Archive for the ‘Space News’ Category
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August 3rd, 2022
Credit: GLOBALink/Inside Outer Space screengrab
China’s on-going space station construction includes use of a small robotic arm attached to the recently lofted Wentian lab module.
The China Manned Space Agency (CMS) said on Wednesday that arm has completed a series of in-orbit tests.
A new video released shows the tests, with the small robotic arm disengaging from its base, crawling on the surface of the space station, and docking with one of the adapters on the surface of the space station.
According to China Central Television (CCTV), the small robotic arm, measuring about 20-feet (six meters) can operate within the area of a circle with a radius of 16-feet (five meters) and carry payloads of up to three tons.
Credit: China National Space Administration (CNSA)/China Media Group(CMG)/China Central Television (CCTV)/Inside Outer Space screengrab
Multi-module stage
The small arm can operate alone, or work together with the existing large robotic arm of Tianhe core module.
The small robotic arm, CCTV reports, will be responsible for six missions, including supporting the astronauts’ extravehicular activities, delivering goods, and maintaining and repairing the exterior of the space station.
Credit: Lee Brandon-Cremer (CC BY-SA 4.0)
The Wentian lab module was launched from southern China’s Hainan Province on July 24 and docked with the Tianhe core module of the China Space Station in the early hours of July 25.
China has entered the “multi-module” stage in the construction of its space station. The space station has evolved from a single-module structure into a national space laboratory with three modules, the core module Tianhe, and two lab modules Wentian and Mengtian, the last of which is set to be launched in October, CCTV notes.
Go to this video showing the small robotic arm testing at:
Also, go to this informative China Global Television Network (CGTN) video — Tech Breakdown: A closer look into China’s new space robotic arm – at:
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Credit: ILC Dover
Since Frank White’s seminal book on “the overview effect” found its way into the hands, minds, and consciousness of readers in 1987, that term has increasingly become iconic for explaining a very human condition attached to the space travel experience.
Following the publishing of that influential work — The Overview Effect: Space Exploration and Human Evolution — White has added to his collection of space traveler accounts, work that shoulder’s his original perception of an individual’s inner cognitive shift in awareness that can radiate by seeing the Earth from outer space.
Interviewing NASA astronaut Don Pettit.
Courtesy: Frank White
It is clear that there’s an undertow to the overview effect. Seemingly, it’s a subsurface feeling that stands ready to condition humans for not only booting our way back to the Moon, but onward to Mars and then to far more distant destinations.
I caught up with the space philosopher to chat about the origin, present-day, and future implications of the overview effect, and his view that the “Human Space Program” is a central project that will engage all of us in the process of becoming “Citizens of the Universe.”
Go to my new Space.com story – “Space philosopher Frank White on ‘The Overview Effect’ and humanity’s connection with Earth. White’s ‘overview effect’ has increasingly become iconic for explaining a very human condition attached to the space travel experience” at:
Credit: Photo from Suara Kalbar/Borneo Post Online
Those suspected remnants of China’s Long March-5B Y3 core rocket stage that crash landed in Sarawak have been found to emit no radiation.
Daily Express Online – an Independent National Newspaper of East Malaysia, reports that the Science, Technology and Innovation Ministry (Mosti) the non-radioactive status of the hunks of junk made the determination.
Four officers of the Bintulu District Atomic Energy Licensing Board (AELB) together with the Hazardous Material Team (Hazmat) of the Fire and Rescue Department and the Bintulu District Police have conducted an investigation at the first location in Kampung Nyalau.
Credit: The Ekiptika Institute
Initial investigation
Mosti said in a statement that, based on the measurements and the results of the initial investigation, it was found that the first suspected object of around 13 centimeters in size did not emit any radiation and no radioactive elements were detected on the object.
“Meanwhile, the measurements and results of the preliminary investigation on the second object in Niah, Miri also showed similar results,” the Mosti statement adds.
Credit: The Aerospace Corporation
Mosti through the Malaysian Space Agency (MYSA) in collaboration with the Department of Chemistry will carry out a detailed investigation on the two objects to confirm whether the objects are related to the re-entry incident of debris from China’s Long March 5B rocket or no, reports Daily Express Online.
Credit: Instagram posting/Desa Pengadang, Kec. Sekayam/Inside Outer Space screengrab
The results of the investigation and analysis will be notified and appropriate action will be considered in accordance with Act 834 (Malaysian Space Board Act 2022) and international treaties related to space under the management of the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA), said Mosti.
China’s Long March-5B Y3 rocket boosted the Wentian lab module for China’s space station under construction.
Video from The Star: Two families from Pekan Sepupok Lama in Batu Niah, Sarawak have been told to vacate their houses due to concerns of radioactivity after alien objects were found nearby. The objects were believed to be debris from China’s Long March 5B rocket.
Go to video at: https://youtu.be/ZiISj1IiYko
Credit: Photo from Suara Kalbar/Borneo Post Online
Indonesian police and villagers are taking a close look at what could be leftovers of that Chinese rocket body that recently re-entered. The object discovered at Pengadang, a village in Sekayam District of the Sanggau Regency in West Kalimantan measures around 16 feet (5 meters) long and roughly 7 feet (2 meters) wide.
Credit: The Aerospace Corporation
Another Indonesian news portal, Suara Kalbar, reports that there were the numbers ‘84, 31, 75 and 5W’ visible on the object.
As of now, whether the object is part of the Chinese rocket body remains unknown. However, on Saturday night at 23.09pm (12.09am Malaysian time), some residents in Pengadang did hear a “loud roar from the sky.”
For more details, go to this Borneo Post Online story at:
Video of the object has been posted by Tribun Pontianak at:
Credit: Google Maps
Credit: The Ekiptika Institute
Credit: The Ekiptika Institute
Credit: NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University
Lunar caves would provide a temperate, stable, and safe thermal environment for long term exploration and habitation of the Moon.
Indeed, people could potentially live and work in lunar pits and caves with steady temperatures in the 60s.
That’s the bottom line from researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).
Tyler Horvath, a UCLA doctoral student in planetary science, led the new research recently published in the American Geophysical Union’s Geophysical Research Letters. The research team also included UCLA professor of planetary science David Paige and Paul Hayne of the University of Colorado Boulder.
Credit: NASA
Desirable habitat
“For long term colonization and exploration of the Moon, pits may provide a desirable habitat: they are largely free from the constant threats of harmful radiation, impacts, and extreme temperatures,” states the paper. “Thus, pits and caves may offer greater mission safety than other potential base station locales, providing a valuable stepping stone for sustaining human life beyond Earth.”
Since the discovery of pits on the Moon by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) SELENE spacecraft in 2009, there has been interest in whether they provide access to caves that could be explored by rovers and astronauts.
NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO).
Credit: NASA/GSFC
Prominent pit
Using data from the Diviner instrument aboard the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO), which has been continuously measuring the temperature of the lunar surface for over 11 years, the researchers methodically characterized the environment of one prominent pit located in Mare Tranquillitatis.
The Mare Tranquillitatis pit and (b) the Mare Ingenii pit.
Credit: Tyler Horvath, Paul O. Hayne, David A. Paige
The pit’s thermal environment is more hospitable compared to anywhere else on the Moon, with temperatures varying minimally around a comfortable 17°C (or 63° F) wherever the Sun does not shine directly, explains the research paper.
“Humans evolved living in caves, and to caves we might return when we live on the Moon,” said Paige in a UCLA press statement. Paige leads the Diviner Lunar Radiometer Experiment.
Horvath and Paige are science team members for a new lunar-bound thermal camera led by Paul Hayne named the Lunar Compact Infrared Imaging System (L-CIRiS) which will head to the lunar south pole in late 2023 to get the first ground-based thermal images.
To read the full paper – “Thermal and Illumination Environments of Lunar Pits and Caves: Models and Observations From the Diviner Lunar Radiometer Experiment” – go to:
https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/2022GL099710
Tech. Sgt. Ronald Dunn, 729th Airlift Squadron loadmaster, guides a Mongolian driver who is backing the truck toward an Air Force Reserve C-17 Globemaster III in Mongolia, Aug. 26. Dunn was part of a crew from March Air Reserve Base, Calif., who were assigned to a mission to retrieve space debris that fell to earth last summer. The parts were identified as expended rocket parts from an Air Force missile launched into space nearly a decade ago. (U.S. Air Force photo/Master Sgt. Linda Welz)
Increasing attention is being paid to the repercussion of rocket launches and space debris reentries on Earth’s fragile atmosphere, coupled to impacts on global climate and stratospheric ozone.
Exacerbating the situation is the rise of worldwide launch rates and the hurling of mega-constellations of satellites into Earth orbit. Then there’s the associated clutter of deceased spacecraft, discarded booster stages, and countless pieces of human-made refuse, from solid rocket motor effluents to stray nuts and bolts, tiny paint chips and droplets bubbling out of spacecraft coolant systems.
Space debris impact on functioning satellite.
Credit: The Aerospace Corporation
In short, it’s a heavenly mess – with long-term consequences.
The state of affairs has already been characterized by orbital debris experts as a “tragedy of the commons.”
For detailed information, go to my new Scientific American story with Lee Billings – “Don’t Fear China’s Falling Rocket—Fear the Future It Foretells: Long considered trivial, the effects of rocket launches and reentering space debris on global warming and ozone loss could soon become too large to ignore” – at:
Credit: The Aerospace Corporation
Credit: Space Foundation
NASA camera man Bill Ingalls is a sharp shooter for the space agency and has stories to tell.
Ingalls has been a professional photographer for three decades and has served as the Senior Contract Photographer for NASA Headquarters since 1989.
Ingalls has traveled the world photographing missions for NASA. We have all been witness to his assignments and the resulting catalog of his impressive images, be they a launch departing Kennedy Space Center in Florida; the inside of an active volcano in Alaska; clicking away in the White House Oval Office to the brutally cold Kazakh steppes; and even crawling around on the floor in a Capitol Hill hearing room. He says, “because I can’t get up anymore.”
Go to my new Space.com story – “The amazing eye and insight of NASA space photographer Bill Ingalls” a photographer that has captured some of NASA’s most historic moments over the last three decades.
Story at: https://www.space.com/bill-ingalls-nasa-photographer
Credit: CCTV/Inside Outer Space screengrab
China’s “Lijian-1” carrier rocket is a new-type solid-propellant launch vehicle used to send six scientific experiment satellites into orbit July 27th.
The rocket has played a role in enriching China’s solid-propellant carrier rocket family with various technological innovations.
Credit: CCTV/Inside Outer Space screengrab
The Lijian-1 launch vehicle was launched for the first time from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, Gansu Province, northwest China. Also known as ZK-1A, this four-stage solid-propellant launch vehicle was jointly developed by the Institute of Mechanics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and CAS Space (Beijing Zhongke Aerospace Exploration Technology Co., Ltd.).
Credit: CCTV/Inside Outer Space screengrab
Hydrogen-oxygen engine
Meanwhile, the high-thrust hydrogen-oxygen engine of China’s Long March-5 Y6 carrier rocket passed its calibration test on Tuesday.
This calibration experiment is a kind of short-range ground test under rated conditions of an engine ready for delivery to the final rocket assembly with the purposes to check and adjust performance parameters.
Credit: CCTV/Inside Outer Space screengrab
Only after passing the calibration test can an engine be officially installed on the rocket.
For videos on the Lijian-1 launch vehicle, go to:
For a video on the China’s Long March-5 Y6 engine test, go to:
Docking of Tianzhou-3 cargo spacecraft with core module.
Credit: CNSA/China Media Group/CCTV/Inside Outer Space screengrab
China’s Tianzhou-3 cargo craft re-entered the atmosphere “in a controlled manner” Wednesday, reports the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA).
Meanwhile, all eyes are on the “uncontrolled” re-entry of the hefty Long March-5 rocket body, now predicted to fall to Earth July 31 ± 22 hours, according to re-entry experts at The Aerospace Corporation. This Long March-5 leftover hurled the Wentian, the first lab module of China’s space station.
Credit: The Aerospace Corporation
As for the Tianzhou-3 cargo craft, it was launched on September 20, 2021, delivering roughly 6 tons of supplies to the in-construction station site. While in orbit, the cargo craft conducted two rendezvous and docking operations with the combination of the Tianhe core module, and carried out a test flight circling the space station.
Space technology tests
After its separation from the Tianhe combination on July 17, Tianzhou-3 carried out space technology tests, accumulating important experience for the in-orbit construction as well as the operation and management of the space station, according to a China Central Television (CCTV) report.
Credit: China National Space Administration (CNSA)/China Media Group(CMG)/China Central Television (CCTV)/Inside Outer Space screengrab
The Tianzhou-3 cargo craft flew independently during the rendezvous and docking between the Wentian lab module and the Tianhe core module. If any failure occurred during the docking process, Tianzhou-3 would have re-docked with the space station to provide living space for the astronauts, CCTV noted.
The CMSA explained that, as for the demise of the cargo vehicle, most of the spacecraft’s components burned up during re-entry, and a small amount of its debris fell into the scheduled safe waters.
Credit: The Aerospace Corporation
The Interstellar Probe, a mission to provide a unified view of our heliosphere, out into nearby interstellar space.
Credit: Johns Hopkins/APL
There is promising new work underway to pursue a deep space robotic interstellar mission. An Interstellar Probe venture can capture a unified view of our heliosphere, out into nearby interstellar space.
All of that sounds exceedingly lofty, ambitious, and tough-to-do.
But there’s no need to wait for new technology say advocates – it’s here, and one booster of choice for the mission could be NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS).
“It isn’t about where we are going. It’s about the journey out there. And it is a journey now long overdue,” says one leading advocate.
Go to my new Space.com story – “Interstellar probe: Has its time finally come?” – at:
https://www.space.com/interstellar-probe-johns-hopkins-apl-nasa-sls
