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Archive for the ‘Space News’ Category

China’s Tianwen-1 probe en route to Mars will carry out its second orbital correction next month.

The spacecraft was launched on July 23, a probe that is a combination orbiter, lander, and rover and is due to reach the Red Planet around February 2021.

After entering Mars orbit, Tianwen-1 is slated to spend another two to three months surveying candidate landing sites before the orbiter unleashes the lander/rover.

The orbiter’s high definition camera will take photos of the landing zone “in order to confirm if the landing zone is the same as we expected,” Wang Chuang, chief designer of Tianwen-1, stated in a China Central Television (CCTV) interview.

Upon lander touchdown, it may take over a week for the rover to put its wheels on the Martian surface, said Jiasaid Jia Yang, deputy chief designer, Tianwen-1 Mars probe, in a recent CCTV broadcast.

Self-testing

Meanwhile, according to the China National Space Administration (CNSA), Tianwen-1 completed last week self-testing of its scientific instruments, including Mars magnetometer, Mars mineralogy spectrometer and two remote-sensing cameras, which are all working in normal conditions, according to the CNSA.

 

 

According to CNSA, Tianwen-1 will perform four orbital corrections and one deep-space maneuver before reaching Mars. The probe completed its first orbital correction on August 2. The development team said it will proceed with the second orbital correction in September to ensure the probe will be flying accurately toward its target planet.

 

Go to this CCTV-Plus video detailing the mission at:

https://youtu.be/IqpJ_xGFuKY

 

 

Russian cosmonaut Ivan Vagner released a video last week capturing what appears to be five objects zipping over Antarctica when the space traveler was trying to capture the southern lights from the International Space Station.

Vagner later tweeted that “the very peak of the Aurora Borealis over Antarctica is in the longitude of Australia, i.e. during the flight between them. But in the video you will see something different, not just the glow itself…at 9-12 seconds, 5 objects appear, flying in a parallel course and at the same distance from each other. What do you think it can be – meteors, satellites or…?”

Analysis underway

Frames were taken 1 time per second, Vagner notes, and then collected in a video of 25 frames / sec. “That is, the real time of observation of objects is 52 seconds.”

Vagner adds that the information was brought to the attention of the Roscosmos State Corporation management. Materials were transferred to TsNIIMash and IKI RAS for analysis.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

To view the video, go to:

https://twitter.com/i/status/1296029475164106752

Credit: Ivan Vagner/Roscosmos

 

Permanently shadowed regions at the Moon’s poles have a story to tell. Not only could sun-shy polar ice patches yield an account about the Moon’s history, but may also offer astrobiological clues regarding the origin of life.

The floor of those craters in polar regions that have permanently shadowed floors are between 3.4 to 3.9 billion years old, based on cratering statistics.

NASA’s Artemis program calls for landing the first woman and next man on the Moon by 2024. Also eyed is establishing sustainable exploration there by the end of the decade, fabricating an Artemis Base Camp perhaps near Shackleton Crater at the Moon’s south pole.

But how best to steer clear of contaminating these potentially ice-rich, permanently shadowed regions given human and robotic rocket landings and the growing interest in on-the-spot resource prospecting?

 

 

 

 

Go to my new Space.com story:

Cold as (lunar) ice: Protecting the moon’s polar regions from contamination – Exploration should be done thoughtfully, scientists say

https://www.space.com/moon-ice-mining-contamination-concerns.html

 

Year by year, as the issue of orbital trash continues to unfold, how best to deal with management of space traffic becomes problematic. But where should the responsibility of space traffic management reside?

A new study — Space Traffic Management: Assessment of the Feasibility, Expected Effectiveness, and Funding Implications of a Transfer of Space Traffic Management – has been released by the National Academy of Public Administration (NAPA).

Complex underlying issues

“There is general agreement within the space community on actions that can address the complex underlying space traffic management issues facing the world of stakeholders deploying orbital assets. However, there are questions regarding where the responsibility for space traffic management should ultimately reside,” explains NAPA’s Teresa W. Gerton, President and Chief Executive Officer in a foreword to the report.

The NAPA report provides “clear recommendations” on how Congress and the stakeholder community “should expeditiously proceed to address the looming crisis in space. Taking prompt action will serve to greatly enhance important commercial and research enterprises connected with the endless expanse that lies above us,” Gerton adds.

Independent review

Thanks to the appropriations act for Fiscal Year (FY) 2020 in the Senate Amendment to H.R. 1158, Division B (116th Congress) appropriations were provided to the Department of Commerce (DOC) to contract with NAPA to conduct this independent review.

As noted in the over 120-page report: “There is a consensus across industry, academia, government, and the commercial sector that Congress must appropriate adequate funding for STM [Space Traffic Management]. The expectation is that investments and costs associated with carrying out this work should reflect specific outcomes: a safer space orbit, accountability for behaviors, and less risk.”

Furthermore, the report underscores the fact that the market that supports this outcome should be enterprising, accessible, and affordable.

Dynamic field

“Space commerce is a dynamic field,” the report stresses. “What it is today is not what it will be tomorrow and flexibilities regarding assuring appropriate funding requirements must also be fluid. The accelerated growth is at an aggressive pace as more actors enter into industry. The funding aspects for the civil agency to take a leading role in STM are just as critical.”

The NAPA appraisal focuses on four agency candidates “best suited” to take on the STM task: (1) the Office of Space Commerce (OSC), a part of National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) inside the Department of Commerce (DOC); (2) Office of Commercial Space Transportation (AST), part of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) inside the Department of Transportation (DOT); (3) NASA; or (4) the Department of Defense (DoD).

Safer space domain

“In light of the complexities and diversity of STM tasks and functions, it is difficult to conclude in a simple manner that there is one agency to take on this function,” the NAPA review explains. “There is a clear emphasis throughout this report, based on this assessment, that these and other agencies must continue to work collaboratively now, and in the future, to achieve a safer space domain.”

All that as prelude, the NAPA report utilized an evaluative criteria with an expert panel determining that (enter drum roll here) the Office of Space Commerce (OSC) — a part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) inside the Department of Commerce – is “best suited” to perform STM tasks within the federal government.

Urgent call

In a recent tweet, Secretary of Commerce, Wilbur Ross, said: “The findings of the Senior Panel highlight the urgent call to action needed to ensure a safe and sustainable space environment to support a thriving U.S. and global space economy. We look forward to working with the Congress to quickly advance this critical space mission.”

To read the full report — Space Traffic Management: Assessment of the Feasibility, Expected Effectiveness, and Funding Implications of a Transfer of Space Traffic Management — go to:

https://www.napawash.org/uploads/NAPA_OSC_Final_Report.pdf

Also, go to this excellent overview of the report and its implications by Marcia Smith at SpacePolicyOnline.com at:

https://spacepolicyonline.com/news/napa-endorses-office-of-space-commerce-for-space-traffic-management-role/

NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover is now carrying out Sol 2858 tasks.

Reports Michelle Minitti, a planetary geologist at Framework in Silver Spring, Maryland: “It was just a few short weeks ago that we acquired sample from the “Mary Anning” drill target.”

In those intervening weeks, Chemistry & Camera (ChemCam), the rover’s Chemistry & Mineralogy X-Ray Diffraction/X-Ray Fluorescence Instrument (CheMin), the Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer (APXS) and the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) “have all thoroughly investigated the resulting sample and drill hole, and found it compelling enough that we are ready to dig into the bedrock in our workspace again,” Minitti adds.

Other observations

A recent plan is focused on analyzing the “Mary Anning 2” drill target, but Mars researchers had enough time to fit in other observations as well.

“MAHLI will start the fun by imaging the second Mary Anning target before the Dust Removal Tool (DRT) brushes it to hopefully better resolve the laser spots from when ChemCam shot the target on Sol 2831.

Newly-cleaned place

“After DRT brushing, MAHLI will image the target again to give APXS a look at the newly-cleaned place it will analyze,” Minitti says. “Next, the rover engineers will push the drill bit into the target to see how the rock responds ahead of drilling.”

MAHLI is slated to image the target yet again to see what kind of impression, if any, the drill bit made in the rock.

Next sample

APXS has its chance to acquire data from within the DRT-cleaned area overnight on Sol 2858.

CheMin will also be getting ready for the next Mary Anning sample by running an analysis of the empty cell that is waiting to receive the sample.

“With all this arm activity right in front of the rover, ChemCam selected a target off to rover right called “Falkirk Wheel.” Falkirk Wheel appears to be another collection of dark nodules like the “Ayton” target analyzed by ChemCam, MAHLI, and APXS in previous plans,” Minitti adds.

Disappearance of drill tailings

Comparing and contrasting these targets, Minitti continues, will hopefully help scientists understand more about their origin.

A recent MAHLI image of the first Mary Anning drill hole shows the disappearance of the drill tailings around the hole.

Minitti says that makes it abundantly clear that winds are moving material around.

Kicking up dust devils?

Also on the plan, both the robot’s Mastcam and the Mars Descent Imager (MARDI) will acquire images aimed at tracking wind-induced changes.

“Mastcam will image a patch of ripples at the “Skelmorlie” target for comparison to previous images of that area,” Minitti explains. “MARDI will image three times – twice in the early evening and once early in the morning – to figure out when the winds are at their strongest.”

 

Are the winds kicking up dust devils? Navcam will acquire a movie to look for them.

Meanwhile, Curiosity’s Rover Environmental Monitoring Station (REMS), the Radiation Assessment Detector (RAD) and the Dynamic Albedo of Neutrons (DAN) dot the plan keeping their regular eyes on the state of the environment above and below the rover, Minitti concludes.

 

Sixty years ago today, on August 19, 1960 — Korabl-Sputnik 2 — a prototype of the Vostok piloted spacecraft, was launched into Earth orbit, with the dogs Belka and Strelka on board. This was the first orbital flight of living beings with a successful return to Earth.

Also onboard were mice, insects, plants, fungal crops, seeds, microbes and other biological objects. This was the first orbital flight of living beings with a successful return to Earth.

Canine expedition

In celebrating the occasion, Russia’s Roscosmos explains that Sergei Pavlovich Korolev – a key leader in Soviet space development, personally supervised the preparation of the expedition.

For the flight, a dozen dogs were on the candidate list: weight – up to 13 pounds (6 kilograms), height – up to 35 centimeters, age – from two to six years, and light in color.

Outbreds Belka and Strelka proved to be the best in the group.

Life support test

The purpose of the mission was to study the effect of space flight on living organisms, as well as to work out spacecraft life support systems and reentry to Earth.

The flight lasted more than 25 hours, during which time the ship made 17 complete revolutions around the Earth.

A “pupnik” gift

After the flight, the dogs lived in the Institute of Aviation and Space Medicine, from where they were showcased in kindergartens and schools.

A few months later Strelka gave birth to six healthy puppies.

One of them was presented to the wife of U.S. President John F. Kennedy, Jacqueline. Pushinka, Russian for “Fluffy,” was a “pupnik” of Strelka.

Belka and Strelka lived to a ripe old age and died a natural death. The journey of the pair of dogs made it possible to move forward on the possibility of human spaceflight around the Earth – the milestone making mission of Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin on April 12, 1961.

 

Japan’s en route Hayabusa2 re-entry capsule is headed for a December 6 parachute landing in the Woomera Prohibited Area in Australia.

Topped off with asteroid samples, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s (JAXA) capsule has been given landing clearance from the Australian Government – an Authorization of Return of Overseas-Launched Space Object, or AROLSO for short.

Asteroid specimens

Hayabusa2 has been spaceborne since its launch from Japan in December 2014 and is now chugging its way back to Earth via ion engine propulsion.

The capsule carries samples from a 4.5 billion year old asteroid. The space rock, asteroid Ryugu, was thoroughly investigated by the Japanese probe, dropping off mini-robots and gathering specimens of the object.

The sample collection is the first ever sub-surface asteroid specimens to be returned to Earth.

Japan/Australia partnership

Karen Andrews, Australia’s Minister for Industry, Science and Technology formally approved the return of JAXA’s Hayabusa2.

“I am delighted to have given the tick of approval for the Hayabusa2 to land at the Woomera Prohibited Area and am thrilled JAXA has chosen to partner with us on the capsule’s re-entry,” Minister Andrews said in a statement.

Extended mission?

After dropping off its capsule, the main body of Hayabusa2 will return to deep space.

As about half of the fuel (xenon) for the ion engine is expected to remain at this time, there is the potential to continue on to a new, extended mission.

Two candidate objects are on the target list: 2001 AV43 and 1998 KY26. Both of the space rocks are very small with diameters of a few tens of meters and are referred to as “fast rotators” due to their extremely rapid rotation period of just 10 minutes. An object with these characteristics has never been visited by spacecraft before.

The arrival of Hayabusa2 at 2001 AV43 is scheduled for November 2029, and the arrival at 1998 KY26 is slated for July 2031.

According to Hayabusa2 controllers: “This mission and the budget must be approved in order to actually proceed with the extended mission. After safely delivering the capsule to Earth, we look forward to moving onwards to new challenges!”

NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover is now carrying out Sol 2856 duties and in between drill holes.

Roger Wiens, a geochemist at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, explains that on this Earth day in Mars exploration history 15 years ago, Spirit was approaching the summit of a roughly 328 feet (100-meter) tall “Husband Hill” in “Gusev Crater,” which it conquered by the end of that month.

Meanwhile, Opportunity was analyzing targets named after various berries and fruits on its way to “Erebus” crater in Meridiani Planum, Wiens says.

“At that point in time, Curiosity was little more than a gleam in a lot of engineers’ eyes and a pile of engineering drawings, Wiens adds. “You’ve come a long way, baby!”

Second drill hole

A new plan directs the rover’s arm to investigate a target off to the side of the first drill hole and prepare for eventual analysis of a second drill hole.

The robot’s Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) Instrument Suite is slated to do a cleaning of gas chromatograph #4 along with collecting diagnostic information.

The rover’s Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam) will do a 10-point laser raster on “Tom Molach,” and Mastcam will image this target.

Curiosity’s Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer (APXS) is also set to do an overnight integration on “Ayton,” and the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) is scheduled to image the target.

 

Dark nodules

“It is on the same block as the drill hole and is characterized by some dark nodules that were observed several times with ChemCam. The Hazcams will take several images, Mastcam will take a sun tau image and a crater rim extinction image, and Navcam will take a movie looking for dust devils,” Wiens notes.

Lastly, the Rover Environmental Monitoring Station (REMS) and the Radiation Assessment Detector (RAD) are on tap to also take data.

 

 

Dates of planned rover activities are subject to change due to a variety of factors related to the Martian environment, communication relays and rover status.

 

 

If you are an Unidentified Flying Object and alien visitation or abduction fan, it’s manna from heaven.

Videos showing Navy pilots encountering mysterious spherical objects publicly emerged in 2017 and 2018.

The videos were made public due to New York Times reporting and the efforts by To The Stars Academy – a research, development and media center for cutting edge science and technology. The Academy released first official U.S. government evidence and an analysis of unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP).

 

One of the UAP videos was taken in November 2004; the other two were shot in January 2015 – all captured by Navy F/A-18 Super Hornets with pilots utilizing Forward-Looking Infrared, or FLIR technology – hardware that detects heat and creates images.

The three outed UAP videos are tagged “FLIR1,” “Gimbal,” and “GoFast.”

 

 

Task force

Last week, the U.S. Department of Defense announced creation of a task force to analyze and understand the “nature and origins” of UAPs. The Department of the Navy, under the cognizance of the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence and Security, will lead the Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAP) Task Force (UAPTF).

The mission of the UAPTF “is to detect, analyze and catalog UAPs that could potentially pose a threat to U.S. national security,” the DoD states.

So take that…all you disbelievers that Earth isn’t on the receiving end of UFOs skimming and shimmering through our skies.

But before you set up greeting signs and start tossing out welcome mats, I asked some UFO specialists their views.

Cautiously optimistic

“The formation of a task force on UFOs is another welcome development in the recent renewed interest and attention to these reports by government agencies and political actors,” says Mark Rodeghier, President and Scientific Director of the J. Allen Hynek Center for UFO Studies in Chicago, Illinois.

Rodeghier adds that without further details it is impossible to judge how well positioned the task force will be to seriously investigate reports, “but I remain cautiously optimistic for now.”

While Rodeghier understands the need for secrecy, “I would hope that as much information as possible is released to the public so we can all be informed on this potentially world-shattering subject,” he told Inside Outer Space.

Non-extraterrestrial reasons

“I have no doubt that military intelligence services around the world have always been interested in ‘UFO reports’ — whether or not a real ‘unexplainable’ phenomenon is  behind a few of them.”

That’s the view of Jim Oberg, noted space journalist, historian and a debunker of a slew of UFO sightings. He’s an admitted “life-long space nut” and professional “rocket scientist” that includes 20-plus years at NASA’s Johnson Space Center’s mission control in Houston, Texas.

There are a lot of non-extraterrestrial reasons why the Defense Department needs to be interested in “UFO reports,” Oberg suggests.

— First, identify and ameliorate instrumental ‘funnies’ in new sensory technology to make sure we don’t accidentally misinterpret [or overlook] future readings.

— Second, determine how detection “funnies” might be deliberately induced by hackers and real enemies, and what we can do to frustrate such efforts.

— Third, deliberately induce anomalous targets into the range of our own new detection/tracking technology to determine realistic reliability level of existing situational awareness systems.

— Fourth, test enemy detection systems with deliberate pokes to identify exploitatable weaknesses.

— Fifth, assess which reports from in or near potentially enemy nations are indicators of their classified military testing and operations that we need insight into.

— Sixth, at home and elsewhere in the world, determine which detections accidentally reveal highly classified operations of our own which might be revealed to enemy nations who are also looking for such indications, so as to improve our masking, misdirection, and stealthiness.

— Seventh, in so far as observations of UFO reports from adversary nations are indicators of leaked observable clues to military capabilities, do nothing to provoke such regimes from curtailing their own news media coverage of the “pseudo-UFOs.” Never announce how such, to-them innocent news items, can be exploited.

— Eighth, in so far as our own domestic UFO reports may be authentic indicators of classified military activities, purposefully create camouflage and masking reports to distract, confuse, or lull foreign observers and analysts.

Observation and detection technologies

“Perceptive observers of the UFO scene over the last two thirds of a century have noted a tell-tale feature of the evolution of reports,” Oberg says, “their nature has been changing, keeping uncanny pace with the progress in human observation and detection technologies.”

Oberg adds that, year by year, the “old UFOs” fade away just before the advent of new technologies that would have unambiguously documented them come on line, to be replaced by a new flavor of “anomalies” that precisely match the limits of vision of new technologies.

Not open-ended and ongoing

“I don’t think this [the task force] is as significant as some people are suggesting,” says Robert Sheaffer, writer and UFO skeptic. “It’s just a response to all the publicity generated by ‘To The Stars’ leaking the three Navy infrared videos, which the Pentagon later released.”

In the military, a “Task Force” is something that is put together to deal with a specific situation or problem, Sheaffer says. It is expected to produce a report and recommendations concerning that issue, and is disbanded when its work is complete.

“So this is not something open-ended and ongoing, like Project Blue Book. It does not suggest an ongoing government interest in unidentified objects,” Sheaffer observes. Conducted by the United States Air Force, Project Blue Book appraised the UFO situation starting in 1952 and officially closing down in 1970.

Intruding into their sandbox

On aviation maps, “Military Operations Areas” (MOAs) are clearly designated, which civilian aircraft are generally supposed to avoid, Sheaffer points out.

Most of the recent Pentagon comments about “unidentified objects” mention “range incursions,” Sheaffer adds,  i.e. unknown objects that seem to be entering one of these MOAs.

“So it seems that the military is worried about unidentified objects that might be intruding into their sandbox. If unidentified objects turn up elsewhere, the military doesn’t care,” Sheaffer says. “The ‘Tic Tac’ and ‘Gimble’ videos appear to show distant jets, which are probably well outside the MOA, quite far away. The military is investigating out of an abundance of caution, and a sensitivity to criticism,” he concludes.

Temper expectations

Sarah Scoles is author of the newly published and engaging book, They Are Already Here: UFO Culture and Why We See Saucers (Pegasus Books).

“First, I’d say that the establishment of a task force to investigate and understand UAP makes sense and could, if done systematically and scientifically and transparently, provide data useful in interpreting pilots’ sightings,” Scoles told Inside Outer Space. And it also makes sense, she says, that the Department of Defense — whose job it is to, of course, protect the U.S. from threats — is undertaking this endeavor.

“However, I think those expecting big, exotic conclusions from the task force would do well to temper their expectations. If you look at what the official announcement actually says, it’s not quite as extraordinary as it might seem at first glance,” Scoles points out.

Boundary-crossing objects

Last week’s DoD release, Scoles adds, uses language similar to that of other, previous statements about Unidentified Aerial Phenomena. A September 2019 statement from Joseph Gradisher, spokesman for the deputy chief of naval operations for information warfare defining “UAP” reads, “The ‘Unidentified Aerial Phenomena’ terminology is used because it provides the basic descriptor for the sightings/observations of unauthorized/unidentified aircraft/objects entering/operating in the airspace of various military-controlled training ranges.”

Scoles adds that “UAP” technically could include aircraft or objects that are simply unauthorized, as well as aircraft or objects that cannot be immediately identified. “That means that, if a pilot sees something they cannot explain, but someone else explains it a few hours later, it could still fall under the definition of UAP.”

The task force press release uses very similar wording to talk about DoD interest.

“It very specifically states that the DoD is concerned with boundary-crossing by objects that are–right when an observer sees them—unidentified,” says Scoles. “It says nothing so specific about objects that remain forever unidentified and mysterious. It certainly says nothing nor implies anything about alien aircraft.”

But, like all things UFO, Scoles concludes, “vague and somewhat weaselly wording leaves enough room for people to interpret this latest development very differently.”

Video: The Pentagon has declassified three previously leaked top secret U.S. Navy videos that show “unexplained aerial phenomena.”

To view a UAP, go to:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VUrTsrhVce4

 

 

New research shows that exhaust from lunar landers can rapidly spread around the Moon and potentially contaminate scientifically vital ices at the lunar poles.

Native ices sequestered in the Moon’s poleward craters — ices that may date back several billion years — will need to be carefully considered during increased efforts to return humans to the Moon.

Study results have been led by scientists at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland, published in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets.

Origin of water

Parvathy Prem, a researcher at APL and the lead author on the study, explains that there are few places where researchers can find traces of the origin of water in the inner solar system.

Reading that record requires measuring the composition of those ices as well as their various isotopes to deduce where they likely came from and how they may have gotten there.

Frozen-out exhaust gases from robotic or human exploration that collect on those ices, Prem adds, could confound those measurements, even if the lander touches down hundreds of miles away.

Global impact

“The interesting thing about Parvathy’s work is that it shows very well that the effect, while small and temporary, is global,” said Dana Hurley, a planetary scientist at APL and coauthor on the study, in an APL statement.

Computer simulations of water vapor emitted by a 2,650-pound (1,200-kilogram) lander — about a quarter of the dry mass of the Apollo lunar module — touching down near the Moon’s south pole showed exhaust takes only a few hours to disperse around the entire Moon. From 30% to 40% of the vapor persisted in the lunar atmosphere and surface two months later, and roughly 20% would ultimately freeze out near the poles a few months after that.

 

If the Moon landing spacecraft is heavier, or lands closer to the poles, its influence on the lunar surface and atmosphere may be more significant.

Fate of exhaust gases

Follow-up work should include measuring the amount of exhaust that’s around the Moon during and after future landings, Prem said, which would help narrow in on an answer to how much these exhaust gases “stick” to the surface. “But I would also suggest that modeling and monitoring the fate of exhaust gases should be a routine part of lunar mission development and planning.”

“Whether we intend to or not, we’re going to do this experiment of bringing exhaust gases with us,” Prem said.

It’s now a matter of deciding how we deal with them.

The paper — The Evolution of a Spacecraft‐Generated Lunar Exosphere – is available here at:

https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1029/2020JE006464