Archive for the ‘Space News’ Category
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November 19th, 2018
Aerospace’s artist rendering of the Solar Gravity Lens concept which will enable enhanced viewing of potentially habitable exoplanets.
Credit: The Aerospace Corporation
An innovative deep-space concept that relies on a solar gravity lens (SGL) to enable enhanced viewing of exoplanets is under study by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and The Aerospace Corporation.
The SGL would provide 100-billion optical magnification, allowing it to show details as small as 10 kilometers across – similar to being able to spot something the size of New York City on an exoplanet.
As detailed in a press statement from The Aerospace Corporation, according to Einstein’s theory of relativity, light traveling through space will bend if it passes near sufficiently massive objects. This means that distant light will bend around the periphery of the sun, eventually converging toward a focal region as if it had passed through a lens.
The SGL mission would send spacecraft to that region to view the focused light.
Aerospace’s artist rendering of a swarm of spacecraft flying out of the solar system at a velocity of over 75 miles per second to reach the solar gravity line.
Credit: The Aerospace Corporation
Array of detectors
“SGL requires placement of an array of detectors that starts to observe the light from exoplanets once they arrive at a distance of approximately 50 billion miles or 550 astronomical units (AU) away from Earth,” said Tom Heinsheimer, Aerospace’s technical co-lead for SGL.
“To get to that solar gravity line,” Heinsheimer says, “the swarm of spacecraft will need to use a solar sail to fly out of the solar system at a velocity of over 75 miles per second.”
Stay in line!
Navigation and propulsion technologies will need to keep the sensors on the spacecraft flying in the one-mile-wide line that contains the light from the exoplanet. The roundtrip communications link of six light days will make ground control of the spacecraft impractical, so the spacecraft will need to be adaptable and able to learn from experience.
To undertake the two-year SGL study, Aerospace was awarded $130,000 from Phase II of NASA’s Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) program through a contract with JPL which leads the overall NIAC study.
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Geologist Harrison Schmitt performs Moon tasks during Apollo 17 mission in December 1972.
Credit: NASA
The Moon is a Disneyland of Dust.
Its pervasive nature was characterized by the last man on Moon, Gene Cernan. He reported after his 1972 Apollo 17 mission: “we can overcome other physiological or physical or mechanical problems except dust”. Dust adhered ‘to everything, no matter what kind of material” with “restrictive, friction-like action,” he explained.
Research by an Australian scientist suggests that dust is the major surface problem for risk management plans of future lunar expeditions – both for humans and robotic explorers.
Apollo 17 helmets and dusty spacesuits stuffed inside lunar lander following the last human treks on the Moon in December 1972.
Credit: NASA
Apollo dust
Brian J. O’Brien of the School of Physics and Astrophysics at the University of Western Australia has taken a retrospective and future look at worrisome “Apollo dust,” sunrise-driven storms of Apollo dust, and other phenomenon. There’s need for a paradigm change from a “culture of dismissal” of the problem to top priority, he suggests.
Apollo dust is defined as all fine dust on and in the vicinity of the surface of Moon that can cause or lead to operational impacts and operational problems for robotic and human expeditions and lunar settlements. Also, ejecta dust is defined as high speed dust particles resulting from hypersonic meteoritic or cosmic dust impacts on the Moon, including secondary products of ejecta.
O’Brien’s research work – “Paradigm shifts about dust on the Moon: From Apollo 11 to Chang’e-4” – is newly published in the journal, Planetary and Space Science.
Risk management
There’s need for a re-examination of risk management of effects of Apollo dust given international expeditions including a Moon Village and private groups headed for the Moon.
Speculated by O’Brien is that lunar dust storms were consistent with being a cause of immobilization of China’s Yutu rover that was dispatched on the Moon in December 2013. Such dust, he notes, may have caused moving parts of Cheng’e-3 Yutu lunar rover to be subjected to the friction-like effects of dust gumming up parts of the robot.
China’s Yutu rover. A victim of dust? Credit: Chinese Academy of Sciences
Back in July 1969, O’Brien reports, rocket exhaust from the Eagle’s lunar lander departure blew contaminating dust so large it caused overheating and failure within 21 Earth days of the first science observatory deployed by a human on Moon.
Unfinished business
Studying Apollo dust is “unfinished business,” O’Brien points out. Looking forward, he is hopeful that updated 21st century dust detectors and their data on China’s Chang’e-4 far side lander and perhaps India’s Chandrayaan-2 lander/rover will study movements of Apollo dust.
“With the splendid high technology and miniaturization of cameras and electronic devices,” O’Brien explains, “it may well be that a modern innovation can cause a new paradigm change in understanding Apollo dust.”
Private lunar lander operations.
Credit: Astrobotic Technology, Inc.
Special caution
In concluding remarks, O’Brien has a “special caution” for private entrepreneurs and others “who might assume that dust can be dismissed for any expedition which completes activities on its first lunar day before the first sunrise. Every dust problem and bothersome operational difficulty for every Apollo astronaut occurred on his first lunar day. I enviously wish you all well.”
To read “Paradigm shifts about dust on the Moon: From Apollo 11 to Chang’e-4” — in the journal, Planetary and Space Science, go to:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0032063317302830?via%3Dihub
Credit: Virgin Orbit
Sky flying over Southern California, Virgin Orbit’s LauncherOne, mated to a specially modified 747-400, made its first captive carry test flight.
Sir Richard Branson’s small satellite launch company completed a test jaunt, proving that its carbon-fiber two-stage rocket can be paired with Cosmic Girl, the customized former passenger aircraft that serves as the company’s “flying launch pad.”
The company’s plans are to reach orbit in early 2019.
Credit: Virgin Galactic
Testing regime
The Sunday, Nov. 18 flight lasted 80 minutes in total, during which Virgin Orbit’s flight crew assessed the take-off, landing, and low-speed handling and performance of the integrated system.
This portion of the extensive testing regime will conclude with a drop test, during which a rocket will be released from Cosmic Girl — without igniting — generating critical data about Cosmic Girl’s and the rocket’s performance as it freefalls through the atmosphere.
Credit: Virgin Orbit
As part of that program, the company will conduct several more flights of its 747-400, some with a LauncherOne rocket attached and some without.
Test facility
The twosome departed from and returned to a Victorville, California test facility close both to Virgin Orbit’s Long Beach factory and to one of its operational launch sites, the Mojave Air and Space Port.
Credit: Virgin Orbit
Virgin Orbit intends to be a flexible launch service for commercial and government-built satellites.
LauncherOne rockets are made in Long Beach, California, and will be air-launched from its carrier aircraft capable of operating from many locations in order to serve each customer’s needs.
For more information, go to:
Au natural: Earth’s Moon as seen from the International Space Station.
Credit: NASA/ESA
NASA and the Departments of State and Commerce have submitted a report to the National Space Council outlining future opportunities and challenges for human spaceflight in low-Earth orbit (LEO), and its potential economic contributions to the broader field of exploration.
The National Space Council requested NASA lead an interagency effort to produce the report, entitled ‘A Strategy for Human Spaceflight in Low Earth Orbit and Economic Growth in Space,’ during its February meeting.
The first U.S. astronauts who will fly on American-made, commercial spacecraft to and from the International Space Station, wave after being announced, Friday, Aug. 3, 2018 at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. The astronauts are, from left to right: Victor Glover, Mike Hopkins, Bob Behnken, Doug Hurley, Nicole Aunapu Mann, Chris Ferguson, Eric Boe, Josh Cassada, and Suni Williams. The agency assigned the nine astronauts to crew the first flight tests and missions of the Boeing CST-100 Starliner and SpaceX Crew Dragon.
Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls
Overarching goals
The report details four overarching goals for human spaceflight in LEO that were developed in collaboration with NASA’s interagency partners:
To achieve a continuous U.S. presence in LEO – both NASA astronauts and private citizens – in order to support the use of space by U.S. citizens, companies, academia, and international partners and to maintain a permanent American foothold on the nearest part of the space frontier.
To create a regulatory environment in LEO that enables American commercial activities to thrive.
To conduct human spaceflight research in LEO that will advance the technology and systems required for long-duration spaceflight systems, including systems for interplanetary travel and permanent space habitation.
U.S. President Trump signing bring back the National Space Council.
Credit: White House
To expand and extend commercial opportunity though international partnerships and engagement.
Executive summary available
These goals are among the priorities of NASA’s exploration plans for the coming years. NASA will continue to work with its interagency partners to achieve these objectives and milestones with commercial crew and advancement of long-duration human spaceflight systems.
The report itself is for intra-governmental use only, due to the inclusion of sensitive information.
However, a one-page executive summary is available online at:
Credit: Spaceflight
Update: From 30th Space Wing (Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif.)
SpaceX Falcon 9 SSO-A launch delayed
SpaceX is standing down from Monday’s launch attempt of Spaceflight SSO-A: SmallSat Express to conduct additional pre-flight inspections.
A red flag continues to be raised by orbital debris specialists regarding the upcoming launch of SSO-A, currently scheduled for a SpaceX Falcon 9 liftoff from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California on November 19.
Targeted for sun-synchronous orbit (SSO), the mission is dubbed SSO-A: SmallSat Express.
Rideshare mission
The bragging rights about the SmallSat Express involve the largest rideshare mission from a U.S.-based launch vehicle, with 25 percent of the customers launching for the first time.
Mission management provider, Spaceflight, has contracted with more than 70 spacecraft from approximately 35 different organizations, all to be propelled skyward by a SpaceX Falcon 9. Spaceflight is a service offering of Spaceflight Industries, based in Seattle, Washington.
The satellites are to be dispersed by SHERPA platforms, free-flying secondary payload dispensers.
Credit: Spaceflight
Space debris on release
“What they [Spaceflight] haven’t shared is how these 70+ satellites are going to be deployed,” says T.S. Kelso of CelesTrak, an analytical group that keeps an eye on Earth-orbiting objects. “I checked with one of the operators—trying to get a head start on how we’re going to ID all of these—and learned that the two SHERPA platforms are going to be released from the Falcon 9 with no attitude control or attitude determination.”
Kelso’s bottom line: “I think this is not only irresponsible from a safety of flight perspective, but it jeopardizes the time and resources of many of the small operators who may never even hear from their satellites,” he told Inside Outer Space. His guess is that about a third of the satellites to be deployed will basically be space debris on release and there will be difficulties in sorting out this kind of mess.
Credit: Spaceflight
Be prepared for chaos
Kelso spoke extensively with the 18 Space Control Squadron team at last week’s Space Situational Awareness Operators’ Workshop in Denver, tweeting:
“They have next to nothing useful from Spaceflight for the SSO-A launch on Monday. This is totally irresponsible. Be prepared for chaos.”
In reaching out to Spaceflight for comment on my previous article — “Cluttering Space: Upcoming Launch Red Flagged” at:
https://www.leonarddavid.com/cluttering-space-upcoming-launch-red-flagged/
Christine Melby, a PR spokesperson for Spaceflight, in an email response said: “Thank you for reaching out. At this time we do not have a comment on this article.”
Credit: 18th Space Control Squadron
Space squadron
Meanwhile, a tweet from the 18 Space Control Squadron at Vandenberg that detects, tracks, and identifies all artificial objects in Earth orbit states:
“Check out the SSO-A launch on Monday at #Vandenberg AFB w/ 64+ spacecraft! We’re working closely with all O/Os [owner/operators] to track & catalog the objects ASAP. Thanks to all O/Os for their cooperation, transparency & support for #spaceflightsafety.”
The Combined Space Operations Center (CSpOC) has developed a set of recommendations for optimal CubeSat operations, including launch deployment and identifications. But it appears that the recommendations were not taken seriously by the SSA-O developers.
Those recommendations were based on the proliferation of CubeSats and associated technology that pose unique tracking and identification challenges.
To review the August 2015 document — JSpOC Recommendations for Optimal
CubeSat Operations — go to:
https://www.space-track.org/documents/Recommendations_Optimal_Cubesat_Operations_V2.pdf
Curiosity Mastcam Left photo acquired on Sol 2231, November 15, 2018.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover is now performing Sol 2233 duties.
“It’s the windy season on Mars, and Curiosity’s activities this weekend include taking oodles of images at different times throughout the day to catch how the wind moves sand and dust around,” reports Abigail Fraeman, a planetary geologist at NASA/JPL in Pasadena, California.
Possible meteorite? “Little Todday.” Curiosity ChemCam Remote Micro-Imager photo taken on Sol 2232, November 16, 2018.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/LANL
Sand movement
On the plan is taking 15 separate Mastcam images of both the “Sand Loch” and “Windyedge” areas throughout the weekend, as well as several Mars Descent Imager (MARDI) photos to monitor changes on the ground underneath the vehicle.
“A similar campaign we did back at the Bagnold Dunes helped refine models of regional-scale wind patterns at Gale and provided important insights into the physics of how sand moves under the modern day Martian atmosphere,” Fraeman adds.
Front Hazcam Right A photo taken on Sol 2232, November 16, 2018.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Weekend work plan
This weekend’s plan calls for performing a second night of Chemistry & Mineralogy X-Ray Diffraction/X-Ray Fluorescence Instrument (CheMin) analysis on the Highfield drill sample and fill a couple mornings with Mastcam and Navcam observations to monitor the atmosphere.
Curiosity ChemCam Remote Micro-Imager photo taken on Sol 2232, November 16, 2018.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/LANL
On tap is a longer remote sensing science block on sol 2233 that includes Chemistry & Camera (ChemCam) and Mastcam observations of targets “Dun Carloway,” “St. Abbs Head,” and “Echt.”
A second long remote sensing science block on sol 2235, Fraeman concludes, will contain ChemCam and Mastcam observations of “Blair Atholl” and “Rhinns of Islay,” as well as a Mastcam multispectral observation of Echt.
Over four decades ago, radio message shot to the stars is celebrated event. Credit: Google Doodles
Forty-four years ago today, a three-minute radio message broadcast from the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico was aimed at a cluster of stars 25,000 light years away from Earth.
The message itself was devised by a team of researchers from Cornell University led by Frank Drake, astronomer and astrophysicist responsible for the Drake Equation – a way to estimate the number of planets hosting extraterrestrial life within the Milky Way galaxy.
Frank Drake with cosmic equation to gauge the presence of intelligent life in the cosmos. The Drake Equation identifies specific factors believed to play a role in the development of civilizations in our galaxy.
Credit: SETI Institute
Beamed outward from Arecibo, that communiqué to the cosmos – destination, the 300,000 stars in the constellation Hercules known as M13 – has now traveled 259 trillion miles, just a small fraction of the 146,965,638,531,210,240 or so miles to reach the final destination.
Whether or not aliens at the other end are all ears (or antennae) is arguable. What isn’t arguable is that, over the intervening decades, exoplanet detection is on the upswing, heightening expectations that a civilization “out there” may be on the listening end.
Credit: Arecibo Observatory, an NSF funded facility
New message
National Science Foundation-funded Arecibo Observatory organizers are seeking innovative ideas from global collaborative efforts … to inspire a new generation of space enthusiasts and define a New Arecibo Message.
The Arecibo Observatory is launching an online competition today on the 44th anniversary of the original Arecibo message. Organizers are seeking innovative ideas from global collaborative efforts of inter-generation, diverse and international teams of students to inspire a new generation of space enthusiasts and define the New Arecibo Message.
Online clues
But this will be no simple task.
In order to get started, teams of up to 10 students in grades kindergarten through college must decode various clues that will be released online.
Like a Chinese puzzle box, teams must learn about space science, break coded messages and solve brain-puzzles to qualify, get instructions, register and then submit their entries.
Arecibo is posting the first puzzle on its website and social media channels this December 16th.
Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA
Raising awareness
The main goal of this activity is to educate the youth on radio astronomy techniques and exoplanetary cutting-edge science, presenting the uniqueness of the Arecibo Observatory capability and raising the awareness of the possible risks involved on messaging unknown earthlings (through social medias) or extraterrestrial civilizations (through radio waves).
The Arecibo Observatory is operated by the University of Central Florida (UCF) in partnership with Sistema Ana G. Mendez Universidad Metropolitana and Yang Enterprises Inc. UCF and its partners took over management of the facility in April 2018.
For more information, go to:
Credit: Zero G Kitchen
The first appliance to freshly prepare small food items, such as rolls, cookies, patties, pockets and other basic foods for longer duration space travel has been designed.
Zero G Kitchen LLC, in partnership with NanoRacks have specifications and timing of the first appliance of its planned ‘kitchen in space,’ an open platform for food development in space and the zero gravity environment.
Credit: Zero G Kitchen
First in a series
The oven is the first in a series of space-adapted appliances built and operated under the direction of Zero G Kitchen.
Following the oven, Zero G Kitchen plans to develop space-adapted versions of common household appliances, such as a refrigerator, blender, slow cooker and more. To achieve its goal of building a kitchen in space, Zero G Kitchen will work with a wide array of food companies, educators, researchers, appliance engineers and aerospace organizations.
(left) Jeffrey Manber, CEO, founder of NanoRacks and known cookie monster with Zero G Kitchen staff.
Credit: Zero G Kitchen
Build, test, eat
Zero G Kitchen expects to build and test the space oven before the end of 2018 with a targeted launch to the International Space Station in early 2019. Recently, Zero G Kitchen signed the first user of the space oven, and an announcement is expected in early 2019.
Based in New York City, Zero G Kitchen has been whipped up by Ian and Jordana Fichtenbaum, co-founders and co-chefs. “Bound together by their love of space and cooking, they determined to build a kitchen in space to pursue their mutual passions together,” according to the organization.
For more information on Zero G Kitchen, visit www.zerogk.space
Curiosity Mastcam Left photo acquired on Sol 2230, November 14, 2018
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover is now in Sol 2232.
Reports Scott Guzewich, an atmospheric scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, the rover is on tap to use its Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) Instrument Suite.
The plan called for delivery of a sample to SAM of the ground up rock from the Highfield drill hole.
Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) Instrument Suite shown in this Curiosity Mastcam Left image, taken on Sol 2227, November 11, 2018.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
Trickle down
“The rover will open one of its SAM inlet covers and the arm will be moved over to the top of it and then the drill bit will be reversed in a way that will trickle some finely-ground rock powder down into SAM,” Guzewich says.
“Then SAM will heat that rock to very high temperatures and measure the chemical compounds that make up Highfield. This is key to understanding what the Vera Rubin Ridge is made of and its formation history,” Guzewich adds.
Possible meteorite
While SAM activities are power intensive, scientists have planned additional work including Chemistry & Camera (ChemCam) laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) targeting the Highfield drill hole’s internal edges, some nearby bedrock (“Fraser Castle” and “Bridge of Don”), as well as a possible meteorite, “Little Todday.”
Curiosity Mastcam Right photo taken on Sol 2229, November 13, 2018
“We are also conducting numerous change detection images with Mastcam and [Mars Descent Imager] (MARDI) to monitor the motion of the nearby sand and dust on the surface,” Guzewich notes. Also on tap, the environmental science group has plans for two movies to monitor the increasing dust devil activity following this year’s global dust storm as well as atmospheric opacity above and within Gale Crater.
Eu:CROPIS satellite: “Euglena and Combined Regenerative Organic-food Production in Space.”
Credit: DLR (CC BY 3.0)
The Eu:CROPIS mission will be launched into space from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California November 19, onboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 booster.
Eu:CROPIS stands for “Euglena and Combined Regenerative Organic-food Production in Space.”
The unique investigation was designed and built by the German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt; DLR) and the Friedrich Alexander University (FAU) in Erlangen–Nuremberg.
The Eu:CROPIS satellite is roughly one cubic meter in size and weighs over 500 pounds (230 kilograms) with its biological payload.
Life support systems
Deployed from the SpaceX launcher at some 370 miles (600 kilometers) altitude the satellite carries two biological life support systems that carry greenhouses, dwarf tomato seeds, single-celled algae and synthetic urine.
The aim is for the seeds to germinate in space and continue to grow due to the successful conversion of urine into a fertilizer solution. The mission is intended to show how biological life support systems can be used to supply food on long-term missions.
Packing up the Eu:CROPIS satellite.
Credit: DLR
Rotation rates
During the mission, the satellite will rotate around its longitudinal axis. Depending on the rotation rate, this generates a specific level of altered gravity.
According to the DLR, during the first part of the experimental phase, gravitational conditions like those on the Moon will be created (0.16 times Earth’s gravitational pull), with 20 rotations per minute. This will last for around 23 weeks. The first greenhouse will be put into operation during this phase.
In the second research phase, the satellite will simulate gravity on Mars (0.38 times that of Earth) by rotating 32 times per minute. Experiments will now take place in the second life support system.
On-camera activities
The processes at play inside the greenhouses are to be recorded by cameras and transmitted down to Earth.
Cosmic tomatoes will grow in two greenhouses inside the Eu:CROPIS satellite.
Credit: DLR (CC-BY 3.0)
“This mission seeks to show that urine can be converted into nutrients even under lunar and Martian gravity conditions,” says Jens Hauslage of the DLR Institute of Aerospace Medicine in Cologne.
The DLR German Space Operations Center (GSOC) in Oberpfaffenhohen will control the satellite.
Also on board the Eu:CROPIS satellite: two Radiation Measurement in Space devices and an on-board computer to process the images taken by the on-board cameras. NASA will also be running a PowerCell experiment relating to the production of useful substances in space using bacteria.
Space-Earth link
As explained by the DLR, fresh vegetables that thrive in space thanks to converted organic waste products are not only a prerequisite for long-term space travel, but the research findings from such projects can also be useful on Earth.
For example, if urine or manure can be recycled into fresh water and nutrients usable by plants, this could improve living conditions in overcrowded areas or in places that have an extreme shortage of drinking water, while providing relief for soil and groundwater – another of DLR’s areas of research.
