Archive for the ‘Space News’ Category
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May 15th, 2022
China’s Tianwen-1 Mars orbiter.
Credit: CNSA
It has been a year since China’s Tianwen-1 mission reached the Red Planet consisting of an orbiter, a lander and a rover.
On May 15, 2021 – now, one year ago – the lander touched down in a pre-selected landing area in Utopia Planitia.
A week later on May 22, 2021, the Mars rover Zhurong wheeled down from its landing platform onto the Martian surface.
Zhurong has continued moving southward from its deployment site.
China’s Zhurong rover.
Credit: CNSA
Rover revelation
China’s Xinhua news agency reports that by Aug 15, 2021, Zhurong had worked on the planet’s surface for 90 Martian days, or about 92 days on Earth, despite reaching its planned working target of 90 days.
In November 2021, Zhurong and the European Space Agency’s Mars Express spacecraft performed an in-orbit relay communication test.
Illustration of the scientific payloads mounted on Zhurong rover. The group picture of the rover (left) and the lander (right) was taken by the WiFi camera (Image Credit: the ChinaNational Space Administration (CNSA)). NaTeCam: Navigation and Terrain camera. RoMAG: Mars Rover Magnetometer. MSCam: Multispectral Camera. MSC-1: MarsClimate Station (Wind field and sound probe). MSC-2: Mars Climate Station (Air
temperature and pressure probe). MarSCoDe: Mars Surface Component Detector. RoPeR(CH1): Mars Rover Penetrating Radar (channel 1). RoPeR (CH2): Mars Rover
Penetrating Radar (channel 2).
Credit: Steve Yang Liu, Et al.
In May this year, using data gathered by Zhurong on the landing site, Chinese scientists found new evidence suggesting the presence of liquid water activity and hydrated minerals on Mars.
Meanwhile, by May 5, 2022, the Tianwen-1 orbiter had been operating for 651 days circling Mars. The orbiter and rover continue to operate normally.
Credit: CCTV/Inside Outer Space screengrab
Future missions
China’s Tianwen-2 mission has entered a preliminary prototype development stage – designed to retrieve samples from near-Earth asteroids.
Zhang Rongqiao, Chief Designer of the Tianwen-1 Mars mission, has said that Tianwen-3’s assignment is a Mars sample return, with Tianwen-4 being a probe to investigate the Jovian system.
To view a video on the mission, go to:
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In 2023, Rocket Lab is sending the first private mission to Venus.
Credit: Rocket Lab
In 2023, according to a Rocket Lab posting, the entrepreneurial launch firm is sending the first private mission to Venus to help gather important data regarding what may be signs of life in the clouds of Venus.
The goal, using an Electron launch vehicle and Photon spacecraft, is to send a probe to around 30 miles’ altitude, where Venus’ atmospheric conditions are closer to those found on Earth.
It was back in September 2020, that scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Cardiff University announced they had observed the potential presence of phosphine. That gas typically is produced by living organisms, but it remains a controversial finding.
Image shows the night side of Venus glowing in thermal infrared, captured by Japan’s Akatsuki spacecraft.
Credit: JAXA/ISAS/DARTS/Damia Bouic
Shallow oceans?
A 2019 study from NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies found that Venus could have had shallow oceans on the surface for two to three billion years and this would have supported temperatures of between 68 to 122 degrees Fahrenheit.
However, around 700 million years ago, a resurfacing event released carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, turning Venus into a dangerous, inhospitable planet where atmospheric temperatures reach 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit.
According to Rocket Lab’s website, while more than 30 Venus missions have been undertaken, Rocket Lab’s launch next year will be the first private exploration of the planet.
Science instrument
The scientific payload of choice for the Venus mission — restricted to weigh a modest 1 kilogram – is an instrument called an autofluorescing nephelometer. Why so? It is small, cheap, and could be built quickly enough for the compressed mission timeline.
According to Sara Seager in MIT’s Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences, once the probe is in Venus’ atmosphere, the instrument will shine a laser out of a window onto cloud particles, causing any complex molecules within them to light up, or fluoresce. Many organic molecules, such as the amino acid tryptophan, have fluorescent properties.
Credit: MIT/Breakthrough Initiatives
“If we see fluorescence, we know something interesting is in the cloud particles,” says Seager in a MIT press statement. “We can’t guarantee what organic molecule it is, or even be certain it’s an organic molecule. But it’s going to tell you there’s something incredibly interesting going on.”
Seager is principal investigator for the planned Venus Life Finder Missions – with Rocket Lab’s launch to kick-start the series of missions.
Things are progressing, said David Grinspoon, senior scientist at the Planetary Science Institute, and a member of the Venus Life Finder Missions study group. “We are having regular meetings on the instrumentation, running some tests, experiments, etc.,” he told Inside Outer Space.
Disruptive exploration
That autofluorescing nephelometer will also measure the pattern of light reflected back from the droplets to determine their shape. Pure sulfuric acid droplets would be spherical. Anything else would suggest there’s more going on than meets the autofluorescing nephelometer, adds the MIT press statement.
Whatever the 2023 mission detects, the next Venus Life Finder mission in the suite of probes is already being planned for 2026. That probe would involve a larger payload, with a balloon that could spend more time in Venus’ clouds and conduct more extensive experiments.
“Results from that mission might then set the stage for the culmination of the Venus Life Finder Missions concept: return a sample of Venus’ atmosphere to Earth,” states the MIT press statement.
“We think it’s disruptive,” says Seager. “And that’s the MIT style.”
For more information, go to my earlier Space.com story – “Venus Exploration: Cloud-bound Sanctuary for Microbial Life?” – go to:
https://www.leonarddavid.com/venus-exploration-cloud-bound-sanctuary-for-microbial-life/
Credit: Sierra Space
The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is issuing a license to the Huntsville-Madison Airport Authority in Alabama to operate the Huntsville International Airport (HSV) as a commercial space reentry site.
According to the FAA, the license permits the airport to offer its site for Sierra Space Dream Chaser vehicles returning to Earth from future NASA resupply missions to the International Space Station.
The Reentry Site Operator License is valid for five years.
“The FAA license evaluation process involved environmental and safety reviews. In addition, the FAA will work with the airport to develop the necessary notifications and other procedures for safely and efficiently integrating commercial space reentries into its operations,” noted the FAA today.
FAA-licensed commercial spaceports
The FAA is also issuing the Final Environmental Assessment and a Finding of No Significant Impact/Record of Decision for the Authority’s reentry site license. These same final environmental documents also cover the related, but separate Sierra Space proposal to conduct up to eight reentry operations at the airport from 2023 to 2027.
Sierra Space, or any other commercial space vehicle operator, cannot conduct reentry operations at the airport until it obtains a Vehicle Operator License from the FAA.
BTW: The Huntsville Reentry Site is the 14th FAA-licensed commercial spaceport.
Credit: Mars Guy/Inside Outer Space screengrab
Mars helicopter flies over spacecraft wreckage. The Perseverance rover was delivered safely to the Martian surface thanks to a complex set of components including a parachute and backshell. Now Ingenuity has scoped out what became of them after they did their job.
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Credit: Mars Guy/Inside Outer Space screengrab
Perseverance finally touches rocks of the delta, so why no sample? After struggling through the gnarliest terrain it’s yet encountered, Perseverance drove across a transition in geologic history where the first sediments of Lake Jezero were deposited. Then it passed them by.
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Curiosity Front Hazard Avoidance Camera Left B image acquired on Sol 3471, May 12, 2022.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover at Gale Crater is now performing Sol 3472 duties.
After a successful drive of 154 feet (47 meters), with roughly 16 feet (5 meters) of elevation gain, the robot arrived at more new and interesting terrain to investigate, reports Elena Amador, a systems engineer and planetary scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
In a recently scripted two sol plan (Sols 3471-3472), Curiosity continued a systematic chemical characterization of the bedrock using its Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer (APXS) and Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam) and making its way through the clay/sulfate transition.
Nodular bedrock
Curiosity Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) photo produced on Sol 3469, May 10, 2022.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
Two contact science targets, “Pastora” and “Tama Tama,” are nodular bedrock, and the rover was to also use the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) imager to take a close look at their fine-texture.
“Together the imaging and compositional information will provide clues for how these rocks formed and how they have been subsequently altered,” Amador notes.
The plan also calls for imaging distant buttes and layered stratigraphy using Mastcam and the ChemCam Remote Micro-Imager (RMI) to learn about the depositional environments they formed in.
Curiosity Right B Navigation Camera photo taken on Sol 3470, May 11, 2022.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Dustiest season
“Our environmental team continues to monitor the atmosphere as we are approaching our dustiest season by taking tau measurements and line-of-sight observations across the crater, in addition to other weather monitoring observations,” Amador explains.
Curiosity Right B Navigation Camera photo taken on Sol 3470, May 11, 2022.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
“The most fun part of my day as Science Operations Coordinator (SOC),” Amador adds, “was brokering the discussion between the science team and the Rover Planners for our drive and most importantly our end-of-drive location – which sets us up for the work we’ll do in Friday’s plan.”
Curiosity Right B Navigation Camera photo taken on Sol 3470, May 11, 2022.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Up the mountain
The science team typically provides the SOC with several science targets that they are interested in landing on, with the SOC working with the Rover Planners to understand if those targets work with the resources available for the drive (for example, power and proper imaging), if accessing those targets is safe (for example, are they on a steep hill where the rover may slip?), and if the targets are generally along our high-level strategic path.
“After lots of fun back and forth, the team decided to drive 98 feet (30 meters) towards some unique dark layered blocks,” Amador reports. “If our drive is successful, we’ll get to do some contact science this weekend before continuing our journey up the mountain!”
This illustration shows a concept for multiple robots that would team up to ferry to Earth samples collected from the Mars surface by NASA’s Mars Perseverance rover.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Robotic return of samples from the surface of Mars has been a holy grail goal of Red Planet investigators for many, many years.
Over that time, strategies for returning Red Planet collectibles have ranged from “grab and go” acquisition from the surface, dust collection in the atmosphere, to on-planet scientific selection by specially equipped rovers – a task now underway by NASA’s Perseverance robot wheeling about Jezero Crater.
A Mars Sample Return (MSR) campaign is now being orchestrated by NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA), scooping up geologic and atmospheric samples gathered by Perseverance for return to Earth in the early 2030s.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Shipment back to Earth by robotic means of bits and pieces from Mars is a multi-billion dollar, daunting task. Having our planet on the receiving end of Mars scraps that might contain Martian life is deemed a “low risk” affair in terms of ecological and public safety – but that risk is not zero.
Go to my new Space.com article:
“Mars sample return: Could Red Planet life contaminate Earth?” at:
https://www.space.com/mars-sample-return-contamination-concerns
Credit: Heritage Auctions
Back to Tomorrowland!
These sleek white and black rockets were part of a Disneyland’s Tomorrowland refurbishment. They took thousands of little astronauts on aerial adventures. Few of these vehicles have ever been offered for public sale. This attraction vehicle is numbered 67. It measures 114″ long x 48″ wide x 48″ tall – that’s almost ten feet long. The condition is very good, having received professional restoration to the paint and to the orange nose cone.
The headlamp is said to work but has not been tested. A sound speaker was installed by the previous owner but is also untested. The round gray mounting for the rocket at the back of the vehicle is slightly warped from age and doesn’t quite slide into place.
Sold as-is with no implied warranty.
Heritage Auctions reports some assembly will be required, and some additional hardware may be necessary.
For detailed information, go to:
China’s Zhurong rover.
Credit: CNSA
China’s Zhurong rover on Mars has detected recent aqueous activities within its exploration zone at Utopia Planitia.
A new research paper in Science Advances notes that Mars’ climate is cold and dry in the most recent epoch, and liquid water activities are considered extremely limited. Previous orbital data only show sporadic hydrous minerals in the northern lowlands of Mars excavated by large impacts.
Credit: Steve Yang Liu, Et al.
But using the short-wave infrared spectral data obtained by the Zhurong rover of China’s Tianwen-1 mission, scientists have identified hydrated sulfate/silica materials on the Amazonian terrain at the landing site.
These hydrated minerals are associated with bright-toned rocks, and are interpreted to be duricrust developed locally.
Credit: Steve Yang Liu, Et al.
Groundwater rising or subsurface ice melting
The lithified duricrusts suggests that formation with substantial liquid water originates by either groundwater rising or subsurface ice melting. The rover has gathered on-the-spot evidence for aqueous activities suggesting a more active Amazonian hydrosphere for Mars than previously thought.
Illustration of the scientific payloads mounted on Zhurong rover. The group picture of the rover (left) and the lander (right) was taken by the WiFi camera (Image Credit: the ChinaNational Space Administration (CNSA)). NaTeCam: Navigation and Terrain camera. RoMAG: Mars Rover Magnetometer. MSCam: Multispectral Camera. MSC-1: MarsClimate Station (Wind field and sound probe). MSC-2: Mars Climate Station (Air
temperature and pressure probe). MarSCoDe: Mars Surface Component Detector. RoPeR(CH1): Mars Rover Penetrating Radar (channel 1). RoPeR (CH2): Mars Rover
Penetrating Radar (channel 2).
Credit: Steve Yang Liu, Et al.
“The Zhurong landing site (and the northern lowlands) may contain a considerable amount of accessible water in the form of hydrated minerals and possibly ground ice for in situ resource utilization for future human Mars exploration,” the research paper concludes.
The Tianwen-1 lander, carrying the rover, performed a successful soft-landing on Mars in mid-May 2021.
Lead author of the paper is Steve Yang Liu of the State Key Laboratory of Space Weather, National Space Science Center, Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing, China.
To view the paper – “Zhurong reveals recent aqueous activities in Utopia Planitia, Mars” – go to:
https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.abn8555
Space journalist Leonard David will provide a presentation on current space exploration activities not only in the U.S. but internationally, and the promise of public space tourism and future trends in the coming years.
Registration is required for this online program.
Go to this link to register –
https://nederland.libcal.com/event/9136402
This Zoom presentation is hosted by the Nederland Community Library in Colorado and has a limit of 50 participants to allow time for participants’ Q&A.
You will see when registering that it refers to reserving a “seat”. Just “pull up a chair” and join us on Zoom!
Registrants will receive the link on Thursday about an hour before the presentation which starts at 7:00 PM (U.S. Mountain Time).
Hope to see you there!
Any questions?
