Archive for the ‘Space News’ Category
Author: 
November 20th, 2020
Curiosity Right B Navigation Camera image taken on Sol 2946, November 19, 2020.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover is now performing Sol 2948 tasks.
Curiosity Right B Navigation Camera photo acquired on Sol 2947, November 20, 2020.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
“We are continuing our ‘benches’ mini-campaign and the current bench is spread out before us like a brick road on our way to our next stop,” reports Scott Guzewich, an atmospheric scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.
Curiosity Left B Navigation Camera photo acquired on Sol 2947, November 20, 2020.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Curiosity is continuing to study these erosion-resistant rock layers as the robot drives steadily toward the sulfate unit of Mt. Sharp.
Distant terrains
A recent plan passed on an opportunity for additional contact science and instead chose a variety of remote sensing with the rover’s Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam) and Mastcam.
Curiosity Chemistry & Camera Remote Micro-Imager (RMI) photo acquired on Sol 2947, November 20, 2020.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/LANL
Laser shots as viewed by Curiosity Chemistry & Camera Remote Micro-Imager (RMI), acquired on Sol 2947, November 20, 2020.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/LANL
Outside of two nearby targets for ChemCam Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS), ChemCam was looking forward to the sulfate unit with a long-distance image. “In this way,” Guzewich notes, “ChemCam almost works like the rover’s binoculars to see detail in distant terrains!”
Charged up
Also in the plans, a long dust devil movie and cloud monitoring activities.
“To best maintain the rover’s battery, we like to maintain a medium-to-high level of charge, but not too close to 100% charged,” Guzewich adds. “In fact, on occasion, we keep the rover awake so the battery doesn’t get too close to fully charged.”
A new science activity is included in the rover’s plan whenever this is needed.
“It’s a combination of our cloud and dust devil movies and today we’ll include it in the evening of Sol 2948 to look for both of these atmospheric processes,” Guzewich concludes.
Curiosity Left B Navigation Camera photo acquired on Sol 2947, November 20, 2020.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Curiosity Left B Navigation Camera photo acquired on Sol 2947, November 20, 2020.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Curiosity’s Location as of Sol 2943, Distance Driven 14.52 miles (23.37 kilometers)
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona
Posted in 
Credit: SOM
As part of the European Space Agency’s Moon Village initiative, a lunar community study has been carried out by architecture, interior design, engineering and urban planning firm Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM).
The detailed village design was done in collaboration with ESA and the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
Their proposal has undergone rigorous examination by ESA experts at the Agency’s mission-evaluating Concurrent Design Facility (CDF).
Multiple habitats making up Moon Village.
Credit: SOM
No show-stoppers
This review process flagged various issues but found no show-stoppers – perhaps an important step for establishing such domiciles on the Moon in years to come.
“This study is clearly looking into the future, beyond the horizon of currently planned lunar exploration activities,” explains Advenit Makaya, study leader at ESA. “But it has been a very interesting exercise for the various ESA experts, to collaborate with architecture experts, to identify and address the drivers and ways in which this innovative design could be deployed on the Moon.”
Architectural firm Skidmore, Owings & Merrill has designed a semi-inflatable four-level Moon Village habitat. The four-person crew quarters would be on the ground floor to maximize radiation protection.
Credit: SOM
Inflatables
As a starting point, SOM took the Bigelow Aerospace inflatable BEAM module currently attached to the International Space Station. SOM designed a semi-inflatable shell structure to offer the highest possible volume to mass ratio. Once the semi-inflatable structure inflated on the lunar surface, it would reach approximately double its original internal volume.
Ground floor crew quarters.
Credit: SOM
Shackleton crater site
The chosen site: the rim of Shackleton crater at the lunar South Pole. Avoiding the crippling temperature extremes of the Moon’s two-week days and nights, this location offers near-continuous sunlight for solar power, an ongoing view of Earth and access to potential lunar water ice deposits in adjacent permanently-shadowed craters.
Shackleton Crater, the floor of which is permanently shadowed from the Sun, appears to be home to deposits of water ice. A new study sheds light on how old these and other deposits on the Moon’s south pole might be.
Credit: NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University
Once the first habitat is in place, the SOM team envisages additional modules joining it in turn, customized for specific functions such as research, manufacturing, food culture and tourism – allowing the base to expand into a village, then eventually a city.
Take a look at the full Concurrent Design Facility (CDF) study here at:
http://esamultimedia.esa.int/docs/cdf/Moon_Village_v1.1_Public.pdf
Arecibo radio telescope, pictured here in the spring of 2019.
Credit: University of Central Florida (UCF)
The National Science Foundation (NSF) made a tough, difficult decision to move forward on a “controlled decommissioning” of the iconic Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico.
Recent photo taken via drone of the Arecibo Observatory after a main cable broke on November 6.
Credit: UCF
Two recent and unexpected cable failures and consultations with multiple engineering experts led to the verdict of demolishing the Big Dish.
Arecibo has pioneered a number of discoveries such as the 1974 detection of binary pulsars emitting gravitational waves. That research earned the 1993 Nobel Prize in Physics.
Asteroid 2014 HQ124 appears to be an elongated, irregular object that is at least 1,200 feet (370 meters) wide on its long axis.
Image credits:
NASA/JPL-Caltech
Arecibo Observatory
USRA/NSF
Among other breakthrough research was the first confirmation in 1992 of planets orbiting a star other than the Sun. Also, Arecibo’s unique radar capabilities have helped NASA characterize potentially hazardous asteroids as part of its planetary defense efforts.
“Arecibo has great value to the planetary defense community. It provides accurate radar-derived images and other information on asteroids that might one day be a threat to our planet,” explains William Ailor, a Technical Fellow and planetary defense expert for The Aerospace Corporation.
Irreplaceable telescope
“It is sad to see the end of this world-renowned, irreplaceable telescope that has accomplished so much for planetary and radio astronomy during its 57 years of operation,” said Paula Szkody, President of the American Astronomical Society (AAS).
“But it is heartening to know that NSF intends to maintain a strong relationship with the scientists and people in Puerto Rico by retaining LIDAR operations and by expanding the educational facilities there,” Szkody told Inside Outer Space.
Credit: NASA/Goddard
LIDAR stands for Light Detection and Ranging, a remote sensing method that uses light in the form of a pulsed laser. Arecibo LIDAR science research includes meteor composition studies, as well as long-term seasonal studies of the climatology of Earth’s mesopause (the upper boundary of the mesosphere is where the temperature of the atmosphere reaches its lowest point). The mesosphere is 22 miles (35 kilometers) thick.
Maxar collected new satellite imagery on November 17th of the damaged radio telescope at the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico. The National Science Foundation, owner of the telescope, announced yesterday (November 19th) that the telescope with its 305-meter wide dish will be torn down after two support cables broke in recent months and damaged the dish beyond repair.
Credit: Satellite image ©2020 Maxar Technologies.
Scientific legacy
The NSF decision to decommission Arecibo Observatory didn’t go unnoticed in the U.S. Congress.
Chairwoman Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-TX) and Ranking Member Frank Lucas (R-OK) noted in a joint statement that, while they were saddened by the loss of the facility, they saluted the priority of keeping observatory staff and repair crews safe throughout the decommissioning process.
“We would like to thank the scientific community, the observatory staff, and the Puerto Rican community for their dedication to this observatory over the past six decades,” Johnson and Lucas stated.
“Arecibo will be remembered for an illustrious scientific legacy. Moving forward, we encourage the National Science Foundation to continue its support for the Angel Ramos Foundation Science and Visitor Center as an active hub of STEM education and outreach programming in Puerto Rico, and to explore opportunities to use the site for exciting new science in the future,” the lawmakers said.
Please see my new Scientific American story:
Arecibo Observatory to Close Its Giant Eye on the Sky – After suffering severe damage from broken cables that cannot be readily repaired, the observatory’s enormous radio telescope is now slated for “controlled decommissioning”
Go to:
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/arecibo-observatory-to-close-its-giant-eye-on-the-sky/
Curiosity’s Front Hazard Avoidance Camera image taken on Sol 2943, November 16, 2020
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover is now performing Sol 2946 tasks.
Reports Mark Salvatore, a planetary geologist at the University of Michigan, Curiosity will be staying busy as the team continues to investigate the topographic “benches” as the robot moves from the Glen Torridon region uphill towards the sulfate-bearing unit.
Curiosity Left B Navigation Camera photo taken on Sol 2945, November 18, 2020.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
“Last week, Curiosity was positioned at the bottom of one of these benches looking at the geologic layers exposed along the side. Over the weekend, we drove around and on top of the same bench to capture a view from the top and to investigate the uppermost geologic layers,” Salvatore explains.
Curiosity Front Hazard Avoidance Camera Left B image acquired on Sol 2945, November 18, 2020.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Plethora of science
In the coming days, Curiosity will use its remote sensing instruments and the tools on the rover’s arm to investigate two spots on the top of the bench – one is a smooth portion of exposed bedrock while the other is a clearly layered rocky unit.
“The team had the opportunity to quickly study the top of this bench and then drive away up towards the next bench, but the team decided to stay at this location given the well-exposed rocks and the plethora of science that we can accomplish at this location,” Salvatore adds.
Being on this topographically perched bench gives scientists a stunning view and allows them to remotely characterize the geologic units that are ahead of them.
“Over the coming days, Curiosity will continue her drive up and over these benches, conducting additional analyses and imaging while we continue to make our way up Mt. Sharp,” Salvatore concludes.
Curiosity Right B Navigation Camera photo taken on Sol 2944, November 17, 2020.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Recessive to resistant rocks
In an earlier report, Ryan Anderson, a planetary geologist at the USGS Astrogeology Science Center in Flagstaff, Arizona notes: “Benches like the ones we’re driving through in this area usually form when the bedrock consists of alternating layers of harder, more resistant rock and softer more ‘recessive’ rock. At the current outcrop, we think we can see the transition from recessive to resistant rocks, so a priority was to collect chemistry measurements and high-quality images from both rock types.”
Curiosity Mars Hand Lens Imager photo produced on Sol 2945, November 18, 2020.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
Astrobotic’s Peregrine Mission One at Lacus Mortis on the moon – the first American spacecraft expected to make a soft lunar landing in nearly 50 years.
Credit: Astrobotic Technology Inc.
If all stays on track, the DNA of Arthur Clarke, the gifted visionary writer, will be placed on Earth’s moon next year. That’s also the fictional home of an alien monolith as detailed by Clarke in his Space Odyssey series and rendered into visual manifestation by film maker Stanley Kubrick in the epic movie, 2001: A Space Odyssey.
Red circle (upper right) indicates touchdown locale for Peregrine lunar lander – Lacus Mortis — an area on the northeastern part of the Moon.
Credit: Celestis, Inc.
Astrobotic’s Peregrine Mission One is to be launched by United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan Centaur rocket from Cape Canaveral, Florida, then make a touchdown in an area on the northeastern part of the Moon called “Lacus Mortis.”
For more details, go to my newly posted Space.com story:
Memorial spaceflight: Cremated remains flying to the moon on private lander in 2021
https://www.space.com/moon-memorial-spaceflight-astrobotic-lunar-cremated-remains
Credit: CCTV Plus/Inside Outer Space screengrab
China’s Chang’e-5 sample return mission to the Moon moved closer to launch with the rollout to the pad of its Long March-5 booster.
On Tuesday, the launcher was vertically transported to the launch area at Wenchang Spacecraft Launch Site in south China’s Hainan Province.
Credit: CCTV Plus/Inside Outer Space screengrab
The carrier rocket, coded as Long March-5 Y5, is planned to be launched in late November, according to the China National Space Administration.
The Chang’e-5 mission will robotically gather lunar samples and return them to Earth.
The Long March-5 carrier rocket, currently China’s largest launch vehicle, successfully launched China’s first Mars mission, Tianwen-1, on July 23.
Credit: Frazer-Nash Consultancy
The UK Government is investigating the potential of large solar power satellites to collect solar energy, convert it into high frequency radio waves, and safely beam it back to ground-based receivers connected to the electrical power grid.
The report has been commissioned jointly by the UK Space Agency (UKSA) and Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy and is being done by Frazer-Nash, a multidisciplinary engineering consultancy, and Oxford Economics, a global forecasting and quantitative analysis organization.
As part of the study, three leading space-based solar power concepts will be appraised: from the USA (SPS Alpha), UK (CASSIOPeiA) and China (MR-SPS).
Credit: Frazer-Nash Consultancy
Resilient, safe and sustainable
Martin Soltau, space business manager at Frazer-Nash said via the group’s website:
“Decarbonizing our economy is vital. We need to explore new technologies to provide clean, affordable, secure and dependable energy for the nation. Using the power of the sun, space-based solar power is a low-carbon, renewable technology that could potentially offer us a resilient, safe and sustainable energy source, and could make a substantial contribution to delivering on the UK’s commitment to Net Zero by 2050.”
Soltau said the study will provide an independent assessment as to whether it is feasible, from an engineering perspective, to develop space-based solar power to an operational capability by 2050. Also, space-based solar power will be compared to other forms of renewable energy, to see how it would contribute as part of a future mix of clean energy technologies.
For more information, go to:
In better times. Photo taken in Spring 2019. Credit: UCF
The Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico has suffered loss of cables in August and this month that supports the facility’s 900-ton platform.
“Each of the structure’s remaining cables is now supporting more weight than before, increasing the likelihood of another cable failure, which would likely result in the collapse of the entire structure,” explains a University of Central Florida statement.
UCF manages the facility owned by the National Science Foundation.
Other wire breaks on two of the remaining main cables have also been observed. The situation is dynamic and poses a serious safety risk to those working at the giant radio telescope. Work is underway to understand why this “industrial failure” occurred, according to UCF.
Recent photo taken via drone of the Arecibo Observatory after a main cable broke on Nov. 6.
Credit: UCF
An auxiliary cable break occurred on August 10, followed by a main cable failure on November 6.
“Safety remains the team’s primary concern, so a safety zone has been set up around the reflector dish and only personnel needed to respond to the incident are allowed onsite,” according to the UCF statement.
“Preliminary analysis indicates the main cable, which failed on Nov. 6, should have easily handled the extra load based on design capacity,” the UCF statement notes. “Engineers suspect it is likely that the second cable failed because it has degraded over time and has been carrying extra load since August. A final determination could not be made without retrieving and analyzing the second cable.”
On a personal note: Barbara and I were fortunate to visit Arecibo in 1992,
guided up to the facility centerpiece by SETI Institute’s Peter Backus. I’m still shaking – but what a view!
Cable car ride to the centerpiece!
Credit: Leonard David/Inside Outer Space
Much younger in 1992!
Credit: Peter Backus
Tonight I’ll be the guest of Host Dave Scott on Spaced Out Radio.
The show begins on Thursday, November 12th starting at 9 pm Pacific time, Midnight Eastern time.
Here are the places you can follow the show:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/SpacedOutRadio (Use #SpacedOutRadio during show for live chat)
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/davescottsor/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SpacedOutRadioShow
Source: NASA OIG presentation of NASA information
Another sobering report from NASA’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) has been released today.
A report focused on NASA’s Top Management and Performance Challenges takes an in-depth look at several key challenges the agency faces.
Top challenges
Challenge 1: Landing the First Woman and the Next Man on the Moon by 2024
Challenge 2: Improving Management of Major Projects
Challenge 3: Sustaining a Human Presence in Low Earth Orbit
Challenge 4: Attracting and Retaining a Highly Skilled Workforce
Challenge 5: Improving Oversight of Contracts, Grants, and Cooperative Agreements
Challenge 6: Managing and Mitigating Cybersecurity Risk
Challenge 7: Addressing Outdated Infrastructure and Facilities
Credit: NASA
This report presents the OIG’s independent assessment of these seven challenges and links each challenge to one of NASA’s strategic objectives. The just-issued appraisal also considered the initial effects of the coronavirus pandemic (COVID‐19) on the Agency’s operations and missions.
Culture of optimism
In the past 10 years the Agency’s space exploration priorities have shifted multiple times from the Constellation Program’s lunar ambitions to an asteroid retrieval effort focused on developing technologies to enable a human mission to Mars and then back to an expedited crewed return to the Moon, the report explains.
“Additionally, the Agency has been challenged to temper its culture of optimism and require more realistic cost and schedule estimates for major projects by establishing well‐defined and stable requirements and maturing technologies early in development,” the report notes. “Despite all of this, NASA has continued to develop and manage some of the world’s most complex systems and projects while juggling the annual appropriations process and shifting timetables. As the Agency moves forward with key decisions on several of its major projects, addressing the challenges discussed in this report will be paramount to success.”
Credit: NASA
Lunar ambitions
The OIG report states that, while NASA has made significant progress to further its human exploration efforts, “many questions remain about the total cost, schedule, and scope of the Agency’s lunar ambitions.”
Furthermore, the report stresses that, given multiple challenges, “we believe the Agency will be hard-pressed to land astronauts on the Moon by the end of 2024. At the very least, achieving any date close to this ambitious goal—and reaching Mars in the 2030s—will require strong, consistent, sustained leadership from the President, Congress, and NASA, as well as stable and timely funding.”
Earth orbiting research lab, internal and external – the International Space Station (ISS).
Credit: NASA
ISS – full utilization questioned
Regarding the future of the International Space Station, the report says that until both SpaceX and Boeing are operating regular crew transportation flights to the ISS, “the Station will be challenged to operate at full utilization, impacting the amount of on-board research and Station maintenance that can be accomplished.”
To take a read of the entire OIG assessment, go to:
