Archive for the ‘Space News’ Category
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December 17th, 2024
Two variants of Endurance have been detailed: Endurance-R (R for “Robotic”) would deliver samples to a separately landed robotic Earth Return Vehicle (ERV).
Endurance-A (A for “Astronaut”) would deliver the sample cache to Artemis astronauts near the lunar south pole. The crew would analyze and triage the samples, and return a subset to Earth for analyses in terrestrial laboratories.
Image credit: NASA
Introducing Endurance: An Enduring Long-distance Robotic Lunar Rover
It is robotic moon machinery on steroids.
Tagged as the Endurance sample return mission, it would collect bits and pieces from key lunar locations for later retrieval by NASA Artemis moonwalkers.
Furthermore, high-value collectibles snagged from those distant spots would be hauled back to Earth by astronauts.
Mobility options
Endurance rover would traverse the gigantic South Pole–Aitken (SPA) basin – a lunar landscape of promising geological surprises.
Image credit: NASA
NASA has begun blueprinting the Endurance rover to traverse the gigantic South Pole–Aitken (SPA) basin – a wonderland of promising geological surprises.
At the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), technical studies are underway to assess mobility options for a SPA sample return mission.
From a robotics standpoint – just how challenging is such an undertaking and how best to draw from rover missions of the past and those now underway?
For more information on this project, go to my new Space.com story — Meet Endurance, a pioneering NASA moon rover designed to survive the frigid lunar night – at:
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An updated detailed map of the polar regions of the Moon is available, work done by researchers at the Geochemical Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences together with the Department of Lunar and Planetary Research of Moscow State University.
The map is based on a digital elevation model constructed using data from the laser altimeter of the American spacecraft Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter.
In addition, a high-resolution map displays the landing sites of all robotic spacecraft and piloted vehicles, indicated by conventional symbols on the map.
The map also shows the impact sites of the devices: the American GRAIL-A, GRAIL-B, LCROSS and Lunar Prospector, the Indian Chandrayaan-1 and Chandrayaan-2, and the Japanese Kaguya.
Lunar orbiter plans
Russia plans to send its Luna-26 orbiter to the Moon in 2027. It will conduct remote observation of the lunar surface. The main scientific objectives will be remote study of the lunar surface, construction of a topographic map of the lunar surface, and determine of the structure and composition of the subsurface.
Russia’s Luna-26 Moon orbiter. Image credit: Lavochkin
In addition, Luna-26 is to search for areas rich in hydrogen, determine the chemical and elemental composition of the regolith, appraise the heterogeneity of the lunar gravitational field, study the composition and dynamics of the exosphere, as well as study the interaction of the solar wind and the Moon. Also, the orbiter is to study lunar magnetic anomalies and the corresponding plasma dynamics, assess micrometeor streams and secondary dust clouds around the Moon.
The mapping work is available at:
http://portal.geokhi.ru/Lab41/SitePages/Maps-of-the-Moon.aspx
NASA has released a new document that highlights programmatic paradigm shifts in further exploration of the Red Planet over the next 20 years.
This plan was prepared for the NASA Science Mission Directorate’s Mars Exploration Program (MEP).
The report is titled Expanding the Horizons of Mars Science – A Plan for a Sustainable Science Program at Mars – Mars Exploration Program 2024-2044.
Core questions
Highlighted in the document are several “paradigm shift” prospects to further address several core questions that include:
- How has the habitability of Mars evolved over the history of the planet?
- Did life ever arise on Mars, and if so, does it exist today?
Those paradigm shifts underscored in the document include lower-cost Mars missions.
New Mars mobility capabilities like this single-axle rover can access high-risk terrain, such as steep slopes and caves – areas challenging or inaccessible for current Mars rovers. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Additionally, commercial services, the human exploration of the Red Planet, as well as international Mars ambitions are also flagged as paradigm shifts. “NASA is no longer one of the few with focused Mars exploration ambitions,” observes the report.
New, different model
“To remain a vanguard in Mars exploration, MEP must embrace a new, different model: the ability to send more—and more frequent—missions to Mars in an affordable and achievable manner, and to do so while cultivating a diversity of talent and engaging the public in opportunities to explore Mars,” the report points out.
The report lists a “Lower-Cost Mission” is approximately $100–$300 million, exclusive of the launch vehicle and mission operations.
A “Medium-Class Strategic Mission” is pegged at between approximately $1–$2 billion, exclusive of the launch vehicle and mission operations.
Rough lander concept for Mars.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Partnerships
As for tapping into commercial services, the report states that exploring Mars together “through new partnership models with the international, commercial, and academic communities is essential.”
This type of paradigm shift would mimic other innovative public-private partnership solutions such as NASA’s Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) and Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) endeavors.
Life on Mars
The search for life on Mars remains a significant undertaking, the document states.
“Any potential oasis for present life or preservation of ancient life are likely located in terrains that have historically been more challenging to access. Some of the most fascinating landscapes on Mars, for example, are found in the southern hemisphere, where the mean surface elevation has prevented robotic spacecraft from landing by traditional means.”
At the same time, there are other locales providing conditions potentially conducive to life, such as the subsurface (including caves, subsurface ice deposits, and volcanic environments), “where suitable chemistry and environmental conditions may have allowed life to gain a foothold,” the report adds.
Mars expedition probes the promise that Mars was a home address for past, possibly life today.
Credit: NASA
However, given the prospect of boots on Mars, NASA’s Mars Exploration Program “has a small window of opportunity to seek life in a pristine Martian environment, as human exploration may be possible as early as the late 2030s, following successes at the Moon.”
Challenge conventional thinking
Eric Ianson, Director of the NASA Mars Exploration Program, states in the report there’s need to “challenge conventional thinking and look to new and creative solutions for the exploration of Mars.”
This can include “seeking lower-cost science investigations, strengthening our infrastructure around Mars, seeking new enabling technologies, and creating an environment that broadens participation in Mars exploration,” Ianson states.
To review the report — Expanding the Horizons of Mars Science – A Plan for a Sustainable Science Program at Mars – Mars Exploration Program 2024-2044 — go to:
NASA Administrator Bill Nelson, left, and U.S. Department of State Acting Assistant Secretary in the Bureau of Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs Jennifer R. Littlejohn, right, look on as Ambassador of the Republic of Austria to the United States of America Petra Schneebauer, signs the Artemis Accords.
NASA welcomed onboard the Artemis Accords two new nations today, bringing the total to 50 signatories of a set of principles promoting the beneficial use of space for humanity.
Panama and Austria signed the Artemis Accords during separate signing ceremonies at NASA Headquarters in Washington, becoming the 49th and 50th nations to sign on the dotted line.
In 2020, the United States, led by NASA with the U.S. Department of State, and seven other initial signatory nations established the Artemis Accords.
NASA Administrator Bill Nelson, left, Ambassador of the Republic of Panama to the United States of America José Miguel Alemán Healy, center, and U.S. Department of State Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary in the Bureau of Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs Tony Fernandes.
As noted by NASA, “the Artemis Accords are grounded in the Outer Space Treaty and other agreements including the Registration Convention, the Rescue and Return Agreement, as well as best practices and norms of responsible behavior that NASA and its partners have supported, including the public release of scientific data.”
The Artemis Accords are a voluntary commitment to engage in safe, transparent, responsible behavior in space, “and any nation that wants to commit to those values is welcome to sign,” adds NASA.
Space debris plunges to Earth, burning its way through the atmosphere.
Image credit: The Aerospace Corporation
The European Space Agency (ESA) will premier Space Debris: Is it a Crisis? at the 9th European Conference on Space Debris being held in Bonn, Germany.
As our use of space accelerates like never before, satellites find themselves navigating increasingly congested orbits. Space has become an environment crisscrossed by streams of fast-moving debris fragments – the result from anti-satellite testing to collisions between objects in space.
Reported debris from an expended third-stage of a Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) – a medium-lift launcher operated by the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO).
Image credit: Australian Space Agency
Clutter crisis?
“Some spacecraft operators and astronomers have expressed concern about our rapidly increasing and loosely regulated use of space,” notes ESA. “But others insist that Earth’s orbital environment is so large, and that the planet’s atmosphere pulls down and burns up debris fast enough that there is no need to worry about any long-term consequences.”
So, does space clutter really represent a crisis?
ESA’s latest short documentary film on the state of space debris is to be premiered in April 2025.
Meanwhile, go to this trailer at:
NASA’s Genesis spacecraft crashed into the U.S. Army’s Dugway Proving Ground in Utah in 2004.
Image credit: NASA
Yes, it came from outer space, but with unintended consequences.
It was in September 2004 when NASA’s Genesis return sample capsule tumbled from the sky and slammed into the Utah desert, a remote part of the U.S. Army’s Dugway Proving Ground.
The upshot of that downfall: Over 20 years of painstaking work by scientists sorting through contaminated leftovers due to the spacecraft’s high-speed, full-stop slam into terra firma.
A damaged Genesis undergoes close scrutiny as researchers salvage the mission’s scientific goals. Image credit: NASA
Late “breaking” new
You could dub it “late breaking” news about Genesis science findings after two decades of intensive study, findings that are slated for discussion at this week’s annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union (AGU) being held in Washington, D.C.
For details, go to my new SpaceNews story on what Genesis researchers are reporting via – “Shattered Genesis spacecraft yields scientific discoveries 20 years after crash landing” – at:
NASA’s Voyager 2 spacecraft visited Uranus in a brief flyby back in 1986.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
For sure, it was a far-reaching recommendation. The planet Uranus and its moons should be NASA’s highest priority new Flagship mission for start-up in the decade 2023-2032.
A Uranus Orbiter and Probe (UOP) would conduct a multiyear orbital tour to yield knowledge of ice giants in general, and the Uranian system in particular, doing so through flybys and the delivery of an atmospheric probe.
Taking the plunge! Uranus exploration can be opened up by an orbiter/probe mission, a new NASA Flagship venture.
Image credit: Keck Institute for Space Studies/Chuck Carter
The payoff: “transformative, breakthrough science across a broad range of topics.”
Mark Hofstadter is a planetary scientist working at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. He’s not solar system shy and admits Uranus is his favorite planet.
Why is that the case? Take a read of my new Space.com story – “The yearning for Uranus: A far-out world with a tale to tell” – at:
Artist rendering of the X-37B performing an aerobraking maneuver using the drag of Earth’s atmosphere.
Image credit: Boeing Space
That secretive U.S. Space Force X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle (OTV-7), now some 345 days in orbit, is engaged in performing aerobrake maneuvers, a technique to alter its orbit around Earth and safely dispose of its attached service module.
Lofted back in late December of 2023, the military spaceplane was placed in an orbit higher than any spaceplane, in a highly elliptical high Earth orbit. From that orbit, the United States Space Force, supported by the Air Force Rapid Capabilities Office, conducted radiation effect experiments and tested Space Domain Awareness technologies.
X-37B (OTV-7) is also referred to as United States Space Force-52 (USSF-52). Image credit: SpaceX
This OTV-7 flight marks the first time the U.S. Space Force and the X-37B have attempted to carry out a dynamic aerobraking maneuver.
Expending minimal fuel
“The Boeing-built X37B will perform ground-breaking aerobraking maneuvers to take the dynamic spaceplane from one Earth orbit to another while conserving fuel. Partnered with the United States Space Force, this novel demonstration is the first of its kind,” Boeing explains.
Image credit: Boeing/Inside Outer Space screengrab
The use of the aerobraking maneuver requires the heat-tiled spacecraft to conduct a series of passes using the drag of Earth’s atmosphere. That technique enables the spacecraft to change orbits while expending minimal fuel.
There are no details as yet on whether the aerobrake maneuvering is complete. If so, the X-37B was slated to resume its test and experimentation objectives until they are accomplished. At that point, the vehicle is to de-orbit and execute a safe return to Earth, likely at the Kennedy Space Center.
OTV-6 return at Kennedy Space Center. Image credit: Boeing/Inside Outer Space screengrab
Apollo, Zond programs
“I wouldn’t exactly call it ground breaking. Aerobraking occurs every time something re-enters. If the object has a heat shield, it survives, if not – it breaks up,” explains Bob Christy of the informative Orbital Focus website at https://www.orbitalfocus.uk/
As far as using aerobraking for trajectory control goes, Christy told Inside Outer Space that you can look back as far as the 1960s to the U.S. Apollo and former Soviet Union Zond programs.
“Zond used aerobraking to modify the incoming extremely elliptical orbit to a sub-orbital trajectory. Original perigee was within the atmosphere, above the Indian Ocean. Encounter with the atmosphere shaved off sufficient velocity to result in a ballistic arc with a second atmosphere entry point above Russia,” Christy advised.
Image credit: Boeing Space/Inside Outer Space screengrab
“I believe Apollo had a plan to do something similar. There was a fear that a small error could strand the CM [command module] in low Earth orbit so it was modified to keep the aerobraked trajectory within the atmosphere,” Christy said, recalling Voice of America coverage of the re-entries and the danger of “skipping off into space” that was often mentioned.
Lowering orbital height
A recent reported orbit of the X-37B came November 2 by an amateur observer, Toni Simola, who observed the craft in an orbit of about 100 x 30,000 kilometers, nearly 9,000 kilometers down from its original height, Christy said. “There was never any way for the craft to return to Earth using a retro-rocket as it cannot carry sufficient propellant for the job,” he said.
OTV-6 was the first mission to introduce a service module that expanded the capabilities of the spacecraft.
Image credit: Staff Sgt. Adam Shanks
“It probably continued with the low perigee, with a plan to raise it once apogee reached 400-500 kilometers so it can continue its mission in low Earth orbit. I notice that the Boeing press release mentions disposal of the [vehicle’s] Service Module so maybe it was planned to be released before the X-37B raised perigee, to re-enter above the southern hemisphere,” said Christy. “We’ll not know whether the maneuver is complete or successful until either Boeing/Space Force announces it or an amateur observer detects it again.”
Go to this Boeing video at:
I was pleased to join my fellow space colleagues – Rod Pyle and Tariq Malik – December 6 th for an episode of their hit podcast to discuss the next NASA Administrator, delays in the Artemis rebooting of the Moon, as well the murky and mysterious nature of UFOs and UAPs, along with the consequences of contact with other star folks.
Go to:
Image credit: Huazhong University
Space travelers aboard China’s space station are soon to affix bricks made of Moon simulant to the outside of the station’s Wentian module.
The experiment involves brick samples to test techniques for fabricating lunar housing at the Moon’s south pole region.
According to the Xinhua news agency, future lunar domiciles make use of “mortise-and-tenon” fabrication, joining pieces at right angles without the use of nails.
“The earliest example of this technique dates back 7,000 years to the Hemudu culture in east China’s Zhejiang Province,” the Xinhua report adds.
Image credit: CCTV/Inside Outer Space screengrab
Space exposure
Concocted by a team at Huazhong University of Science and Technology (HUST) in Wuhan, the brick samples weigh 226 grams and are simulated lunar regolith based on authentic samples brought back to Earth from the Moon by China’s Chang’e-5 robotic mission in December 2020.
Ding Lieyun, a professor at HUST, leads the work on interlocking joints on the Moon for assembly of habitats.
Chinese team on lunar habitat construction is led by Ding Lieyun at central China’s Huazhong University.
Image credit: CCTV/nside Outer Space
Once placed outside the Wentian module, the lunar bricks are to provide data about their resilience to temperature extremes and cosmic radiation. They were brought up from Earth to the orbiting outpost by the Tianzhou-8 supply ship last month.
The Wentian module is outfitted with 22 standard payload interfaces outboard for conducting extravehicular exposure experiments, Xinhua notes.
Cylindrical/slab forms
The brick samples in the experiment, divided into three groups, come in cylindrical and slab forms: the cylinders test mechanical integrity, while the slabs appraise insulation and heat resistance.
Image credit: CCTV/Inside Outer Space screengrab
These first samples are to be retrieved from their space exposure by the end of 2025. A second retrieval is slated for 2026, followed by the last retrieval in 2027.
According to the Xinhua news story, Ding’s team made use of a brick-making process that uses a caustic soda solution or sulfur to solidify lunar regolith. Volcanic ash from Changbai Mountain in northeast China’s Jilin Province closely mirrors the composition of lunar regolith.
The set of experimental bricks were prepared using three sintering techniques: vacuum, inert gas and air sintering.
Lunar building specialist, Zhou Cheng, a professor at the National Center of Technology Innovation for Digital Construction.
Image credit: CCTV/Inside Outer Space screengrab
Lunar dwelling design
HUST research includes development of a robotic system to handle the assembly, with the final step involving the use of 3D printing to reinforce the structure.
At China’s National Center of Technology Innovation for Digital Construction (NCTI-DC), a center under the HUST, lunar dwelling designs are being evaluated. A building model takes on the look of a vertically oriented eggshell structure, divided into an upper work area and a lower rest area.
Research is also underway for fabricating a Lego-like lunar base and a lunar landing pad, the Xinhua news agency story points out.
Image credit: Huazhong University
