Archive for the ‘Space News’ Category
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January 3rd, 2020
Doctor’s long-distance call. Stephan Moll and a team of NASA doctors prescribed blood clot treatment.
Credit: UNC School of Medicine
An unidentified astronaut aboard the International Space Station had a deep vein thrombosis (DVT) – or blood clot – in the jugular vein of their neck.
The astronaut’s identity is being kept anonymous for privacy reasons, so identifying information such as when this event happened is being omitted from the case study. The astronaut was two months into a six-month mission on the ISS when the DVT was discovered.
This was the first time a blood clot had been found in an astronaut in space, so there was no established method of treatment for DVT in zero gravity.
Blood clot expert
One of the experts brought in by NASA to treat the situation was blood clot expert Stephan Moll, MD, professor of medicine at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine, Chapel Hill. Moll was the only non-NASA physician NASA consulted.
Moll and a team of NASA doctors decided blood thinners would be the best course of treatment for the astronaut. They were limited in their pharmaceutical options, however.
The ISS keeps only a small supply of various medicines on board, and there was a limited amount of the blood thinner Enoxaparin (Lovenox®) available. Moll advised NASA on what dosage of Enoxaparin would effectively treat the DVT while also lasting long enough, until NASA could get a new shipment of drugs – which Moll helped select – to the ISS.
Treatment process
The course of treatment with Enoxaparin – a drug delivered by an injection into the skin – lasted for around 40 days. On day 43 of the astronaut’s treatment, a supply of Apixaban (Eliquis®) – a pill taken orally– was delivered to the ISS by a supply spacecraft.
Throughout the treatment process, which lasted more than 90 days, the astronaut performed ultrasounds on their own neck with guidance from a radiology team on Earth in order to monitor the blood clot. Moll was also able to speak to the astronaut during this period through email and phone calls.
Credit: NASA
The astronaut landed safely on Earth and the blood clot required no further treatment.
More research needed
Somewhat ironically, the DVT was discovered when the astronaut was taking ultrasounds of their neck for a research study on how body fluid is redistributed in zero gravity. If it wasn’t for the study, there’s no telling what the outcome could have been. Moll says there’s a need for more research of how blood and blood clots behave in space.
“Is this something that is more common in space?” posed Moll in a UNC Health Care and UNC School of Medicine press statement.
Credit: NASA
“How do you minimize risk for DVT? Should there be more medications for it kept on the ISS? All of these questions need answering, especially with the plan that astronauts will embark on longer missions to the Moon and Mars,” Moll points out.
Credit: NASA
Moll co-wrote a case study on the successful treatment that has been published in the New England Journal of Medicine. That case study – “Venous Thrombosis during Spaceflight” — can be found here:
https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMc1905875?query=featured_home
Video Note: You could call it the ultimate telemedicine. A UNC expert enlisted by NASA to help treat an astronaut during a mission on the International Space Station. Hear about the experience from Dr. Stephan Moll in his own words.
Go to: https://youtu.be/DjDdSxxyMaY
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China’s champion – long duration Yutu-2 rover.
Credit: CNSA/CLEP
China’s farside lander and lunar rover, Yutu-2, have ended their work for the 13th lunar day on Thursday (Beijing time). The lunar twosome switched to dormant mode for the lunar night, according to the Lunar Exploration and Space Program Center of the China National Space Administration (CNSA).
Credit: CNSA/CLEP
The country’s Chang’e-4 probe was launched on December 8, 2018, making the first-ever soft landing on the Von Kármán crater in the South Pole-Aitken Basin on the farside of the Moon on January 3, 2019.
Friday marks the one-year anniversary of the lunar landing of the Chang’e-4 probe.
China’s Chang’e-4 lander as viewed by Yutu-2 rover.
Credit: CNSA/CLEP
Longest-working lunar rover
China’s Xinhua news agency notes that the rover has driven 1,173 feet (357.695 meters) on the farside of the Moon to conduct scientific exploration of the territory. Yutu-2, or Jade Rabbit-2, has worked much longer than its three-month design life, becoming the longest-working lunar rover.
Yutu-2 rover as imaged by Chang’e-4 lander earlier in the farside mission.
Credit: CNSA/CLEP
“The scientific instruments on the lander and rover worked as planned. The rover conducted explorations of several sites and photographed and conducted an infrared detection of a stone on the lunar surface, said the center,” explains the Xinhua story.
Image of Mons Tai, a hill near “Statio Tianhe”, the landing site of China’s Chang’e-4 lunar probe.
Credit: CNSA
The landing site of the probe has been named “Statio Tianhe.” “Tianhe” is the Chinese word for the Milky Way and “Statio” is Latin for base.
Using data obtained by the visible and near-infrared spectrometer installed on Yutu-2, Chinese scientists found that the lunar soil in the landing area of the Chang’e-4 probe contains olivine and pyroxene which came from the lunar mantle deep inside the Moon.
Slow but steady
“Due to the complicated geological environment and the rugged and heavily cratered terrain on the farside of the Moon, the rover drives slowly but steadily and is expected to continue traveling on the Moon and make more scientific discoveries,” Xinhua notes.
Credit: CNSA
In order to provide a communication link between the farside of the Moon and the ground control, China sent the relay satellite Queqiao, or Magpie Bridge, into the halo orbit around the second Lagrangian point of the earth-moon system, nearly 500,000 kilometers from the Earth.
Relay satellite cooperation
Zhang Lihua, chief designer of the Queqiao, said the satellite has been working well and is able to continue its operation for another 10 years.
“We will let the Queqiao work as long as possible. It could also provide communication for probes from other countries if they intend to explore the Moon’s farside within the lifetime of the satellite,” Ye Peijian, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and a senior space expert, said earlier.
Drawing of Chang’e-5 lunar sample return craft.
Credit: CNSA
Scientific tasks
The scientific tasks of the Chang’e-4 mission include conducting low-frequency radio astronomical observations, surveying the terrain and landforms, detecting the mineral composition and shallow lunar surface structure and measuring neutron radiation and neutral atoms.
The Chang’e-4 mission also involves four payloads developed by the Netherlands, Germany, Sweden and Saudi Arabia.
China’s next step in its lunar exploration program is the Chang’e-5 lunar probe, weighing roughly 8.2 tons. That mission is expected to be launched in 2020 and is designed to haul back to Earth lunar samples weighing 4.4 pounds (2 kilograms).
Curiosity’s workspace at the top of Western Butte for the next few sols. Note the dark, angular blocks resting on the paler, in-place bedrock and the more resistant rock layer capping the slope in the background, behind Western Butte.
Curiosity Left B Navigation Camera image taken on Sol 2633, January 2, 2020.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover is now performing Sol 2634 tasks.
Curiosity Left B Navigation Camera image taken on Sol 2633, January 2, 2020.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Lucy Thompson, a planetary geologist at Canada’s University of New Brunswick, reports that two recent Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) passes that should have downlinked the data from Curiosity’s New Year activities, to enable planning, were delayed during processing on the ground.
Curiosity Front Hazard Avoidance Left B Camera image taken on Sol 2633, January 2, 2020.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
“We did not get the images of our workspace until just prior to when we were supposed to deliver our plan,” Thompson added. The Tactical Uplink Lead for the day gave permission to delay delivery, and the team efficiently managed to add two targeted Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam) analyses of bedrock (“Ben Eighe” and “Braid Hills”), with accompanying Mastcam documentation imaging.
Environmental observations
The rest of the plan was filled with untargeted environmental observations, Thompson explains, including ChemCam passive sky, a Navcam dust devil survey and cloud movie observations, as well as the standard Rover Environmental Monitoring Station (REMS), Dynamic Albedo of Neutrons (DAN) and Radiation Assessment Detector (RAD) activities.
Curiosity Left B Navigation Camera image taken on Sol 2633, January 2, 2020.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
A Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) Instrument Suite scrubber clean and transfer data were also included, following on from SAM atmospheric measurements over the holiday period.
Curiosity Left B Navigation Camera image taken on Sol 2633, January 2, 2020.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Thompson reports that a Navcam 3×1 mosaic was planned, which should facilitate targeting with Mastcam and the ChemCam Remote Micro-imager in upcoming plans.
Curiosity Right B Navigation Camera image acquired on Sol 2633, January 2, 2020.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Stunning view
“The planned drive from the previous sol executed flawlessly, resulting in a stunning view of the top of Western Butte, and a workspace strewn with dark angular float rocks (not in place), on top of the paler, in-place bedrock,” Thompson points out.
“The previous workspace had also included intact bedrock with dark, angular float rocks. We received closer up images and compositional data for some of these float rocks over the holidays, revealing some interesting similarities to rocks
encountered a lot earlier in the mission,” Thompson adds.
Curiosity Right B Navigation Camera image acquired on Sol 2633, January 2, 2020.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
“The geologists are trying to figure out the relationship of the dark, angular blocks to the in-place bedrock, and intact darker, resistant, capping rock observed at the top of slopes immediately behind Western Butte,” Thompson concludes. “Everyone is excited to be able to continue to investigate the bedrock and float rock at this location, as well as to document the view afforded to Curiosity from this vantage point near the top of Western Butte.”
Curiosity Left B Navigation Camera image taken on Sol 2633, January 2, 2020.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Conceptual artwork of VALKYRIE (Volatiles And Life: Key Reconnaissance & In-situ Exploration) Mars lander.
Credit: JPL/Corby Waste
Enigmatic Mars has been taunting researchers for decades as to whether or not the Red Planet has been – or is today — an abode for life.
Multiple nations are readying spacecraft for launching to Mars in 2020 (China, Europe, United States, the UAE) drawn once again to help unravel the complexities of that world and tease out clues as to whether or not it could be an extraterrestrial habitat for life.
“Small High Impact Energy Landing Device” (SHIELD), a new way to inexpensively bring small payloads to the Martian surface.
Credit: JPL/Corby Waste
NASA has called for a set of Mars exploration concepts in addition to, or after, robotically returning Martian specimens to Earth. A Mars Architecture Strategy Working Group is charting a wide range of new missions, covering a decade and a half in terms of time period.
There is active interest in continuing the search for “extant” — currently existing — life on Mars. But that pursuit demands new scientific concepts and understandings keyed to where to explore and what to measure.
For more information, please read my new SpaceNews story: “A New Look for Life on Mars” in the December 23, 2019 issue, pp 22-24.
NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover is now carrying out Sol 2633 tasks.
Here’s a selection of New Year 2020 images from the robot that showcase its surroundings:
Curiosity Right B Navigation Camera photo taken on Sol 2632, January 1, 2020.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Curiosity Right B Navigation Camera photo taken on Sol 2632, January 1, 2020.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Curiosity Right B Navigation Camera photo taken on Sol 2632, January 1, 2020.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Curiosity Right B Navigation Camera photo taken on Sol 2632, January 1, 2020.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Curiosity Right B Navigation Camera photo taken on Sol 2632, January 1, 2020.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Curiosity Right B Navigation Camera photo taken on Sol 2632, January 1, 2020.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Curiosity Left B Navigation Camera image acquired on Sol 2632, January 1, 2020.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Curiosity Front Hazard Avoidance Camera Right B image taken on Sol 2632, January 1, 2020.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Curiosity Chemistry & Camera (ChemCam) remote micro-imager (RMI) photo taken on Sol 2632, January 1, 2020.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/LANL
India space program officials are all thumbs up. Behind them, full scale model of the Gaganyaan crew module.
Credit: ISRO
India is pressing forward with its human spaceflight program. Four Gaganyaan mission astronauts have been picked to begin training in Russia later this month.
Credit: ISRO
In a January 1 press briefing, K Sivan, Chairman of the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) said: “We’ve made good progress in the mission. The process of astronaut selection for the mission is completed.”
The selected astronauts are from the Indian Air Force. Up to three astronauts are expected to take part in the 7-day mission, scheduled to occur by 2022.
Sivan added that several tests will be conducted during the year, including Gaganyaan’s first uncrewed flight.
K Sivan, Chairman, India Space Research Organization (ISRO)
Credit: ISRO
Lunar plans
As for India’s lunar exploration plans, Sivan said that the Chandrayaan-3 mission — comprising a lander and a rover — is approved by the Government and activities for its realization are in progress. He added that the target time for the mission is in 2020, but its lunar landing “may spill over” to 2021.
Sivan explained to reporters that Chandrayaan-3’s lander/rover would have a “similar configuration” to the previous mission that ended up crashing on the Moon earlier this year.
Second launch port
Sivan said India planned to launch at least 25 space missions in 2020.
On the capacity building front, explains an ISRO statement, a second launch port, exclusively for the Small Satellite Launch Vehicle (SSLV), is planned to be established in Thoothukudi district, Tamil Nadu. “Land acquisition activities are presently in progress,” Sivan said.
NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover is now performing Sol 2631 duties.
New imagery from the robot includes the following photos. Blackwaterfoot is under intense scrutiny by Curiosity.
Curiosity Front Hazard Avoidance Camera Left B image of Blackwaterfoot taken on Sol 2631, December 31, 2019.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Curiosity Front Hazard Avoidance Camera Right B image taken on Sol 2631, December 31, 2019.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Curiosity Right B Navigation Camera image of Blackwaterfoot taken on Sol 2631, December 31, 2019.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Curiosity Chemistry & Camera (ChemCam) Remote Micro-Imaging (RMI) camera photo acquired on Sol 2631, December 31, 2019.
Pre-launch photo shows India’s Pragyan rover mounted on the ramp projecting from out of the sides of Vikram lunar lander.
These Chandrayaan-2 vehicles crashed near the Moon’s south polar region.
Credit: ISRO
India is reportedly moving ahead with its Chandrayaan-3 Moon mission, a 2020 flight of a lander and rover – apparently minus an orbiter.
India’s lunar lander impact point is near center of image and stands out due to the dark rays and bright outer halo. Note the dark streak and debris about 100 meters to the south, south east of the impact point. Diagonal straight lines are uncorrected background artifacts.
Credit: NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University
The Hindustan Times reports that minister of state for department of space, Jitendra Singh, confirmed the Chandrayaan-3 lunar exploration trek on Tuesday.
Chandrayaan-2’s Vikram lander suffered a propulsion problem en route to its landing zone on September 7th. NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter later spotted the wreckage of the Vikram that also carried a rover named Pragyan.
India’s Chandrayaan-2 orbiter – up and operating.
Credit: ISRO
“The velocity was reduced from 1683 m/s to 146 m/s. During the second phase of the descent, the reduction in velocity was more than the designed value. Due to this deviation, the initial conditions at the start of the fine braking phase were beyond the designed parameters. As a result, Vikram hard landed within [1,640 feet] 500 meters of the designated landing site,” the Hindustan Times report notes, citing a reply from India’s parliament.
Meanwhile, the orbiter of the Chandrayaan-2 mission continues its research, circling the Moon with a powerful set of instruments.
Credit: ISRO
Credit: ISRO
Credit: New China TV/Inside Outer Space screengrab
China’s Long March-5 Y3 rocket that successfully flew December 27th was largely improved in many technical aspects compared with two previous flights.
Wu Yanhua, deputy director of the China National Space Administration (CNSA), declared the launch a success. The rocket’s flight lays the foundation for a series of future space projects for the country including exploring Mars, returning moon samples and constructing its own space station, Wu said.
Credit: CCTV/Inside Outer Space screengrab
The Long March-5 is a large, two-stage rocket, capable of carrying a payload of 25 tons to low Earth orbit, 14 tons to geostationary transfer orbit, eight tons to Earth-Moon transfer orbit, or five tons to Earth-Mars transfer orbit.
Combined with an upper stage, the rocket is capable of sending probes to explore Jupiter and other planets in the solar system, according to the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC).
Credit: CCTV/Inside Outer Space screengrab
Flight record
China built the Wenchang Space Launch Center in south China’s Hainan Province — the country’s fourth space launch center for the Long March-5 and other new-generation carrier rockets. The center is located on the coast of the tropical island province of Hainan, which avoids possible ground damage caused by the falling rocket remnants.
The Long March-5 made its maiden flight on November 3, 2016 from Wenchang. However, the second large rocket, Long March-5 Y2, suffered a failure minutes after liftoff on July 2, 2017.
Engineers traced the failure to a problem in the engine of the first core stage of the rocket. “We have made improvements to the design, materials and technologies of the engine,” said Li Dong, chief designer of the Long March-5 rocket from the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology (CALT) under the CASC.
Credit: CCTV/Inside Outer Space screengrab
Modified engine
According to a Xinhua news story, compared with the Long March-5 Y2, the new rocket has more than 200 technological improvements, said Yang Hujun, deputy chief designer of the rocket. The modified engine has undergone more than 10 ground tests lasting over 3,000 seconds in total.
Courtesy LaunchStuff/Inside Outer Space screengrab
“Over the past two years, the research team has solved the problem of the engine and improved the reliability of the rocket,” said Wang Jue, chief commander of the research team.
Major missions
Prototype of the Tianhe core module. China’s space station is expected to be operational around 2022.
Credit: CCTV/Screengrab/Inside Outer Space
In a China Global Television Network (CGTN) report, Wu Yanhua also said that after the successful launch of this mission, there will be other major missions including China’s first Mars mission, the launch of the Chang’e-5 lunar mission, as well as launch the core segment of China’s space station at the end of next year or the beginning of 2021.
China’s next Moon exploration phase: Sample return from the Moon.
Credit: CCTV/Screengrab/Inside Outer Space
Chang’e-5 is a sample return mission and is expected to bring lunar specimens back to Earth in 2020.
China’s first Mars mission is also a lander/rover mission. If all goes well, China plans to send its first Mars Lander and rover on a Long March-5 in 2020.
Long Lehao, chief designer, Long March carrier rocket series, China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology; academician, Chinese Academy of Engineering
Credit: CCTV/Inside Outer Space screengrab
China’s Mars mission elements.
Credit: CCTV/Screengrab Inside Outer Space
30-year development
“As far as I know, the Long March-5 carrier rocket is the only large rocket in the world that can enter into a high orbit with just two stages and a half,” said Long Lehao, chief designer of the Long March carrier rocket series from the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology and also an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering.
Credit: China Daily
Long said in a China Central Television (CCTV) interview that the research on the Long March-5 carrier rocket started 30 years ago. But its maiden flight came later than other new-generation rockets including the Long March-6 and Long March-7 rockets because more new technologies had been put into it and the difficulty in developing it increased.
New-generation rockets
“The Long March-5 carrier rocket drives the development of a series of new-generation eco-friendly carrier rockets, including the Long March-6, the Long March-7, the Long March-8, and the coming Long March-9, all belonging to this family. With the improvement of the rocket, it drives the development of related industries and also promotes the technology to a new height,” Long told CCTV.
“We have a complete series of new-generation carrier rockets. There will be more than 10 kinds of major carrier rockets in the future. We have a wide range of spacecraft. And our country is fully prepared in this aspect. All in all, if the current momentum continues, China’s goal to be a space power will be fulfilled as scheduled,” Long said.
Go to this CCTV video of the launch:
https://youtu.be/M_Vu60EavR8?list=PLpGTA7wMEDFjz0Zx93ifOsi92FwylSAS3
Credit: XinhuaVideo/New China TV/Inside Outer Space screengrab
China has successfully launched the third Long March-5 rocket, a class of booster tasked for the Chang’e-5 Moon mission in 2020 to bring lunar samples back to Earth. The rocket is scheduled to loft China’s first Mars probe, also in 2020.
This third flight of the booster blasted off from the coastal launch center at 8:45 p.m. (Beijing time), carrying the Shijian-20 technological experiment satellite weighing over eight tons.
The Long March-5 is the largest launch vehicle in China’s space fleet, carrying 25 tons of payload into low-Earth orbit and is able to hold 14 tons for geostationary transfer orbit.
Mixed track record
The booster has had mixed success in previous launches.
Its first launch in 2016 was successful, but a second flight in 2017 failed to perform as anticipated. Cause of the failure was later tagged to a malfunctioning engine turbo pump.
According to a report by Xinhua, a successful launch means that the rocket will be tasked with lofting Moon and Mars missions next year. Further modifications to the rocket will be used to construct China’s space station.
Go to these launch videos at:
