Archive for the ‘Space News’ Category
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December 27th, 2024
Image credit: Blue Origin
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has given the go for the first launch of the Blue Origin New Glenn mega-booster.
Under the FAA Part 450 commercial space launch license they authorized the maiden flight of New Glenn.
“The FAA determined Blue Origin met all safety, environmental and other licensing requirements. The license allows Blue Origin to conduct orbital missions from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida with the reusable New Glenn first stage landing on a barge in the Atlantic Ocean. It is valid for five years,” according to an FAA statement.
“A big thanks to the FAA for the partnership, especially over the holidays. Here’s to NG-1 [New Glenn-1] — we are really close, folks,” posted Dave Limp, CEO of Blue Origin on the Elon Musk/SpaceX-run X site.
Hotfire!
To Limp’s point, Blue Origin’s New Glenn completed on December 27 an Integrated Launch Vehicle hotfire, deemed as the final major milestone for the launchers first flight. The seven-engine hotfire lasted 24 seconds and also marked an earlier set of inert functional and tanking tests.
Image credit: Blue Origin
New Glenn features Blue Origin’s BE-4 engines, “the most powerful liquefied natural gas (LNG)-fueled, oxygen-rich staged combustion engine ever flown,” the entrepreneurial space company explains.
Image credit: Blue Origin
New Glenn’s first and second stage mate . Photo taken November 12, 2024.
Image credit: Blue OriginBlue Origin’s New Glenn completed on December 27 an Integrated Launch Vehicle hotfire, deemed as the final major milestone for the launchers first flight. The seven-engine hotfire lasted 24 seconds and also marked an earlier set of inert functional and tanking tests.
For detailed information on New Glenn, go to:
https://www.blueorigin.com/new-glenn
Image credit: Blue Origin
Posted in 
Image credit: LIQUIFER, based on MidJourney/DLR (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0)
A team of researchers from Germany, Austria, Poland and Italy are hard at work designing and testing a novel extractor technique for the prospect of using water ice found on the Moon.
The LUWEX group’s “downstream” goal is to be able to process kilograms of lunar regolith containing enough water ice to support a purification process.
An Earth-based demonstration system is under appraisal, operating under a similar low pressure and low temperature environment as on the Moon.
LUWEX has been funded by the European Union, focused on validation of lunar water extraction and purification technologies for on-the-spot propellant and consumables production.
Image credit: LUWEX Project
Lab testing
“To test the system in the laboratory, a mix from water ice particles and lunar regolith simulant will substitute for real lunar sand as is expected to be found in some craters at the lunar south polar region,” explain the LUWEX specialists.
“By applying heat, the vaporizing water is extracted and collected. After liquefaction, the raw water is put through a purification process. The purified water is then ready for use in the form of propellant, for energy storage and for life support…or for a glass of Adam’s ale from the Moon,” the researchers point out.
The icy regolith simulant just after mixing in the ice particles. This process is done under cryogenic temperatures.
Image credit: LUWEX Project
Consortium partners
LUWEX technologists involve Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt (DLR), Germany, LIQUIFER Systems Group, Austria, Technische Universität Braunschweig, Germany, Scanway sp. z o. o., Poland, Wroclaw University for Science and Technology, Poland, as well as Thales Alenia Space in Italy.
The LUWEX project is developing and validating technologies for extracting, purifying, and monitoring lunar water.
Their intent is to advance In-Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU) on the Moon to support sustainable space exploration.
Fundamental physics and engineering
“By harnessing lunar water for astronaut needs, radiation shielding, and rocket fuel, LUWEX reduces reliance on Earth-bound supplies, paving the way for long-duration missions,” the group points out. “Using icy lunar dust simulants in a thermal-vacuum chamber, the project tests a complete water process chain to elevate its Technology Readiness Level (TRL).”
Paul Zabel examines two samples of extracted water: on the left, cleaned by the Thales Alenia Space processing system, and on the right, still contaminated with regolith
Image credit: TU Braunschweig
Explains Paul Zabel of the German Aerospace Center, “we don’t know yet how the water ice regolith mixture behaves, when we warm it up, and how the water vapor forms where it flows. There is a lot of fundamental research questions involved in this project. And that makes it really exciting because it’s a combination of fundamental physics, and engineering.”
Adds Barbara Imhof of the LIQUIFER Systems Group, “we have to look at what we really need, what we can take from the location we are at, and how we can always keep resources in a loop because it is very cumbersome to source materials, and goods we need for the everyday life. We really need to take good care of what we have.”
For detailed information on the LUWEX work, go to:
https://liquifer.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/LUWEX-_brochure_web.pdf
Also, visit the LUWEX website at:
The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) is spearheading an international collaboration project for China’s Chang’e-8 mission. Key research project personnel from HKUST include Prof. Yu Hongyu (3rd left), Prof. Sun Qingping (2nd left), Prof. Shi Ling (2nd right), and Prof. Duan Molong (1st right).
Technologists in China have the go-ahead to engineer a multi-task Moon robot for use in the country’s Chang’e-8 lunar landing mission, now set for launch around 2028.
The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) announced today its appointment by the China National Space Administration (CNSA) to spearhead an international collaboration project for the lunar lander mission.
Reportedly, the extraterrestrial android would weigh roughly 220 pounds (100 kilograms).
International partners
In October 2023, CNSA issued the Opportunity Announcement for International Cooperation on the Chang’e-8 endeavor.
HKUST assembled a team of international partners to submit a proposal to the Lunar Exploration and Aerospace Engineering Center of CNSA and was selected in November this year.
Chang’e-8 south pole Moon lander.
Image credit: CNSA/HKUST
According to China’s Xinhua news service, the Chang’e-8 will constitute, together with Chang’e-7, the basic model of a lunar research station. The Chang’e-7 probe is expected to be dispatched to the Moon around 2026 to implement resource exploration of the lunar south pole.
Dexterous operations
The HKUST-led team, according to the university, is set to produce a multi-functional lunar surface operation robot capable of dexterous operations with a mobile charging station.
“As one of the pioneering initiatives led by China to set up an international lunar research station, this project will pave the way for the establishment of a long-term unmanned facility in the lunar polar regions,” a university statement explains.
The robot is envisioned to conduct scientific exploration, deploy and install instruments in the Moon’s harsh environment. Its mobile wireless charging capability is to energize various devices on the lunar surface. Positioning, navigation and autonomous movement would not rely on satellite navigation systems.
Artist’s view of International Lunar Research Station. Image credit: CNSA
The Hong Kong Space Robotics and Energy Center will be established to drive this mission forward while fostering collaboration across institutions and regions.
Other team members are from Dalian University of Technology, Shenzhen University, Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU), and the South African National Space Agency (SANSA).
Low lunar temperature, highly skilled robot
Professor Yu Hongyu, director of the HKUST Space Science and Technology Institute is also principal investigator of the lunar robot.
“First, our robot venturing into the lunar south pole will encounter extremely low temperatures. To ensure its reliable performance, the use of advanced materials and temperature management systems is essential,” Yu said.
“Secondly, the absence of satellite navigation on the Moon means a smart design is required to effectively address the complexities of positioning, navigation, autonomous movement and operational control,” added Yu. “At the same time, the robot must stay lightweight while handling multiple precision tasks and serving as a charger for other lunar equipment.”
Map of the distribution of subsurface water ice in Cabeo Crater. Image credit: Department of Nuclear Planetology of the Space Research Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
New views of water ice resident in polar craters of the Moon have been issued by the Space Research Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
The data has been collected by the Russian Lunar Exploration Neutron Detector (LEND), an experiment on board NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) that was launched back in June 2009.
Based on measurements taken by the Russian neutron telescope onboard LRO, the features of water ice occurrence in the lunar polar craters Cabeo and Galimov were studied.
Large volume of data
According to a December 24 posting on the Press Service Bulletin of the Space Research Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences (IKI RAS), LEND has accumulated a large volume of neutron mapping data over 15 years of work.
In the soil of the polar crater Cabeo, the mass fraction of water ice is on average about 0.5%, and in some areas even 0.7%. Polar crater Cabeo coordinates are 35.5 W, 84.9 S.
“Such an area ‘enriched’ with water ice is located at the deepest point of the permanently shadowed section of the crater Cabeo,” the website explains. “The mass fraction of ice in the soil of this crater increases with depth, and ice is present in both sunlit and permanently shadowed areas of the surface.”
Galimov Crater. Image credit: Department of Nuclear Planetology of the Space Research Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
Crater ages
Russia’s LEND also observed the polar crater Galimov located closer to the equator at coordinates 126.59° W, 64.32° S. This feature is comparable to the Cabeo crater in age – 3.85 billion years. However, Galimov is nearly three times smaller in diameter than crater Cabeo, roughly 21 miles (34 kilometers) across.
“It turned out that there are no signs of water ice in the soil at its bottom. At the same time, the soil in the immediate vicinity of the crater contains water ice,” the posting adds.
The research work was carried out by a team of the Department of Nuclear Planetology of the Space Research Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences under the supervision of Igor Mitrofanov. Also cited in the research, Maxim Litvak, Anton Sanin, and Maya Dyachkova.
Installing Russia’s LEND device on the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) by NASA Goddard Space Flight Center specialists.
Image credit by IKI RAS
History of lunar permafrost
The scientists explain that the absence of ice in the Galimov crater basin is due to the eruption of hot magma, which took place between 0.2 and 1.0 billion years ago, as evidenced by cracks on the bottom of the crater.
“Thus, a comparison of these two craters showed that the polar glaciers on the Moon formed between 3.85 billion and 1.0 billion years ago,” the IKI RAS specialists point out.
The researchers add that additional study of the lunar soil using neutron orbital mapping data “will help to reconstruct in even greater detail the history of the appearance of permafrost on the Moon and also solve the practical problem of choosing the optimal location for a future lunar base.”
NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO).
Credit: NASA/GSFC
Fairly “wet” place
According to an overview of the work of LEND, maps of the prevalence of water in the lunar regolith at the north and south poles of the Moon have been developed.
“As its measurements show, the Moon turned out to be a fairly ‘wet’ place: in certain areas, under a layer of dry soil from several tens of centimeters to one meter thick, the content of water ice can be up to 5% by weight of the soil, which is more than in the Sahara Desert on Earth,” the IKI RAS website explains.
Book Review: Lunar: A History of the Moon in Myths, Maps, and Matter, Edited by Matthew Shindell; The University of Chicago Press; Hardcover/Cloth, 256 pages; $65.00.
This is a unique, beautiful, inspiring, and vital volume – a book to help the reader prepare for humankind’s reintroduction to on-location Moon exploration. As noted author Dava Sobel writes in her foreword, you will be consumed by how the Moon is portrayed here, “a black-and-white world rendered in a riot of gorgeous colours.”
Central to the book are superb cartographical charts of the Moon, coupled with masterful text that highlights our celestial neighbor’s role in popular myth, culture and science.
Between 1962 and 1974, US Geological Survey illustrator-cartographers painstakingly and systematically mapped the Moon, laying out a visual welcome mat for early, pioneering robotic craft and then followed by human explorers.
National Air and Space Museum curator Matthew Shindell has pulled together an impressive, fabulous volume, touching on the significance of the Moon from the Stone Age to today. The book contains well-written contributions from scholars that cover a wide array of over 30 topics, such as: “The Moon in Ancient Egyptian Creation Myths,” “Understanding the Phases of the Moon,” to “‘Moonstruck’ – Lunacy and the Full Moon” and “The Feminine Symbolism of the Moon,” as well as “The Moon in Silent Cinema, and “‘Selling’ the Moon in the 1950s.”
In Shindell’s introduction, he writes that the book demonstrates that “the Moon has been and remains connected to almost every facet of human life. While it is impossible to predict precisely what is to come in the long relationship between humans and the Moon, what is clear is that the Moon will forever live in the human heart.”
There are 500 color plates within the pages of this large format — 10-1/2 x 14-3/8 – book that includes a set of endnotes, a glossary, sources of illustrations and a further reading list.
Again, this is a treasure of a book and the reader will find this volume a prized resource as humanity returns to and “reboots” the Moon!
For more information on this book, go to:
https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/L/bo240063025.html
A drone is seen over Ridge, New York, on the evening of Dec. 12, 2024.
Image credit: Grant Parpan/Newsday RM via Getty Images
All of the recent sightings of puzzling unidentified aircraft in New Jersey and other states have triggered yet another round of unanswered questions, along with fueling conspiracy theories.
For one, the odd objects have sparked a visual public mayday and melee – one that might be mirroring elements of the on-going Unidentified Anomalous Phenomenon (UAP) issue, of secretive saucer crashes by run amok alien crew members with expired driver licenses.
Image credit: Statista
Mischaracterization of what’s seen. Public anxiety about what’s not known. Government officials seemingly not clear on what’s happening. Toss in Capitol Hill lawmakers demanding answers about what to do next.
It’s all enough to give you a case of the high and low-altitude heebie-jeebies.
Go to my new Space.com story – “Planes, drones or UFOs: What are people seeing in the New Jersey sky?” – at:
Wait-a-Minute!
Image credit: Barbara David
Are we moving closer to the day of “downing” Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP), often tied to UFOs?
In the lexicon of what’s up in the sky that has become unidentifiable, there’s Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV), Unmanned Aerial System (UAS), and also “drones.”
Whatever is up with the wave of sky sightings, are there any lessons learned here to unravel today’s growing call for “Full Disclosure.”
Up close and personal! Scene from Earth vs. the Flying Saucers circa 1956.
Credit: Columbia Pictures
That mantra is in vogue and encompasses super-secret U.S. aerial activity and hush-hush classified technology. Then there are the fighter jet pilots that have filmed UAP. And what about the far more traditional claim of close encounters with alien vehicles and even out-of-control crashes of flying saucers?
It’s a wait-a-minute moment for sure.
Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder Dec. 19 briefing. Image credit: Senior Airman Madelyn Keech
Office of the Secretary of Defense Public Affairs
Drone busters
Word is that counter drone systems have begun to be deployed in New Jersey, a hotbed of activity and public bewilderment. There have been a limited number of visual sightings of drones over military facilities in New Jersey and elsewhere, including within restricted air space.
The now in the field anti-drone gear exhibits active and passive detection capabilities as well as other capabilities, namely serving as “drone busters” that basically disrupt signals and affects the ability of these systems to fly.
That’s the word from Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder, the Pentagon Press Secretary, during a December 19th press briefing.
Ryder said that the bottom line is that if our forces, our commanders observe UAS activity that they believe represents a threat, “they have the authority to conduct mitigation operations based on the capability at their location,” Ryder said. One of those capabilities, he added, could be the non-kinetic, interruption of signals, for example.
Image credit: Statista
Harmonize efforts
Military personnel are going to protect and defend the nation, said Ryder, in order to protect facilities or mitigate potential threats.
Ryder said that U.S. military is working closely with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, as we as the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to harmonize efforts.
Earlier in the week, the FAA noted that there are more than one million drones lawfully registered with the FAA in the United States. Moreover, there are thousands of commercial, hobbyist and law enforcement drones lawfully in the sky on any given day.
“With the technology landscape evolving, we expect that number to increase over time,” the FAA explained.
Image credit: U.S. Homeland Defense
Sightings to date
Given more than 5,000 reported drone sightings in the last few weeks the federal government is supporting state and local officials in investigating a number of these reports.
“We have sent advanced detection technology to the region. And we have sent trained visual observers,” said the FAA.
Sightings to date, the FAA explained, “include a combination of lawful commercial drones, hobbyist drones, and law enforcement drones, as well as manned fixed-wing aircraft, helicopters, and stars mistakenly reported as drones.”
Image credit: Yannick Peings, Marik von Rennenkampff/AIAA
However, the FAA is urging Congress to enact counter-UAS legislation that would extend and expand existing counter-drone authorities to identify and mitigate any threat that may emerge.
Who you gonna call?
All of this is sure to fan the flames of Deep State secrecy, be it UFOs, UAPs, drones, UAV, and UAS.
Put in the blender that the government is here to help sort all this out.
Sure, the truth may be out there, but clearly there’s need for a reality check.
Mental musical recollection: “If there’s something strange in your neighborhood…if there’s something weird and it don’t look good…who you gonna call?”
What’s your view?
Wait-a-Minute!
Image credit: Barbara David
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona
The Mars-circling NASA spacecraft – the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) – has used its super-powerful High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera system to catch a view of NASA’s now retired InSight Mars lander.
Built by Lockheed Martin Space Systems in Denver, InSight landed back in November 2018, carrying out duties to reveal details about the Red Planet’s Marsquakes, and plumbing the depths of Mars to acquire crust, mantle, and core data.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona
The new imagery — taken on October 23rd — show that the Mars lander’s solar panels have acquired the same reddish-brown hue as the rest of the planet, reports Andrew Good in the Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s (JPL) media department.
Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.
Credit: NASA
Dusty situation
Over the four years that the spacecraft collected science, engineers at NASA’s JPL, which led the mission, used images from InSight’s cameras and MRO’s HiRISE “to estimate how much dust was settling on the stationary lander’s solar panels, since dust affected its ability to generate power,” Good added.
Launched in August of 2005, the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) that’s onboard the MRO, is operated by the University of Arizona in Tucson. HiRISE was built by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. in Boulder, Colorado.
Return to life?
NASA retired InSight in December 2022. The lander ran out of power and stopped communicating with Earth during an extended mission. “But engineers continued listening for radio signals from the lander in case wind cleared enough dust from the spacecraft’s solar panels for its batteries to recharge,” Good added.
InSight’s first full selfie on Mars, taken on April 24, 2022.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
But since no communications from the lander have been detected over the past two years, NASA is stopping its listening for InSight at the end of this year.
The solar arrays on NASA’s InSight lander are deployed in this test inside a clean room at Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver. The image was taken on April 30, 2015.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Lockheed Martin Space
On December 18, 2024, the U.S. Department of Defense publicly released its annual report, Military and Security Developments Involving the People’s Republic of China (PRC).
This annual report to Congress features a number of space-related activities underway by China, from use of space for military purposes, reusable rocketry and space planes, to deep space exploration.
This report covers security and military developments involving the PRC through early 2024.
The report can be found here at:
Image credit: CCTV/CMSA/Inside Outer Space screengrab
China’s Shenzhou-19 crew carried out their first space walking duties outside the Tiangong space station. In doing so, they set a new record for the duration of EVAs by Chinese astronauts, said the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA).
Lasting nine hours, the Tuesday stroll was the longest among the 17 EVAs so far carried out in China’s human spaceflight program.
Image credit: CCTV/CMSA/Inside Outer Space screengrab
China launched the Shenzhou-19 crewed spaceship on October 30, sending three astronauts — Cai Xuzhe, Song Lingdong and Wang Haoze – to the orbiting outpost.
Debris shielding installation
Cai and Song were assigned the EVA tasks, while Wang assisted the outside twosome from inside the space station. It marked Cai’s third EVA in space, following his two spacewalks during his Shenzhou-14 mission in the second half of 2022.
Wang Haoze assisted EVA crew from inside the space station.
Image credit: CCTV/CMSA/Inside Outer Space screengrab
One central spacewalk task was installing debris shielding.
“The installation of the protective panels this time is mainly to protect the cables and pipelines of the thermal control equipment outside the Tianhe module from debris,” said Meng Lingzi, a staffer of the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation.
“During the development phase, the ground researchers conducted a full-process simulation verification of the entire task. The visibility, accessibility, and operability were all verified through ergonomic evaluations and underwater tests,” explained Meng in an interview with China Central Television (CCTV).
Image credit: CCTV/Inside Outer Space screengrab
Robotic arm
Given the dispersed installation locations of the protection devices on the station, the two astronauts carried out the task with one using the robotic arm while the other climbed outside the station to assist.
During the nine hours, the Shenzhou-19 crew also performed other tasks, such as inspecting extravehicular equipment and facilities.
Image credit: CCTV/CMSA/Inside Outer Space screengrab
The Shenzhou-19 crew is set to carry out a slew of scheduled space-science experiments and technical tests, while they will also undertake additional extravehicular activities and install payloads outside the space station, according to the CMSA.
Sent to the station for a six-month tour of duty, the Shenzhou-19 crew is expected to return to Earth in late April or early May.
Go to this CCTV video of the spacewalk at:
