Archive for the ‘Space News’ Category
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March 29th, 2020
Researchers compared results of asteroid deflection simulations to experimental data.
Credit: Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL)
Thwarting an incoming asteroid that has Earth in its crosshairs will mean deflecting or disrupting the hazardous object.
Already on the books is the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission in 2021 – the first-ever kinetic impact deflection demonstration on a near-Earth asteroid.
“We’re preparing for something that has a very low probability of happening in our lifetimes, but a very high consequence if it were to occur,” says Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) physicist Tané Remington. “Time will be the enemy if we see something headed our way one day. We may have a limited window to deflect it, and we will want to be certain that we know how to avert disaster.”
DART mission schematic shows the impact on the moonlet of asteroid (65803) Didymos. Post-impact observations from Earth-based optical telescopes and planetary radar would, in turn, measure the change in the moonlet’s orbit about the parent body.
Also shown is planned ride-along CubeSat, the Italian Space Agency’s Light Italian CubeSat for Imaging of Asteroid (LICIACube).
Credits: NASA/Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Lab
DART mission
The findings of a new study by Remington and colleagues is titled “Numerical Simulations of Laboratory‐Scale, Hypervelocity‐Impact Experiments for Asteroid‐Deflection Code Validation.” The work identified sensitivities in the code parameters that can help researchers working to design a modeling plan for the DART mission.
The DART mission is being developed and led for NASA by the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory. NASA’s Planetary Defense Coordination Office is the lead for planetary defense activities and is sponsoring the DART mission.
Illustration of the DART spacecraft with the Roll Out Solar Arrays (ROSA) extended.
Credit: NASA
The DART spacecraft will launch in late July of 2021. The target is a binary (two asteroids orbiting each other) near-Earth asteroid named Didymos that is being intensely observed using telescopes on Earth to precisely measure its properties before impact.
The DART spacecraft will deliberately crash into the smaller moonlet in the binary asteroid – dubbed Didymoon – in September of 2022 at a speed of approximately 6.6 km/s.
The collision will change the speed of the moonlet in its orbit around the main body by a fraction of one percent, but this will change the orbital period of the moonlet by several minutes – enough to be observed and measured using telescopes on Earth.
Code confidence
But understanding how multiple variables might affect a kinetic deflection attempt relies upon large-scale hydrodynamic simulations thoroughly vetted against relevant laboratory‐scale experiments.
However, do we know our codes are correct?
The new study investigated the accuracy of the codes by comparing simulation results to the data from a 1991 laboratory experiment conducted at Kyoto University in Japan where a hypervelocity projectile impacted a basalt sphere target.
“In an effort to gain confidence in our codes, this work compares our simulation results to data from a well‐known laboratory‐scale experiment to assess the accuracy of our models,” the LLNL planetary defense research team explains. “We find that our code can produce results that closely resemble the experimental findings, giving assurance to the planetary defense community that our code can correctly simulate asteroid or comet mitigation.”
Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins APL
Momentum transfer
“This study suggests that the DART mission will impart a smaller momentum transfer than previously calculated,” said Mike Owen, LLNL physicist, coauthor on the paper and developer of the “Spheral” code – an adaptive smoothed-particle hydrodynamics code.
“If there were an Earthbound asteroid, underestimating momentum transfer could mean the difference between a successful deflection mission and an impact. It’s critical we get the right answer. Having real world data to compare to is like having the answer in the back of the book,” Owen says in a LLNL statement.
To read the full paper – “Numerical Simulations of Laboratory‐Scale, Hypervelocity‐Impact Experiments for Asteroid‐Deflection Code Validation” – slated for publication in the April issue of the American Geophysical Union journal Earth and Space Science, go to:
https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1029/2018EA000474
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Credit: NASA
Bye-bye, miss american pie: The U.S. Congress and President Trump have sealed a $2 trillion+ stimulus deal stimulated by the on-going COVID-19 crisis that’s impacted all aspects of the U.S. economy, including America’s civil space program.
Let’s layer those transmissible woes on top of projected NASA intentions to shape a human return to the Moon by 2024 – and shoving off to Mars as a future objective.
That’s the background for reaching out to two key space policy gurus in Washington, D.C.
NASA’s Artemis return humans to the Moon by 2024 program.
Credit: NASA
What now?
“Setting the end of 2024 for getting back to the Moon was always arbitrary,” explains John Logsdon, Professor Emeritus of Political Science and International Affairs at the Space Policy Institute, Elliott School of International Affairs at George Washington University in Washington, D.C.
“With the current health crisis situation and the stand down of the Artemis team, it makes absolutely no sense to continue to push for that date,” Logsdon told Inside Outer Space.
A much more fundamental issue, Logsdon added, “is whether the White House, the Congress, and indeed the U.S. public will continue, as we emerge from this trauma, to support human space exploration in the face of unprecedented demands on the government budget.”
U.S. President Trump signing brings back the National Space Council and puts America on a return to the Moon path.
Credit: White House
The big ask
Requesting $71 billion over the next five years to go back to the Moon by 2024, a politically-inspired date, on top of everything else NASA does, was a big ask to begin with, says Marcia Smith, founder and editor of SpacePolicyOnline.com.
“In the current climate, with trillions – that’s with a t – being spent to keep the country afloat economically, I think it will be a bridge too far,” Smith told Inside Outer Space.
“Generally speaking, Congress loves NASA, and space exploration, so I don’t think the goal will change, but almost certainly the timeline,” Smith said.
NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover is currently performing Sol 2717 tasks.
At last report, the Edinburgh drill campaign continues.
A sampling of new images from the Red Planet robot:
Curiosity Front Hazard Avoidance Camera Right B image taken on Sol 2716, March 27, 2020.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Curiosity Mast Camera Left image acquired on Sol 2715, March 26, 2020.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
Curiosity Chemistry & Camera remote micro-imager (RMI) telescope photo taken on Sol 2715, March 26, 2020.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/LANL
Curiosity Mast Camera Right photo acquired on Sol 2715, March 26, 2020.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
Prominent crossbedding is shown in this Curiosity Chemistry & Camera remote micro-imager (RMI) telescope photo taken on Sol 2715, March 26, 2020.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/LANL
China’s new-generation piloted spaceship being readied for test flight next month.
Credit: CCTV/Inside Outer Space screen grab
China’s prototype of a new-generation piloted spaceship is scheduled to launch with no crew in mid to late April on the maiden flight of the Long March-5B carrier rocket, a variant of the Long March-5.
The spacecraft is being readied for launch at the Wenchang Space Launch Center, Hainan Province.
Credit: CCTV/Inside Outer Space screen grab
The spacecraft is being developed for the operation of China’s space station and future human space exploration missions. It will be larger than China’s current Shenzhou piloted spaceship and is reusable.
Credit: CCTV/Inside Outer Space screen grab
With a length of 29 feet (8.8 meters) and a takeoff weight of 21.6 tons, the spaceship will be able to carry six astronauts. It is designed for safety and reliability, and can adapt to multiple tasks, such as carrying a cargo payload over 1,100 pounds (500 kilograms) with a crew of three.
Credit: CCTV/Inside Outer Space screen grab
Parachutes and airbags
According to China’s Xinhua news agency, the new spacecraft comprises a service capsule and a return capsule. The return capsule is reusable and is expected to be reused around 10 times.
China has developed the Tianzhou cargo spacecraft for its space station, but it cannot return to Earth. The new spacecraft could return with cargoes such as scientific experiments samples and products made in space.
Credit: CCTV/Inside Outer Space screen grab
An aspect of the upcoming mission is testing the spacecraft’s landing process that utilizes multiple parachutes and airbags.
Take a look at this China Central Television (CCTV) video showing China’s new generation spacecraft at:
https://youtu.be/ucJCeT7l2cc?list=PLpGTA7wMEDFjz0Zx93ifOsi92FwylSAS3
Curiosity Chemistry & Camera Remote Micro Imager (RMI) photo taken on Sol 2715, March 26, 2020.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/LANL
NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover is now performing Sol 2716 duties.
Curiosity Chemistry & Camera Remote Micro Imager (RMI) photo taken on Sol 2715, March 26, 2020.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/LANL
Reports Fred Calef, a planetary geologist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory:
As the Edinburgh drill campaign continues, and the Chemistry & Mineralogy X-Ray Diffraction/X-Ray Fluorescence Instrument (CheMin) instrument awaits the first taste of the bedrock in front of the rover, the science team is focused on filling out Greenheugh pediment observations as well as responding to early results they’ve already received.
“Having multiple observations of the same rocks and expanding datasets to cover more area helps put high value results from the drill campaign in context,” Calef adds. “We don’t get to do this too often, except when we stop for a few sols.”
Curiosity Chemistry & Camera Remote Micro Imager (RMI) telescope image acquired on Sol 2715, March 26, 2020.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/LANL
Interesting chemistry
Curiosity Chemistry & Camera Remote Micro Imager (RMI) telescope image acquired on Sol 2715, March 26, 2020.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/LANL
Also, it makes sense, Calef continues, to keep the other instruments busy and get the most science we can while we wait for instruments like the Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) Instrument Suite and CheMin to process data, which usually takes a few days (it’s complicated!).
“On sol 2715, after finding some interesting chemistry on target “Eaglesham,” it would’ve been a shame if we didn’t take another look!,” Calef notes.
A Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam) observation called “Eaglesham2” takes a vertical sample over the crossbedding (rock layers that intersect by angle) in that rock.
Curiosity Chemistry & Camera Remote Micro Imager (RMI) telescope image acquired on Sol 2715, March 26, 2020.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/LANL
There will also be ChemCam shots into the drill hole to sample ever so slightly below the surface, including an Remote Micro Imager (RMI) Z-stack (makes a very clear image).
Washboard-like pattern
“Mastcam will takes some images of these targets too. There’s great interest to document the washboard-like pattern we see from orbit on the Greenheugh pediment as well as the prominent ridge on top of it, since we have such a unique and amazing view,” Calef points out.
Curiosity Front Hazard Avoidance Camera Left B image taken on Sol 2715, March 26, 2020.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Curiosity’s ChemCam will take more long distance Remote Micro Imager (RMI) telescope images of the washboard pattern and the interface between the ridge and the washboard, which is called “Skelkirkshire.”
“Skelkirkshire shows layers of boulders and probable light-toned sandstones, which tells us something about how the ridge formed,” Calef reports.
Deimos imaging
CheMin is slated to get its first Edinburgh sample portion.
The robot’s Radiation Assessment Detector (RAD), the Dynamic Albedo of Neutrons (DAN) and the Rover Environmental Monitoring Station (REMS) are making observations too.
Curiosity Front Hazard Avoidance Camera Left B photo acquired on Sol 2714, March 25, 2020.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
“On Sol 2716, we get a chance to image Mars’ dreadful moon Deimos with Mastcam and extend previously taken mosaics across the Greenheugh pediment ridge and surrounding bedrock in front of us,” Calef concludes. “Atmospheric observations include Mastcam tau (measures dust in the martian air), crater rim extinction, Navcam super horizon cloud search, and REMS observations for temperatures, winds, and pressure. Just like our rover instruments, stay safe and healthy!”
Credit: NASA/JPL
If all goes as scheduled for NASA’s Mars 2020 mission, a first-time experiment for the Red Planet is the production of on-the-spot oxygen.
The Mars Oxygen In-Situ Resource Utilization Experiment (MOXIE) represents the first time that NASA is demonstrating In-Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU) on the surface of another planetary body. MOXIE will produce oxygen from atmospheric carbon dioxide on Mars.
To predict performance of MOXIE but avoid subjecting flight hardware to unsafe conditions, a dynamic model has been developed that simulates MOXIE’s operation on Mars. The approach became a fast and inexpensive way to test MOXIE. Also, the modeling of this instrument is similarly unique. The results of this model have been validated against data from Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s MOXIE testbed activities.
Mars Oxygen In-Situ Resource Utilization Experiment (MOXIE) schematic.
Credit: Hinterman and Hoffman
Core technology
MOXIE modeling is detailed in a recent paper: “Simulating oxygen production on Mars for the Mars Oxygen In-Situ Resource Utilization Experiment,” written by Eric Hinterman of the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and former astronaut, Jeffrey A. Hoffman, an MIT professor in the department and a director of the Human Systems Laboratory. Hoffman is also MOXIE’s Deputy Principal Investigator.
“The team has conducted a significant amount of testing on MOXIE over the past few years that has brought its core technology a long way,” Hinterman told Inside Outer Space. “Demonstrating it on Mars is a valuable proof of concept, but the real learnings have come during the development process here on Earth!”
MOXIE is roughly 0.5% of the scale that would be necessary to produce oxygen for breathing and utilization as a propellant for a human Mars mission, Hinterman and Hoffman explain in their paper. On Mars, the hardware will produce greater than 99.6% pure oxygen through solid oxide electrolysis.
MOXIE, an inside/outside look.
Credit: Hinterman and Hoffman
MATLAB
A dynamic model was developed that simulates MOXIE’s operation. Simulink, a package contained within the MATLAB programming language, was chosen as a convenient way to build a dynamic representation of MOXIE.
MATLAB (matrix laboratory) is a special app that makes it easy for users to create and edit technical work.
The MOXIE model is a combination of theoretical and empirical values regarding the gas flows, thermal transfers, electrochemistry, and control loops that are representative of the true MOXIE system.
In addition, a graphical user interface (GUI) was developed to allow members of the MOXIE science team to easily understand and operate the complex model.
Humans on Mars – the reach for the Red Planet.
Credit: Boeing
Fill-er-up
“MOXIE is an important step in the effort to put humans on Mars,” explain Hoffman and Hinterman. “It will demonstrate the usefulness of the Martian atmosphere in producing oxygen for rocket propellant. This application of ISRU on Mars is critical to reducing the cost of a human mission to the planet, one of the main barriers that is faced by human exploration of space today,” they note.
In a JPL posting, Michael Hecht, MOXIE’s Principal Investigator at MIT adds: “When we send humans to Mars, we will want them to return safely, and to do that they need a rocket to lift off the planet. Liquid oxygen propellant is something we could make there and not have to bring with us. One idea would be to bring an empty oxygen tank and fill it up on Mars.”
To find out more on “Simulating oxygen production on Mars for the Mars Oxygen In-Situ Resource Utilization Experiment,” go to Acta Astronautica, Volume 170, May 2020, Pages 678-685 at:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0094576520301168
Curiosity Chemistry & Camera Remote Micro Imager (RMI) telescope photo taken on Sol 2713, March 24, 2020.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/LANL
Curiosity’s drill successfully dug into the “Edinburgh” target over last weekend, reports Michelle Minitti, a planetary geologist at Framework in Silver Spring, Maryland, “the first sandstone the drill has attempted to conquer since the engineering team hacked a new drilling method back in 2018.”
Curiosity Chemistry & Camera Remote Micro Imager (RMI) telescope photo taken on Sol 2713, March 24, 2020.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/LANL
Minitti adds that it is now time for Curiosity to check her work! “Curiosity will drop three small portions of rock powder from the drill onto various rover surfaces, and then Mastcam will image those portions.”
This is a good way to check the sample in the drill before it is delivered to Chemistry & Mineralogy X-Ray Diffraction/X-Ray Fluorescence Instrument (CheMin) and the rover’s Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) Instrument Suite (SAM).
Main goal
Portion characterization is the main goal of the plan, but the science team added other observations to the plan. ChemCam hit a slight hiccup on the last sol of the weekend plan, but one that was straightforward to recover from at the start of a new plan, Minitti points out.
Curiosity Mast Camera Right photo acquired on Sol 2712, March 23, 2020.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
ChemCam will first recover observations from the weekend including a passive spectral observation of the Edinburgh drill tailings piled up around the drill hole, and a long distance Remote Micro Imager (RMI) telescope mosaic across the “Greenheugh pediment” target “Three Lochs.”
Mosaics
“ChemCam will then get an analysis from its titanium calibration target. Navcam will acquire a mosaic covering the top of the pediment and Mt. Sharp to enable the team to target future Mastcam and ChemCam observations as far as our rover eyes can see,” Minitti says.
Curiosity Right B Navigation Camera image taken on Sol 2713, March 24, 2020.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
The skies are getting plenty of attention, as well.
“Navcam will acquire movies looking for dust devils at two different times of day,” Minitti concludes, “as well as images to consistently monitor the amount of dust in the atmosphere. Navcam will also throw in a movie looking for clouds for good measure!”
NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover is now carrying out Sol 2713 tasks.
New imagery shows the rover’s drill operation on Edinburgh bedrock and surrounding views:
Curiosity Mast Camera Left image taken on Sol 2711, March 22, 2020.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
Curiosity Mast Camera Left image taken on Sol 271, March 22, 2020
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
Curiosity Mast Camera Right image acquired on Sol 2711, March 22, 2020.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
Curiosity Right B Navigation Camera image taken on Sol 2712, March 23, 2020.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Curiosity Right B Navigation Camera photo taken on Sol 2712, March 23, 2020.
NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover is now performing Sol 2712 tasks.
This selfie was taken by NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover on Feb. 26, 2020 (the 2,687th Martian day, or sol, of the mission). The crumbling rock layer at the top of the image is the Greenheugh Pediment, which Curiosity climbed soon after taking the image.
Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS.
A three Sol weekend centered on drilling target “Edinburgh” and several Sol 2712 images reflect that activity:
Curiosity Front Hazard Avoidance Camera Left B image taken on Sol 2711, March 22, 2020.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Curiosity Front Hazard Avoidance Camera Left B image taken on Sol 2711, March 22, 2020.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Curiosity Front Hazard Avoidance Camera Left B image taken on Sol 2711, March 22, 2020.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Curiosity Left B Navigation Camera photo taken on Sol 2711, March 22, 2020.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Curiosity Right B Navigation Camera image taken on Sol 2710, March 21, 2020.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Curiosity Right B Navigation Camera image taken on Sol 2710, March 21, 2020.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Curiosity Right B Navigation Camera image taken on Sol 2710, March 21, 2020.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Dear Neil Armstrong – Letters to the First Man from All Mankind by James R. Hansen, Purdue University Press; October 2019; Hardback; 400 pages, $34.99.
This is a wonderful book, documenting the over-whelming amount of cards and letters received by Neil Armstrong, the first human to set foot on the Moon in July 1969.
Within 7 chapters, Hansen has selectively sampled and edited the world’s outpouring of praise, but also the type of requests Armstrong received, be it for photographs or his autograph, to invites to talk to school classes with the proviso he bring some equipment. One letter asked for a pair of his old glasses, regardless of their condition, to be placed in the Famous People’s Eye Glasses Museum.
“In choosing which messages to include, I have done my best to put myself in the frame of mind of Neil Armstrong and the kind of goodwill messages that would likely have impressed him the most in July 1969 as well as today,” the author writes in the book’s preface.
There’s a thoughtful foreword by astronaut Al Worden (who died just a few days ago), noting that “without a doubt the ability to keep a cool head is a preeminent characteristic of great test pilots…Neil Armstrong certainly demonstrated that as witnessed by the way he both saved Gemini 8 and landed the lunar module on July 20, 1969.”
Hansen points out that there isn’t an exact count of the number of letters, telegrams and cards Armstrong received from all over the globe. In one chapter, the author underscores the communiqués from people living in the Soviet Union and Eastern Bloc – though most Soviets were unaware of their own Moon mission failures to plant footprints of cosmonauts on the lunar landscape, yet unabashedly praised Armstrong for the heroic accomplishment.
I personally found the chapter “Reluctantly Famous” quite revealing. “Neil hated the iconography that came to surround and define him,” Hansen writes. “He did his best to correct and deflect the epic and monumental elements that society and culture built into his legacy, which he knew greatly distorted who he actually was…”
The volume includes an appendix “Secretaries, Assistants, and Administrative Aides for Neil Armstrong, 1969-2012” and a notes section that adds clarity to that puzzling “one small step for “a” man” historic declaration from humankind’s first moonwalker.
An expert in aerospace history and the history of science and technology, Hansen has published numerous books, including the seminal First Man: The Life of Neil A. Armstrong the only authorized biography of Neil Armstrong and a book that spent three weeks as a New York Times Best Seller in 2005 and 2018 and garnered a number of major book awards.
Once again, the reader of this book will find a very satisfying, unique appreciation of not only Armstrong, but also the impact that the momentous first Moon landing had on the world community of onlookers.
For more information on this book, go to:
http://www.thepress.purdue.edu/titles/format/9781557538741
Also, take a look at this informative author interview from CBS News This Morning at:
