Archive for the ‘Space News’ Category
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June 3rd, 2022
Wheel Watch 2022: Curiosity Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) photo produced on Sol 3492 June 3, 2022.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSSNASA’s Curiosity Mars rover at Gale Crater has just made a routine check of its set of aluminum wheels.
NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover at Gale crater has just made a routine check of its set of aluminum wheels.
Of late, the robot has encountered tough terrain in its quest to scale Mount Sharp (apparently an apt name!).
Each of Curiosity’s six wheels is about 20 inches (50 centimeters) in diameter and 16 inches (40 centimeters) wide, milled out of solid aluminum.
Selfie taken by Curiosity Mars rover at Gale Crater.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
The wheels contact the Mars terrain with a skin that’s about half as thick as a U.S. dime, except at thicker treads.
Curiosity Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) photos produced on Sol 3492, June 3, 2022.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
The grousers are 19 zigzag-shaped treads that extend about a quarter inch (three-fourths of a centimeter) outward from the skin of each wheel. The grousers bear much of the rover’s weight and provide most of the traction and ability to traverse over uneven terrain.
Dust devils and wind gusts
Meanwhile, shift over to NASA’s Perseverance rover at Jezero Crater.
Credit: Claire Newman, et al.
A new paper — “The dynamic atmospheric and aeolian environment of Jezero crater, Mars” – has been published in the journal, Science Advances. Lead author is Claire Newman of Aeolis Research.
Perseverance rover’s novel environmental sensors and Jezero crater’s dusty environment are detailed, giving rise to a study of dust devils and wind gusts at the site.
“One such event covered 10 times more area than the largest dust devil, suggesting that dust devils and wind gusts could raise equal amounts of dust under nonstorm conditions,” the paper notes.
Why is Jezero Crater so active compared to most other landing sites?
Wind patterns in Jezero crater exhibit strong daytime winds largely controlled by convection cells superimposed on regional, Isidis basin–scale slope winds, and weaker nighttime winds, suggesting blocking of regional winds by local crater slopes, the paper adds.
To read the full paper, go to:
https://www.science.org/doi/pdf/10.1126/sciadv.abn3783
Click to see dust devils in action! Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Posted in 
Baseline spacecraft for Option 3 Interstellar Probe with “interstage” (yellow), ballast (top), Orion 50XL kick stage, undeployed RTGs (one visible at center), and thermal shield
assembly (TSA) designed for 2 Rs perihelion.
Credit: Ralph McNutt Jr. et al.
It has been decades in the making, bolstered by study after study and numerous name changes.
Now tagged as the “Interstellar Probe,” the concept has matured to enable new discoveries that can be made in no other way, by going places yet to be explored.
For the Interstellar Probe mission especially: “It isn’t about where we are going. It’s about the journey out there. And it is a journey now long overdue.”
That’s the assessment of a research paper newly appearing in the journal, Acta Astronautica. Lead author is Ralph McNutt Jr. of the John Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland.
Point-design matrix to flesh out the Interstellar Probe concept.
Credit: Ralph McNutt Jr. et al.
Unified view
Interstellar Probe is a mission that can capture a unified view of our heliosphere and its surroundings from the Earth and out into nearby interstellar space.
“Understanding the dynamics and structure of our heliosphere is fundamental to understanding those of other astrospheres, the ‘heliospheres’ which apparently surround all stellar systems, and how they interact with the galaxy, and how those interactions, in turn, inform the knowledge of habitability in other stellar systems besides our own,” the paper explains.
As now envisioned, Interstellar Probe would utilize today’s technology to take the first explicit step on the path of interstellar exploration, and can pave the way, scientifically, technically, and programmatically for more ambitious future journeys – and more ambitious science goals.
Credit: NASA/MSFC
Furthermore, with the new class of super heavy-lift launch vehicles — notably NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) – the paper suggests that a scientifically compelling Interstellar Probe mission can now become a reality.
Relay race
Interstellar Probe is a decades-long mission to reach several hundreds of astronomical units while providing new unified, measurements of the conditions throughout the heliosphere and through the heliosheath – the outer shell of the bubble of charged particles around our Sun.
This artist’s concept shows NASA’s two Voyager spacecraft exploring a turbulent region of space known as the heliosheath, the outer shell of the bubble of charged particles around our sun. After more than 33 years of travel, the two Voyager spacecraft will soon reach interstellar space, which is the space between stars.
Credit: NASA
By moving forward on Interstellar Probe, “it will take up the relay race that began with Pioneer 10 and is running with less and less energy with Voyager 1 and Voyager 2,” the paper notes.
Pioneer 10 was the plucky little spacecraft that was the first probe to leave the solar system.
Credit: NASA
To travel as far and as fast as possible with available technology, the use of the SLS Block 2 cargo version is enabling: carrying the spacecraft as well as a 3rd and 4th stage. Solar system escape speeds of at least twice that of Voyager 1 (i.e., up to 7.2 astronomical units per year) should be doable.
Wide net of possibilities
The research paper – “Interstellar probe – Destination: Universe! – makes the case for how fast can one realistically escape the solar system with a scientifically compelling and credible Interstellar Probe mission.
“Our team put a lot of work into making sure the study was as thorough and detailed as possible, while also casting a ‘wide net’ of possibilities,” said APL’s Ralph McNutt. “We eagerly look forward to what our colleagues with the Solar and Space Physics Decadal Survey have to say,” he told Inside Outer Space.
The paper can be found here at:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0094576522001503
Curiosity’s location as of Sol 3489. Distance driven to date at that Sol: 17.44 miles/28.06 kilometers.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona
NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover at Gale Crater is wrapping up Sol 3490 duties.
The rover recently made a steep, albeit short, climb, reports Abigail Fraeman, a planetary geologist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
Curiosity drivers continue to assess the terrain the robot will cross in an upcoming drive.
NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity took 29 images on May 31, 2022, Sol 3489, in Gale Crater using its mast-mounted Right Navigation Camera (Navcam) to create this mosaic.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
A recent drive pushed the robot to crest onto a plateau and it was slated to finish climbing a small but steep slope.
Paved road
“The topography,” Fraeman adds, “actually reminds me a little bit of our ascent onto Vera Rubin ridge several years ago, where we similarly crested a steep slope onto a local flat expanse.”
You can get a sense of the rover’s non-horizontal position by looking at its orientation with respect to the ground in this image using its Left Navigation Camera way back on Sol 1809 (2017-09-07), site number 65.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Curiosity starts the plan parked at an impressive 17˚ pitch (front up) and 17˚ roll (left up) for a total 24˚ tilt, Fraeman points out. “Even though this slope is getting close to the limit of what Curiosity can traverse, we don’t think we’ll have any problems unstowing the arm or driving the rest of the way to the top because of the terrain we’re on – nice smooth bedrock with only a thin sand cover is almost the Martian equivalent of a paved road.”
Curiosity Mast Camera (Mastcam) Left image taken on Sol 3489, May 31, 2022.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
Vein and bedrock targets
Outside of the drive, Curiosity is on tap to continue documenting the surrounding geology and environment.
A newly scripted plan has the rover collecting Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam) Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) observations of a vein target named “Lago Esmeralda” and bedrock target named “Lago de Rei,” as well as some long distance Remote Micro-Imager (RMI) mosaics of a part of the “Bolivar” mound.
“We’ll also grab some more Mastcam images of Bolivar, as well as several significant outcrops around the rover,” Fraeman reports.
Curiosity Mast Camera (Mastcam) Left image taken on Sol 3489, May 31, 2022.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
Rounding out the plan
Dust Removal Tool, up close in this Curiosity Mast Camera (Mastcam) Right photo acquired on Sol 3489, May 30, 2022.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
The rover’s Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) and Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer (APXS) was slated to also participate in the science action, with observations of a Dust Removal Tool’ed bedrock target named “Parepona” and vein target named “Cabadiscana,” and also be use MAHLI to image the Curiosity wheels at the start of the new drive.
Dust Removal Tool action in this Curiosity Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) photo produced on Sol 3488, May 30, 2022.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
Several Mastcam and Navcam observations designed to monitor the environment will round out the plan, Fraeman concludes.
As always, dates of planned rover activities are subject to change due to a variety of factors related to the Martian environment, communication relays and rover status.
Curiosity Mast Camera (Mastcam) Right image taken on Sol 3488, May 30, 2022.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
Credit: B612 Foundation/Asteroid Institute/Inside Outer Space screengrab
The Asteroid Institute, a program of the B612 Foundation, announced today it is using a groundbreaking computational technique running on its Asteroid Discovery Analysis and Mapping (ADAM) cloud-based astrodynamics platform to discover and track asteroids.
The upshot: The Minor Planet Center has confirmed and added the first 104 of these newly discovered asteroids to its registry. That opens the door for Asteroid Institute-supported researchers to submit thousands of additional new discoveries.
Credit: B612 Foundation/Asteroid Institute
Massive computation
ADAM is an open-source computational system that runs astrodynamics algorithms using the scalable computational and storage capabilities in Google Compute Engine, Google Cloud Storage, and Google Kubernetes Engine.
THOR (Tracklet-less Heliocentric Orbit Recovery) is a novel algorithm used to discover these new asteroids. It links points of light in different sky images that are consistent with asteroid orbits.
“With THOR running on ADAM, any telescope with an archive can now become an asteroid search telescope,” said Asteroid Institute Executive Director Ed Lu. “We are using the power of massive computation to enable not only more discoveries from existing telescopes, but also to find and track asteroids in historical images of the sky that had gone previously unnoticed because they were never intended for asteroid searches,” he said in a press statement.
The threat of Near Earth Objects (NEOs).
Credit: NASA
Collaborative effort
Danica Remy, President of B612, said this new technological milestone was achieved through a collaborative effort with the University of Washington and Google Cloud.
“Rather than looking to the sky, we’ve developed a way to look at historical data sets to discover asteroids and calculate their orbits,” Remy said in an email. “This key technology we have been building lays the foundation for future commerce, and exploration in space as well as to help protect our home planet from asteroid impacts.”
NOIRLab’s current and potential future system of observatories and data-driven exploration tools.
Credit: NSF/NOIRLAB
What is next for ADAM/THOR?
The discoveries announced today were made while searching only a small fraction – less than 0.5% – of the National Science Foundation’s NOIRLab dataset – a dataset that’s produced by ground-based, nighttime optical and infrared astronomy facilities.
Asteroid Institute researchers are already at work searching the rest of the NOIRLab data set for asteroids as well as looking at mining other datasets. “With ADAM/THOR, we expect to discover and contribute orbits for tens of thousands of previously missed objects,” according to an Asteroid Institute factsheet.
Go to this informative video regarding this effort at:
For more information on the B612 Foundation and the Asteroid Institute, go to:
Long March-5B carrier rocket arrives at Wenchang Spacecraft Launch Site.
Credit: CGTN/Inside Outer Space screengrab
Last weekend was a busy time at two of China’s launch sites as the country gears up for two key missions to fully build out its first space station.
A Long March-5B carrier rocket arrived at the Wenchang Spacecraft Launch Site on the southern island of Hainan. In July, the rocket will orbit the first space laboratory of China’s space station – the Wentian module (Quest for the Heavens).
Meanwhile, at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China’s Gobi Desert, a Long March-2F carrier rocket with the Shenzhou-14 spacecraft was rolled out to the launch tower, ready for its takeoff, reportedly June 5.
Shenzhou-14 mission set for early June liftoff.
Credit: China Media Group(CMG)/China Central Television (CCTV)/China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC)/Inside Outer Space screengrab
Relay baton
The Shenzhou-14’s three-person crew is slated to stay in China’s space station for six months and then pass the relay baton to a Shenzhou-15 crew at year’s end, reports the China Global Television Network (CGTN).
Credit: China National Space Administration (CNSA)/China Media Group(CMG)/China Central Television (CCTV)/Inside Outer Space screengrab
A Long March-5B will also be tasked with delivering the second space lab named Mengtian (Dreaming of the Heavens) to dock with the space station in October. By then, the space station will form a T-shaped structure and be ready for the following missions, CGTN adds.
Go to this video showing a Long March-5B arriving at the south China launch site at:
Curiosity Mast Camera (Mastcam) Left image taken on Sol 3485, May 27, 2022.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover at Gale Crater has just begun performing Sol 3489 duties.
Intrepid rover engineers again successfully navigated Curiosity a little higher up Mount Sharp – roughly 16 feet (5 meters) and 131 feet (40 meters) on the ground, away from our previous location, reports Lucy Thompson, Planetary Geologist at University of New Brunswick; Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada.
“The terrain beneath the rover included striated, dusty bedrock and sand ripples with coarse lag deposits,” Thompson adds.
Curiosity Mast Camera (Mastcam) Left image taken on Sol 3485, May 27, 2022.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
Dusty bedrock
As a member of the geology/mineralogy planning team and the Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer (APXS) payload uplink lead today, Thompson chose several interesting areas in the workspace for potential arm, contact science.
“The rover engineers assessed these targets before we settled on a representative bedrock area.” The plan calls for two APXS observations on the dusty bedrock, and on a brushed area, with accompanying Mars Hand Lens Imager photos of (“Pitinga”).
“This will help us assess the effect of the ubiquitous dust cover on APXS compositional analyses of the bedrock. The measurement of the brushed bedrock also constitutes part of our systematic monitoring of bedrock composition with APXS every 10 meters of elevation gain, as we climb Mount Sharp,” Thompson points out.
Dust Removal Tool action. Photo taken by Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI), produced on Sol 3488, May 30, 2022.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
This is important as the rover is in a region identified from orbit as showing a change in mineralogy and, potentially, the environment within Gale crater. The brushed target will be imaged with Mastcam, which will also image the two rock targets being analyzed with the Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam) Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS): “Rio Pipi” – dusty bedrock in the ground, and “Barama” – layered bedrock face; as well as some crevices within the sand and rock in the workspace.
Mesmerizing view
“Looking beyond the immediate workspace, the view ahead is mesmerizing with interesting textures and structures both in the near- and far-field,” Thompson reports.
Curiosity Mast Camera (Mastcam) Right image acquired on Sol 3485, May 26, 2022.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
Mastcam and the ChemCam Remote Micro-Imager (RMI) is slated to image the platy, darker, layered ledge in the middle of the image in more detail, but offset to the right (”Dukwari”).
“Mastcam will also image a cliff off to the right of the rover to document textures, structures and layering (“Cantarrana”). Once Curiosity has executed all the targeted science observations, the rover engineers are planning a drive towards the lip, Thompson adds. “That should afford us a better view to plan upcoming drives as we continue climbing Mount Sharp.”
Curiosity Mast Camera (Mastcam) Right image acquired on Sol 3485, May 26, 2022.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
Dust storm
The environmental scientists planned several observations to continue monitoring changes in atmospheric conditions and the current dust storm within Gale crater.
These included: Navcam line of sight images, a large dust devil survey, suprahorizon movies, a dust devil movie, and a zenith movie; and Mastcam basic and full tau observations.
After a hopefully successful drive, the robot will image the terrain beneath the rover wheels with the Mars Descent Imager (MARDI).
The Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) Instrument Suite instrument is also to be running a fake handoff and a blank solid sample evolved gas experiment.
Standard Rover Environmental Monitoring Station (REMS), Dynamic Albedo of Neutrons (DAN) and Radiation Assessment Detector (RAD) activities round out this plan, Thompson concludes.
Curiosity Mars Descent Imager (MARDI) photo taken on Sol 3486, May 28, 2022.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
Credit: China Media Group(CMG)/China Central Television (CCTV)/China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC)/Inside Outer Space screengrab
The next step in China’s in-construction space station is being readied for liftoff.
The Shenzhou-14 crewed spaceship and a Long March-2F carrier rocket have been transferred to the launching area — the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China — the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA) announced Sunday.
Shenzhou-14 will send a trio of astronauts to China’s space station core module Tianhe in June [reportedly June 5] for a six-month mission.
Since the successful landing of the Shenzhou-13 spacecraft in April, the personnel at the launch site have been busy with upcoming missions.
Credit: CMG/CCTV/CASC/Inside Outer Space screengrab
Busy schedule
With Shenzhou-14 atop its booster, the combination slowly left the final assembly test building and approached the launch tower after traveling 1.5 kilometers on seamless rail especially built to prevent vibration.
After traveling about one and a half hours, the combo moved closer to the launch tower, and the rotary platform slowly closed.
Credit: CMG/CCTV/CASC/Inside Outer Space screengrab
From the launch of the Tianhe core module of China’s space station in April 2021, China will have completed the launch of the Wentian and Mengtian lab modules, four cargo spacecraft and four manned spaceships by the end of 2022 to complete the construction of the country’s space station.
At China’s Wenchang Space Launch Center, south China’s Hainan Province, the Long March 5B Y3 carrier rocket has arrived. It will loft the Wentian (Quest for the Heavens) lab, scheduled to take place in July.
Vertical transfer
“To guarantee a safe vertical transfer, we need to set limits on both the wind speed and transfer speed. For instance, the speed of wind at the 100 meters level above the ground must not exceed 11 meters per second, and the launching platform must be moved at a speed no more than 30 meters per minute,” Zheng Yonghuang, chief engineer of the launcher center, told China Central Television (CCTV).
Credit: CMG/CCTV/CASC/Inside Outer Space screengrab
While astronauts were stationed at the Tiangong space station, the Shenzhou-14 spacecraft and the Long March-2F Y14 carrier rocket was on standby as a backup in a vertical position on the ground. Since being rolled into the launch center last August, the rocket had remained on its post for more than 280 days.
Launch drills
Pre-launch checks and joint tests will now be carried out.
“We will close the rotary platform to provide a good testing environment for the rocket-spaceship combination. Then we will conduct functionality checks on the combination as well as whole-system pre-launch drills with the participation of the astronauts to ensure that the system is in the best condition. Finally we will fuel the rocket in preparation for the pre-launch procedures,” Zheng told CCTV.
In a related development, a Long March-5B Y3 rocket, which will be used to launch the Wentian lab module of the Chinese space station, arrived at its launch site in south China’s Hainan Province on Sunday, according to the China Manned Space Engineering Office.
Meanwhile, China’s space tracking ship Yuanwang-3 set sail last Thursday for its first voyage this year from a port in east China’s Jiangsu Province. The vessel will carry out its 100th maritime mission during this voyage.
Yuanwang-3 has undertaken more than 90 maritime tracking and monitoring tasks for spacecraft, including Shenzhou spaceships, Chang’e lunar probes, and BeiDou satellites.
Go to these newly issued videos showcasing the rollout of Shenzhou-14 and the Long March-2F booster at:
Stratolaunch’s Talon-A separation test vehicle, TA-0.
Credit: Domenic Moen/Stratolaunch
Stratolaunch has unveiled details of its Talon-A test vehicle, TA-0.
This first version of Talon-A will not be powered in flight. Future iterations will be rocket-powered, autonomous, reusable testbeds carrying customizable payloads at speeds above Mach 5.
TA-0 will continue functional and integration testing in the coming months, culminating in a captive carry and vehicle flight later this year, according to a company statement.
Stratolaunch completed its fifth test flight of Roc, on May 4, 2022. The flight debuted a new pylon that was integrated to the aircraft center wing. The pylon will be used to carry and release Talon hypersonic vehicles.
Credit: Stratolaunch
Flying launch pad
Earlier this month, Stratolaunch performed the successful completion of its fifth flight test of Roc, the world’s largest flying aircraft – a vehicle that sports a 95-foot center wingspan. On that May 4 flight, the pylon was attached to the giant aircraft. That pylon will be used to carry and release Talon-A hypersonic vehicles from the Roc flying launch pad.
Stratolaunch’s Talon-A separation test vehicle, TA-0, mated to Roc carrier aircraft for the first time.
Credit: Stratolaunch
After completing TA-0 separation testing, the company will transition to flying its first hypersonic test vehicle, TA-1. The team has also started fabrication of a third vehicle, TA-2, the first fully reusable hypersonic test vehicle.
For more information on Stratolaunch, go to: https://www.stratolaunch.com/
Credit: Big Ear Observatory
In SETI circles, the famed “Wow!” signal appears to be a still-standing indication of detecting other starfolk.
The signal was a strong narrowband radio signal received on August 15, 1977 by Ohio State University’s Big Ear radio telescope.
Astronomer Jerry Ehman discovered the anomaly a few days later while reviewing the recorded data – writing on the computer printout “Wow!” He also circled the string 6EQUJ5 representing the signal’s intensity variation over time. The entire signal sequence lasted for the full 72-second window during which Big Ear was able to pick the signal up.
Big Ear Observatory courtesy of North American Astrophysical Observatory. In late 1997, after almost 40 years of operation, the Big Ear radio ceased operation. The telescope was destroyed in early 1998.
Signal source
New detective work by space devotee Alberto Caballero has been published online in the International Journal of Astrobiology by Cambridge University Press: “An approximation to determine the source of the WOW! Signal.”
Caballero analyzed which of the thousands of stars in the WOW! Signal region could have the highest chance of being the real source of the signal, providing that it came from a star system similar to ours.
A total of 66 G and K-type stars are sampled by Caballero, but only one of them is identified as a potential Sun-like star considering the available information in the Gaia Archive.
2MASS 19281982-2640123, the star with the temperature, radius, and luminosity most similar to the Sun found in the WOW! Signal region, based on data from the Gaia Archive. Source: PanSTARRS/DR1
The European Space Agency’s (ESA) Gaia Archive provides astrometry, photometry, and spectroscopy of more than 1000 million stars in the Milky Way. Gaia, the Global Astrometric Interferometer for Astrophysics, is an ESA observatory spacecraft mission.
Ideal target
“This candidate source, which is named 2MASS 19281982-2640123, therefore becomes an ideal target to conduct observations in the search for techno-signatures,” Caballero explains in his paper.
“Despite this star is located too far for sending any reply in the form of a radio or light transmission, it could be a great target to make observations searching for techno-signatures such as artificial light or satellite transits,” Caballero adds.
To read the research paper — “An approximation to determine the source of the WOW! Signal” – go to:
Work underway atop the Harvard College Observatory.
Credit: Galileo Project/Avi Loeb
Work is underway at Harvard University to bring the search for extraterrestrial technological signatures to a new level of systematic scientific research – and that “level” has reached a rooftop.
Avi Loeb is the head of the Galileo Project, an effort that is complementary to traditional Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence efforts, in that it searches for physical objects, but not electromagnetic signals, associated with extraterrestrial technological equipment.
The intent of the Galileo Project is to bring the search for extraterrestrial technological signatures of Extraterrestrial Technological Civilizations from accidental or anecdotal observations and legends to the mainstream of transparent, validated and systematic scientific research.
Shown at recent Congressional hearing, Video 1 2021 flyby movie showing a purported UAP.
Credit: Counterterrorism, Counterintelligence, and Counterproliferation Subcommittee/Inside Outer Space screengrab
Fishing expedition
Meanwhile, back to the rooftop.
Members of the Galileo Project are busily working on the roof of the Harvard College Observatory and assembling the first telescope system for what Loeb tags as a “fishing expedition.”
“The next step is assembly of the instruments — optical, infrared, radio and audio sensors — in June and then starting to collect data in July and analyzing it with artificial intelligence (AI)/machine learning (ML) algorithms,” Loeb told Inside Outer Space.
“If everything works to our satisfaction, we will deploy the system at a better observing site and start making copies of it for other locations. The number of copies will depend on the level of funding we have,” Loeb said. That better site and other locations, “to be decided,” he said.
GIMBAL/“Tic Tac”
Credit: DOD/U.S. Navy/Inside Outer Space screengrab
Search for anomalous characteristics
As one tall pole in how to search for life as we don’t know it, there’s the study of Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAP) observed in the atmosphere whose characteristics and behavior cannot be readily explained in terms of well-known objects and physical processes, explains the Galileo Project website. “That is, all known explanations of aerial, atmospheric, or related phenomena, or even our current knowledge of technological advances, do not adequately explain why these phenomena have been observed.”
To examine the possibility of extraterrestrial origin for UAP, the website adds, “by making observations of objects in and near Earth’s atmosphere, filtering out identifiable objects using AI deep learning algorithms trained on rigorous classification of known objects, and then examining the nature of the remaining data for anomalous characteristics.”
GOFAST
Credit: DOD/U.S. Navy/Inside Outer Space screengrab
Mixed bag
According to Loeb, UAP are most likely a mixed bag. Many may have mundane explanations.
“From a scientific perspective, it makes most sense to focus effort on developing new instrumentation and monitoring objects in a quest for the best possible data. Instead of relying on pilots, the government could use ground-based instruments of higher quality than available in fighter jets or analyze the best satellite data at its possession. I hope they are doing that. We employ a much smaller budget to follow this goal within the Galileo Project,” Loeb told Space.com earlier.
The question is whether there is even one object for which human-made or natural origins can be excluded, Loeb notes. In particular, do we have materials from any of them?
“If some data has no national security implications, it should be analyzed by top scientists. I would love to help interpret the highest quality data if shared openly,” Loeb explains.
