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Archive for the ‘Space News’ Category

A scientific team has reported on a way to make Mars habitable with a layer of aerogel – and by using the material it can mimic an Earthly greenhouse effect.

The researchers are from Harvard University, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab, and the University of Edinburgh.

“A system for creating small islands of habitability would allow us to transform Mars in a controlled and scalable way,” said Laura Kerber with NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. She is one of the authors of the just-published “Enabling Martian habitability with silica aerogel via the solid-state greenhouse effect” published in the journal, Nature Astronomy.

New approach

The paper explains that the low temperatures and high ultraviolet radiation levels

at the surface of Mars today currently preclude the survival of life anywhere except perhaps in limited subsurface niches.

“Several ideas for making the Martian surface more habitable have been put forward, but they all involve massive environmental modification that will be well beyond human capability for the foreseeable future,” the research team explains.

They present a new approach to this problem.

Silica aerogel

“We show that widespread regions of the surface of Mars could be made habitable to photosynthetic life in the future via a solid-state analogue to Earth’s atmospheric greenhouse effect,” the Mars team adds.

Specifically, the team has demonstrated via experiments and computer models that under Martian environmental conditions, a 2–3 centimeter-thick layer of silica aerogel will simultaneously transmit sufficient visible light for photosynthesis, block hazardous ultraviolet radiation and raise temperatures underneath it permanently to above the melting point of water, without the need for any internal heat source.

Regional approach

“Placing silica aerogel shields over sufficiently ice-rich regions of the Martian surface could therefore allow photosynthetic life to survive there with minimal subsequent intervention,” they explain. “This regional approach to making Mars habitable is much more achievable than global atmospheric modification. In addition, it can be developed systematically, starting from minimal resources, and can be further tested in extreme environments on Earth today.”

Indeed, the researchers report they are going to test the material in Mars-like climates on Earth, such as the dry valleys of Antarctica or Chile.

The paper — Enabling Martian habitability with silica aerogel via the solid-state greenhouse effect – is available at:

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41550-019-0813-0.pdf

NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover is now performing Sol 2467 science tasks.

New imagery from the robot includes these scenic shots:

 

I’m pleased to be taking part in “Apollopalooza” at the Wings Over the Rockies Air & Space Museum

Date: July 15

Time: 10:30 am – 11:30 am

Wings Over the Rockies Air & Space Museum

7711 East Academy Boulevard

Denver, Colorado 80230 United States

For overview information, go to:

https://wingsmuseum.org/event/keynote-presentation-leonard-david/

And also go to:

https://wingsmuseum.org/

Two new Gallup polls focus on the U.S. space program.

Five decades after Apollo 11’s Moon landing, support for the space program is high. A second poll  notes that, for the first time, a majority in U.S. backs a human mission to Mars.

50 years after Moon landing, record-high 64% say space costs are justifiable.

About three in four say NASA funding should be maintained or increased.

NASA receives its highest ratings in 20 years.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Go to:

https://news.gallup.com/poll/260309/years-moon-landing-support-space-program-high.aspx?g_source=link_NEWSV9&g_medium=LEAD&g_campaign=item_&g_content=50%2520Years%2520After%2520Moon%2520Landing%2c%2520Support%2520for%2520Space%2520Program%2520High

For First Time, Majority in U.S. Backs Human Mission to Mars

53% favor, 46% oppose attempting to land an astronaut on Mars.

Support for a Mars mission is up from previous decades.

Democrats, Republicans equally supportive of the Mars goal.

Go to:

https://news.gallup.com/poll/260543/first-time-majority-backs-human-mission-mars.aspx?g_source=link_NEWSV9&g_medium=NEWSFEED&g_campaign=item_&g_content=For%2520First%2520Time%2c%2520Majority%2520in%2520U.S.%2520Backs%2520Human%2520Mission%2520to%2520Mars

 

Tuesday, July 9, 2019 – Eugene F. Kranz Former Apollo Flight Director, Speaker and Author:

Testimony before the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee Subcommittee on Aviation and Space: NASA Exploration Plans: Where We’ve Been and Where We’re Going

The Kranz Dictum (speech to the control team after the Apollo I fire on January 27, 1967)

Spaceflight will never tolerate carelessness, incapacity, and neglect. Somewhere, somehow, we screwed up. It could have been in design, build, or test. Whatever it was, we should have caught it. We were too gung-ho about the schedule and we locked out all of the problems we saw each day in our work. Every element of the program was in trouble and so were we. The simulators were not working, Mission Control was behind in virtually every area, and the flight and test procedures changed daily. Nothing we did had any shelf life. Not one of us stood up and said, ‘Dammit, stop!’ I don’t know what Thompson’s committee will find as the cause, but I know what I find. We are the cause! We were not ready! We did not do our job. We were rolling the dice, hoping that things would come together by launch day, when in our hearts we knew it would take a miracle. We were pushing the schedule and betting that the Cape would slip before we did.

From this day forward, Flight Control will be known by two words: ‘Tough’ and ‘Competent.’ Tough means we are forever accountable for what we do or what we fail to do. We will never again compromise our responsibilities. Every time we walk into Mission Control we will know what we stand for. Competent means we will never take anything for granted. We will never be found short in our knowledge and in our skills. Mission Control will be perfect. When you leave this meeting today you will go to your office and the first thing you will do there is to write ‘Tough and Competent’ on your blackboards. It will never be erased. Each day when you enter the room these words will remind you of the price paid by Grissom, White, and Chaffee. These words are the price of admission to the ranks of Mission Control.

 

NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover is now performing Sol 2464 tasks.

Curiosity has continued work on and around “a gorgeous outcrop” that was started on Sol 2461, reports Michelle Minitti, a planetary geologist at Framework in Silver Spring, Maryland.

“The layers of the outcrop – with their different colors, textures and thicknesses – tell us a story,” Minitti explains, one that scientists have worked to decipher with the rover’s full complement of contact and targeted science instruments.

Clearer story

The robot’s Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) and its Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer (APXS) is on tap to analyze a grayish red target, “Tay.”

“The team hoped Tay’s grayish red color would be indicative of less dust cover,” Minitti adds, “in other words, a chance for Tay to tell us a clearer story!”

The Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam) instrument is slated to shoot another gray target, “Donside,” and “Fountainbridge,” located on the farside of the outcrop where it exhibits a cracked texture.

Future exploration sites

“Off to the right of the rover, Mastcam will image a block, “Achmelvich,” near the right rear wheel that was shifted during our last drive, revealing the steep face of a sand deposit sitting amongst the bedrock in the area,” Minitti points out.

Curiosity’s Mastcam has also turned its gaze to the scene, looking toward future sites of exploration.

A recently scripted plan calls for a five image stereo mosaic of “Annan,” and a 19 image stereo mosaic of “Craigeven Bay.”

Bedding structures

“Both Annan and Craigeven Bay exhibit bedding structures that caught the team’s eye; stereo imaging will give us a better three-dimensional sense for those structures,” Minitti adds. “MAHLI also got in on the landscape-imaging act, acquiring an image from the stowed position. MAHLI’s view will incorporate our path over the last month or so. The last MAHLI stowed image was acquired over 700 sols ago!”

Annan is not far from Curiosity’s workspace – only about 23 feet (7 meters) away.

After the drive, the plan has the rover unstowing its arm to get a clearer look at the available workspace. “The short drive means we can still reliably target Mastcam at distant targets. Thus, Mastcam will gather multispectral data from outcrops that we will visit in the coming weeks and months,” reports Minitti.

 

Differences among the terrains

“The hope is that these data will highlight differences among the terrains that are not apparent at visible wavelengths of light alone,” Minitti notes. “Curiosity will briefly look skyward, acquiring Navcam and Mastcam images looking for clouds and measuring atmospheric opacity.”

The plan has the rover’s Chemistry & Mineralogy X-Ray Diffraction/X-Ray Fluorescence Instrument (CheMin) completing the plan with an activity to make sure one of its reusable cells is empty and ready for the next sample, Minitti concludes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Traverse map

A recently issued Curiosity traverse map shows the route driven by the rover through the 2459 Martian day, or sol, as of July 08, 2019.

Numbering of the dots along the line indicate the sol number of each drive. North is up. The scale bar is 1 kilometer (~0.62 mile).

 

From Sol 2454 to Sol 2459, Curiosity had driven a straight line distance of about 8.50 feet (2.59 meters), bringing the rover’s total odometry for the mission to 12.99 miles (20.91 kilometers).

The base image from the map is from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment Camera (HiRISE) in NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.

 

After months of work with the office of U.S. Senator Gary Peters (D. Mich.), the One Small Step to Protect Human Heritage in Space Act has cleared the U.S. Senate Commerce Committee.  

As Senator Peters said: “This bipartisan legislation will help preserve our human heritage in space for generations to come.” 

Cosponsor Senator Ted Cruz (R. Tex.) agreed, and urged the Senate “to take up and pass this commonsense bill without delay to ensure that, as we ramp up our efforts to return to the Moon, these important parts of history are safeguarded.”

International concern

This is the first bill introduced in the U.S. that treats the preservation of lunar landing sites rightly as an international concern.

“We are going to push hard for this bill to be signed in time for the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11 on July 20th,” says Michelle Hanlon, a law professor and space law expert at the University of Mississippi who co-founded For All Moonkind, a nonprofit group devoted to protecting historic sites in space.

 

For a video of Senator Cruz detailing the One Small Step Act here, go to:

https://youtu.be/pCijj7bhBRE

 

Japan’s Hayabusa2 spacecraft successfully performed a 2nd touchdown on the surface of asteroid Ryugu.

The touchdown occurred at 10:06 JST on July 11. Images were taken by the spacecraft’s CAM-H – a small monitor camera — before and after the touchdown.

 

 

In testimony before the House of Representatives Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics, Committee on Science, Space, and Technology, NASA’s Office of Inspector General (IG) has issued the report: Examining NASA’s Plans for the International Space Station and Future Activities in Low Earth Orbit.

 

Cascading effect

“As NASA turns its attention to returning humans to the Moon by 2024, concrete plans for the future of the ISS need to be resolved,” the IG report observes. “Whether it be extension, increased commercialization, or retirement, the timing of each of these decisions has a cascading effect on the funding NASA will be able to dedicate for space flight operations in low Earth orbit, its ambitions for establishing a permanent presence on the Moon, and ultimately sending humans to Mars.”

In conclusion, the IG report adds: “The sooner NASA, the Administration, and Congress agree on a definitive path forward for the future of the ISS, the better NASA will be able to plan the future of on-board research and commercialization in low Earth orbit.”

 

To view the full report, go to:

https://oig.nasa.gov/docs/CT-19-001.pdf

Earth’s Moon looms. Multiple nations as well as for-profit private concerns have our celestial partner in their cross-hairs.

The drum beat of back to the Moon with humans “this time to stay,” is fueled by harvesting available lunar resources. At the top of that need-to-have resource roster is diving into the floors of permanently shadowed polar craters. Water ice found resident in these everlastingly shaded “cold traps” is thought to be stable and exploitable.

Tale to tell

Return to the Moon advocates foresee enormous reserves of water ice, billions of years in the making, as the basic ingredient for survive and thrive, sustained occupation of the Moon, a resource ripe for water extraction, churning out hydrogen/oxygen propellant, making use of water (ice or liquid) for radiation shielding, terrific for plant growth and as a fuel cell consumable.

But also to be judged is the issue of how scientifically valuable water ice may be, perhaps a reserve that has an astrobiological story to tell. Should we give the scheme of extricating water ice the cold shoulder, until we better comprehend the tale this resource may surrender?

Go to my new Scientific American story:

Science and Sustainability May Clash on the Moon

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/science-and-sustainability-may-clash-on-the-moon/