Archive for the ‘Space News’ Category
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January 18th, 2019
Courtesy: DIA
The U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) began in 2017 to produce a series of unclassified Defense Intelligence overviews of major foreign military challenges faced by the United States.
A new volume — CHINA MILITARY POWER: Modernizing a Force to Fight and Win — provides details on China’s defense and military goals, strategy, plans, and intentions; the organization, structure, and capability of its military supporting those goals; and the enabling infrastructure and industrial base.
Control center
Courtesy: DIA
This product and other reports in the series are intended to inform the public, U.S. leaders, the national security community, and partner nations about the challenges to be faced in the 21st century.
The just-issued report covers a number of space themes: Space/Counterspace, Satellites, Counterspace, Human Spaceflight and Space-Exploration Probes.
China operates four space launch sites: Jiuquan, Taiyuan, Xichang, and Wenchang.
Credit: DIA, D3 Design
For the report, go to:
Also, a video is available at:
Posted in 
Phobos, the larger of Mars’ two moons as seen by the High-Resolution Imaging Sciences
Experiment (HiRISE) on NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter in March, 2008. The illuminated portion of the
image is some 21 km across and objects as small as some 6-meters across can be resolved. Courtesy of
NASA/JPL/University of Arizona.
A new study has been issued — Planetary Protection Classification of Sample-Return Missions from the Martian Moons – Phobos and Deimos. Currently, the Committee on Space Research of the International Council of Scientific Unions’ (COSPAR for short) planetary protection policy does not specify the status of sample return missions from Phobos or Deimos.
Although the moons themselves are not considered potential habitats for life or of intrinsic relevance to prebiotic chemical evolution, recent studies indicate that a significant amount of material recently ejected from Mars could be present on the surface of Phobos and, to a lesser extent, Deimos.
Robotic/human missions
Japan plans to launch the Martian Moons Exploration (MMX) mission in the mid-2020s to collect and return samples from Phobos (or Deimos) to Earth. Furthermore, the moons of Mars are potential targets for future human exploration.
Therefore, an understanding of the potential for life from Mars to persist on Phobos and/or Deimos is relevant to assuring astronaut safety on those missions.
These color-enhanced views of Deimos, the smaller of the two moons of Mars, were taken on Feb. 21, 2009, by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. Deimos is about 7.5 miles in diameter.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona
Unrestricted Earth return
To lessen the scientific uncertainties concerning the planetary protection status of the martian moons, NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) commissioned research to perform modeling and experimental activities to assess the extent to which material from Mars might be deposited on the planet’s moons.
The various steps of martian material transferred to Phobos (and inferred for Deimos). Teams undertook experimental studies and/or numerical modeling to study each distinct step in the chain
from the surface of Mars to that of its moons. The committee organized its report around the various steps outlined
above. Image taken from Japan’s JAXA report with permission.
One report focus is gauging the post-ejection environmental conditions that might inactivate potential martian life transported to Phobos and Deimos.
Tests of that idea have already included hypervelocity impact sterilization of relevant Earth organisms, as well as use of ionizing radiation and heat.
One bottom line of the report is that the committee carrying out the study recommends that samples returned from the martian moons be designated “unrestricted” Earth return.
Go to this informative website on Japan’s Martian Moons Exploration (MMX) mission at:
http://mmx.isas.jaxa.jp/en/mission/
You can download the full report — Planetary Protection Classification of Sample-Return Missions from the Martian Moons — for free here:
NASA Lunar
Reconnaissance Orbiter imagery used to help pinpoint China’s Chang’e-4 lander location. A January 31st flyover of the area may spot the lander and Yutu-2 rover.
Credit: NASA/Arizona State University
NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter can use its super-powerful camera to spot the Chang’e-4 lander and rover, 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
NASA has posted a January 19th story regarding its campaign to return to the Moon with global partners.
This past month, the article explains, NASA held discussions with the China National Space Administration (CNSA) to explore the possibility of observing a signature of the landing plume of their lunar lander, Chang’e 4, using the space agency’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter’s (LRO) LAMP instrument.
LAMP stands for Lyman Alpha Mapping Project, an ultraviolet imaging spectrograph instrument on LRO. LAMP was developed by the Southwest Research Institute.
Chang’e-4 lander on the Moon’s farside as imaged by Yutu-2 rover.
Credit: CNAS/CLEP
Plume detection interest
“For a number of reasons, NASA was not able to phase LRO’s orbit to be at the optimal location during the landing, however NASA was still interested in possibly detecting the plume well after the landing,” explains the NASA-posted article. “Science gathered about how lunar dust is ejected upwards during a spacecraft’s landing could inform future missions and how they arrive on the lunar surface.”
NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO).
Credit: NASA/Goddard Science Visualization Studio (SVS)
Since the Chang’e-4 landing on, LRO instruments have been collecting data that are currently being analyzed.
“LRO is expected to image the Chang’e 4 landing site on January 31 in a manner similar to what was done on Chang’e 3,” the NASA story adds.
Transparent, reciprocal and mutually beneficial
“NASA and CNSA have agreed that any significant findings resulting from this coordination activity will be shared with the global research community at the 56th session of the Scientific and Technology Subcommittee meeting of the UN Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space meeting in Vienna, Austria, February 11-22, 2019.”
All NASA data associated with this activity are publicly available, the NASA article adds. “In accordance with Administration and Congressional guidance, NASA’s cooperation with China is transparent, reciprocal and mutually beneficial.”
To view the NASA-posting, go to:
https://www.nasa.gov/feature/nasa-s-campaign-to-return-to-the-moon-with-global-partners
Curiosity Mastcam Left image taken on Sol 2283, January 7, 2019.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover is wrapping up Sol 2293 duties.
The robot’s last day at Rock Hall saw scientists gathering last data at this location.
Curiosity Front Hazcam Left A photo taken on Sol 2293, January 18, 2019.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Reports Brittney Cooper, an atmospheric scientist at York University, Toronto, Ontario, Canada and Claire Newman, also an atmospheric scientist at Aeolis Research in Pasadena, California: Scientists had a 2.5 hour science block filled with Mastcam change detection imaging of the Rock Hall drill fines and alternating Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam) Remote Micro-Imager (RMI) and Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectrometer (LIBS) observations of the Rock Hall dump pile, drill tailings, and target “St.Cyrus 2.”
Curiosity Navcam Left A image acquired on Sol 2293, January 18, 2019.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Regional dust storm
“Gale Crater has become a lot dustier in recent sols due to a regional dust storm in the southern hemisphere that was spotted by the Mars Climate Sounder team, so we added several extra environmental observations to see how this is affecting the atmosphere,” Cooper and Newman explain. These included extra measurements of the amount of dust above us (with the observation known as the “Mastcam tau”) and of visibility across the crater (with the “Navcam Line of Sight” and “Mastcam Crater Rim Extinction” observations), they add.
Also added were more Rover Environmental Monitoring Station (REMS) one-hour measurements to better capture the diurnal cycles of pressure and temperature.
Curiosity Navcam Right A image taken on Sol 2293, January 18, 2019.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Daily pressure cycle
“When the regional or global dust loading increases, it changes how the atmosphere expands and contracts in response to solar insolation, which affects how air moves around and alters the large-scale patterns of surface pressure (since pressure is caused by the mass of air in a column over the surface). We monitor this by seeing how the shape of the daily pressure cycle changes from sol to sol,” Newman and Cooper explain.
More atmospheric dust also means more of the incoming solar radiation is absorbed before it reaches the rover, the atmospheric specialists point out, so daytime near-surface and ground temperatures decrease compared to normal. At night, however, the warmer overlying atmosphere emits more thermal radiation, keeping the temperature of the surface and near-surface warmer than usual. More dust heating also means that near-surface and surface temperatures are more strongly coupled, resulting in a reduced surface-to-air temperature contrast, all of which REMS measurements are starting to show.
Curiosity Rear Hazcam Right A photo acquired on Sol 2293, January 18, 2019.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Dust devil searches
“Another effect of increased dustiness is therefore that we expect to observe fewer convective vortices and dust devils (dusty vortices), because a smaller surface-to-air temperature difference means less heat is pumped into the atmosphere to drive convection,” Cooper and Newman say. “So tosol we also included three types of Navcam dust devil searches, to see if the dust activity produces a decrease in the number or size of dust devils. We’d normally expect to see a lot of dust devils in the current season (local summer).”
Curiosity Navcam Left A image acquired on Sol 2293, January 18, 2019.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
In fact, the atmospheric researchers note, one dust devil passed right over Curiosity just as a movie was being taken a few sols before the dust began to increase!
Vortex pressure drop
In investigating frames of the movie, there was a slight reduction in visibility as this happened; at the same time, the dust devil’s low-pressure core produced the largest vortex pressure drop ever measured on Mars (over 7 pascal) which is about 1% of the total surface pressure). A pascal (Pa) is a metric measurement unit of pressure.
“Although we can’t ‘see’ the dust devil in the images, we can tell the rover was inside one because of the decrease in visibility combined with the dramatic decrease in pressure,” Newman and Cooper conclude.
Credit: Space Gateway view of the Moon.
Credit: ESA
To support the educational community in running activities relating to the Moon, the European Space Agency (ESA) has launched a new education webpage: Teach with the Moon.
This year marks the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission, the first crewed landing on the Moon. ESA, alongside other space agencies, has long thought of the Moon as the stepping stone for the human exploration of space.
A new ESA-led project is investigating the ways that 3D printing could be used to create and run a habitat on the Moon. Everything from building materials to solar panels, equipment and tools to clothes, even nutrients and food ingredients can potentially be 3D printed.
Credit: ESA
Moon on the mind
In collaboration with international partners, ESA is preparing to return to the Moon with several missions in development for the coming years.
Dig deep: New ESA website explore extracting water from the Moon.
Credit: ESA
The Teach with the Moon educational page hosts a variety of curricular STEM resources using the Moon as the learning context. These resources can be used in and outside the classroom to engage primary and secondary students in STEM subjects by building on their natural curiosity for space and the exploration of the Moon in particular.
To link up with this creative ESA initiative, go to:
http://www.esa.int/Education/Teach_with_the_Moon/Teach_with_the_Moon4
Credit: Chongqing University
Farside photo. CGTN story shows an image of the first-ever cotton sprout on the Moon, released by the Chongqing University which led the design team of the biological payload on the Chang’e-4 lunar mission. Credit: Chongqing University Photo
China’s farside lander carried to the lunar surface an experiment devised by Chongqing University. Six living things — cotton, rapeseed, potato, thale cress, yeast and fruit flies – form a simple micro ecosystem.
Chinese media now reports that nightfall on the Moon has the mini-biosphere’s temperature dropping to nearly 180-degree centigrade below freezing. China Daily reports: “All the equipment has powered down, and the remaining seeds and animals will be gradually decomposed down to organic fundamentals.”
The Chang’e-4 test on the Moon’s farside began on January 3 and finished on Saturday, lasting about 213 hours and involved the transmission of over 170 pictures, reports China Daily.
Cotton shoots
At 8 pm on Saturday, the biological experiment sent back a photo showing that the cotton shoots had emerged and the plants were growing well inside the sealed test can, according to Chongqing University, which leads the biological science project for the Chang’e-4 mission.
“It is the first time humans have conducted a biological growth and cultivation experiment on the surface of the Moon,” Liu Hanlong, director of the project and deputy head of Chongqing University, said at a news conference on Tuesday. “It will provide valuable basic information and experience for building a moon base in the future.”
Ground unit.
Credit: Chongqing University
Ground unit.
Credit: Chongqing University
Cultivation of confusion
Part of the cultivation of confusion comes from photos taken of the ground unit, a comparative experiment on Earth. Scientists set up two identical payloads which started simultaneously: One on the Moon, one on Earth.
Chongqing University on Tuesday showed that one of the cotton seeds, taken up to the Moon by the lunar exploration probe, has sprouted. “We can confirm that the cotton has sprouted,” said Xie Gengxin, chief engineer of the biological project. “We are not sure about the other living things as the cameras didn’t record their activity.”
As tweeted via the journal, Astrobiology: “Update – the earlier 2 pictures we tweeted are being circulated by Chinese media. But they are actually from a ground unit of the #Change4 greenhouse. This is a picture from the farside of the Moon. It will be interesting to compare the growth. #astrobiology #spacebiology”
One of many Curiosity Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) selfie photos taken on Sol 2291, January 16, 2019. MAHLI is located on the turret at the end of the rover’s robotic arm.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover is now wrapping up Sol 2291 duties.
The robot is concluding a single sol of activities on Sol 2291, reports Rachel Kronyak, a planetary geologist at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville.
“As we begin to wrap up our activities at the Rock Hall drill site, Sol 2291 is chock full of science observations,” Kronyak reports. That sol was to begin with an hour-long science block.
Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) photo taken on Sol 2291, January 16, 2019.
Dust levels
Curiosity’s environmental group (ENV) planned several activities to measure increasing dust levels in the atmosphere; these observations will occur at the start of the science block.
Following ENV’s activities, the geology group (GEO) planned a Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam) observation on a soil target near the rover named “Loch Monar” as well as a long-distance Remote Micro-Imager (RMI) image of the sulfate unit on Mount Sharp, Kronyak adds.
Following ChemCam, Mastcam will take images of targets “Loch Monar” and “Stroma.”
“The “Stroma” target is an interesting small rock just in front of the rover,” Kronyak points out.
Curiosity Navcam Right A photo acquired on Sol 2289, January 14, 2019.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Self portrait imagery
After the science block, the plan calls for taking a series of images with the rover’s Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) camera.
Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) photo taken on Sol 2291, January 16, 2019.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
“First, we’ll take a 57-frame self portrait, or selfie,” Kronyak notes. “Up next for MAHLI is part one of a wheel imaging campaign, which we do periodically to monitor the health of the wheels.”
Drive slated
The plan calls for more images to be taken after a Curiosity drive later on in the week.
Overnight, the to-do list has the Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer (APXS) performing an analysis on the Rock Hall dump pile. “This will be our second observation on the dump pile,” Kronyak explains, as a weekend analysis didn’t get the entire pile within APXS’s field of view.
Curiosity ChemCam Remote Micro-Imager photo taken on Sol 2291, January 16, 2019.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/LANL
Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) photo taken on Sol 2291, January 16, 2019.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
Tuesday of this week was a no-planning “soliday,” which happens approximately every 38 days. “These solidays allow our Earth schedule to catch back up with the slightly longer Mars day. We will resume planning Sol 2292 on Wednesday,” Kronyak concludes.
Chang’e-4 lander carries mini-biosphere.
Credit: CNSA/CLEP
China’s Chang’e-4’s biological experiment returns the first farside results: a cotton seed has sprouted on the Moon.
The mini-biosphere onboard the lander, designed by Chongqing University, is a canister containing the seeds of cotton, rapeseed, potato, and arabidopsis, as well as eggs of the fruit fly and some yeast.
Credit: China Central Television (CCTV)/Chongqing University/Screengrab/Inside Outer Space
After Chang’e-4 touched down on the farside of the Moon on January 3, ground control instructed the probe to water the plants to start the growing process. A tube directs natural light on the surface of the Moon into the canister to allow the plants to grow.
Camera images
In a Xinhua news service story professor Xie Gengxin of Chongqing University notes that images sent by the probe showed that a cotton sprout had started to grow, though no other plants were found growing.
Credit: China Central Television (CCTV)/Chongqing University
More than 170 pictures have been taken by cameras and transmitted back to Earth, according to the team.
The cylinder canister, made from special aluminum alloy materials weighs 6 pounds (2.6 kilograms). It also holds water, soil, air, two small cameras, and a heat control system, Xie told Xinhua.
Biological technology
Xie explains that potatoes could be a major source of food for future space travelers.
Credit: XinhuaVideo/Screengrab/Inside Outer Space
The growth period of Arabidopsis, a small flowering plant related to cabbage and mustard, is short and easy to observe. Yeast could play a role in regulating carbon dioxide and oxygen in the mini biosphere, and the fruit fly would be the consumer of the photosynthesis process.
Researchers used biological technology to render the seeds and eggs dormant during the two months when the Chang’e-4 mission went through final checks at the Xichang Satellite Launch Center, followed by a space trek of more than 20 days through space.
Video:
Credit: XinhuaVideo
Video:
Credit: China Central Television (CCTV)/Chongqing University
Credit: NASA
Long-duration spaceflight leads to marked muscle atrophy.
However, another negative consequence of disuse is intramuscular fatty infiltration. Notably, few studies have investigated the effects of spaceflight on intramuscular fatty infiltration, or how muscle atrophy is associated with in-flight exercise.
New research by Katelyn Burkhart of the Harvard-MIT Health Sciences and Technology Program and colleagues analyzed computed tomography (CT) scans of the lumbar (lower) spine in 17 astronauts and cosmonauts who flew missions on the International Space Station.
Data was collected between years 2000-2006. All crewmembers underwent pre- and post-flight scanning, with pre-flight scans acquired 30-60 days prior to flight and post-flight scans acquired 7-10 days after landing.
Scans obtained before and after missions were studied to determine changes in the size and composition of the paraspinal muscles. Average time of individuals in space was six months.
Credit: NASA
Low back pain
The muscular fatty infiltration that the report notes in the lumbar paraspinal muscles may have a connection to the low back pain that astronauts frequently report during flight.
Running up and down the spine, the paraspinal muscles play a key role in spinal movement and posture.
Previous studies have found reduced paraspinal muscle mass after prolonged time in space, suggesting that muscle atrophy may occur without the resistance provided by gravity.
Exercise
The new study is the first to measure changes in the size and density of individual paraspinal muscles. The results show that muscle size returns to normal upon Earth recovery, but that some changes in muscle composition – particularly increased fatty infiltration – may persist for at least a few years.
Some of the paraspinal muscle changes seem to be affected by exercise, suggesting possible approaches to preventing the adverse effects of prolonged spaceflight on spinal health and functioning.
The study assessed such routines as treadmill exercise, cycle ergometer exercise, and resistance exercise.
Credit: NASA
Astronaut abilities
Burkhart and coauthors conclude: “As NASA plans for future missions to Mars and beyond, these results can be used to guide future countermeasures to mitigate declines in trunk muscle morphology and associated functional deficits.”
The researchers say they only investigated changes due to approximately 6 months of spaceflight.
“It’s unclear if the declines in trunk muscle morphology we report in this study would continue at the same rate for longer-duration missions or if they would begin to plateau. This information is of critical importance as NASA plans for longer-duration missions, as trunk muscle deficits could negatively affect an astronaut’s ability to perform mission-related tasks,” they write.
Credit: NASA
Their research paper — Negative Effects of Long-Duration Spaceflight on Paraspinal Muscle Morphology — has been published in SPINE- an International Journal for the study of the spine published by Wolters Kluwer and is available for free at:
Credit: National Geographic
For those local to the Boulder, Colorado area, I hope you can take part in my presentation at the Chautauqua Community House this Wednesday, January 16 with doors open at 6:30 PM; Showtime: 7:00 PM.
Are we at a crossroad in exploring the space frontier? Are we opting out as a nation – to build upon a legacy of sending humans and robots to delve into the mysteries of our solar system and beyond? Since the “Space Race” of the 1960’s, the portrait of space exploration has changed – one that is now a growing commercial and government endeavor. Still, the diplomatic value of pushing the boundaries of discovery in space is one that many nations are now pursuing.
Join me, Leonard David, space journalist, reporting on the future of the global space exploration program for more than five decades. I’ll be discussing what the next decade may hold around the world for space exploration – in low Earth orbit, the Moon, Mars… and beyond!
Space race rivals: Soviet Union’s Premier
Nikita Khrushchev with U.S. President, John F. Kennedy.
Credit: Kennedy Library
Credit: Jemal Countess/Getty Images for National Geographic Channel
About the Speaker
Leonard David is author of the highly-acclaimed National Geographic Society’s 2016 book: Mars – Our Future on the Red Planet. He is also co-author with Apollo 11’s Buzz Aldrin of Mission to Mars – My Vision for Space Exploration released in 2013 and also published by the National Geographic Society.
Leonard’s new book — Moon Rush – The New Space Race — will be published by National Geographic in May.
For more information go to:
