Archive for the ‘Space News’ Category
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August 10th, 2020
Cutaway view of LIFE Habitat – inflates on-orbit.
Credit: Sierra Nevada Corporation
A candidate for NASA’s future deep space habitation applications is the Sierra Nevada Corporation’s (SNC) Large Inflatable Fabric Environment, or LIFE™ Habitat.
Under Phase 3 of NASA’s Next Space Technologies for Exploration Partnerships (NextSTEP-2) Appendix A habitat program, design concepts could be used on the lunar surface or as a Mars transportation habitat to test at the Gateway.
Inflatable structure
The LIFE Habitat inflates on-orbit to a large structure that is three stories tall and 27 feet in diameter.
It can comfortably sleep four astronauts, with additional room for science experiments, exercise equipment, a medical center and SNC’s Astro Garden® system, which the company is developing as an option to grow fresh produce for astronauts on long-duration space missions.
SNC’s full scale LIFE habitat prototype was delivered to NASA’s Johnson Space Center in May 2019 where it underwent crew evaluation.
Phase 3 work, which includes risk reduction and maturing the concept to System Definition Review (SDR) maturity will continue through the end of 2020.
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Credit: ESA/A. Romeo
Researchers diving into lava tubes here on Earth believe that Martian and lunar tubes are one to three orders of magnitude more voluminous than on our home planet.
Credit: ESA/A. Romeo
The upshot of a new underground data base reveals Mars and Moon lava tubes are respectively 100 and 1,000 times wider than those on Earth, which typically have a diameter of 33 feet to nearly 100 feet (10 to 30 meters).
Credit: ESA/A. Romeo
Lower gravity on those celestial bodies, and its effect on volcanism, explain these dimensions (with total volumes exceeding 1 billion of cubic meters on the Moon).
These findings suggest a game changer for the future of space exploration, for those aiming at reaching the underground of both Mars and the Moon.
The work appears in the international journal Earth-Science Reviews titled “Lava tubes on Earth, Moon and Mars: A review on their size and morphology revealed by comparative planetology.”
This study involved the Universities of Bologna and Padua in Italy. The work was led by Francesco Sauro, a speleologist and head of the European Space Agency programs, CAVES (Cooperative Adventure for Valuing and Exercising human behavior and performance Skills) and Pangaea. He is also a professor at the Department of Biological, Geological, and Environmental Sciences at the University of Bologna.
Riccardo Pozzobon is a planetary geologist at the Department of Geosciences of the University of Padua.
Surface expression
Lead authors of the new paper, Sauro and Pozzobon, note that, “although it is still impossible to gather direct information on the interior of Martian and lunar lava tube candidates, scientists have the possibility to investigate their surface expression through the analysis of collapses and skylight morphology, morphometry and their arrangement, and compare these findings with terrestrial analogues.”
The Marius Hills Hole. Extensive lava tubes exist under Marius Hills and may be large enough to house cities.
Credit: NASA, Lunar Orbiter 2; Inset: Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter
On Earth lava tubes are well known thanks to speleological exploration and mapping in several shield volcanoes. Speleologists have thoroughly studied lava tubes on Earth in Hawaii, the Canary Islands, Australia and Iceland, for example.
On the Moon subsurface cavities have been inferred from several skylights in Maria smooth plains and corroborated using gravimetry (the measurement of weight, a gravitational field, or density) and radar sounder data. On Mars, several deep skylights have been identified on lava flows with striking similarities with terrestrial cases, Sauro and Pozzobon explain.
Potential settlement
Their analysis shows that aside of collapses triggered by impacts/tectonics, most of the lunar tubes could be intact, making the Moon “an extraordinary target for subsurface exploration and potential settlement in the wide protected and stable environments of lava tubes.”
One prospect for intact lunar lava tubes is the collapse chains in Marius Hills, perhaps allowing future crews access to huge underground cavities.
For more information, go to “Lava tubes on Earth, Moon and Mars: A review on their size and morphology revealed by comparative planetology,” at:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0012825220303342?via%3Dihub
Curiosity Front Hazard Avoidance Left B Camera photo taken on Sol 2845, August 7, 2020.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover is now engaged in the start of Sol 2846 duties.
There has been confirmation that the planned Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) Instrument Suite specimen bake was successful, reports Abigail Fraeman, a planetary geologist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
Curiosity Mast Camera Left photo taken on Sol 2844, August 6, 2020.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
A Sol 2846-2848 plan has been scripted.
Supplementary analysis
“This weekend we will therefore continue with activities to further analyze the “Mary Anning” drilled sample,” Fraeman notes. “On the first sol of the plan we will prepare SAM for analyzing the sample in a slightly different way, and we are planning to do this supplementary analysis early next week.”
The Chemical and Mineralogy instrument, or CheMin for short, performs chemical analysis of powdered rock samples to identify the types and amounts of different minerals that are present.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
The second sol of the plan contains Chemistry and Camera analyses of two targets named “Clamshell Cove” and “Musselburgh.”
Mars researchers will also analyze the portion of the Mary Anning sample that was already delivered to the robot’s Chemistry & Mineralogy X-Ray Diffraction/X-Ray Fluorescence Instrument (CheMin) for a second night.
The Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer is called APXS for short. When it is placed right next to a rock or soil surface, it uses two kinds of radiation to measure the amounts and types of chemical elements that are present.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Argon on the atmosphere
On the third sol of the plan, Fraeman adds, Curiosity will measure the amount of argon in the atmosphere with its Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer (APXS), collect more information about the walls of the drill hole with ChemCam, and image a small trough near Curiosity named “Upper Ollach.”
Curiosity Left B Navigation Camera image acquired on Sol 2845, August 7, 2020.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Curiosity Mast Camera Right photo taken on Sol 2843, August 5, 2020.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
Curiosity Left B Navigation Camera image acquired on Sol 2845, August 7, 2020.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Curiosity Right B Navigation Camera image acquired on Sol 2845, August 7, 2020.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
“Today was a very smooth planning day overall,” Fraeman concludes, “which is always a nice thing to be able to say when you’re operating a science laboratory on another planet from your couch!”
Credit: Roscosmos
Four Indian astronauts continue to undergo training at Russia’s Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center near Moscow. They are prospective space travelers for India’s Gaganyaan project.
Credit: Roscosmos
According to Russia’s Roscosmos, the foursome “are doing well and are determined to continue training further.”
The completion of their training at the center is scheduled for the first quarter of 2021.
The contract for the Indian candidates’ training for a spaceflight was signed between Glavkosmos, JSC — a subsidiary of the State Space Corporation Roscosmos — and the Human Spaceflight Centre of the Indian Space Research Organization on June 27, 2019.
India space program officials are all thumbs up. Behind them, full scale model of the Gaganyaan crew module.
Credit: ISRO
Training of the Indian astronauts began back in February of this year.
Crew actions
To date, the Indian astronauts have completed training on crew actions in the event of an abnormal descent module landing: in wooded and marshy areas in winter (completed in February 2020), on the water surface (completed in June 2020), in the steppe in summer (completed in July 2020).
Credit: ISRO
In June 2020, all Indian astronauts-elect passed training in short-term weightlessness mode aboard the IL-76MDK special laboratory aircraft, and in July, they were trained to be air-lifted aboard a helicopter while evacuating from the descent module landing point.
Centrifuge, pressure chamber
The training program for Indian astronauts will also include spinups in a centrifuge and stints in a pressure chamber, with the individuals experiencing G-force, hypoxia and pressure drops.
Booster for India’s human spaceflight program.
Credit: ISRO
India has been pressing forward with its human spaceflight program – although the pandemic has taken its toll on schedule.
When the Gaganyaan spacecraft flies with crew, up to three astronauts are expected to take part in a 7-day mission.
For more information on India’s growing human space plans, go to:
India’s Human Spaceflight Program Moves Forward
https://www.leonarddavid.com/indias-human-spaceflight-program-moves-forward/
Also, go to:
India Puts in Motion Human Spaceflight Plan: Make way for “Vyomnauts”
https://www.leonarddavid.com/india-puts-in-motion-human-spaceflight-plan-make-way-for-vyomnauts/
Curiosity Front Hazard Avoidance Camera Right B image of “Mary Anning” taken on Sol 2844, August 6, 2020.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover is now carrying out Sol 2844 duties.
The Sample Analysis at Mars tool is called SAM. SAM is made up of three different instruments that search for and measure organic chemicals and light elements that are important ingredients potentially associated with life.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Reports Sean Czarnecki, a planetary geologist at Arizona State University in Tempe, a recent plan called for Curiosity to drop off some of its newly acquired “Mary Anning” drill sample to the Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) Instrument Suite for Evolved Gas Analysis (EGA).
“During EGA, SAM bakes the powdered rock sample at up to 900°C (1652°F),” Czarnecki reports. “This releases, or ‘evolves,’ volatile compounds which are then measured.”
Curiosity Chemistry & Camera Remote Micro-Imager (RMI) photo acquired on Sol 2843, August 5, 2020.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/LANL
Surrounding countryside
In addition, Navcam will image the area in front of the rover and look for dust devils, Mastcam will take two stereo mosaics of the surrounding countryside, and Dynamic Albedo of Neutrons (DAN), Radiation Assessment Detector (RAD) and the Rover Environmental Monitoring Station (REMS) will continue to monitor the environment at this site.
Czarnecki adds that Curiosity is celebrating 8 years on Mars, landing on the Red Planet on August 5, 2012. “Since Curiosity is turning 8, we expect that celebrations in Gale Crater will include games like “Pin the Mast on the Rover” and “Red Rover” (“Red rover, red rover, send Perseverance on over!”) while enjoying treats from SAM’s bakery!”
Since its touchdown, the robot has driven slightly over 14 miles.
Strata at Base of Mount Sharp: This image, taken back when NASA’s Curiosity rover was at the base of Mount Sharp on March 24, 2014, indicates the rover’s approximate location as of July 30, 2020 – about 3 1/2 miles away (about 5 1/2 kilometers).
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
Postcards from Mars
Back on Earth, the MSL team is also celebrating with a retrospective in the form of 8 Martian postcards, such as a dust storm selfie, a descriptive tour of Gale Crater, a Martian cloud movie, and much more! You can see this striking selection of images from the past 8 years here:
“Thank you for following Curiosity’s journey for the last 8 years,” Czarnecki concludes. “We look forward to a ninth year and more of exciting exploration and discovery!”
Curiosity Left B Navigation Camera image taken on Sol 2843, August 5, 2020.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Awaiting first results
In an earlier report from Catherine O’Connell-Cooper, a planetary geologist at University of New Brunswick; Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada, a recent plan also saw some drill sample delivered to the robot’s Chemical and Mineralogy (CheMin) instrument, with Mars researchers eagerly awaiting the first results of that analysis.
“Today we planned a Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) preconditioning activity to get ready for sample drop off to SAM and analysis later in the week, O’Connell-Cooper explains, “which will catalogue the composition and check for traces of organic molecules in these rocks.”
Curiosity Right B Navigation Camera image acquired on Sol 2843, August 5, 2020.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Power-hungry instrument
Because SAM is a very power-hungry instrument, scientists are budgeting most of their energy across this week around the SAM activities.
As the “precon” activity takes up most of our available energy today, the geology theme group (GEO) limited itself to re-imaging the drill hole using the Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam), Mastcam and Navcam, O’Connell-Cooper adds.
This will allow Mars researchers to refine targeting of the drill hole by ChemCam, the Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer (APXS), and Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) in future plans, when power is not as constrained as it is right now!
Curiosity Right B Navigation Camera image acquired on Sol 2843, August 5, 2020
“We squeezed every last bit of power available for today’s planning, so that the environmental theme group (ENV) were able to get in some monitoring activities, looking for dust devils and dust in the atmosphere, as well as standard REMS (weather) and DAN activities,” O’Connell-Cooper concludes.
Best space and sci-fi books for 2020
By Space.com Staff
https://www.space.com/28973-best-space-books.html
Luna 25 Moon lander. Credit: Roscosmos
Progress is being reported on readying Russia’s Luna-25 spacecraft.
Last month, flight units of Russian scientific instruments were delivered from the Space Research Institute to NPO Lavochkin – part of Roscosmos, the Russian space agency. Russian space industry specialists have started installing them on the Luna-25 spacecraft.
The Russian lunar landing vehicle includes nine instruments: eight Russian and one developed by the European Space Agency.
ESA’s contribution to Luna 25 includes PILOT-D, a demonstrator terrain relative navigation system.
Credit: ESA
South pole exploration
The Russian instruments are meant to research the composition, structure and physico-mechanical properties of lunar polar regolith, dust and plasma exosphere around the Moon’s south pole. To date, no spacecraft have been to this region, eyed by many nations as a site for future Moon bases.
Luna-25 is expected to launch in October 2021.
The project is being implemented at the request of the Russian Academy of Sciences — part of the Federal Space Program of 2016-2025 — and is financed by Roscosmos.
NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter used its powerful LROC system to image Luna 24 sitting near the edge of a large crater.
Credit: NASA/Goddard/Arizona State University
Return to flight
Luna-25 is the opening moonshot of a reactivated Russian lunar program that includes an orbiter and lobbing lunar materials back to Earth.
ESA has been developing the Package for Resource Observation and in-Situ Prospecting for Exploration, Commercial exploitation and Transportation (PROSPECT) – a lunar drilling and sample analysis package to be installed on Russia’s Luna 27 mission.
The last of the Luna series of spacecraft was the mission of the Luna 24 probe in 1976. It was the third Soviet mission to retrieve and rocket back to Earth lunar surface samples. The first two were returned by Luna 16 in 1970 and Luna 20 in 1972.
Curiosity Front Hazard Avoidance Camera Left B image taken on Sol 2842, August 4, 2020.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover is now performing Sol 2842 tasks.
The robot is carrying on with its drill campaign at the “Mary Anning” site, reports Rachel Kronyak, a planetary geologist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
The Chemical and Mineralogy instrument, or CheMin for short, performs chemical analysis of powdered rock samples to identify the types and amounts of different minerals that are present.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
The meat of a recently scripted plan focuses on dropping off a powdered drill sample to the rover’s onboard Chemistry & Mineralogy X-Ray Diffraction/X-Ray Fluorescence Instrument (CheMin). This device is used to tell scientists all about the mineralogical composition of the latest drill hole.
In addition, the plan calls for about an hour’s worth of remote science activities to help document the rover’s surroundings.
This image of “Maybole” target was taken by Left Navigation Camera on July 16, 2020, Sol 2824.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Curiosity Chemistry & Camera Remote Micro Imager (RMI) photo taken on Sol 2842, August 4, 2020.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/LANL
Curiosity Chemistry & Camera Remote Micro Imager (RMI) photo taken on Sol 2842, August 4, 2020.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/LANL
Curiosity Chemistry & Camera Remote Micro Imager (RMI) photo taken on Sol 2841 August 3, 2020.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/LANL
Stereo mosaic
“To kick off the science block, Mastcam will take a meaty 53-frame stereo mosaic pointed at the fractured intermediate unit to the southeast,” Kronyak notes. “This mosaic will document a large portion of our surroundings and will also help the science team plan our drive path once we finish up our drilling activities at Mary Anning.”
Also on the plan, the Chemistry & Camera (ChemCam) will shoot its laser at the target “Bishop’s Palace,” which exposes some nice small-scale layering and possible diagenetic features – the physical and chemical changes occurring in sediments between the times of deposition and solidification.
Layered outcrop
ChemCam will also use its Remote Micro Imager (RMI) to take a long-distance mosaic of the “Maybole” target.
Maybole is a partially exposed, layered outcrop at the top of a nearby hill, Kronyak points out. “In fact, we purposely planned for a few frames to overlap between the long-distance RMI and Mastcam mosaics so that the lighting conditions between the two mosaics match up. This overlap will allow for nice comparisons between the two mosaics to be made.”
Curiosity Right B Navigation Camera image taken on Sol 2841, August 3, 2020.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Atmospheric monitoring
Towards the end of the science block, Curiosity’s Mastcam will take a documentation image of the ChemCam target Bishop’s Palace.
Also planned are several atmospheric monitoring activities with Navcam. Later in the sol, a Mars Descent Imager (MARDI) image is set to continue a change detection campaign at the robot’s current location, Kronyak concludes.
Curiosity Rear Hazard Avoidance Right B Camera image acquired on Sol 2842, August 4, 2020.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Credit: CCTV/Inside Outer Space screengrab
The China National Space Administration reports that its Tianwen-1 Mars probe carried out its first mid-course correction maneuver on Sunday morning.
China Daily reports that the maneuver was completed over a 20-second period of time using the spacecraft’s 3000 Newton engine.
During the probe’s seven-month spaceflight toward Mars, it will make several mid-course corrections and deep-space maneuvers to make sure it is precisely aimed at the planet.
Three-in-one spacecraft
China launched Tianwen-1, the country’s first independent Mars mission, on July 23 from the Wenchang Space Launch Center in South China’s Hainan province.
The five-metric ton Tianwen-1 is a three-in-one spacecraft – an orbiter, a lander, and a rover.
The spacecraft has begun to conduct its scientific operations as the Mars Energetic Particle Analyzer, mounted on the orbiter, has been activated and transmitted data back to the ground control.
It is the first of the 13 scientific apparatus on the probe to start operating and will be the longest working device during the journey toward the Martian gravitational field.
At present, Tianwen-1 is moving toward the Mars at a speed of about 186,411 miles (300,000 kilometers) per day until it reaches the farthest spot on the Mars, which is about 400 million kilometers away from the Earth.
Credit: CCTV/Inside Outer Space screengrab
Candidate landing zone
After the probe enters orbit around Mars in February, Tianwen-1 will circle the Red Planet for two and a half months to investigate the candidate landing zone before dispatching the lander.
Credit: CCTV/Inside Outer Space screengrab
Credit: CCTV/Inside Outer Space screengrab
The landing has been scheduled to take place around May in the southern part of Mars’ Utopia Planitia, according to the China National Space Administration (CNSA).
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NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover is now performing Sol 2839 tasks.
New imagery from the robot shows the results of drilling into the target Mary Anning and a few views of the rover’s surroundings:
Curiosity Mast Camera Right image taken on Sol 2838, July 31, 2020.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
Curiosity Mast Camera Right image taken on Sol 2838, July 31, 2020.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
Curiosity Left B Navigation Camera photo acquired on Sol 2839, August 1, 2020.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Curiosity Right B Navigation Camera photo acquired on Sol 2839, August 1, 2020.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Curiosity Right B Navigation Camera photo acquired on Sol 2839, August 1, 2020.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Curiosity Right B Navigation Camera photo acquired on Sol 2839, August 1, 2020.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
