Archive for the ‘Space News’ Category
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September 28th, 2021
Remote viewing – image of low, sandy hills. There are higher hills in the horizon. This image was taken by Left Navigation Camera onboard NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity on Sol 3247 September 24, 2021.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover at Gale Crater is now performing Sol 3251 duties.
Reports Michelle Minitti, a planetary geologist at Framework in Silver Spring, Maryland: “Solar conjunction is once again upon us – the time when the Sun comes between Mars and Earth in their orbital dances and precludes reliable communication between us and our robotic friends.”
Curiosity Front Hazard Avoidance Camera Left B image taken on Sol 3251, September 28, 2021.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Since landing in August 2012, this will be the fifth conjunction Curiosity has experienced, “and such a regular, cosmic event like conjunction provides the perfect time to reflect,” Minitti adds, “where were we the last time Mars, Earth and the Sun aligned like this?”
Curiosity Right B Navigation Camera photo taken on Sol 3250, September 27, 2021.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Scrapbook memories
Minitti says that looking back over what Curiosity researchers were up to around each conjunction “is very much like looking through a scrapbook of memories.”
Curiosity Left B Navigation Camera image acquired on Sol 3251, September 28, 2021.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
- First conjunction, starting on Sol 236 (April 2013), fresh off the excitement of finding evidence of a habitable environment in our first drill sample “John Klein,” and still feeling the relief of having survived a major fault with the A side computer. Curiosity runs on the B side computer to this day.
- Second conjunction, on Sol 1004 (May 2015), we had just passed the Sol 1000 milestone and had completed walkabout exploration (on our beat up wheels) of “Pahrump Hills,” the lowest exposed section of Mount Sharp. There we collected three samples of the mudstone-dominated Murray formation. We parked for conjunction at a contact between the Murray formation and another major formation, the Stimson, an aeolian sandstone deposit. Curiosity has continued to encounter variations of both formations throughout her exploration of Gale.
- Third conjunction started on Sol 1756 (July 2017), and we found ourselves sitting on the Murray formation just north of “Vera Rubin Ridge,” looking up at its enticing layering and color variations. Leading up to that point, we had sampled our way across the Stimson-capped “Naukluft Plateau,” maneuvered through the Stimson-capped “Murray Buttes,” and were systematically sampling the Murray formation when the drill fell out of commission. The loss of the ability to drill and deliver sample to the Chemistry & Mineralogy X-Ray Diffraction/X-Ray Fluorescence Instrument (CheMin) and the Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) Instrument Suite was a blow, but the team, to borrow from our sister rover, persevered to continue building the story of the rocks of Gale with the rest of the payload.
- Fourth conjunction on Sol 2506 (August 2019), Mars investigators had made it up and down Vera Rubin Ridge multiple times and into the clay-bearing “Glen Torridon” region. Our multiple traverses across the ridge were not just for exploration. Since the previous conjunction, the engineers invented a new way to use the drill to once again allow us to collect samples. We revisited terrain to gather samples where it was not previously possible, and gratefully sampled our way into Glen Torridon, We acquired sample #22, the clay-bearing “Glen Etive” sample, right before conjunction. In the midst of all the exploration and sampling, Curiosity also survived a near-global dust storm!
- Fifth conjunction upcoming has the rover sitting just a few meters away from its 33rd drill hole, ”Maria Gordon,” in the shadow of the western side of the “Greenheugh Pediment.” We successfully “summited” the northern edge of the pediment since last conjunction, allowing us to cross over, sample, and analyze yet another (but higher!) Murray-Stimson contact.
Curiosity Right B Navigation Camera photo taken on Sol 3251, September 28, 2021.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
“We hope to climb up onto the pediment again as we make our way from the clay-rich rocks of the Glen Torridon region toward the anticipated sulfate-rich layers of Mount Sharp above,” Minitti notes. “But for the next few weeks, we will simply pause, look across the view…and appreciate how much we have done and how far we have come.”
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Credit: U.S. Space Force
A “No Militarization of Space Act” has been introduced, centered on abolishing the U.S. Space Force.
Calling the Space Force “costly and unnecessary,” Representative Jared Huffman (D-San Rafael) the Act is timed as Congress moves to pass the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), the annual bill that authorizes funding for the Pentagon.
“The long-standing neutrality of space has fostered a competitive, non-militarized age of exploration every nation and generation has valued since the first days of space travel,” Huffman says in a statement. “But since its creation under the former Trump administration, the Space Force has threatened longstanding peace and flagrantly wasted billions of taxpayer dollars.”
President Donald Trump signs S.1790, the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2020 on, Friday, Dec. 20, 2019 at Joint Base Andrews. The act directed the establishment of the U.S. Space Force as the sixth branch of the armed forces.
Credit: Airman 1st Class Spencer Slocum, 11th Wing Public Affairs
Taxpayer boondoggle
The lawmaker says that the Space Force has quickly become a taxpayer boondoggle “that adds layers of bureaucracy and waste to an already-bloated defense budget.”
Huffman was joined in the introduction by Representatives Mark Pocan (WI-02), Jesús “Chuy” García (IL-04), Rashida Tlaib (MI-13), and Maxine Waters (CA-43).
This legislation is endorsed by Taxpayers for Common Sense, National Taxpayers Union, Peace Action, R Street Institute, and Demand Progress.
General Jay Raymond the first Chief of Space Operations and first member of the Space Force.
Bureaucratic confusion
The U.S. Space Force was established on December 20, 2019 with enactment of the Fiscal Year 2020 National Defense Authorization Act.
Huffman’s website notes that the U.S. military spending topped nearly $704 billion dollars in fiscal year 2021, including $15.5 billion for the Space Force. The Space Force unnecessarily duplicates much of the existing work within the Air Force including that of Space Command, thereby creating “bureaucratic confusion and further waste and risking American and allied national security,” the website adds.
To view H. R. 5335 “To abolish the Space Force as an Armed Force, and for other purposes,” go to:
https://www.congress.gov/117/bills/hr5335/BILLS-117hr5335ih.pdf
Illustration of the EscaPADE spacecraft in orbit around Mars.
Credits: Rocket Lab USA/UC Berkeley
While space officials at NASA, the European Space Agency, as well as planners in China plot out ultra-expensive and complicated missions to return samples from the Red Planet, there are an increasing number of Mars researchers blueprinting low-cost and novel ways to further explore the multifaceted planet.
Next up on Mars? One idea is this Mars aerial craft – the Hexacopter.
Credit: Theodore Tzanetos/NASA/JPL-Caltech
Be it via souped-up helicopters to inexpensive landers and orbiters, they say it’s time to script new ways to gather more data from a variety of places on that remote world.
Part lander, part shock absorber in one is the Small High Impact Energy Landing Device (SHIELD) concept.
Credit: NASA/JPL/Caltech
Go to my new SPACE.com story for more details:
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.
Go to:
https://www.space.com/cheap-mars-exploration-mission-ideas
Credit: USRA/LPI
BTW: NASA’s Mars Exploration Program invites the Mars community, including scientists, engineers, technologists, and industry representatives, to a three-day workshop early next year to share ideas and approaches for low-cost exploration of the Red Planet.
For more information, go to:
As seen in the ultraviolet, Venus image taken by NASA’s Pioneer-Venus Orbiter in 1979.
Credit: NASA
The clouds of Venus are potentially amenable to the growth of microorganisms.
A new study points to photosynthesis that might occur around-the-clock in Venus’ clouds with the middle and lower clouds receiving similar solar energy as Earth’s surface.
Researchers report that photosynthesis may continue through the night due to thermal or infrared energy originating from the surface and the atmosphere.
Credit: Rakesh Mogul, et al.
The study, “Potential for Phototrophy in Venus’ Clouds,” was led by Rakesh Mogul, professor of Biological Chemistry at Cal Poly Pomona. It was published online this week as part of an October 2021 special collection of the journal Astrobiology focused on the possible suitability of Venus’ clouds for microbial life, and the constraints that may prohibit life.
Acceptable range
“Our study provides tangible support for the potential for phototrophy and/or chemotrophy by microorganisms in Venus’ clouds,” said Mogul in a university release.
“The acidity and water activity levels potentially fall within an acceptable range for microbial growth on Earth, while the constant illumination with limited UV suggests that Venus’ clouds could be hospitable for life,” Mogul explains. “We argue that Venus’ clouds, therefore, make a great target for habitability or life detection missions, like those currently planned for Mars and Europa.”
The study also found that after filtering through the Venusian atmosphere, sunlight gets scrubbed of much of the ultraviolet radiation (UV), which is harmful to life, as result of scattering and absorption, providing a benefit like Earth’s ozone layer.
Credit: Rakesh Mogul, et al.
Chemical conditions
Mogul and his team, using new interpretations to refractive index and radio occultation measurements obtained from Venus’ clouds, found that the chemical conditions of Venus’ clouds are potentially hospitable to microorganisms.
“We show that solar irradiances calculated across Venus’ clouds support the potential for Earth-like phototrophy and that treatment of Venus’ aerosols containing neutralized sulfuric acid favor a habitable zone,” the paper explains.
With a targeted launch for fiscal year 2030, NASA’s DAVINCI+ will send a probe to brave the high temperatures and pressures near Venus’ surface to explore the atmosphere from above the clouds to near the surface. During the final leg of its free-fall descent, the probe will capture images and chemistry measurements of the deepest atmosphere on Venus for the first time.
Credits: NASA GSFC visualization by CI Labs Michael Lentz and others
Upcoming missions
Given the set of Venus probes now on the books from NASA, Europe and perhaps Russia, could they help further life detection on that cloud-veiled world?
“The upcoming mass spectral experiments on DAVINCI could really help in detailing the chemical makeup of the clouds; which by inference could tell us more about the habitability-related parameters of acidity, water activity, and etc.,” Mogul told Inside Outer Space. “I think many of the future plans are still in flux, though I believe Rocket Lab is also discussing spectral measures to get chemical information regarding cloud composition. As for life detection at Venus, we’re probably a long ways away!”
The co-authors of the study are Sanjay S. Limaye (University of Wisconsin, Madison), Yeon Joo Lee (Technische Universitat Berlin, Berlin, Germany) and Michael J. Pasillas (Cal Poly Pomona).
To take a look at the paper — “Potential for Phototrophy in Venus’ Clouds” — go to:
https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/full/10.1089/ast.2021.0032
Ready for her close-ups, Russian actress Yulia Peresild. Credit: Roscosmos/Inside Outer Space
Lights…camera…action!
That’s the upcoming scene onboard the International Space Station as Roscosmos commander Anton Shkaplerov, actress Yulia Peresild and movie director Klim Shipenko are ready for liftoff on October 5.
A Soyuz-2.1booster with the Soyuz MS-19 crewed spacecraft and ISS-66 expedition crew is scheduled to takeoff from Launchpad 31 of the Baikonur Cosmodrome.
The trio is flying to the ISS to make a scripted, feature film in space, with the production’s working title called “Challenge.”
Off-planet plot
The film reportedly is focused on a female doctor, who by force of dramatic circumstances has one month to prepare for the flight and go to the ISS to complete an important task.
This movie is part of a joint scientific and educational project of Roscosmos, Channel One and Yellow, Black, White studio.
“The project will show that spaceflights are gradually becoming available not only for professionals, but also for a wider range of people,” according to Roscosmos. “For example, similar accelerated training of film cast will be needed in the future to send other specialists to orbit, including doctors and scientists.”
Actress Yulia Peresild, Roscosmos commander Anton Shkaplerov, and movie director Klim Shipenko, ready for liftoff on October 5. Credit: Roscosmos/Inside Outer Space screengrab
Taking their seats
The first day of training sessions at Baikonur Cosmodrome took place on September 19. Under the supervision of Roscosmos, the team tried on Sokol KV-2 spacesuits, leak tested them and took their seats in the Soyuz MS-19 spacecraft, familiarizing themselves with the cargo placement in the living compartment and the descent capsule, worked equipment they will use onboard the ISS.
Additionally, the expedition participants trained on manual docking of the Soyuz MS crewed spacecraft to the Russian segment of the ISS, checked stowage with scientific equipment for space experiments, and practiced ballistic operations and other preparatory procedures.
Credit: Yellow, Black and White studio
They also visited the Baikonur Cosmodrome to complete prelaunch training.
TV/Film credits
Russian actress Yulia Peresild and award-winning director Klim Shipenko are reportedly in thumbs-up condition for the upcoming liftoff.
Shipenko directed Russia’s highest-ever grossing film Son of a Rich and 2019’s box office hit TEXT.
Yulia Peresild’s screen debut was the role of Natasha Kublakova in the television series Land, later acting in various drama film roles such as The Bride and The Edge.
Go to this Roscosmos video (in Russian) at:
The Sol 3247 drive went as planned, crushing and breaking nodules as shown above and right of center in this Navcam image.
Curiosity Left B Navigation Camera image taken on Sol 3247, September 24, 2021.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover at Gale Crater is now performing Sol 3248 duties.
A Sol 3247 drive of the robot went as planned, crushing and breaking nodules as part of its duties, reports Ken Herkenhoff, a planetary geologist at the USGS Astrogeology Science Center in Flagstaff, Arizona.
Curiosity Left B Navigation Camera image acquired on Sol 3247, September 24, 2021.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Fresh surfaces
“The fresh surfaces exposed by the rover wheels are high-priority contact science targets,” Herkenhoff adds, “but because solar conjunction is approaching, the arm will not be used in this 3-sol weekend plan [Sols 3248-3250] to ensure that it is in a safe configuration before we stand down from tactical operations while Mars goes behind the Sun as seen from Earth.”
Curiosity Left B Navigation Camera image acquired on Sol 3247, September 24, 2021.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Even though Mars will not pass directly behind the Sun, radio communications between Mars and Earth will be unreliable due to interference from the Sun’s corona, Herkenhoff points out. “However, remote sensing observations can be planned for this weekend, so the rover will be busy!”
Curiosity Left B Navigation Camera image acquired on Sol 3247, September 24, 2021.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Disturbed nodules
The Sol 3248 plan starts with a Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam) Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) observation of “Wolf Stone” to sample the chemical composition of a nodule that appears to have been scratched by the rover wheel.
Curiosity Front Hazard Avoidance Camera Left B image taken on Sol 3247, September 24, 2021.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
ChemCam and Mastcam will also measure the spectral reflectance of a cluster of disturbed nodules called “Helmsdale Boulder Beds” that is likely to be the target of contact science observations after solar conjunction, Herkenhoff adds.
Curiosity’s Mastcam will then acquire stereo images of three dark sandy targets named “Sandness Coast” that will be imaged again after solar conjunction to look for changes due to winds.
Curiosity Rear Hazard Avoidance Camera Right B photo taken on Sol 3247, September 24, 2021.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Clouds and dust
“Mastcam and Navcam will observe the sun and sky early and late in the afternoon, then early the next morning (Sol 3249) to look for clouds and measure changes in the amount of dust in the atmosphere,” Herkenhoff notes.
Curiosity Left B Navigation Camera image acquired on Sol 3247, September 24, 2021.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
ChemCam’s Remote Micro Imager (RMI) telescope and Mastcam will also acquire mosaics of the cliff toward the west when it will be nicely illuminated early in the morning.
Curiosity Left B Navigation Camera image acquired on Sol 3247, September 24, 2021.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
“Later that morning, Navcam will search for dust devils and ChemCam will fire its laser at ‘Clashach,’ another nodule that appears to have been scratched by the wheels,” Herkenhoff points out. “Then ChemCam will measure the composition of the atmosphere and Mastcam will acquire a 7×2 stereo mosaic of the nearby nodular bedrock.”
Curiosity Left B Navigation Camera image acquired on Sol 3247, September 24, 2021.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Curiosity’s Location as of Sol 3247. Distance driven to date: 16.39 miles/26.38 kilometers.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona
Rover deck
Overnight, the rover’s Chemistry & Mineralogy X-Ray Diffraction/X-Ray Fluorescence Instrument (CheMin) will analyze the cell that contained the most recent drill sample to confirm that the cell is now empty.
On Sol 3250, Curiosity’s Navcam will search for dust devils and image the rover deck to enable comparison with images taken after conjunction, to look for changes in the distribution of sand and dust on top of the rover.
Credit: Concept art by Vladimir Vustyansky
Earth’s Moon is being eyed as an on-location locale for operating unique and novel observatories.
The just-concluded NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) symposium was the setting for reviewing several NIAC-backed studies.
Robot deployed wire mesh
One concept outlined at NIAC is the Lunar Crater Radio Telescope (LCRT) on the Far-Side of the Moon, explained by Saptarshi Bandyopadhyay of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
This proposal centered on deploying a wire mesh using wall-climbing robots in a 3 to 5 kilometer diameter crater, with a suitable depth-to-diameter ratio, to form a parabolic reflector with a one kilometer diameter.
A selected crater must have several attributes: No boulders or outcrops; a complete crater rim; and a level surface outside the crater.
Credit: Concept art by Vladimir Vustyansky
Physical shield
“The Moon acts as a physical shield that isolates a far-side lunar-surface telescope from radio interference from sources on the Earth’s surface,” Bandyopadhyay said, “the ionosphere, Earth-orbiting satellites, and the Sun’s radio emission during the lunar night.”
LCRT will be the largest filled-aperture radio telescope in the Solar System; larger than the former Arecibo telescope and China’s Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope (FAST), Bandyopadhyay said.
Credit: Saptarshi Bandyopadhyay, et al.
LCRT’s science objective is to track the evolution of the neutral intergalactic medium before and during the formation of the first stars. The concept would observe the universe in, so far unexplored, 10−100m radio wavelengths.
Several key conclusions underscored during the NIAC virtual gathering was the cost of the LCRT, narrowed down to 4 alternatives. These range from an option that costs below $1 billion but has moderate risks, to an option that costs $4-5 billion and could potentially be launched with existing present-day technology.
Credit: Ronald Polidan, et al.
FarView
Another Moon-situated NIAC-supported proposal is the FarView – an observatory fabricated on the Moon as a far side radio observatory.
Ronald Polidan of Lunar Resources, Inc. of Houston, Texas and the University of Colorado Boulder’s Jack Burns launched this new research effort to lay the groundwork for a one-of-a-kind lunar radio astronomy observatory: a network of hundreds of miles of antennas put in place on the far side of the Moon using materials reaped from the lunar surface.
Sparse array
FarView will be a sparse array of roughly 100,000 dipole antennas populating an approximately 20×20 kilometer area of lunar real estate. On-site manufacturing of almost all system elements for the radio array, including power generation and energy storage systems is projected.
The dipole antennas would be placed 60 meters apart in rows to create the observatory.
FarView science is focused upon detailed investigation of the unexplored Cosmic Dark Ages using the highly red shifted hydrogen 21-cm line and identifying the conditions and processes under which the first stars, galaxies, and accreting black holes formed.
Robot lays out an antenna on the lunar surface.
Credit: Lunar Resources
First-of-its-kind
No equivalent observatory exists today. This radio telescope will be the first-of-its-kind at this scale and sensitivity and will open a new window (low frequency radio) into the early universe, analogous to the detection of gravitational waves by the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) and the details of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) by Planck, a European Space Agency space-based observatory.
FarView measurements cannot be made from Earth due to Earth-generated radio noise and the ionosphere.
“FarView will be evolvable and long-lived using in-situ manufacturing techniques and occasional system upgrades from Earth. It will be of lower cost and longer lifetime than a complete antenna array launched from Earth,” Polidan pointed out.
Credit: NASA
It is dubbed FLOAT, short for Flexible Levitation on a Track.
This concept is geared to build the first railway system on the Moon, one that provides reliable, autonomous, and around-the-clock payload transport across the lunar landscape.
Magnet robots
What’s envisioned is use of scads of unpowered, individually-controllable, meter-scale levitating magnet robots over a flexible track. Their task is to perform essential, but repetitive, transportation tasks between a lunar base, in-situ resource mining/refining sites, lunar landers, and other outposts.
JPL’s Ethan Schaler showcased the idea at the 2021 NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) symposium.
Credit: JPL/Ethan Schaler/NIAC
Flexible film track
Using the FLOAT, up to 240,000 kilograms a day of material could zip across 1 to 10 kilometers of hostile terrain.
Schaler said that this levitating proposal would counter existing lunar base transport concepts that require significant site preparation and substantial infrastructure, or consume operational life of sophisticated robots
FLOAT consists of unpowered magnetic robots that levitate over a 3-layer flexible film track, unrolled directly onto the lunar topside, requiring minimal preparation to avoid major on-site construction.
The thin-film solar panel generates power. The track’s graphite layer enables robots to passively float over tracks using diamagnetic levitation. The flex-circuit layer generates electromagnetic fields to controllably propel robots along tracks.
An added bonus is that the robots have no moving parts and support payload delivery from point to point.
Lunar temperature
“So the beauty of FLOAT is that we can actually operate at any lunar temperature, from approximately -170 degC in permanently shadowed craters to +130 degC in bright daylight,” Schaler told Inside Outer Space. Diamagnetism (which is the phenomenon used for levitation) is actually independent of temperature, he said, unlike levitation through flux pinning with superconductors (which have to be kept at very cold temperatures).
“Magnetic field strength does increase at lower temperatures, so hauling ice around (or out of) a permanently shadowed crater actually gets easier as we get colder, but our magnets will operate up to their Curie temperatures (roughly 320 degC) before becoming demagnetized,” Schaler said.
SRI International’s “Diamagnetic Micro Manipulation (DM3) system.”
Credit: SRI
Scaling up DM3 technology
FLOAT builds on SRI International’s “Diamagnetic Micro Manipulation (DM3) system,” Schaler said. The Moon-application concept scales up DM3 technology to meter-scale robots and km-scale tracks operating in the lunar environment.
SRI is developing DM3 technology to reliably control thousands of micro-robots for smart manufacturing of macro-scale products in compact, integrated systems.
For a video, go to:
Curiosity Front Hazard Avoidance Camera Left B image taken on Sol 3245, September 22, 2021.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover at Gale Crater is now performing Sol 3246 duties.
Reports Mark Salvatore, a planetary geologist at the University of Michigan, a recently scripted two-sol (3246-3247) plan will wrap up the robot’s drilling activities at the Maria Gordon drill location before it continues the drive up-section and towards the southwest.
“On the first sol of the plan, Curiosity will primarily be performing arm activities to further characterize the recently dumped drill sample and the drill hole,” Salvatore adds.
Curiosity Mars Hand Lens Imager photo produced on Sol 3245, September 22, 2021.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
Daytime and evening imaging will occur using the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) camera on the end of the arm.
Overnight, the Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer (APXS) instrument will be used to characterize the chemistry of the drill tailings.
Drill dump pile
On the following sol, the team has planned a series of Mastcam mosaics and a long-distance Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam) image mosaic, in addition to a Mastcam multispectral image on the drill dump pile.
Curiosity Right B Navigation Camera image taken on Sol 3245, September 22, 2021.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
“Following this suite of science activities, Curiosity will drive away from this drill location and towards a region that contains a high abundance of nodules in the bedrock,” Salvatore notes. “Curiosity will use a driving technique designed to better prepare the nodular surface for additional investigations.”
Curiosity Right B Navigation Camera image taken on Sol 3245, September 22, 2021.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Nodular targets
Salvatore explains that, once Curiosity reaches her intended target at the end of the drive, she will perform a series of small maneuvers designed to crush any nodular targets on the surface before turning back around and putting herself in position to analyze the surface.
Curiosity Right B Navigation Camera image taken on Sol 3245, September 22, 2021.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
“If successful, we hope that this technique will result in better preparing the surface for additional imaging and compositional analyses, beyond what is commonly performed by Curiosity during normal imaging and surface analysis campaigns,” Salvatore concludes.
Curiosity Chemistry & Camera Remote Micro Imager (RMI) taken on Sol 3245, September 22, 2021.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/LANL
International Space Station – showing its age.
Credit: NASA
NASA’s Future in Low Earth Orbit: Considerations for ISS Extension & Transition, a House Space & Aeronautics Subcommittee Hearing, was held Tuesday, September 21, 2021.
“Now, after more than 20 years of continuous operations, the ISS is beginning to show its age,” said Subcommittee Ranking Member Brian Babin in an opening statement.
Cracks and leaks
“Cracks and leaks are popping up, solar arrays were recently upgraded, and the spacesuits necessary for spacewalks need to be replaced. The first segments of the ISS have a design life of roughly 15 years with a safety factor of two, meaning that with appropriate life extension measures the segments can reasonably be expected to last to 2028,” Babin said. “While no law prevents NASA from operating the ISS as long as it deems necessary, it is past time to have a conversation about the future of the ISS and our presence in low Earth orbit.”
Credit: NASA/ESA/Thomas Pesquet
Written testimony
- Robyn Gatens, Director, International Space Station, NASA: https://republicans-science.house.gov/sites/republicans.science.house.gov/files/2021-09-21%20Testimony%20Gatens.pdf
- Kathleen “Kate” Rubins, NASA Astronaut: https://republicans-science.house.gov/sites/republicans.science.house.gov/files/2021-09-21%20Testimony%20Rubins.pdf
- Jeffrey Manber, Chief Executive Officer, Nanoracks, LLC: https://republicans-science.house.gov/sites/republicans.science.house.gov/files/2021-09-21%20Testimony%20Manber.pdf
- Todd Harrison, Senior Fellow and Director of the Aerospace Security Project, Center for Strategic and International Studies: https://republicans-science.house.gov/sites/republicans.science.house.gov/files/2021-09-21%20Testimony%20Harrison.pdf
- Captain William Shepherd (USN, Ret), former Astronaut, NASA: https://republicans-science.house.gov/sites/republicans.science.house.gov/files/2021-09-21%20Testimony%20Shepherd.pdf
To view the entire hearing, go to this video at:
