Archive for the ‘Space News’ Category
Author: 
January 3rd, 2019
The first close-up photo of the Moon’s farside, taken by a monitoring camera on the Chang’e-4 lander showed the direction the rover would drive on to the lunar surface. Top of image shows the rails the rover will use to access the surface.
Credit: CNSA/CLEP
China’s Chang’e-4 is in getting down to business mode as the first controlled farside landing in history on January 3rd (Beijing local time).
NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) is slated to overfly the area in coming weeks and may possibly spot the Chang’e-4 and its rover.
This was done previously for Chang’e-3, the first Chinese landing on the Moon’s nearside back in December 2013.
NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter can use its super-powerful camera to spot the Chang’e-4, as it did in imaging China’s earlier Moon lander, Chang’e-3.
LROC NAC view of the Chang’e 3 lander (large arrow) and rover (small arrow) just before sunset on their first day of lunar exploration. Credit: NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University
Giant cliffs
“It’s an incredible landing spot. Just alone the view is going to be spectacular, such as giant cliffs off in the distance,” Robinson told Inside Outer Space. He is principal investigator for the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter LROC camera system at Arizona State University in Tempe.
Safe on the farside, Chang’e 4 set down somewhere in this NASA Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter LROC image obtained July 17, 2010. The lines connect craters seen in the Chang’e 4 descent image (CNSA/CLEP) with the same craters seen in the LROC image.
Credit: NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University
LRO will be able to scout for Chang’e-4 about midnight, January 31st, Robinson said.
Credit: NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University
Diverse landforms
Robinson said that a human visit to that site would be scientifically significant given so many diverse landforms.
A future expedition, for instance, could document the nature of the farside crust, age date highlands material, even check out a landslide within the Von Kármán crater.
“I mean, I want to go,” Robinson said.
Relay satellite
Once Chang’e-4 decelerated near the Moon and successfully orbited the Moon on Dec. 12, 2018, it proceeded with orbit modification twice and carried out testing four times with the relay satellite, Queqiao, meaning Magpie Bridge in Chinese.
Queqiao becomes the key medium between Chang’e-4 and the Earth.
Control room for Chang’e-4 touchdown.
Credit: CCTV/Screengrab/Inside Outer Space
The touchdown of Chang’e-4 relied on the relay satellite to receive and send communications to and from the uncharted side.
Historic landing
Jim Head, a leading lunar expert at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, saluted China’s achievement:
“Congratulations to our Chinese science, engineering, operations and management team colleagues for the successful launch and operation of the Queqiao communications relay satellite enabling the successful and historic landing of the Chang’e 4 spacecraft on the far side of the Moon!”
“We look forward to the exploration of Von Kármán crater in the South Pole-Aitken Basin,” Head said, “and other Chinese Lunar Exploration Program exploration destinations in the future!”
Credit: CCTV/Screengrab/Inside Outer Space
“Congratulations to Chang’e 4 scientists and engineers,” adds Carle Pieters, noted Moon expert, also at Brown University.
“Landing on the far side of the Moon opens the other half of the 8th Continent for detailed exploration,” Pieters said. “What a wonderful way to start 2019!!”
Landing region
A summary of the geology of the Chang’e-4 landing region can be found in the Journal of Geophysical Research: 5294 – Huang, J., Z. Xiao, J. Flahaut, M. Martinot, J. W. Head III, X. Xiao, M. Xie, and L. Xiao (2018), Geological characteristics of Von Kármán crater, northwestern South Pole-Aitken basin: Chang’E-4 landing site region, J. Geophys. Res., 123, doi: 10.1029/2018JE005577.
Go to:
http://www.planetary.brown.edu/pdfs/5294.pdf
Leonard David is author of Moon Rush: The New Space Race to be published by National Geographic in May 2019.
To pre-order Moon Rush: The New Space Race, go to:
https://shop.nationalgeographic.com/products/moon-rush
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/moon-rush-leonard-david/1129287265?ean=9781426220050
https://www.amazon.com/Moon-Rush-New-Space-Race/dp/1426220057
Posted in 
Credit: CNSA/CLEP
China’s Chang’e-4 successfully has made a 12 minute high dive onto the Moon’s farside.
According to the state-run Xinhua news service, Chinese space experts chose the Von Kármán crater in the South Pole-Aitken Basin as the landing site of Chang’e-4 on January 3, local time.
The area available for the landing is only one eighth of that for Chang’e-3 that landed on the Moon’s nearside in December 2013.
Von Kármán crater is surrounded by mountains as high as 6 miles (10 kilometers).
Credit: NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University
Vertical landing
“Unlike the parabolic curve of Chang’e-3’s descent trajectory, Chang’e-4 made an almost vertical landing,” said Wu Weiren, chief designer of China’s lunar exploration program. “It was a great challenge with the short time, high difficulty and risks,” Wu said.
On autopilot, Chang’e-4 made the touchdown, with the Queqiao relay satellite in an L2 halo orbit transmitting images of the landing process back to Earth.
“We chose a vertical descent strategy to avoid the influence of the mountains on the flight track,” said Zhang He, executive director of the Chang’e-4 probe project, from the China Academy of Space Technology.
Chang;e-4 en route to farside landing.
Credit: CNSA/CLEP
Safe site
Li Fei, one of the designers of the lander, said when the process began, an engine was ignited to lower the craft’s relative velocity from 1.7 kilometers per second to close to zero, and the probe’s attitude was adjusted to face the Moon and descend vertically.
When it descended to an altitude of about 1.2 miles (2 kilometers), Chang’e-4’s cameras took pictures of the lunar surface so the probe could spot large obstacles such as rocks or craters, said Wu Xueying, deputy chief designer of the probe.
At 328 feet (100 meters) above the surface, the lander hovered to identify smaller obstacles and measure the slopes on the lunar surface, Wu said.
Chang’e-4 lander deploys lunar rover. Credit: CCTV/Screengrab/Inside Outer Space
After calculation, the probe found the safest site, and continued its descent. When the craft was 7 feet (2 meters) above the surface, the engine stopped, and the spacecraft landed with four legs cushioning against the shock, reports Xinhua.
Post-landing
After landing, the solar panels and antennas on the probe were unfolded under the control of the space engineers in Beijing through the communication transmission of the relay satellite, which was operating in the halo orbit around the second Lagrangian point of the earth-moon system, about 65,000 km from the Moon, where it can see both the Earth and the Moon’s farside.
The first close-up photo of the Moon’s farside, taken by a monitoring camera on the lander at 11:40 a.m., showed the direction the rover would drive on to the lunar surface, reported Xinhua.
The control center in Beijing will choose a proper time to let the rover separate from the lander, according to the China National Space Administration (CNSA).
Credit: NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University
From Mark Robinson of Arizona State University, the leader of the NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter’s LROC super camera:
If all goes well, on January 3rd or 4th the Chang’e 4 spacecraft will gently set down on the floor of Von Kármán crater (186 kilometers diameter, 176.2°E, 44.5°S).
This will be the second soft landing on the Moon for the China National Space Administration, and the first ever landing on the farside.
Spectacular views
And what a site! Von Kármán crater and its surroundings hold a wealth a of geologic targets: mare basalts, low relief volcanic constructs, massive landslides, secondary craters, and swirls (just outside Von Kármán crater). Not to mention the spectacular views!
Chang’e-4 lander deploys lunar rover. Credit: CCTV/Screengrab/Inside Outer Space
Von Kármán crater would be a worthy target for future crewed landings.
Key questions
When did the crater form? What is the age, origin and composition of farside basalts (and thus the farside mantle)? What are those volcanic constructs (lower left of the opening image)? Is there any KREEPy material in the local mare or highlands?
Chang’e-4 carrying out low-frequency radio astronomical studies.
Credit: CCTV/Screengrab/Inside Outer Space
[Editor’s note: KREEP is believed to have formed early in the history of the Moon during the solidification of the Moon’s molten stage, known as the magma ocean.]
What is the age of Antoniadi crater (its ejecta lies on the floor of Von Kármán crater)?
Explore this fascinating crater and its surroundings in this zoomify mosaic by going to:
Chang’e-4 powers down to farside landing.
Credit: CCTV/Screengrab/Inside Outer Space
If all remains on schedule, China’s Chang’e-4 is slated to attempt the first controlled farside landing in history.
The target remains the Von Kármán crater, within the South Pole‐Aitken (SPA) basin.
Chang’e-4 touchdown on Moon’s farside.
Credit: CCTV/Screengrab/Inside Outer Space
The scientific instruments of China’s farside spacecraft, mounted on a lander and a rover, will analyze both surface and subsurface of this region.
Landing ahead
One of those experiments mounted on the lander is a German lunar neutron and radiation dose detector to explore the farside surface environment.
Germany’s scientific payload is a Lunar Lander Neutron and Dosimetry instrument, developed by Kiel University.
Credit:
Kiel project manager. Jia Yu
“Yes, indeed, we are anxious to get the first data after landing on the farside of the Moon tomorrow at 08:20 CET,” says Robert F. Wimmer-Schweingruber of the University of Kiel. “It’ll be exciting to see the first data and check out instrument health. The plan is still to land in the Von Kármán crater,” he told Inside Outer Space in an early morning January 2nd communique.
No official word on the landing attempt time from Chinese space authorities.
Other international joint collaboration payloads within the Chang’e-4 explorer mission includes Sweden’s Advanced Small Analyzer for Neutrals (ASAN) installed on the rover and the Netherlands-China Low-Frequency Explorer (NCLE) installed on the relay satellite.
Candidate landing region of China’s Chang’e-4 lander within Von Kármán crater in SPA basin.
Credit: Jun Huang, et al.
Crater facts
The Von Kármán crater is approximately 115 miles (186 kilometers) in diameter, lying in the northwestern SPA basin. The topography of the landing region is generally flat.
The SPA basin is the largest and oldest impact basin of the Moon.
Von Karman Crater as viewed by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera, or LROC,
Credit: NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University
Although the terrain is low, this region is not filled with mare basalts as other Moon basins suggesting its special thermal history and unique evolution features.
The materials in the region are likely to be of great significance to reveal the compositions of the crust and even the mantle of the Moon. Lunar exploration data show that SPA basin possesses unique geochemical characteristics.
Relay satellite
Prior to the Chang’e-4 mission, a detailed 3-D geological analysis of the nature and history of Von Kármán crater was done; the region contains farside mare basalts affected by linear features and ejecta material from a wide range of surrounding craters; and a new geological analysis provided a framework for the Chang’e-4 mission to carry out on-the-spot exploration.
Chang’e-5 mission rocket’s lunar samples into Moon orbit.
Credit: CCTV/Screengrab/Inside Outer Space
Already in place and ready for action for the upcoming mission is the Chinese relay satellite Queqiao. Queqiao was successfully launched last May on a Long March 4C from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center. That relay spacecraft successfully reached an Earth-Moon L2 halo orbit to support communications between Earth and the Moon’s farside…and future farside missions.
Exploration outing
Since both the lander and the rover were designed as a backup for the December 2013 Chang’e-3 mission – a lander carrying the Yutu rover — some of the science payloads on Chang’e-4 are similar, such as a landing camera, a terrain camera, a panorama camera on the lander and a visible/near infrared imaging spectrometer, along with two ground penetrating radars able to reveal the subsurface structure of the landing area.
China’s next lunar probe, Chang’e-5, is designed to bring select samples from the Moon back to Earth. It builds upon a progression of Chinese Moon explorers: Chang’e-1 and Chang’e-2 orbiters in 2007 and 2010, respectively, and the Chang’e-3 lunar lander/rover mission in December 2013.
An informative paper — “Geological Characteristics of Von Kármán Crater, Northwestern South Pole-Aitken Basin: Chang’E-4 Landing Site Region” – has been published in the American Geophysical Union’s Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets.
It can be found here:
Chang’e-4 ready for attempted farside landing.
Credit: CCTV/Screengrab/Inside Outer Space
China’s Chang’e-4 will shortly nosedive toward a farside of the Moon touchdown.
The state-run China Daily reports January 1st that the country’s Chang’e 4 robotic probe is expected to land on the South Pole–Aitken basin on the Moon’s farside sometime between Wednesday and Thursday, citing information from China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp, a major contractor of the country’s lunar exploration programs.
The Chang’e-4 mission totes six kinds of scientific payloads.
Chang’e-4 powers down to farside landing.
Credit: CCTV/Screengrab/Inside Outer Space
On the lander, it carries the Landing Camera (LCAM), the Terrain Camera (TCAM), and the Low Frequency Spectrometer (LFS). There are three kinds of payloads on the rover, the Panoramic Camera (PCAM), the Lunar Penetrating Radar (LPR), and the Visible and Near-Infrared Imaging Spectrometer (VNIS).
That Low Frequency Spectrometer is newly developed for Chang’e-4 lander; the other payloads are inherited instruments from an earlier Chang’e-3 lunar mission.
Chang’e-4 touchdown on Moon’s farside.
Credit: CCTV/Screengrab/Inside Outer Space
International joint collaboration payloads on the Chang’e-4 mission include:
Germany’s Lunar Lander Neutrons and Dosimetry (LND) installed on the lander
Sweden’s Advanced Small Analyzer for Neutrals (ASAN) installed on the rover
Netherlands-China Low-Frequency Explorer (NCLE) installed on the relay satellite
Scientific objectives
Chang’e-4 lander deploys lunar rover. Credit: CCTV/Screengrab/Inside Outer Space
Overall, the scientific objectives for the Chang’e-4 are:
Low-frequency radio astronomical study on the lunar surface
Shallow structure investigation at the lunar farside within the roving area
Topographic and mineralogical composition studies of the lunar farside within the rover’s patrol area.
Chang’e-4 carrying out low-frequency radio astronomical studies.
Credit: CCTV/Screengrab/Inside Outer Space
The Chang’e-4 mission carrying out low-frequency radio astronomical studies on the lunar surface is intriguing.
The lunar farside blocks the Earth’s ionosphere, human-made radio frequency interference, and the auroral kilometric radiation noise. Additionally, also blocked is the solar radio emission during the night time.
Lunar radio environment
“We’ve been following the Chang’e-4 mission closely,” says Jack Burns, Professor of Astrophysics and Planetary Science at the University of Colorado, Boulder. He is also the Director of the NASA-funded Network for Exploration and Space Science (NESS).
Credit: CNSA’s Lunar Exploration and Space Engineering Center (CNSA-LESEC)
Several Dutch members of the NESS team, Burns notes, are co-principal investigators of the Netherlands-China Low-Frequency Explorer (NCLE) installed on China’s relay satellite positioned at an L2 halo orbit.
“Their antenna won’t be deployed until after the main mission involving the farside lander is complete. They expect to begin gathering data in the spring. The expectations for this experiment are modest,” Burns pointed out. There are two issues, he said.
“First, no effort was made to make the satellite radio quiet. In fact, the team doesn’t even know what the amount of internally-generated radio frequency interference (RFI) will be. It could be overwhelming or more modest. Second, the satellite is not in an ideal orbit for radio astronomy.”
The L2 halo orbit is in constant view of the Earth and, thus, is exposed to Earth RFI which is quite substantial, Burns explained. “This too may limit the quality of the data. Nonetheless, this is an exciting experiment as it is the first to characterize the lunar radio environment since NASA’s Radio Astronomy Explorer-2 (RAE) in 1972.”
Germany’s scientific payload is a Lunar Lander Neutron and Dosimetry instrument, developed by Kiel University. Credit: Kiel project manager, Jia Yu
Radiation, life science
Provided by Germany, the Lunar Lander Neutron and Dosimetry instrument was developed by Kiel University. The device is designed to gauge radiation on the Moon, mainly for future human missions. It will also measure the water content underneath the lander.
Also onboard the mission is a “lunar mini biosphere” experiment designed by 28 Chinese universities, led by southwest China’s Chongqing University, The cylindrical tin, made from special aluminum alloy materials, weighs roughly 7 pounds (3 kilograms).
The tin also contains water, a nutrient solution, and air. A tiny camera and data transmission system allows researchers to keep an eye on the seeds and see if they blossom on the Moon.
Mini biosphere
“We have to keep the temperature in the ‘mini biosphere’ within a range from 1 degree to 30 degrees, and properly control the humidity and nutrition. We will use a tube to direct the natural light on the surface of Moon into the tin to make the plants grow,” said Xie Gengxin, chief designer of the experiment, in a recent Xinhua news story.
Added Liu Hanlong, chief director of the experiment and vice president of Chongqing University: “Our experiment might help accumulate knowledge for building a lunar base and long-term residence on the Moon.”
The Moon-bound mini biosphere experiment was selected from more than 200 submissions, according to the China National Space Administration (CNSA).
Chang’e-4 rover is outfitted with a Lunar Penetrating Radar.
Credit: CCTV/Screengrab/Inside Outer Space
Penetrating look
Another aspect of the Chang’e-4 rover is use of a Lunar Penetrating Radar, able to detect the lunar subsurface structure on the robot’s patrol route, and to detect the thickness and structure of the lunar regolith. The device is a nanosecond impulse radar with bistatic antennas.
A similar device was utilized on the Chang’e-3 rover, Yutu, that wheeled across the Moon in December 2013.
It works like this: An ultra-wideband nanosecond impulse is produced by a transmitter, sent through the transmitting antenna down to lunar surface. The receiving antenna receives the reflected signal. The echo signal from the underground target is received by the receiving antenna, amplified in the receiver and then restored as data record.
Chang’e-5 mission hurls lunar samples into Moon orbit.
Credit: CCTV/Screengrab/Inside Outer Space
Next phase
China’s next lunar probe, Chang’e-5, is designed to bring select samples from the Moon back to Earth. It builds upon a progression of Chinese Moon explorers: Chang’e-1 and Chang’e-2 orbiters in 2007 and 2010, respectively, and the Chang’e-3 lunar lander/rover mission in December 2013.
Zhang Kejian, deputy minister of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology of China, has stressed China’s willingness to cooperate with other countries within the space program.
Zhang, who is also the head of the CNSA, noted that Chang’e-6, China’s second sample return lunar mission, will provide 22 pounds (10 kilograms) of payload space on the orbiter and lander for international partners.
Ranger 4 topped by lightweight balsa wood impact limiter that encapsulated a transmitter and a seismometer.
Credit: NASA/JPL
There’s an interesting historical side note given China’s imminent, milestone making robotic landing on the farside of the Moon.
The U.S. Ranger spacecraft series was a set of kamikaze-like missions, hurled to the Moon to take photos of the lunar surface before a high-speed crash.
NASA’s Block 2, Ranger 4 was launched on April 23, 1962, rocketed moonward via an Atlas Agena-B booster from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida. This craft carried a unique scientific experiment – a lightweight balsa wood impact limiter that encapsulated a transmitter and a seismometer designed by the Caltech Seismological Laboratory.
Credit: NASA/JPL
Rough landing
Credit: NASA/JPL
According to Julie Cooper of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s (JPL) Library and Archives Group, the sphere was 25.5 inches (65 centimeters) in diameter. The seismometer within the separate capsule was to be slowed by a rocket motor and separate from the spacecraft shortly before Ranger 4’s impact and survive the rough landing on the Moon.
The capsule was also vacuum-filled with a protective fluid to reduce movement during impact. After landing, the instrument was to float to an upright position. Then the fluid would be drained out so it could settle and switch on.
Credit: NASA/JPL
Seismometer signals
While Ranger 4 had a perfect launch, the craft apparently suffered a main timer failure. Ranger 4’s computer had stopped, disabling the probe’s telemetry system; preprogrammed events such as solar panel deployment did not occur, and the probe became completely unresponsive to manual commands.
JPL’s Systems Design secretary Pat McKibben holds Ranger sphere.
Credit: NASA/JPL/Julie Cooper, JPL, Library and Archives Group.
Although Ranger 4’s transponder had ceased to operate, stations within the Deep Space Network continued their radio tracking nonetheless, homing on the 50-milliwatt signal produced by the tiny battery-powered transmitter in the seismometer capsule.
The Ranger project team tracked the seismometer capsule to impact just out of sight on the lunar farside, validating the spacecraft’s communications and navigation system.
Ranger 4 impact site?
Credit: GeoHack
Rest in pieces
On April 26, 1962, Ranger 4 impacted the farside of the Moon. A guesstimate placed the crash site at 15.5°S 130.7°W.
“You could confidentially state it crashed on the western eject of the Orientale basin,” explains Mark Robinson of Arizona State University’s School of Earth and Space Exploration in Tempe, Arizona. He is also the principal investigator of NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter’s (LRO) LROC camera system.
To date, no LRO imagery has identified Ranger 4’s final “rest in pieces” landing spot.
“It was a blind crash on the farside,” Robinson told Inside Outer Space. “How could anybody positively identify the crash site…there is no before image. The problem is the sheer number of 10 to 20 meter diameter fresh craters. How would you ever confirm [the crash site] without a before and after image, or a precise coordinate…short of going to the crater and digging around looking for spacecraft wreckage?”
Difficult to spot
It would be very difficult to identify any specific impact crater associated with Ranger 4 says noted Moon expert, Philip Stooke. He is Professor Emeritus and Adjunct Research Professor within the Department of Geography, and Center for Planetary Science and Exploration, at the University of Western Ontario.
Possible Ranger-4 crash site somewhere in the Loffe and Fridman Friedmann crater area?
Credit: NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University
“The whole area has been imaged at high resolution by LRO so we probably have a picture of the crater,” Stooke told Inside Outer Space.
Stooke points out one thing to consider.
“What did people know about the farside at that time? Practically nothing! So, to calculate an impact location, you plot the trajectory, as well as you know it, and see where it intersects the lunar surface,” Stooke says. But if you know nothing at all about the topography, he continues, you have to use an approximation – it would have just been a sphere the mean size of the Moon. The actual point would vary a bit if there is a difference between the real topography and the assumed sphere.
“I don’t think anyone has ever gone back and recalculated the impact point for this or other missions like the NASA Lunar Orbiters using modern topography. If they did I think the orbiters could be found eventually, but I think the Ranger 4 location is probably still too uncertain to find it,” Stooke concludes.
Chang’e-4 Moon lander, rover and relay satellite.
Credit: Chinese Academy of Sciences
The China National Space Administration (CNSA) has announced that the country’s Chang’e-4 probe has entered a planned orbit Sunday morning to prepare for the first-ever soft landing on the farside of the Moon.
Chang’e-4 entered a new lunar orbit with the low point at roughly 9.3 miles (15 kilometers), and about 62 miles (100 kilometers) at its high point.
Orbital adjustments
This lander/rover mission was launched by a Long March-3B carrier rocket on December 8 from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in southwest China’s Sichuan Province. Chang’e-4 then entered lunar orbit on December 12.
China’s Chang’e-4 Moon lander – far side bound.
Credit: New China TV/Screengrab/Inside Outer Space
The probe then made two orbital adjustments, along with testing the Queqiao relay satellite communications link. That satellite was launched last May and was nudged into a halo orbit around the second Lagrangian (L2) point of the earth-moon system.
Landing date to come
Ground control engineers also checked the imaging instruments and ranging detectors on the probe to prepare for the landing. The control center will choose a proper time to land the probe on the farside of the moon, according to CNSA – reportedly within the next few days.
For more details on the implications of Chang’e-4, go to my Scientific American story:
With First-Ever Landing on Moon’s Farside, China Enters “Luna Incognita”
The Chang’e-4 mission could have major effects on Earthbound science and politics
Also, go to this CCTV Video about the mission:
https://youtu.be/cGp7WySaVW4?list=PLpGTA7wMEDFjz0Zx93ifOsi92FwylSAS3
In addition, go to this informative video:
More China-EU space program co-op expected as Chang’e-4 probe prepares for moon-landing
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sR4jiNMcBYg
Credit: ISRO
Media outlets in India are reporting that the country is moving forward on its Gaganyaan project – a plan by the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) to help India become the fourth nation able to independently rocket humans into Earth orbit by 2022.
Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad announced that the Union cabinet has approved a budget for the program.
Credit: ISRO
Large launcher
India’s NDTV reports there have been a number of developments within India’s Gaganyaan program.
India’s space agency ISRO hopes to deploy its biggest rocket, the Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle Mark III (GSLV Mk III), to send three Indians into space from the Sriharikota space port in Andhra Pradesh. GSLV Mk III is a three-stage heavy lift launch vehicle developed by ISRO. The vehicle has two solid strap-ons, a core liquid booster, and a cryogenic upper stage.
The space agency hopes to launch the first mission within 40 months. The plans in the “demonstration phase” includes undertaking two unmanned flights and one human flight using Indian technology to catapult a crew of three into a low earth orbit for 5-7 days.
Crew Module Atmospheric Re-entry Experiment (CARE).
Credit: ISRO
Tight schedule
Dr K Sivan, Chairman of the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), commenting on the 2022 deadline, had earlier said it was a “very, very tight schedule but ISRO will do it.” India has inked agreements with Russia and France for assistance in Gaganyaan.
India plans to call its astronauts “Vyomnauts” since “Vyom” in Sanskrit means space.
ISRO has spent Rs. 173 crore developing critical technologies for human space flight. The plan was first pitched in 2008 but was put on the backburner as the economy and Indian rockets experienced setbacks.
Stepping stone successes
In 2014, India tested a Crew Module Atmospheric Re-entry Experiment (CARE), where a 3,745 kg space capsule – a prototype of the crew module that will be used by the Indian astronauts – was launched into the atmosphere on the first flight of the GSLV Mk III and then safely recovered from the Bay of Bengal. CARE was designed to showcase blunt body re-entry aerothermodynamics and parachute deployment in cluster configuration.
Since then, ISRO has also mastered the art of making a spacesuit to be used by Indian astronauts.
Pad Abort Test.
Credit: ISRO
Earlier this year, ISRO carried out a crucial Pad Abort Test on July 5, using a 12.6-ton crew module. This escape measure is designed to quickly pull the astronaut-carrying crew module to a safe distance from the launch vehicle in the event of a launch abort.
The test took place at Satish Dhawan Space Center, Sriharikota.
Pad Abort Test capsule parachutes to watery touchdown.
Credit: ISRO
The crew module reached an altitude of nearly 1.7 miles (2.7 kilometers) under the power of its seven quick acting solid rocket motors.
Nearly 300 sensors recorded various mission performance parameters during the test flight.
The test was over in 259 seconds, during which the Crew Escape System along with crew module soared skyward, racing out over the Bay of Bengal and floated back to Earth under its parachutes about 2 miles ( 2.9 kilometers) from Sriharikota.
Credit: ISRO
Recovery experiment
In a human spaceflight-related test, back on January 10, 2007, ISRO launched the Space capsule Recovery Experiment (SRE-1).
Launched by a Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-C7) from Satish Dhawan Space Center (SDSC) SHAR, Sriharikota, SRE-1 was successfully recovered today on January 22, 2007 after being maneuvered to reenter the Earth’s atmosphere and descend over the Bay of Bengal.
The SRE – 1 capsule weighed 1,213 pounds (550 kilograms) and demonstrated, among a host of technologies, development of reusable thermal protection system (TPS). The experiment tested lightweight silicon tiles that can protect a spaceship as it re-enters the Earth’s atmosphere.
Go to this NDTV video about India’s human spaceflight plans:
Here’s a video of the pad abort test:
https://www.isro.gov.in/sites/default/files/videos/pat_test_video.mp4.mp4
Credit: JAXA/NHK
The Moon is a scene of aggravated assault.
It has been flown by, orbited, crashed into, landed upon, and also stepped on.
Fast forward to now and the next few years, there’s a pilgrimage of robots and humans set to touch down on the lunar surface by different national and collaborative space agencies.
A new paper calls for consideration of the fragility and pristine nature of the lunar surface.
Signing of Outer Space Treaty.
Credit: United Nations
Immediate action
“Current international treaties are outdated and require immediate action for their update and amendment. This should be taken as an opportunity for self-reflection and potential censoring, enabling a mature, responsible, and iterated sequence of decisions prior to returning.”
That’s the view espoused by Vera Assis Fernandes of the School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, The University of Manchester in the UK, that makes the case in the paper: “Ethical and Social Aspects of a Return to the Moon—A Geological Perspective.”
The paper has been published in Geosciences, an interdisciplinary, international peer-reviewed open access journal published monthly online by MDPI in Basel, Switzerland.
Assess the consequences
In preparation for the next round of exploration of the Moon and the Solar System, humankind needs time to assess the consequences, the paper suggests.
Next up to get down and dirty: China’s Chang’e-4 moon lander and rover. Credit: CNSA
For one, the paper asks, what kind of effects on the Moon and its stable and pristine environment will be caused by a return there (robotic and/or human)?
“As we plan the next steps in the cosmic venture, we also need to be able to acknowledge celestial bodies as entities that need to be respected, irrespective of their having life or not,” notes the paper.
Avenue of debate
One avenue of debate that is underscored in the paper is “an urgent need” to update and amend both the United Nations Moon Treaty of 1979 (i.e., Agreement Governing The Activities Of States On the Moon And Other Celestial Bodies) and the Outer Space Treaty of 1967 (i.e., Treaty on Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space, including the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies).
As pointed out in the paper, the USA, China, India, Japan and Europe are well represented, mainly by pioneering, engineering and scientific minds in terms of Moon exploration. “However, the world is a vast place with many peoples, needs, wishes, and points of view,” the researchers explain.
Wanted: mental infrastructure
From a geological view, their Moon view is that there’s need for not limiting the planning to 5 to 10 years as most businesses practice. Instead, it would allow longer term planning or at least the development of “a more solid mental infrastructure.”
Credit: NASA/ESA
“There is a need to acknowledge the Moon as an entity beyond ourselves that needs to be respected. What are the opinions of all the nations and cultures of the world on a return to the Moon? And how are the voices of their citizens being taken into consideration and included? In a globally shared endeavour, it is necessary to take into account different philosophies and approaches to what science and the cosmos are. We need to collectively look at the current world situation and think how we want it in the future!”
For a view of this informative, thought-stirring paper, go to:
“Ethical and Social Aspects of a Return to the Moon—A Geological Perspective,” go to:
https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3263/9/1/12
New Horizons Principal Investigator Alan Stern of Southwest Research Institute (SwRI), Boulder, CO., left, with print of a U.S. stamp with suggested update since the New Horizons spacecraft explored Pluto in July 2015.
Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls
NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft encounter with “Ultima Thule” – a Kuiper Belt object that orbits one billion miles beyond Pluto – and the farthest space probe flyby in history.
Added good news is that New Horizons principal investigator and planetary scientist, Alan Stern, is prepared for puzzlement.
Artist’s concept of the New Horizons spacecraft encountering Pluto and its largest moon, Charon (foreground) in July 2015.
Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute/Steve Gribben/Alex Parker
I discussed this new and imminent record-setting flyby with Stern, fleshing out what’s ahead for this trailblazing probe – at Ultima Thule…and beyond.
Go to my new Space.com story:
Encounters with Distant Worlds: An Interview with New Horizons’ Alan Stern (Exclusive)
https://www.space.com/42843-new-horizons-alan-stern-ultima-thule-interview.html
