Archive for the ‘Wait a Minute!’ Category
Author: 
March 28th, 2024
Wait a minute!
Image credit: Barbara David
In classic “wait a minute” style, for ConkSat where there’s will, there’s a way – with X postings offering some challenging marketing concepts.
“For years, spaceflight companies have discussed means for reducing the amount of space junk in low Earth orbit (LEO). As visionaries at ConkSat, we have never been satisfied with the status quo – and that means going against popular thinking. That’s why we’re announcing the first spacecraft dedicated to increasing the amount of space junk in LEO,” explains a ConkSat posting.
“FragSat is more than a satellite – it’s a cloud of over 70 billion steel ball bearings packed into a payload fairing. Say goodbye to your competitor’s megaconstellations with FragSat, guaranteed to increase the rate of collisions in orbit by orders of magnitude. Taking advantage of the increase in payload to orbit offered by new launchers, we’re planning on up to twenty launches per year of pure steel, rendering entire families of orbits unusable for centuries,” continues the posting from ConkSat.
“Just another way we’re bringing space down to Earth.”
Image credit: ConkSat
Quality Unassurance
Another X posting from ConkSat spotlight they fired their entire quality assurance team.
“How are we going to keep our rockets, satellites, and missiles at the quality expected of the ConkSat brand? Simple – we aren’t. We can’t let quality assurance hold us back from true innovation. From this point forward, we aren’t keeping lengthy or dated records. We won’t be “doing critical maintenance.” Our engineers will be motivated by the desire to push humanity forward, and by the fact that we required them to live downrange of the launch site.”
Bringing space down to Earth. At high speed.
Image credit: ConkSat
What’s the point?
“People called us crazy. People called us names. Some hurtful. People told us we were “violating federal regulations” and would be “shut down immediately.” But you don’t become a leading defense contractor without stepping on a few toes.”
Image credit: ConkSat
“Let’s be honest. Everybody’s worst nightmare is dumping $1bn in seed money into a rocket startup, only to have them churn out an ugly looking launch vehicle with weird fins at the top. If you’re embarrassed to release the promotional hype video, what’s the point? That’s why we at ConkSat recognize the importance of a smooth profile. Our launch vehicles are guaranteed to be 100% smooth with no protrusions or ugly changes in diameter that could render your investment silly.”
Artificial intelligence
“At ConkSat, we know AI is the future. Everything we do is powered by AI – every email, every spreadsheet, and every piece of code is created 100% by ChatGPT. Our launch vehicles are guided completely by onboard neural networks: even we don’t know where our rockets will land! Curious about how we’ll create the future of spaceflight? So are we! Hopefully we figure it out before our investors do.”
Thank you ConkSat for all that you do! — Leonard David
Posted in 
Wait-a-minute.
Image credit: Barbara David
China has reportedly embarked on a magnetic levitation (MagLev) system using an electromagnetic catapult to hurl a 50-ton space plane down a track at speeds up to Mach 1.6.
At the rail gun’s end, the space plane would use a propulsion system to reach orbit.
The South China Morning Post reports work on the idea is underway. Just how much momentum the research has behind it isn’t clear.
But if this sounds familiar…it is…and a wait-a-minute moment.
MagLifter concept. Image credit: NASA
Years ago, NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center showcased a 50 feet (15 meters) MagLev test track.
NASA engineers working on the concept, however, couldn’t levitate, attract, and speed the necessary moolah their way to the idea – essentially derailing work.
Image credit: NASA
Mass drivers
Waaay back in 1974, work on “mass drivers” was undertaken by the late Gerard O’Neill and colleagues at Princeton University and also the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Mass drivers were viewed then as the logical means for transporting lunar raw material to special spots in space, namely L-5.
Those mass drivers were electromagnetic launchers that could accelerate payloads in re-circulating buckets with superconducting magnet coils at a repetition rate of about ten per second.
Artwork shows Mass driver on Moon. Courtesy: Space Studies Institute (SSI)
Raw power
One application O’Neill proposed for mass drivers: toss baseball-sized chunks of ore mined from the surface of the Moon into space. Once in space, the ore could be used as raw material for building space colonies and solar power satellites.
Now decades later, enter the world of today’s bullet trains, high-velocity artillery shells, airplane catapults, hyped-up hypersonic vehicles, new materials, and superconductor thinking – time for a MagLev re-look for space?
Space technologists in China seemingly think so.
Go to: “China building giant hypersonic railgun for space launches” by Gabriel Honrada in Asian Times at:
China building giant hypersonic railgun for space launches
Also, for more information, go to these previous Inside Outer Space stories:
https://www.leonarddavid.com/navy-rail-gun-progress-ideal-for-the-moon/
https://www.leonarddavid.com/electromagnetic-mass-driver-back-to-the-moon/
Wait-a-Minute!
Image credit: Barbara David
There’s some interesting “wait a minute” fallout from the upcoming nose dive to Earth of the European Remote Sensing satellite, ERS-2.
According to the European Space Agency (ESA), the spent ERS-2 satellite weighing 2.3 tons is predicted to slip into Earth’s atmosphere on February 19 – with a current uncertainty of +/- 2.8 days.
“No intervention can be made from the ground, so ERS-2 will return entirely naturally – now a common occurrence as on average one spacecraft reenters Earth’s atmosphere per month,” an ESA statement explains.
The bit about “return entirely naturally” is an interesting, user-friendly substitute for “uncontrolled.”
Artwork of incoming ERS-2. Image credit: ESA
End of life
Following its launch in April 1995, ERS-2 ran for nearly 16 years of observing the Earth.
In 2011, ESA took the decision to bring the mission to an end.
That was followed by ground-activated de-orbit maneuvers. Those lowered the satellite’s average altitude and mitigated the risk of collision with other satellites or space debris, ESA notes.
The spacecraft was also “passivated” to reduce the risk of fragmentation. Passivated is getting rid of internally stored energy, like unused propellant, even de-charging batteries.
Wake-up call
All that said there are those that see the fall of ERS-2 as a calling card from space that doubles as a wake-up call – and on several fronts.
Netting of orbital debris has been studied, with ERS-2 as the catchable bait in a mix of junk-snatching ideas.
Image credit: ESA/D.Ducros
“While the ESA should be lauded for its efforts to de-orbit the ERS-2, it should be unsurprising that a 2.3-ton satellite launched into Earth orbit without any enforceable orbital debris regulation will then return to Earth’s atmosphere as orbital debris in an explosive uncontrolled reentry,” said Michael Runnels, an assistant professor of business law at California State University, Los Angeles.
“Indeed, these events highlight the continuing need for enforceable orbital debris regulation to support the sustainable exploration and scientific investigation of outer space,” Runnels told Inside Outer Space.
Someone someday
Ewan Wright is a PhD candidate at the University of British Columbia and Junior Fellow of the Outer Space Institute. He is actively focused on the sustainability of the outer space environment.
ERS-2 is a three decade old Earth Observation satellite with a mass about that of a Ford F-150, Wright said. “ERS-2 won’t burn up entirely when it reenters the atmosphere, so there is a chance that debris will hit someone on the ground, or disrupt air traffic.”
ERS-2 artwork.
Image credit: ESA
Wright told Inside Outer Space that, fortunately, the probability of someone getting hit is small. “But if we keep doing this again and again, someone someday will get hurt.”
Random reentries
Last year, 30 satellites larger than 500 kilograms uncontrollably reentered the atmosphere.
In total, in 2023, about 55 tons of satellite reentered randomly, Wright stated. ESA was responsible in lowering ERS-2’s orbit to make sure it didn’t become permanent space debris, he said.
“But in the future, all large satellites should do controlled reentries. Operators should control them to reenter over the oceans, away from people, aircraft and ships,” Wright concluded.
Minimize risk
The incoming ERS-2 is something that happens quite regularly with defunct satellites, said Leonard Schulz, a researcher at the Technische Universität Braunschweig’s Institute of Geophysics and Extraterrestrial Physics in Braunschweig, Germany.
Such falls will only increase in the future, Schulz added, due to the growing number of objects brought into low Earth orbit.
Image credit: NOAA
“I think the mass of the object stands out, probably some parts of the satellite will survive reentry,” Schulz told Inside Outer Space. “And this is the reason why people try to make satellites burn up completely in the atmosphere, to minimize the risk to people on ground.”
Atmospheric effects
Schulz said that there’s need to consider the effects on the atmosphere from spacecraft re-entry, a hot topic that ESA is evaluating.
“Today, we are lacking information on many aspects when it comes to materials released and subsequent effects on the atmosphere,” Schulz pointed out.
Satellite reentries are a good opportunity to gather observational data with measurement campaigns, Schulz advised. However, such uncontrolled reentries as with ERS-2 are extremely difficult to observe, he said, as the uncertainty of where the satellite reenters is so high.
“But controlled reentries provide great measurement opportunities,” Schulz concluded, “which should be a focus in the future!”
Taking the fall. Space hardware dives into Earth’s atmosphere with some fragments making their way to the ground.
Image credit: ESA/D.Ducros
Wait-a-Minute!
Image credit: Barbara David
The NASA Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel’s Annual Report for 2023 is just out and about for your reading critique.
ASAP was established by Congress in 1968 to provide advice and make recommendations to the NASA Administrator, as well as Congress, on safety matters.
There are some fascinating “wait-a-minute” takeaways to ponder.
“Make, manage, or buy?”
One of those eye-catchers is that NASA should try to figure out how it implements “make, manage, or buy” decisions on future programs or projects.
The ASAP reports notes that NASA is no longer the sole driver or customer for human space flight capabilities and related technology, nor is it the sole organization creating demand.
Image credit: ASAP
“NASA, however, still has a critical role and responsibility in the space sector, and the Agency’s decisions, opinions, and direction have weight and merit in the industry and across the globe,” the report adds.
Therefore, NASA must anticipate risks that otherwise might go unknown or unforeseen.
Image credit: NASA
Top down, bottoms-up
The space agency’s major human spaceflight endeavor, the aspiring Artemis “reboot the Moon” program was also eyed by the ASAP.
“NASA should manage Artemis as an integrated program with top-down alignment, and designate a Program Manager endowed with authority, responsibility, and accountability, along with a robust bottoms-up, collaborative feedback process for both Systems Engineering and Integration (SE&I) and risk management.”
Deorbiting the beast
Another flagged concern regards the deorbit plans for dumping the big beast of a Earth orbiting megatonnage, the International Space Station (ISS).
Image credit: Roscosmos
While discussions about ISS are ongoing between NASA and the Russian Space Agency to make the controlled deorbit plan more robust, “the ASAP reiterates its concern first stated in 2012, about the lack of a well-defined, fully funded controlled reentry and deorbit plan for the ISS that is available on a timeline that supports the planned ISS retirement. Furthermore, the Panel recognizes that the ISS partners are operating at risk, today, without the capability to deal with a contingency situation that would lead to a deorbit.
Risk to public safety
“The risk to public safety and space sustainability,” the report points out, “is increasing every year as the orbital altitudes in and around the ISS continue to become more densely populated by satellites, increasing the likelihood that an unplanned emergency ISS deorbit would also impact other resident space objects.”
NASA should define an executable and appropriately budgeted deorbit plan, the report adds, “that includes implementation on a timeline to deliver a controlled reentry capability to the ISS as soon as practicable — to be in place for the need of a controlled deorbit in event of an emergency as well as in place before the retirement of the ISS — to ensure that the station is able to be deorbited safely.”
Image credit: Roscosmos
NASA response
In a response to the ASAP by NASA leadership, the space agency has made progress toward solicitation of a U.S. Deorbit Vehicle to serve as the nominal ISS deorbit capability to be used in conjunction with Russian thrusters.
NASA is still coordinating with Russia’s Roscosmos on sustaining ISS operations until nominal deorbit and providing contingency deorbit capability with existing Progress and Service Module thrusters.
For a full look at the report — NASA Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel’s Annual Report for 2023 – go to:
https://www.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/asap-2023-annual-report-tagged.pdf
Wait a minute!
Image credit: Barbara David
Update: No reports of interference of Santa Claus by China’s space plane.
About that robotic China space plane now circling Earth!
I woke up this morning worried about possible consequences of this winged warrior of an experimental vehicle fouling up the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD’s) ability to track Santa Claus.
One satellite tracker reportedly has the Chinese craft belching out communiqués to a ground station or boat near British Columbia, Canada.
Indeed, for the last several days, media outlets have cast dire warnings, just as Santa is prepared to make his Christmas droppings around the planet.
Image credit: NORAD
For example, here are a couple of headline-catching eye-grabbers:
“Top secret Chinese spaceplane is releasing strong signals over North America – months after US shot down China’s spy balloon that collected intelligence from military sites.”
“China’s space plane deployed 6 mysterious ‘wingmen,’ and no one knows what they are”
Possible design of China’s space plane.
Source: Homem do Espaco/Twitter
Spirit dragon
So China’s top-secret spaceship is spewing out signals over North America. All in all, shades of that spy balloon from China that was eventually downed via a jet-launched Sidewinder missile.
Making matters more worrisome, according to media outlets, the clandestine craft – dubbed Shenlong after a spirit dragon from Chinese mythology – tossed out six mysterious objects after its launch on December 15.
The objects are being tracked by the US Space Force, but they are scant of publicly releasing specific details as to what they are or what purpose they serve. Maybe the craft is testing U.S. surveillance skills?
But all this gives rise to the fact that tonight Santa Claus is making his annual trip from the North Pole to deliver presents to children all over the world.
No wonder I’m not sleeping well.
China’s tracking facility at the Santiago Satellite Station in Chili.
Image credit: Marco Langbroek
Mystery ship
But wait a minute!
According to satellite watcher, Robert Christy at his Orbital Focus website, these kinds of stories and bait-click titles are nonsense.
The four (not six) objects are parts cast off by China’s CZ 2F launch vehicle that put the space plane into Earth orbit, Christy notes.
“There is no ‘mystery ship’ moored off Canada,” Christy reports. “The radio transmissions described emanate from the spaceplane making its first daily orbital pass over China.”
Technical connection
Similarly, satellite tracker Marco Langbroek of the Netherlands, calls into question anything nefarious going on.
In his assessment, he told Inside Outer Space that China’s space plane passes do go more or less directly over China’s tracking facility at the Santiago Satellite Station in Chili, where China is leasing tracking capacity.
Uncrewed military space plane featuring the United States Space Force logo for the first time.
Image credit: U.S. Space Force/Courtesy Photo
“So rather than there being some unacknowledged tracking station on a ship on the ocean near North America,” he suspects that the space plane might only broadcast within say half an orbit from passing over their ground station in Chili.
All that said, master satellite watcher, Scott Tilley is doing deep dives into sorting out signals associated with the Chinese space plane and its “wingman” objects. There may be a technical connection with the space plane operations and China’s secretive Yaogan satellite constellation, a set of military reconnaissance spacecraft, he speculates.
Counter-punch
Meanwhile, all this tracking talk of the Chinese vehicle leads to a U.S. Space Force “counter-punch” – the projected launch of America’s own classified robotic space plane – the X-37B. It’s due for liftoff no earlier than December 28, riding atop a SpaceX Falcon Heavy booster, headed for the heights on its classified undertaking.
U.S. Space Force-52 will be the seventh flight of the X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle (OTV-7) built by Boeing and this flight is a program first making use of a Falcon Heavy booster.
Here’s the bad news.
That X-37B has been delayed in its send-off…now too late to counter China’s space plane outing and any provocative anti-jamming of the true whereabouts of Santa Claus, his sleigh, reindeer entourage, and all those packages!
Meanwhile, happy holidays to all and keep an eye on the sky.
To double-check on Santa’s route, tap into this NORAD site at:
Wait a minute!
Image credit: Barbara David
I have just finished digesting a post-Thanksgiving helping of Kennedy Assassination investigation output – including film director Rob Reiner’s new podcast, “Who Killed JFK,” a new deep dive into the history of what they call “America’s greatest murder mystery.”
Image credit: iHeartPodcasts
For myself, I went through that experience on November 22, 1963 in high school. I later visited and strolled up the grassy knoll of Dealey Plaza, a suspected spot tied to the slaying of President Kennedy. I was sure I’d stumble across the proverbial “smoking gun” but left the site empty handed, but with a mind filled with more questions.
Here we are 60 years later and I still await some undisclosed closure of some kind. There has been a long and protracted struggle to get documents released.
And six decades later I’m struck by some common threads to where we are in the current UFO/UAP melee.
Image credit: SCU
Cultural enigma
The term Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs) has morphed into Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP). But whatever nomenclature you use, “unidentified” remains an up-front declaration of this weird and perplexing cultural enigma.
There’s the prospect of government cover-up, public belief that there are conspiratorial factors afoot, but also a sense we’ll never get the “truth” out and about. Once again, there has been a lengthy struggle to get documents publicly released.
For good measure, mix in a worrisome factor: Maybe we aren’t ready for reality and the attached sociological repercussions from revealing the truth?
Image credit: RAND
But perhaps there a purposeful, drip-by-drip doling out of evidence in preparation of “full disclosure,” be it what the JFK assassination facts are or what’s the bottom line on UFO/UAP?
Conspiracy theories
“The government’s persistent hiding and actions related to the UFO/UAP topic does nothing but fuel conspiracy theories,” says Robert Powell, an executive board member of the Scientific Coalition for UAP Studies.
“Whatever the truth may be, we can be certain that it will be a long time before the public is made aware of the truth,” Powell adds. “Unfortunately, we cannot depend upon our government to tell us the truth,” he told Inside Outer Space.
Image credit: Yannick Peings, Marik von Rennenkampff/AIAA
Amen amendment
So what is the legitimacy of rumors that our government has extraterrestrial craft in its possession?
For Powell, the biggest persuader is Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Senator Mike Rounds-led amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) of 2024. That amendment, the Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena Disclosure Act of 2023, talks specifically about the government and the concealment of non-human intelligence.
“Why would Schumer have associated his name with such an amendment? One thing that I’ve learned over the years is that government politicians don’t risk their careers on some lark of a story. And a powerful senator is going to be extra careful with what they endorse,” Powell senses. “Senator Schumer knows something that makes him confident that he is not risking his career with that amendment.”
Image credit: Congressional Record/Inside Outer Space screengrab
Bombshells and whistleblowers
“The American public, and humanity as a whole, deserve to know what the U.S. government has secretly learned about the UFO/UAP phenomenon, if indeed there have been such clandestine studies,” says Mark Rodeghier, president and scientific director of the Center for UFO Studies.
“I have faith in our collective ability to handle such information, even if initially disconcerting,” Rodeghier told Inside Outer Space.
So it’s a world of smoking guns, grassy knolls, newly-released old documents, X-files mysteriously misfiled, here-say “evidence” and “I’ve been told” tattle-telling, along with alien corpses, “bombshell allegations” from whistleblowers that can’t carry a tune but will sing like a bird after they are in an Orwellian-sounding “sensitive compartmented information facility” – a SCIF.
No telling where all this is headed.
What’s your view?
For your own deep-diving into this topic, go to:
- Center for UFO Studies at https://cufos.org/
- Scientific Coalition for UAP Studies at https://www.explorescu.org/
Also, here is Schumer’s amendment, the Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena Disclosure Act of 2023 at:
https://www.democrats.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/uap_amendment.pdf
Wait a Minute!
Image credit: Barbara David
Last month, I wrote a story for Space.com that focused on the issue of finding evidence of life on Mars…but would we recognize it?
Go to: https://www.space.com/perseverance-rover-search-for-life-on-mars-is-difficult
Indeed, NASA’s Perseverance rover is on-duty, scurrying around on the Red Planet, wheeling and dealing with Jezero Crater.
Jezero Crater definitely has a story to tell. And that’s why the rover landed there in the first place.
Ancient Jezero Crater is depicted in this artistic view, replete with shoreline of a lake that dried up billions of years ago.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS/JHU-APL
Microbial life could have lived in that area during a wetter period of time in its past. If so, signs of their remains might be found in the ancient lakebed or shoreline sediments that formed billions of years ago.
Eye-catching features
That said, the robot recently came across some eye-catching circular rock structures. They are attention-grabbers because they resemble ones formed by microbial communities in some lakes on Earth.
Those rover observations became the focus of an informative “Mars Guy” episode that called attention to Perseverance finding features resembling reef-like structures.
Image credit: Mars Guy
“In the very place it might be reasonable to expect, Perseverance discovered circular rock structures resembling ones formed by microbial communities in some lakes on Earth. This exciting possibility called for a closer look,” Mars Guy explained at:
https://youtu.be/7lwarWtXABA?si=wdNKRd8ESLPIke2e
Mother Nature on Mars
The finding also underscores, perhaps, how Mother Nature on the Red Planet can make it difficult to conclude what might or might not constitute evidence for life on that world.
What’s up with that rover finding? I asked Ken Farley, a professor of geochemistry in the Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences at the California Institute of Technology. He is the project scientist for Mars 2020, the Perseverance sleuthing of Jezero Crater.
On the prowl at Jezero Crater, NASA’s Mars Perseverance rover is loaded with scientific equipment.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
“We investigated that rock with our remote sensing instruments, and we acquired two abrasion patches and two sample cores from similar rocks in close proximity,” Farley told Inside Outer Space. “We also recognized the very peculiar and suggestive concentric-domelike morphology.”
Currently favored hypothesis
Farley said as an alternative to a biological origin – for example, a stromatolite – Mars scientists on the rover mission also considered the hypothesis that these features are simply spheroidal weathering.
That’s a very common phenomenon on Earth, Farley pointed out, and one seen elsewhere in Jezero, in both igneous and sedimentary rocks.
“Although we are still interpreting the data, the latter hypothesis is far less extraordinary, and at least partly for this reason, currently favored,” Farley said.
NASA Mars 2020 rover is collecting samples, storing the specimens in tubes, then depositing the tubes on the surface for later pick-up.
Credit: NASA/ESA
Plausible manifestations
As to the general question, Farley added, if ancient life were present, would Perseverance recognize it?
“My answer is ‘maybe.’ Based on ancient terrestrial analogs there are plausible manifestations we could detect with our instrument suite, but many plausible manifestations too subtle for us to confidently identify,” Farley explained.
“This is of course a key motivation for sample return,” Farley added. “As an example, compared to the organic molecule detection capabilities on Perseverance, those in terrestrial laboratories are at least a factor of 10,000 more sensitive.”
Wait a Minute!
Image credit: Barbara David
There has been a long research trail in deciphering what happens when Earth’s atmosphere is intruded by incoming, human-made space debris.
Much of this past research involved modeling and squeaking out potential and early warning sign findings.
Enter new rarefied research.
Unnatural dust
The just-issued results in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), an investigation led by Dan Murphy, a researcher at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), is welcomed and cautionary news.
Image credit: NOAA
This investigative team of experts detected more than 20 elements in ratios that mirror those used in spacecraft alloys. They found that the mass of lithium, aluminum, copper and lead from spacecraft reentry far exceeded those metals found in “natural” cosmic dust.
Their appraisal flagged the fact that nearly 10% of large sulfuric acid particles — the particles that help protect and buffer the ozone layer — contained aluminum and other spacecraft metals.
Atmospherics
As part of NASA’s Airborne Science Program, NOAA’s Murphy and his group flew a WB-57 airplane to sample the atmosphere 11.8 miles (19 kilometers) above the ground in Alaska, where circumpolar clouds tend to form.
Purdue University’s Daniel Cziczo, professor and department head of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences, is a member of that research group and subsequent report.
Chemical Science Laboratory’s Mike Lawler installs the PALMS (Particle Analysis by Laser Mass Spectrometry) instrument into the nose of the WB-57. Photo: Chelsea Thompson, NOAA
Atmospheric measurements were also made by Cziczo and his group from an ER-2 aircraft over the continental United States. By flying those instruments only the freshest, most undisturbed air is sampled.
“We are finding this human-made material in what we consider a pristine area of the atmosphere,” said Cziczo in a Purdue statement. “And if something is changing in the stratosphere — this stable region of the atmosphere — that deserves a closer look.”
Meteorite smoke
Over the years, one response to early thinking about human-made clutter “burning up” in the Earth’s atmosphere was flagging the load of meteoritic material already saturating our biosphere.
“Shooting stars streak through the atmosphere,” Cziczo said. “Often, the meteor burns up in the atmosphere and doesn’t even become a meteorite and reach the planet. So the material it was made from stays in the atmosphere in the form of ions. They form very hot gas, which starts to cool and condense as molecules and fall into the stratosphere. The molecules find each other and knit together and form what we call meteorite smoke.”
Falcon 9 booster topped with sixty Starlink satellites.
Credit: SpaceX
Chemical fingerprint
Purdue’s Cziczo adds, however, that scientists recently started noticing that the chemical fingerprint of these meteoritic particles was starting to change.
That prompted researchers to ask: ‘Well, what changed?’ because meteorite composition hasn’t changed. But the number of spacecraft has, Cziczo responds.
According to the published paper: “The space industry has entered an era of rapid growth. With tens of thousands of small satellites planned for low Earth orbit, that increased mass will be divided into many more reentry events. Given that 10% of stratospheric particles now contain enhanced aluminum, with many more reentry events, it is likely that in the next few decades, the percentage of stratospheric sulfuric acid particles that contain aluminum and other metals from satellite reentry will be comparable to the roughly 50% that now contain meteoric metals.”
What next?
As pointed out in the Purdue statement, there’s an estimate floating about that as many as 50,000 more satellites may reach orbit by 2030.
Space debris plunges to Earth, burning its way through the atmosphere.
Image credit: The Aerospace Corporation
The NOAA research team calculates that in the next few decades, up to half of stratospheric sulfuric acid particles would contain metals from reentry.
But what impact that could have on the atmosphere, the ozone layer and life on Earth is yet to be evaluated.
“Changes to the atmosphere can be difficult to study and complex to understand,” Cziczo said. “But what this research shows us is that the impact of human occupation and human spaceflight on the planet may be significant — perhaps more significant than we have yet imagined. Understanding our planet is one of the most urgent research priorities there is.”
This newly published research in PNAS – found at: https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2313374120 — was supported by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration climate funding and NOAA’s Earth’s Radiation Budget Initiative and NOAA’s Chemical Sciences Laboratory. This work also involved NASA grant money, as well as grant money from the UK Natural Environment Research Council.
Bottom line – more work to be done. What next? And how best to perform those studies?
Bottom line (2) – watch this space.
Taking the fall. Space hardware dives into Earth’s atmosphere with some fragments making their way to the ground.
Image credit: ESA/D.Ducros
Wait a minute!
Image credit: Barbara David
Utah Test and Training Range – Exciting times here as I watched the OSIRIS-REx sample return capsule make its safe and sound touchdown at this remote military outpost.
Taking nothing away from this huge step in asteroid research, there are a couple of items of note to keep an eye on.
In-space images show that the OSIRIS-REx mission successfully placed the spacecraft’s sample collector head into its Sample Return Capsule.
Image credit: NASA/Goddard/University of Arizona/Lockheed Martin
OSIRIS-REx sample return capsule is seen shortly after touching down in the desert, Sunday, Sept. 24, 2023, at the Department of Defense’s Utah Test and Training Range. The sample was collected from the asteroid Bennu in October 2020 by NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft.
Image credit: NASA/Keegan Barber
Keeping samples safe
With the prospect of an October 1st government shutdown still looming, there is concern about the impact on NASA’s handling of the just-returned freight from Bennu and the scientific integrity of the samples.
“We want to make sure that these samples are safe,” said Lori Glaze, Director of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate’s Planetary Science Division.
“These are incredibly valuable samples and we’re working through our normal processes for how we make sure that we achieve that,” Glaze told Inside Outer Space. “NASA will make sure they are kept safe,” she emphasized.
Pre-launch image shows parachute installation in the OSIRIS-REx sample return capsule.
Image credit: Lockheed Martin
Technical hiccups?
There may have been some technical hiccups in the capsule’s speedy and red-hot descent through Earth’s atmosphere, said Tim Priser, Lockheed Martin’s chief engineer for deep space exploration.
The aerospace firm is builder of not only the novel air filter-like Touch-And-Go Sample Acquisition Mechanism (TAGSAM), but the return capsule and the spacecraft itself.
Specifically, the capsule’s drogue chute deployment may have been an issue prior to a far-higher and earlier-than-expected main parachute unfurling.
Sequence of events
“Some things in our sequence may or may not have behaved itself exactly the way we expected it to but the subsequent things in the sequence made up for the fact,” Priser said in a post-landing press event.
Not-to-plan parachute sequence.
Image credit: University of Arizona/Heather Roper
“At the end of the day when that main chute deployed it basically corrected any of the sins that may have happened ahead of it,” Priser said.
Engineers will reconstruct the sequence of events that occurred during the return capsule’s dive through Earth’s atmosphere to its full-stop, “soft as a dove,” touchdown in Utah, said Priser.
One of the advantages of landing at the Utah Test and Training Range, Priser added, is the ground and aerial imagery capability used to monitor the capsule’s sky-rocketing re-entry.
“You have your data. You have your models. You have your observations and you’ve got to put all those pieces together so you reconstruct what happened,” Priser told Inside Outer Space.
Dante Lauretta, OSIRIS-REx’s principal investigator from the University of Arizona holds a mock up of the asteroid collection device.
Image credit: Barbara David
Image credit: Barbara David
NOTE: Late Thursday NASA re-released a UAP press release, sharing the name of the NASA UAP Director.
According to the statement: “While NASA still is evaluating the report and assessing the independent study team’s findings and recommendations, the agency is committed to contributing to the federal government’s unified UAP effort by appointing Mark McInerney director of UAP research.”
McInerney previously served as NASA’s liaison to the Department of Defense covering limited UAP activities for the agency.
Per NASA, in the director role, McInerney will centralize communications, resources, and data analytical capabilities to establish a robust database for the evaluation of future UAP.
McInerney will also leverage NASA’s expertise in artificial intelligence, machine learning, and space-based observation tools to support and enhance the broader government initiative on UAP.
Since 1996, McInerney served various positions at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland; the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration; and the National Hurricane Center.
Transparency
Of all the revelations today from a NASA-released study of Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP) by an “independent” study group was keeping the identity of its new UAP Research Director under wraps.
“We will not give his name out,” said Nicola Fox, associate administrator for NASA’s science mission directorate.
Meanwhile, NASA leader, Bill Nelson said the NASA UAP Research Director would work on the implementation of the agency’s vision for UAP research, like using NASA’s expertise to work with other agencies to analyze UAP, making use of artificial intelligence and machine learning “to search the skies for anomalies.”
Nelson repeatedly opined that NASA will do its UAP work “transparently” and evoked the mantra of “scientific process.”
I guess you need to bring your own Windex when you spot-clean those windows of transparency?
For more information, go to:
