new study released by the British Antarctic Survey, published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, presents a projection of climate change in the upper atmosphere for the next 50 years.

Increasing levels of carbon dioxide in the Earth’s atmosphere will result in a long-term decline in air density at high altitudes. Such decreased density will reduce drag on objects orbiting in the upper atmosphere, between 90 and 500 km altitude, therefore, extending the lifetime of space debris and elevating the risk of collisions between debris and satellites.

Space pollution problem

Ingrid Cnossen, a NERC independent research fellow at the British Antarctic Survey, used a global model of the whole atmosphere up to 500 km altitude to simulate changes in the upper atmosphere up to 2070. She compared her projections to the last 50 years of data and found that even under a moderate future emissions scenario the predicted average cooling and decline in upper atmosphere density is about twice as strong as has been seen in the past.

“Space debris is becoming a rapidly growing problem for satellite operators due to the risk of collisions, which the long-term decline in upper atmosphere density is making even worse,” Cnossen stated in a British Antarctic Survey statement. “I hope this work will help to guide appropriate action to control the space pollution problem and ensure that the upper atmosphere remains a usable resource into the future.”

Mean decline

As noted in the paper, “the global mean decline in thermosphere density is a concern for the future exploitation of the LEO environment due to its impact on atmospheric drag and the lifetime of space debris.”

Cnossen’s research points out that climatic changes in the upper atmosphere will have important consequences for the build-up of space debris in the low Earth orbit (LEO) environment and may also impact on the long-term stability of satellite-based measurements.

“The projection presented here offers the first realistic insight in the quantitative long-term changes to expect in the upper atmosphere during the next roughly 50 years in order to prepare for these effects,” Cnossen explains in the paper.

To access the full research paper – “A Realistic Projection of Climate Change in the Upper Atmosphere Into the 21st Century” – go to Volume 49, Issue 19, October 16, 2022 of Geophysical Research Letters at: 

https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/2022GL100693

Moon exploration script – what is China planning next?

A Dongfang Hour episode recaps everything that’s known to date on China’s future lunar exploration plans: Chang’e 6, 7 and 8 missions, the International Lunar Research Station (ILRS), and sending a Chinese astronaut to the lunar surface.

 

Everything here is based on facts and found on the internet (openly available Chinese sources).

Jean Deville. co-founder, “resident rocket scientist & sinophile,” provides an excellent overview of China’s Moon exploration blueprint at:

https://youtu.be/FmWRj80goF8

The expansive and explosive development of the space economy — and the value that space provides to society — depends on safe and sustainable operations in space.

Based on this “new age of commercial space activities,” The Aerospace Corporation’s Space Safety Institute has published the first-ever edition of a Space Safety Compendium.

The just-released compendium notes that the space community is at an “inflection point” regarding space safety. This is being driven by unprecedented growth and transformation, shifting models of government-commercial collaboration, an evolution in the types of activities conducted by new space actors, and the advent of space tourism.

Priority areas

The document identifies five mission areas that each must work together in order to build a holistic space safety approach. Key high priority areas that should be addressed over the next few years are identified.

Specific recommendations are flagged for space operators, regulators, and other decision makers to address some of the key space safety challenges in space: situational awareness, space operations assurance, launch and reentry safety, cybersecurity and spectrum, and human spaceflight safety.

Unprecedented growth

“The space sector is undergoing an unprecedented period of growth that expands the scope of what is possible in space and who is involved,” the compendium points out. “We have shifted away from the 1960s and 70s model of centralized, government-led space activities to a new model that increasingly leverages the dominating commercial space market.”

In addition, new actors in space signal a wide array of international actors, partnership and business models, and commercial entrants. “They have expanded the scope of missions and capabilities in space that include everything from commercial human spaceflight to growing industrial activity such as mining and pharmaceutical development,” observes the compendium.

As a result, new activities “have called into question current regulatory frameworks and policy standards for managing space that were largely developed for an outdated model,” the compendium adds.

Not a clear picture

The Space Safety Institute document underscores increasing uncertainty in regulation and, in some cases, not even a clear picture of which U.S. government agencies bear the responsibility of handling which issues.

“There is also friction between regulators and new actors as an increasingly congested space makes regulations more burdensome for new entrants and gives the competitive advantage to those who have long been in space. At the same time recent events have called into question current safety measures and norms in space,” states the compendium.

The Aerospace Corporation established a Space Safety Institute to support government, industry, and international customers on all aspects of space safety, including launch, operations, reentry, and cyber.

To view the document — 2022 Space Safety Compendium – Guiding the Future of Spaceflight — go to:

https://aerospace.org/research/2022-space-safety-compendium

Back to the Moon: The Next Giant Leap for Humankind by Joseph Silk; Princeton University Press (Nov. 2022); 304 pages; Hardcover: $29.95.

As somebody that has survived his own close encounter with writing a Moon book, I salute Joseph Silks account of laying out a lunar vision for the next five decades.

“Lunar exploration will be humanity’s first serious step into space, and establishing habitable faciliti8es on our nearest neighbor in space will be the gateway to a new age of exploration,” the author notes in the book’s preface.

This book features a solid 10 chapters covering the new space race to the Moon, along with such topics as robots and humans, survival, internationalization and what’s ahead next century.

Silk is Bloomberg Research Professor at Johns Hopkins University and a researcher at the Institute of Astrophysics in Paris and the Beecroft Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology at the University of Oxford. His many books include The Big Bang, The Infinite Cosmos: Questions from the Frontiers of Cosmology, and On the Shores of the Unknown: A Short History of the Universe.

In his sweeping and informative prose, Silk takes on the use of lunar telescopes of unparalleled size on the far side of the Moon. Those “lunar hyperscopes” can seek out profound answers as to are we are alone in the Universe and what our cosmic origins are. The Moon is unique in providing humanity with a huge “spacelike platform” to deep dive into such matters.

The chapter on “Survival” is quite foreboding. Think asteroid impact, global warming, thermonuclear holocaust, even genetic engineering and nanotechnology run amok. “When we consider the prospects for humanity over the much longer term, we should question the notion of permanent setbacks to intelligent life,” Silk explains.

“Collaboration or conflict on the Moon is treated by the author, flagging issues that could trigger “Lunar War 1,” he says. “We want to avoid a replay of territorial disputes as well as anything like the terrestrial piracy wars. Historically, the breakdown of law and order has created immense problems for terrestrial society. Let’s avoid this on the Moon.”

The reader will enjoy this forward thinking book and what lies ahead for lunar development.

Back to the Moon: The Next Giant Leap for Humankind contains helpful notes on each chapter as well as an informative bibliography.

For more information on this book, go to:

https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691215235/back-to-the-moon