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Archive for the ‘Space News’ Category

That secretive U.S. military X-37B robotic space drone is now edging up on 600 days circling the Earth.

The Orbital Test Vehicle (OTV-6) is also called USSF-7 for the U.S. Space Force, and was launched on May 17, 2020 by an Atlas-V 501 booster.

OTV-6 is the first to use a service module to host experiments. The service module is an attachment to the aft of the vehicle that allows additional experimental payload capability to be carried to orbit.

Onboard payloads

While the Boeing-built resuable robotic space plane’s on-orbit primary agenda is classified, some of its onboard experiments were identified pre-launch.

One experiment onboard the space plane that continues to gather data is from the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL). It’s an investigation into transforming solar power into radio frequency microwave energy. The experiment itself is called the Photovoltaic Radio-frequency Antenna Module, PRAM for short – and a step forward in investigating the promise of satellite power beaming to Earth.

In addition, two NASA experiments are also onboard the space plane to study the effects of the space environment on a materials sample plate and seeds used to grow food.

Along with toting NRL’s PRAM into Earth orbit, the X-37B also deployed the FalconSat-8, a small satellite developed by the U.S. Air Force Academy and sponsored by the Air Force Research Laboratory to conduct several experiments on orbit.

Delta 9

The X-37B program is flown under the wing of a U.S. Space Force unit called Delta 9, established and activated July 24, 2020.

“The mission of Delta 9 is to prepare, present, and project assigned and attached forces for the purpose of conducting protect and defend operations and providing national decision authorities with response options to deter and, when necessary, defeat orbital threats,” a fact sheet explains. “Additionally, Delta 9 supports Space Domain Awareness by conducting space-based battlespace characterization operations and also conducts on-orbit experimentation and technology demonstrations for the U.S. Space Force.”

“Delta 9 Detachment 1 oversees operations of the X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle, an experimental program designed to demonstrate technologies for a reliable, reusable, unmanned space test platform for the U.S. Space Force,” according to the fact sheet issued by Schriever Air Force Base in Colorado.

Fact sheet aside, it recently was spotlighted by Russia’s Ministry of Defense, prompted by all the recent Russian anti-satellite news – tagging the X-37 spacecraft as showing that the U.S. “is actively developing” space weapons.

Previous flights

OTV-1: launched on April 22, 2010 and landed on December 3, 2010, spending over 224 days on orbit.

OTV-2: launched on March 5, 2011 and landed on June 16, 2012, spending over 468 days on orbit.

OTV-3: launched on December 11, 2012 and landed on October 17, 2014, spending over 674 days on-orbit.

OTV-4: launched on May 20, 2015 and landed on May 7, 2015, spending nearly 718 days on-orbit.

OTV-5: launched on September 7, 2017 and landed on October 27, 2019, spending nearly 780 days on-orbit.

OTV-1, OTV-2, and OTV-3 missions landed at Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, while the OTV-4 and OTV-5 missions landed at Kennedy Space Center, Florida.

There is no word on when and where OTV-6 will return to Earth.

Check out this video from satellite watcher, Kevin Fetter, as the U.S. military space plane passes overhead on November 20, 2021 at:

Russia’s launch of the Soyuz MS-20 crewed spacecraft is slated for December 8, 2021. For the first time, two space flight participants will fly on the same spacecraft at once, becoming the eighth and ninth tourists to visit the International Space Station.

The crew: Roscosmos cosmonaut Alexander Misurkin and space flight participants from Japan: billionaire entrepreneur and art collector Yusaku Maezawa and Yozo Hirano, a production assistant of Maezawa assigned to document the flight.

Maezawa recently announced, under his dearMoon project, he will choose eight members of the public to join him on a trip around the Moon, scheduled to fly on SpaceX’s Starship in 2023.

Crew training

Over the next 2.5 weeks, the Japanese spaceflight participants will carry out a program of training, exercises and briefings, as well as medical examinations. On November 20, they will conduct the first “fitting” in the Soyuz MS-20 spacecraft, familiarizing themselves with onboard systems.

Crew training at Baikonur involves getting to know the ship, classes and trainings, “as well as symbolic events that distract the cosmonauts from the prelaunch excitement,” according to Russia’s Roscosmos.

The back-up crew consists of Roscosmos cosmonaut Alexander Skvortsov and Japanese participant Shun Ogiso.

The 12-day mission of Maezawa and Hirano is under a contract with Space Adventures.

Space Adventures organized the flights for the world’s first private astronauts (Dennis Tito, Mark Shuttleworth, Greg Olsen, Anousheh Ansari, Charles Simonyi, Richard Garriott and Guy Laliberté).

 

NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover at Gale Crater is now performing Sol 3302 tasks.

The robot remains at the Zechstein drill sample site, reports Lucy Thompson, a planetary geologist at the University of New Brunswick; Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada.

The Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) Instrument Suit and Fluorescence Instrument (CheMin) instrument teams decided that they did not require further analyses of the Zechstein drill sample.

It is the turn of the arm-mounted Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) and Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer (APXS) instruments to have their taste of the drilled fines, Thompson adds.

Dumped material

“The Zechstein sample held within the drill bit assembly will be dumped out onto the ground, imaged by MAHLI and then analyzed by APXS to determine the composition,” Thompson points out. “The composition of the dumped material can be compared to the chemistry of the brushed bedrock surface (prior to drilling) and the fines surrounding the drill hole (yet to be acquired) to look for variations with depth. The compositional data can also assist in interpretation of the CheMin and SAM data.”

Balancing the power requirements of all the desired observations, as well as of future activities, is always part of the planning process, Thompson says.

Drive away

The Mars research team must carefully prioritize what other science observations to include in a newly scripted plan, to ensure that they have enough power to drive away from the Zechstein location in the next plan.

“Curiosity is parked in an area where we expect to transition from clay- to sulfate-bearing rocks,” Thompson notes, “and close to the unconformable contact with the overlying, resistant, pediment-capping Siccar Point group sandstones, so there is no shortage of observations on our wish list!”

The science team chose to continue Mastcam imaging of Siccar Point, Maria Gordon notch and the base of the pediment, which will also be imaged with long distance Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam) and its Remote Micro-Imager (RMI).

Interrogate bedrock target

“In the vicinity of the Zechstein drill hole, ChemCam will interrogate the chemistry of the nearby bedrock target, ‘Burrell’ with its laser, and perform passive spectroscopy on the dumped Zechstein drill fines. Both will also be imaged with Mastcam,” Thompson reports.

Lastly, environmental monitoring activities will include a Navcam dust devil survey, line of site observation and cloud movie. Standard Dynamic Albedo of Neutrons (DAN), Radiation Assessment Detector (RAD) and Rover Environmental Monitoring Station (REMS) activities round out the plan.

 

 

The State of the Space Industrial Base 2021- Infrastructure & Services for Economic Growth & National Security has been released.

The report was written by officials from the U.S. Space Force, the Air Force Research Laboratory and the Defense Innovation Unit.

This 92-page document summarizes discussions held with more than 250 government, industry and academic experts. 

Central message

As its central message, the report paints a picture of a U.S. space industrial base that is “tactically strong but strategically fragile.” While the pace of innovation and investment in the U.S. is at an all-time high, the report cautions that this will not be sustained “without strategic direction, robust adoption of commercial space capabilities expressed in meaningful contract opportunities,” among other elements.

 

 

One key aspect of the report is “Build Back Beyond: Incorporate the Moon into the Earth’s Economic Sphere by Catalyzing the Space Superhighway.”

 

 

 

To read the full document, go to:

https://assets.ctfassets.net/3nanhbfkr0pc/43TeQTAmdYrym5DTDrhjd3/a37eb4fac2bf9add1ab9f71299392043/Space_Industrial_Base_Workshop_2021_Summary_Report_-_Final_15_Nov_2021c.pdf

Also, go to this Atlantic Council-hosted video discussion of the report at:

https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/event/state-of-the-space-industrial-base-2021/

 

 

While Earth orbit is increasingly congested with space clutter, a similar Moon-oriented crisis has recently been avoided.

The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) has announced that the country’s Chandrayaan-2 Orbiter (CH2O) performed an evasive maneuver to mitigate a critically close approach with NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter.

A “very close conjunction” between the two lunar orbiters was expected to occur on October 20, 2021, high above the lunar north pole.

Too close for comfort

Over a span of a week prior to the conjunction, analyses by both ISRO and JPL/NASA prodded both space agencies to deem the situation as too close for comfort, warranting a collision avoidance maneuver.

It was mutually agreed that India’s lunar orbiter would undergo the collision avoidance maneuver – or CAM for short – a tactic that was executed on October 18^th.

Later orbit determination of India’s Moon-circling craft reconfirmed that there would be no further close conjunctions with LRO in the near future.

The event highlights the importance of continual assessment of close approach situations for lunar and Mars missions, ISRO stated, “and the fact that effective mitigation of close approach risk involves close coordination and synergy among different space agencies.”

 

NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter acquired a set of images using its high-resolution color camera. This camera is mounted in the helicopter’s fuselage and pointed approximately 22 degrees below the horizon.

Imagery was acquired on November 6, 2021 (Sol 254 of the Perseverance rover mission).

This was the date of Ingenuity’s 15th flight.

 

 

 

Russia now admittedly carried out a direct-ascent ASAT (anti-satellite) missile mission that took out its own spacecraft, destroying Cosmos-1408 – a Soviet Electronic and Signals Intelligence (ELINT) Tselina-D satellite launched in 1982 from the Plesetsk cosmodrome.

No longer operational, Tselina-D was designed to determine the precise location, activity, and other details of radio emitters. Data would be stored onboard and downloaded to Soviet ground stations.

The destruction of the satellite was reportedly carried out by an Earth-launched Russian PL-19 Nudol missile.

This test, as best that can now be appraised, produced over 1,500 pieces of “trackable” orbital garbage amongst hundreds of thousands of pieces of smaller bits and pieces of orbital refuge.

But detectable and trackable are not the same thing. That Russian spy satellite has been reduced to a storm cloud of orbital debris.

Shelter from the storm

From NASA, word is that the International Space Station (ISS) is passing through or near the debris cloud every 90 minutes, and the need to shelter by the station crew was only during the second and third passes of the event, based on a risk assessment made by the debris office and ballistics specialists at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston.

Meanwhile, Russia’s Ministry of Defense was quick to point out that the International Space Station was not in danger, with Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu confirming the successful completion of tests of the anti-satellite system by Russian troops.

“It struck the old satellite with jewelry. The fragments formed do not pose any threat to space activity,” he said during a working trip to the Voronezh region, as reported by Russia’s RIA Novosti news service.

But suggestions that all that ASAT test leftovers pass at a time when the station is not there are also unlikely to be true as the event evolves, according to experts.

Moreover, as the jumble of debris decays in Earth orbit, they will pass both the International Space Station and China’s in-construction space station, potentially putting both of those orbiting assets at risk. The number and size of those objects will decide how much peril those facilities face.

Needless to say – or is it? – that there are loads of other spacecraft that could be impacted by the detritus of the Russian ASAT test.

Tipping point?

Of course, many in the space community are justifiably upset; All nations have a responsibility to prevent the “purposeful creation” of space debris from ASATs and to foster a safe, sustainable space environment.

From Antony J. Blinken, U.S. Secretary of State: “The events of November 15, 2021, clearly demonstrate that Russia, despite its claims of opposing the weaponization of outer space, is willing to jeopardize the long-term sustainability of outer space and imperil the exploration and use of outer space by all nations through its reckless and irresponsible behavior.

Several space policy wonks are dragging out Article IX of the UN Outer Space Treaty that if a State Party to the Treaty which has reason to believe that an activity or experiment planned by another State Party in outer space, “would cause potentially harmful interference with activities in the peaceful exploration and use of outer space, including the moon and other celestial bodies, may request consultation concerning the activity or experiment.”

While there are specialists that don’t see the Russian ASAT consequences as a tipping point scenario, it is clear this incident is spurring quite the dialogue. However, at the end of the day, is it too little talk or perhaps too much talking and no action? To what extent have other countries — including the United States — aided and abetted the actions of Russia in seeking ASAT know-how?

And so the world spins, surrounded by increasing amounts of orbiting riffraff.

Oh wait, my Starlink is on the blink.

What’s your view?

The B612 Foundation and its Asteroid Institute are making progress with their mission to increase the rate of asteroid discovery.

In a just-issued 2021 annual progress report, Danica Remy, President of the B612 Foundation, underscores groundbreaking asteroid discovery capabilities.

“The data is showing us that tools we are building,” Remy explains, “may position us as one of the foremost asteroid discovery institutions in the world.”

Priority project

Specifically, a priority project is called the Asteroid Discovery Analysis and Mapping (ADAM) platform. Researchers have discovered new asteroids that were unnoticed in a previously examined astronomical datasets, made feasible by use of cloud-based computational capability far in excess of anything previously brought to bear on this important problem.

Another effort described in the report is use of a new discovery algorithm named Tracklet-less Heliocentric Orbit Recovery, or THOR for short.

Principal goals

“ADAM is essentially an astrodynamics computational engine, with a backend system designed for ease of use and development,” points out former astronaut, Ed Lu, Executive Director of the Asteroid Institute.

One of our principal goals for ADAM is to be ready to analyze and interpret the flood of new asteroid discoveries when the Vera Rubin Observatory commences operations in two years,” Lu explains. “We expect that the Vera Rubin Observatory will find several asteroids

each week that have the potential to hit Earth in the coming decades. ADAM will provide an open and transparent means to analyze these asteroid threat cases, which will be critical to the political decision-making process,” he explains in the newly-issued progress report.

 

Risk shifting and sharing

“Deflecting an asteroid impact (likely sooner than we thought given the capabilities we’re developing through THOR and ADAM) will be a planetary decision,” explains Rusty Schweickart, Apollo 9 astronaut and a retired member of the B612 Board of Directors.

“Because of risk shifting and sharing, it will be a very contentious deliberation. With international politicians discussing and debating the issues, an understanding from the general public will be critical if rational decisions are to be made. This is something we’ve seen fail during the COVID pandemic,” Schweickart says. “When science and data are perceived as political, rational decisions are impossible. This is not something the UN alone can handle.”

Launched in 2017, the Asteroid Institute is a program of B612 and is designed to be the international center of excellence for scientific collaboration on the discovery and deflection of asteroids as well as an incubator for new technologies.

The B612 provides a non-governmental voice on the risks, options, and implications of asteroid data while advancing the technical means by which that data is acquired.

To read the informative 2021 annual progress report, go to:

https://b612foundation.org/asteroid-institute-2021-annual-progress-report/

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The B612 Foundation through its Asteroid Institute is making progress with their mission to increase the rate of asteroid discovery.

 

In a just issued 2021 annual progress report, Danica Remy, President, B612 Foundation, underscores groundbreaking asteroid discovery capabilities.

 

“The data is showing us that tools we are building,” Remy explains, “may position us as one of the foremost asteroid discovery institutions in the world.”

 

Priority project

 

Specifically, a priority project is called the Asteroid Discovery Analysis and Mapping (ADAM) platform. Researchers have discovered new asteroids that were unnoticed in a previously examined astronomical

datasets, made feasible by use of cloud-based computational capability far in excess of anything previously brought to bear on this important problem.

 

Another effort described in the report is use of a new discovery algorithm named Tracklet-less Heliocentric Orbit Recovery, or THOR for short.

 

Principal goals

 

“ADAM is essentially an astrodynamics computational engine, with a backend system designed for ease of use and development,” points out former astronaut, Ed Lu, Executive Director of the Asteroid Institute.

 

One of our principal goals for ADAM is to be ready to analyze and interpret the flood of new asteroid discoveries when the Vera Rubin Observatory commences operations in two years,” Lu explains. “We expect that the Vera Rubin Observatory will find several asteroids

each week that have the potential to hit Earth in the coming decades. ADAM will provide an open and transparent means to analyze these asteroid threat cases, which will be critical to the political decision-making process,” he points out in the newly-issued progress report.

 

Risk shifting and sharing

 

“Deflecting an asteroid impact (likely sooner than we thought given the capabilities we’re developing through THOR and ADAM) will be a planetary decision,” explains Rusty Schweickart, Apollo 9 astronaut and a retired member of the B612 Board of Directors.

 

“Because of risk shifting and sharing, it will be a very contentious deliberation. With international politicians discussing and debating the issues, an understanding from the general public will be critical if rational decisions are to be made. This is something we’ve seen fail during the COVID pandemic,” Schweickart says. “When science and data are perceived as political, rational decisions are impossible. This is not something the UN alone can handle.”

 

Launched in 2017, the Asteroid Institute is a program of B612 and is designed to be the international center of excellence for scientific collaboration on the discovery and deflection of asteroids as well as an incubator for new technologies.

 

 

 

A proposed telescope project to potentially spot a life-sustaining planet around Earth’s nearest neighbor, Alpha Centauri, was announced today.

The project is called TOLIMAN, the Arabic-derived name for Alpha Centauri from antiquity. Work on the project began in April of this year.

TOLIMAN stands for Telescope for Orbit Locus Interferometric Monitoring of our Astronomical Neighborhood – eye-catching wordsmithing and a mouthful.

Spearheading the effort are scientists from the University of Sydney, in partnership with the Breakthrough Initiatives in California, Saber Astronautics in Australia and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

The project has received support from the Breakthrough Initiatives, a set of programs looking for extraterrestrial life. The Initiatives were founded by Israeli science and technology investor and philanthropist Yuri Milner.

Also picking up the tab is Saber Astronautics. It received funding from the Australian Government’s International Space Investment: Expand Capability grant, which will support the TOLIMAN mission.

Extraordinarily interesting

“Our nearest stellar neighbors – the Alpha Centauri and Proxima Centauri systems – are turning out to be extraordinarily interesting,” said Pete Worden, executive director of Breakthrough Initiatives.

Alpha Centauri is a triple star that has two stars very like our Sun. Either or both may host temperate planets, while the third star – the red dwarf Proxima Centauri, is already believed to have one planet in a ‘Goldilocks orbit’ discovered 2016. That’s a place where temperatures could allow for liquid surface water on rocky worlds.

Custom-designed

TOLIMAN is a custom-designed space telescope able to make extremely fine measurements of the position of the star in the sky. Indeed, if there is a planet orbiting the star, it will tug on the star revealing a tiny, but measurable, wobble.

The plan is for this agile low-cost mission churning out results by about the middle of the decade, said project leader Peter Tuthill from the Sydney Institute for Astronomy at the University of Sydney.

Central to the mission is the deployment of a new type of telescope that uses a diffractive pupil lens. This mirror spreads starlight captured from nearby stars into a complex flower-like pattern that, paradoxically, makes it easier to detect perturbed star movements that are the tell-tale signs of orbiting planets.

A next-generation Lunar Terrain Vehicle design team includes the Michelin tire company to offer its expertise in high-tech materials to fabricate a high-tech “airless tire” for future Moon explorers.

Northrop Grumman Corporation is teaming up with AVL, Intuitive Machines, Lunar Outpost, and Michelin to create a Lunar Terrain Vehicle (LTV) to transport NASA’s Artemis crew members around the Moon’s surface.

Team members

AVL is engaged in development, simulation, and testing of vehicle systems, bringing to the team its know-how in the advancement of battery electric vehicles, autonomous driving, and propulsion solutions for lunar surface mobility.

Intuitive Machines will build upon the NASA Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative to meet NASA and commercial demand for larger lunar surface payload delivery. Their Nova-D spacecraft utilizes four liquid methane/oxygen engines from the mature Nova-C program for precision landing on the Moon.

Lunar Outpost will leverage its expertise in rapid innovation, dust mitigation and thermal technologies from the development of its Mobile Autonomous Prospecting Platform (MAPP) work.

 

Apollo knowledge

As prime, Northrop Grumman will lead systems integration, tapping its spacecraft design prowess to include cargo storage, energy management, avionics, navigation, sensors, controls, mission planning, operations and training.

 

 

For its LTV work, Northrop Grumman has engaged Apollo 17 astronaut Harrison (Jack) Schmitt and Apollo 16’s Charles Duke, to incorporate their hands-on experiences of wheeling about on the Moon in the 1970s.

Go to this informative video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Jak6yv2Hug