article_text
stringlengths 294
32.8k
⌀ | topic
stringlengths 3
42
|
|---|---|
HELSINKI — China is planning to expand its Tiangong space station with a multi-functional module to enhance its capabilities.
China completed the construction of the three-module Tiangong space station last November, realizing a plan first approved in 1992.
The operational phase of the station began with a first crew handover late last year. China plans to keep Tiangong permanently inhabited for at least a decade with crews of three spending six months at a time in orbit.
Already though, new plans are emerging. “We will launch the expansion module of the space station at an appropriate time to further expand the size of the space station and enhance its capacity,” Ji Qiming, assistant to director of the China Manned Space Engineering Office (CMSEO), told CCTV Feb. 24.
The expansion module appears to have superseded earlier an apparent plan to send up duplicates of the existing three, roughly 20-metric-ton modules.
The multi-functional expansion module will host six docking ports and turn the T-shaped Tiangong into a cross-shaped configuration.
The added ports will provide redundancy and allow more spacecraft to dock at Tiangong than present. This would also help facilitate plans to allow commercial spacecraft and tourist visits to the orbital outpost.
Ji discussed the expansion plan with Chinese state media at an exhibition to mark three decades of China’s human spaceflight program. He also revealed progress on China’s plans to land astronauts around the end of the decade.
Tianhe, the space station core module, was the first piece of the station to be launched back in April 2021. It provides the main propulsion and life support systems and crew quarters for the astronauts on Tiangong and carries a docking hub to facilitate the arrival of spacecraft and further modules.
Images from facilities at the China Academy of Space Technology (CAST), the maker of China’s space station modules, suggested that backup or engineering models had been developed and could be readied for use in orbit.
The smaller, multi-functional module resembles some outward design features of Tianhe but would not require all of the core module’s systems and capabilities to be replicated. Its docking ports would however still allow for the arrival of new experiment modules to expand further.
The country will also launch a co-orbiting optical telescope module, named Xuntian, in 2024. It will be capable of docking with Tiangong for repairs, maintenance, refueling and upgrades.
In an adjacent development, CMSEO officials revealed that it is preparing for international visits to Tiangong.
“We are about to start selecting international astronauts to send to our space station and carry out scientific experiments together,” Chen Shanguang, a deputy chief designer of China’s human spaceflight program, told CCTV.
“Coming to China’s space station and taking a Chinese rocket to space requires familiarity with China’s spacecraft. This may have to wait until they arrive in China so that our instructors can train them,” Chen said.
The move is part of China’s plans to use Tiangong to boost its international space cooperation and soft power.
Many countries have proposed sending astronauts to visit Tiangong, according to Chen, who did not name specific states.
The European Space Agency will not be sending its astronauts, however, despite earlier training exchanges with China. ESA Director General Josef Aschbacher said in January that the agency had neither the budget nor the political green light for participating in the Chinese space station.
Meanwhile experiments selected by a joint program between the CMSA and the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA) could begin flying to Tiangong this year. | Space Technology |
Intergalactic politics echo world politics: the most recognizable space programs and multilateral agreements are conducive to US power, a norm that’s been cemented in place since the Apollo 11 moon landing in 1969.
Outer space initiatives between non-US powers—such as China and South America—are less known; they’re under-explored in scholarship and misunderstood in popular politics. Most attention given to these space relations is shaped by Western pessimism, subscribing to the perspective that China’s main interest in space exploration is to deepen asymmetrical power structures. China’s continuation of satellite production in South America, say, is a source of stress for Western security interests. As Global Studies scholar Julie Michelle Klinger says, such an endeavors is seen “as a novelty at best, or with passing alarmism at worst.” That’s not to say that the astropolitics between China and South America are void of geostrategic agendas. There are plenty of political and economic interests in outer space cooperation—particularly given their distance from US influence. “Ideals of South-South solidarity continue to motivate space relations between Latin American countries and China,” notes Klinger, not to mention the hope of improving their legislative presence through bilateral and multilateral agreements and/or earning esteem via scientific developments.
Security is innately connected to the geopolitics of space exploration. Ecuador is of especial strategic importance, given its geosynchronous advantage for satellite-tracking. It’s historical factors like these that fashioned the agreements that would set the stage for China-South America cooperation in space technologies, leaving today’s interstellar projects entwined with Earthly infrastructure projects. China’s “Belt and Road Initiative,” for instance, which involves nearly 140 countries with more than $1 trillion in projects related to energy, transportation, digital networks, and trade, might greatly benefit from satellite-tracking across Latin America.
Multilateralism continues to have the strongest legislative hold over space programs and their ancillary projects. While many of them were fashioned within a twentieth-century space-race context, they’re continuing to spring up and shape the legalities of international astropolicy. An examination of multilateral organizations—particularly ones disconnected from the UN—signals that the democratization of outer space politics is still maturing. For instance, when the Asia-Pacific Space Cooperation Organization (APSCO) was founded, one of its intentions was to keep scientific interests free of superpower authorities. What cannot be ignored, though, is that there are always underlying political forces. Klinger points out that multilateral agreements might employ broad terms like “sustainable development,” but this rhetoric signals that other interests are typically at play. “APSCO’s continued use of this term is no different,” she writes:
The organization has an explicit policy to promote the industrialization of space technology and its applications among member states. Concretely, this has meant technology-sharing agreements and contracts between the space agencies of APSCO countries and contractors in China for a variety of purposes, some of which can be described as sustainable and others that can be classified as development.The same satellites that support climate science are also providing data to support environmentally destructive development plans.
In other words, the ideals of the organizations involved aren’t always realized; the political mechanisms aren’t always transparent.
As space science continues to develop, it’s imperative to rally scholarship of infrastructure and exploration in non-US space contexts. The gap in literature and popular culture not only reinforces a misunderstood narrative of asymmetry, but it also reveals a severe oversight of an increasingly important topic. Support JSTOR Daily! Join our new membership program on Patreon today. Resources JSTOR is a digital library for scholars, researchers, and students. JSTOR Daily readers can access the original research behind our articles for free on JSTOR. By: Fifth Estate Newspaper Fifth Estate, Volume 4, Issue 6 (84) Fifth Estate Newspaper By: Julie Michelle Klinger Journal of Latin American Geography, Vol. 17, No. 2, SPECIAL ISSUE: New Geographies of China and Latin American Relations (July 2018), pp. 46–83 University of Texas Press | Space Technology |
Xi Charm Offensive Turns To Space As ‘Divine Craft’ Launches
China’s Shenzhou 16 mission blasted off from deep in the Gobi Desert, showcasing the space program’s rapid progress at a time when the US is trying to thwart Beijing’s development of sophisticated industries such as semiconductors.
(Bloomberg) -- China’s Shenzhou 16 mission blasted off from deep in the Gobi Desert, showcasing the space program’s rapid progress at a time when the US is trying to thwart Beijing’s development of sophisticated industries such as semiconductors.
A Long March-2F rocket sending three astronauts to the Chinese space station took off from the military-controlled Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center on Tuesday morning, state media reported.
The launch marked the 11th crewed mission for China as it narrows the gap in a head-to-head space race with the US.
China has notched up an impressive series of achievements in recent years, becoming the first nation to land a craft on the far side of the moon in 2019 and landing a rover on Mars in 2021. It’s also the only country operating its own space station, built after the US objected to Chinese participation in the multinational International Space Station.
The country plans to send Chinese astronauts to the moon by 2030, China Manned Space Agency official Lin Xiqiang said at a briefing on Monday.
In the days before Shenzhou 16’s takeoff, the government allowed foreign reporters to visit the launch center, shoot video and take photos, an unusual gesture given the area is controlled by the People’s Liberation Army. Underscoring the PLA’s role in the Chinese space program, a billboard at the entrance to the center shows President Xi Jinping with the slogan “Dream of Space, Dream of a Strong Military.”
“China has achieved operational success when it comes to its space achievements and is now on a path to commercialize space,” said Namrata Goswami, an independent scholar on space policy and author of a book on great-power competition in space. “Inviting foreign media gives them visibility as well as showcases that confidence.”
As the Chinese agency competes with NASA to send astronauts to the moon for the first time since 1972, greater visibility for Beijing’s space program could also boost its efforts to gain support among countries taking part in its Belt and Road Initiative, Xi’s campaign to use infrastructure projects to increase Chinese influence, she added.
“The audience is not just the United States but also partner nations along the Belt and Road Initiative,” Goswami said.
Image Repair
A self-enclosed community for staff of the space agency who often stroll around the area in their official blue jumpsuits, the center is usually a destination for tour groups and students. However, its streets, parks and strip mall were largely empty the day before the Shenzhou-16 mission because tourists cannot visit around the time of launches.
Xi has been tapping into the space program as part of a charm offensive aimed at repairing its global image, battered by his Covid Zero policy which largely isolated the country before he abruptly ended it late last year.
“China is willing to work with other countries to strengthen exchanges and cooperation, jointly explore the mysteries of the universe, make peaceful use of outer space, and promote space technology to better benefit the people of all countries in the world,” he said in a letter to a UN symposium in November.
So far, no country has taken up Xi’s offer to send their astronauts into space aboard a Chinese rocket. The European Space Agency had two astronauts participate in a training mission with Chinese counterparts in 2017, with the goal of eventually sending European astronauts to the Chinese space station, but in January this year the agency’s director general said the ESA had no plans for such a mission.
“Giving up cooperation with China in the manned space domain is clearly short-sighted, which reveals that the US-led camp confrontation has led to a new space race,” the Global Times newspaper reported after the ESA announcement.
Meanwhile, the US continues to make progress in its space diplomacy. Two dozen countries support the Washington-backed Artemis Accords to create a framework for space activity. One of Elon Musk’s SpaceX rockets on May 21 launched four astronauts to the International Space Station, including the first woman from Saudi Arabia to travel to space.
In the latest iteration of Shenzhou, which means “Divine Craft,” the three Chinese astronauts are expected to rendezvous with three others who have been living aboard the Tiangong space station, part of the government’s plans to have it occupied continuously. They will conduct scientific experiments and spacewalks in the coming months.
The crew includes China’s first civilian astronaut to go to space, Gui Haichao, a professor at Beihang University in Beijing.
--With assistance from Amanda Wang.
(Updates with information on crew in final paragraph.)
More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com
©2023 Bloomberg L.P. | Space Technology |
After announcing plans nearly two years ago, defense alliance NATO has officially closed its first fund to back startups that are building technology strategic to NATO’s own goals in defense and security.
Member nations are collectively committing capital totalling €1 billion (around $1 billion at current rates) to the NATO Innovation Fund, which plans to make both direct investments in startups, as well as indirect investments in other funds that in turn back startups focused on emerging and disruptive technologies that are “responsible and led by fundamental principles: safety, freedom, and human empowerment.” Areas of focus will include AI and autonomy, biotechnology, quantum computing, space technology and hypersonic systems, energy, new manufacturing and materials, and next-generation communications.
Modelled somewhat on In-Q-Tel in the U.S., the idea will be to keep the investments strategic, with some (but maybe not all) investments leading to services that its member states, or NATO itself, might use. The NIF will look mainly at early stage investments — that is from pre-seed through to Series B — and it might also make follow-on investments. Initial checks will be up to €15 million. The first investments will be announced in September, the organization said; none have been made so far.
The aim is to operate NIF like a “classic VC.” That is to say, there will be future funds, and it’s been designed to exist in perpetuity, a spokesperson said.
Many countries have notably set up sovereign funds that back technology startups and investors, both in their own countries and in other geographies and categories viewed as strategic; NATO says that its Innovation Fund will be the “first multi-sovereign venture capital fund,” covering contributions from NATO members.
The 23 countries involved in the first NATO Innovation Fund sub-fund 1 are Belgium; Bulgaria; Czechia; Denmark; Estonia; Finland; Germany; Greece; Hungary; Iceland; Italy; Latvia; Lithuania; Luxembourg; Netherlands; Norway; Poland; Portugal; Romania; Slovakia; Spain; Turkey; United Kingdom. Sweden will also be joining the group following its full accession to NATO, and that will add an additional €40 million into the pot, a spokesperson confirmed.
NATO has long been a player in procurement, but this shifts its focus to working with businesses that might also have an indirect impact on the security postures of its member countries.
That could include cybersecurity, but also deep tech, as well as technologies that can help countries develop better energy or other resource independence.
Priorities like these have become especially stark in recent years. Russia’s invasion and subsequent war in Ukraine has highlighted just how interconnected countries are economically in Europe, and how interrupting production and supply chains in one can have huge, detrimental impacts in others. Similarly, over-dependence on single technology companies for certain services is also especially risky, and so spreading bets and diversifying the markets and putting money into that effort also helps build NATO’s security posture.
At the same time, the adoption of newer technologies and innovations has clearly shaped up as a critical component of how nations — or a consortium of nations — defend themselves in the twenty-first century (and of course nations and states use innovation also for offence, not just defense). Given the role that startups and newer businesses are playing in that innovation economy, NATO taking bigger steps to captalize on that is equally critical right now.
The fund is being set up with a founding team that will take on an executive role, leading on sourcing and making investments. That will be complemented by a board of directors that will have more of a non-executive role, providing advice and helping to steer those decisions. The founding team will include managing partner Andrea Traversone supported by Kelly Chen, Thorsten Claus, Patrick Schneider-Sikorsky and Chris O’Connor. The board will be led by Dr. Klaus Hommels (who founded Lakestar), Dame Fiona Murray and Dr. Roberto Cingolani.
Given the layers of drawn-out bureaucracy — or, in a more charitable light, checks and balances — that NATO has had in place since its inception after World War II, it will be interesting to see how the Innovation Fund operates — and specifically, whether it figures out how to move in a more nimble way to be more responsive to the startup ecosystem.
The “In venture capital, the senior management team are the brains behind investment decisions,” David van Weel, NATO Assistant Secretary General for Emerging Security Challenges, said in a statement provided over email. “I am confident that the NATO Innovation Fund’s Founding Team has the experience, drive and capability necessary to deliver the NIF’s mission.”
Other questions that have yet to be addressed publicly are whether NATO will have any red lines in terms of what kinds of companies it would not back, and whether it will have restrictions on who it would co-invest with, and if so what those might be. Nor is it clear if NATO will be transparent on every investment that it makes, or whether there will be some that remain undisclosed.
Answers to questions we put forward on these subjects might be addressed in the update in September. (Or, they might not.)
The innovation fund is one part of a one-two punch that NATO is making to broker more engagement with startups and innovation-focused businesses in its footprint. It’s also building out the DIANA accelerator to back and work more closely with startups that are building “dual-tech” solutions — those that might have a very direct and obvious application in NATO’s core activities, but also longer term applications that might not. | Space Technology |
DARPA plans to prove a Nuclear powered rocket engine as early as 2027.
NASA and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) will demonstrate a nuclear-powered rocket engine that will aid long-duration deep space missions and might even power crewed missions to Mars. Under DARPA's Demonstration Rocket for Agile Cislunar Operations (DRACO) program, the agencies plan on launching a spacecraft powered by a Nuclear Thermal Reactor (NTR) engine in Earth orbit by 2027.
Once in orbit, the teams will conduct several experiments with DRACO’s reactor at various power levels. These data will be thoroughly examined by engineers on Earth, before conducting a full-powered test.
The development will be led by NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate (STMD) while DARPA acts as contracting authority for the experimental spacecraft and nuclear reactor. The reactor will be powered by high-assay-low-enriched uranium (HALEU) to reduce risk and logistical hurdles. It will also be engineered to ignite only in orbit — as an added safety precaution.
Nuclear History
In 2021, DARPA awarded General Atomics, Blue Origin and Lockheed Martin with the first phase contracts for the DRACO program. Awarded $22 million, General Atomics is responsible for the preliminary design of the Nuclear engine’s reactor and propulsion subsystem. Under a $2.5 and $2.9 million contract respectively, Blue Origin and Lockheed Martin will work independently to develop other operational and demonstration systems.
Nuclear engines are a technological leap in modern propulsion systems, requiring a total redesign of how a rocket engine operates. Rather than generate heat due to the combustion of the propellant and the oxidizer, the nuclear engines — as the name suggests — are equipped with a fission-based reactor core. The extreme heat from the reactor rapidly expands liquid hydrogen through a conventional rocket nozzle to generate thrust.
This external heat source results in an unprecedented increase in performance, resulting in an exceptionally high exhaust velocity and ISP, which can theoretically double or triple payload capacity and allow for faster transit times, a key requirement for deep space crewed missions.
This isn’t NASA’s first nuclear rodeo. The development and testing of nuclear engines predate the space race, with early designs meant to replace the conventional second stage for Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles. After the Sputnik crisis, these plans were redirected and named Project Rover. They were thereafter managed by the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) and NASA’s Space Nuclear Propulsion Office, a program created in Washington DC to manage exploration activities involving nuclear engines. Due to the classified nature of the program, the engine’s construction and tests were carried out at the Los Alamos National Laboratory and the Area 25 Test Facility in Nevada.
During Project Rover, over 20 engines were tested, with over 17 hours of engine run time.
After 1963, the NERVA (Nuclear Engines for Rocket Vehicle Application) program was established to further develop technologies specifically for the space program. Unlike modern nuclear engines, NERVA used highly-enriched uranium for their reactors. The program was considered highly successful and had strong political support from various senators. Picking up the work from Project Rover, NASA developed their first nuclear engine named NERVA NRX (Nuclear Rocket Experimental), to demonstrate ignition and engine restart without an external power source, provide teams with more data during a variety of conditions, and evaluate the endurance of the nuclear reactor during multiple restarts.
NERVA’s first test fire took place in September 1964 with NERVA A2, running flawlessly at full power. During the test, the engine showed a significant leap from any solid or liquid-powered engine, with an ISP clocked at 811 seconds. ISP or specific impulse is a measurement of the efficiency of any rocket engine. It is calculated in seconds — amounting to the time a rocket engine can generate thrust. A higher ISP indicates a higher burn time (in seconds) with the same amount of fuel, hence, a higher efficiency.
A year later, NERVA A3 was successfully tested to verify a full power run and restart. Later on, as the engine matured, the scope of test campaigns grew to include long-duration full-power burns and multiple restarts. Learnings from these experimental test programs led to the development of NERVA XE, the first nuclear engine designed as a complete flight system. After a comprehensive testing regime, the rocket engine was eventually deemed suitable for spaceflight operations by NASA and ready for missions to Mars.
During a series of tests between 1968-69, XE ran at full power for 1680 seconds and was restarted 24 times.
The agency's plans were not limited to Mars but included deep space probes to outer planets in the Solar system. Nuclear tugs were envisioned to take payloads from low earth orbit to higher orbits, to resupply space stations in Earth orbit, and to support a permanent lunar base. A nuclear-powered upper stage for the Saturn V was also planned, which could’ve launched over 150 tons to LEO.
But the rising costs of the Vietnam War and a dwindling NASA budget made it harder to fund the NERVA program. President Johnson was adamant to keep the US nuclear propulsion program alive, funding NERVA specifically twice. But as President Nixon came to power in ’69, cost-cutting went into effect, and he canceled the program by 1973 to fund the Space Shuttle.
After 17 years of research, development, and comprehensive testing, and spending over $1.4 billion, NERVA never left the test stand.
Reignition
Half a century later, we’re reigniting this transformational technology, embedded with 21st-century safety features and a better understanding of nuclear science.
With DARPA providing fixed-price contracts for the DRACO program, the commercial companies involved are much more motivated to successfully complete their contracts and find innovative solutions, all while under the supervision of experienced government entities.
NTRs are not needed for an initial Mars mission but they’ll significantly accelerate the advent of a permanent and sustainable human settlement on the red planet. And a highly-efficient engine would greatly reduce transit times for scientific payloads venturing out to gas giants, the outer solar system, and beyond.
Nuclear engines reduce the exposure to radiation by drastically reducing the travel time. A conventional mission to Mars during a Hohmann-transfer window is around 9 months, however, nuclear propulsion can cut transit times by at least 50%. This results in cost savings, fewer consumables on board, and more mass for experiments, gear, and Elon's baggage. | Space Technology |
Defense-focused space technology startup True Anomaly has received key permits from regulators that will allow it to demonstrate imaging and rendezvous capabilities on-orbit for the first time.
The two authorizations -- from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) -- give the company the greenlight to perform non-Earth imaging and to demonstrate in-space rendezvous proximity operations, respectively. True Anomaly is planning on executing these capabilities using two of its “autonomous orbital vehicle” spacecraft, which the company calls Jackals, during a mission early next year.
The 275-kilogram Jackal spacecraft will launch aboard SpaceX’s Transporter-10 rideshare mission, which is currently scheduled to launch no earlier than February 2024. True Anomaly had previously been targeting a ride on Transporter-9, which is launching in October, but CEO Even Rogers told TechCrunch that they decided to move to a slightly later launch date after experiencing some supply chain issues.
“Sometimes there are pressures when you're building new systems that you experience across the supply chain,” he said. “We were subjected to some of those delays and then it just got a little tight.”
The startup also announced that it had opened its first factory, a 35,000-square-foot facility called “GravityWorks,” in Centennial, Colorado. The new facility will be able to produce a spacecraft every five days, thanks to a manufacturing approach that’s similar to how automobiles are assembled.
“We're not trying to commoditize spacecrafts,” he said. “There's some phenomenal companies out there that are just trying to make spacecraft less expensive and fast, but we're really focused on a national security space and securing the space domain from threats.”
True Anomaly, founded by a quartet of ex-Space Force members last year, is looking to furnish the Pentagon with defensive technology, including an “autonomous orbital vehicle” the company calls Jackal, to protect American assets in space and conduct reconnaissance on adversary spacecraft. The company has found major traction for its tech, raising around $30 million in funding so far, including a $17 million Series A that closed earlier this year.
In a previous interview with TechCrunch, True Anomaly CEO Even Rogers described an “information asymmetry” between the U.S. and its adversaries in space; the company wants to close that gap, by building spacecraft that can rendezvous with other orbital objects and capture images up close.
The company is also planning to provide virtual training and using the Jackal on-orbit as a real-life training system for U.S. warfighters. Last month, True Anomaly debuted a digital and an “on-orbit range” service, which will be able to realistically replicate threats and allow users to train and test tactics.
Eventually, Rogers said the company is looking to roll out more hardware lines and have “potentially hundreds” of spacecraft in every orbit, including cislunar orbit. | Space Technology |
A private consortium wants to help extend the Hubble Space Telescope's lifetime, while cleaning up orbital debris in the neighborhood as well.
Space startups Momentus and Astroscale sent a proposal to NASA after the agency issued a request for information in December 2022 regarding a non-exclusive SpaceX study announced in September. (SpaceX's unfunded proposal is examining options to put the 33-year-old Hubble Space Telescope in a "reboosted" higher orbit, but other companies are allowed to put their own ideas forward, too.)
"We found our product suites to be synergistic in support of a major NASA mission," Momentus CEO John Rood said in a May 9 statement (opens in new tab). Momentus, however, has a "dangerously low cash reserve" as of its first quarter financial results on May 11, according to Payload Space (opens in new tab). It was only two days before the results were released that Momentus made its joint Hubble proposal public with Astroscale.
The startups have considerable space experience. Astroscale, founded in 2013, launched the space debris demonstration mission ELSA-d in March 2021. The mission aimed to test junk capture technology using a simulated piece of debris; the test was halted in May 2022 due to "anomalous spacecraft conditions." Astroscale plans another effort in 2024.
Momentus, which started operations in 2017, has launched several demonstration flights of a space tug called Vigoride aboard SpaceX rideshare missions. The Astroscale-Momentus proposal for Hubble would also use Vigoride, which would launch on a yet-to-be-determined rocket. After the tug reaches space, it would use Astroscale technology for rendezvous, proximity operations and docking to reach the telescope. Vigoride would eventually move Hubble's orbit up by 31 miles (50 kilometers), then turn to a new task of cleaning up orbital debris in the vicinity of Hubble.
Momentus, however, is spending roughly $8 million a month and has just $40 million of cash on hand, its quarterly results showed; while cash flow is coming in from several service agreements and the U.S. Space Force, spending is roughly equivalent to five months of runway, according to Payload. The market capitalization of Momentus is also $40 million, so Payload's report said fundraising for more cash "will be a challenge."
A further issue arose in March, when the Nasdaq gave Momentus a delisting warning, as the space startup's shares have declined below $1 each, according to CNBC (opens in new tab). Momentus has about 180 days, until late September, to bring up its share price again.(opens in new tab)
Hubble flew to space in April 1990 aboard the space shuttle Discovery. Its altitude — 335 miles (540 km) above Earth as of late 2022 — is now roughly 38 miles (60 km) lower than its initial orbit. Hubble continues to fall gradually thanks to drag induced by Earth's atmosphere, which is whisker-thin, but not non-existent, so high up.
Hubble remains in good health otherwise, thanks to five space shuttle missions to service the telescope and boost its orbit, the last of which happened in 2009. NASA retired the 30-year-old shuttle fleet in 2011, leaving no current servicing options.
Hubble's groundbreaking research has brought in a Nobel Prize and thousands of peer-reviewed papers. Now it is working alongside the even more powerful NASA James Webb Space Telescope to uncover detailed information about our solar system and the deep universe. Webb launched in 2021 and is now operating in deep space to look even further back in time than Hubble's pioneering "deep field" studies showing early galaxy evolution.
At its current altitude close to Earth, Hubble has a 50% probability of falling back to our planet in 2037, Patrick Crouse, Hubble project manager at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland, said during a September 2022 briefing. The press conference was discussing the SpaceX proposal, being conducted under an unfunded Space Act Agreement with NASA.(opens in new tab)
To be clear, there is no approved Hubble rescue mission yet. Any such effort would happen at no cost to NASA, per the terms of the agreement discussed in September 2022.
SpaceX's Hubble effort would be in conjunction with the Polaris Program. Polaris is a private program of space missions, funded by billionaire Jared Isaacman, aiming to fly Isaacman and other commercial astronauts he selects using SpaceX's Dragon and Starship vehicles. (The first of the trio of missions, Polaris Dawn, will launch no earlier than September this year; Isaacman first flew to space on another SpaceX mission he funded, called Inspiration4, in September 2021.)
"We're going to be looking at Dragon capabilities and how they would need to be modified in order to safely rendezvous and dock with Hubble," Jessica Jensen, vice president of customer operations and integration at SpaceX, said during the September 2022 briefing. "Details of exactly physically how that's done, and how we also safely do that from a trajectory point of view — that's all to be worked out."
The SpaceX-Polaris proposal would extend the telescope's lifetime by 20 years, according to a Sunday (May 14) tweet from Isaacman (opens in new tab).(opens in new tab)
SpaceX has been criticized for its Starlink constellation's effects on astronomy, including upon Hubble. In March 2023, a peer-reviewed study in the journal Nature Astronomy found that the probability of finding satellite trails in Hubble images is now 5.9%, compared with 3.7% in 2002. Starlink is a set of 4,000 satellites aiming to bring fast broadband to remote populations on Earth; SpaceX is hoping to send as many as 40,000 Starlinks aloft if the U.S. Federal Communications Commission approves.
NASA is still studying Hubble proposals issued in response to its request for information, which concluded Jan. 24, 2023 (opens in new tab). Other consortiums may also have made bids. NASA officials have said the studies will be beneficial for future efforts to extend the operating lives of other satellites via refueling operations, boosting their orbits and other potentially cost-saving efforts.
"This study is an exciting example of the innovative approaches NASA is exploring through private-public partnerships," then-associate administrator for the Science Mission Directorate at NASA, Thomas Zurbuchen, said in a December 2022 statement. (opens in new tab) "As our fleet grows, we want to explore a wide range of opportunities to support the most robust, superlative science missions possible."
At least two other NASA telescopes are being studied for rescue. According to an October 2022 story (opens in new tab) from IEEE Spectrum, Northrop Grumman has a feasibility study underway for a servicing mission of the Chandra X-ray Observatory, which launched in 1999.
Chandra was assembled by TRW, which is now a part of Northrop Grumman, and Northrop subsidiary SpaceLogistics already services Intelsat communications satellites using space tugs that it calls Mission Extension Vehicles. SpaceLogistics is working on a newer version of the vehicle with a robotic arm on board, which may be able to remotely repair orbiting spacecraft.
A proposal to resurrect NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope, launched in 2003, is also in the works. Space technology company Rhea Space Activity won a $250,000 grant (opens in new tab) from the U.S. Space Force last week for an early-stage study. Spitzer is quite far from Earth, at roughly two astronomical units (two Earth-sun distances) away; the extreme distance is needed to keep the telescope cool for searching out infrared light (heat radiation).
Partnering with Rhea are several heavyweight financial backers, including the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, Blue Sun Enterprises, and Lockheed Martin. Spitzer was retired in 2020 in favor of Webb, a $10 billion observatory that NASA prioritized over some other astrophysics programs to make room as Webb's budget grew beyond expectations.
Elizabeth Howell is the co-author of "Why Am I Taller (opens in new tab)?" (ECW Press, 2022; with Canadian astronaut Dave Williams), a book about space medicine. Follow her on Twitter @howellspace (opens in new tab). Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom (opens in new tab) or Facebook (opens in new tab). | Space Technology |
In a first-of-its-kind experiment, NASA's Perseverance rover has produced enough oxygen on Mars to keep an astronaut alive for three hours.
The rover, which first touched down on Mars in February 2021, produced the element using its Mars Oxygen In-Situ Resource Utilization Experiment (MOXIE) device — which generated the oxygen by converting carbon dioxide in periodic bouts over two years.
Since arriving on the Red Planet, the microwave-size device has generated 4.3 ounces (122 grams) of oxygen, according to NASA. This is the equivalent to what a small dog breathes in 10 hours and gives scientists hope that human life could, one day, be sustained on the inhospitable planet.
"We're proud to have supported a breakthrough technology like MOXIE that could turn local resources into useful products for future exploration missions," Trudy Kortes, director of technology demonstrations, Space Technology Mission Directorate (STMD) at NASA Headquarters in Washington, said in a statement. "By proving this technology in real-world conditions, we've come one step closer to a future in which astronauts 'live off the land' on the Red Planet."
Carbon dioxide is abundant on Mars, making up 95% of its thin atmosphere, according to NASA. By zapping small amounts of carbon dioxide over 16 experiments, the MOXIE device stripped oxygen atoms from CO2 and analyzed them for purity before sequestering them safely within a capsule. The leftovers were then emitted in the form of carbon monoxide.
The scientists say that oxygen extraction devices won't just be useful for future colonists to breathe but for making rocket fuel too.
"MOXIE's impressive performance shows that it is feasible to extract oxygen from Mars' atmosphere — oxygen that could help supply breathable air or rocket propellant to future astronauts," Pamela Melroy, NASA's deputy administrator, said in the statement. "Developing technologies that let us use resources on the Moon and Mars is critical to build a long-term lunar presence, create a robust lunar economy, and allow us to support an initial human exploration campaign to Mars."
Despite this small but significant step, many profound health challenges still stand in the way of a viable Mars colony. For starters, Mars is so cold that its average temperature of around minus 80 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 62 degrees Celsius) would freeze a human to death without a space suit, and its low atmospheric pressure would simultaneously boil their blood. This is without taking into account the bombardment of cancer-causing radiation from the lack of a protective ozone layer and the extreme losses to bone-density brought on by the journey there.
Until these problems are overcome, humanity's closest view of the Red Planet is still from rovers such as Perseverance. As a key part of NASA's $2.7 billion Mars 2020 mission, the robot, alongside the Curiosity rover, is searching for signs of ancient life on Mars' surface by collecting dozens of rock samples for eventual return to Earth. The rover is accompanied by the Ingenuity helicopter, which has so far made 57 flights over the Martian surface.
Live Science newsletter
Stay up to date on the latest science news by signing up for our Essentials newsletter.
Ben Turner is a U.K. based staff writer at Live Science. He covers physics and astronomy, among other topics like tech and climate change. He graduated from University College London with a degree in particle physics before training as a journalist. When he's not writing, Ben enjoys reading literature, playing the guitar and embarrassing himself with chess. | Space Technology |
AUSTIN, Texas — Dust is a common fact of life, and it’s more than just a daily nuisance – it can get into machinery and equipment, causing loss of efficiency or breakdowns.
Researchers at The University of Texas at Austin partnered with North Carolina-based company Smart Material Solutions Inc. to develop a new method to keep dust from sticking to surfaces. The result is the ability to make many types of materials dust resistant, from spacecraft to solar panels to household windows.
The research is published in ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces.
“What we’ve demonstrated here is a surface that can clean itself,” said Chih-Hao Chang, an associate professor in the Cockrell School of Engineering’s Walker Department of Mechanical Engineering and a lead author of the study. “Particulates aren’t able to stick to the surface, so they come off using just the force of gravity.”
In tests, the researchers piled lunar dust on top of their engineered surfaces and then turned each surface on its side. The result: Only about 2% of the surface remained dusty, compared with more than 35% of a similar but smooth surface.
The researchers said the discovery boils down to things the human eye can’t detect. In the experiments, the team altered the geometry of flat surfaces to create a tightly packed nanoscale network of pyramid-shaped structures. These sharp, angular structures make it difficult for the dust particles to stick to the material, instead sticking to one another and rolling off the material via gravity.
These structures provide a passive solution, meaning they don’t require any extra energy or materials to remove dust. Compare that with more active solutions such as a car windshield that requires the use of windshield wipers and wiper fluid to clean off dust.
The research was funded via a grant from NASA’s Small Business Innovation Research program, so the first applications focus on space technology. Space dust is especially pesky because of how high-risk everything becomes in that environment, and the conditions make cleaning off dust challenging. Dust wreaked havoc on the Apollo missions and has caused Mars rovers to fail.
“There’s not much you can do about lunar dust in space – it sticks to everything and there’s no real way to wipe it off or spray it off,” said Samuel Lee, a lead author who was an undergraduate researcher in Chang’s group. “Dust on solar panels of Mars rovers can cause them to fail.”
This technology also could have tremendous impact on Earth. It could prevent solar panels from collecting dust and losing efficiency over time. It could protect glass windows and someday even digital screens such as phones and TVs.
Anti-dust technology has been around for decades, but it has not gained much traction outside of the lab because of scaling challenges. The researchers used fabrication concepts called nanocoining and nanoimprinting, which prints patterns on objects in a modernized version of the way newspapers and photographs were mass produced during the 1800s.
Chang and Lee led the work for UT Austin, along with Stephen Furst, founder and CEO of Smart Material Solutions, which is working to commercial the technology. Other members of the team are Andrew Tunell, Kun-Chieh Chien and Saurav Mohanty of UT Austin; and Lauren Micklow and Nichole Cates of Smart Material Solutions. | Space Technology |
India is preparing for its second attempted moon landing, a historic moment for the world’s most populous country.
Chandrayaan-3, which means “mooncraft” in Sanskrit, is scheduled to put down its Vikram lander shortly after 6pm (1200 GMT) near the little-explored lunar south pole in what would be a world first for any space programme.
A previous Indian effort failed in 2019, and the latest mission comes just days after Russia’s first moon mission in almost 50 years, destined for the same region, crashed on the lunar surface.
Former Indian space chief K Sivan said the latest photos transmitted back by the lander gave every indication the final leg of the voyage would succeed.
“It is giving some encouragement that we will be able to achieve the landing mission without any problem,” he told AFP on Monday.
Sivan added that the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) had made corrections after the failure of four years ago, when scientists lost contact with a lunar module moments before its slated landing.
“Chandrayaan-3 is going to go with more ruggedness,” he said. “We have confidence, and we expect that everything will go smoothly.”
The mission launched nearly six weeks ago in front of thousands of cheering spectators, taking much longer to reach the moon than those of the Apollo missions in the 1960s and 1970s, which arrived in a matter of days.
India is using rockets much less powerful than the US did back then. Instead, the probe orbited Earth several times to gain speed before embarking on its month-long lunar trajectory.
The spacecraft’s lander, Vikram, which means “valour” in Sanskrit, detached from its propulsion module last week and has been sending back images of the moon’s surface since entering lunar orbit on 5 August.
A day before the landing, the ISRO said on social media that it was proceeding on schedule and that its mission control complex was “buzzed with energy & excitement”.
“Smooth sailing is continuing,” the agency posted on X, formerly Twitter.
India has a comparatively low-budget aerospace programme, but one that has grown considerably in size and momentum since it first sent a probe to orbit the moon in 2008.
The latest mission comes with a price tag of $74.6m – far lower than those of other countries, in keeping with India’s frugal space engineering.
Experts say India can keep costs low by copying and adapting existing space technology, and thanks to an abundance of highly skilled engineers who earn a fraction of their foreign counterparts’ wages.
In 2014, India became the first Asian country to put a satellite into orbit around Mars and is slated to launch a crewed mission into Earth’s orbit in the next few years, starting with uncrewed test flights in 2024.
Sivan, the former ISRO chief, said India’s efforts to explore the relatively unmapped lunar south pole would make a “very, very important” contribution to scientific knowledge.
Only Russia, the US and China have previously achieved a controlled landing on the lunar surface. | Space Technology |
This August, at the famed DEFCON hacker convention, the U.S. military will stage a contest in which competing teams of white-hat hackers will, for the first time ever, try to penetrate and take over computer systems on a satellite actually in orbit.
It took four years, but "this year, we are in space for real," said Steve Colenzo, Technology Transfer Lead for the Air Force Research Laboratory's Information Directorate in Rome, New York, and one of the contest organizers.
The Hack-A-Sat 4 capture-the-flag contest comes in the wake of the notorious cyberattack on the Viasat KA-SAT European satellite network last year. Russian military hackers sought to decapitate Ukrainian command and control of its armed forces by shutting down the network, just as Russian invaders rolled across the border.
Although there are conflicting reports about its impact on the fighting, the attack was completely effective from a technical perspective. Every one of the KA-SAT's ground user terminals that was turned on at the time shut itself down and could not be powered up. That, plus the collateral damage the attack caused, such as the wind farms in Germany knocked offline, underlined both the integral role in the world economy of space-based global communications networks, and their vulnerability to hackers.
It also demonstrated the value of the annual Hack-A-Sat contest, which aims to highlight the cyber threat faced by space-based capabilities.
"We've turned a corner ... A lot more people now understand" those threats, Colenzo said.
Industries from agriculture and mining to banking and insurance rely on space-based capabilities, he said. GPS, provided by a network of U.S. military satellites, is the best-known. GPS and its Chinese, European, Japanese and Russian equivalents, provide not just directions for clueless drivers, but controls for automated machinery on farms and the timing and location information that makes secure financial transactions possible online. Other space-based capabilities, such as earth observation satellites, which can show damage from extreme weather events, are increasingly used by insurance and other companies.
"Everyone relies on space," said Colenzo. Traditionally, space technology was the purview of a handful of nation states. And the hardware and software used in space systems such as GPS was boutique, unique and specialized.
But now "space is democratizing," Colenzo said, with more countries and more companies able to build their own satellites and buy rides on launch vehicles to get them into orbit. "We need all of those new entrants to be thinking about cyber security and cyber hygiene ... because in five years, we are all going to be relying on their capabilities" the way we now rely on GPS.
Hackers in Europe already succeeded
Hack-A-Sat 4, taking place live at DEFCON Aug. 10-13 in Las Vegas, will be the first-ever hacking contest staged on a vehicle in orbit. In previous years, the contests used genuine working satellite hardware, but running safely on the ground.
But the contest won't be the first time white-hat hackers have successfully hacked a real satellite in orbit.
That honor was taken earlier this year by Brian Jouannic and his team of ethical hackers from French defense, space and technology giant Thales. They were able, over a period of several months, to penetrate and take over the controls of a European Space Agency satellite called OPS-SAT. They were also able to doctor images produced by the satellite's camera.
OPS-SAT was uniquely easy to hack, Jouannic told Newsweek, because it was designed as a platform to host experiments, called payloads, from multiple users. More than 100 companies and institutions from 17 EU member states registered with the European Space Agency to upload their software payloads to the satellite, which runs the ubiquitous Linux software, just like an Earth-bound IT system.
"The attack on the satellite is more or less the same as an attack on a ground-based system," Jouannic said, "but in a much more challenging environment." The white-hat hackers could only communicate with the satellite for 10 minutes each day, as it passed overhead. So they would upload their code and then have to wait 24 hours to see if it had worked. "We had some good luck," he said, in finding exploitable vulnerabilities in the European Space Agency's code. Nonetheless, it took a team of four, working part time, a full three months before they were able to seize OPS-SAT's control system and change its attitude.
"We thought for 50 years that satellites were safe [from hacking], that they were so far away no one could ever reach them," Jouannic said. "That's no more the case."
Although OPS-SAT is unique, the democratization of space means increasing numbers of companies will offer the kind of shared or leased satellite access that it does, said Mathieu Bailly, CYSAT conference director. "More and more we see these new business models: Shared payload, shared launch, satellite-as-a-service," he said.
Moonlighter satellite will be the target
Hack-A-Sat 4 is an attack/defend contest in which teams compete to hack each other's systems while defending their own. It is being staged by the Air Force Research Laboratory and the U.S. Space Force. More than 380 teams signed up for the qualification round in April, and the eight top-scoring ones, which include contestants from Australia, Germany, Italy and Poland, as well as the U.S., will participate in the finals at DEFCON.
"We always knew our objective was to do this in space," Colenzo said. But when, back in 2020, organizers asked satellite operators if they could stage a hacking contest on their space assets, "The answer, and there was really no hesitation, the answer was always no."
Hack-A-Sat organizers realized that, if they wanted to reach their objective of staging such a contest in space, they would have to launch their own satellite, Colenzo said.
The Moonlighter satellite was launched on a SpaceX rideshare rocket to the International Space Station June 5 by the U.S. government-backed non-profit The Aerospace Corporation. It's a foot-long toaster-sized cubesat satellite with extendable solar panels.
If all goes according to plan, Moonlighter will be deployed into orbit early in July, Project leader Aaron Myrick told Newsweek. Moonlighter is designed to be hacked, he said, and there are numerous safety measures in place. "The first thing that we said was that propulsion was off the table," Moonlighter can't change its own orbit, which might make it a hazard to other satellites. And its ground controllers have the ability to reboot the system, kicking out any intruders and restoring their control.
Hacking contests like Hack-A-Sat have grown since the 1990s into an international hacker subculture, with hundreds of contests staged every year. The competitions build teamwork and develop a collaborative muscle memory while at the same time helping security researchers hone and practice defensive and offensive skills. Hack-A-Sat 4 will be a 72-hour non-stop grind in which the teams, fueled by energy drinks and snack bars, will nap briefly in shifts.
But don't let the video-game energy fool you: The stakes could not be higher.
U.S. wargames that seek to anticipate Chinese military strategy have long emphasized the possibility of a pre-emptive strike to take out U.S. space capabilities and impact U.S. forces fighting a war half a world away from their homeland. Such a strike would blind and deafen U.S. forces in the Indo-pacific theater, cutting off their communications with headquarters back in the U.S.
Now that China's own economy is increasingly reliant on space as well, that pre-emptive strike will likely take the form of a cyberattack, according to a classified CIA assessment leaked by 21-year-old National Guard Airman Jack Teixeira and reported by the Financial Times. The leaked document said China was developing cyber weapons that allow it "to seize control of a satellite, rendering it ineffective to support communications, weapons, or intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance systems." | Space Technology |
Disabled astronauts-in-training have completed a zero-gravity flight 25,000ft above Earth to help understand how spacesuits and space vessels can be made more accessible.The crew of 14, who have mobility, vision and hearing difficulties, experienced weightlessness and carried out a number of tests to see what could be done to improve accessibility.The group, who were from five different countries, including Australia, Brazil, Germany, Spain and the US, was made up of scientists, engineers and doctors.The groundbreaking trip, organised by AstroAccess, happened on a Zero-G aircraft in Houston, Texas on Thursday. Disabled astronauts-in-training have completed a zero-gravity flight 25,000ft above Earth to help understand how spacesuits and space vessels can be made more accessible. Pictured: Crew members aboard the AstroAccess flight on December 15 The crew, who have mobility, vision and hearing difficulties, experienced weightlessness and carried out a number of tests to see what could be done to improve accessibility Who was aboard the AstroAccess flight? There were 14 crew members aboard the AstroAccess Zero-Gravity flight on Thursday, who helped carry different types of research into how space travel can be made more accessible for those who are disabled.The group, who were from five different countries, including Australia, Brazil, Germany, Spain and the US, was made up of scientists, engineers and doctors.The crew members on board were:Lindsay YazzolinoLucas Radaelli Denna LambertDr. Carlos Archilla-CadyVictoria Garcia Sheila XuDr. K Renee HortonJose Luis de AugustoMichi BenthausDwayne FernandesJohn D. KempCaeley LooneyDr. Sheri Wells-JensenEric IngramEric ShearMary Cooper It comes just weeks after the European Space Agency (ESA) announced that former Paralympian runner, John McFall, would be part of the 2022 ESA Astronaut Class.The mission took off and landed at Ellington Airport, adjacent to the Houston Spaceport and the NASA Johnson Space centre - home to the US human spaceflight training.The AA2 was the first full charter formal research flight dedicated to promoting disability inclusion in space.On ascending to an altitude of 25,000ft, the vehicle began 18 parabolic manoeuvres, allowing the crews to test out what was needed to make trips to space more accessible for those with disabilities.One group tested a set of tactile graphics to be added to cabin walls that would allow both blind crew members and short-sighted crew members to stay oriented during emergencies and help them find emergency gear in zero gravity if the lights go off.Those working with the Blind and Mobility Crew were able to demonstrate that a disabled person can independently get into a launch seat and safely fasten the five-point seat harness, proving that disabled people can safely fly aboard suborbital space missions.The hard-of-hearing and blind crews worked with Sony and SonicCloud to help improve speech understanding systems onboard, using SonicCloud's innovative sound personalization software, which allows the user to tailor the audio to their hearing ability with Sony headphones.Deaf members of the crew looked into the ease of using American Sign Language (ASL)in zero gravity. Previously the group had looked into ASL on the Aurelia Institute Horizon flight early this year and as part of a scuba diving experiment at the University of Arizona's Biosphere 2 in Tucson, Arizona last month.Anna Voelker, the executive director of AstroAccess, said: 'While there is still work to be done to make space accessible for everyone, the success of this historic parabolic flight and ESA's selection of John McFall show strong movement in the right direction.'The flight was sponsored by George Whitesides, the co-founder of AstroAccess, and Dylan Taylor, the space entrepreneur. One crew member, Denna Lambert, reading tactile panels in zero-gravity to investigate tactile navigation techniques for future space vehicles and stations Jose Luis de Augusto, a Spanish aerospace engineer who uses a wheelchair, demonstrates zero-gravity docking space techniques for future space vehiclesMr Taylor said: 'AstroAccess is proving that space can one day be accessible for everyone.'Matt Gohd, CEO of Zero-G Corporation said: 'From our time with Steven Hawking to our relationship with AstroAccess, Zero G believes that the only limits you have are the ones you place on yourself.'We are honored to share this amazing experience and the first steps to space with this extraordinary group of individuals. Space should be open to everyone.'Arturo Machuca, Director of Houston Spaceport and Ellington Airport said: 'Inclusiveness and innovation go hand in hand.'As a focal point for aerospace innovation, we stand proud with partners like AstroAccess, who strive to level the playing field for space exploration.'Meet the crew onboard the AstroAccess AA2 flight into space: What is AstroAccess? AstroAccess is an organisation actively working to advance disability inclusion in space exploration, with the hope of flying one or more teams to space in the coming years. On Thursday, a Zero-G flight took 14 crew members up 25,000ft to test whether spacesuits and spaceships are accessible.While in space the AstroAccess ambassadors tested how blind and short-sighted crew members can stay orientated during emergencies and find emergency gear in zero gravity if the lights go out.Those looking at mobility on board were able to show a disabled person can independently get into a launch seat and fasten the five-point seat harness.Others looked into how deaf crew members could use American Sign Language in zero gravity.The organisation hopes to make space travel as accessible as possible. Crew members on board Thursday's Zero-Gravity flight Lindsay YazzolinoMs Yazzolino is a blind, non-visual designer who has a background in cognitive neuroscience research and public transit access.She has spent a number of years investigating how blindness shapes cognitive abilities such as Braille reading, language, touch and sound perception.Lucas RadaelliMr Radaelli is a senior software engineer at Google in San Franciso. Originally from Brazil, Mr Radaelli is blind and leads a team to develop accessibility solutions for people with disabilities.He wants to advance STEM accessibilty for blind people so they can pursue careers in engineering and mathematics. Denna LambertMs Lambert is the Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility Lead for NASA's Early Stage Innovations & Partnerships (ESIP) portfolio within the Agency Space Technology Mission Directorate located at NASA Headquarters in Washington.Dr. Carlos Archilla-CadyMr Achilla-Cady works as a Paediatric Anesthesiologist in Orlando, Florida and is a Veteran of the United States Navy. He had to receive a bilateral cornea transplant recipient and after conducting visual physiology experiments to discover the effects of microgravity on eye health, he wants to advance research into visual physiologic changes experienced in space travel.Victoria GarciaMs Garcia, who was born deaf, works at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center as a launch vehicle systems engineer. She looks into the future of technology for human space exploration. Sheila XuHarvard student Ms Xu is the first deaf Asian female pilot and has interned at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. She hopes to develop and invest in accessible space technology, advocating for policy changes to open up aerospace and aviation traditionally closed to people with disabilities. The crew members of the AstroAccess disabled research flight conducted on December 15, 2022 at Ellington Field in Houston, Texas, on the tarmac before taking off Michi Benthaus (centre), a German aerospace engineering student who uses a wheelchair, onboard AstroAccess' disabled research parabolic flight conducted on December 15, 2022 at Ellington Field in Houston Texas. She is joined by former NASA astronaut Cady Coleman (left)Dr. K Renee HortonDr Horton is a hard of hearing advocate for diversity and inclusion in STEM and the founder of Unapologetically Being, Inc. She currently works as a NASA Airworthiness Deputy on the Electric Powertrain Flight Demonstrator project.Jose Luis de AugustoMr Augusto is an aerospace engineer, commercial pilot, flight instructor, and a wheelchair user. Jose has worked at Airbus as a certification engineer and a flight test engineer. In 2019, he founded Newwings, a pilot school for persons with disabilities. Jose was among the pre-selected candidates for the European Space Agency's 'Parastronaut Project.' Left to Right: Victoria Garcia, Dr. Luke Brane (support crew), Sheila Xu, and Eric Shear test out light signalling devices to indicate changes in gravity through a non-auditory system. This enchances access for Deaf and hard of hearing crew members while improving situational awareness for all fliers on boardMichi BenthausMs Benthaus earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Mechatronics Engineering and is pursuing a master's degree in Aerospace Engineering with a focus on space and astrophysics at the Technical University of Munich. She is currently doing an internship at the German Aerospace Center (DLR). Michi is a sports enthusiast who loves to play wheelchair tennis and go-karting.Dwayne FernandesMr Fernandes is a double amputee from Australia, who was born in India. He works as a New South Wales (NSW) Accessible Delivery manager for the state government. He works on engaging and expanding people's understanding of disability inclusion when it comes to infrastructure, service delivery, and employment. Eric Ingram (pictured) with Sirisha Bandla (pictured) practicing getting in and out of a five-point harness attached to a simulated space capsute seatJohn KempMr Kemp co-founded the American Association of People with Disabilities, serves as President & CEO of Lakeshore Foundation and chairs Delta Air Lines' Advisory Board on Disability. JHe has been awarded the Henry B. Betts Award, regarded as America's highest honour for disability leadership and service, and the Dole Leadership Prize.Caeley LooneyMiss Looney is neurodivergent and a Space Mission Analyst at L3Harris Technologies. She is the founder and CEO of Reinvented Inc., a nonprofit focused on empowering young girls to pursue STEM fields. Lindsay Yazzolino, a blind tactile technology specialist, floats in zero-gravity to investigate navigation techniques for future space vehicles and space stations onboard AstroAccess' disabled research parabolic flight conducted on December 15Dr. Sheri Wells-JensenMs Wells-Jensen researches how social aspects of astrobiology, disability studies, and how body shape and sensory input might affect language structure of any extraterrestrial intelligence we may someday find. Eric IngramMr Ingram is the founder and CEO of Scout, a US-based company developing orbital products to enable a new era of space travel. He is also a Board Member at the Space Frontier Foundation and flew as part of the Mobility Crew on AA1. Lucas Radaelli, a Brazilian software engineer who is blind, navigates the Boeing 727 cabin in zero-gravity to investigate accessibility techniques for for space vehicles Eric ShearMr Shear studies chemical engineering at the University of Florda where he is studying chemical engineering with the goal of working in the space industry on life support and in-situ resource utilisation. He currently works as a research assistant at the University of North Florida on novel hydrogen production techniques. Mary CooperMs Cooper is a student pursuing a Master of Science in Aeronautical & Astronautical Engineering at Stanford University, where she recently graduated with an undergraduate degree in Aerospace Engineering & Computer Science. She is champion athlete and a below-the-knee amputee. She is also a 2020 Brooke Owens Fellow, 2020 Lime Connect Fellow, and a 2021 Matthew Isakowtiz Fellow. She worked at SpaceX on the astronaut training team to help prepare Polaris Dawn, NASA Crew-5 and Crew-6 for spaceflight. If you enjoyed this article:Who will be the first WOMAN to walk on the moon? How a helicopter-flying mother with twin girls, ex-UK rugby star and an Iraq War vet nicknamed 'Annimal' are among nine female astronauts who could make a lunar landing in 2025Incredible image from NASA astronaut captures 'star trails in space' on board the International Space Station European Space Agency's new astronauts REVEALED: Class of 17 includes 8 women and a British 'parastronaut' who lost his leg in a motorbike accident | Space Technology |
SEOUL, May 24 (Reuters) - South Korea cancelled the third flight of its homegrown space rocket on Wednesday because of technical problems hours before a launch that was meant to mark a significant step in its burgeoning space programme.
South Korea is aspiring to be a key player in space technology, competing with its Asian neighbours.
The technical glitches are most likely communication errors between computers that control a helium relief valve, officials say. The vehicle itself does not show any problems, so it will remain on the launch pad for a rescheduled test.
South Korea's deputy science minister, Oh Tae-seok, told a briefing that a meeting on Thursday would decide when another launch could take place, perhaps as early as Thursday afternoon.
In June 2022, the country successfully launched its domestically produced Nuri rocket and placed working and dummy satellites into orbit in its second test.
The third test would be the first to load and launch a commercial-grade satellite aboard the Nuri vehicle, standing on the pad at the Naro Space Center in Goheung, on the southwestern tip of South Korea.
The country plans to carry out three more test launches of the Nuri system by 2027.
The planned launch on Wednesday also comes amid an arms race around South and North Korea, which are technically still at war since the 1950-1953 Korean War ended in an armistice.
North Korea is preparing to launch its first military spy satellite, state media has reported. South Korea has no military surveillance satellites, relying on information from its major ally the United States.
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles. | Space Technology |
In February 2021, when NASA's car-sized Perseverance rover touched down on Mars to global fanfare, a modest golden box named MOXIE landed too.
Strapped into the life-detecting Perseverance, this toaster-sized block was ready to start revolutionizing the space exploration game by making oxygen on the Red Planet.
MOXIE, which stands for "Mars Oxygen In-Situ Resource Utilization Experiment," soon beganliving up to its name, generating oxygen at an ] impressive rate. It did so all the way until this past Aug. 7, when the mighty little cube produced 9.8 grams (0.35 ounces) of oxygen on its 16th and final run.
MOXIE's mission is now complete, NASA announced on Wednesday (Sept. 6). The device has produced a total of 122 grams (4.3 oz) of Martian oxygen — roughly the amount a small dog breathes in 10 hours, and twice as much as scientists thought MOXIE could make during its tenure.
At its most efficient, MOXIE produced 12 grams (0.4 oz) of the life-sustaining element every hour. And the oxygen it made was at least 98% pure — numbers that bode well for future, scaled-up efforts that could support human exploration of the Red Planet.
"When the first astronauts land on Mars, they may have the descendants of a microwave-oven-size device to thank for the air they breathe and the rocket propellant that gets them home," NASA officials wrote in a statement on Wednesday.
Why not just take oxygen from Earth?
There are two major advantages of making oxygen on Mars. For one, of course, it's important for future astronauts headed to the deserted world to have as much oxygen supply as possible during their stay.
"By proving this technology in real-world conditions, we’ve come one step closer to a future in which astronauts 'live off the land' on the Red Planet," Trust Kortes, director of technology demonstrations at NASA's Space Technology Mission Directorate, said in the statement.
But second, and maybe most importantly, oxygen is a key component of rocket fuel.
When space agencies eventually send astronauts to Mars, that trip is (hopefully) not going to be a one-way excursion. Mission planners are going to have to send enough rocket fuel to the planet such that the crew can launch themselves back to Earth when they've finished their missions. And that quantity of return-trip rocket fuel is going to be pretty hefty. To burn its fuel, as NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory explains, a rocket must have more oxygen (which serves as an oxidizer) by weight.
For example, getting four astronauts off the Martian surface would require about 15,000 pounds (7 metric tons) of rocket fuel and 55,000 pounds (25 metric tons) of oxygen. And, well, that's 55,000 pounds of oxygen the crew must take to Mars in addition to whatever oxygen is needed to get the rocket off Earth and the oxygen supply required for the astronauts to breathe. Not to mention all the other payloads the team would probably be carrying onboard.
So, scientists reasoned, why not remove some of that weight by making the oxygen part of rocket fuel right on the Red Planet?
It'd be better for the environment, more cost-effective and generally make humanity's dream of an eventual Martian society much more feasible.
"Rocket propellant depends on oxygen, and future explorers will depend on producing propellant on Mars to make the trip home," Jim Reuter, associate administrator at NASA's Space Technology Mission Directorate, said in a statement following MOXIE's first oxygen extraction, back in April 2021.
In fact, future lunar astronauts could benefit from MOXIE, too, if the device can translate its capabilities to operate on the moon's surface — a much closer dream, as that's a world we know quite intimately in comparison to Mars. India's Chandrayaan-3 rover (now in sleep mode) actually landed at the lunar south pole just last month in order to start exploring how we can mine water on the moon. NASA's Artemis missions also intend to work on such a feat because, like oxygen, water is also key in developing rocket fuel. (It can be split into its constituent hydrogen and oxygen.)
Minimizing payloads seems to be a paramount venture for space agencies looking toward a future when humans aren't restricted to lifestyles on Earth.
"Developing technologies that let us use resources on the moon and Mars is critical to build a long-term lunar presence, create a robust lunar economy, and allow us to support an initial human exploration campaign to Mars," NASA Deputy Administrator Pam Melroy said in Wednesday's statement.
How does MOXIE work?
In a nutshell, MOXIE has the ability to take carbon dioxide molecules from Mars' thin atmosphere, which are made of one carbon atom and two oxygen atoms, and pluck those oxygen bits out. That's basically it.
The hard part, however, is that this process requires a temperature of approximately 1,470 degrees Fahrenheit (800 degrees Celsius). It would need to be done in a variety of conditions that take place on Mars as the planet progresses through its year. The former of these hurdles was sorted by MOXIE being made of heat-tolerant materials, including nickel alloy parts, a lightweight aerogel and a gold coating that can reflect infrared heat and therefore keep Perseverance safe from MOXIE's scorching situation.
Gold coatings are known to be great for this reason — the James Webb Space Telescope's mirrors have such a layer, for example, because the observatory is built to capture specific infrared wavelengths from deep space. The gold part helps reflect infrared light onto the scope's infrared-parsing sensors.
Returning to MOXIE: In short, the mission was a resounding success. So much so that the team says the next step isn't to build MOXIE 2.0, but rather a full-scale system that includes a MOXIE box in conjunction with a way to store and liquify all the oxygen created.
"We have to make decisions about which things need to be validated on Mars," the instrument's principal investigator, Michael Hecht of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said in the statement.
"I think there are many technologies on that list; I’m very pleased MOXIE was first." | Space Technology |
Alice Gorman, Flinders Univeristy - Steven Freeland, Western Sydney University
With interest in the prospect of mining the moon and asteroids gaining pace, it’s time to take a hard look at what’s really at stake.
From the time of the launch of Sputnik 1 in 1957, space has been regarded as the common heritage of humanity. This is reflected in the landmark United Nations Outer Space Treaty (OST) of 1967. Among other things, it affirms that all have a right to access space for peaceful and scientific purposes, and prohibits the sovereign appropriation of outer space.
The treaty was designed to provide principles to govern space in the geopolitical environment of the Cold War, when the main space actors were nations, not private corporations. Ironically, their motivation for developing space technology at the time was as much for military as for peaceful purposes.
Since those days, the nature of space activities has undergone a significant shift. Many space technologies initially derived from military programs are now at the heart of very substantial space businesses. Commercial interests are now a significant element in the future of space exploration and use.
And where there are commercial interests at stake, the financial “bottom line” becomes all-important. An increasing number of private entities believe there are considerable profits to be made in the rare metals and other valuable resources lying untouched in the moon and near-Earth asteroids.
A bold act, but is it legal?
The international treaties are based on a cooperative approach to the exploitation of space resources. Despite this, the major space-faring nations have thus far steered away from establishing an international management regime to coordinate any mining activities.
Now, as the technology that might enable such activities to eventually become a reality develops, private enterprise is pushing governments to pass national laws to promote it. In November 2015, US President Barack Obama signed the Commercial Space Launch Competitiveness Act (CSLCA) into law. This gives US companies the right to own – and sell – resources mined in space.
The International Institute of Space Law is more circumspect. It says that, while the legal position is not entirely clear, the US law is not necessarily incompatible with international principles.
Such divergent opinions demonstrate that further clarity is necessary to avoid future conflicts.
Environmental impacts of off-world mining
While the focus is on the legalities, as well as who bears the costs of future space exploration and who has the right to profit from it, one critical area is being overlooked.
Asteroids might be “out of sight, out of mind” for the most part, but lunar mining is likely to arouse strong and widespread reactions. The moon is one of the most significant cultural influences that unites people across all times and places in human history.
Would the public support commercial space mining if excavation scars were visible through Earth-based telescopes? Such considerations might be a factor in the design and location of mining operations.
Terrestrial mining companies are generally required to comply with domestic legislation that protects heritage, community values and the environment. Apart from some general statements in the treaties, as yet no similar system is in place for space.
Space mining companies have barely considered that they might have to deal with the same kind of community opposition as mines on Earth, only this time at a global scale.
Diggers in space
Given that the US has enacted a law that purports to establish the right to mine and sell off-world resources, other nations may follow. Indeed, Luxembourg has recently announced it will also establish a legal framework to facilitate space mining.
In moving forward, we need to carefully consider the potential for a “tragedy of the commons” situation in relation to space resources, just as we are with the problem of increasing space debris. What this means is that each entity, acting in its own self-interest, risks destroying a resource for everyone.
What about Australia?
Australia has a huge amount of expertise in mining technology and operations, especially in remote locations. The Pilbara region of Western Australia, the heartland of the mining boom, resembles Mars enough to be called a Mars analogue landscape.
Australians are also active in developing space mining industries, as part of companies such as Deep Space Industries. Recent conferences in Sydney focusing on off-Earth mining attracted much interest.
It is clear that Australian expertise is relevant in the development of space-related capability. The Department of Industry, Innovation and Science is undertaking a review of our space laws to assess what is the most appropriate regulatory framework to promote such innovation into commercial benefit for the country.
The future of access to the solar system
What’s really at stake is the future of universal human access to space and the very way we view space.
A rash move at this point could tip the balance and erode the principle of the common heritage of humanity. We must avoid further entrenching the divisions between the space haves and have-nots.
While there may be considerable benefits to future generations should we find a way to safely and sustainably exploit space resources, there are also considerable risks. These need a very careful calibration.
Cool heads are required and the key will be international cooperation on a broad scale. This issue is too important and too complex to be undertaken by a small number of private enterprises. A clear international regime must be established to safeguard the interests of every stakeholder. | Space Technology |
Welcome to Edition 6.18 of the Rocket Report! In this newsletter we have a double dose of news from China, where there are two separate efforts to duplicate SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket. On the American side of the pond we also have two stories about United Launch Alliance and its effort to get Vulcan flying, and the cost of the rocket's delays.
As always, we welcome reader submissions, and if you don't want to miss an issue, please subscribe using the box below (the form will not appear on AMP-enabled versions of the site). Each report will include information on small-, medium-, and heavy-lift rockets as well as a quick look ahead at the next three launches on the calendar.
Chinese company tests vertical landing. A Chinese commercial rocket company has successfully launched and safely landed a test article on its path to developing a reusable launch vehicle, Space News reports. Beijing-based Interstellar Glory Space Technology Ltd., also known as iSpace, launched the Hyperbola-2Y single-stage hopper on Thursday. The methane-liquid oxygen reusable test vehicle rose to a height of 178 meters during its 51-second flight.
Hopping like a grasshopper ... After this ascent, the hopper performed a powered descent and soft landing, supported by four landing legs. The 3.35-meter-diameter, 17-meter-long test stage is powered by a variable thrust Focus-1 engine. The vertical takeoff, vertical landing test marks progress toward a reusable medium-lift rocket that could debut in 2025. It is also the latest marker in Chinese efforts to emulate the success of SpaceX and its Falcon 9 rocket. (More on that below). It's worth noting that SpaceX performed similar tests with its "Grasshopper" vehicle about a decade ago. Blue Origin is the only other company to land rockets that have flown to space. (submitted by Ken the Bin and EllPeaTea)
Isar will make its debut launch from Norway. During the opening ceremony for the Andøya Spaceport in Norway, Isar Aerospace said the debut launch of its Spectrum rocket would take place from there. When the spaceport on an island north of the Norwegian mainland is completed, it will have several launch pads. Isar Aerospace will have exclusive access to the first launch site, which was built to Isar's specifications, including a launch pad, payload integration facilities, and a mission control center.
Now building Spectrum ... "Together with Andøya Spaceport, our team has created an excellent piece of engineering, the first orbital launch site in continental Europe which will bring this access to space to Norway, and back to Europe," said Daniel Metzler, CEO and co-founder of Isar. "For Isar Aerospace, this step equals entering the final stages of our path to first flight." The company says it is currently in the production phase of all parts of the rocket, including the flight engines. Recently, the Aquila engine completed a 260-second hot fire test. The rocket stages will then have to undergo acceptance testing, a series of tests that will verify that the systems meet all necessary requirements for flight. (submitted by Ken the Bin)
Phantom Space signs satellite deal. A company called Tropical Weather Analytics says it has agreed to a "strategic partnership" with Phantom Space to design, manufacture, launch, and operate its Hurricane Hunter Satellite Constellation. Weather Analytics says its 12U CubeSats will "provide unprecedented 3D spatial resolution and revisit rate (five times per day) on a global scale." As a meteorologist, I can certainly say that such coverage of developing and active hurricanes would be a boon to forecasting.
But will this happen? ... "Our team is committed to leveraging our extensive experience to develop and launch a reliable and advanced satellite constellation," said Jim Cantrell, CEO of Phantom Space. "This partnership exemplifies our mission to provide innovative solutions that address pressing global challenges." The news release makes other interesting statements, including Phantom's vision of mass manufacturing and launching hundreds of rockets. I guess we'll find out. (submitted by Ken the Bin)
Minuteman III test terminated due to anomaly. The flight of a Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile was terminated over the Pacific Ocean early on Wednesday morning due to an "anomaly," the Air Force said. The launch originated from Vandenberg Space Force Base, and the unarmed missile's flight ended safely.
All test data is good data ... "An anomaly is any unexpected event during the test," the Air Force said in a statement. "Since anomalies may arise from many factors relating to the operational platform itself, or the test equipment, careful analysis is needed to identify the cause." Several organizations will investigate the failure, which should help ensure the reliability of the Minuteman fleet. | Space Technology |
After 3.5 years, 18,000 orbits of the Earth, and 8 million kilometers (5 million miles) traveled, The Planetary Society’s successful LightSail 2 solar sail spacecraft will burn up as it reenters the Earth’s atmosphere in the next few days. We always knew this would be the eventual fate for the spacecraft. It’s actually taken longer than originally predicted.Despite the sadness at seeing it go, all those who worked on this project and the 50,000 individual donors who completely funded the LightSail program should reflect on this as a moment of pride.The Planetary Society will be providing another update once the deorbit is complete, but in the meantime here is a full description of what’s happening with the spacecraft right now and what will come next.LightSail 2 in a NutshellThe LightSail program has consisted of the LightSail 1 test mission and LightSail 2 mission. During its one-year primary mission, LightSail 2 accomplished its main technical goal, becoming the first small spacecraft to demonstrate controlled solar sailing, using only sunlight reflecting off the sail as propulsion to change its orbit.During its extended mission and through its second year in orbit, LightSail 2 continued to teach us more about solar sailing and even achieved more efficient sailing. The mission’s third year saw its most effective solar sailing, followed by an increase in atmospheric drag from increasing solar activity. The spacecraft has continued working throughout its three-and-a-half years in orbit.LightSail 2 also achieved its other mission goals, which include involving and exciting Planetary Society members and the general public in space exploration, and demonstrating and raising awareness within the space technology community of solar sailing as a viable propulsion technique. A successful technical demonstration helps open the door for future solar sailing missions to be taken more seriously and can aid their potential for selection to fly. We are delighted to see three NASA missions as well as other missions in the works that will take the next steps forward including Near Earth Asteroid (NEA) Scout, which is currently awaiting launch inside the SLS rocket scheduled to launch the Artemis I mission on Nov. 16, as of this writing. Depending on the timing of everything, there may be no gap in having a solar sail mission in space. LightSail 2 image of Gulf of Aden and Red Sea This image taken by The Planetary Society's LightSail 2 spacecraft on Oct. 14, 2022 shows the Gulf of Aden, Arabian peninsula, Horn of Africa, and the Red Sea. North is approximately at top. This image has been color-adjusted and some distortion from the camera’s 180-degree fisheye lens has been removed.Image: The Planetary SocietyDrag is a Real DownerAtmospheric drag is the culprit bringing LightSail 2 down. The effect gets larger as a spacecraft goes lower because atmospheric density increases, and quite rapidly. This can be hard to imagine since we typically think of space as being hundreds of kilometers above the Earth. Although this is true, there are still particles of atmosphere up there and when a spacecraft hits them going some 28,000 kilometers per hour (about 17,000 miles per hour), they slow it down.LightSail 2 started at an altitude of around 720 kilometers (about 450 miles). For reference, the International Space Station (ISS) orbits at around 400 kilometers (roughly 250 miles).Drag is more significant for LightSail 2 than for most spacecraft because the sail area is very large compared to the spacecraft mass. This is great for solar sailing, but terrible for atmospheric drag. Imagine throwing a rock compared to throwing a piece of paper. Atmospheric drag will stop the paper much faster than the rock. In our case, LightSail 2 is the paper. A spacecraft like the ISS is huge but also massive, more like the rock. But even the ISS has to be boosted higher every few weeks using rockets to compensate for drag. As a spacecraft drops lower, the atmospheric drag gets stronger and stronger. As a result, over the last several weeks the rate of drop has increased dramatically as seen in the graphs shown here. LightSail 2's altitude with time LightSail 2’s average altitude with time is shown in black. Its apogee, the highest point in its orbit around the Earth, as shown in blue. Its perigee, the lowest point in its orbit around the Earth, as shown in orange. The right side of the graph shows the rapid descent occurring as it gets lower in the atmosphere. This plot shows data as of Nov. 16, 2022.Image: The Planetary Society LightSail 2’s average daily change in altitude with time LightSail 2’s average daily change in altitude with time is shown in green. The last several weeks show the spacecraft dropping faster and faster due to increasing atmospheric density as it gets lower. This plot shows data as of Nov. 16, 2022.Image: The Planetary SocietyThe increased speed of drop is why “drag sails” are being investigated by various groups including by members of the LightSail team. Drag sails are similar in deployment and materials to a solar sail, but have no intention of ever sailing. They are only to be deployed at the end of a regular satellite’s mission to speed up the deorbiting process in order to limit orbital debris. The descent data we are collecting now for LightSail 2 will contribute a piece to the understanding of drag sails.As can be seen in the details of the graphs above, during the first years of the mission we were able to successfully use solar sailing to slow the descent. Over brief periods the spacecraft was even able to climb slightly thanks to solar sailing. Overall, it was a losing battle at that altitude. Then, things got worse thanks to another culprit… the Sun.We launched during a relatively quiet time in the solar cycle. Eventually, solar activity increased, heating the atmosphere, and leading to increased atmospheric densities at the altitudes where LightSail 2 orbited. That marked the beginning of the end. As solar activity increased even more, solar sailing was unable to compete with the increased drag due to atmospheric density increase. The spacecraft was caught in an ever-increasing snowball effect: as the spacecraft got lower, the density increased which caused the spacecraft to get lower even more quickly. This leaves us where we are now: about to enter the atmosphere in a fireball of friction.Burn UpReentry should occur in the next few days unless something changes drastically, for example if the sail collapsed. It is a tricky job predicting deorbits generally, and particularly for a spacecraft as odd as ours in terms of area to mass ratio. Predictions at the time of writing vary from approximately Nov. 15 to 19, but it easily could slip outside that. For reference, amazingly, the spacecraft was at approximately the height of the ISS on Nov. 12, demonstrating the anticipated drag effect being very high.The US 18th Space Defense Squadron tracks material in space regularly, and various sites including their own generate deorbit predictions based upon that data and spacecraft information. If you want to check the latest orbit or deorbit predictions, here are some ways you can do it:The Planetary Society mission control dashboard, which shows current apogee and perigee (highest point in its orbit and lowest point, respectively), as well as other information.Space-Track is a direct source of tracking data provided by the US 18th Space Defense Squadron, but it does require setting up an account.Reentry predictions from the Aerospace Corporation.Reentry predictions from satflare.com.As our spacecraft hits the thicker parts of the atmosphere at about 28,000 kilometers per hour (17,000 miles per hour), the heat generated will cause the spacecraft to disintegrate and it will appear as a fireball, like a bright meteor in the sky. We don’t know where this fireball will occur, other than it will be between the latitude constraints of our mission of 24° N to 24° S. There is no need for concern if you live in that band. Our spacecraft is small enough that it should totally burn up before ever reaching the surface, so helmets are not required.The futureAs with any successful mission, destruction of the spacecraft is a milestone, but not the end. Our small operations team, no longer having to fly the spacecraft, over the coming months will focus on assembling the data from the entire mission, performing analyses, and publishing and presenting the results publicly and professionally. And of course, we’ll continue to update you into the future as we continue analyses of the LightSail 2 data. We will also report on future solar sail missions that take solar sailing out into the solar system, such as the upcoming missions from NASA. And of course, we will be updating you in the near future after LightSail 2 goes out in a blaze of glory.Thanks to the many companies and people who were involved with the LightSail program. And of course, a huge thank you to our members and donors without whom the LightSail 2 mission and the LightSail program could not have existed. Sail on!Support Our Core EnterprisesYour support powers our mission to explore worlds, find life, and defend Earth. Give today!
Donate Empowering the world's citizens to advance space science and exploration.Account Center • Contact Us Give with confidence. The Planetary Society is a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.© 2022 The Planetary Society. All rights reserved.Privacy Policy • Cookie Declaration | Space Technology |
A new material that packs deadly heat for viruses on its outer surface while staying cool on the reverse side could transform the way we make and use personal protective equipment (PPE), cutting down the pollution and carbon footprint associated with current materials and practices.
The composite, textile-based material developed by Rice University engineers uses Joule heating to decontaminate its surface of coronaviruses like SARS-CoV-2 in under 5 seconds, effectively killing at least 99.9% of viruses. Wearable items made from the material can handle hundreds of uses with the potential for a single pair of gloves to prevent nearly 20 pounds of waste that would have resulted from discarded single-use nitrile gloves.
"The surge in magnitude of PPE waste and problems caused by supply chain shortages during the pandemic made us realize the need for reusable PPE," said Marquise Bell, a Rice mechanical engineering graduate student who is the lead author on a study on the material published in ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces. "This work paves the way for a systemic shift away from single-use disposable PPE.
"The best part is you don't even need to take off the gloves or other protective garments in order to clean them. This material allows you to decontaminate in seconds, so you can get back to the task at hand."
Using electrical current, the material rapidly heats up its outer surface to temperatures above 100 degrees Celsius (212 Fahrenheit), while remaining close to normal body temperature on the reverse side near the user's skin where it reaches a maximum of about 36 C (97 F).
"The device has to get hot enough to effectively kill viruses, but not so hot that it causes burns or discomfort for the user," Bell said. "We included safety mechanisms to make sure the latter doesn't happen."
Compared to other decontamination methods, dry heat tends to be both reliable and less likely to damage protective equipment. However, making wearables that heat up to adequate temperatures quickly has required a lot of work.
"Our lab has looked a lot at the thermal inactivation of viruses," said Daniel Preston, an assistant professor of mechanical engineering who is an author on the study. "We started during the pandemic with support from a National Science Foundation grant, trying to understand the mechanism by which these viruses are inactivated and how it's accelerated at higher temperatures."
The earlier research helped lead to the design of the material. Yizhi Jane Tao , a professor of biosciences whose virology lab conducted experiments to confirm the material's powers of self-decontamination, said she was impressed by how closely experimental data matched predictions.
"We're very happy that we can contribute our expertise toward this new material," Tao added.
Kai Ye, a graduate student in the Tao lab who helped with the research, said the gloves handled "the infectivity test" well and promise to protect against other similar viruses.
Considering the temperature difference between its outer and inner surfaces, the material is surprisingly supple and lightweight -- a feat that feeds directly into Bell's research focus on smart textile materials.
"I study the mechanics, thermodynamics and heat transfer processes of soft goods that can be layered for use in wearable assistive devices," said Bell, who is funded by a NASA Space Technology Graduate Research Opportunities fellowship. "Spacesuits, for instance, are made up of many layers: The innermost layers are where a lot of the functionality happens, close to the human body. Then you have a lot of thermally insulating layers in between, topped off with firmer, more protective layers on the outside of the suit.
"I look at how we can use smart textile materials and integrate them into spacesuits to decrease their weight while adding multifunctionality."
Bell participated in this year's NextProf Nexus, a competitive workshop that is part of a "nationwide effort to strengthen and diversify the next generation of academic leaders in engineering," according to the program.
Co-organized by the University of Michigan, University of California, Berkeley and Georgia Institute of Technology, NextProf Nexus helps prepare engineering students from underrepresented groups for navigating the academic job market, from researching open positions and funding opportunities to crafting effective application materials.
This year, NextProf was hosted by Georgia Tech and welcomed its largest cohort of roughly 70 participants out of more than 300 applicants.
"It's becoming more real that I'm now in the latter part of my Ph.D.," Bell said. "The workshop was a more comprehensive, in-depth experience than I initially expected, and I'm really glad I had the opportunity to participate."
The research was supported by the National Science Foundation (2030023), the Welch Foundation (C-1565), NASA (80NSSC21K1276), the National GEM Consortium, the Rice Academy of Fellows and the Shared Equipment Authority.
Story Source:
Journal Reference:
Cite This Page: | Space Technology |
Sign up for CNN’s Wonder Theory science newsletter. Explore the universe with news on fascinating discoveries, scientific advancements and more. CNN — A tiny spacecraft with big implications for lunar exploration has launched. The miniscule satellite, called a CubeSat, is about the size of a microwave oven and weighs just 55 pounds (25 kilograms), but it will be the first to test out a unique, elliptical lunar orbit. The CubeSat will act as a pathfinder for Gateway, an orbiting lunar outpost that will serve as a way station between Earth and the moon for astronauts. The orbit, which is called a near rectilinear halo orbit, is very elongated and provides stability for long-term missions while requiring little energy to maintain – which is exactly what the Gateway will need. The orbit exists at a balanced point in the gravities of the moon and Earth. The mission, called the Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System Technology Operations and Navigation Experiment, and known as CAPSTONE, lifted off the launchpad Tuesday at 5:55 a.m. ET. The CubeSat launched aboard Rocket Lab’s Electron rocket from the company’s Launch Complex 1 in New Zealand. It will reach the orbit point within three months and then spend the next six months in orbit. The spacecraft can provide more data about power and propulsion requirements for the Gateway. The CubeSat’s orbit will bring the spacecraft within 1,000 miles (1,609.3 kilometers) of one lunar pole at its closest pass and within 43,500 miles (70,006.5 kilometers) from the other pole every seven days. Using this orbit will be more energy efficient for spacecraft flying to and from the Gateway since it requires less propulsion than more circular orbits. The miniature spacecraft will also be used to test out communication capabilities with Earth from this orbit, which has the advantage of a clear view of Earth while also providing coverage for the lunar south pole – where the first Artemis astronauts are expected to land in 2025. NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbit, which has been circling the moon for 13 years, will provide a reference point for CAPSTONE. The two spacecraft will communicate directly with each other, allowing teams on the ground to measure the distance between each one and home in on CAPSTONE’s exact location. The collaboration between the two spacecraft can test CAPSTONE’s autonomous navigation software, called CAPS, or the Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System. If this software performs as expected, it could be used by future spacecraft without relying on tracking from Earth. “The CAPSTONE mission is a valuable precursor not just for Gateway, but also for the Orion spacecraft and the Human Landing System,” said Nujoud Merancy, chief of NASA’s Exploration Mission Planning Office at Johnson Space Center in Houston. “Gateway and Orion will use the data from CAPSTONE to validate our model, which will be important for operations and planning for the future mission.” The CAPSTONE mission is a rapid, low-cost demonstration with the intent to help lay a foundation for future small spacecraft, said Christopher Baker, the small spacecraft technology program executive at NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate. Small missions that can be put together and launched quickly at lower cost means that they can take chances that larger, more expensive missions can’t. “So often on a flight test, you learn as much, if not more, from failure than you do from success. We can afford to take more risk, knowing that there’s a probability of failure, but that we can accept that failure in order to move into advanced capabilities,” Baker said. “In this case, failure is an option.” The lessons from smaller CubeSat missions can inform larger missions down the line – and CubeSats have already been setting out for more challenging destinations than low-Earth orbit. When NASA’s InSight lander was on its nearly seven-month trip to Mars in 2018, it wasn’t alone. Two suitcase-size spacecraft, called MarCO, followed InSight on its journey. They were the first cube satellites to fly into deep space. During InSight’s entry, descent and landing, the MarCO satellites received and transmitted communication from the lander to let NASA know that InSight was safely on the surface of the red planet. They were nicknamed EVE and WALL-E, for the robots from the 2008 Pixar film. The fact that the tiny satellites made it to Mars, flying behind InSight through space, excited engineers. The CubeSats kept flying beyond Mars after InSight landed, but fell silent by the end of the year. But MarCO was an excellent test of how CubeSats can tag along on bigger missions. These tiny but mighty spacecraft will again serve a supporting role in September, when the DART mission, or the Double Asteroid Redirection Test, will deliberately crash into the moonlet Dimorphos as it orbits near-Earth asteroid Didymos to change the motion of the asteroid in space. The collision will be recorded by LICIACube, or Light Italian Cubesat for Imaging of Asteroids, a companion cube satellite provided by the Italian Space Agency. The briefcase-size CubeSat is traveling on DART, which launched in November 2021, and will be deployed from it prior to impact so it can record what happens. Three minutes after the impact, the CubeSat will fly by Dimorphos to capture images and video. The video of the impact will be streamed back to Earth. The Artemis I mission will also carry three cereal box-size CubeSats that are hitching a ride to deep space. Separately, the tiny satellites will measure hydrogen at the moon’s south pole and map lunar water deposits, conduct a lunar flyby, and study particles and magnetic fields streaming from the sun. The CAPSTONE mission relies on NASA’s partnership with commercial companies like Rocket Lab, Stellar Exploration, Terran Orbital Corporation and Advanced Space. The lunar mission was built using a fixed-price small business innovative research contract – in under three years and for under $30 million. Larger missions can cost billions of dollars. The Perseverance rover, currently exploring on Mars, cost more than $2 billion and the Artemis I mission has an estimated cost of $4.1 billion, according to an audit by the NASA Office of Inspector General. These kinds of contracts can expand the opportunities for small, more affordable missions to the moon and other destinations while creating a framework for commercial support of future lunar operations, Baker said. Baker’s hope is that small spacecraft missions can increase the pace of space exploration and scientific discovery – and CAPSTONE and other CubeSats are just the beginning. | Space Technology |
So, if all goes to plan, the technology could one day harvest massive amounts of energy from space — enough to power millions of homes. Space-based solar power could "solve a lot of problems"The ESA's space-based solar power initiative is called Solaris, and it is one of several similar projects worldwide, including ongoing research by China's Xidian University, which has built a 75-meter-tall (246-feet-tall) steel tower to test the technology for a ground receiving station, and Caltech's Space Solar Power Project.Research ministers at the ESA's triennial council are expected to meet today, Tuesday, November 22, to discuss the ESA'S idea. They will also consider several other proposals before deciding the budget for the next phase of the space agency's space technology development plans.In an interview with the BBC, ESA director general Josef Aschbacher said, "we do need to convert into carbon neutral economies and therefore change the way we produce energy and especially reduce the fossil fuel part of our energy production. If you can do it from space, and I'm saying if we could, because we are not there yet, this would be absolutely fantastic because it would solve a lot of problems."The ESA's Solaris proposal comes at a time when the world is increasingly turning to novel renewable energy technologies, as Russia's invasion of Ukraine deepens the energy crisis in many parts of the world. | Space Technology |
A historic rocket mission has set off from Cornwall as a specially converted Boeing 747 heads out over the Atlantic carrying a payload of nine satellites that it will propel into orbit.Virgin Orbit’s Start Me Up mission is the first launch of satellites from European soil and is being heralded as the start of a new space era for the UK.There was a festival atmosphere at Spaceport Cornwall, near the surfing town of Newquay, as about 2,000 space fans viewed the launch of Cosmic Girl from around the airfield, while VIPs toasted the mission with Cornish sparkling wine from the nearby Camel Valley. Matt Archer, the director of commercial spaceflight at the UK Space Agency, said: “There was a space race for this moment, as we wanted to beat Norway and Sweden for the first orbital rocket launch from Europe. The need for speed meant we had to do it in January with the winter weather, but we have shown that if we can do it in January we can do it at any time of the year.”Melissa Thorpe, Head of Spaceport, meets visitors at Spaceport’s inaugural rocket launch from Newquay Airport in Cornwall. Photograph: Jonny Weeks/The GuardianAmong the spectators who watched as the plane took off to the sounds of crowds cheering and the Rolling Stones’ Start Me Up blaring over the speakers was Felix Gatfield, 14, who runs a YouTube channel about space and missed his mock exams – and his usual bedtime – to attend. He said: “It’s a real moment for the UK space industry. It’s amazing being so close.”The British astronaut Tim Peake said: “Today’s mission is a groundbreaking moment for the UK space industry and shows the great strides our nation is making to compete on a global stage.”The launch is seen as a missing link in the UK satellite industry. Until now, the UK has been strong at manufacturing satellites and interpreting the data they yield, but has not been able to launch them.The UK science minister, George Freeman, said: “This is a genuinely historic moment as the UK becomes the first country to launch satellites from Europe, putting the UK at the front of the commercial space race in Europe.A woman takes a selfie with Adrian Grint, dressed as an alien at the inaugural rocket launch from Newquay Airport in Cornwall. Photograph: Jonny Weeks/The Guardian“Tonight marks the dawn of a new era for UK space that will inspire a new generation of space scientists and innovators and lay the foundations for technological leadership, just as the Apollo mission did for the USA in the 1960s.”Josh Western, CEO and founder of the Welsh company Space Forge, which has a satellite on the flight, said: “To be here today is quite moving.”He said the ability to launch from the UK was a huge boost to companies like his. “To get on the M5 and be here in a couple of hours instead of having to fly a team to Florida is important.”Given that the mission is named after a Rolling Stones song, it seemed appropriate that the event had the trappings of a music festival.Special beer available to visitors at Spaceport’s inaugural rocket launch from Newquay Airport in Cornwall. Photograph: Jonny Weeks/The GuardianThere were food stalls and a merchandise stand selling beanies, T-shirts, even a Cornish Spaceport-branded bellyboard. People could take selfies in front of a replica of the LauncherOne rocket that will whiz the satellites into orbit.Spectators watched a big screen to track the mission and there was a marquee with a silent disco, a useful way of staying warm on a chilly night.As clouds cleared and a near-full moon appeared, the silent disco played David Bowie’s Space Oddity, Elton John’s Rocket Man and the Thunderbirds theme.Adrian Grint, 46, an IT worker from St Austell, had turned up in an alien costume and held a sign reading: “Take me home.” He said: “I dress up every now and again. This is massive for Cornwall, very forward-thinking. Everything is based on tourism in Cornwall – this is different.”Families and friends sat in camp chairs next to the wire fence separating the festival area from the runway.Simon and Sam had brought their children, Dominic, four, and Amber, two. Simon said: “We’re from St Austell – Cornish clay country. This is good for Cornwall. With mining gone we don’t have much of an identity any more. This helps put us back on the map.”The plane, flown by RAF test pilot Sqn Ldr Matthew Stannard, took off towards Ireland and the Atlantic.About an hour after takeoff, the rocket is to be detached at 10,700 metres (35,000ft), falling for a few seconds before igniting and shooting southwards, gathering speed and altitude as it passes Portugal and the Canary Islands.In the early hours on Tuesday, Virgin Orbit’s mission controllers – and the crowd – should know whether the rocket has successfully delivered the satellites into orbit.Rory Godfrey, aged 4, holds a Mars Rover-style robot made by Software Cornwall, one of the many examples of space technology on display to visitors at the inaugural rocket launch. Photograph: Jonny Weeks/The GuardianAmong those with satellites onboard are the Ministry of Defence, the sultanate of Oman, the US National Reconnaissance Office and British startups including Space Forge, which is developing reusable satellites.If all goes well, it will be a triumph for Cornwall, an area more associated with beach holidays than space adventure.Melissa Thorpe, the head of Spaceport Cornwall, which is based in a corner of the Cornwall Newquay airport, said: “I hope people will feel some inspiration, some aspiration, and feel proud of how we are representing Cornwall going to the stars.“There’s a lot of doom and gloom out there. It’s exciting, different, it’s also a bit of an underdog story.” | Space Technology |
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Space Force chief of space operations Gen. B. Chance Saltzman in congressional testimony March 14 singled out China as the “most immediate threat” as it continues to weaponize its space technology.
Among the most concerning of China’s technologies, he said, are ground-based lasers designed to disrupt and degrade satellite sensors, electronic warfare jammers targeting GPS and communications satellites, and anti-satellite missiles.
China is “likely pursuing anti-satellite systems able to destroy satellites in geosynchronous orbit,” Saltzman said in testimony to the Senate Armed Services Committee’s strategic forces subcommittee.
“They are testing on-orbit satellite systems which could be weaponized as they have already shown the capability to physically control and move other satellites.”
Strategic forces subcommittee member Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) during a hearing pressed Saltzman to elaborate on what might unfold in space in a conflict with a rival power.
The Chinese and the Russians over many years have watched how dependent the U.S. military has become on satellites for every aspect of operations, Saltzman said. “So if they can blind us, if they can interfere with those capabilities, or God forbid, destroy them completely. they know that will diminish our advantages.”
“I can see interfering, I can see blinding, I can see some of those gray area kinds of attacks on our capabilities to try and put us behind the eight ball,” he added.
Can the Space Force defend?
Several members of the subcommittee, which oversees military space funding, sought insight from Saltzman on whether the Biden administration’s 2024 budget request funds needed systems to counter China.
Can the Space Force defend against these anti-satellite threats? asked Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.)
Saltzman laid out the Space Force’s plan to transition from its current dependence on geostationary satellites to proliferated networks of smaller satellites in low and medium Earth orbits.
China has “grappling satellites” that could pull U.S. spacecraft out of orbit, he said. That’s a problem for the U.S. that relies on “less than maneuverable older legacy satellites.” A proliferated constellation makes it a “much tougher proposition for them to execute against.”
A topic of debate with regard to space and national security is the blurring line between defensive and offensive weapons, an issue complicated by the fact that many space technologies have dual commercial and military applications.
“We want to make sure that you’re getting the right policies that don’t restrict your offensive abilities. Do you feel like you have the right policies in place to both protect and attack if necessary?” Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.) asked Saltzman.
Saltzman said he had no complaints. “I can assure you there are no policies that prevent us from exploring a full spectrum of operations,” he added. “It’s just about doing the work, establishing what I would call an understanding of what the capabilities can and can’t do. And then we test and we learn from our experiences.”
The chairman of the subcommittee Sen. Angus King (I-Maine) wondered if the U.S. is moving fast enough to counter Russia’s and China’s anti-satellite technology.
“As fast as we can go,” said Saltzman.
He compared it to the challenge of converting the merchant marine fleet into the U.S. Navy, he added. “We’ve got a little bit of ways to go before we can take our legacy platforms that we’ve got so much utility out of and so much capability from, and convert them to providing the same or better capabilities in a contested domain,” he said. “And we’ll have to make that transition as rapidly as possible.”
More training needed
Saltzman said the Space Force’s 2024 budget proposal includes about $340 million for an “operational testing and training infrastructure” that is needed to prepare service members for the future battlefield.
“I think that’s sufficient for this year because we’ve got a lot of study to do to make sure we’re building the right kind of ranges, the right kind of simulators, and we’re learning as we go,” said Saltzman.
Another priority is improving U.S. intelligence on space threats in order to avoid surprises, he said. “That’s the space domain awareness tenet, and we are investing heavily in new sensors. We’re investing in capabilities with our allies and partners.”
The key is not just to collect data but to “rapidly turn it into operational decisions,” he said. “I think we have good software investments.”
In response to senators’ questions on the Chinese spy balloon, Saltzman made it clear that is not a primary focus of the Space Force.
The area where high-altitude balloons fly is often referred to as “near space,” said Saltzman. “But I like to call it ‘far air.’”
International norms for space
King asked Satzman if there’s any realistic chance that the Chinese and the Russians will come to the table with regard to norms for space.
“Unfortunately the norms that they talk about are not ones that we would support,” said Saltzman. “This is a battle of narratives over international norms.
Tuberville raised the space industry’s concerns about the growing space debris problem. He said companies come by his office regularly to pitch debris-removal solutions they think the U.S. government should buy.
Saltzman said the Space Force is not ready to commit to any one specific debris-cleanup approach and is primarily focused on preventing the creation of more debris.
“I haven’t seen demonstrated capabilities,” he said. “It’s one thing to have a pitch that says we can do something that’s another to have a demonstrated capability,”
Debris removal today “isn’t my number one challenge, but if somebody feels like they can demonstrate a capability, cleaning up debris is an important concept.”
Saltzman in a prepared statement said the Space Force currently tracks approximately 47,900 objects in space, a 16% growth in objects from 2021 to 2022.
Of those objects, 7,100 are active payloads, a 37% increase from 2021 to 2022, he said. “Expended rocket bodies, inactive satellites and debris further congest the environment.” | Space Technology |
The rocket carrying the space station module lifted off from the Wenchang Space Launch Center.Photo: CNSAChina launched its third and final module of its space station on Monday, moving closer to completing its ambitious project in low Earth orbit to rival the International Space Station (ISS).OffEnglishThe lab module was encapsulated in a Long March 5B rocket, which lifted off from the Wenchang Spacecraft Launch Site at 3:27 a.m. ET on Monday, according to local media reports. The 23-ton Mengtian module (which translates to “Dreaming of the Heavens”) will rendezvous with its sister modules Wentian and Tianhe in low Earth orbit to form the T-shaped structure of China’s three-module space station named Tiangong (meaning “Heavenly Palace”). The first module of the space station, Tianhe, launched to orbit in April 2021, while Wentian followed more than a year later in July 2022.Mengtian will dock with the forward port of Tianhe, the core of the space station, and a robotic arm will later relocate it to the port side of the Tianhe module, according to Everyday Astronaut. In June, China sent a crew of three astronauts to the space station to oversee the docking of the two modules. The crew is expected to return to Earth in December, after which point the Shenzhou-15 crew will take over.The Chinese National Space Administration (CNSA) will use the Mengtian lab to conduct various microgravity experiments related to fluid physics, combustion science, and space technology, according to China’s state-run news agency Xinhua. Unlike Tianhe, Mengtian does not include living quarters for astronauts.G/O Media may get a commissionCozyCanadian Down & Feather CompanySleepy and ethical. The Canadian Down & Feather Company can check a few people off your holiday shopping list: cozy connoisseurs or family who just needs better sleep. The Tiangong space station is China’s answer to the ISS, even though it’s about a quarter of its size. China is hoping to have its space station fully constructed by the end of the year, and keep a constant flow of astronaut crews aboard Tiangong to conduct various experiments. China’s space agency is making headway with its space program, with future missions planned for the Moon and Mars. However, CNSA hasn’t been careful in where debris from its rockets land after they reenter Earth’s atmosphere. This past August, debris from the Long March 5B fell across regions in northern Borneo, and previous incidents have taken place in 2020 and 2021 in which debris from the 100-foot-long (30-meter) core stage crashed along the western coast of Africa and the Indian Ocean. This time around, the core stage from the Long March 5B that lofted the Mengtian module to orbit is expected to make an uncontrolled reentry through Earth’s atmosphere upon its return. It’s not yet clear where pieces of it might land, but this type of free-fall can be hazardous to populous areas below.More: NASA Lacks Plan for Ditching Space Station in an Emergency | Space Technology |
For the first time since the invasion of Ukraine essentially cut off Russia’s space industry from foreign customers, a Russian rocket lifted off Tuesday and carried satellites into orbit with commercial technology from Western companies.
The payloads from companies based in the United Kingdom and Luxembourg flew on a satellite owned by the United Arab Emirates, which has maintained warmer relations with Russia than Western countries. Although the payloads are small, their presence on Tuesday’s launch is notable after the war in Ukraine, and resulting Western sanctions, effectively led to an embargo against putting US and European space technology on Russian rockets.
UK and European Union sanctions introduced after Russia’s 2022 invasion prevent exporting a wide range of space technology to Russia. Companies from the United States, Europe, Japan, South Korea, and other nations have moved their satellites off of Russian rockets, primarily switching them to launch vehicles from SpaceX, Rocket Lab, and India.
The European Space Agency terminated a partnership with Russia on Mars exploration within weeks of the Ukraine invasion.
Russia launched an Angolan communications satellite last year, but that mission was part of an intergovernmental agreement. Russia continues launching US astronauts to the International Space Station through a no-funds-exchanged arrangement with NASA.
The launch Tuesday began with the liftoff of a Soyuz rocket from the Vostochny Cosmodrome, located in the far eastern part of Russia, at 7:34 am ET (11:34 UTC). The Soyuz booster and its Fregat upper stage successfully delivered a Russian civilian weather satellite into a polar orbit, then deployed 42 secondary payloads, mainly CubeSats from Russian companies and universities.
There were three small foreign satellites on the Soyuz launch manifest. One was from Belarus, a staunch Russian ally, and the others were from the UAE and Malaysia.
“What surprised me about the others is they both have commercial elements with ties to the West,” said Caleb Henry, director of research at Quilty Space, a satellite industry analytics and advisory firm.
The mission of the 44-pound (20-kilogram) UAE satellite, named PHI-Demo, is to serve as a host platform for two European technology demonstration experiments. The PHI-Demo spacecraft hosts a 5G communications payload from a Luxembourg company called OQ Technology supporting data transfer and asset monitoring applications. Also on board is an experimental water-powered resistojet thruster developed by the UK company SteamJet Space Systems, which says it specializes in environmentally friendly propulsion that can provide tens of times more thrust than electric propulsion.
The Dubai-based Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Center, which owns and operates the PHI-Demo spacecraft, said it developed the satellite in partnership with the UAE’s private space sector and research institutions. The UK’s SteamJet and Luxembourg’s OQ Technology secured agreements with UAE officials to place their payloads on the PHI-Demo satellite, while the Emiratis were responsible for selecting the Russian launch vehicle.
Another foreign satellite from Malaysia was also on the Soyuz rocket launch Tuesday. The Malaysian CubeSat is the first spacecraft owned by a company with lofty ambitions named Angkasa-X, which calls itself the “SpaceX of Asia,” to provide broadband Internet coverage for the Asia-Pacific region.
Angkasa-X is backed by Greenpro Capital Corp., a Nasdaq-listed Malaysian business incubator headquartered in Kuala Lumpur and registered in Nevada. Officials from the UAE, SteamJet, OQ Technology, and Malaysia’s Angkasa-X did not respond to questions from Ars.
“An aberration”
The UAE and Malaysian satellite operators booked their rides on the Soyuz launch Tuesday through Russian intermediaries, including a Russian private company called Aerospace Capital and Glavkosmos, a subsidiary of Russia’s space agency Roscosmos. A German company originally involved in brokering rides for international satellites on the Soyuz rocket backed out of the mission.
Russian, UAE, and Malaysian officials did not disclose launch prices for the Soyuz flight. But it’s hard to imagine Russia undercutting SpaceX’s price for a small satellite to ride on one of its Falcon 9 rideshare missions without selling the Soyuz launch service below cost. A 20-kilogram satellite like the UAE’s PHI-Demo mission would have cost $330,000 to launch on a Falcon 9 rocket, according to a price query tool on SpaceX’s website.
One manager from an international launch broker in 2021 said SpaceX’s rideshare launch prices were the “cheapest to date.”
Henry said he’s not seeing any indication of broader acceptance in the commercial satellite industry of resuming launches on Russian rockets.
“What I suspect is that companies who have chosen to launch on Soyuz after Russia's invasion of Ukraine will find that this action sours interest from customers and investors across large swaths of the world, especially in Europe and the US,” Henry said. “The recent Soyuz launch strikes me as more an aberration than a trend, but it's too early to say.” | Space Technology |
When we think of robots, we tend to personify these non-human aids and give them human-like features. But even though a lot of research has gone into developing these humanoid machines, we are still a long way from a world where they could take over, or even mimic the actions of a person.
Robots are machines that have inbuilt artificial intelligence. They are used in all kinds of situations, especially where they can alleviate strenuous tasks or complete missions that are too dangerous for a human to undertake.
The term 'artificial intelligence (AI)' comprises all techniques that enable computers to mimic intelligence, for example, computers that analyse data or the systems embedded in an autonomous vehicle. Usually, artificially intelligent systems are taught by humans — a process that involves writing an awful lot of complex computer code.
But artificial intelligence can also be achieved through machine learning (ML), which teaches machines to learn for themselves. ML is a way of 'training' a relatively simple algorithm to become more complex. Huge amounts of data are fed into the algorithm, which adjusts and improves itself over time. In ML, machines process information in a similar way to humans by developing artificial neural networks. This type of artificial intelligence has taken major leaps forward since the dawn of the internet.
Deep learning (DL) is a specialised technique within ML, whereby the machine utilises multi-layered artificial neural networks to train itself on complex tasks like image recognition. This can happen via supervised learning (e.g. feed the system Moon and Earth pictures until it can successfully identify both types) or unsupervised learning, where the network finds structure by itself. Good examples of deep learning are online translation services, image libraries and navigation systems for self-driving cars or spacecraft.
AI/ML in space
The most successful AI implementations based on DL are rarely used in the space industry today, as the (statistical) models developed within the neural network are not human readable and have been impossible to replicate thus far.
AI, and in particular ML, still has some way to go before it is used extensively for space applications, but we are already beginning to see it implemented into new technologies. One area in which the applications of AI are being thoroughly investigated is in satellite operations, in particular to support the operation of large satellite constellations, which includes relative positioning, communication, end-of-life management and so on.
ML systems are also commonly used in space applications to approximate complex representations of the real world. For instance, when analysing massive amounts of Earth observation data or telemetry data from spacecraft, ML plays an important role.
Potential applications of AI are also being thoroughly investigated in satellite operations, in particular to support the operation of large satellite constellations, including relative positioning, communication and end-of-life management.
In addition, it is becoming more common to find ML systems analysing the huge amount of data that comes from each space mission. The data from some Mars rovers is being transmitted using AI, and these rovers have even been taught how to navigate by themselves.
Its development has come a long way over the last couple of decades, but the complicated models and structures necessary for ML will need to be improved before it can be extensively useful. AI also currently lacks the reliability and adaptability required in new software; these qualities will need to be improved before it takes over the space industry.
Discovery & Preparation activities
Under ESA's Basic Activities a number of studies have looked into using artificial intelligence for space applications and spacecraft operations.
The Discovery element of Basic Activities recently funded a number of studies to develop software, concepts and protocols to push ESA’s OPS-SAT mission to its limits. Several of these included artificial intelligence. OPS-SAT spacecraft manager David Evans said that “AI is a broad term for an effectively infinite toolbox, and it was great to see concrete applications using a variety of tools from across the field.”
Currently spacecraft need to communicate with Earth to do their job, but developing autonomous spacecraft that use artificial intelligence to take care of themselves would be very useful for exploring new parts of the Solar System and reducing mission costs. An older study on autonomy requirements for future spacecraft constellations identified the necessary technology to improve automation, including autonomous navigation, automated telemetry analysis and software upgradability.
A more recent study focused on the management of complex constellations for which novel automated procedures are being studied to reduce the active workload of ground operators. Automation of both the ground and space segments will reduce the need for human intervention – especially for large constellations, automated collision avoidance manoeuvres could be a real help.
Other studies carried out under ESA’s Basic Activities include investigating how a swarm of picosatellites can evolve a collective consciousness, and looking into how artificial intelligence can be used in advanced mission operations and technologies, as well as in innovative security concepts, mechanisms and architectures.
Space technology and space applications produce a huge amount of data, including spacecraft telemetry and product data — the useful scientific data that a spacecraft gathers, for example information about Earth from an Earth observation satellite. Another application of machine Learning is to analyse all this data. One study carried out under ESA’s Basic Activities inputted historical mission data into ML algorithms to search for new features useful for future telemetry checking, command verification and procedure writing processes.
Deep learning systems learn through either unsupervised data feeding or reinforced learning. There are many possible applications of DL, including automatic landing, intelligent decision taking and fully automated systems. ESA's Advanced Concepts Team (ACT) is very active in this area.
In particular the ACT has studied evolutionary computation, which involves writing computer code in such a way that all evolutions are considered. The better results are kept, and the worse are rejected — just like in biological evolution. One application of this has been to calculate the trajectories of the planets.
The ACT has also investigated using ML in the area of guidance, navigation and control. In particular, they looked into using big swarms of small robots that share their information in a network: if one robot learns from experience that a certain manoeuvre is beneficial, the whole swarm learns this. This is called hive learning.
Other examples of AI activities that the ACT has supported include investigating a community science mobile phone app that will improve the autonomous capabilities of space probes and optimising star tracking systems.
ESA-wide applications of AI/ML
Going from these basic activities to real space applications may seem like a big step but ESA is already starting to use AI and ML in its space missions. For example, rovers can navigate around obstacles by autonomously finding their way across ‘unknown’ fields. Artificial intelligence is also aiding astronauts on board the International Space Station, more details of which can be found in the next section of this article.
ESA’s Hera planetary defence mission will make use of AI as it steers itself through space towards an asteroid, taking a similar approach to self-driving cars. Whilst most deep-space missions have a definitive driver back on Earth, Hera will fuse data from different sensors to build up a model of its surroundings and make decisions on board, all autonomously.
Meanwhile on Mars, intelligent data transmission software on board rovers removes human scheduling errors which can otherwise cause valuable data to be lost. This increases the useful data that comes from our planetary neighbour. The same technology could also be used in long-term missions that will explore the Solar System, meaning that they will require minimal oversight from human controllers on Earth.
Satellites orbiting Earth also require more autonomy, as they need to make more frequent collision avoidance manoeuvres to evade increasing amounts of space debris. In January 2021, ESA and the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI) established ESA_Lab@DFKI, a technology transfer lab that works on AI systems for satellite autonomy, collision avoidance capabilities and more.
Furthermore, ESA has gained ample experience using AI to plough through enormous amounts of data to extract meaningful information. This technique has already been implemented in more 'Earthly' applications, including monitoring the number of cars at a shopping centre, predicting retailers' financial performances, monitoring climate change and supporting police forces in their efforts to catch perpetrators.
Earth observation is one area that AI is already being used more extensively. ESA is currently working towards a Digital Twin of Earth, a replica constantly fed with Earth observation data and artificial intelligence to help visualise and forecast natural and human activity on the planet. Furthermore, ESA’s ‘Rapid Action Earth observation’ dashboard is showing how AI can be used to monitor economic indicators – for example, the combination of commercial satellite data and AI has been used to monitor production changes at a car manufacturer in Germany and plane traffic at Barcelona airport. And FSSCat – launched in September 2020 – is the first European Earth observation mission to carry AI on board, in the form of the ɸ-sat-1 AI chip. ɸ-sat-1 is improving the efficiency of sending vast quantities of data back to Earth.
A major challenge for the shipping sector is the safe and efficient autonomous navigation of the seas. An ESA-led project is already applying AI to achieve autonomous situational awareness, enabling a ship to reliably sense its own environment. These AI systems would initially be deployed to support human crews, with crewless ships a longer-term goal.
What are other space agencies doing in this area?
The German Aerospace Center (DLR) has been developing AI methods for space and Earth applications for many years and in 2021 set up an Institute of Artificial Intelligence Security. In 2018 DLR launched an AI assistant to support its astronauts in their daily tasks onboard the International Space Station (ISS). Fully voice-controlled CIMON (Crew Interactive MObile companioN) is able to see, speak, hear, understand and even fly! CIMON returned after 14 months, but CIMON-2 arrived in December 2019 to replace it. CIMON-2 is scheduled to stay on the ISS for three years.
NASA is also using AI for many applications, and has set up an Artificial Intelligence Group that performs basic research that supports scientific analysis, spacecraft operations, mission analysis, deep space network operations and space transportation systems. The Agency investigated making communication networks more efficient and reliable using cognitive radio, which picks out the 'white noise' areas in communication bands and uses them to transmit data; this maximises the use of the limited telecommunication bands available and minimises delay times. It also recently applied AI to calibrate images of the Sun, improving the data that scientists use for solar research. For deep-space exploration NASA has also looked into designing more autonomous spacecraft and landers, so that decisions can be taken on-site, removing the delay resulting from communication relay times.
NASA has also cooperated with Google to train its extensive AI algorithms to effectively sift through the data from the Kepler mission to look for signals from an exoplanet crossing in front of its parent star. This successful collaboration quickly led to the discovery of two new exoplanets previously missed by human scientists. After its initial success the project is ploughing through data from other missions to continue its search for new planets.
Using the wealth of ESA and NASA data from all over our Solar System, the AIDA (Artificial Intelligence Data Analysis) project, funded under the European Horizons 2020 Framework, is developing an intelligent system that will read and process data from space, aiming to bring about new discoveries, reveal anomalies and recognise structures.
The Japanese Space Agency (JAXA) also developed an intelligent system that took pictures of experiments in the ISS Japanese module, KIBO. JAXA's Int-Ball operated autonomously and could take pictures and videos. It was developed to promote the autonomy of extra- and intra-vehicular experiments, while seeking to acquire the robotics technology necessary for future exploration missions.
Meanwhile, French space agency CNES is working with French company Clemessy to develop a fluidic systems simulator using AI neural networks, the UK Space Agency has funded a project that uses AI to detect buried archaeological remains in satellite imagery, and the Italian Space Agency even co-founded an AI-focused company.
Last updated 31 March 2022. | Space Technology |
NASA’s Lunar Flashlight mission successfully launched on Dec. 11, 2022, to begin its four-month journey to the Moon, where the small satellite, or SmallSat, will test several new technologies with a goal of looking for hidden surface ice at the lunar South Pole. While the SmallSat is largely healthy and communicating with NASA’s Deep Space Network, the mission operations team has discovered that three of its four thrusters are underperforming.The mission team, which first observed the reduced thrust three days after launch, is working to analyze the issue and provide possible solutions. During its cruise, Lunar Flashlight’s propulsion system has operated for short-duration pulses of up to a couple seconds at a time. Based on ground testing, the team thinks that the underperformance might be caused by obstructions in the fuel lines that may be limiting the propellant flow to the thrusters.The team plans to soon operate the thrusters for much longer durations, hoping to clear out any potential thruster fuel line obstructions while carrying out trajectory correction maneuvers that will keep the SmallSat on course to reach its planned orbit around the Moon. In case the propulsion system can’t be restored to full performance, the mission team is drawing up alternative plans to accomplish those maneuvers using the propulsion system with its current reduced-thrust capability. Lunar Flashlight will need to perform daily trajectory correction maneuvers starting in early February to reach lunar orbit about four months from now.Swooping low over the Moon’s surface, the briefcase-size SmallSat will use a new laser reflectometer built with four near-infrared lasers to shine a light into the permanently shadowed craters at the lunar South Pole to detect surface ice. To achieve this goal with the limited amount of propellent it’s built to carry, Lunar Flashlight will employ an energy-efficient near-rectilinear halo orbit, taking it within 9 miles (15 kilometers) of the lunar South Pole and 43,000 miles (70,000 kilometers) away at its farthest point.Only one other spacecraft has employed this type of orbit: NASA’s Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System Technology Operations and Navigation Experiment (CAPSTONE) mission, which launched in June 2022 to a different near-rectilinear halo orbit, the same one that is planned for Gateway. CAPSTONE also experienced difficulties during its journey to the Moon, and some of the NASA teams who helped the SmallSat reach its planned orbit are lending their expertise to help resolve Lunar Flashlight’s thruster issues.Managed by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, Lunar Flashlight is the first interplanetary spacecraft to use a new kind of “green” propellant, called Advanced Spacecraft Energetic Non-Toxic (ASCENT), that is safer to transport and store than the commonly used propellants such as hydrazine. One of the mission’s primary goals is to demonstrate this technology for future use. The propellant was successfully tested with a previous NASA technology demonstration mission in Earth orbit.Other systems on Lunar Flashlight are performing well, including the never-before-flown Sphinx flight computer, developed by JPL as a low-power, radiation-tolerant option for SmallSats. Also performing as designed, Lunar Flashlight’s upgraded Iris radio – which is used to communicate with the Deep Space Network – features a new precision navigation capability that future small spacecraft will use to rendezvous and land on other solar system bodies. Additional new and groundbreaking systems, such as the mission’s laser reflectometer, will be tested in the coming weeks before the mission enters lunar orbit.Further updates on the status of the mission will be posted to NASA’s Small Satellite Missions blog.More About the MissionLunar Flashlight is managed for NASA by JPL, a division of Caltech in Pasadena, California. The SmallSat is operated by Georgia Tech, including graduate and undergraduate students. The Lunar Flashlight science team is led by NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, and includes team members from multiple institutions, including the University of California, Los Angeles; Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory; and the University of Colorado.The SmallSat’s propulsion system was developed by NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, with development and integration support from Georgia Tech. NASA’s Small Business Innovation Research program funded component development from small businesses including Plasma Processes Inc. (Rubicon) for thruster development, Flight Works for pump development, and Beehive Industries (formerly Volunteer Aerospace) for specific 3D-printed components. The Air Force Research Laboratory also contributed financially to the development of Lunar Flashlight’s propulsion system. Lunar Flashlight is funded by the Small Spacecraft Technology program within NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate.Read more about the Lunar Flashlight mission here:https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/missions/lunar-flashlight | Space Technology |
WASHINGTON — Companies working on nuclear and solar power systems for the moon are among the winners of NASA awards to advance their technologies for future use by NASA and commercial customers.
NASA announced July 25 the selection of 11 awards through its Tipping Point program of space technology development. The awards, with a combined value of $150 million, are designed to advance promising technologies to the point where they are ready for flight.
“By creating new opportunities for streamlined awards, we hope to push crucial technologies over the finish line so they can be used in future missions,” Prasun Desai, acting associate administrator for space technology at NASA, said in a statement. “These innovative partnerships will help advance capabilities that will enable sustainable exploration on the moon.”
Among the winners is Astrobotic Technology, which received a $34.6 million Tipping Point award to develop technologies for its LunaGrid project to produce solar power and provide it to spacecraft on the lunar surface. The award covers the development of one of the company’s CubeRovers, the size of a six-unit cubesat, that will travel one kilometer from a lander, unspooling a cable. The lander’s solar arrays will then transmit one kilowatt of power to the rover.
“This will be the first small-scale demonstration of power transmission on the surface of the moon,” John Thornton, chief executive of Astrobotic, said in an interview of the effort, which the company calls LunaGrid-Lite.
A big focus of LunaGrid-Lite will be to develop and demonstrate enabling technologies, such as cable deployment and high-voltage power transmission, which requires conversion between direct current and alternating current.
“Even doing something and sounding as simple as DC-to-AC conversion is harder in space,” he said. “In a vacuum environment the DC-to-AC conversion doesn’t work with typical technologies used here on Earth, so that’s why we basically had to reinvent the wheel on how to do that.”
Astrobotic is separately developing other technologies needed for LunaGrid, such as Vertical Solar Array Technology (VSAT) that is optimized to produce power at the polar regions of the moon where the sun is always low on the horizon. The LunaGrid-Lite project won’t use VSAT systems but instead the solar arrays on the lander.
“There’s work and awards aligned with basically every part of this,” Thornton said of LunaGrid, including wireless charging. “The pieces and parts are coming together. So, from here it’s about proving that on a small scale, scaling up to a larger scale and then actually deploying it on the surface.”
A team lead by Zeno Power won a $15 million Tipping Point award to develop a radioisotope power system for use on lunar missions, enabling such missions to continue operations through the two-week lunar night. The Project Harmonia effort includes as partners Blue Origin, Intuitive Machines, Sunpower Inc., the University of Dayton Research Institute and NASA’s Glenn Research Center and Marshall Space Flight Center.
The project seeks to demonstrate a technology called a radioisotope Stirling generator that uses a Sterling engine, rather than thermocouples, to convert the heat of radioactive decay into electrical power. NASA has worked on Stirling engines for radioisotope power systems, which promise higher efficiency, but budget issues have halted those efforts within the agency.
“We will be building upon a lot of this work that NASA Glenn and commercial entities have done and, for the first time, actually match the Stirling engine with a radioisotope source for use in space,” said Tyler Bernstein, chief executive and co-founder of Zeno Power, in an interview.
The system will also demonstrate the use of an alternative isotope, americium-241, which is more readily available than the plutonium-238 conventionally used in radioisotope power systems. Americium produces less power per gram than plutonium, requiring more fuel to produce the same power, but is commercially available.
The project will produce a power system that would be ready to flight on a future mission. Bernstein said it could be both the first use of americium-241 in a power system in space and the first flight of a radioisotope Stirling generator.
Zeno Power won a U.S. Air Force contract in May to test a radioisotope power source on a satellite. That contract uses both a different technology, thermocouples, as well as a different isotope, strontium-90. Despite the differences, he said, “there’s a lot of synergies on the technology development, but also on the regulatory side and on the facility side.”
The project takes its name from the Greek goddess of harmony. “We’re looking at harmony on the lunar surface: how we can bring different entities together and have sustainability, with systems that operate for years instead of days,” he said.
Other winners include Blue Origin, which received a $34.7 million award to demonstrate the ability to produce solar cells using lunar materials. That will support progress on its Blue Alchemist project the company unveiled earlier this year, where it used lunar simulant material to produce solar cells in a terrestrial lab. Redwire won a $12.9 million award to also demonstrate using lunar regolith to create infrastructure on the moon.
United Launch Alliance won a $25 million award to advance hypersonic decelerator technology tested on the LOFTID project last year for potential use to recover the engine section of its Vulcan booster. Varda Space Industries, a startup focused on space manufacturing, won a $1.9 million award to mature technologies used as a heat shield on its reentry capsules.
Other winners include Big Metal Additive for hybrid metal additive manufacturing, Freedom Photonics for a lidar instrument, Lockheed Martin for in-space assembly technologies, ProtoInnovations for mobility control software and Psionic for a navigation lidar and terrain mapping system for use on lunar landers. | Space Technology |
NASA will award $150 million to advance the development of potentially revolutionary exploration technologies, including systems that could power outposts on the moon.
The money will be split among 11 different American companies, to support projects that could help humanity get a foothold on the moon and other locales in deep space.
"Partnering with the commercial space industry lets us at NASA harness the strength of American innovation and ingenuity," NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said in a statement on Tuesday (July 25) that announced the new funding. "The technologies that NASA is investing in today have the potential to be the foundation of future exploration."
Each of the selected companies will contribute funding of its own — "at least 10-25%" of the total project cost, based on the company's size, NASA officials wrote in the statement. The agency's total expected outlay is $150 million.
Nearly $35 million will go to Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin to continue developing its "Blue Alchemist" technology, which aims to build solar panels out of lunar dust, dirt and gravel (known as regolith). Pittsburgh-based company Astrobotic will get roughly the same amount, to demonstrate power transmission on the moon's surface from a lander to a tethered rover.
"The company's CubeRover would unreel more than half a mile (one kilometer) of high-voltage power line that could be used to transfer power from a production system to a habitat or work area on the moon," NASA officials wrote in the statement.
Three of the other selected projects are geared toward building habitats, roads or other infrastructure from lunar rock and regolith. This focus on the moon is hardly surprising, given that NASA is working to establish a sustainable presence on and around Earth's nearest neighbor via its Artemis program.
"Our partnerships with industry could be a cornerstone of humanity's return to the moon under Artemis," Prasun Desai, acting associate administrator for NASA's Space Technology Mission Directorate, said in the same statement.
"By creating new opportunities for streamlined awards, we hope to push crucial technologies over the finish line so they can be used in future missions," Desai added. "These innovative partnerships will help advance capabilities that will enable sustainable exploration on the moon."
The selected companies and their projects are (descriptions provided by NASA):
- Astrobotic Technology of Pittsburgh, $34.6 million: LunaGrid-Lite: Demonstration of Tethered, Scalable Lunar Power Transmission
- Big Metal Additive of Denver, $5.4 million: Improving Cost and Availability of Space Habitat Structures with Additive Manufacturing
- Blue Origin of Kent, Washington, $34.7 million: In-Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU)-Based Power on the Moon
- Freedom Photonics of Santa Barbara, California, $1.6 million: Highly Efficient Watt-Class Direct Diode Lidar for Remote Sensing
- Lockheed Martin of Littleton, Colorado, $9.1 million: Joining Demonstrations In-Space
- Redwire of Jacksonville, Florida, $12.9 million: Infrastructure Manufacturing with Lunar Regolith – Mason
- Protoinnovations of Pittsburgh, $6.2 million: The Mobility Coordinator: An Onboard COTS (Commercial-Off-the-Shelf) Software Architecture for Sustainable, Safe, Efficient, and Effective Lunar Surface Mobility Operations
- Psionic of Hampton, Virginia, $3.2 million: Validating No-Light Lunar Landing Technology that Reduces Risk, SWaP (Size, Weight, and Power), and Cost
- United Launch Alliance of Centennial, Colorado, $25 million: ULA Vulcan Engine Reuse Scale Hypersonic Inflatable Aerodynamic Decelerator Technology Demonstration
- Varda Space Industries of El Segundo, California, $1.9 million: Conformal Phenolic Impregnated Carbon Ablator Tech Transfer and Commercial Production
- Zeno Power Systems of Washington, $15 million: A Universal Americium-241 Radioisotope Power Supply for Artemis
The newly announced selections were the sixth made via NASA's "Tipping Point" program. You can learn more about each project here. | Space Technology |
Gujarat Government Signs MoU With IN-SPACe To Set Up Space Manufacturing Cluster
Ahmedabad-headquartered IN-SPACe is an autonomous agency of the Department of Space (DOS) that works to promote various space activities of non-governmental entities including building launch vehicles and satellites and providing space-based services, etc.
The Gujarat government on Wednesday signed an agreement with the Indian National Space Promotion and Authorisation Centre (IN-SPACe) to set up a space manufacturing cluster at Sanand in Ahmedabad district.
Ahmedabad-headquartered IN-SPACe is an autonomous agency of the Department of Space (DOS) that works to promote various space activities of non-governmental entities including building launch vehicles and satellites and providing space-based services, etc.
As per the MoU (Memorandum of Understanding), IN-SPACe will provide incentives and technical guidance to space technology equipment manufacturing units and startups. For this purpose, a technical support and incubation center will also be set up at the IN-SPACe's headquarters, the government said.
The government will provide land and infrastructure suited to the space and allied sectors to operate in the cluster, as per a government release.
The government is committed to working to realise Prime Minister Narendra Modi's dream to take India to new heights with a target to set up a space station by 2035 and a similar mission to the moon by 2040, and has signed an important MoU to contribute towards this goal, it said.
The MoU was signed in the presence of Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel.
The government separately said MoUs expressing investment intentions of Rs 18,485 crore have been signed so far in the run-up to the 10th Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit (VGGS) scheduled next January.
The government claimed 71 per cent of the MoUs signed so far under the VBGS since its inception in 2003, and 81 per cent of the agreements signed in the 2019 summit have been implemented on the ground.
"MoUs of Rs 18,485 crore have been signed so far in the run-up to the 10th Vibrant Gujarat Summit which will provide more than 65,032 employment opportunities in the state. With a 'MoU Plus' method followed this year, the success ratio is expected to increase to 90 per cent," said state minister and government spokesperson Rushikesh Patel.
The government has also introduced the 'Vibrant Gujarat-Vibrant District' (VGVD) programme this year at the district level to engage with investors in small and medium industries, he said, adding that programmes were organised in 27 out of 33 districts so far.
MoUs with investment intention of Rs 39,503 crore have been signed under VGGD which are likely to create 1,50,815 employment opportunities, he added. | Space Technology |
ICON’s vision for Olympus, the multi-purpose ISRU-based lunar construction system. (ICON) AUSTIN: A Texas-based company that aims to 3D-print future moon and Mars bases received $57 million from NASA this week. Austin-based ICON received the five-year contract to build out construction methods to fabricate future roads, landing pads and habitats from lunar or Martian materials. “In order to explore other worlds, we need innovative new technologies adapted to those environments and our exploration needs,” Niki Werkheiser, a director at NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate, said in a statement. The grant is a continuation of an existing partnership to develop construction methods that allow infrastructure to be built from lunar or Martian soil, according to NASA. NASA is trying to scale up its base construction technology to “prove it would be feasible to develop a large-scale 3D printer that could build infrastructure on the Moon or Mars,” said Corky Clinton of NASA’s Marshall Space flight center in Huntsville, Ala., when ICON received its first 2020 grant. For the past two years, ICON has worked with NASA to build prototypes for extraterrestrial bases using its proprietary large-scale 3D printing technology — which it is also using to build a 100-home planned community north of Austin. The needs of these new structures will strain the bounds of existing metal and inflatable architecture, according to ICON. That’s because lunar structures will need to protect inhabitants from temperatures that oscillate between 250 and -208 Fahrenheit, as well as DNA-corroding radiation and frequent pummeling from micro-meteorites, according to the company. In collaboration with NASA, ICON has 3D-printed a simulated Mars habitat — Mars Dune Alpha — that the space administration will use for simulated missions beginning next year. Project Olympus, ICON’s proposed self-driving 3D printer, would be delivered to the Moon — or Mars — by rocket, and would motor to its build site to begin printing structures, according to the company. NASA has billed its upcoming Artemis lunar programs as “the testbed for crewed exploration further into the solar system.” The new contract will focus on experimenting with how simulated lunar dirt — regolith — behaves under reduced lunar gravity, NASA representatives told Space.com. Tags 3D printing ICON Mars landing moon bases nasa | Space Technology |
So far, the public faces of the new space race have been billionaires like Jeff Bezos and Richard Branson joyriding around in rockets, having maybe the most expensive midlife crises ever. But behind the scenes, big tech is thinking more seriously about the first non-Earth production lines.
For some startups, the most pressing questions in manufacturing right now are: how do you build computer parts, harvest stem cells or produce pharmaceuticals while in space?
A group of founders say it’s already happening, at least at the research level. Nasa has given a $2m grant to scientists who want to see if zero-gravity conditions can help produce new stem cell and gene therapies. The defense company Northrop Grumman partnered with a startup that aims to produce semiconductors in space. By the end of this decade, one expert says, we’ll be using items that contain some element that was built off of Earth.
Why go through the trouble of “off-planet manufacturing”? Jeff Bezos told CBS’s Gayle King that heavy manufacturing and air-polluting industries could operate away from Earth. “This sounds fantastical … but it will happen,” Bezos said.
Advocates say that certain conditions in space, including the lack of gravity, low temperatures and near-perfect vacuum, mean that certain ingredients, such as crystals, can be made at a better quality than on land.
“Space is a much better place to do almost any industrial process,” said Joshua Western, CEO of Space Forge, an in-space technology manufacturer based in Wales. “We live on a planet where we’re weighed down by gravity. We made ovens, refrigerators and the vacuum pump to help manufacture products on earth, but if you go to space, you get those benefits for free.”
Pharmaceutical companies are betting that new drugs can be made in space. Merck works with the International Space Station (ISS) to produce proteins in zero-gravity. Astronauts conducting experiments for the pharmaceutical giant have found that crystals grown for the production of its oncology drug Keytruda are smaller and more uniform than the ones grown on earth.
Researchers at Bristol Myers Squibb have said they’re testing how to use resources built off-planet to make drugs easier to store. Robert Garmise, associate director of material science and engineering at BMS, told the trade publication Pharma Voice that the company was “involved in a number of different therapeutic areas” such as immunology, fibrosis, cardiovascular disease and neuroscience.
Kevin Engelbert, manager of Nasa’s In Space Production Applications portfolio, told the Guardian that the agency had collaborated withcommercial partners to enable off-Earth manufacturing since about 2016. The goal is to develop a “low-earth orbit” (Leo) economy that will strengthen the US’s leadership in the tech world. But the next phase of space capitalism will not be seamless.
In July, the California-based startup Varda Space Industries launched a capsule into the earth’s orbit. It was intended to be, as the tech news site Gizmodo put it, a “space drugs factory”, which autonomously grew crystals of the drug ritonavir, an anti-viral medication used to treat HIV.
In a statement, a spokesperson for the FAA said that Varda had not secured a re-entry license before rocketing its vehicle into space.
“The FAA denied re-entry license application on Sept 6 because the company did not demonstrate compliance with the regulatory requirements,” the spokesperson added. Varda formally requested that the FAA reconsider its decision on 8 September; the request is pending. Representatives for Varda declined a request for comment.
This, though, is just the beginning. In 2031, the ISS will be decommissioned and plunged to a watery grave at the bottom of the Pacific. After that, Nasa will rent space on commercial space vehicles instead. It’s a move the agency says will save $1.3bn in 2031 alone.
S Sita Sonty is the CEO of Space Tango, a company that works with the ISS to provide facilities that support research, development, and manufacturing in microgravity. She says as more privately owned shuttles sprout up, the demand for in-orbit production will increase.
“Imagine there’s one office park now where all of the work and research has historically been performed,” she said. “After 2030, there may be four or five of them. That gives us opportunities to leverage research and development in microgravity, and perform more of it at scale in orbit.”
Companies that produce off-planet say that the number of products produced in space will ramp up by the end of the decade, since they will no longer need to go solely through the ISS to get to space. The more privately owned shuttles in space, the larger the opportunities for off-earth factories.
Humans can replicate some of space’s conditions on earth – Nasa has its own zero-gravity research facility in Cleveland, Ohio. But it costs a lot of money to build that kind of infrastructure.
“With the advent of more commercial space stations, the price and cost of going to space will come down significantly, and so will performing this kind of work,” Sonty said. “The more trips we go, the more we can deposit stem cells and drug samples to see what they do in orbit. It’s not going to be too long when we will see applications that are commercially viable.”
Shortly after the launch of their currently stuck drug factory, Varda’s co-founders spoke to CNBC about their lofty plans for manufacturing pharmaceuticals in space.
Will Bruey, Varda’s CEO, said the plan was to launch four capsules into space every six months, starting with the one which is now held in orbit. It is paramount that one of those four missions succeed, Bruey said, and if not, “then, quite frankly, we don’t deserve to have a space company any more”. | Space Technology |
Rotating detonation engines (RDEs) have been the subject of theory and speculation for decades, but have yet to cross from theory to practical application. But now, it looks as though these exotic propulsion systems are about to make the leap into operational platforms. In theory, a rotating detonation engine promises to be much more efficient than traditional jet engines, potentially providing missile applications a serious boost in range and speed. That could also mean fielding smaller weapons capable of achieving the same speeds and ranges as today’s missiles.
In aircraft applications like jet fighters, rotating detonation engines could offer similar benefits to missiles in terms of range and speed while potentially reducing maintenance requirements. Fighters, in particular, rely on afterburners, which effectively firehose fuel into the engine’s exhaust stream for added thrust. This rapidly depletes fuel stores and reduces the fighter’s range. RDEs could potentially allow for a similar boost in thrust with a dramatically reduced fuel penalty.
But where this technology could be the most useful is in powering the Navy’s future non-nuclear surface vessels, providing increased power production, range, and speed while having a seriously beneficial impact on the Navy’s budgetary bottom line.
Harnessing the power of detonation
The concept behind rotating detonation engines dates back to the 1950s. In the United States, Arthur Nicholls, a professor emeritus of aerospace engineering at the University of Michigan, was among the first to attempt to develop a working RDE design.
In some ways, a Rotating Detonation Engine is an extension of the concept behind pulse detonation engines (PDEs), which are, in themselves, an extension of pulsejets. That might seem confusing (and maybe it is), but we’ll break it down.
Pulsejet engines work by mixing air and fuel within a combustion chamber and then igniting the mixture to fire out of a nozzle in rapid pulses, rather than under consistent combustion like you might find in other jet engines.
In pulsejet engines, as in nearly all combustion engines, igniting and burning the air/fuel mixture is called deflagration, which basically means heating a substance until it burns away rapidly, but at subsonic speeds.
A pulse detonation engine works similarly, but instead of leveraging deflagration, it uses detonation. At a fundamental level, detonation is a lot like it sounds: an explosion.
While deflagration speaks to the ignition and subsonic burning of the air/fuel mixture, detonation is supersonic. When the air and fuel are mixed in a pulse detonation engine, they’re ignited, creating deflagration like in any other combustion engine. However, within the longer exhaust tube, a powerful pressure wave compresses the unburnt fuel ahead of the ignition, heating it above ignition temperature in what is known as the deflagration-to-detonation transition (DDT). In other words, rather than burning through the fuel rapidly, it detonates, producing more thrust from the same amount of fuel; an explosion, rather than a rapid burn.
“The detonation process is a more rapid and efficient extraction of energy from your fuel from a thermodynamic standpoint when compared to deflagration,” Dee Howard endowed professor of hypersonic and aerospace engineering, Dr. Chris Combs, told Sandboxx News.
The detonations still occur in pulses, like in a pulsejet, but a pulse detonation engine is capable of propelling a vehicle to higher speeds, believed to be around Mach 5. Because detonation releases more energy than deflagration, detonation engines are more efficient — producing more thrust with less fuel, allowing for lighter loads and greater ranges.
The detonation shockwave travels significantly faster than the deflagration wave leveraged by today’s jet engines, Trimble explained: up to 2,000 meters per second (4,475 miles per hour) compared to 10 meters per second from deflagration.
In May of 2008, the Air Force Research Laboratory made history by building the world’s first crewed pulse detonation-powered aircraft, using a Scaled Composites home-build plane called the Long-EZ. The unusual franken-plane managed a speed higher than 120 miles per hour during its test flight, with test pilot Pete Siebold at the stick, and reached altitudes between 60 and 100 feet.
“This is a potential game-changer in terms of fuel efficiency,” The AFRL’s Propulsion Directorate’s Fred Schauer said of the PDE powering Long-EZ.
“For comparison, if we had operated this same engine with conventional combustion we would have made less than a third of the thrust for the same fuel burn. In comparison to traditional engines, fuel savings of five to 20 percent could be expected.”
The Air Force assessed at the time that improvements to their PDE engine could eventually propel aircraft to speeds beyond Mach 4, and higher if combined with other advanced propulsion systems like scramjets. A rotating detonation engine could be even more effective, but many within the academic and engineering communities questioned whether such an engine could ever actually be built.
The Rotating Detonation Engine emerges
A rotating detonation engine takes this concept to the next level. Rather than having the detonation wave travel out the back of the aircraft as propulsion, it travels around a circular channel within the engine itself.
Fuel and oxidizers are added to the channel through small holes, which are then struck and ignited by the rapidly circling detonation wave. The result is an engine that produces continuous thrust, rather than thrust in pulses, while still offering the improved efficiency of a detonation engine. Many rotating detonation engines have more than one detonation wave circling the chamber at the same time.
As Aviation Week & Space Technology Defense Editor Steve Trimble explains, RDEs see pressure increase during detonation, whereas traditional jet engines see a total pressure loss during combustion, offering greater efficiency. In fact, rotating detonation engines are even more efficient than pulse detonation engines, which need the combustion chamber to be purged and refilled for each pulse.
“In theory, RDE is a bit like the leap from turbojets to turbofans in the 1960s, but for high-supersonic vehicles. It should give you a big jump in specific impulse (aka fuel efficiency), and if you can figure out how to package it in a way that doesn’t make things significantly heavier or less aerodynamic, you should be able to get a nice range boost out of it,” Trimble explained.
In 2020, a team out of the University of Central Florida, working with the Rotating Detonation Rocket Engine Program at the Air Force Research Laboratory, successfully built and tested the world’s first working rotating detonation engine that continued firing until its fuel was cut off, effectively proving the concept was possible. The three-inch copper test rig developed by the team successfully produced 200 pounds of thrust in laboratory conditions.
Since then, a number of other programs have followed suit, with noted engine manufacturer Pratt and Whitney among those leading the charge.
Alex Hollings is a writer, dad, and Marine veteran who specializes in foreign policy and defense technology analysis. He holds a master’s degree in Communications from Southern New Hampshire University, as well as a bachelor’s degree in Corporate and Organizational Communications from Framingham State University. This first appeared in Sandboxx. | Space Technology |
Japan's revised space security plan reportedly considers counterstrike capability
What happened to 'for all mankind'? Fear of Russia and China, for starters
On Tuesday, the government of Japan adopted its first official plan for space security – and it will likely include counterstrike capabilities.
"The new Basic Plan for Space Policy presents a vision of the future of security, disaster prevention and mitigation, innovation, civil sectors such as space science and exploration, and rockets that support these space activities, and sets out a plan to accomplish it over the next ten years,” declared prime minister Fumio Kishida in Japanese.
The PM's overview of Japan's next space plan (old ones can be found here) notes "the use of outer space is accelerating as the security environment becomes more complex and severe."
His vision is based on last December's National Security Strategy. PM Kishida said it will include a host of space-related endeavors – such as boosting missile detection and tracking technology, AI to improve satellite image analysis, faster information transmission between satellites, use of the private sector to further space technology, and better collaboration between the space agency, JAXA, and the Defense Ministry.
It also allows for the war-renouncing island nation to develop counterstrike capability, according to The Japan Times and other local media.
- NASA boss says US may lose latest space race with China
- After scaring the world, China shows off 'chute that can aim Long March rockets' descents
- First attempt by Japan's ispace biz to land on Moon ends in awkward silence
- UK and Japan ink agreement for semiconductor and security cooperation
Japan's blueprint reflects the geopolitical reality that terrestrial conflicts involve space-based assets.
The US-led Combined Space Operations Center cites Ukraine's defensive operations against Russia as one area in which commercial satellite data can provide a military advantage.
Japan has already made space defence part of its plans.
In January, the US and Japan announced they would strengthen defence cooperation across land, sea, and space – with the Americans even committing to defend Japanese space assets in certain situations. The agreement was made amid talks that touched on perceived aggression from China and deepening ties between Russia and the Middle Kingdom.
Chinese state-sponsored media at that time ran headlines demeaning Japan's space endeavors, calling the country's desire to be the second to ever put a human on the Moon "a joke."
China has recently been expanding its own space-based information tracking satellite systems and offensive space capabilities. NASA administrator Bill Nelson declared, also in January, that the space race between the US and China had reached a critical moment and warned that the next two years will be crucial for gaining a foothold on the Moon.
An article in state-controlled China Military Online on Monday observed "Japan's ambition to militarize space deserves vigilance." Which is a typical reaction from China, even as it massively expands its military and conducts aggressive exercises in its region. ® | Space Technology |
Sign up for CNN’s Wonder Theory science newsletter. Explore the universe with news on fascinating discoveries, scientific advancements and more.
India has landed its Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft on the moon, becoming only the fourth nation ever to accomplish such a feat.
The mission could cement India’s status as a global superpower in space. Previously, only the United States, China and the former Soviet Union have completed soft landings on the lunar surface.
Chandrayaan-3’s landing site is also closer to the moon’s south pole than any other spacecraft in history has ventured. The south pole region is considered an area of key scientific and strategic interest for spacefaring nations, as scientists believe the region to be home to water ice deposits.
The water, frozen in shadowy craters, could be converted into rocket fuel or even drinking water for future crewed missions.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, currently in South Africa for the BRICS Summit, watched the landing virtually and shared broadcasted remarks on the livestream.
“On this joyous occasion…I would like to address all the people of the world,” he said. “This success belongs to all of humanity, and it will help moon missions by other countries in the future.”
India’s attempt to land its spacecraft near the lunar south pole comes just days after another nation’s failed attempt to do the same. Russia’s Luna 25 spacecraft crashed into the moon on August 19 after its engines misfired, ending the country’s first lunar landing attempt in 47 years.
As Chandrayaan-3 approached the moon, its cameras captured photographs, including one taken on August 20 that India’s space agency shared Tuesday. The image offers a close-up of the moon’s dusty gray terrain.
Chandrayaan-3’s journey
India’s lunar lander consists of three parts: a lander, rover and propulsion module, which provided the spacecraft all the thrust required to traverse the 384,400-kilometer (238,855-mile) void between the moon and Earth.
The lander, called Vikram, completed the precision maneuvers required to make a soft touchdown on the lunar surface after it was ejected from the propulsion module. Tucked inside is Pragyan, a small, six-wheeled rover that will deploy from the lander by rolling down a ramp.
Vikram used its on board thrusters to carefully orient itself as it approached the lunar surface, and it slowly throttled down its engines for a touchdown just after 6 p.m. IST (8:30 a.m. ET) as applause erupted from the mission control room.
The lander, which weighs about 1,700 kilograms (3,748 pounds), and 26-kilogram (57.3-pound) rover are packed with scientific instruments, prepared to capture data to help researchers analyze the lunar surface and deliver fresh insights into its composition.
Dr. Angela Marusiak, an assistant research professor at the University of Arizona’s Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, said she’s particularly excited that the lunar lander includes a seismometer that will attempt to detect quakes within the moon’s interior.
Studying how the moon’s inner layers move could be key information for future endeavors on the lunar surface, Marusiak said.
“You want to make sure that any potential seismic activity wouldn’t endanger any astronauts,” Marusiak said. “Or, if we were to build structures on the moon, that they would be safe from any seismic activity.”
The lander and rover are expected to function for about two weeks on the moon’s surface. The propulsion module will remain in orbit, serving as a relay point for beaming data back to Earth.
A global moon rush
Working alongside allies such as the United States and France, India is part of a second wave of emerging space powers. The country’s space program has become one of the world’s busiest in its development of exploratory space technology.
Chandrayaan-3 has been a point of national pride and widespread interest across India. Crowds gathered at the launchpad at Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh state. On Wednesday, more than 8 million people tuned in to watch the livestream of the landing.
India’s mission has taken on even greater significance since Russia’s failed Luna 25 landing attempt. With the success of Chandrayaan-3, India became the second country to land a spacecraft on the moon in the 21st century after China, which has put three landers on the lunar surface since 2013 — including the first to touch down on the moon’s far side. (The last US lunar lander, the crewed Apollo 17 mission, touched down in 1972.)
More than a dozen countries have plans for missions to the moon in the coming years, including a mission launched by Japan’s space agency — the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency — that is expected to lift off later this month. The United States also has plans to send three commercial lunar landers to the moon starting as early as this year, while NASA continues to work toward its Artemis III mission, which could put astronauts back on the moon as soon as 2025.
Landing on the moon, however, remains a challenging endeavor. India’s last attempt to land a spacecraft on the moon, during the 2019 Chandrayaan-2 mission, failed. And two commercial spacecraft have crash-landed on the lunar surface in recent times — one from Israel in 2019 and the other from Japan in April.
“There is no doubt that landing on the Moon is a real challenge,” NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said in a statement on Sunday. “But the Moon offers great scientific reward, which is why we’ve seen so many recent attempts to visit the surface again. We’re looking forward to all that we will learn in the future, including from India’s Chandraayan-3 mission.”
On Wednesday, Nelson also shared a congratulatory note on social media, saying, “congratulations to #India on being the 4th country to successfully soft-land a spacecraft on the Moon. We’re glad to be your partner on this mission!”
India is also a signatory of the United States’ Artemis Accords, a document that outlines proposed rules of the road for future lunar exploration. Russia and China have not signed the accords.
CNN’s Irene Nasser contributed to this story. | Space Technology |
Collecting solar power in space and transmitting the energy wirelessly to Earth through microwaves enables terrestrial power availability unaffected by weather or time of day. Solar power could be continuously available anywhere on Earth. Credit: Caltech Technology capable of collecting solar power in space and beaming it to Earth to provide a global supply of clean and affordable energy was once considered science fiction. Now it is moving closer to reality. Through the Space-based Solar Power Project (SSPP), a team of California Institute of Technology (Caltech) researchers is working to deploy a constellation of modular spacecraft that collect sunlight, transform it into electricity, then wirelessly transmit that electricity wherever it is needed. They could even send it to places that currently have no access to reliable power. “This is an extraordinary and unprecedented project,” says Harry Atwater, an SSPP researcher and Otis Booth Leadership Chair of Caltech’s Division of Engineering and Applied Science. “It exemplifies the boldness and ambition needed to address one of the most significant challenges of our time, providing clean and affordable energy to the world.” Atwater, who is also the Howard Hughes Professor of Applied Physics and Materials Science, leads the project jointly with two other researchers: Ali Hajimiri, Bren Professor of Electrical Engineering and co-director of SSPP; and Sergio Pellegrino, Joyce and Kent Kresa Professor of Aerospace and Civil Engineering, co-director of SSPP, and a senior research scientist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). Harnessing solar power in space relies on breakthrough advances in three main areas: Atwater’s research group is designing ultralight high-efficiency photovoltaics (materials that convert light into electricity) that are optimized for space conditions and compatible with an integrated modular power conversion and transmission system. Hajimiri’s research team is developing the low-cost and lightweight technology needed to convert direct current power to radio frequency power (which is used to transmit cell phone signals, for example) and send it to Earth as microwaves. The process is safe, Hajimiri explains. Non-ionizing radiation at the surface is significantly less harmful than standing in the sun. In addition, the system could be quickly shut down in the event of damage or malfunction. Pellegrino’s group is inventing foldable, ultrathin, and ultralight space structures to support the photovoltaics as well as the components needed to convert, transmit, and steer radio frequency power to where it is needed. The basic unit of the system the researchers envision is a 4-inch-by-4-inch tile that weighs less than a tenth of an ounce. Hundreds of thousands of these tiles would combine into a system of flying carpet-like satellites that, once unfurled, would create a sunlight-gathering surface that measures 3.5 square miles. Work on the SSPP has been supported by more than $100 million in funding from Donald Bren, chairman of the Irvine Company and a life member of the Caltech community, and his wife, Brigitte Bren, a Caltech trustee. The Northrup Grumman Corporation provided funding for initial feasibility studies. Atwater, Hajimiri, and Pellegrino discussed their progress—and the transformational potential of space-based solar power—as the project nears a significant milestone: a test launch of prototypes into space in December 2022. An array of small solar panels that are part of the Space Solar Power Project integrate photovoltaics, power transfer circuitry, and incorporate beam steering. Credit: Caltech Describe the vision behind the Space-based Solar Power Project. How did the project take shape? Sergio Pellegrino: It was more than 10 years ago, in 2011, that conversations began with Donald Bren asking whether Caltech had any ideas when it came to research in the field of sustainable energy and space. We started discussing, in a group of faculty members, ways of building on our interests and what was happening in each of our areas that might lead to a very impactful research initiative. Over a period of a few months, we came up with a vision—I called it a dream—of three or four technology breakthroughs that, in combination, would transform the way space solar power had been previously approached. Ali Hajimiri: This concept was, in the past, truly science fiction. What made it possible for us to consider taking it from the realm of science fiction to the realm of reality was the combination of developments happening in photovoltaics in Harry’s lab, in structures in Sergio’s lab, and in wireless power transfer, which is happening in my lab. We realized that we can now pursue space solar power in a way that is becoming both practical and economical. One of the first questions that anyone asks is, “Why do you want to put photovoltaics in space?” Well, in space, where you don’t have day and night and clouds and things of that sort, you get about eight times more energy. The vision of this program is to be able to provide as much power as you need, where you need it, and when you need it. (Left to right) Professors Sergio Pellegrino, Harry Atwater, and Ali Hajimiri. Credit: Steve Babuljak for Caltech What progress have you made toward realizing this ambitious vision? Pellegrino: Over a period of two years, we built and demonstrated a prototype tile. This is the key modular element that captures the sunlight and transmits the power. Through that process, we learned many things about how to design highly integrated and ultralight systems of this sort. We then developed a second prototype, 33 percent lighter than the first. Hajimiri: This tile is the building block, as Sergio mentioned, of the larger system. It has to be fully functional, compatible, and scalable. Although it may sound simple, it’s actually quite sophisticated. These tiles are mounted on a very flexible structure that can be folded to fit in a launch vehicle. Once deployed, the structure expands, and the tiles work in concert and in synchronization to generate energy, convert it, and transfer it exactly where you need it and nowhere else. What can you tell us about the next phase in this project? Atwater: It doesn’t get real until you actually go to space. As Sergio and Ali described, we demonstrated this key unit element called a tile in our labs. One of the lessons from that series of demonstrations was that the pathway we needed to follow for photovoltaics fundamentally had to change. We were working with what I’ll call conventional photovoltaic materials, which had to be designed in a form that was going to make it difficult to reach the mass-per-unit area and specific power goals, so we had to basically rethink the photovoltaic strategy completely. As a result, the classes of photovoltaic devices that we are testing in space have actually never flown in space before. Pellegrino: Most spacecraft today have solar arrays—photovoltaic cells bonded to a carrier structure—but not with this type of material and not folded to the dimensions we’ve achieved. By using novel folding techniques, inspired by origami, we are able to significantly reduce the dimensions of a giant spacecraft for launch. The packaging is so tight as to be essentially free of any voids. Hajimiri: Wireless power transfer of this nature has not been demonstrated in space. We are also demonstrating it with our flexible, lightweight material, not necessarily a rigid structure. That adds complexity. If and when space solar power becomes a reality, what impact might it have on society? Hajimiri: It is going to revolutionize the nature of energy and access to it so that it becomes ubiquitous, it becomes dispatchable energy. You can send it where you need it. This redirection of energy is done without any mechanical movements, purely through electrical means using a focusing array, which makes it extremely fast. Atwater: I think one can say that the Brens’ vision really was to do something that, as Ali mentioned, originally emerged almost from science fiction, to do something that would become a large-scale energy source for the world. Pellegrino: We have had JPL collaborators join our team, and that collaboration has become powerful and useful to us as we start thinking about these space demonstrations. The discussion about energy that was implicitly limited to powering the earth actually extends to space exploration also. We’re opening new chapters in the way JPL is thinking about future missions. Speaking of collaboration, work across research areas has been integral to SSPP’s success. What has it been like to work together so intensely over the course of a long-term project? Hajimiri: The students, the postdocs, all of us have been working very closely, and we’ve been learning a great deal about each other’s domains. This results in something that’s more than the sum of its parts, both in terms of the end result of the project as well as in terms of the training the students are getting. That training is incredibly important to the future of space technology, whether it’s for wireless power transfer, communications, space structures, or all sorts of other applications we haven’t even thought about yet. Atwater: I had a former lifetime working in photovoltaics but never imagined in my wildest dreams that I would get involved in space until this opportunity came together. And for me, it’s been a window on a completely new world of science. That’s been tremendously exciting. Pellegrino: Sometimes it feels like we are pushing our colleagues to do something that they clearly think is impossible but later turns out not to be impossible. That is just a wonderful feeling. It’s a different kind of research, where you are doing the best you can in your own field, but you are also leveraging the interface with other fields, a collective system that really is going to benefit society. Benefiting society is a much more elaborate thing than doing good work in your own area. It’s so much more challenging. | Space Technology |
Even though the day when humans live and work on the moon is still in the unidentified future, NASA is actively planning for how to get us there.
To help one day provide the resources needed for a sustainable human presence on the moon, the agency's Space Technology Mission Directorate (STMD) is seeking input on methods to extract of oxygen from moon dust. This request will, in theory, allow industry and researchers to provide details on technologies that enable future moon-dwellers to produce, capture, and store breathable oxygen from lunar soil. NASA hopes to use the information it gathers to develop a technology demo.
This concept of using materials found on other bodies to make vital resources, rather than shipping them from Earth, is known as in-situ resource utilization, or ISRU. "Using in-situ resources is essential to making a sustained presence farther from Earth possible. Just as we need consumables and infrastructure to live and work on our home planet, we'll need similar support systems on the moon for crew and robots to operate safely and productively," Prasun Desai, NASA's acting associate administrator of STMD, said in a statement announcing the Request for Information, or RFI.
As support for this concept, NASA pointed to the Perseverance Mars rover's MOXIE experiment, which repeatedly transformed carbon dioxide from the Martian atmosphere into breathable oxygen. Though MOXIE only produced about 0.2 ounces (6 grams) — about equivalent to a small tree on Earth — its preliminary tests nevertheless proved the first time that a human device created oxygen on another world.
NASA believes a similar technology would be a tremendous boon to astronauts who will spend time on the moon in the future as part of its Artemis program. Producing oxygen on the moon means that astronauts need to carry less of it with them, saving valuable weight and allowing them to stay off-Earth for longer missions.
Before actually having astronauts try making oxygen for themselves, however, NASA plans to showcase the tech to do so as part of a demonstration it calls the Lunar Infrastructure Foundational Technologies (LIFT-1).
In-situ resource utilization, turning readily available materials on other worlds into resources like oxygen, water, and metal, is one of the research areas NASA supports via its Lunar Surface Innovation Initiative. NASA conducts its own research and partners with external researchers to study living on the moon, looking into how to build lunar infrastructure, how to power that infrastructure, and how to protect that infrastructure from the lunar elements. LIFT-1 may include demonstrations of these technologies, too.
The Request for Information is open through 5 p.m. EST on Dec. 18. Additionally, NASA will host a virtual industry forum at 1 p.m. EST on Nov. 13. | Space Technology |
January 24, 2023 05:45 PM The National Aeronautics and Space Administration announced plans to test a new nuclear-powered rocket, saying it's capable of greatly reducing the time it would take to fly astronauts to Mars. The agency is partnering with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency in what is being called the Demonstration Rocket for Agile Cislunar Operations, or DRACO, program, according to a press release. ASTEROID SIZE OF FIRETRUCK EXPECTED TO BUZZ EARTH IN CLOSEST FLYBY IN 300 YEARS Aside from reduced travel time, such a rocket would also allow a greater payload and better communications and instrumentation. It is estimated that a nuclear thermal rocket could be three or four times more efficient than the standard chemical propulsion used currently. However, the technology isn't expected to be developed until 2027. “NASA will work with our long-term partner, DARPA, to develop and demonstrate advanced nuclear thermal propulsion technology as soon as 2027. With the help of this new technology, astronauts could journey to and from deep space faster than ever — a major capability to prepare for crewed missions to Mars,” NASA Administrator Bill Nelson was quoted as saying. “Congratulations to both NASA and DARPA on this exciting investment as we ignite the future together,” he said. A SpaceX rocket carrying the Surface Water and Ocean Topography satellite lifts off from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, Friday, Dec. 16, 2022. (Keegan Barber/NASA via AP) Keegan Barber/AP “DARPA and NASA have a long history of fruitful collaboration in advancing technologies for our respective goals, from the Saturn V rocket that took humans to the Moon for the first time to robotic servicing and refueling of satellites,” Dr. Stefanie Tompkins, director of DARPA, said. “The space domain is critical to modern commerce, scientific discovery, and national security," she continued. "The ability to accomplish leap-ahead advances in space technology through the DRACO nuclear thermal rocket program will be essential for more efficiently and quickly transporting material to the Moon and eventually, people to Mars.” CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER NASA is poised to develop the engine itself, and DARPA will be responsible for developing the spacecraft and handling the bureaucracy involved. The goal is an in-space demonstration in 2027. The last test of a nuclear propulsion engine occurred over half a century ago, under NASA’s Nuclear Engine for Rocket Vehicle Application and Rover projects. | Space Technology |
Hansel and Gretel's breadcrumb trick inspires robotic exploration of caves on Mars and beyond
University of Arizona engineers have developed a system that allows autonomous vehicles to scout out underground habitats for astronauts.
House hunting on Mars could soon become a thing, and researchers at the University of Arizona are already in the business of scouting real estate that future astronauts could use as habitats. Researchers in the UArizona College of Engineering have developed technology that would allow a flock of robots to explore subsurface environments on other worlds.
"Lava tubes and caves would make perfect habitats for astronauts because you don't have to build a structure; you are shielded from harmful cosmic radiation, so all you need to do is make it pretty and cozy," said Wolfgang Fink, an associate professor of electrical and computer engineering at UArizona.
Fink is lead author of a new paper in Advances in Space Research that details a communication network that would link rovers, lake landers and even submersible vehicles through a so-called mesh topology network, allowing the machines to work together as a team, independently from human input. According to Fink and his co-authors, the approach could help address one of NASA's Space Technology Grand Challenges by helping overcome the limited ability of current technology to safely traverse environments on comets, asteroids, moons and planetary bodies. In a nod to the fairy tale "Hansel and Gretel," the researchers named their patent-pending concept the "Breadcrumb-Style Dynamically Deployed Communication Network" paradigm, or DDCN.
A fairy tale inspires the future
"If you remember the book, you know how Hansel and Gretel dropped breadcrumbs to make sure they'd find their way back," said Fink, founder and director of the Visual and Autonomous Exploration Systems Research Laboratory at Caltech and UArizona. "In our scenario, the 'breadcrumbs' are miniaturized sensors that piggyback on the rovers, which deploy the sensors as they traverse a cave or other subsurface environment."
Continuously monitoring their environment and maintaining awareness of where they are in space, the rovers proceed on their own, connected to each other via a wireless data connection, deploying communication nodes along the way. Once a rover senses the signal is fading but still within range, it drops a communication node, regardless of how much distance has actually passed since it placed the last node.
"One of the new aspects is what we call opportunistic deployment – the idea that you deploy the 'breadcrumbs' when you have to and not according to a previously planned schedule," Fink said.
All the while, there is no need for input from the mother rover; each subordinate rover will make that determination on its own, Fink added. The system can work in one of two ways, Fink explained. In one, the mother rover acts as a passive recipient, collecting data transmitted by the rovers doing the exploration. In the other, the mother rover acts as the orchestrator, controlling the rovers' moves like a puppet master.
Machines take over
The new concept dovetails with the tier-scalable reconnaissance paradigm devised by Fink and colleagues in the early 2000s. This idea envisions a team of robots operating at different command levels – for example, an orbiter controlling a blimp, which in turn controls one or more landers or rovers on the ground. Already, space missions have embraced this concept, several with participation by UArizona researchers. For example, on Mars, the Perseverance rover is commanding Ingenuity, a robotic helicopter. A concept for another mission, which ultimately was not selected for funding, proposed sending an orbiter carrying a balloon and a lake lander to study one of the hydrocarbon seas on Saturn's moon Titan. The breadcrumb approach takes the idea one step further by providing a robust platform allowing robotic explorers to operate underground or even submerged in liquid environments. Such swarms of individual, autonomous robots could also aid in search and rescue efforts in the wake of natural disasters on Earth, Fink said.
Fink said the biggest challenge, apart from getting the rovers inside the subsurface environment in the first place, is to retrieve the data they record underground and bring it back to the surface. The DDCN concept allows a team of rovers to navigate even convoluted underground environments without ever losing contact to their "mother rover" on the surface. Outfitted with a light detection and ranging system, or lidar, they could even map out cave passages in all three dimensions, not unlike the drones that can be seen exploring an alien spacecraft in the movie "Prometheus."
"Once deployed, our sensors automatically establish a nondirected mesh network, which means each node updates itself about each node around it," said Fink, who first detailed the DDCN concept in a proposal to NASA in 2019.
"They can switch between each other and compensate for dead spots and signal blackouts," added Mark Tarbell, paper co-author and senior research scientist in Fink's laboratory. "If some of them die, there still is connectivity through the remaining nodes, so the mother rover never loses connection to the farthest node in the network."
Mission of no return
The robust network of communication nodes ensures all the data collected by the robotic explorers make it back to the mother rover on the surface. Therefore, there is no need to retrieve the robots once they have done their job, said Fink, who published the idea of using groups of expendable mobile robotic surface probes as early as 2014.
"They're designed to be expendable," he said. "Instead of wasting resources to get them into the cave and back out, it makes more sense to have them go as far as they possibly can and leave them behind once they have fulfilled their mission, run out of power or succumbed to a hostile environment."
"The communication network approach introduced in this new paper has the potential to herald a new age of planetary and astrobiological discoveries," said Dirk Schulze-Makuch, president of the German Astrobiological Society and author of many publications on extraterrestrial life. "It finally allows us to explore Martian lava tube caves and the subsurface oceans of the icy moons – places where extraterrestrial life might be present."
The proposed concept "holds magic," according to Victor Baker, a UArizona Regents Professor of Hydrology and Atmospheric Sciences, Geosciences and Planetary Sciences. "The most amazing discoveries in science come about when advances in technology provide both first-time access to a thing or place and the means of communicating what is thereby discovered to creative minds that are seeking understanding," Baker said.
Exploring hidden ocean worlds
In places that call for submersible robots, the system could consist of a lander – either floating on a lake, as might be the case on Titan, or sitting on the ice atop a subsurface ocean like on Europa – that is connected to the submarine, for example through a long cable. Here the communication nodes would act as repeaters, boosting the signal in regular intervals to prevent it from degrading. Importantly, Fink pointed out, the nodes have the capabilities to gather data themselves – for example measuring pressure, salinity, temperature and other chemical and physical parameters – and to ingest the data into the cable connecting back to the lander.
"Imagine you make it all the way to Europa, you melt your way through miles of ice, make it down to the subsurface ocean, where you find yourself surrounded by alien life, but you have no way of getting data back to the surface," he said. "That's the scenario we need to avoid."
Having developed the rovers and the communication technology, Fink's group is now working on building the actual mechanism by which the rovers would deploy the communication nodes.
"Basically, we're going to teach our 'Hansels' and 'Gretels' how to drop the breadcrumbs so they add up to a functioning mesh communication network," Fink said.
Share
TopicsScience and Technology
Resources for the media
Media contact(s)
Trending Stories
University of Arizona in the News | Space Technology |
Lander module has landed ‘safely and softly’
Mission control erupts in celebration as it is announced that the lander module has landed ‘safely and softly.’
Less than 100 metres from moon’s surface
A roaring applause breaks out in the mission control headquarters as the lander module reaches 100 metres from the surface of the moon.
Modi watching from South Africa
India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi has joined the mission control headquarters virtually from South Africa, where he is attending the BRICS summit.
‘Very close to moon surface’
The lander has reached a distance of three kilometres from the surface of the moon, bringing it ‘very close’ to the final phase.
Anticipation grips mission control
Scientists at the mission control headquarters in Bengaluru watch in tense anticipation as the lander gets close to moving into its next landing phase.
Lander continues ‘rough breaking phase’
The lander is now travelling at an altitude of 22 kilometres and has covered a distance of over 500 kilometres in its ‘rough breaking phase.’
No ground intervention is now being carried out and all information is being received by the deep space network.
Lander Module completes 20 percent of its journey
The Lander Module has travelled 228km (443 miles) of 713.5km, completing nearly 20 percent of its journey.
‘Very close to powered descent’
According to the ISRO live telecast, scientists at mission control are analysing lander data as Chandrayaan-3 inches closer to powered descent.
For our antennas, it’s all about receiving the lander’s data and getting it to mission control in Bangeluru, India 🇮🇳 pic.twitter.com/RRvBFtjMHA
— CanberraDSN 📡 (@CanberraDSN) August 23, 2023
India’s space mission begins live telecast
ISRO, the Indian space body, has begun its live telecast of Chandrayaan-3’s expected landing on the moon’s south pole.
The visuals show ISRO’s control headquarters for the mission in Bengaluru, the capital of the southern state of Karnataka.
‘Our scientists will do it this time’
The scientists leading India’s Chandrayaan-3 mission have picked up the “lessons learnt from the last failed attempt”, according to Anil Kumar Bhatt, director general of the Indian Space Association.
“They have had all fail-safe mechanisms put into it and although it’s a tough call, I am confident our scientists will do it this time,” Bhatt told Al Jazeera earlier this week.
Pupils await landing
Pupils across India have been preparing for the big event by preparing posters, singing songs and holding special assemblies on Wednesday.
Indian capital New Delhi’s Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Wednesday posted images of children from a school in south Delhi and said he was “delighted to see the sincere interest and enthusiasm” of the kids.
Delighted to see the sincere interest and enthusiasm of the Delhi Govt. school kids as they await for Chandrayaan-3 landing. Heartfelt wishes from these young minds add to the excitement of the evening. Our scientists are making us immensely proud. Jai Hind 🇮🇳 🚀 pic.twitter.com/GDVNsjKbd3
— Arvind Kejriwal (@ArvindKejriwal) August 23, 2023
Lunar race heats up
India’s mission marks the latest lunar push that has drawn in the world’s top powers and new players.
Here is the latest on various missions to the celestial body:
India’s Chandrayaan-3
The mission launched in mid-July and orbited Earth several times to build up the necessary speed for its journey.
If Wednesday’s landing succeeds, a solar-powered rover will explore the surface of the relatively unmapped lunar south pole and transmit data to Earth over its two-week lifespan.
Russia’s Luna 25
The launch of Luna 25 on August 11 was the first such Russian mission in almost 50 years and marked the beginning of Moscow’s new lunar project but “ceased to exist following a collision with the moon’s surface”, space agency Roscosmos said days later.
China’s great leap
China is pursuing plans to send a crewed mission to the moon by 2030 and build a base there.
NASA’s Artemis
NASA’s Artemis 3 mission is set to return humans to the moon in 2025.
Elon Musk’s firm SpaceX won the contract for a landing system based on a version of its prototype Starship rocket, which remains far from ready. An orbital test flight of the uncrewed Starship ended in a dramatic explosion in April.
New players
Recent technological progress has reduced the cost of space missions and opened the way for new players in the public and private sectors to get involved.
But getting to the moon is not an easy task. Israeli non-profit organisation SpaceIL launched its Beresheet lunar lander in 2019 but it crashed.
And in April this year, Japan’s ispace was the latest company to try, and fail, at the historic bid to put a private lunar lander on the moon.
India’s moon-landing mission has received support from across the country’s western border, with Pakistan’s former Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry calling it “a great day for Indian science community and space scientists”.
All eyes on #Chandryaan3 Moon landing 5:40 PM, great day for Indian Science Community and Space scientists, Congratulations to people of India on this great achievement
— Ch Fawad Hussain (@fawadchaudhry) August 23, 2023
Chandrayaan-3 reflects India’s aerospace growth
India has a comparatively low-budget aerospace programme, but one that has grown considerably in size and momentum since it first sent a probe to orbit the moon in 2008.
The latest mission comes with a price tag of $74.6m – far lower than those of other countries, and a testament to India’s frugal space engineering.
Experts say India can keep costs low by copying and adapting existing space technology, and thanks to an abundance of highly skilled engineers who earn a fraction of their foreign counterparts’ wages.
In 2014, India became the first Asian nation to put a satellite into orbit around Mars and is slated to launch a three-day crewed mission into Earth’s orbit by next year.
Chandrayaan-3 Mission:
🌎 viewed by
Lander Imager (LI) Camera
on the day of the launch
&
🌖 imaged by
Lander Horizontal Velocity Camera (LHVC)
a day after the Lunar Orbit Insertion
— ISRO (@isro) August 10, 2023
Explained: The race to the moon’s south pole
Why is finding water on the moon so important and what makes its south pole so tricky?
Click here to read about the presence of frozen water on the moon – and why space agencies and private companies see it as crucial to a moon colony, lunar mining and potential missions to Mars.
‘Very important for India’
The Chandrayaan-3’s landing on the moon is “very important” for India, according to Carla Filotico, a consultant at SpaceTec Partners.
The mission’s success will help India demonstrate its “technological advancement”, she told Al Jazeera.
“It is important for scientific exploration as it is landing on the [moon’s] south pole and it will allow India to explore the water and ice on the moon,” Filotico explained.
“[It will help in] accumulating data on science and geology of the moon and gather information on exploration of the solar system’s history and evolution.”
Australian arm of NASA’s Deep Space Network ‘in touch with Chandrayaan-3’
The Deep Space Network (DSN) in Australia says it is in touch with Chandrayaan-3 as it prepares for its lunar landing attempt.
The Canberra DSN is part of the international, NASA-operated DSN communications network, which supports space missions and makes observations of the universe. It is managed by the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, an Australian government agency responsible for scientific research.
Deep Space Station 36 is in touch with @isro’s #Chandrayaan3 spacecraft as it prepares for its landing attempt on the Moon in about 10.5 hours from now.
Watch the tracking on https://t.co/r97HjvF1aT #Chandrayaan3Landing
📡〰️〰️〰️〰️〰️〰️🛰️🌗🇮🇳 pic.twitter.com/LxNcD3T3hl
— CanberraDSN 📡 (@CanberraDSN) August 23, 2023
Photos: India counts down to historic moon landing
Excitement is rising in India over the much-anticipated moon landing with prayers held for its success, schools marshalling students to watch a live telecast of the event and space enthusiasts organising parties to celebrate.
Click here to view photos of India’s build-up to Chandrayaan-3’s landing.
Mission objectives of Chandrayaan-3
The ISRO has unveiled the mission objectives of Chandrayaan-3:
Live telecast to begin at 11:50 GMT
India’s space agency says it is prepared to initiate the automatic landing sequence at 5:44pm (12:14 GMT). A live broadcast of the event is to begin 24 minutes earlier.
Chandrayaan-3 Mission:
All set to initiate the Automatic Landing Sequence (ALS).
Awaiting the arrival of Lander Module (LM) at the designated point, around 17:44 Hrs. IST.
Upon receiving the ALS command, the LM activates the throttleable engines for powered descent.
The… pic.twitter.com/x59DskcKUV
— ISRO (@isro) August 23, 2023
Political and economic stakes of mission
A successful mission would make India the fourth country to successfully land on the moon after the former Soviet Union, the US and China and would mark its emergence as a space power, just ahead of national elections next year.
Modi’s government is looking to spur investment in private space launches and related satellite-based businesses.
India wants its private space companies to increase their share of the global launch market fivefold within the next decade.
Modi said when the moon mission launched that ISRO was writing “a new chapter in India’s space odyssey” and elevating “the dreams and ambitions of every Indian”.
ISRO plans to telecast the planned landing starting from 5:20pm (11:50 GMT).
Earlier attempts and challenges
India’s previous attempt to land on the lunar south pole failed in 2019.
Chandrayaan-2 successfully deployed an orbiter, but its lander and rover were destroyed in a crash near where the Chandrayaan-3 will attempt a touchdown.
Rough terrain is one of the complications for a south pole landing. ISRO scientists said they have made adjustments that make it more likely the current mission will stick its landing. Those include a system to broaden the potential landing zone. The lander has also been equipped with more fuel and sturdier legs for impact.
Key facts about Chandrayaan-3
Here are key facts about the Indian Space Research Organisation’s (ISRO) Chandrayaan-3 mission.
The mission
- The Chandrayaan-3 is aiming for the lunar south pole, a region with water ice, or frozen water, that could be a source of oxygen, fuel and water for future moon missions or a more permanent moon colony.
- If it lands successfully, the Chandrayaan-3 is expected to remain functional for two weeks, running a series of experiments including a spectrometer analysis of the mineral composition of the lunar surface.
- The Chandrayaan-3 lander stands about two metres tall and has a mass of just over 1,700 kilogrammes (3,747.86 lbs), roughly on par with an SUV. It is designed to deploy a smaller, 26kg lunar rover.
- NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said in a statement to Reuters that the US space agency was “looking forward” to what would be learned from the Indian mission.
Anticipation reaches fever pitch
Anticipation and excitement for the landing have reached fever pitch, with banner headlines across newspapers, and news channels running countdown timers to the landing.
Prayers were held in temples, mosques and churches in the country, and schoolchildren waved the Indian tricolour as they waited for live screenings of the landing.
The highly anticipated Indian moon landing will be watched as people crowd around televisions in offices, shops, restaurants and homes.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will watch the landing from South Africa, where he is attending the ongoing BRICS summit, media reported.
Hopes pinned on India’s lunar mission
A lander with a rover inside was orbiting before attempting to touch down on the lunar surface, creating an agonising wait for India’s space scientists in the southern city of Bengaluru.
India is making its second attempt in four years to join the United States, the Soviet Union and China in achieving the landmark.
A previous Indian effort failed in 2019, and the latest attempt comes just days after Russia’s first moon mission in almost 50 years, destined for the same region, crashed on the lunar surface.
India racing to be number one
India could become the first nation to land a spacecraft on the moon’s south pole, days after a Russian probe crashed in the same region – an historic moment for the world’s most populous nation, as it rapidly closes in on milestones set by global space powers.
Chandrayaan-3, which means “Mooncraft” in Sanskrit, is scheduled to touch down shortly after 6pm India time (12:30 GMT) on Wednesday near the little-explored lunar south pole. | Space Technology |
Rameswaram: The experts involved in developing complex rocket missions in the US suggested that India share its space technology with them after witnessing the developmental activities of the Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft, said ISRO Chairman S Somanath on Sunday.
Times have changed and India is capable of building the best of devices and rockets and that is why Prime Minister Narendra Modi has opened the space sector to private players, he added.
Somanath was addressing students at an event organised by Dr A P J Abdul Kalam's Foundation, commemorating the 92nd birth anniversary of the late former Indian President.
"Our country is a very powerful nation. Our knowledge and intelligence level in the country is one of the best in the world," the ISRO chief said, explaining, "In Chandrayaan-3, when we designed and developed the spacecraft, invited experts from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, NASA-JPL, who does all the rockets and most difficult mission."
He continued: About 5-6 people from NASA-JPL came (to ISRO headquarters) and we explained to them about Chandrayaan-3. That was before the soft landing took place (on August 23). We explained how we designed it, how our engineers made it, and how we were going to land on the Moon's surface, and they just said, 'no comments. everything is going to be good."
"JPL is a research and development laboratory funded by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and managed by the California Institute of Technology (CALTECH) in the United States of America. They (US space experts) also said one thing, 'look at the scientific instruments, they are very cheap. Very easy to build and they are high technology. How did you build it? Why don't you sell this to America,' they were asking," the ISRO chairman said.
"So you (students) can understand how times have changed. We are capable of building the best equipment, best devices, and the best rockets in India. That is why our Prime Minister Narendra Modi has opened the space sector," he added India successfully touched down near the south pole of the Moon with Chandrayaan-3's lander on August 23, making it only the fourth country to achieve the feat of reaching lunar surface after the US, China and the erstwhile Soviet Union.
Somanath further told the students, "Now we are telling you people (to) come and build rockets, satellites and make our nation more powerful in space technology. It is not only ISRO, everybody can do it in space. There is one company in Chennai building rockets called Agnikul and another in Hyderabad called Skyroot. At least in India, there are five companies today building rockets and satellites."
Appealing to the young audience at the venue to follow the ideology of Kalam, Somanath said the most powerful tool is to dream and "Kalam sir told you that you should dream when you are awake and not in the night. Anybody have such dreams? Anybody want to go to the Moon? When we landed Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft on the Moon, I declared to Prime Minister (Narendra Modi) that India is on the Moon. And he asked when are you going to send an Indian to the Moon. So, some of you sitting here will do that job. Some of you will design the rocket which will go to the Moon," he said. And at the launch of Chandrayaan-10, one of you will go sitting inside the rocket and most probably a girl child. A girl astronaut will go from India and then land on the Moon (in Chandrayaan-10 mission) he said, amid applause from the students. | Space Technology |
Nasa plans to fund a nuclear rocket that can cut the Mars Travel Time from 7 months to 45 days without much radiation exposure. Bimodal Nuclear Thermal Rocket Can Reduce Mars Travel Time by 45 Days Source: Reet Feed Read Also: Penguin Poop Footage From Space Leads Scientists to Hidden Penguin Colony It has been stated that this Bimodal Nuclear Thermal Rocket will be so mighty that it can travel with both cargo and men to Mars without any radiation effects. This concept of a Bimodal Nuclear Thermal Rocket has been put into plans by one of the professors of the University of Florida, Mr. Ryan Gosse. Mr. Gosse has claimed that this revolutionary design will significantly help us with deep space exposure. Nasa is planning to fund the rocket development of this new design with a series of funding and more risk and reward basis. They are willing to work with projects drastically improving space exposure within the next decade. Jim Reuter from NASA’s Space Technology Mission has reported that with the help of the US government and the technology industry, the US is advancing its space nuclear propulsion. NTP & NEP Collectively To Reduce Mars Travel Time Source: BGR If we look at the history of Space programs, from the 1950s to the 1980s, America and the Soviet space program are working to explore more and more possibilities to use NTP (Nuclear Thermal Propulsion) for travel in space. This technology uses heating liquid hydrogen propellant into nuclear reactors and is thus able to generate thrust-generating plasma. After that, with more development in the 2000s, NASA tried to develop some new technologies which use NEP (Nuclear Electric Propulsion) to generate electricity for the engine, which is further capable of generating more electromagnet field so that it can use gas as the thrust. And now, Nasa is planning to use both the technologies of NTP and NEP together, as inspired by the design of Mr. Gosse. It has been supported that using these technologies together will help speed doubling. And it will be faster than either of these technologies could achieve alone. So What is your pick on this new design and the funding by NASA? Do you think it will help reduce Mars Time Travel? Feel free to share your thoughts on this. | Space Technology |
NASA is pressing ahead with its mission to mine metals on the moon, seeking to bolster the sustainable space travel market and set the tone for a growing space race with China.
The space agency has announced a search for university researchers to explore using metal extracted from the surface layer of the moon in 3D printing and other material sciences technologies.
The solicitation joins a growing roster of efforts out of NASA to leverage resources in space to avoid having to use more fuel from Earth.
This kind of work conjures sci-fi images of robotic moon mining rigs feeding sophisticated manufacturing plants that can be used for repairing vehicles or building facilities for lunar operations.
“There are certain metals we might be able to extract in different parts of the moon and we might need to start manufacturing with them if we are going to build things on the moon,” said NASA Space Technology Research Grants program executive Matt Deans.
While at an early stage, Deans said “the solicitation does spell out we want to construct things eventually.”
The Lunar Surface Technology Research program is part of NASA’s Lunar Surface Innovation Initiative to fund early-stage technology that could end up transitioning into large production contracts.
NASA isn’t the only organization putting money toward this space mining goal.
Venture-backed asteroid mining startup AstroForge is working on technology to extract and process materials on-site, meaning they would need less volume and fuel to get back to Earth.
Earlier this month, Blue Origin, founded by Jeff Bezos, showcased its Blue Alchemist program using simulated lunar rock layer to make solar cells and transmission wire. The company has been working on resource extraction and utilization with NASA for years.
Rising interest in metal mining in space coincides with improvements and greater investment in tech like 3D printing, which government agencies have been eyeing for shipyards and other manufacturing hubs.
Moon Materials
Metal isn’t the only, or even the main, resource being discussed in terms of extraction from the moon.
Deans said the agency historically focused on what are called mission consumables: “things you burn or breathe, and primarily water and oxygen.”
Metal mining is a bit farther down the road, RAND senior engineer Jan Osburg said.
Water on the moon is trapped in craters that never see sunlight, and once extracted it could provide future NASA operations with everything from hydrogen fuel to oxygen for astronauts.
Generating oxygen—which has obvious benefits for human explorers of space—is in the experimental stage. A program called the Mars Oxygen In-Situ Resource Utilization Experiment, or MOXIE, features a payload on the Perseverance rover.
All of that production of water or oxygen takes energy. Extracting metal requires even more to get out of rock, process, and use in manufacturing.
Some potential solutions include nuclear reactors, Osburg said. And while LuSTR focuses on grants, he says the tech that eventually transitions into contracts will fuel the future of travel in space. “Every contract awarded for that is some piece of the process for turning the lunar South Pole into some kind of a resource hub.”
“We have a bunch of technologies that are eventually going to the moon in the not-too-distant future that have their roots in our early-stage innovation programs,” Deans said.
LuSTR is also looking at active dust mitigation technology and the use of coordinated robots for “extreme access and exploration” of the moon.
New Space Race
Osburg said the establishment of the agency’s Artemis lunar exploration mission spending targets a concrete set of problems with a clear goal in mind.
“We’re not just developing tech for ‘TBD’ future use,” he said.
China’s accelerating investments in space have increased the urgency as well, sparking something of a new space race that NASA and other US agencies hope to win. “The Chinese definitely have clear ambitions and are taking steps toward it,” Osburg said.
When it comes to resource extraction, Osburg said there’s a clear advantage to being first. “Even though space is literally or at least practically infinite,” Osburg said, “there are very few of these spots that are what I’d call prime real estate in space that are reachable and we can leverage with our current technology in the next few decades.”
The advantage extends beyond getting first dibs on what there is to be dug up. There’s also the role in establishing norms and precedents for how space operations should be conducted.
Existing treaties, such as the Outer Space Treaty, offer some guidance—such as prohibiting land claims on the moon—but many have yet to be tested in real world operations. | Space Technology |
Press play to listen to this article Russia's invasion of Ukraine has the European Space Agency pushing for a record budget increase in an effort to boost autonomy and end reliance on Moscow's space technology, agency Director General Josef Aschbacher told POLITICO. “Because of the crisis, we need to be independent and autonomous in space,” said Aschbacher, likening the rush to detach from Russia on orbital projects to Europe's attempts to end its reliance on Russian natural gas supply. Since the Kremlin launched all-out war on Ukraine in late February, ESA has dramatically scaled back its cooperation with Russia and the country's national space agency Roscosmos. For example, the agency decided in March to suspend work on ExoMars, a rover mission to the red planet supposed to launch from Kazakhstan this month. Russia also withdrew its engineers from Europe’s spaceport in French Guiana, from where its Soyuz rocket had been used alongside the Europe-built Ariane and Vega systems since 2011. That means alternative ways of getting projects such as the Euclid research mission into orbit need to be worked out. “We have been depending significantly on Russia — ExoMars and Soyuz are two examples, but also when it comes to many components, raw materials and even ion thrusters,” Aschbacher said. “We have terminated this cooperation [with Russia] ... So we need to establish a more resilient, autonomous and strategically independent industry." Aschbacher said his draft plan, pending last-minute changes, is to ask ESA's 22 member countries — which mostly overlap with the EU’s own membership — to contribute approximately €18.5 billion at the ministerial summit set to take place in Paris on November 22 and 23. That's an increase of nearly 30 percent on the €14.4 billion agreed by ministers at the last ESA summit in 2019. The new funding will be used to finance projects on everything from boosting existing satellite programs such as Galileo and Copernicus to a European plan to develop human spaceflight and research schemes on deep space exploration. For example, as part of the overall budget, the space chief said he’ll ask ministers to contribute an estimated €750 million to an entirely new communication satellite constellation project pushed by Internal Market Commissioner Thierry Breton. That scheme is aimed at establishing a new European network to provide secure high-speed internet services as a rival to the likes of SpaceX's Starlink. The November meeting of space ministers will also address an alternative plan for ExoMars, potentially looking to replace Roscosmos with NASA. Ministers will also assess options for getting satellites into orbit without Russia's Soyuz as Europe's Ariane 6 rocket is still months away from a debut. Over the coming weeks, Aschbacher said he is also closing out the selection process for the next generation of European astronauts; the plan is to announce the final names to replace the current team, which includes France's Thomas Pesquet and Italy's Samantha Cristoforetti, at the Paris summit. This article is part of POLITICO Pro The one-stop-shop solution for policy professionals fusing the depth of POLITICO journalism with the power of technology Exclusive, breaking scoops and insights Customized policy intelligence platform A high-level public affairs network | Space Technology |
Chad Fish/AP
toggle caption
A fighter jet flies near a large balloon drifting above the Atlantic Ocean, just off the coast of South Carolina near Myrtle Beach, Feb. 4. Minutes later, the balloon was struck by a missile from an F-22 fighter jet, ending its weeklong traverse over the United States. China said the balloon was a weather research vessel blown off course, a claim rejected by U.S. officials.
Chad Fish/AP
A fighter jet flies near a large balloon drifting above the Atlantic Ocean, just off the coast of South Carolina near Myrtle Beach, Feb. 4. Minutes later, the balloon was struck by a missile from an F-22 fighter jet, ending its weeklong traverse over the United States. China said the balloon was a weather research vessel blown off course, a claim rejected by U.S. officials.
Chad Fish/AP
TAIPEI, Taiwan — Back in March 2018, Chinese officials and key state scientists gathered in Beijing to celebrate the start of a new front in research: near space.
That's a part of airspace 60,000 to 330,000 feet from the ground, just before the beginning of outer space — and historically overlooked by militaries, until recently.
"Strengthening the exploration and understanding of near space, seizing the strategic commanding heights of near space and cultivating emerging high-tech industries have become the focus of competition among countries around the world," declared Xiang Libin, a vice president of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Xiang, an engineer who specializes in microsatellites and space technology, also serves as chief commander of the Beidou satellite system, China's competitor to the U.S.-run GPS.
The research initiative would be dubbed the Honghu Program and focused on producing near-space technology that can "identify clearly, stay in place and be useful," Xiang said. He vowed to build "my country's first near-space science experiment system."
Earlier in February, American defense officials revealed they had been tracking a Chinese balloon they alleged had been set aloft for intelligence-gathering purposes that had drifted over continental United States. The U.S. soon shot down the balloon, setting off further diplomatic tensions between the two countries.
While it is unclear whether Honghu's research was incorporated in the object shot down by the U.S., the program's existence reflects the renewed importance Chinese military officials attach to airships. These airships, officials and researchers say, are not just tools for surveillance or gathering weather and meteorological data, but they also provide help with advanced weapons China is building, including hypersonic missiles, and are a new and important area of competition with the U.S.
Kin Cheung/AP
toggle caption
In this Nov. 7, 2018, file photo, a model of the Chinese BeiDou Navigation Satellite System is displayed during an aerospace exhibition in Zhuhai city, south China's Guangdong province. The system is China's version of the U.S. GPS.
Kin Cheung/AP
In this Nov. 7, 2018, file photo, a model of the Chinese BeiDou Navigation Satellite System is displayed during an aerospace exhibition in Zhuhai city, south China's Guangdong province. The system is China's version of the U.S. GPS.
Kin Cheung/AP
Near space is an emerging battleground
U.S. defense officials say they believe the downed balloon was part of a fleet of surveillance airships Beijing has been building and deployed over 40 countries around the world. Suspected Chinese balloons have been spotted in Japan, Taiwan, India, Latin America and Hawaii in the past three years.
The sightings could reflect years of Chinese state and private investments into balloon capacity, making use of a centuries-old technology that could drift at low enough speeds that radar systems might not immediately tag them as foreign objects.
China's efforts to develop aerial surveillance capacities were partly prompted by competition with advancements in near-space technology in other countries, including from the U.S.
"Near space has become a new battleground in modern warfare," said the Liberation Army Daily, a state-run newspaper affiliated with the Chinese military.
The balloons float along a band of the atmosphere up to 164,000 feet high, just before outer space begins — the peripheral area called near space. That altitude, straddling outer space and commercial airspace, makes the balloons useful for fine-tuning and targeting hypersonic weapons, which China is developing.
Ng Han Guan/AP
toggle caption
Military vehicles, carrying DF-17, roll down as members of a Chinese military honor guard march during the parade to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the founding of Communist China in Beijing, Oct. 1, 2019. China's military showed off a new hypersonic ballistic nuclear missile in the parade.
Ng Han Guan/AP
Military vehicles, carrying DF-17, roll down as members of a Chinese military honor guard march during the parade to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the founding of Communist China in Beijing, Oct. 1, 2019. China's military showed off a new hypersonic ballistic nuclear missile in the parade.
Ng Han Guan/AP
"When you're launching a ballistic missile, the meteorological information about where you launch is probably the most important meteorological data that you can cover. But hypersonic weapons fly low, on the edge of the stratosphere at altitudes of 100,000 to 120,000 feet. The balloon is giving you that data," says Carl Schuster, a retired U.S. Navy captain and former director of operations at then-U.S. Pacific Command's Joint Intelligence Center.
Their hypersonic application has turned slow-moving balloons, previously considered a low-tech option, into a surveillance and navigational tool seen as increasingly crucial by Chinese military officials.
"Near-space vehicles have increasingly become the new darling of long-range and rapid strike weapons, and the pace of future wars will therefore be significantly accelerated," declared an editorial last year in Chinese state media.
Even weather research can have military applications
The Honghu Program — named after the Chinese for "swan" — is one key way China has tried to advance its high-altitude technology.
Run through the state-run Laboratory of Quantitative Remote Sensing Information Technology in Beijing, the Honghu Program's researchers focused their efforts on developing materials light yet strong enough to prevent gas leakage at such high altitudes and to improve the limited steering abilities of the blimps.
"There is no air convection effect in the adjacent space, so the aircraft is difficult to control," Chinese military commentators have noted.
Over the next two years, scientists affiliated with the project would conduct six experiments launching balloons from northwestern Qinghai province, off the elevated Tibetan plateau that extends into the province. The experiments were designed to collect atmospheric and wind data as well as ground data from the balloons, according to state media.
Much of that research appears purely scientific, based on papers and patents published by near-space researchers, in line with Beijing's claim that the airship shot down over the U.S. was a civilian research balloon. Yet even simple meteorological data can have military applications, say analysts, collected at a fraction of the cost of operating a satellite.
"Balloons are one possible way to do what the U.S. military calls a kill chain. It's kind of all the steps you would need in terms of finding the target, getting that information to the hypersonic missiles, then giving updates to the missile," says William Kim, a consultant for Washington-based think tank the Marathon Initiative.
That importance has led the Chinese government to bring in private players as well. Less than a week after the U.S. shot the Chinese balloon out of the sky, the U.S. Commerce Department slapped sanctions on six Chinese entities "for their support to China's military modernization efforts, specifically the People's Liberation Army's (PLA) aerospace programs including airships and balloons and related materials and components."
Four of the six companies are private enterprises founded or run by just two men: Wu Zhe, an aerospace engineer and professor, and Wang Dong, a technology investor.
"Beijing's own program of civil military fusion certainly seeks to bring in more private companies, largely because I think the Chinese government views them as more innovative and providing better capabilities than what their state-owned enterprises have been able to do in the past," says Matthew Turpin, who served as a top White House China expert in the Trump administration.
An online biography for Wu showed a career first built within the public sector, teaching at Beihang University, a state aeronautics institute now sanctioned by the U.S. government for its military ties. He then became a member of the Chinese army's General Armaments Department.
In 2015, Wu struck out on his own, founding an aerospace company dedicated to developing what it called "near-space vehicles," including balloons. In 2019, one of his companies said it successfully circumnavigated the globe with a silvery, high-altitude blimp.
Such private innovation seems motivated in part by geopolitical rivalry with the United States. Published papers from Chinese government-affiliated research bodies closely monitored U.S. private companies and technology, including SpaceX, and measured domestic progress in near-space research with these companies.
"First of all, near-space airships are different from satellites and airplanes in that they can track a certain position on the ground in one place for a long time," according to a military editorial in Xinhua, China's state news agency. "Secondly, the near-space aerostat is very close to the Earth, so whether for surveillance or for filming, the image will be very clear."
The relatively close distance near-space balloons have to the Earth's surface and their ability to stay fixed to one spot, depending on the winds, let them fill a surveillance niche missed by satellites.
"You can know who key individuals are who work in certain areas," says Turpin, who is a visiting fellow at the Hoover Institution, a Washington think tank. That means Beijing can use high-resolution imagery amassed over time to map out the routines and locations of important personnel who work at military sites.
The suspicion that foreign countries are gathering intelligence from the air runs both ways. Earlier this month, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson accused the U.S. of flying its own surveillance vehicles "more than 10 times" into Chinese airspace above Xinjiang and Tibet — which the U.S. has denied.
"We do not send spy balloons over China — period," Secretary of State Antony Blinken told NPR in an interview. | Space Technology |
Hearing the term “zombie satellite” immediately conjures an image of a poor plot device for some scifi B-movie where dead satellites come to life looking to consume the brains of a group of unsuspecting space travelers. But zombie satellites are a real thing, although they are not looking for brains. Instead, they are a satellites that begin transmitting again for no apparent reason after an extended period of inactivity. There are several such satellites that have been observed by amateur radio enthusiasts specializing in tracking satellites. One of the older and more interesting examples is the Lincoln Experimental Satellite 1 (LES 1) launched back in 1965.
The Lincoln Experimental Satellite
The Lincoln Experimental Satellite series was part of a USAF-sponsored program run by the MIT Lincoln Laboratory in Lexington, Massachusetts. With eight satellites launched between 1965 and 1976, the purpose of the series was to develop new communication technologies and techniques to support future Department of Defense (DoD) communication satellite needs. As its name implies, LES 1 was the first satellite in this series.
The goal of the LES 1 mission was to test an all-solid-state X-band transmitter on an Earth satellite for the first time as well as several other enabling technologies. Built by TRW, LES 1 was a 26-sided polyhedron 61 centimeters across with a mass of 31 kilograms (a microsatellite by today’s definition). Its 18 square faces were covered with 2,376 solar cells that generated a minimum of 26 watts to power the satellite when it was in sunlight. While in the Earth’s shadow, the satellite would shut down until orbital dawn. The other 8 triangular faces supported Earth and Sun sensors and semi-directional antennas. This mission would test an electronic switching system that used readings from the Earth sensors to selectively activate the antennas pointing at the Earth as the satellite spun in orbit. The spin-stabilized satellite made use of passive thermal control and a set of magnetic torquers to orient the satellite to optimize its solar power supply and thermal balance.
Operating at a frequency of about 8 GHz in order to make use of existing satellite communications infrastructure at Lincoln Lab, LES 1 would use its 200-milliwatt X-band transmitter, employing a variety of complex signal modulation schemes, to relay voice and data between two points on the Earth which were equipped with 18-meter dish antennas. The ground element of this program included a sister project, Lincoln Experimental Terminal 1 (LET 1), designed to evaluate mobile satellite ground station technologies. In addition to its X-band experiment, LES 1 included a UHF transmitter operating at 237 MHz to transmit telemetry using bi-phase modulation for the first time. The satellite included a timer to shut down its transmitters after two years in orbit.
The launch vehicle for LES 1 was the three-stage Titan IIIA being used for test flights of hardware for use in the larger Titan IIIC rocket being developed by the USAF. The first two-stages of the Martin Marietta Titan IIIA were upgraded versions of the Titan II ICBM which had been structurally reinforced to handle additional stages and larger payloads. The third stage, called the Transtage, used a pair of restartable Aerojet AJ10-138 engines to place payloads into their required high Earth orbits. While the Titan IIIA (which was capable of placing up to about four metric tons into low orbit or about a metric ton into a geosynchronous transfer orbit) could have been used as a medium-class launch vehicle in its own right, in the end it was flown only to support development of other members of the Titan III rocket family. The Titan IIIA was meant to serve as the core of the larger Titan IIIC which would use a pair of 3-meter solid rocket motors to improve its payload capability significantly.
The LES 1 Mission
LES 1 was slated to be flown on the third development flight of the Titan IIIA. Since the primary objective of this flight was to test the rocket, LES 1 was being flown as a secondary payload on a noninterference basis with the needs of the engineering tests taking precedence. In addition to LES 1, the 485-kilogram payload carried on this flight included a truss structure to support satellite payloads until their deployment. The plan was for the Transtage to make a series of burns after launch to reach a near-circular 2,780-kilometer orbit. LES 1 would then be spun up to 180 rpm and deployed. LES 1 included a Star 13A solid rocket motor manufactured by Thiokol that generated 6.2 kilonewtons of thrust to increase the payload’s velocity by 1,500 meters per second and boost the satellite into its intended elliptical orbit with an apogee of about 18,500 kilometers – well into the van Allen radiation belt encircling the Earth in order to test the radiation resistance of the satellite’s systems. After its Star 13A solid rocket motor finished its job, it would be jettisoned leaving LES 1 to start its two-year mission.
The third Titan IIIA, number 3A-3, lifted off from Launch Complex 20 at Cape Kennedy (which reverted to Cape Canaveral in 1973) at 10:19:05 AM EST on February 11, 1965. After the first two stages of the Titan IIIA completed their task, the Transtage separated and coasted for 13 seconds before igniting its engines for the first time. The initial 290-second burn then placed the Transtage and its payload into a 185-kilometer parking orbit. About two thirds into its first orbit, the Transtage ignited its pair of engines for a second time for 37 seconds to raise its apogee to 2,795 kilometers. After coasting for another orbit and a half, the Transtage ignited its engines for a third time for 28 seconds to circularize its orbit to 2,779-by-2,785 kilometers with an inclination of 32°. Shortly afterwards, LES 1 was deployed but its rocket motor failed to fire as intended because of an ordinance wiring error. Instead of being injected into an elliptical orbit with a 18,500-kilometer apogee, LES 1 was stranded in a lower 2,777-by-2,806-kilometer orbit.
Despite the failure of Star 13A rocket motor to fire, LES 1 was able to gather some useful communication experiment data including voice transmissions between Lincoln Lab’s facility in Westford, Massachusetts and a ground station in Pleasanton, California. With the rocket motor still attached, the initial spin about the long axis of the combination eventually evolved into a dynamically more stable, end-over-end tumble a few days after launch. At this point, additional communications tests were no longer possible because the rotation axis had moved 90° away from that which its Earth sensors and antennas were designed to operate. And with the heavy rocket motor still attached, the satellite’s magnetic torquers were ineffective in altering the spacecraft’s attitude. After 4½ months of operation in a high radiation environment, no significant circuit or component malfunctions were noted. However, solar cell output was being affected over time. With LES 1 dutifully shutting down its transmitters in 1967, its objectives were eventually met by the nearly identical, 37-kilogram LES 2 successfully launched on May 6, 1965 on the last development flight of the Titan IIIA.
It’s Alive!!!
Normally, this would have been the end of the LES 1 story. It was expected to continue circling the Earth silently for millennia to come as its high orbit slowly decayed over time. But on December 18, 2012, Phil Williams from North Cornwall, England (call sign G3YPQ) detected a signal from LES 1 after almost 46 years of silence. Williams’ detection was quickly confirmed by other amateur radio enthusiasts who discovered that whenever the satellite was illuminated by the Sun, its 237 MHz telemetry system was found to be transmitting data. Apparently, a short had developed in the old satellite’s systems allowing power from the solar cells to reach the transmitter directly. A sample transmission received in Brazil at Amateur Radio station PY2ZX in December 22, 2012 is provided in the video below. The tumbling of the satellite modulates the sound being received as its solar panels are periodically shaded by the attached rocket motor. Almost a decade after coming back to life, the zombie LES 1 continues to transmit to this day, although who knows for how long.
Follow Drew Ex Machina on Facebook.
Related Reading
“The First Titan III Launches”, Drew Ex Machina, September 1, 2014 [Post]
“The First Missions of the Titan IIIC”, Drew Ex Machina, June 18, 2015 [Post]
General References
N. Cornwall, “American satellite starts transmitting after being abandoned in 1967”, Southgate Amateur Radio News, February 26, 2013
H. Sherman, D.C. MacLellan, R.M. Lerner and P. Waldron, “Lincoln Experimental Satellite Program (LES-1, -2, -3, -4)”, Journal of Spacecraft and Rockets, Vol. 4, No. 11, pp. 1448-1452, November 1967
William W. Ward and Franklin W. Floyd, “Thirty Years of Space Communications Research and Development at Lincoln Laboratory”, in Beyond the Ionosphere: The Development of Satellite Communications, SP-4217, NASA, 1997
“Third Titan 3A Vehicle Carries Experimental Comsat into Orbit”, Aviation Week and Space Technology, Vol. 82, No. 7, p. 26, February 15, 1965
“Lincoln Experimental Satellite”, TRW Space Log, Vol. 5, No. 2, pp. 39-41, Summer 1965
I would also like to thank one of my long-time readers, Robert Oler, for an update on the current status of transmissions from LES 1. | Space Technology |
NASA awarded new funding to eleven companies today for advanced space tech projects ranging from advanced power generation on the lunar surface to additive manufacturing for space habitats.
The awards, which total $150 million across all eleven companies, were announced as part of the space agency’s Tipping Point program. According to NASA, a technology is a “tipping point” if an investment in a demonstration would significantly mature the technology and bring it to market, for both future NASA missions and commercial customers.
In a statement, Prasun Desai, acting associate administrator for NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate, said that the awards are meant “to push crucial technologies over the finish line.”
“Our partnerships with industry could be a cornerstone of humanity’s return to the Moon under Artemis,” he said.
Five of the eleven awards are for technologies to support long-term exploration of the moon. Those include a $34.7 million award to Blue Origin to continue advancing its solution to process solar cells from lunar regolith, a process the company says “would bootstrap unlimited electricity and power transmission cables anywhere on the surface of the Moon.” The project is part of Blue Origin’s Blue Alchemist initiative it unveiled earlier this year.
Astrobotic, a company that hopes to send a lander to the moon in the fourth quarter of this year, was awarded $34.6 million to demonstrate a new power and transmission system on the lunar surface. The LunaGrid-Lite demonstration will aim to generate solar power and transmit it across a 1 kilometer-long power cable on the moon.
“LunaGrid-Lite will pave the way for power generation and distribution services on the Moon, and change the game for lunar surface systems like landers, rovers, habitats, science suits, and in-situ resource utilization pilot plants,” Astrobotic CEO john Thornton said in a statement. “With renewable, uninterrupted commercial power service, both crewed and robotic operations can be made sustainable for long-term operations.”
The other six projects to have received Tipping Point awards are focused on other areas of space technology. Those include a $1.9 million project from in-space manufacturing startup Varda Space Industries to mature and commercialize an advanced thermal protection system material first developed by NASA. United Launch Alliance was awarded $25 million to continue development of an inflatable heat shield technology, which could possibly be used to return portions of a rocket booster from space.
This is the agency’s sixth Tipping Point award cycle. The full list of awardees and NASA’s total contribution to each project can be found here. | Space Technology |
The Chinese government is building a satellite capable of launching and controlling a swarm of smaller drone satellites — known as cubesats — that can carry out complex attacks around Earth’s orbit. The South China Morning Post first reported that Chinese researchers with the China Academy of Space Technology were studying a satellite mothership that could launch smaller attack satellites. These drone satellites would be able to plot their courses, as well as the courses of adversary satellites, and determine when and how to attack. Each of these smaller drone satellites, known as cubesats, would weigh about two pounds. The satellite mothership could potentially control dozens or even hundreds of the cubesats. According to the Chinese researchers, the tasks this satellite mothership and its smaller drone satellites would carry out would be too difficult for human operators to independently control. Even some artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms would struggle to handle the complex tasks. The Chinese researchers have already tested out an advanced AI algorithm that could manage this satellite drone swarm. Their algorithm was able to plot a complex drone swarm mission in four minutes, 227 times faster than a generic algorithm. The Chinese test algorithm was also able to plot a range of mission options that China’s military could use. In one scenario, the algorithm plotted the most fuel-efficient mission, carrying out the drone swarm attack its range of targets in 68 hours while using about 96kg (212 lbs) of fuel. As an alternative, the algorithm also plotted the fastest mission, which could attack its range of targets in 18 hours, while using 950kg (about 2,094 lbs) of fuel. This satellite mothership and its cubesats are the latest in a number of Chinese anti-satellite and space-based weapons. Russia, which is increasingly becoming a military partner of China, has already been observed using similar small attack satellites. In 2020, small satellites detached from a larger Russian satellite and flew close to a U.S. spy satellite. Russia claimed the small spacecraft were “inspector” satellites, but the U.S. believes they behave more like space-based weapons and could “kinetically kill satellites” operating in low-earth orbit. The Chinese cubesats could pose an even greater threat than Russia’s inspector satellites. | Space Technology |
Home News Tech Artist's illustration of ICON's envisioned Project Olympus lunar construction system in action on the moon.
(Image credit: ICON) A nascent off-Earth construction system just got a big funding boost.NASA has awarded the Texas-based company ICON $57.2 million for its Project Olympus, which is working to develop technology that will allow humanity to build outposts on the moon and Mars using locally available dirt and rock."To change the space exploration paradigm from 'there and back again' to 'there to stay,' we're going to need robust, resilient and broadly capable systems that can use the local resources of the moon and other planetary bodies," ICON co-founder and CEO Jason Ballard said in a statement today (Nov. 29)."We're pleased that our research and engineering to date has demonstrated that such systems are indeed possible, and we look forward to now making that possibility a reality," he added.Related: What would it be like to live on the moon?Artist's illustration of lunar infrastructure built by ICON's Project Olympus construction system, along with a SpaceX Starship in the background. (Image credit: ICON)ICON is a pioneer in the use of advanced construction technologies here on Earth. For example, the company built the first-ever fully permitted 3D-printed home in the United States in 2018 and has since delivered entire communities of such houses in the U.S. and in Mexico. The company launched Project Olympus in 2020, reasoning that its tech could help build critical infrastructure like landing pads, roads and habitats on the moon and Mars. ICON has already produced a prototype of sorts — a simulated 3D-printed Red Planet habitat called Mars Dune Alpha (opens in new tab), which NASA will use to train astronauts for long-duration missions.The newly announced NASA contract, granted via the agency's Small Business Innovation Research program, will help the company mature its tech and procedures. ICON plans to use the money to learn how lunar soil, or regolith, behaves in lunar gravity using simulated samples and real ones brought back by the Apollo missions, company representatives said. The company will also test its hardware and software on a space mission that simulates lunar gravity. And there will be an even more ambitious trial, if all goes according to plan."The final deliverable of this contract will be humanity's first construction on another world, and that is going to be a pretty special achievement," Ballard said in the statement. (He did not go into further detail.)NASA's interest in lunar construction systems is no surprise; through its Artemis program, the space agency is working to establish a sustainable, long-term human presence on and around the moon by the end of the 2020s.The first Artemis mission, Artemis 1, launched on Nov. 16, sending an uncrewed Orion capsule to lunar orbit. Orion is due to return to Earth with an ocean splashdown on Dec. 11."In order to explore other worlds, we need innovative new technologies adapted to those environments and our exploration needs," Niki Werkheiser, director of technology maturation in NASA's Space Technology Mission Directorate, said in the same statement. "Pushing this development forward with our commercial partners will create the capabilities we need for future missions."Mike Wall is the author of "Out There (opens in new tab)" (Grand Central Publishing, 2018; illustrated by Karl Tate), a book about the search for alien life. Follow him on Twitter @michaeldwall (opens in new tab). Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom (opens in new tab) or on Facebook (opens in new tab). Join our Space Forums to keep talking space on the latest missions, night sky and more! And if you have a news tip, correction or comment, let us know at: [email protected].
Michael Wall is a Senior Space Writer with Space.com (opens in new tab) and joined the team in 2010. He primarily covers exoplanets, spaceflight and military space, but has been known to dabble in the space art beat. His book about the search for alien life, "Out There," was published on Nov. 13, 2018. Before becoming a science writer, Michael worked as a herpetologist and wildlife biologist. He has a Ph.D. in evolutionary biology from the University of Sydney, Australia, a bachelor's degree from the University of Arizona, and a graduate certificate in science writing from the University of California, Santa Cruz. To find out what his latest project is, you can follow Michael on Twitter. | Space Technology |
By ZHAO LEI | chinadaily.com.cn | Updated: 2023-01-13 11:33 Share Share - WeChat A photo shows the APSTAR 6E inside a testing chamber at the China Academy of Space Technology in Beijing. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn] China launched a Long March 2C carrier rocket early on Friday morning to transport a communications satellite, the first based on the DFH-3E platform, into space. The rocket blasted off at 2:10 am at the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in Southwest China's Sichuan province and soon deployed the APSTAR 6E satellite into its preset geosynchronous orbit, according to a press release from the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp, the nation's dominant space contractor. The State-owned company said the satellite will be used to provide high-throughput and broadband communication services to Southeast Asian countries. Designed and built by the China Academy of Space Technology, a CASC subsidiary, APSTAR 6E is the first based on the electrically propelled DFH-3E satellite platform, which is intended for operations in geosynchronous orbit. A satellite platform is a framework used to assemble a satellite, or satellite system, in accordance with its role and function. It consists of the universal equipment needed by any satellite such as a power source, propulsion and orbital control devices, as well as instruments specifically designed for the satellite in question. This permits easy configuration. With a liftoff weight of 4.3 metric tons, the APSTAR 6E carries 25 Ku-band transponders and three Ka-band gateway transponders that can provide a combined communication throughput of 30 gigabytes per minute, said Wang Min, the satellite's chief designer. Developed by the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology, another CASC subsidiary, the Long March 2C rocket is 43 meters long and 3.35 meters wide and has a liftoff weight of more than 240 tons. It is the longest-serving rocket model in the Long March family and is mainly used to deploy satellites to low-Earth and sun-synchronous orbits. The launch on Friday marked the 66th flight of the Long March 2C and the 460th of the Long March fleet. It is China's third rocket launch in 2023. China launches new communications satellite Shanghai sets GDP target of 5.5 pct China honors grassroots role models of 2022 Bulk buying slashes dental implant cost Climate envoys for China, US hold talks Nation claws back land suffering from erosion | Space Technology |
NASA aims to inspire future space explorers in fresh and innovative ways.
Case in point: Fictional astronaut Callie Rodriguez advances her outer space exploration mission as the first woman to step onto the moon in a brand-new issue of NASA's "First Woman" digital graphic novel series, "First Woman: Expanding our Universe."
In this second installment, available now at the "First Woman" website, readers will discover how Callie and her fellow astronauts work together as a unit to overcome various obstacles while trying to install a next-generation telescope on the far side of the moon.
Currently published online in English and Spanish, "First Woman: Expanding Our Universe" chronicles the activities of Callie and her team of diverse crewmates as they confront the unknown, make scientific discoveries and accomplish their specific mission objectives.
"Diversity is at the core of NASA's missions, and the reason we continue breaking the boundaries of what's possible. 'First Woman' embodies the rich history of countless women who broke barriers and continue to lead NASA to the stars," NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said in a statement on Thursday (Oct. 26).
"So much of what NASA does is to inspire future explorers, because each member of the Artemis Generation should feel represented in our missions," Nelson said, referring to NASA's Artemis program of lunar exploration. "Callie's story reminds us that we will do what has never been done before — land the first woman on the moon, and it will inspire the world."
In 2021's "First Woman" premiere installment, "Dream To Reality," Callie and her trusty robot RT were holed up safely inside a lunar lava tunnel. Fans can dive back into the moon-based adventure by hopping onto the redesigned "First Woman" website, which also features a new Spanish-language option, or NASA's upgraded "First Woman" app that can be downloaded on Android and iOS.
"Callie is an inspirational character for underrepresented communities and, as a person of Indian descent with young children, I deeply understand the power of a diverse fanbase seeing a place for themselves within our ambitious missions. To solve the many challenges of sustainable lunar exploration, we need innovative ideas from diverse sources and non-traditional communities," Prasun Desai, acting associate administrator for the Space Technology Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington, said in the same statement.
"We continue that aspirational theme with our second issue, diving further into the crew's complex mission and personal backgrounds while expanding a wealth of interactive, multilingual science, technology, engineering and mathematics content across our digital platforms," Desai said. | Space Technology |
The U.S. Space Force this week detected a Chinese reusable spaceplane releasing an object in orbit, officials revealed Friday. China launched its experimental reusable rocket on Aug. 4 and kept it in orbit for 90 days. U.S. officials revealed that space tracking data identified a second object in a similar orbit to the Chinese craft — the nature of which remains unknown. The U.S. Space Force’s 18th Space Defense Squadron determined the object is likely in "very close" proximity to the Chinese craft at a distance of less than 200 meters, according to Orbital Focus. The object may have separated out in the week prior to its detection on Monday. Additionally, the Chinese released no information or statement on the mission since its initial launch, Space News reported. How long the vessel will remain in orbit is also unknown. CHINA LAUNCHES THIRD AND FINAL SPACE MODULE TO COMPLETE SPACE STATIONThe U.S. government regularly struggles to identify flying objects: The Office of the Director of National Intelligence was only able to close out half of the 366 unidentified flying object sightings recorded in 2021. A Long March-5B Y4 rocket, carrying the Mengtian lab module for China's under-construction space station Tiangong, takes off from Wenchang Spacecraft Launch Site in Hainan province, China, on Monday. (China Daily via Reuters)However, Daily Mail senior reporter Josh Boswell told Tucker Carlson that a good portion of those unexplained cases may end up being Chinese drones. GOVT REPORT ALLEGEDLY FINDS MORE THAN 150 CASES OF UNEXPLAINED UFOS: ‘WE DON’T KNOW WHAT THESE THINGS ARE'"The unexplained ones they just have no clue, because these things are moving in ways that we just don’t understand," Boswell said, citing government sources. "At hypersonic speeds, and then they just turn on a dime. I mean, it’s incredible." U.S. Air Force Space Command Vice Commander Lt. Gen. David Thompson, left, and retired Air Force Col. Pamela Melroy testify before the Senate Aviation and Space Subcommittee in the Dirksen Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., on May 14, 2019. ( Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)China’s space technology advancement has concerned U.S. officials, with Gen. David Thompson of the Space Force saying during last year’s Halifax International Security Forum that the "threats are really growing and expanding every single day." RUSSIA LAUNCHES ROCKET WITH MILITARY SATELLITE, UN LOOKS TO BLOCK SPACE ARMS RACE"It’s really an evolution of activity that’s been happening for a long time," Thompson said. "We’re really at a point now where there’s a whole host of ways that our space systems can be threatened." China's space station lab module Mengtian and the rocket Long March-5B Y4 is transported to the launch area at the Wenchang Satellite Launch Center in south China's Hainan Province on Oct. 25, 2022. (Tu Haichao/Xinhua via AP)Thompson had discussed an unspecified number of attacks on U.S. space-based assets that resulted in "reversible" damage but could grow more significant in the coming years. The experimental vessel and the mysterious second object may be related to the development of an orbital segment of a fully reusable two-stage-to-orbit space transport system, which received national funding from the Natural Science Foundation of China. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APPHowever, China still has some kinks to work out in its new systems: A 21-ton Chinese rocket that was expected to crash near Spain instead ended up crashing off the coast of Mexico. Authorities in both countries had to close airports and scramble respective Air Force units to track and contain any potential damage, according to outlet AS. Center for Astrophysics astronomer Jonathan McDowell likened the uncontrolled re-entry to China rolling dice and called the move "irresponsible." Peter Aitken is a Fox News Digital reporter with a focus on national and global news. | Space Technology |
BEIJING, Nov. 10 (Xinhua) -- Visitors at the Airshow China 2022 are able to have immersive experiences in the country's "space home," as a life-size replica of the orbiting Tiangong space station is on display. The layout of the T-shape structure at the show, with a core module at the center and a lab capsule on each side, is identical to what it looks like in space. Besides traveling through the interior cabins, viewers can also take a closer look at the equipment outside the cabin, such as solar wings, relay antennas, and robotic arms. The simulated Tianhe core module has been one of the most eye-catching exhibits due to its large size. According to Wang Xin, a deputy commander responsible for the space station system at the China Academy of Space Technology, the space module is longer than a five-story building and wider than a train or subway car. "It is larger and heavier than any module on the International Space Station," Wang said at the ongoing 14th China International Aviation and Aerospace Exhibition in the port city of Zhuhai, Guangdong Province. Facilities, including a water dispenser, refrigerators, and treadmills that taikonauts use in orbit, are also displayed for public view. In-orbit construction work on Tiangong is proceeding steadily, and China aims to finish building it by the end of this year, according to the China Manned Space Agency. ■ | Space Technology |
In a historic move, Finland has opened its airspace for NATO surveillance and intelligence missions, allowing the alliance to monitor Russian activities more closely in the region.
The first surveillance flight in Finnish airspace was conducted in cooperation with the United States on Thursday 23 March 2023. The flight involved both manned and unmanned aircraft that operated under national direction and supervision, in accordance with Finnish national laws and regulations. The details of the flight were not disclosed for operational security reasons. Similar flights in Finnish airspace will be carried out in the future as well with different types of aircraft, both unmanned and manned.
This decision comes after Finland and Sweden joined a new initiative launched by 16 NATO Allies in February 2023, called Alliance Persistent Surveillance from Space (APSS).
APSS is a virtual constellation of both national and commercial space assets, such as satellites, that leverages the latest advances in commercial space technology. It aims to streamline data collection, sharing and analysis among NATO Allies and with the NATO command structure, while generating cost savings. It also provides a powerful asset for civil-military cooperation and innovation.
According to NATO’s Deputy Secretary General Mircea Geoană, APSS will significantly improve NATO’s intelligence and surveillance, and provide essential support to NATO’s military missions and operations. He also praised Luxembourg’s early contribution of 16.5 million euros that laid the groundwork for this transformative initiative.
Finland’s participation in APSS reflects its deepening cooperation with NATO on security issues, especially in light of Russia’s growing assertiveness and military modernization. Finland is not a member of NATO but has been a partner since 1994 and participates in many NATO-led operations and exercises. Finland also hosts the European Centre of Excellence for Countering Hybrid Threats, which works closely with NATO.
By opening its airspace for NATO surveillance and intelligence missions, Finland hopes to enhance its situational awareness and deterrence posture in the Baltic Sea region. It also hopes to contribute to regional stability and security by sharing information with other partners. Finland’s decision has been welcomed by other Nordic countries as well as by the United States.
In May 2022, Finland applied to join NATO along with Sweden, following the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the escalation of tensions in Eastern Europe. Finland’s decision was supported by most of its political parties and public opinion, as well as by NATO itself. | Space Technology |
Satellite images are helping human rights organizations monitor human trafficking hotspots.
The International Justice Mission (IJM) says a partnership with the space technology company Maxar is allowing it to track the growth of "compounds," places where people are forced to work as online scammers in Southeast Asia. The IJM publicized this effort in a tweet that featured three years of imagery captured by Maxar Earth-observing satellites.
Border towns in Myanmar like Shwe Kokko and Lay Kay Kaw, for example, "host gambling and entertainment complexes developed by Chinese investors" accused of human rights violations, according to the Financial Post.
"People from other nations are tricked into taking jobs and then put into virtual captivity and forced to work in call centers conducting internet scams," the Post wrote in June of the accusations levied.
The United Nations has tracked at least 225,000 human trafficking victims around the world in the past 20 years. Among the most vulnerable are women and those living in areas in conflict, according to the UN.
According to Reuters, the rise of human trafficking was the centerpiece discussion of the summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) on May 10, during which leaders in the region pledged action on the issue.
Thousands of individuals confined in such operations have been "lured by social media posts promising well-paid jobs in countries like Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar," Reuters reported.
ASEAN's statement said that technology, though an "indispensable element" of human lives around the world, has "generated risks and consequences of technology abuse, in facilitating transnational and organized criminal activities."
No country is immune from trafficking, but Southeast Asia is said by experts to have an inordinate number of victims. ASEAN thus pledges to work regionally to find victims or potential victims, as well as to take into account factors that affect vulnerability such as "gender, ethnicity, disability, age" — not to mention poverty.
Aside from examining compounds from orbit, human trafficking can also be detected by other satellite means. Data from satellites operated by the San Francisco-based company Planet, for example, is used by Stanford University's Human Trafficking Data Lab to seek out "forced labor" in deforested areas of Brazil's Amazon rainforest.
Stanford officials stated in 2022 that they hope to develop an algorithm that would alert investigators to sites actively being used; increased charcoal is often a telltale sign of deforestation underway, for example. Quick action may increase enforcement while more easily rescuing victims. | Space Technology |
What is behind all these UFO sightings? We may find out.NASA announced the 16 people who will spend the next nine months studying unidentified aerial phenomena, also known as UFOs.Using unclassified data, the team will "lay the groundwork for future study" of UFOs by examining how the data is gathered by the public, local government and other sources. The goal is to have a roadmap for NASA's data analysis on the flying objects, and determine what events are natural or not."Exploring the unknown in space and the atmosphere is at the heart of who we are at NASA,” Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator of the Science Mission Directorate at NASA, said in a statement. "Understanding the data we have surrounding unidentified aerial phenomena is critical to helping us draw scientific conclusions about what is happening in our skies. Data is the language of scientists and makes the unexplainable, explainable."Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence and Security Ronald Moultrie, right, and Deputy Director of Naval Intelligence Scott Bray speak with a UAP on a screen, during a hearing of the House Intelligence, Counterterrorism, Counterintelligence, and Counterproliferation Subcommittee hearing on "Unidentified Aerial Phenomena," on Capitol Hill, Tuesday, May 17, 2022, in Washington.The announcement of the study participants comes amid a renewed interest in UFOs. In June 2021, the office of the U.S. Director of National Intelligence released a highly anticipated report examining unidentified aerial phenomena, but no "firm conclusions" could be drawn on more than 140 instances.Still, federal officials continue to monitor UAPs because they are viewed as a potential national security threat, according to Rep. André Carson, D-Indiana. The Department of Defense created the Airborne Object Identification and Management Synchronization in November 2021 to track and analyze UFOs, and in May, Congress held its first public hearing on UFOs in more than 50 years. While UFOs are commonly associated with aliens, NASA doesn't think the phenomena are "extra-terrestrial in origin." But the agency says observations make it difficult to draw scientific conclusions.Fact check: Object in video is lost component of International Space Station, not a UFOWhat made South Dakota's sky green?: Reddit users say aliens, Stay-Puft and Marshmallow ManNicole Mann: NASA astronaut becomes first Native American woman in space, hoping to inspire future generationsWho will study UFOs for NASA?In this image released by NASA, Expedition 46 Commander Scott Kelly of NASA is seen after returning to Ellington Field on March 3, 2016 in Houston, Texas after his return to Earth the previous day.The research group picked by NASA include astronomers, scientists, aviation officials, as well as a former astronaut, oceanographer and reporter.Here are the people that will be part of the study:David Spergel: Chair of the study, founding director of Simons Foundation's Flatiron Institute for Computational Astrophysics.Anamaria Berea: Computational and data science associate professor at George Mason University.Federica Bianco: Physics and astrophysics professor at the University of Delaware, the Biden School of Public Policy and Administration and senior scientist at the Multi-city Urban Observatory.Paula Bontempi: Biological oceanographer and dean of the Graduate School of Oceanography at the University of Rhode Island.Reggie Brothers: Operating partner at AE Industrial Partners and former undersecretary for Science and Technology at Department of Homeland Security.Jen Buss: CEO of the Potomac Institute of Policy Studies.Nadia Drake: Freelance science journalist and contributing writer at National Geographic.Mike Gold: Executive vice president of civil space and external affairs at aerospace manufacturer Redwire.David Grinspoon: Senior scientist at the Planetary Science Institute.Scott Kelly: Former NASA astronaut, test pilot, fighter pilot and retired U.S. Navy captain.Matt Mountain: President of The Association of Universities for Research and Astronomy.Warren Randolph: Deputy executive director of the Federal Aviation Administration’s Accident Investigation and Prevention for Aviation Safety department.Walter Scott: Executive vice president and chief technology officer of space technology company Maxar.Joshua Semeter: Professor of electrical and computer engineering, director of the Center for Space Physics at Boston University.Karlin Toner: Acting executive director of the FAA’s Office of Aviation Policy and Plans.Shelley Wright: Associate professor of physics at the UC San Diego’s Center for Astrophysics and Space Studies.The team's full report is expected to be released to the public in mid-2023.'Pillars of Creation': James Webb telescope gives stunning new look at the birthplace of young starsWhat's everyone talking about?: Sign up for our trending newsletter to get the latest news of the dayFollow Jordan Mendoza on Twitter: @jordan_mendoza5.This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: NASA announces group that will study UFOs; report to come out in 2023 | Space Technology |
Greetings Detectives
Welcome to Rocket Roundup, Your favorite Saturday space newsletter! We're here to share exciting space news and discoveries with you.
Let's embark on this cosmic journey together! In This Issue:
Eutelsat and OneWeb merge, forming a pioneering GEO-LEO satellite group.
Starpath Robotics plans lunar water mining for rocket fuel.
U.S. Space Force considers a hotline with China for space diplomacy.
Yahsat scores a $5.1 billion UAE government contract for cosmic connectivity.
Abundant funding news alongside
(Top Stories of this week)
🌐 Eutelsat and OneWeb Join Forces: GEO Meets LEO in Space Symphony 🛰️🚀
"When stars align, satellites combine!" 🌟 - Space Proverb
In a cosmic merger that's making waves across the galaxy, Eutelsat Communications and OneWeb have joined hands to create the Eutelsat Group. It's like the ultimate cosmic team-up, where GEO (Geostationary Earth Orbit) meets LEO (Low Earth Orbit), forming the first-ever integrated GEO-LEO satellite group. 🛰️
This celestial marriage brings together Eutelsat's formidable GEO fleet and OneWeb's expansive LEO constellation. The result? A cosmic cornucopia of connectivity services! Think global fixed connectivity, government services, and mobile connectivity, all bundled into one star-studded package. It's like getting unlimited Wi-Fi across the universe, from the Moon to Mars and beyond. 🌍🌌📡
Hold onto your space helmets, because the Eutelsat Group is set to soar! Analysts predict double-digit revenue CAGR growth, reaching approximately €2 billion in 2027. And that's not all! Adjusted EBITDA is also gearing up for a double-digit CAGR dance over the same period. Talk about financial rocket fuel! 🚀📈💰(Read More)
🌕 Starpath Robotics: Paving the Way for Lunar Liquid Gold 🤖💧
Starpath Robotics is boldly venturing where no robot has gone before – to mine and refine water for rocket propellant on the Moon and Mars. Imagine a lunar landscape filled with tireless robot miners on a quest for liquid gold! 🤖🌕💰
Their grand plan involves deploying a fleet of around 50 mining machines to collect lunar dirt. This lunar loot will then be processed into water and separated into its precious atomic constituents. The mining machines will journey between water-rich craters on the lunar South Pole and high-tech processing plants armed with super-large unfolding solar arrays. The liquid oxygen produced will be safely tucked underground until it's ready to propel rockets into the great cosmic abyss. It's like science fiction turned reality! 🚀🌌
🚀 Partnering with SpaceX: Lunar Dreams on the Horizon
Starpath Robotics aims to play nice with SpaceX's Starship-class vehicles and commercial lunar Starships by 2028. Picture this: Starships touching down on the Moon, loading up on lunar water, and launching back to Earth and beyond. It's like the cosmic equivalent of filling up your gas tank, but with liquid oxygen instead of unleaded. 🚀🌌⛽(Read More)
🌌 Space Force Hotline: Preventing Cosmic Catastrophes 📞🌠
In the name of interstellar diplomacy, the United States Space Force is contemplating a hotline with China. This hotline isn't for ordering pizza in space, though; it's about preventing potential cosmic crises! 🛰️🌏📞
General Chance Saltzman, the man with a name worthy of a sci-fi hero, suggests that direct communication between the Space Force and their Chinese counterparts could help keep tensions in check. But hold your warp drives; no engagement has occurred yet. The decision to launch this cosmic hotline would be made by President Joe Biden and the State Department. It's all about avoiding misunderstandings in the cosmic neighborhood. 🌌🌐🌠(Read More)
🚀 Yahsat's $5.1 Billion Cosmic Contract: Serving UAE's Satellite Dreams 🛰️
Yahsat Government Solutions (YGS), part of Yahsat, just hit the cosmic jackpot! They've been awarded a colossal $5 billion+ contract by the UAE government. It's like winning the space lottery! 🚀🌌💰
Under this 17-year agreement, YGS will provide satellite capacity and managed services to the UAE government, replacing two existing deals. They'll be using the Al Yah 1 and Al Yah 2 satellites, along with the upcoming Al Yah 4 and Al Yah 5, set to launch in 2027 and 2028. It's like a high-stakes poker game in space, and Yahsat just pulled off a stellar bluff! ♠️🚀💫
This contract solidifies Yahsat's dedication to meeting the UAE government's satellite communication needs, ensuring that cosmic conversations continue to flow seamlessly. It's a stellar win for the space communication realm! 🌌📡(Read More)
(Fundings & Earnings news)
🔒 Xage Security Gov: Fortifying the Cyber Cosmic Frontier with a $17 Million Shield 💻
Xage Security Gov, the guardians of zero trust solutions, have struck cyber gold with a $17 million contract from the U.S. Space Force's Space Systems Command (SSC). It's like getting a top-of-the-line cyber blaster to defend the digital galaxy! 💻🌐
The mission? To provide zero trust access control and data protection across SSC's current and future ground and space systems. Zero trust, a buzzword in the Department of Defense, aims to lock down cybersecurity and shrink attack surfaces. And guess who's taking point? Xage's distributed zero trust-based cybersecurity mesh, of course! 🤖🔒🌐(Read More)
💰 Sierra Space's Galactic Fundraising Adventure: $290 Million in Series B 🌌
Sierra Space, the cool kids of commercial space, have hit the jackpot with a stellar $290 million Series B funding round. This raises their total capital to an astronomical $1.7 billion, setting a record for the biggest Series A and B combo in the commercial space realm. They've got a cosmic valuation of $5.3 billion now! 💼💰🌠
Sierra Space plans to use this financial warp drive to establish global partnerships and supercharge their space technology ecosystem. They're turning their Dream Chaser spaceplane into a regular space taxi for NASA, shuttling cargo back and forth to the International Space Station (ISS). And that's not all! They're also building the first commercial space station, destined for Low Earth Orbit (LEO) and beyond. Think of it as a cosmic Airbnb! 🏠🚀🌌(Read More)
🚀 Sidereus Space Dynamics: Blasting Off with €5.1 Million Cosmic Fuel 💥🚀
Primo Space and CDP Venture Capital SGR are doubling down on Sidereus Space Dynamics with a €5.1 million investment. It's like rocket fuel for revolutionizing spaceflight! 🚀🌌💶
The funds are aimed at powering Sidereus Space Dynamics' EOS, a next-gen single-stage launcher designed to make spaceflight as routine as your morning coffee. This is the rocket that will take us to the stars, with the goal of reducing costs and making space more sustainable and versatile. Picture this: EOS soaring into the cosmos, carrying dreams and payloads to the great unknown. It's the dawn of a new space age! 🌠🚀🌌
With this investment, Sidereus Space Dynamics will advance to pre-flight and flight test phases, inching closer to that pivotal moment - the first experimental orbital launch of the EOS rocket. Space exploration just got a turbo boost! 🚀🌌🌟(Read More)
(Other news around the web)
ispace Announces New CEO of ispace U.S. Entity
True Anomaly has secured a $17 million contract with the Space Force to deliver a suite of space domain awareness software products over a four-year period.
Kuiper Exec Dave Limp to Replace Bob Smith as Blue Origin CEO
UK Space Agency has announced plans to invest £79 million in space innovations
ArianeGroup Invests €27M More into MaiaSpace
SpaceX wins first Pentagon contract for Starshield
Sidus Space Names New Board Chair and COO
Let us know what you thought of this week’s newsletter.
DISCLAIMER: (Rocket Roundup is an independent publication and is not affiliated with any government agency or space organization.) | Space Technology |
PM's Announcements Will Provide Clear Focus On Growth Of Space Sector: Industry
"The newly established objectives, as announced by the prime minister today, will serve as the guiding force for India's forthcoming space exploration initiatives," Awais Ahmed, founder and CEO of Pixxel, told PTI.
India's nascent private space industry on Tuesday welcomed Prime Minister Narendra Modi setting goals for the ISRO to establish a space station and send an Indian astronaut to the moon, saying it will be a catalyst for significant technological advancements in the sector.
"The newly established objectives, as announced by the prime minister today, will serve as the guiding force for India's forthcoming space exploration initiatives," Awais Ahmed, founder and CEO of Pixxel, told PTI.
He said the ambitious goals will catalyse significant technological advancements in the space exploration and related fields, and create extensive opportunities for research, generating employment and stimulating public interest.
The prime minister on Tuesday asked space scientists to aim to establish an Indian Space Station by 2035 and send an Indian astronaut on the moon by 2040.
Modi's directions came during a briefing by ISRO Chairman S Somanath on the progress of the Gaganyaan mission, which is to have its first demonstration flight of the crew escape system on Oct. 21, and other initiatives. India's first human space flight is now expected to take off in 2025.
Reacting to the prime minister's announcements, Pawan Chandana, co-founder and CEO of Skyroot Aerospace, said, "So good to hear this. Indian space sector is soaring with more and more ambitious goals. I am sure our private sector will significantly contribute to this lofty goals set by Narendra Modi ji."
"We believe today's announcement of timelines by the prime minister will steadfast India's commitment to bring about our new lease of possibilities for our country in space and drive innovation in this new journey," Lt. Gen. A K Bhatt (Retd.), Director General, Indian Space Association, told PTI.
Bhatt said the astute leadership of the prime minister has been a harbinger of new horizons for Indian space endeavours and has brought a radical shift in the country's efforts and mindset while exploring limitless possibilities in space.
"This will also pave the way for our private space players to contribute to the growing developments in the space sector of our country. The laying down of the aims for establishing the space station by 2035 and landing a man on the moon will provide clear focus for the growth of the Indian space enterprise," he said.
Ahmed said a commitment to setting up a space station by 2035 and sending an Indian astronaut to the moon by 2040 will unmistakably bring space technology to the forefront.
"With our space programmes making strides, the time is ideal to build capabilities within the country. Advancing India's space sector, both in the public and private domains, is a shared priority among industry stakeholders like us," said Ahmed, whose start-up Pixxel is building a constellation of earth observation satellites to provide hyperspectral images at regular intervals.
"Ultimately, this will establish a self-reliant space sector capable of promoting economic growth sustainably," Ahmed said. | Space Technology |
Published January 24, 2023 2:35PM Updated 2:53PM article NASA is working with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to test a nuclear thermal rocket engine in space for a potential trip to Mars. (Credit: Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) A mission to Mars could soon be on the horizon for NASA. The agency is working with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to test a nuclear thermal rocket engine in space for a potential trip to Mars, NASA said in a release Tuesday. The thermal rocket allows astronauts to travel to and from space faster, which is crucial for a mission to Mars because it cuts down on the number of supplies needed for space travel. NASA explains that a nuclear thermal rocket engine uses a fission reactor to produce high temperatures. The engine transfers heat from the reactor to fuel used through a nozzle to propel a spacecraft. According to NASA, the agency’s Space Technology Mission Directorate (STMD) will lead the development of the nuclear thermal engine, which will be part of DARPA’s experimental spacecraft. RELATED: NASA's launch schedule stays full for 2023 after a busy year with historic missions During the project, NASA and DARPA will work together to build the engine before an in-space demonstration scheduled for 2027. "NASA will work with our long-term partner, DARPA, to develop and demonstrate advanced nuclear thermal propulsion technology as soon as 2027. With the help of this new technology, astronauts could journey to and from deep space faster than ever – a major capability to prepare for crewed missions to Mars," NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said in a release. "Congratulations to both NASA and DARPA on this exciting investment, as we ignite the future, together." RELATED: NASA's Virginia rocket launch expected to be visible across DC area; lift off scheduled for Tuesday According to NASA, the last nuclear thermal rocket engine test performed by the U.S. happened over 50 years ago under the agency’s Nuclear Engine for Rocket Vehicle Application and Rover projects. This story was reported from Washington, D.C. | Space Technology |
A delegation of the European Space Agency (ESA) visiting Slovenia ahead of the vote on the country’s full membership of the organisation has commended the country on the progress made since becoming an associate member in 2016.
For Slovenia to be admitted to the ESA as a full-fledged member in the December 2024 vote, a consensus of all of the agency’s members will be needed.
“Slovenia may be small in terms of geography, but its achievements in space technology and space are big,” said Geraldine Naja, director of procurement, industry and competitiveness at the ESA.
With relatively small investment, the country, working along with the company Synergise, has developed key competences from lower domains.
It has market leaders in test equipment, such as Dewesoft, and is increasing its competences in the satellite hardware through companies such as Skylabs.
“In the future, long-term investment in space will be needed, and a coherent space strategy, which Slovenia is already working on,” Naja told reporters on 9 July.
The delegation praised the new draft strategy, which will bring guidance and support to strengthen the space sector in Slovenia until 2030 and is to be adopted by 2024.
Tanja Permozer, head of the Slovenian Space Office at the Economy Ministry, said that special emphasis will be placed on the youth.
The government believes full ESA membership will bring new cooperation opportunities for Slovenian companies and other institutions, especially within the agency’s Mandatory Scientific Programme.
However, Slovenia will also have to pay more into the ESA budget. As an associate member, it would pay €20 million in the next three years, which would double in case of full membership.
But Economy Minister Matjaž Han said that this should not be seen as a cost but as an investment in the future.
As a result of associate membership and activities of the Slovenian Space Office, Slovenian companies have struck more than 70 contracts as part of ESA calls, and the funds they have acquired exceed what Slovenia has contributed to the agency.
The Slovenian space sector has recorded rapid growth since the country became an associate member, Han said.
“Slovenia’s greatest successes include having three satellites in space, with the launch of a fourth planned for next year,” while Planica is home to a “human centrifuge” where special research is being carried out that will be important for preserving the health of astronauts during future missions.
The country is also intensifying bilateral cooperation in the area of space with countries such as Italy, France, Germany and the US.
“Space is definitely the sector of the future, even if it may sound impossible. The space sector is not just about astronauts and rockets, these technologies are embedded in science, business, medicine, telecommunications, the environment, to name but a few,” said Han. | Space Technology |
Elon Musk Congratulates ISRO For Successful PSLV-C55 Launch In Sriharikota
PSLV- C55/TeLEOS-2 mission was accomplished successfully, wrote ISRO after the launch of PSLV-C55
Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, congratulated ISRO (The Indian Space Research Organisation) for successfully launching the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV)-C55 mission from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota on Saturday. Musk took twitter to say "Congratulations!".
The PSLV-C55 mission is the space agency's third major launch of the year and marks the 57th flight for the reliable and cost-effective 228-ton PSLV rocket. The rocket lifted off and entered a low inclination orbit in the eastward direction.
The two satellites on board were developed for the Singaporean government and weighed a combined 757 kilograms. The primary payload, TeLEOS-2, is a Synthetic Aperture Radar 7(SAR) that provides all-weather, day and night coverage with 1-meter full-polarimetric resolution imaging.
The mission also included the PSLV Orbital Experimental Module (POEM), a repurposed fourth stage of the rocket developed by ISRO as an experimental platform for conducting tests with payloads that cannot be separated.
ISRO's successful launch of the PSLV-C55 mission demonstrates the agency's continued commitment to advancing space technology and exploration. With the reliable and cost-effective PSLV rocket, ISRO has established itself as a major player in the global satellite launch market. | Space Technology |
Kim Jong Un’s Trip To Russia May Help Him Put Spy Satellites In Orbit
North Korea failed twice this year to put a satellite into orbit on a new space rocket it rolled out.
(Bloomberg) -- North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is returning from Russia with pledges to help with his space program that could finally allow his country to reach its long-held goal of placing multiple satellites in orbit.
Kim was presented with options for cooperation when he met President Vladimir Putin last week at Russia’s Vostochny Cosmodrome space center, including assistance in building satellites and firing them off on Russian rockets. The official Korean Central News Agency said Monday that Kim has successfully completed “the schedule of his official goodwill visit to the Russian Federation.”
North Korea has tried seven times over the past 25 years to put a satellite — five of the missions crashed into the bottom of the sea and two put something in space, albeit with questionable operating status. The assistance from Russia could help North Korea turn the corner, giving them eyes in the sky to monitor the movements of troops from the US and its allies in the region.
“Satellites are vital to modern military operations and intelligence gathering,” said David Schmerler, a senior research associate at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies. “As North Korea modernizes their strategic and tactical forces, modernizing their ability to leverage space-based sensors and data is a natural progression.”
North Korea failed twice this year to put a satellite into orbit on a new space rocket it rolled out. Russia’s space program, which is more than half a century old and has a proven track record, was once tapped by South Korea for sending its satellites into space.
Schmerler said North Korea is looking to develop its domestic launch capability and may seek help from Russia to do that. It may entertain “the possibility of using a Russian launch service as an alternative until they flesh out their own program, or attempt to launch larger satellites,” he added.
Russia could also offer help and technology to boost the performance of a North Korean satellite. South Korea salvaged one of the failed spy satellites from the sea that Kim’s regime tried to put into orbit this year and concluded that the technology had little military value.
Read: South Korea Salvages North’s Satellite in Intelligence Win
Russian aid “will likely make obtaining materials needed for more sophisticated satellites much easier. Meaning their satellite designs could evolve in complexity at a faster rate, in comparison to having to source the tech, designs, and materials at home,” Schmerler said.
Russia may also offer bigger launch vehicles than North Korea, “offering higher payload mass to orbit, if desired,” said Markus Schiller, an aerospace engineer who founded the ST Analytics consultancy in Germany that specializes in space technology.
Due to its relatively small area, North Korea has limited access to gaining data from satellites from ground tracking stations or intersatellite links, he said. “Access to Russian assets might change that,” said Schiller.
In exchange, North Korea could provide badly needed munitions for Putin’s war in Ukraine. The US has said a potential arms deal would be a focus of Kim’s visit. North Korea sits on vast stories of artillery shells and rockets that can work with Soviet-era weapons the Kremlin has deployed on the front lines.
But North Korea is barred by United Nations Security Council resolutions from conducting ballistic missile tests. The US and its partners have warned that technology derived from North Korea’s space program could be used to advance its ballistic missiles, and warned that any help Putin offers Kim would violate measures that Russia had voted to approve.
Still, North Korea and Russia may argue that every country is entitled to a civilian space program and cooperation would not violate any international accords.
Kim appeared impressed by his visit to the space center and the state’s official media said he left this message in its guest book: “The glory of Russia that produced the first conquerors of space will be immortal.”
--With assistance from Seyoon Kim.
More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com
©2023 Bloomberg L.P. | Space Technology |
China launched a new radar remote sensing satellite for environmental monitoring on Tuesday (Aug. 8).
A Long March 2C rocket lifted off from Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center in Shanxi Province, north China, at 6:53 p.m. EDT on Tuesday (2253 GMT; 6:53 a.m. on Aug. 9 Beijing Time).
The successful launch carried the Huanjing Jianzai-2F, or S-SAR02, synthetic aperture radar satellite for emergency management and environment monitoring, according to China's space authorities.
The satellite entered into a sun-synchronous orbit, meaning the it orbits over the poles and passes over the same region of Earth's surface at roughly the same local solar time during each pass.
S-SAR02 will form an in-orbit network with S-SAR01, which launched in October 2022. Both carry large deployable truss antennas and operate in the S-band, or the microwave portion of the electromagnetic spectrum which space frequencies from 2 to 4 gigahertz. The satellites are able to produce images even during cloudy and rainy weather, filling gaps in the coverage of optical satellites.
Together, the duo will form a preliminary satellite constellation for disaster mitigation, according to Chinese state media outlet Xinhua. Both the S-SAR01 and S-SAR02 satellites launched at 2253 GMT on their respective launch days.
The satellite was built by the China Academy of Space Technology (CAST), the main spacecraft maker under China's state-owned main space contractor, CASC. The Long March 2C rocket was also made by CASC.
The launch was China's 33rd of the year. CASC says it plans to launch more than 200 spacecraft across 2023. | Space Technology |
China's space agency reportedly tested a Stirling converter in orbit
China's Shenzhou-15 mission crew aboard the China Space Station (CSS) has reportedly completed testing on a free-piston Stirling thermoelectric converter, according to a report from state-owned media in China.
The successful test marks the first time China has verified this type of technology in orbit. The experimental technology, which NASA has also investigated, has the potential to provide crucial backup energy to deep space missions.
NASA and China have both experimented with Stirling converters
The Stirling thermoelectric converter is an energy supply technology for space travel that efficiently converts thermal energy into electric energy, enabling spacecraft to reduce their reliance on solar power.
In the Stirling converter, a piston is set in motion by heat generated by a fuel source. The piston then moves a magnet back and forth through a coil of wire to generate an electrical current. The piston is typically suspended in a helium gas bearing to prevent physical wear.
The Lanzhou Institute of Physics at the China Academy of Space Technology developed an iteration of the Stirling converter. According to the CGTN report, it is lightweight, has a simple structure, makes little noise, starts up quickly, and doesn't vibrate much, making it ideal for spacecraft.
The report also claims the technology could play a vital role in the China National Space Administration's (CNSA's) plans to send crewed missions to the Moon and deep space.
China's space industry has made great strides in recent years. Last week, a Chinese startup called Space Pioneer became the first startup in the world to reach orbit on its first launch attempt. The CNSA, meanwhile, recently finished constructing its Tiangong space station, and it performed the first in-situ detection of water from the lunar surface with its Chang'e-5 lunar probe last year.
NASA has also experimented with Stirling converter technology, though its Advanced Stirling Radioisotope Generator (ASRG) was discontinued in 2013. An animation of the technology NASA was working on can be viewed in the video below.
China's Tiangong space station enables in-orbit Stirling converter test
In order to test the Stirling converter technology, prototypes were sent up to the China Space Station, also known as the Tiangong Station, where they were installed in the equipment cabinet of the station's Mengtian lab module.
The device reportedly ran stably during the test and produced "better-than-expected" performance indicators, according to CGTN. It's worth noting that the CNSA has remained tight-lipped about the technology, and no concrete numbers have been shared.
The Mengtian lab of the CSS was launched in October 2022. It was the third and final module to be launched to orbit, marking the completion of the CSS. The module is used to study microgravity and perform experiments in materials science, fluid physics, and other fields. | Space Technology |
The rocket carrying the space station module lifted off from the Wenchang Space Launch Center.Photo: CNSAChina launched its third and final module of its space station on Monday, moving closer to completing its ambitious project in low Earth orbit to rival the International Space Station (ISS).The lab module was encapsulated in a Long March 5B rocket, which lifted off from the Wenchang Spacecraft Launch Site at 3:27 a.m. ET on Monday, according to local media reports. The 23-ton Mengtian module (which translates to “Dreaming of the Heavens”) will rendezvous with its sister modules Wentian and Tianhe in low Earth orbit to form the T-shaped structure of China’s three-module space station named Tiangong (meaning “Heavenly Palace”). The first module of the space station, Tianhe, launched to orbit in April 2021, while Wentian followed more than a year later in July 2022.Mengtian will dock with the forward port of Tianhe, the core of the space station, and a robotic arm will later relocate it to the port side of the Tianhe module, according to Everyday Astronaut. In June, China sent a crew of three astronauts to the space station to oversee the docking of the two modules. The crew is expected to return to Earth in December, after which point the Shenzhou-15 crew will take over.The Chinese National Space Administration (CNSA) will use the Mengtian lab to conduct various microgravity experiments related to fluid physics, combustion science, and space technology, according to China’s state-run news agency Xinhua. Unlike Tianhe, Mengtian does not include living quarters for astronauts.G/O Media may get a commissionInstant FaceliftThink of the Foreo Bear as exercise for your face, engaging muscles to provide radiance and lift with lasting results. The Tiangong space station is China’s answer to the ISS, even though it’s about a quarter of its size. China is hoping to have its space station fully constructed by the end of the year, and keep a constant flow of astronaut crews aboard Tiangong to conduct various experiments. China’s space agency is making headway with its space program, with future missions planned for the Moon and Mars. However, CNSA hasn’t been careful in where debris from its rockets land after they reenter Earth’s atmosphere. This past August, debris from the Long March 5B fell across regions in northern Borneo, and previous incidents have taken place in 2020 and 2021 in which debris from the 100-foot-long (30-meter) core stage crashed along the western coast of Africa and the Indian Ocean. This time around, the core stage from the Long March 5B that lofted the Mengtian module to orbit is expected to make an uncontrolled reentry through Earth’s atmosphere upon its return. It’s not yet clear where pieces of it might land, but this type of free-fall can be hazardous to populous areas below.More: NASA Lacks Plan for Ditching Space Station in an Emergency | Space Technology |
A small suborbital rocket from Colorado-based company UP Aerospace failed shortly after its launch on Monday, exploding seconds after liftoff over the New Mexico desert. The rocket was carrying over a dozen student experiment payloads for NASA, as well as the cremated remains of a late NASA astronaut.
UP Aerospace’s SpaceLoft XL rocket launched at 12:45 p.m. ET on May 1 from Spaceport America. Around three seconds after ignition, the rocket suffered an anomaly and was destroyed in flight, KVIA-TV reported.
The rocket was packed with 13 payloads from NASA’s TechRise Student Challenge—a series of science and technology experiments created by students from the sixth to 12th grades.
“NASA has been a strong supporter of commercial suborbital spaceflight for over a decade,” Christopher Baker, program executive for the Flight Opportunities program at NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate, said in a statement. “Despite the collective experience of the industry, today is another reminder of the many things that must go right on any spaceflight.”
A total of 117 payloads were selected as part of the TechRise challenge, but the 13 that were on board Monday’s launch were all destroyed. “While this is obviously a disappointing outcome for today’s flight, that should not diminish the work it took to get here,” Baker said. “Each of these TechRise student teams should be proud of their accomplishment in delivering an experiment for launch and we will be working on future opportunities for them to see their experiments in space.”
SpaceLoft was also carrying the Aurora Flight mission for Celestis, a company that specializes in space memorial services by launching cremated human remains on microgravity journeys. The Aurora Flight included the remains of NASA astronaut Philip K. Chapman, who died in April 2021. Chapman, an aural/radio physicist, supported NASA’s 1971 Apollo 14 mission to the Moon as its mission scientist. The cremated remains of chemist Louise Ann O’Deen were also aboard.
Chapman was born in Melbourne, Australia, and became the first Australian-born American astronaut when he was selected for NASA’s Astronaut Group 6, the space agency’s second group of scientist-astronauts. Although he never got to go to space himself, Chapman was an Apollo-era astronaut who helped NASA prepare for the lunar missions.
“Regarding today’s launch: We are reviewing the details and the video with UP Aerospace. As soon as we have clearance from them about the details and the video itself, we will share all of that information with families via email,” Celestis wrote on Twitter.
Luckily, the company only packs a “symbolic portion of cremated remains or DNA sample,” from its participants, so Celestis has promised to book another flight for the families of those involved in the failed mission. “All participants aboard Aurora will be offered a complimentary reflight, per their contract with us, on our next Earth Rise mission, named Perseverance Flight,” the company wrote on its Facebook page.
UP Aerospace and Celestis did not immediately return Gizmodo’s request for comment. | Space Technology |
The Federal Aviation Administration has completed the safety review of SpaceX’s Starship, moving the company one step closer to its second test flight, pending an environmental review by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The explosive inaugural launch of Starship turned into a safety and environmental fiasco—a situation that regulators and Elon Musk’s SpaceX are hoping to avoid the second time around.
We’re inching closer to the second flight of SpaceX’s megarocket. The Federal Aviation Administration announced on October 31 that it had completed the safety review portion of SpaceX’s Starship license evaluation, marking an important step forward for the aerospace company. This follows the completion of a comprehensive investigation into the chaotic debut launch of Starship on April 20, which resulted in a self-destruct sequence and dozens of mandated corrections for SpaceX.
In an emailed statement, the FAA highlighted that the public safety portion of the review is now complete. However, the regulator clarified that it is not yet in a position to issue a launch license, as there remains one final regulatory hurdle to overcome. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is currently evaluating the new water deluge system installed at the Boca Chica launch mount, a review that began in earnest on October 19. This assessment, performed under the Endangered Species Act and in consultation with the FAA, could take anywhere from 30 to 135 days to complete. The FWS says it likely won’t need the full allotted time to complete the environmental review, which, if true, could result in Starship taking to the south Texas skies sooner rather than later.
The safety review “focused on issues that affect public health and safety of property,” the FAA explained in its statement. “It consists of evaluating the applicant’s safety organization, system safety processes, flight safety analysis, and quantitative risk criteria for launch, reentry, and vehicle disposal.”
The joint investigation between SpaceX and the FAA following the inaugural test flight, which ended with the rocket self-destructing over the Gulf of Mexico, identified a total of 63 corrective actions for SpaceX. Notably, 27 of these actions were related to public safety. By September 10, SpaceX reported that all of the identified corrective actions had been completed—corrective actions that, as the completed safety review makes clear, have met with the FAA’s approval.
Starship represents a significant advancement in SpaceX’s capabilities, with potential applications ranging from launching satellites to carrying humans on interplanetary missions. The Elon Musk-led company envisions Starship as playing a key role in future space exploration and colonization, and is a critical component of NASA’s Artemis program, which aims for sustainable lunar exploration.
Last week, in preparation for the second test flight, SpaceX successfully stacked a prototype Starship upper stage onto Booster 9 and conducted a wet dress rehearsal. The company has stated that the megarocket is now ready for its second flight, pending the launch license. SpaceX has voiced concerns about the speed at which the current regulatory process is moving. On October 18, company officials, along with representatives from Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic, vented to a Senate subcommittee, urging for a regulatory regime that is more in sync with the rapid advancements in space technology.
“We’ve entered an inflection point, with incredible innovation in commercial space launch. The criticality is especially true in the face of strategic competition from state actors like China,” said Bill Gerstenmaier, vice president of build and flight reliability at SpaceX, during the hearing. The company “is under contract with NASA to use Starship to land American astronauts on the moon before China does,” he added.
That the FAA needs to keep up with the times and grow in accordance with the space industry as a whole is clearly true, but SpaceX wants to have its cake and eat it, too; Musk is known for his opposition to higher taxes on wealthy individuals, yet boosting funding to government agencies could actually speed up SpaceX’s development projects.
SpaceX’s eagerness for a quick launch license is all fine and well, but the issues during the first Starship launch revealed the company’s tendency to prioritize ambition over safety (not that we didn’t know this from the explosive first batch of suborbital Starship tests performed from 2020 to 2021). This underscores the importance of comprehensive regulatory reviews, showing they are vital for accountability, and not merely annoying bureaucratic hoops. | Space Technology |
The CAPSTONE spacecraft continues to operate at the Moon and the vehicle is happy and healthy. The mission has accomplished 4 mission objectives and is making progress on additional objectives. Two mission objectives were completed during the transfer to the Moon and both directly informed Artemis 1 secondary payloads with regard to radio and ground station performance.
The system has been operating in an Near Rectilinear Halo Orbit (NRHO) for 85 days and has completed approximately 12.5 orbits since arrival November 13th which fulfills a mission objective of more than 6 orbits. During this time the spacecraft has operated successfully through two lunar eclipses which present a challenge for the spacecraft thermal and power systems. Other notable events include the successful execution of 2 maintenance maneuvers to keep CAPSTONE in its desired orbit. Mission operators had originally planned to execute an orbital maintenance maneuver each revolution of the orbit, but this new cadence has been selected to help reduce operational risk and complexity. This updated operational approach maintains the required orbit phasing for the mission and demonstrates the robustness of the design strategy for these maneuvers. This design strategy has been developed by the NASA team supporting Gateway at the Johnson Space Center.
The mission team has successfully completed interface testing with the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter ground systems and during the first attempt to obtain cross-link measurements on January 18th, LRO received a signal from CAPSTONE but the CAPSTONE radio system did not collect crosslink ranging measurements from the returned signal. This initial attempt is informing subsequent work which will be further evaluated on upcoming attempts. Utilizing simulated measurements, the flight software for the Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System (CAPS) has been demonstrated at the Moon, a critical step in maturing functionality that will enable future missions.
Most recently the CAPSTONE spacecraft demonstrated its continued resilience by recovering from an anomaly that resulted in the spacecraft being unable to receive commands from ground operators. Beginning on January 26th the system no longer responded to commands. This issue was cleared by the on-board fault protection system as designed on February 6th and the system has returned to normal operations. Lessons learned from this anomaly will result in operational procedure changes to speed recovery from any future similar anomalies.
Following separation from the launch vehicle on July 4th, the navigation team at Advanced Space has maintained excellent knowledge of the spacecraft location in space. Through communication outages, traversing a maximum distance of 1,531,949 km from the Earth, and thruster anomalies that left the spacecraft spinning at a high rate, this knowledge has assisted the spacecraft operations team at Terran Orbital in operating through a variety of challenges. This resiliency is a testament to the CAPSTONE mission team including Advanced Space, Terran Orbital, the Deep Space Network, the Space Dynamics Laboratory, and many others.
In the coming weeks the CAPSTONE mission team will prepare for further crosslink experiments with LRO while also preparing for subsequent technology demonstrations including a new data type for the Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System (CAPS) which utilizes one-way uplink measurements enabled by an onboard Chip Scale Atomic Clock.
The spacecraft still has about 56% of its fuel remaining which will provide approximately 120 m/s of delta-v. This fuel provides significant margin to operate in the NRHO for the planned mission duration and beyond.
A fourth mission objective, to disseminate lessons learned from the mission, has also been satisfied. Thus far the mission team has published several papers specific to the mission operations of CAPSTONE in addition to those published related to the program development itself. But we aren’t stopping there. Be on the lookout for additional CAPSTONE papers at future conferences that will discuss and detail all of our upcoming and exciting plans in the NRHO.
CAPSTONE™ is owned and operated by Advanced Space. It is one of the first CubeSats to fly in cislunar space – the orbital area near and around the Moon – and demonstrate an innovative spacecraft-to-spacecraft navigation technology. The mission launched on June 28, 2022. Critical partners in the CAPSTONE mission include:
-
- NASA: CAPSTONE’s development is supported by the Space Technology Mission Directorate via the Small Spacecraft Technology and Small Business Innovation Research programs at NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley. The Artemis Campaign Development Division within NASA’s Exploration Systems Development Mission Directorate supported the launch and mission operations. NASA’s Launch Services Program at Kennedy Space Center in Florida was responsible for launch management. NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory supported the communication, tracking, and telemetry downlink via NASA’s Deep Space Network, Iris radio design and groundbreaking 1-way navigation algorithms.
- Terran Orbital Corporation: Spacecraft design, development and implementation, hardware manufacturing, assembly, testing and mission operations support.
- Stellar Exploration: Propulsion subsystem provider.
- Rocket Lab USA, Inc.: Launch provider for CAPSTONE on a three-stage Electron launch vehicle.
- Space Dynamics Lab (SDL): Iris radio and navigation firmware provider.
- Orion Space Solutions (formerly Astra): Chip Scale Atomic Clock (CSAC) hardware provider necessary for the 1-way ranging experiment.
- Tethers Unlimited, Inc.: Cross Link radio provider.
- Morehead State University (MSU): Operates the newest “affiliated node” on the NASA Deep Space Network (DSN). Providing telemetry, tracking and control services for NASA and commercial space missions and to engage university students in deep space mission operations. | Space Technology |
India basks in pride as its lunar rover takes a walk on the moon
Chandrayaan-3's success gives India the confidence to move forward with more ambitious missions
The newspaper headlines the morning after India made history said it all: "The moon is Indian," declared English-language daily The Indian Express as it heralded the country's achievement of becoming the first nation to land a spacecraft near the moon's south pole.
"India goes where no nation's gone before," screamed another headline in the Times of India.
As the dust raised by the spacecraft's lander, Vikram, settled more than 380,000 kilometres away and the rover, named Pragyaan, took its first steps on the lunar surface Thursday, the mood down on Earth was still celebratory.
"Our scientists proved to the world that they are also capable," Mumbai resident Kirit Shah told Indian news agency ANI.
He was filled with pride at the success of Chandrayaan-3 mission, the successor to a 2019 attempt called Chandrayaan-2, which failed to land.
Big feat on a small budget
Indians already saw their space program, which has orbited the moon and Mars, as a point of pride even before the historic soft landing near the moon's rugged and unexplored south pole, where it's much more difficult to land than closer to the equator.
It's a major technical feat for the 54-year-old Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), executed on a relatively modest budget of $74 million US, and one that's expected to spark increased interest and investment in India's growing private space sector.
The country erupted with celebratory dancing and drumming on the streets after tens of millions of Indians watched the moon landing live. India's revered national cricket team, in Ireland for matches, gathered around a television to witness the historic moment and tweeted their elated reaction.
In the lead-up to the mission's crucial moment, prayers for its success rang out in countless temples, mosques and Sikh gurdwaras across the country.
WATCH | India makes history with moon south pole landing:
"It's a great achievement for a nation like India because we're still not as developed as the U.S. or China," said New Delhi resident Pawan Rathore, referring to two of the other three countries who have made it to the moon.
By comparison, NASA's budget in the 2023 fiscal year is $25.4 billion US compared to ISRO's less than $1.5 billion.
"In Hollywood, people make movies for that cost," Rathore said referring to the cost of the moon mission. "And we have achieved … the entire project of landing on the moon."
'No one can do it like we do'
The fact that Chandrayaan-3 reached the moon's challenging southern region, which is covered with deep craters, many of which are in permanent shadow, on a shoe-string budget is often mentioned by Indian officials.
The mission used gravitational pull to get to the moon, which saved money on fuel but increased the time the spacecraft took to reach its destination.
"These are very cost-effective missions," a jubilant S. Somanath, chairman of ISRO, said after the landing Wednesday.
"No one in the world can do it like we do."
He added with a laugh that he wouldn't disclose all "the secrets" of the mission. "We don't want everyone else to become so cost-effective," he said.
While this mission was run by the country's public space program, the big money in space exploration is in the private space sector, and investments are expected to pour in after Chandrayaan-3's success.
"There are so many new startups that are coming into the industry," said Narayan Prasad, who runs Satsearch, a space products website. He also co-founded Indian space economy think tank Spaceport SARABHAI.
"[They] will be sought after by every other country that wants to go to the moon," he said.
He anticipated a "snowball effect," with the landing proving that India has the technological know-how and supply chains to helm serious space missions.
After decades of a state monopoly on space exploration, the Indian government opened up its space rocket launches to private companies in 2020 in an effort to harness their investment potential, and the sector exploded.
Before the pandemic, the South Asian country had only a handful of space startups, but that number has now ballooned to more than 150. The size of the private market is currently $9 billion US, but it's expected to more than triple by the end of the decade.
Compare that to the budget for India's space agency, which was less than $1.5 billion US this year.
Still, the agency is already focused on its next launch, Aditya-L1, a mission to study the sun, slated for next month. There will also be a return to the moon, in conjunction with Japan's space agency, in either 2024 or 2025.
ISRO is also working on Gaganyaan, a three-day mission to send three of its astronauts to space on an Indian-built spacecraft.
Growing space power
For India's prime minister, Narendra Modi, the successful moon landing goes hand-in-hand with the country's diplomatic strategy to position itself as a global power to be reckoned with.
He called it "a victory cry of a new, developed India."
And it comes at an opportune moment: a couple of weeks out from the G20 leaders' summit, which New Delhi is hosting, and less than a week after Russia's own failed attempt to reach the same southern lunar region.
"[Chandrayaan-3's triumph] reflects the aspirations and capabilities of 1.4 billion Indians," Modi said in a speech moments after the lander touched down on the moon's surface.
It shows that any country, including those from the global south, is capable of achieving similar missions, he said.
"This success belongs to all of humanity, and it will help more missions by other countries in the future."
Russia's Vladimir Putin, in a statement posted on the Kremlin website, congratulated India on the mission and the "impressive progress made by India in the area of science and technology."
American vice-president Kamala Harris also offered her compliments on X, formerly known as Twitter, for the "incredible feat."
The U.S. has said it will work with India on future space missions, including to the international space station, and share space technology.
The United States sees such a partnership as a counter to their mutual rival, China, which also has growing space ambitions.
A bright future
India's aspirations don't end with the moon, a giddy head of the country's space agency confirmed after the landing.
"It gives confidence" to move forward with missions to "land on Mars, maybe in the future go to Venus and other planets," said Somanath.
Others see the landing as the stuff of dreams that will fuel a younger generation of Indians.
"Even if five kids out of 100 get inspired by a mission of this nature to do more science and to have a science-driven career, the return on investment is much bigger than what is being spent on this endeavour," Prasad told CBC News.
Prasad compared what Chandrayaan-3's success could bring to India to what the Apollo missions, which saw the first human walk on the moon, did to the American psyche.
"It made them feel like they were invincible as a country." | Space Technology |
Space Force operational camouflage pattern utility uniform. Credit: U.S. Space Force The 2023 omnibus spending package includes $26.3 billion for the U.S. Space Force WASHINGTON — Congress in a massive $1.7 trillion government funding bill on Dec. 23 approved $797.7 billion for the Defense Department, or $69.3 billion more than DoD got in 2022.
The consolidated funding bill funds the U.S. government for the remainder of the fiscal year that ends Sept. 30.
The bill provides $26.3 billion for the U.S. Space Force, which is nearly $1.7 billion more than the Pentagon requested, according to estimates from the defense and aerospace consulting firm Velos.
The House passed the omnibus spending package in a 225 to 201 vote, and the Senate 68 to 29.
The bulk of the $1.7 billion added to the Space Force budget is for new satellites. More than $500 million of the increase is for the Space Development Agency (SDA), an organization formed inside the Pentagon in 2019 to help accelerate the use of commercial space technology and transferred to the U.S. Space Force on Oct. 1.
SDA is acquiring hundreds of satellites and associated ground systems for a low Earth orbit constellation that will be used to detect and track ballistic and hypersonic missiles, and a mesh network of communications satellites to pass data to military users around the world.
The 2023 defense appropriations bill adds $51 million for experiments, $216 million for launch services to accelerate the deployment of SDA’s missile warning and missile-tracking satellites, and $250 million to expand a demonstration of SDA’s missile-tracking constellation in the Indo-Pacific region. Congress in 2022 had already appropriated $550 million for the demonstration.
Another notable add-on in the omnibus bill is $442 million for a wideband communications satellite, an action reminiscent of the 2018 defense appropriations bill when Congress inserted $600 million for a new Wideband Global Satcom (WGS) satellite made by Boeing.
The U.S. Air Force had planned on only buying 10 WGS satellites but Congress compelled the service to buy WGS-11 and this year is adding money presumably to buy WGS-12.
The explanatory text released with the bill does not specify whether the funding is for a WGS satellite. The statement says the Space Force should “procure a protected wideband satellite to provide resilient, jam resistant tactical communications to support warfighter needs.” The bill directs the Secretary of the Air Force to provide a funding plan for launch and operation and maintenance.
The 2023 spending bill also adds $50 million for tactically responsive space, a program that Congress directed to demonstrate the use of commercial small launch vehicles for fast turnaround operations.
This funding “supports the maturation of a responsive launch program of record to rapidly place and reconstitute space assets in support of combatant command requirements and space enterprise resilience,” appropriators said in their statement. They noted that the Department of the Air Force has yet to respond to congressional requests over the past two years for a long-term procurement plan for tactically responsive launch.
The Pentagon’s 2023 request “does not include any resources to establish the program despite a need to counter adversarial launches of disruptive technologies in a tactically relevant timeline,” said the statement.
Biden signs NDAA
Also on Dec. 23 President Biden signed the 2023 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) into law. The legislation passed the Senate on December 15 by a vote of 83-11, and cleared the House on December 8 by a vote of 350-80.
The bill overturns Biden’s own mandate that troops receive the covid vaccine.
On space policy matters, the NDAA requires the Space Force and U.S. Space Command to figure out how to make future satellites more resilient to enemy counterspace weapons and cyberattacks.
The bill requires the secretary of defense and the director of national intelligence to make publicly available in the next 90 days “an unclassified strategy containing the actions that will be taken to defend and protect on-orbit satellites of the DoD and the intelligence community from the capabilities of adversaries to target, degrade, or destroy satellites.”
Despite significant lobbying from outside groups, the NDAA does not authorize a Space National Guard and would consider an alternative proposed by Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall to establish the Space Force as a single component with full-time and part-time members.
The NDAA directs the Secretary of the Air Force to to identify “rules, regulations, policies, guidance, and statutory provisions that may be implemented to govern the component, draft legislative text, feasibility assessments, and implication assessments.” | Space Technology |
NASA and DARPA have agreed to develop and test a nuclear rocket engine in space as soon as 2027. Using a nuclear reactor as its power source, it would outperform chemical rockets and greatly reduce the time for the first crewed Mars mission.Humanity has made great strides in the exploration and exploitation of space over the past 60 years but as far as propulsion is concerned, the rockets of today are essentially the same as those of the German V-2 ballistic missiles of the Second World War. There have been innovations like solar sails and ion thrusters, but for manned missions or ones that must move very heavy payloads very quickly, the space agencies are still dependent on chemical-fueled rockets.There are a number of problems with this, but the biggest one is that chemical rockets are operating at their theoretical limits. In fact, they had already come close to those limits by 1942. This means that crewed missions to the Moon can only be, at best, limited, expensive, and few, while a crewed Mars mission is at the very limit of the technology and could never be much more than a stunt.To overcome this barrier, engineers are looking at more efficient and energy-dense propulsion based on nuclear reactor technology. NASA last made a serious attempt to develop a nuclear rocket in the 1960s with its Nuclear Engine for Rocket Vehicle Application (NERVA) and Rover projects, but these were abandoned as the Apollo Moon-landing project began to wind down after 1964.The latest endeavor is the Demonstration Rocket for Agile Cislunar Operations (DRACO) program, which is tasked with developing a nuclear propulsion system that is capable of sending a mission to Mars and also to provide the US Space Force with a means of getting to the Moon and moving about cislunar space with large payloads at very short notice.By using a nuclear thermal engine to heat a propellant to extremely high temperatures to generate thrust, a rocket could have over three times the efficiency of a conventional chemical-fueled one, which would reduce transit times and increase payload potential. For a crewed Mars mission, this would mean less radiation exposure, fewer detrimental effects from weightlessness, and less of a need for supplies or overly robust flight systems.In the new NASA/DARPA partnership, NASA's Space Technology Mission Directorate (STMD) will lead development of the nuclear engine, which will be integrated into the DARPA spacecraft in the form of an upper stage that will only operate in space. Meanwhile, DARPA will continue as the contracting authority for the development of the entire stage, reactor, and the engine in anticipation of a first flight test in 2027 at the earliest – hopefully at a discreet distance from Earth."With this collaboration, we will leverage our expertise gained from many previous space nuclear power and propulsion projects," said Jim Reuter, associate administrator for STMD. "Recent aerospace materials and engineering advancements are enabling a new era for space nuclear technology, and this flight demonstration will be a major achievement toward establishing a space transportation capability for an Earth-Moon economy."Source: NASA | Space Technology |
The European Space Agency has announced plans to create a “pool” of European launch service providers that will be utilized to launch European Commission In-Orbit Demonstration and Validation (IOD/IOV) missions. The call may enable the numerous European launch startups to get foot in the door and secure a first ESA launch contract.
ESA published the tender request on 6 October as an intended invitation for open competition. As a result, the request is not yet open for applications.
The request is being managed under the agency’s Boost! initiative, which aims to encourage the development and deployment of new European commercial space transportation services under private leadership. Specifically, it is part of the Boost! 3 call, which will award co-funding for space transportation services for IOD/IOV missions. At the 2022 ESA ministerial meeting, ESA member states committed €31.2 million for this third Boost! call. During the ministerial meeting, participating states agreed to allocate procurement for IOD/IOV mission on a “competitive basis.”
With this latest call for applications from interested parties, ESA hopes to begin that competitive process. The request called for interest from European launch service providers that are “able to launch current and future IOD/IOV missions.” The invitation is also labeled as “batch 1,” indicating that additional similar calls are likely to follow in the coming years.
The European Commission, in conjunction with ESA, launched the IOD/IOV initiative in September 2020, with the latest call for interest being published in the spring of 2022. The aim of the initiative is to allow academia, research organizations, SMEs, and larger industrial companies to test new technologies in orbit, reducing the time it would otherwise take to bring them to market. The idea is for it to act as a catalyst for future European-made space technology.
The IOD/IOV initiative is expected to offer three separate services: aggregation of experiments and payloads aboard a single spacecraft, launch services for “ready to fly” missions, and up to one year of operations for aggregated missions.
According to the commissions’ IOD/IOV timetable, the launch of the various payloads selected from applications to the spring 2022 call is expected to occur between 2024 and 2027. | Space Technology |
NASA is finally giving up on its tiny water-hunting cubesat, officially calling it quits on the Lunar Flashlight mission after failing to fix its propulsion issues.
On Friday, the space agency announced the end of its Lunar Flashlight mission “because the CubeSat cannot complete maneuvers to stay in the Earth-Moon system,” NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory wrote in a statement. “It’s disappointing for the science team, and for the whole Lunar Flashlight team, that we won’t be able to use our laser reflectometer to make measurements at the Moon,” Barbara Cohen, the mission’s principal investigator, said in the statement.
The briefcase-sized satellite launched in December 2022 on a mission to shine infrared light on some of the Moon’s permanently shadowed areas, scanning the lunar South Pole for ice water reservoirs. Shortly after launch, however, the cubesat began experiencing problems with its propulsion system.
Three of the Lunar Flashlight’s four thrusters were underperforming due to obstructed fuel lines, likely due to debris buildup. The cubesat was supposed to enter a near-rectilinear halo orbit around the Moon using its sole functioning thruster, but even that one began experiencing its own issues. Instead, NASA hatched a plan to place the probe in a high Earth orbit, allowing it to scan the Moon’s south polar regions once per month, as opposed to once per week with its original orbit.
For the past five months, mission teams have been trying to resolve Lunar Flashlight’s propulsion issues to get it on its modified track. NASA engineers have been trying to clear suspected obstructions in the thruster fuel lines, enabling the spacecraft to produce adequate thrust for carrying out monthly flybys of the Moon’s south polar region.
There was a brief glimmer of hope earlier this month, with one of the thrusters showing some improvement. Ultimately, however, the cubesat failed to generate enough thrust to get into lunar orbit.
Lunar Flashlight’s miniaturized propulsion system was the first of its kind to be flown beyond Earth’s orbit as a demonstration of the new technology. “Technology demonstrations are, by their nature, higher risk and high reward, and they’re essential for NASA to test and learn,” Christopher Baker, program executive at NASA’s Small Spacecraft Technology in the Space Technology Mission Directorate, said in the statement. “Lunar Flashlight was highly successful from the standpoint of being a testbed for new systems that had never flown in space before. Those systems, and the lessons Lunar Flashlight taught us, will be used for future missions.”
In that sense, the mission wasn’t a complete failure, although it is still disappointing that the cubesat couldn’t shine its infrared flashlight on the Moon’s possible hidden reservoirs of ice water. | Space Technology |
A Spanish launch company claimed success on Saturday after its suborbital Miura 1 rocket lifted off and achieved an altitude of 46 km before plummeting into the Atlantic Ocean.
Saturday's launch from Southern Spain is exciting for several reasons, but most notably because PLD Space is the first of Europe's new space launch companies to have some credible success. To that end, Saturday's modest flight represented the dawn of the European commercial space age.
"This launch culminates over 12 years of relentless effort, yet it marks just the start of our journey," said PLD Space Launch director and co-founder Raúl Torres in a statement after the launch. "This test flight has yielded valuable data, enabling us to validate crucial design elements and technologies that will underpin the development of our Miura 5 orbital launcher."
Details of the flight
Before the launch, PLD Space said its goals for the debut launch of Miura 1 were to achieve 12 minutes of flight and six minutes of microgravity for a scientific payload provided by the German Center of Applied Space Technology and Microgravity (ZARM), and then to reach an altitude of 80 km and recover the rocket and payload four hours after the flight.
The company fell short of most of these objectives. The mission lasted for five minutes and six seconds, with a maximum altitude of a little more than half its goal. Later, PLD Space also said it could not recover the rocket from the Atlantic Ocean. Still, the experimental rocket cleared the pad and reached many of its technical milestones. For the first time out, it did rather well.
In a news release, PLD Space claimed that Saturday's flight marked "the launch of the first private European rocket." Technically, this is not true. A Scotland-based company, Skyrora, launched its suborbital Skylark L booster from Iceland a year ago, intending to reach an altitude of about 100 km. The flight fell far short of these aims, however, experiencing an anomaly shortly after liftoff and rising only to about 500 meters. Also, a Dutch-sounding rocket startup, T-Minus Engineering, said it launched two micro rockets to an altitude of 185 km.
Nevertheless, the Miura 1 launch is a credible success for PLD Space, which was founded a dozen years ago by Torres and Raúl Verdú. The performance of the vehicle supports the company's technical approach to the development of the Miura 5 rocket, which will be capable of reaching orbit. Verdú said data from the launch of Miura 1 validates about 70 percent of the design of the larger rocket.
PLD Space aims to launch the Miura 5 as early as 2025 from the European spaceport in French Guiana and commence commercial service in 2026.
A frothy competition
The energy and excitement from the company's webcast was infectious, which bodes well for the future of the European launch industry. Beyond Spain, the countries of Germany, Great Britain, and France all have developing commercial launch industries.
There are perhaps as many as eight or 10 European companies with a credible chance of reaching orbit over the next five years with small launch vehicles, and there is finally some government support for the industry. The European Space Agency has provided modest amounts of funding through its boost! program. Perhaps more importantly, the German government recently said European nations should procure launch services through open competitions rather than awarding them to Arianespace by default.
Arianespace has held a state-sanctioned monopoly for decades, but in recent years, two factors have combined to raise questions about the future of that dominance. The first is the rise of commercial launch companies, particularly in Germany, where some of the most well-funded and technically advanced startups have formed.
The second factor is the performance of Arianespace vehicles. The company has had to abandon its use of the Russian Soyuz for medium-lift launches due to the ongoing war in Ukraine. Additionally, there have been development issues and launch failures with the smaller Vega C rocket. Finally, the development timeline for the continent's flagship rocket, the Ariane 6, continues to slip. It is now unlikely to make its debut before mid-2024, forcing European countries to procure launch services elsewhere, including from Arianespace's leading rival, SpaceX.
Yet the nascent commercial launch industry finds itself in perilous waters. These companies are having to scale up to meet the demands of building orbital vehicles at a time when venture funding is increasingly difficult to obtain. The launch bankruptcies we have seen in the United States with companies such as Vector and Virgin Orbit are equally likely in Europe as the competition continues.
For this reason, if the industry is to succeed, it seems incumbent upon the European Space Agency and nations to provide guaranteed launch contracts to ensure the startups do not fold before flying. The success of Miura 1 this week should embolden supporters of this approach. | Space Technology |
India's adorable Chandrayaan-3 rover has been showing off its impressive mobility on the moon's south pole, more than 200,000 miles from Earth.
Colour footage posted by India's space agency (ISRO) shows the four-wheeled device performing a 360-degree 'pirouette' as it searches for a new path to explore.
The clip was captured by a camera on the larger Chandrayaan-3 parent lander, which carried the rover to the moon in its belly before releasing it last week.
India's space agency said the rover looks like 'a child frolicking' in the yard while its 'mother' (the lander) looks on with pride.
Chandrayaan-3 has been on the moon for nine days now and has detected numerous elements in the dusty ground, including sulphur, silicon and oxygen.
India's space agency, Indian Space Research Organisation or ISRO, posted on X (Twitter): 'The rover was rotated in search of a safe route. The rotation was captured by a Lander Imager Camera.
'It feels as though a child is playfully frolicking in the yards of Chandamama, while the mother watches affectionately.'
Chandamama means 'moon uncle' in Indian languages and is the name of a popular lullaby sung to children.
Chandrayaan-3 comprises both a stationary lander with long legs (nicknamed 'Vikram') and a rover with wheels ('Pragyan'), but both are equipped with science instruments to study the moon's surface.
Another post by ISRO on Thursday confirmed the lander had just detected plasma in sparse quantities.
Plasma, often referred to as the fourth state of matter, is ionized gas that contains equal numbers of positive and negative charges.
'These quantitative measurements potentially assist in mitigating the noise that Lunar plasma introduces into radio wave communication,' the space agency said.
'Also, they could contribute to the enhanced designs for upcoming lunar visitors.'
The rover has already detected sulphur in the soil of the lunar south region, which an expert said could reveal more about the origins of our lunar neighbour.
It marks the first time sulphur has been found on the moon's south 'in situ' – so in the place it exists, rather than detected from a distance by an orbiter, the country's space agency said.
Sara Russell, a professor of planetary sciences at the Natural History Museum in London, said discovery has 'really important implications' for both researchers and astronauts.
'Sulphur is usually bonded to important metals like iron and nickel, and these may be important ores that could be used by future astronauts to enable them to live and work on the moon,' she told MailOnline.
Pragyan the rover was carried to the moon inside the Vikram lander on August 23 – what will surely prove to be one of the most celebrated days in Indian spaceflight history.
Just a day after touchdown on a relatively flat point between Manzinus C and Simpelius N craters, the rover rolled out its parent craft and started to explore.
Since then it's been sending back amazing photos of the lunar south region, more than 200,000 miles away from Earth.
Earlier this week it shared a beautiful photo taken by the rover of the Vikram parent lander in front of a rugged patch of lunar soil.
One shot shows a 13-foot (4 metre) diameter crater positioned just ahead of the rover, blocking its path, which could have upended the little device had it fallen in.
Fortunately, the rover was commanded to retrace the path and set a new course.
In the past week, India has captured the world's attention with its Chandrayaan-3 mission, but it's already about halfway to being completed.
Science instruments on both the lander and rover will be active for a total of just one lunar day (14 Earth days) before losing power – a relatively short mission.
Once the time period is up, the rover and lander will become inactive on the moon and bring the mission to the end.
Although India is the fourth country after the US, Russia and China to safely land a craft on the moon, it made history as the first to do so on the moon's south pole.
Russia tried to land a spacecraft on the lunar south on August 19 but spectacularly failed when it spun out of control and smashed – leaving the path free for India to seal the achievement instead.
Chandrayaan-3 actually left Earth more than a month ago, aboard a rocket from Satish Dhawan Space Centre north of Chennai on July 14.
It entered lunar orbit on August 5 and the lander (with the rover inside) detached from its propulsion module on August 17.
India's spacecraft has taken much longer to reach the moon than the Apollo missions, which arrived in a matter of days, because the Asian nation is using much less powerful rockets.
China and US will follow India's success with their own attempts to land at the moon's south pole Along with India and Russia, China and the US are also part of the race to put spacecraft on the moon's south pole. Although India has won the race to be the first, the other three nations are expected to become the second to do it later this decade A view of the moon as viewed by the Chandrayaan-3 lander during Lunar Orbit Insertion on August 5, 2023 China's Chang'e 7 robotic exploration mission, scheduled for 2026, has the lunar south pole as its destination. Meanwhile, the US's Artemis programme run by NASA, not content just with landing an uncrewed robotic gadget at the lunar south, wants to send humans instead. The Artemis III mission, which will land the first woman and the first person of colour on the moon, is planned for 2025, but NASA recently admitted this could be pushed back. Russia's attempt to be the first to land at the south pole - Luna 25 - failed just days before India took the record. Russia's mission - a follow-up to Luna 24 back in 1976 - failed when it spun out of control and smashed. Valery Yegorov, a former researcher with Russia's space programme who now lives in exile, said the crash would severely affect Roscosmos's future missions, with the next one not planned until 2028 or 'even later'. India has a comparatively low-budget aerospace programme, but one that has grown considerably in size and momentum since it first sent a probe to orbit the moon in 2008 (Chandrayaan-1). Its Chandrayaan-3 mission has a price tag of $74.6million - far lower than those of other countries, and a testament to India's frugal space engineering. Experts say India can keep costs low by copying and adapting existing space technology, and thanks to an abundance of highly skilled engineers who earn a fraction of their foreign counterparts' wages. In 2014, India became the first Asian nation to put a satellite into orbit around Mars and is slated to launch a three-day manned mission into Earth's orbit by next year. India is also working with the Japanese Space Agency (JAXA) on Chandrayaan-4, which would also land at the moon's south but have a much longer lifespan. Launch of Chandrayaan-4 is tentatively scheduled for 2025 or 2026. | Space Technology |
SOURCE: ANI
Two decades ago, NASA launched Mars Rover Opportunity to search for signs of ancient water on the Red Planet. A full-scale replica of the space shuttle landed at the Visvesvaraya Industrial and Technical Museum (VITM) in Bengaluru on Thursday to inspire the next generation of scientific innovators and space explorers.
The replica of Mars Rover Opportunity at VITM’s Space Gallery was unveiled for public display on Thursday.
US Consulate General Chennai tweeted, “Meet Oppy – a full-scale replica of @NASA’s Mars Rover Opportunity built by @Cornell students. The exhibit is open to the public from June 1 at the @VISMuseum in Bengaluru. Oppy is here to symbolise #USIndiaTogether & inspire the next generation of space explorers and innovators.”
The full-scale model of the Mars Rover Opportunity was built by Cornell University students in the United States. The model was on display in the US at the Smithsonian’s Air and Space Museum in Dulles, Virginia, and at the US Pavilion during the 2020 World Expo in Dubai. It was also exhibited at the American Center in the US Consulate General in Chennai.
US Under Secretary of Commerce for International Trade Marisa Lago said, “As the United States and India forge even closer cooperation across critical sectors, space provides yet another example of our partnership, with today’s dedication ceremony serving as a symbol of our mutual commitment,” according to an official release.
Talking about the role space exploration plays in inspiring young minds, US Consul General in Chennai Judith Ravin said, “US Consulate General is proud to support the Visvesvaraya Industrial and Technical Museum in promoting science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education. We hope to inspire the next generation of space enthusiasts and innovators with a display of the Mars Rover Opportunity replica.”
Ravin added, “The arrival of the full-scale replica of Mars Rover Opportunity in India also symbolizes the longstanding space technology cooperation between India and the United States. India is an important partner to the United States in space exploration. Initiated in 2005, the United States and India Civil Space Joint Working Group is the venue for a productive exchange of views and discussion on new and expanded areas for civil space cooperation.”
Visvesvaraya Industrial & Technological Museum (VITM) Director KA Sadhana said, “The display of the full-scale replica of NASA’s Mars Rover Opportunity in the Space Technology Gallery of VITM will foster public engagement creating a unique opportunity for the community to learn and be inspired by the wonders of space exploration.”
US Under Secretary of Commerce for International Trade Marisa Lago, US Consul General in Chennai Judith Ravin, UR Rao Satellite Center Bengaluru’s Director Dr Sankaran, and NISAR Mission System Manager at Jet Propulsion Laboratory Ana Maria Guerrero were also present, the official release said. | Space Technology |
At a press conference soon after the Mars orbiter launch in 2013, a foreign journalist asked the same question: why should India send a mission to Mars when millions are in poverty? Then Isro Chairman K Radhakrishnan told him about the benefits of the space programme, but the journalist persisted with his argument. Many might raise the same question about Chandrayaan-3, India's third lunar spacecraft, which landed on the Moon Wednesday.
Though space research has some very obvious benefits such as telecommunication, weather forecasting, GPS, and detecting water bodies and minerals, going to Mars or landing on the Moon is seen by many as a vanity project. Few people know that even the most obscure research by ISRO can finally land in your home, workplace or a factory in the shape of an immensely useful product or process. For example, a robotic technology developed by ISRO to operate equipment in a spacecraft might ultimately be used to make smart artificial limbs. ISRO's project for sustained human presence in space will yield a large number of spinoff technologies which will improve our everyday life.
Advancements in space technology, it said, has created a positive impact in society, especially in sectors like health care, education, communication, broadcasting, disaster management, safety & security and land and water resource management.
Technology spin-offs from the Indian space programme have benefited mankind by way of cost-effective developments in health care like artificial limb, artificial jaw bones, left ventricular assist device and ventilators.
In the area of safety, spinoffs include flame-proof coatings (fire safety), Aerogel - Thermal wear for soldiers (for protection from extreme cold weather). distress alert systems and search & rescue beacons have come in handy in the area of disaster management, ISRO said.
ISRO's tech transfer
Space PSU New Space India Limited (NSIL), set up in 2019, has been mandated to transfer technologies developed by ISRO to the Indian industry for commercial use, It has transferred 78 technologies for commercialisation till last year. ISRO technology transfer enables the industry to absorb high-end technologies developed by ISRO over a period of time and leverages the industry to scale them up for much advanced applications.
Majority of the technology transferred by Isro — around 45% — is in the field of electronics & computer-based technology and telecom broadcasting together. Technologies relating to chemicals and special materials form the single-largest cluster.
Even before the formation of NSIL in 2019, the Department of Space had been transferring technologies to the industry. nearly 400 technologies have been transferred to more than 300 industries spread across the country by DoS and Isro.
Major ISRO spinoffs
Low-cost artificial heart pump: In a major spin-off from space technology in 2016, ISRO has developed a low-cost Left Ventricular Assist Device (LVAD), an artificial heart pump. The device was a mechanical pump that can be implanted in a person's chest to assist a weak heart to pump blood through the body. The LVAD doesn't replace the heart but helps it do its job. It enables the heart to perform its duty in case the organ needs rest, for instance after an open-heart surgery. It's also useful for patients waiting for a transplant. The device was made with a special titanium alloy used in rockets and also a technology used during launches. The titanium used is biocompatible and weighs only 100 gm.
Artificial foot: ISRO transferred its technology free of cost in 2002 to a Jaipur-based organisation to use material used in making rocket motors to mass-manufacture artificial feet. ISRO signed the agreement with Bhagavan Mahavir Vikalanga Sahayatha Samithi, a social organisation, for poly-urethane artificial foot technology developed by ISRO. The new foot has a number of advantages over the traditional Jaipur Foot, the main advantage being that it is very light and more durable. Poly-Urethane is one of the several composite materials developed by ISRO and it is used as an ingredient to make rocket motors.
Microprocessor-controlled smart knees: Last year in September ISRO said it had developed an intelligent artificial limb. It is likely to be commercialised soon and expected to be cheaper by up to 10 times, benefitting above-knee amputees to walk with a comfortable gait. . These microprocessor-controlled knees (MPKs) offer extended capabilities for the amputee than those offered by the passive limbs that do not use the microprocessors. "Thus far, a 1.6 kg MPK has enabled an amputee to walk about 100 metres in the corridor with minimum support. Efforts to improvise the performance are underway," it said. An MPK consists of a microprocessor, hydraulic damper, load & knee angle sensors, composite knee-case, Li-ion battery, electrical harness, and interface elements. The microprocessor detects the state of gait based on the sensor data. The control software estimates the real-time damping needed to attain the desired gait by changing the stiffness of the system that is achieved by a hydraulic damper operated by a DC motor.
Non-invasive ventilator SVASTA: ISRO has developed a gas-powered ventilator – 'Space Ventilator Aided System for Trauma Assistance (SVASTA)' - for basic mode for non-invasive ventilation. This ventilator is well suited for emergency use for first line treatment and as transit ventilators inside vehicles. The basic design is simple, and the components can be easily mass produced for emergency use in pandemic-like situations.
Artificial denture material: ACRAMID, a polyamide reinforced plastic, is a popular composite used for various launch vehicle applications. ACRAMID is yet another space spinoff from ISRO developed from composites technology. ACRAMID is a denture material developed based on composite technology. This can be used as a cheaper denture implant for fixed orthodontic restoration.
Fire-extinguishing powder: One of the widely used ISRO products is the fire extinguishing powder OLFEX for flammable, liquid and gas fires and Ternary Eutectic Chloride (TEC) powder for metal fires. The powder exhibits excellent fire knock-down efficiency in addition to superior water-repellency, flow characteristics and shelf life.
Endoscopic catheter-mounted impedance probe: The mucosal impedance is an early marker of mucosal disease. The probe is used for identification and detection of inflammation/malignancy in gut mucosa. It is a cost-effective and faster way for diagnosis compared to traditional biopsies.
Flame-retardant coating: This chemical has flame-retardant, waterproofing and thermal-control properties for masonry surfaces, textiles, paper, thatched leaves, wood, etc. to advanced materials like polyurethane and phenolic based thermal insulation foam pads.
Hydrophobic silica aerogel: Silica aerogels are exotic materials with a unique combination of properties. Composite sheets can be made from Silica aerogel. Besides cryogenic thermal insulation in rockets, they are used in concrete, cement, paints, adhesives, foams, ablatives, rubber, coatings etc; foot insoles, boot/jacket insulation or as winter/Arctic apparel at areas having extremely cold climate; in window glazing as insulator; carrier for drug delivery; and vibration/acoustic damping materials.
Adhesives: ISRO has developed a number of adhesives for its own applications. They include both structural and non-structural adhesives. Non-structural adhesives developed include silicon based, polyurethane elastomers and acrylic based adhesives. Structural adhesives developed include epoxy resins, phenol based and rubber based adhesives using chloroprene and neoprene. These adhesives can find varied applications in automobile and other engineering industries.
- Front Page
- Pure Politics
- Companies
- ET Markets
- More
- India over the Moon AS ISRO Goes the Distance
India on Wednesday created history by becoming the first nation to land a spacecraft, Chandrayaan-3, near the south pole of the moon.The success of India’s third lunar mission makes it only the fourth country to achieve the milestone after the US, Russia and China.QIA to Invest $1 B in Reliance Retail Ventures
Qatar Investment Authority (QIA) agreed to invest ₹8,278 crore ($997 million) in Reliance Retail Ventures (RRVL) at an equity valuation of ₹8.2 lakh crore ($100 billion), making it the single largest investment by the sovereign wealth fund of the gas-rich country in India.‘Historic Moment a Victory for New India’
Prime Minister Narendra Modi hailed the successful Chandrayaan-3 mission as a “historic and unforgettable” moment that has moved India into a unique position.
Read More News on
Download The Economic Times News App to get Daily Market Updates & Live Business News.
ETPrime stories of the day
Digital economy
13 mins read
8 mins read
11 mins read | Space Technology |
Glass fibers in lunar regolith could help build structures on the moon
Through the Artemis Program, NASA plans to send the first astronauts to the moon in over 50 years. Before the decade is over, this program aims to establish the infrastructure that will allow for a "sustained program of lunar exploration and development." The European Space Agency (ESA) also has big plans, which include the creation of a moon Village that will serve as a spiritual successor to the International Space Station (ISS). China and Roscosmos also came together in June 2021 to announce that they would build the International Lunar Research Station (ILRS) around the lunar south pole.
In all cases, space agencies plan to harvest local resources to meet their construction and long-term needs—a process known as in-situ resource utilization (ISRU). Based on samples returned by the fifth mission of the Chinese Lunar Exploration Program (Chang'e-5), a team of researchers from the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) identified indigenous glass fibers for the first time. According to a paper they authored, these fibers were formed by past impacts in the region and could be an ideal building material for future lunar bases.
The work was led by Rui Zhao, Laiquan Shen, Dongdong Xiao, and Chao Chang from the CAS Institute of Physics (IOP) in Beijing. They were joined by researchers from the Center of Materials Science and Optoelectronics Engineering at the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences (UCAS), the Songshan Lake Materials Laboratory, the Qian Xuesen Laboratory of Space Technology, the China Academy of Space Technology (CAST), and the College of Engineering and Applied Sciences at Nanjing University. The team's paper, "Diverse glasses revealed from Chang'E-5 lunar regolith," recently appeared in the National Science Review.
As the IOP team indicated in their paper, lunar glasses are an important component of lunar soils and are produced by various processes. Altogether, they identified five types based on the formation process involved: volcanic, impact, adhered, deposited, and irradiated. These glasses can remain stable for billions of years, providing a geological record of the moon and leading to a better understanding of its formation and evolution. This includes questions relating to the duration of volcanism, the Late Heavy Bombardment, the origins of lunar water, and the presence of a lunar magnetic field.
The team determined that impacts are the most active processes on the lunar surface, as they are "highly heterogeneous in both temporal and spatial scale"—i.e., impacts are an ongoing phenomenon, unlike volcanism and other geological activity that ended billions of years ago. By studying the diverse glasses in the 1.73 kg (3.8 lbs) of lunar regolith returned by Chang'E-5 (CE-5) from the northern mare region Oceanus Procellarum, they were able to clarify their origins and attribute to three main mechanisms: impact, deposition, and irradiation.
As they state, the samples were quite different from those returned by the Apollo astronauts and the Soviet Luna program, suggesting that different mechanisms were at work in Oceanus Procellarum: "Compared with previous Apollo and Luna returned samples that are limited in narrow volcanism ages of 3.9–3.0 Ga and cover only about 4.4% of the lunar nearside surface, the CE-5 samples are collected from the youngest lunar region dated to 2.0 Ga and higher mid-high latitude, allowing the moon to be studied in an extended spatiotemporal range. Preliminary characterizations show that the CE-5 samples are mature samples, but have a significantly lower glass content of 8.3%–20.0% than that of Apollo samples (25.4%–72.3%), implying quite different space environment from Apollo sites."
Upon characterizing the samples' morphological, microstructural, and geochemical properties, the team found that the CE-5 samples contained various glassy materials. As shown in the image above, this included glass particles of various shapes, such as globules, ellipsoids, dumbbells, and teardrops (a to i). They also noted the presence of elongated glass fibers that (based on their elongation) ranged in shape from tadpoles (n), maces (o), and filaments (p). They further concluded that these fibers were formed by molten materials created by impacts that cooled upon contact with the lunar environment.
These fibers would make for a highly effective construction material, consistent with proposals for building lunar bases through ISRU. The IOP team indicated this by addressing previous attempts to fabricate artificial glass fibers from lunar regolith simulants in the lab.
In short, their analysis demonstrated that these fibers could be harvested on the moon and used to fabricate the necessary materials: "[Attempts were made using] lunar simulant materials to fabricate artificial glass fibers in laboratories for future lunar base construction. Our findings directly demonstrate that glass fibers can be produced in-situ on the moon, which could inspire space fabrication of glass fibers such as homogeneous optical fibers and strengthening structural fibers required by future lunar bases."
Before space agencies can construct long-term habitats on the moon, research that characterizes the lunar environment and its resources is absolutely essential. In addition to providing new insight into the many processes that have shaped the lunar surface over time, the IOP study could provide a pathway toward the creation of permanent bases on the moon. This research could also inform future missions to Mars, which NASA and China plan to commence by 2033. These missions include the creation of surface habitats, and further characterization of the Martian environment could lead to specialized construction methods.
More information: Rui Zhao et al, Diverse glasses revealed from Chang'E-5 lunar regolith, National Science Review (2023). DOI: 10.1093/nsr/nwad079
Provided by Universe Today | Space Technology |
House hunting on Mars could soon become a thing, and researchers at the University of Arizona are already in the business of scouting real estate that future astronauts could use as habitats. Researchers in the UArizona College of Engineering have developed technology that would allow a flock of robots to explore subsurface environments on other worlds.
"Lava tubes and caves would make perfect habitats for astronauts because you don't have to build a structure; you are shielded from harmful cosmic radiation, so all you need to do is make it pretty and cozy," said Wolfgang Fink, an associate professor of electrical and computer engineering at UArizona.
Fink is lead author of a new paper in Advances in Space Research that details a communication network that would link rovers, lake landers and even submersible vehicles through a so-called mesh topology network, allowing the machines to work together as a team, independently from human input. According to Fink and his co-authors, the approach could help address one of NASA's Space Technology Grand Challenges by helping overcome the limited ability of current technology to safely traverse environments on comets, asteroids, moons and planetary bodies. In a nod to the fairy tale "Hansel and Gretel," the researchers named their patent-pending concept the "Breadcrumb-Style Dynamically Deployed Communication Network" paradigm, or DDCN.
A fairy tale inspires the future
"If you remember the book, you know how Hansel and Gretel dropped breadcrumbs to make sure they'd find their way back," said Fink, founder and director of the Visual and Autonomous Exploration Systems Research Laboratory at Caltech and UArizona. "In our scenario, the 'breadcrumbs' are miniaturized sensors that piggyback on the rovers, which deploy the sensors as they traverse a cave or other subsurface environment."
Continuously monitoring their environment and maintaining awareness of where they are in space, the rovers proceed on their own, connected to each other via a wireless data connection, deploying communication nodes along the way. Once a rover senses the signal is fading but still within range, it drops a communication node, regardless of how much distance has actually passed since it placed the last node.
"One of the new aspects is what we call opportunistic deployment -- the idea that you deploy the 'breadcrumbs' when you have to and not according to a previously planned schedule," Fink said.
All the while, there is no need for input from the mother rover; each subordinate rover will make that determination on its own, Fink added. The system can work in one of two ways, Fink explained. In one, the mother rover acts as a passive recipient, collecting data transmitted by the rovers doing the exploration. In the other, the mother rover acts as the orchestrator, controlling the rovers' moves like a puppet master.
Machines take over
The new concept dovetails with the tier-scalable reconnaissance paradigm devised by Fink and colleagues in the early 2000s. This idea envisions a team of robots operating at different command levels -- for example, an orbiter controlling a blimp, which in turn controls one or more landers or rovers on the ground. Already, space missions have embraced this concept, several with participation by UArizona researchers. For example, on Mars, the Perseverance rover is commanding Ingenuity, a robotic helicopter. A concept for another mission, which ultimately was not selected for funding, proposed sending an orbiter carrying a balloon and a lake lander to study one of the hydrocarbon seas on Saturn's moon Titan. The breadcrumb approach takes the idea one step further by providing a robust platform allowing robotic explorers to operate underground or even submerged in liquid environments. Such swarms of individual, autonomous robots could also aid in search and rescue efforts in the wake of natural disasters on Earth, Fink said.
Fink said the biggest challenge, apart from getting the rovers inside the subsurface environment in the first place, is to retrieve the data they record underground and bring it back to the surface. The DDCN concept allows a team of rovers to navigate even convoluted underground environments without ever losing contact to their "mother rover" on the surface. Outfitted with a light detection and ranging system, or lidar, they could even map out cave passages in all three dimensions, not unlike the drones that can be seen exploring an alien spacecraft in the movie "Prometheus."
"Once deployed, our sensors automatically establish a nondirected mesh network, which means each node updates itself about each node around it," said Fink, who first detailed the DDCN concept in a proposal to NASA in 2019.
"They can switch between each other and compensate for dead spots and signal blackouts," added Mark Tarbell, paper co-author and senior research scientist in Fink's laboratory. "If some of them die, there still is connectivity through the remaining nodes, so the mother rover never loses connection to the farthest node in the network."
Mission of no return
The robust network of communication nodes ensures all the data collected by the robotic explorers make it back to the mother rover on the surface. Therefore, there is no need to retrieve the robots once they have done their job, said Fink, who published the idea of using groups of expendable mobile robotic surface probes as early as 2014.
"They're designed to be expendable," he said. "Instead of wasting resources to get them into the cave and back out, it makes more sense to have them go as far as they possibly can and leave them behind once they have fulfilled their mission, run out of power or succumbed to a hostile environment."
"The communication network approach introduced in this new paper has the potential to herald a new age of planetary and astrobiological discoveries," said Dirk Schulze-Makuch, president of the German Astrobiological Society and author of many publications on extraterrestrial life. "It finally allows us to explore Martian lava tube caves and the subsurface oceans of the icy moons -- places where extraterrestrial life might be present."
The proposed concept "holds magic," according to Victor Baker, a UArizona Regents Professor of Hydrology and Atmospheric Sciences, Geosciences and Planetary Sciences."The most amazing discoveries in science come about when advances in technology provide both first-time access to a thing or place and the means of communicating what is thereby discovered to creative minds that are seeking understanding," Baker said.
Exploring hidden ocean worlds
In places that call for submersible robots, the system could consist of a lander -- either floating on a lake, as might be the case on Titan, or sitting on the ice atop a subsurface ocean like on Europa -- that is connected to the submarine, for example through a long cable. Here the communication nodes would act as repeaters, boosting the signal in regular intervals to prevent it from degrading. Importantly, Fink pointed out, the nodes have the capabilities to gather data themselves -- for example measuring pressure, salinity, temperature and other chemical and physical parameters -- and to ingest the data into the cable connecting back to the lander.
"Imagine you make it all the way to Europa, you melt your way through miles of ice, make it down to the subsurface ocean, where you find yourself surrounded by alien life, but you have no way of getting data back to the surface," he said. "That's the scenario we need to avoid."
Having developed the rovers and the communication technology, Fink's group is now working on building the actual mechanism by which the rovers would deploy the communication nodes.
"Basically, we're going to teach our 'Hansels' and 'Gretels' how to drop the breadcrumbs so they add up to a functioning mesh communication network," Fink said.
Story Source:
Journal Reference:
Cite This Page: | Space Technology |
Einstein's theory of relativity reaffirmed, despite doubts from quantum physicists
One of the most basic assumptions of fundamental physics is that the different properties of mass—weight, inertia and gravitation—always remain the same in relation to each other. Without this equivalence, Einstein's theory of relativity would be contradicted and our current physics textbooks would have to be rewritten. Although all measurements to date confirm the equivalence principle, quantum theory postulates that there should be a violation.
This inconsistency between Einstein's gravitational theory and modern quantum theory is the reason why ever more precise tests of the equivalence principle are particularly important. A team from the Center of Applied Space Technology and Microgravity (ZARM) at University of Bremen, in collaboration with the Institute of Geodesy (IfE) at Leibniz University Hannover, has now succeeded in proving with 100 times greater accuracy that passive gravitational mass and active gravitational mass are always equivalent—regardless of the particular composition of the respective masses.
The research was conducted within the framework of the Cluster of Excellence "QuantumFrontiers." Today, the team published their findings as a highlights article in Physical Review Letters.
Physical context
Inertial mass resists acceleration. For example, it causes you to be pushed backwards into your seat when the car starts. Passive gravitational mass reacts on gravity and results in our weight on Earth. Active gravitational mass refers to the force of gravitation exerted by an object, or more precisely, the size of its gravitational field.
The equivalence of these properties is fundamental to general relativity. Therefore, both the equivalence of inertial and passive gravitational mass and the equivalence of passive and active gravitational mass are being tested with increasing precision.
What was the study about?
If we assume that passive and active gravitational mass are not equal—that their ratio depends on the material—then objects made of different materials with a different center of mass would accelerate themselves. Since the moon consists of an aluminum shell and an iron core, with centers of mass offset against each other, the moon should accelerate. This hypothetical change in speed could be measured with high precision, via "Lunar Laser Ranging."
This involves pointing lasers from Earth at reflectors on the moon placed there by the Apollo missions and the Soviet Luna program. Since then, round trip travel times of laser beams are recorded. The research team analyzed "Lunar Laser Ranging" data collected over a period of 50 years, from 1970 to 2022, and investigated such mass difference effects.
Since no effect was found, this means that the passive and active gravitational masses are equal to approximately 14 decimal places. This estimate is a hundred times more accurate than the best previous study, dating back to 1986.
LUH's Institute of Geodesy—one of only four centers worldwide analyzing laser distance measurements to the moon—has unique expertise in assessing the data, particularly for testing general relativity. In the current study, the institute analyzed the Lunar Laser Ranging measurements, including error analysis and interpretation of the results.
More information: Vishwa Vijay Singh et al, Equivalence of Active and Passive Gravitational Mass Tested with Lunar Laser Ranging, Physical Review Letters (2023). DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.131.021401
Journal information: Physical Review Letters
Provided by Leibniz University Hannover | Space Technology |
New footage shows India's moon rover starting to explore the lunar surface, just one day after its arrival at the moon's south mole.
Chandrayaan-3, which landed at the moon's south pole on Wednesday, consists of a stationary four-legged lander and a smaller rover within.
The new clip shows the plucky four-wheeled rover going down the lander's ramp and starting to roam the dusty ground, leaving track marks in its wake.
Chandrayaan-3 already beamed back its first photo of the moon's surface yesterday, as well as four amazing snaps of the moon from above during descent.
Although India's space agency is yet to confirm the exact spot Chandrayaan-3 landed, it's thought to be the same intended landing site of the failed Chandrayaan-2 craft of 2019 – between the southern craters of Manzinus C and Simpelius N.
The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has confirmed its historic mission is all going to plan and systems are working as they should.
'All activities are on schedule. All systems are normal,' ISRO posted on X, formerly Twitter.
There are two scientific instruments in the rover (nicknamed 'Pragyan') and three instruments on board the lander ('Vikram') and all of them have been switched on sequentially.
They will study the atmospheric and mineral composition of the moon, including the patches of water ice that are common around the lunar region's south.
The science instruments will be active for roughly one lunar day, or 14 Earth days, before losing power – a relatively short mission.
ISRO chairman Sreedhara Somanath admitted there are 'many issues' on the moon's surface, such as lunar dust and frigid temperatures, that could impact the rover's moving parts during the 14-day period.
'The mechanisms, the moving items...can get entangled with the dust there,' he told India's CNN News 18 TV channel.
'It can get into the moving parts and jam them, the bearings of the system may not work, the motors may not work.'
'All this creates problems in those mechanisms...so let us see how it goes.
'We will face it...that's why we are exploring. If everything is known, what is the fun in doing it?'
The south pole is as yet unchartered territory for humankind, and far from the equatorial region targeted by previous moon missions such as the crewed Apollo landings of the 1960s and 1970s.
It's not only full of dramatic craters and deep trenches, but extremely cold temperatures (as low as -410°F/-246°C according to NASA), which can put stress on any spacecraft's power systems.
But such temperatures also mean the south pole has a particular abundance of water reserves frozen as ice, which is of great interest to scientists.
These pockets of water ice, known as 'cold traps', have the potential to exist for thousands of years on 'airless bodies' that don't have an atmosphere, like the moon.
Therefore, they could provide a record of microbial life, lunar volcanoes, material that comets and asteroids delivered to Earth or the origin of former oceans.
They could even provide a source of water for any future human outposts on the moon, either for drinking or irrigation of crops.
The unforgiving southern region of the moon is also generating great interest among space agencies in Russia, China and the US.
Russia tried to land a spacecraft on the lunar south last weekend but spectacularly failed when it spun out of control and smashed – leaving the path free for India to seal the achievement instead.
Although India is the fourth country after the US, Russia and China to safely land a craft on the moon, it made history as the first to do so on the moon's south pole.
Chandrayaan-3 actually left Earth more than a month ago, aboard a rocket from Satish Dhawan Space Centre north of Chennai on July 14.
India's spacecraft has taken much longer to reach the moon than the Apollo missions, which arrived in a matter of days, because the Asian nation is using much less powerful rockets.
This meant Chandrayaan-3 had to orbit Earth several times after blast-off to gain speed before embarking on its month-long lunar trajectory.
Chandrayaan-3 was then in orbit around the moon for over two weeks before its successful landing on Wednesday – sending India into jubilation.
India Prime Minister Narendra Modi also praised a 'historic day' for his country's space sector, adding that 'India is now on the moon'.
India has a comparatively low-budget aerospace programme, but one that has grown considerably in size and momentum since it first sent a probe to orbit the moon in 2008 (Chandrayaan-1).
The latest mission comes with a price tag of $74.6million – far lower than those of other countries, and a testament to India's frugal space engineering.
Experts say India can keep costs low by copying and adapting existing space technology, and thanks to an abundance of highly skilled engineers who earn a fraction of their foreign counterparts' wages.
In 2014, India became the first Asian nation to put a satellite into orbit around Mars and is slated to launch a three-day manned mission into Earth's orbit by next year.
India is also working with the Japanese Space Agency (JAXA) on Chandrayaan-4, which would also land at the moon's south but have a much longer lifespan.
Launch of Chandrayaan-4 is tentatively scheduled for 2025 or 2026.
China and US will follow India's success with their own attempts to land at the moon's south pole Along with India and Russia, China and the US are also part of the race to put spacecraft on the moon's south pole. Although India has won the race to be the first, the other three nations are expected to become the second to do it later this decade China's Chang'e 7 robotic exploration mission, scheduled for 2026, has the lunar south pole as its destination. Meanwhile, the US's Artemis programme run by NASA, not content just with landing an uncrewed robotic gadget at the lunar south, wants to send humans instead. The Artemis III mission, which will land the first woman and the first person of colour on the moon, is planned for 2025, but NASA recently admitted this could be pushed back. Russia's attempt to be the first to land at the south pole - Luna 25 - failed just days before India took the record. Russia's mission - a follow-up to Luna 24 back in 1976 - failed when it spun out of control and smashed. Valery Yegorov, a former researcher with Russia's space programme who now lives in exile, said the crash would severely affect Roscosmos's future missions, with the next one not planned until 2028 or 'even later'. | Space Technology |
India has become the first country to land a spacecraft near the moon’s south pole after the Indian Space Research Organisation’s Chandrayaan-3 touched down on Wednesday.
The mission is seen as an important step for further lunar exploration and India’s standing as a space power, as the country becomes the fourth nation to successfully land a spacecraft on the moon after the United States, China and Russia.
Here are some key reactions from around the world:
India
“This moment is unforgettable. It is phenomenal. It is the call of a developed India. It is the victory call for a new India,” Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said after the successful landing.
Indian opposition leader Rahul Gandhi also celebrated Chandrayaan-3’s success, calling it a result of “tremendous ingenuity and hard work” by the country’s scientific community.
“Since 1962, India’s space program has continued to scale new heights and inspire generations of young dreamers,” he posted on social media platform X.
— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) August 23, 2023
Russia
President Vladimir Putin called the moon landing an “impressive” achievement, days after Moscow’s own mission crashed.
“This is a big step forward in space exploration and, of course, a testament to the impressive progress made by India in the field of science and technology,” read a statement from the Kremlin.
South Africa
President Cyril Ramaphosa congratulated India on the historic moon landing.
“This for us, as the BRICS family, is a momentous occasion and we rejoice with you. We join you in the joy of this great achievement,” Ramaphosa said, referring to the BRICS coalition of economies (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa).
Nepal
Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal hailed the moon landing as a “historic” moment, saying “I congratulate Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi-ji and ISRO team of India on successful landing of Chandrayan-3 in the surface of the moon today and unleashing of a historic achievement in science and space technology.”
Europe
Josef Aschbacher, the director general of the European Space Agency, described the landing of Chandrayaan-3 as an “incredible” event.
“What a way to demonstrate new technologies and achieve India’s first soft landing on another celestial body,” he said. “Well done. I am thoroughly impressed.”
United States
The US Department of State’s Bureau of Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs has said Chandrayaan-3’s success will power the “imagination” of people in the future.
“Your success will power the imagination and light the future of people around the world,” the department posted on X, formerly known as Twitter.
US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan also praised what he called a “historic landing”.
Congratulations to our #ArtemisAccords partner @isro on the successful landing of #Chandrayaan-3 on the Moon. Your success will power the imagination and light the future of people around the world. 🌕🚀
— U.S. Department of State | Science Diplomacy USA (@SciDiplomacyUSA) August 23, 2023 | Space Technology |
The UK Space Agency and the National Nuclear Laboratory (NNL) are to collaborate on the world’s first space battery powered by Americium-241. This work, commissioned and funded by the UK Space Agency from NNL, will be delivered in a new £19 million laboratory in Cumbria equipped with next-generation equipment and technology. It will deliver a sovereign supply of fuel for space batteries in the context of a global shortage, enabling the UK and its partners to pursue new space science and exploration missions. Creating new highly-skilled jobs in the North West of England, it will drive innovation in radiochemistry and separations science and open a new market for the UK space sector. Atomic space batteries, also known as Radioisotope Power Systems (RPSs), release heat as the radioactivity within them decays. The heat can be used directly to prevent spacecraft from freezing and it can be converted into electricity to power onboard systems. The batteries go on working for decades, without need for maintenance over the many years in which a spacecraft could be travelling. PUMA2 The support from the UK Space Agency follows the UK’s record investment to the European Space Agency for a range of new programmes, including £22 million for ENDURE (European Devices Using Radioisotope Energy), which will use radioisotopes to develop systems for warming and powering spacecraft. Considered ‘mission critical technologies’ by space agencies in the UK and around the world, all the Apollo missions had an atomic battery in tow, as has every rover that has gone to Mars. Until now, these have been powered by Plutonium-238, a radioisotope produced only in the US, where supply is limited, and Russia, so an alternative is urgently needed. NNL, the UK’s national laboratory for nuclear fission, has been working on this endeavor since 2009, when its researchers first discovered that Americium-241, an alternative to Plutonium-238, is produced during the radioactive decay of used fuel from nuclear reactors and that it emits power for over 400 years. With the supply plentiful – the new laboratory is being opened at NNL’s flagship Central Laboratory on the Sellafield site, home to the largest resource of Americium-241 available for extraction in the world – the new collaboration will turn a proven scientific concept into a fully-realised technology. It will be operational within the next four years and is expected to be first used on the European Space Agency’s Argonaut mission to the Moon and for future missions into deep space. Science Minister George Freeman said: This new capability marks a significant milestone for the North West Space Cluster, adding skilled jobs to the existing 2,000 strong workforce. This exciting work from the National Nuclear Laboratory is supported by over £19 million in government funding, creating a nuclear-based fuel that will put Sellafield and the North West firmly on the global space technology map. Being able to offer a globally unique supply of Americium-241 will encourage investment and unlock growth opportunities for all sorts of UK industries looking to explore nuclear energy. Professor Tim Tinsley, account director for this work at the National Nuclear Laboratory said: For the past 50 years space missions have used Plutonium-238 to stop spacecrafts from freezing but it is in very limited supply. At NNL we have identified significant reserves of Americium-241, a radioisotope with similar properties to Plutonium-238 but game-changing potential for the UK’s space ambitions. This work, which is being made possible through the support of UK Space Agency, will see us applying decades of experience in separating and purifying used nuclear material in order to unlock great public benefits, and it goes to the heart of our purpose of nuclear science to benefit society. Dr Paul Bate, CEO at the UK Space Agency said: We are backing technology and capabilities to support ambitious space exploration missions and boost sector growth across the UK. This innovative method to create Americium to power space missions will allow us not only to sustain exploration of the Moon and Mars for longer periods of time, but to venture further into space than ever before. Supporting the National Nuclear Laboratory’s expansion will make the UK the only country in the world capable of producing this viable alternative to Plutonium, reducing the global space community’s reliance on limited supplies, which are increasingly difficult and costly to obtain. The UK Space Agency is committed to keeping space activities sustainable, and this resourceful technology exploits otherwise unused waste Plutonium biproducts without generating additional waste. | Space Technology |
Satellite Tracker 3D offers real-time, 3D tracking of over 24,000 satellites utilizing TLE data from space-track.org, directly within your browser. Designed with a focus on simplicity and performance, this app delivers a seamless tracking experience with high frame rates on a variety of devices, utilizing the spg4 orbit prediction model to accurately calculate satellite positions.
You can interact with the app by moving around, zooming, and selecting satellites using your mouse or touch. Upon selection, the app displays satellite geographic coordinates and speed, and draws the selected satellite's orbit around Earth. This creates visually stunning orbits relative to Earth and provides a unique perspective on space technology. You can also toggle between viewing the earth and your selected satellite. More comming soon!
The Discord channel is a great place to get updates, ask questions, share your observations, connect with others interested in satellite tracking, and give feedback or suggest features.
© 2023 Marko Andlar
Version 0.1.0
Hang on tight, satellite data is being fetched!
None
Latitude: 0°
Longitude: 0°
Height: 0 km
Speed: 0 km/s
Speed: 0 km/h | Space Technology |
The countdown to Britain's first ever orbital space launch is officially on.A modified Boeing 747 jet is set to arrive in the UK within weeks, as Spaceport Cornwall gears up to host the historic maiden flight on British soil. As early as next month, Virgin Orbit's Cosmic Girl plane will take off from Newquay with a 70-foot-long rocket packed full of satellites, which will then be flown to high altitude, dropped, and ignited before flying into space. It will be a momentous occasion, with the UK finally joining the space race some 70 years after the British Space Programme was established in 1952.Not only that, but it will come 50 years after a British-made rocket, Black Arrow, last reached space following its lift-off from Australia.The Soviet Union was the first nation to carry out a successful space launch, with Sputnik 1 in October 1957, before the United States, Japan, France, China, India, Israel and Iran all followed.North Korea achieved the feat in 2012, along with South Korea earlier this year, so Britain would be the 11th nation to carry out a space launch on its own soil.Spaceport Cornwall will be the first such hub in the UK to enter service when the repurposed Newquay Airport hosts the space plane lift-off at night, after all the commercial flights have ended.It is sure to draw flocks of crowds as Sir Richard Branson's company launches two shoebox-sized satellites on behalf of the UK government on a rocket called LauncherOne. Once deployed, they will deliver high-tech imaging sensors, allowing the Ministry of Defence (MoD) to monitor Earth and its oceans. The Cornwall horizontal launch site is one of three spaceports in the UK that aim to start satellite launches in 2022, but is expected to beat its two Scottish rivals to seal the title as the host location of the first satellite launch from British soil.Getting the infrastructure and regulations in place to allow for liftoff from Newquay has taken considerable time, but while the airport and its 1.6 mile-long (2.7km) runway look the same, a new building will allow Virgin Orbit to load satellites into its rocket and then attach it to the wing of its plane.An on-site mission control will also be used to carry out the launch.Although October 29 is when the window for lift-off opens, the mission has still not received the green light from the Civil Aviation Authority – which regulates Britain's rocket launches – so November, or possibly December, seems more likely for the first flight. Lift-off: A modified Boeing 747 jet is set to arrive in the UK within weeks as Spaceport Cornwall gears up to host the historic maiden flight on British soil (pictured) Sir Richard Branson's rocket company will operate from the Newquay-based spaceport (shown in an artist's impression) The Virgin Orbit Launcher One rocket, pictured in its hanger at Newquay Airport in August last year, will be equipped with Ministry of Defence observation kit among other payloads Virgin Orbit launches involve the firm's carrier aircraft, a modified Boeing 747 called Cosmic Girl (pictured), and a two-stage orbital launch vehicle called LauncherOne, tucked into Cosmic Girl's belly TIMELINE OF FIRST ORBITAL LAUNCHES ON A COUNTRY'S OWN SOIL 1. Soviet Union - 4 October 19572. United States - 1 February 19583. Japan - 11 February 1970 4. France* - 10 March 1970(From the French territory, French Guiana) 5. China - 24 April 19706. India - 18 July 19807. Israel - 19 September 19888. Iran - 2 February 20099. North Korea - 12 December 201210 South Korea - 21 June 202211. United Kingdom - ? The plane and its rocket will be transported from Virgin Orbit's factory in Long Beach, California, to the UK in the coming weeks. Virgin Orbit will then send the UK government's two cubesats – measuring about 12 inches long, 8 inches wide and 4 inches deep – into space along with eight other payloads as part of a mission named Prometheus-2.Built by In-Space Missions Ltd, based in Hampshire, and designed with Airbus Defence and Space, Prometheus-2 is a collaboration between MoD and international partners, including the US National Reconnaissance Office (NRO).'Space technology is crucial for developing Defence capabilities,' said Defence Procurement Minister Jeremy Quin.'The launch of Prometheus-2 represents another important step forward for our homegrown space programme.'This collaboration with In-Space Missions and Airbus paves the way for the UK to become a more resilient, more robust and more significant global space entity.''Cubesat 1' and 'Cubesat 2' will provide a test platform for monitoring radio signals including GPS and sophisticated imaging.Cubesat 1 includes a laser detector, a GPS receiver and a hyperspectral imager – which can capture multiple slivers of pictures over different wavelengths of light.Cubesat 2, meanwhile, includes two optical imaging cameras, a laser range finder, and a GPS receiver.The cubesats will allow MOD to better understand how the UK and its international partners can work together to create a 'more capable and flexible system' at a lower cost.Technology on board the cubesats will enable MOD to identify new techniques and algorithms for operating satellites and data processing, it said.The upcoming Cornwall launch will involve Virgin Orbit's carrier aircraft, a modified Boeing 747 called Cosmic Girl, and LauncherOne, a two-stage orbital launch vehicle tucked into Cosmic Girl's belly.Once Cosmic Girl is at a high enough altitude – around 35,000 feet – LauncherOne is unleashed.When at an orbital altitude, LauncherOne deploys the satellites, which will be catapulted into orbit at 8,000 miles per hour.Virgin Orbit has already conducted three successful consecutive orbital missions with LauncherOne in 2021 and 2022, the last one in January. There are three UK spaceports aiming to start operations this year. The one in Cornwall is a horizontal launch site, meaning it uses a carrier aircraft, such as a Boeing 747, for launches before deploying rockets when the aircraft is airborne. Conversely, Space Hub Sutherland and SaxaVord Spaceport in the Shetland Islands are vertical spaceports, meaning they perform more conventional ground launches with a rocket MILESTONES IN BRITISH SPACE 1952: British space programme adopted1962: First British-built satellite is launched (by NASA from Cape Canaveral, Florida)1971: British rocket Black Arrow puts a single British satellite, Prospero, into orbit from a launch site in Australia1975: 10 nations including the UK founds the European Space Agency1985: British National Space Centre in Leicester is founded 1991: Sheffield-born chemist Helen Sharman becomes the first British person in space2003: Beagle 2 British Mars lander launched 2004: Sir Richard Branson forms private company Virgin Galactic2016: Tim Peake becomes the first British person to walk in space2018: Space Industry Act paves the way for construction of UK spaceports2022: Three UK spaceports - one in Cornwall and two in Scotland - are expected to become operationalHowever, all three took place from Mojave Air and Space Port, California, and so the first one from British soil is generating considerable interest.Over the last 16 months since January 2021, LauncherOne has already deployed payloads in space for Virgin Orbit's customers, including NASA and the US Department of Defense.Virgin Orbit has also revealed that it will acquire two more modified Boeing 747 aircraft to expand its operations in the US.The new craft will help 'meet US national security and its allies' launch demands, Virgin Orbit said.Virgin Orbit is a company within the Virgin Group, the conglomerate founded by Richard Branson in 1970.It was formed in 2017 to develop the air-launched LauncherOne rocket, launched from Cosmic Girl — which had previously been a project of Virgin Galactic.In June last year, Virgin Orbit's chief executive Dan Hart told MailOnline that Spaceport Cornwall could be used to send probes to Mars, Venus and the moon within the next three or four years. 'Lunar missions and smaller craft bound for Venus and Mars could be launched [from Spaceport Cornwall] within the next three or four years,' he said.'We're not going to launch a Perseverance rover (currently being used by NASA to search for signs of ancient life on Mars), for example, but smaller interplanetary probes that explore or carry out landing missions are a possibility.'However, despite there being talk the Cornish site could one day launch fee-paying space tourists on suborbital pleasure flights, the Virgin Orbit chief said human spaceflight was 'not currently part of the company's plans' for the facility. Nevertheless, Mr Hart said he envisioned the spaceport having a Cape Canaveral-like effect on the Cornish community, with people knowing when a launch is coming and being inspired that their friends and neighbours have worked on it.Spaceport Cornwall's development is expected to create around 150 jobs and allow the UK to compete in the global market for deploying small satellites into Earth orbit — an industry expected to be worth £3.9 billion by 2030, which Branson is hoping to tap into. Also joining Britain's space race is Space Hub Sutherland, which will host the launch of a 62-foot tall environmentally-friendly rocket called Prime later this year.This is designed to be reusable and not leave debris on land, the oceans or in the atmosphere.Meanwhile, the third UK spaceport, SaxaVord Spaceport based at Unst in the Shetland Islands, has also unveiled plans to provide launch services for customers sometime this year.Space Hub Sutherland and SaxaVord Spaceport are vertical spaceports, meaning they perform more conventional ground launches with a rocket, while Cornwall is horizontal.This means it uses a carrier aircraft, such as a Boeing 747, for launches before deploying rockets when the aircraft is airborne. HOW VIRGIN ORBIT GETS SATELLITES INTO SPACE TAKE OFF Cosmic Girl, an adapted Boeing 747, takes off from an air and space port, initially in California.ROCKET DEPLOYMENT At cruising altitude around 35,000 feet, the chief pilot hits the Big Red Button that releases the rocket from the pylon. FIRST STAGE BURN After a 4-second freefall, the first stage engine, NewtonThree, bursts to life, accelerating the rocket to more than 8,000 miles per hour. Once its fuel is spent, the first stage detaches.FAIRING SEPARATION With LauncherOne now between 310 to 745 miles above the Earth’s surface, the fairing pops open, exposing the payload as it nears its destination. SATELLITE DEPLOYMENT Finally, with very precise timing, the second stage ejects the satellite into its final orbit. RETURN TO EARTH Atmospheric drag will eventually pull the second stage back down to Earth, where it burns up in the atmosphere, minimising environmental footprint. | Space Technology |
Alice Gorman, Flinders Univeristy - Steven Freeland, Western Sydney UniversityWith interest in the prospect of mining the moon and asteroids gaining pace, it’s time to take a hard look at what’s really at stake.From the time of the launch of Sputnik 1 in 1957, space has been regarded as the common heritage of humanity. This is reflected in the landmark United Nations Outer Space Treaty (OST) of 1967. Among other things, it affirms that all have a right to access space for peaceful and scientific purposes, and prohibits the sovereign appropriation of outer space.The treaty was designed to provide principles to govern space in the geopolitical environment of the Cold War, when the main space actors were nations, not private corporations. Ironically, their motivation for developing space technology at the time was as much for military as for peaceful purposes.Since those days, the nature of space activities has undergone a significant shift. Many space technologies initially derived from military programs are now at the heart of very substantial space businesses. Commercial interests are now a significant element in the future of space exploration and use.And where there are commercial interests at stake, the financial “bottom line” becomes all-important. An increasing number of private entities believe there are considerable profits to be made in the rare metals and other valuable resources lying untouched in the moon and near-Earth asteroids.A bold act, but is it legal?The international treaties are based on a cooperative approach to the exploitation of space resources. Despite this, the major space-faring nations have thus far steered away from establishing an international management regime to coordinate any mining activities.Now, as the technology that might enable such activities to eventually become a reality develops, private enterprise is pushing governments to pass national laws to promote it. In November 2015, US President Barack Obama signed the Commercial Space Launch Competitiveness Act (CSLCA) into law. This gives US companies the right to own – and sell – resources mined in space.Some commentators argue that the Act is a flagrant violation of the letter and spirit of the OST.The International Institute of Space Law is more circumspect. It says that, while the legal position is not entirely clear, the US law is not necessarily incompatible with international principles.Such divergent opinions demonstrate that further clarity is necessary to avoid future conflicts. Environmental impacts of off-world miningWhile the focus is on the legalities, as well as who bears the costs of future space exploration and who has the right to profit from it, one critical area is being overlooked.Asteroids might be “out of sight, out of mind” for the most part, but lunar mining is likely to arouse strong and widespread reactions. The moon is one of the most significant cultural influences that unites people across all times and places in human history.Would the public support commercial space mining if excavation scars were visible through Earth-based telescopes? Such considerations might be a factor in the design and location of mining operations.Terrestrial mining companies are generally required to comply with domestic legislation that protects heritage, community values and the environment. Apart from some general statements in the treaties, as yet no similar system is in place for space.Space mining companies have barely considered that they might have to deal with the same kind of community opposition as mines on Earth, only this time at a global scale.Diggers in spaceGiven that the US has enacted a law that purports to establish the right to mine and sell off-world resources, other nations may follow. Indeed, Luxembourg has recently announced it will also establish a legal framework to facilitate space mining.In moving forward, we need to carefully consider the potential for a “tragedy of the commons” situation in relation to space resources, just as we are with the problem of increasing space debris. What this means is that each entity, acting in its own self-interest, risks destroying a resource for everyone.What about Australia?Australia has a huge amount of expertise in mining technology and operations, especially in remote locations. The Pilbara region of Western Australia, the heartland of the mining boom, resembles Mars enough to be called a Mars analogue landscape.Australians are also active in developing space mining industries, as part of companies such as Deep Space Industries. Recent conferences in Sydney focusing on off-Earth mining attracted much interest.It is clear that Australian expertise is relevant in the development of space-related capability. The Department of Industry, Innovation and Science is undertaking a review of our space laws to assess what is the most appropriate regulatory framework to promote such innovation into commercial benefit for the country.The future of access to the solar systemWhat’s really at stake is the future of universal human access to space and the very way we view space.A rash move at this point could tip the balance and erode the principle of the common heritage of humanity. We must avoid further entrenching the divisions between the space haves and have-nots.While there may be considerable benefits to future generations should we find a way to safely and sustainably exploit space resources, there are also considerable risks. These need a very careful calibration.Cool heads are required and the key will be international cooperation on a broad scale. This issue is too important and too complex to be undertaken by a small number of private enterprises. A clear international regime must be established to safeguard the interests of every stakeholder.Source: The Conversation | Space Technology |
EWS artist rendering. Credit: Space Systems Command The EWS demonstration launched on the SpaceX Transporter-6 rideshare WASHINGTON — The U.S. Space Systems Command on Jan. 3 launched a cubesat intended to demonstrate commercial weather imaging technologies for military use.
The Electro-Optical/Infrared (EO/IR) Weather Systems (EWS) demonstration launched on the SpaceX Transporter-6 rideshare that deployed more than 110 small satellites.
Over a planned one-year demonstration, the Space Force wants to assess the capabilities of an imaging cubesat made by Orion Space Solutions to provide timely weather imagery data from low Earth orbit. This is a priority for the Defense Department that needs to fill a gap in weather coverage as the military’s decades-old Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) satellites are running out of fuel and projected to be out of service between 2023 and 2026.
Congress for years pressed the Air Force, and now the Space Force, to find alternatives to DMSP and consider commercial options. The launch of Orion’s prototype cubesat “satisfies the 2020 National Defense Authorization Act congressional mandate to launch a weather EO/IR pathfinder prototype by fiscal year 2023,” the Space Systems Command said in a statement. “The program expects the first transmittal of data early in the new year.”
Another EO/IR weather prototype is being developed by General Atomics Electromagnetic Systems for delivery in 2025.
Both demonstration satellites will collect weather imaging and cloud characterization data from low polar orbits.
The EWS cubesat demonstration shows the Space Systems Command’s “commitment to working with non-traditional partners to broaden the competitive industrial base,” said Lt. Col. Joe Maguadog, EWS materiel leader and program manager. “This demonstration will inform our transition toward a more affordable, scalable and resilient EO/IR weather constellation.”
Orion Space Solutions and General Atomics were chosen following a three-way competition with Raytheon Technologies for the Electro-Optical/Infrared Weather System (EWS) program.
Orion Space Solutions (previously known as Atmospheric & Space Technology Research Associates), is based in Louisville, Colorado,
The U.S. military and allies rely on weather data from satellites to plan military operators such as flight routes, combat search and rescue, maritime surface tracking efforts, enemy missile observation and intelligence collection.
The Space Force also is exploring the possibility of buying weather data as a service as an alternative to buying and operating satellites. | Space Technology |
WASHINGTON — The Space Development Agency, formed inside the Pentagon in 2019 to help accelerate the use of commercial space technology, is preparing to launch on March 30 its inaugural fleet of 10 satellites.
The launch of SDA’s Tranche 0 satellites — scheduled to lift off Thursday morning from Vandenberg Space Force Base, California — marks the beginning of the deployment of what the agency calls a “proliferated warfighter space architecture.”
“This is a pretty exciting time,” SDA Director Director Derek Tournear told reporters March 29. “The Space Development Agency was established just over four years ago this month, and tomorrow will be our first launch.”
SDA in October was transferred from the Office of the Secretary of Defense to the U.S. Space Force.
By the standards of Pentagon procurements, getting satellites to orbit within three years of ordering them and during a global pandemic would be a remarkable accomplishment for the young agency. SDA has adopted a fast-track approach to build a large missile-warning and data-transport constellation in low Earth orbit.
SpaceX launch to polar orbit
The Tranche 0 satellites will fly on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket to a polar orbit at an altitude of about 1,000 kilometers and deployed in two orbital planes.
The mission will carry eight data-transport satellites made by York Space Systems that will be part of a mesh communications network known as Transport Layer, and two infrared sensor satellites made by SpaceX and Leidos to detect and track hypersonic missiles in flight.
This launch was originally targeted for December but was delayed due to an anomaly in York’s satellites.
York Space Systems won a $94 million contract in August 2020 to build 10 satellites for SDA’s Transport Layer Tranche 0. The two remaining satellites will launch in June. SpaceX in October 2020 won a $149 million contract to build four Tracking Layer satellites. The two remaining will launch in June as well.
The Tranche 0 satellites will be operated from ground stations run by the Naval Research Laboratory
A new model for satellite procurements
SDA’s program director for Tranche 0 Mike Eppolito told reporters on Wednesday that getting to this point was challenging due to supply chain problems experienced across the entire space industry during the covid pandemic.
What helped was that “our contracts office is incredibly fast,” he said. “Our finance office is incredibly fast at getting money out the door to solve problems.”
Frank Calvelli, the Space Force’s top procurement official who oversees SDA, has championed the agency’s approach to buying small satellites under fixed-price contracts from multiple vendors.
The Transport Layer satellites are estimated to cost about $15 million each, and the Tracking Layer satellites about $40 million each.
Speaking earlier this year about SDA’s Tranche 0 launch, Calvelli said that once the agency demonstrates it can deliver capabilities to DoD, it will serve as a model for other programs. “I think once we have that success, we’ll see this methodology take off like gangbusters,” he said. | Space Technology |
TAMPA, Fla. — Voyager Space is considering using India’s proposed Gaganyaan crewed spacecraft to serve the commercial space station it aims to be operating by the end of the decade.
The Denver-based space technology provider announced a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) July 10 with India to explore using Gaganyaan, among other potential collaborations to deepen ties with the country’s space industry.
The MoU paves the way to other partnerships across exploration, research, and commercial activities, Voyager chief revenue officer Clay Mowry said.
India expects to perform Gaganyaan’s first crewed flight no earlier than 2025 following delays that have pushed out its schedule by at least three years.
The MoU with India is Voyager’s first with a crewed spacecraft provider outside the United States, Mowry told SpaceNews.
He said Voyager is working with multiple undisclosed providers to supply crew and cargo services for Starlab, which would use a standard docking system aiming to be compatible with various spacecraft.
“We are targeting our single-launch configuration to be operational in 2028,” he added.
India partnerships
Gaganyaan would launch to low Earth orbit on a version of India’s heavy-lift Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle Mark 3.
Voyager announced a separate MoU July 7 to explore launch and deployment opportunities for small satellites orbited by two smaller Indian rockets: The Small Satellite Launch Vehicle and Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle, or SSLV and PLSV.
Voyager’s customers have previously flown payloads on two PLSV missions, according to the company, which said the deal further expands their access to space.
The agreement also enables Voyager to study using space-qualified components from the recently created commercial arm of India’s space agency, covering spacecraft manufacturing, deployment, operations, and other areas of interest.
Voyager offers a broad range of space technologies following a series of acquisitions since being founded four years ago, ranging from laser and radio frequency communications systems to mission-data transmitters and cameras.
The company announced its latest acquisition March 13 in a deal for engineering company ZIN Technologies, known for microgravity research equipment that Voyager said would support plans for its Starlab space station.
Under development in partnership with Lockheed Martin, Starlab is one of three commercial concepts in the running to help NASA transition from the aging International Space Station.
In January, Voyager said Airbus is also providing technical design support and expertise for the project, potentially making it easier for European governments to use Starlab.
Voyager’s partnerships in India come as the country relaxes regulatory rules over its commercial space sector and the involvement of foreign businesses.
During Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s recent visit to the United States, the two countries also announced plans to create a strategic framework for human spaceflight cooperation by the end of the year. The plans include a joint effort to the International Space Station in 2024 that has yet to be detailed.
Efforts to galvanize India’s space industry also include plans by the Indian Space Research Organization to auction off SSLV to the private sector, reported the country’s Economic Times July 9, citing an unnamed senior official at the space agency.
Capable of carrying up to 500 kilograms to mid-inclination low Earth orbits, SSLV is designed to be cheaper and more flexible than its two larger Indian cousins for deploying small payloads.
After failing to reach orbit in its August debut, SSLV’s second flight successfully placed three satellites into low Earth orbit in February. | Space Technology |
Scientists have developed an energy source which could allow astronauts to live on the Moon for long periods of time.
The Nasa-led Artemis Program hopes for an outpost on the Moon by around 2030.
Bangor University has designed nuclear fuel cells, the size of poppy seeds, to produce the energy needed to sustain life there.
Prof Simon Middleburgh from the university said the work was a challenge - "but it was a fun one".
The Moon, also known by some as the gateway to Mars, contains a lot of valuable resources needed for modern technology.
The hope is that it could be used as a springboard to reach the planets beyond.
As space technology advances at a rapid pace, the BBC was given exclusive access to the Bangor University Nuclear Futures Institute's laboratory.
The Bangor team, which is a world-leader on fuels, works with partners such as Rolls Royce, the UK Space Agency, Nasa and the Los Alamos National Laboratory in the US.
Prof Middleburgh from the Nuclear Futures Institute said the team hoped to fully test the nuclear fuel "over the next few months".
On parts of the Moon, temperatures plummet to astonishing lows of -414F (-248C) - because it has no atmosphere to warm up the surface.
Bangor University is a major player in the quest to generate another way of producing energy and heat to sustain life on the planet.
The researchers have just sent the tiny nuclear fuel cell, known as a Trisofuel, to their partners for testing.
This Trisofuel cell could be used to power a micro nuclear generator, created by Rolls Royce.
The generator is portable device, the size of a small car and "something you can stick on a rocket," Prof Middleburgh said.
That will now be fully tested and put through forces similar to being blasted up into space, ready for a Moon base in 2030.
He added: "You can launch them into space, with all the forces⦠and they'll still function quite safely when they're put onto the Moon."
Earlier this month, India made a historic landing near the Moon's south pole with its robotic probe Chandrayaan-3.
One of the mission's major goals is to hunt for water-based ice which, scientists say, could support human habitation on the Moon in future.
Prof Middleburgh said Bangor University's work was putting Wales on the map.
"I would say that we're really pushing things [globally]," he said.
The university hopes the micro generators could also be used here on Earth, such as in disaster zones when electricity has been cut off.
The team at Bangor is also working on a nuclear system to power rockets, led by Dr Phylis Makurunje.
She said: "It is very powerful - it gives very high thrust, the push it gives to the rocket.
"This is very important because it enables rockets to reach the farthest planets."
Dr Makurunje said the new technology could almost halve the time it takes to get to Mars.
"With nuclear thermal propulsion - you're looking at about four to six months getting to Mars. The current duration is nine months plus," she said.
Moon bases in the 2030s
The geopolitical author and journalist, Tim Marshall, said the breakthrough over fuel was a step towards a global race to the lunar south pole.
He said: "I'm confident there will be moon bases in the 2030s. Probably a Chinese one; probably an American-led one.
"I'm confident because I don't think that major powers can afford not to be there just in case this is, what is likely to be, a massive breakthrough.
"So the Chinese are talking about 2028, putting the first brick down, probably symbolically to say they were the first one. But by the early 2030s, both will have a base.
"It's thought there is titanium, lithium, silicon, iron, and many other minerals which are used for all sorts of 21st Century technologies.
"The actual amount is unknown... but most companies are confident that it's enough to make it economically viable."
He warned things could become complicated as space is commercialised, citing outdated space laws.
"The rules of the road, such as they are, were written in 1967 - the Outer Space Treaty.
"It's still a template but it's 50 years out of date because it didn't know about modern technology, the competition that's out there and the commercial aspects - because then it was very much state-led.
"So without updated laws, agreed by the United Nations, it is a little bit of a free-for-all for everybody - and that brings dangers.
"Because if you haven't got the guidelines within which to operate, then the clear competition that will happen is operating without a legal framework." | Space Technology |
Artist’s rendering of the Air Force Research Laboratory’s Arachne flight experiment on orbit. Credit: AFRL SAN FRANCISCO – Northrop Grumman has completed ground-based tests to demonstrate critical technology required for a 2025 demonstration of space-based solar power.
“As far as the technologies go, we’re very confident in our design and we’ve proven it out,” Tara Theret, Northrop Grumman’s Space Solar Power Incremental Demonstrations and Research (SSPIDR) program director, told SpaceNews. “Now, it’s just building, testing and integrating the rest of the hardware on a challenging timeline.”
Northrop Grumman announced Dec. 15 the successful demonstration of a key element of SSPIDR, the ability to beam radio frequency energy toward various antennas by steering the beam. The testing was conducted in one of Northrop Grumman’s anechoic test chambers in Baltimore.
Next, Northrop Grumman will “take those findings and translate them into our prototype, which we anticipate launching in 2025 to actually show the capability of beaming RF energy down to the planet,” said Jay Patel, vice president of Northrop Grumman Remote Sensing Programs.
Beyond the prototype for the future objective system, Northrop Grumman will need to shrink electronic components and significantly scale up the quantity of “sandwich tiles,” or panels of photovoltaic cells to collect solar energy and provide power to another layer of components that enable solar-to-RF conversion and beamforming.
“We are currently busy manufacturing our flight hardware so that we can put together this system that we’re going to be launching on our Northrop Grumman ESPAStar platform,” Patel said. (ESPAStar, a satellite bus built around an Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle Secondary Payload Adapter, provides propulsion, power, attitude control and communications for payloads.)
The U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory awarded Northrop Grumman a $100 million contract in 2018 to develop a payload to demonstrate key components of a prototype space solar power system. AFRL conceived of the flight experiment, called Arachne, to spur the development of technology needed for a prototype space-based system that could provide solar power to remote military bases.
In late 2021, Northrop Grumman showed its “sandwich tile” could convert solar energy to RF power. With the latest demonstration, the company is relying on phased array technology to control the RF beam and steer it toward multiple fixed rectifying antennas.
“It was a very exciting demonstration that allowed us to show the culmination of those different technology milestones that we’ve been developing since the beginning of this project,” Patel said.
Space-based solar power, long a feature of science fiction, is being investigated by government agencies around the world.
The Naval Research Laboratory launched an experiment in 2020 aboard the Air Force’s X-37B space plane that captured sunlight and converted it into direct current electrical energy. The China Academy of Space Technology announced plans for a 2028 space-based demonstration. The European Space Agency approved plans for a three-year research program called Solaris. And the United Kingdom is offering grants for space solar power studies and technology development.
If solar power can be gathered in space and beamed to the ground, there are many promising applications, Patel said.
“If you have a flood or a hurricane that knocks out power to an area, it takes weeks sometimes for them to get back online,” Patel said. “This system can provide temporary power during those periods until that infrastructure is built back up.” | Space Technology |
The flags of China and the United States are seen printed on paper in this illustration taken January 27, 2022. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File PhotoRegister now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.comWASHINGTON, Aug 23 (Reuters) - The United States has added seven China-related entities, mostly related to aerospace, to its export control list, citing national security and foreign policy concerns, according to a U.S. Commerce Department notice published online on Tuesday.According to a notification posted to the Federal Register, China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation 9th Academy 771 Research Institute, China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation 9th Academy 772 Research Institute, China Academy of Space Technology 502 Research Institute, China Academy of Space Technology 513 Research Institute, China Electronics Technology Group Corporation 43 Research Institute, China Electronics Technology Group Corporation 58 Research Institute, and Zhuhai Orbita Control Systems were added to the list, indicating suppliers of U.S. materials or services to these entities will need a license before shipping any goods.Commerce said the entities were added for "acquiring and attempting to acquire U.S.-origin items in support of China’s military modernization efforts."Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.comReporting by Chris Sanders and Susan Heavey; editing by Tim Ahmann and Chizu NomiyamaOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles. | Space Technology |
The Titan submersible vessel, which has gone missing with five people on board, was partially constructed at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama.
Search and rescue teams are racing to locate Titan after contact with the vessel was lost on Sunday about an hour and 45 minutes into its dive, which was meant to explore the wreck of the Titanic. The vessel was developed as part of an agreement between OceanGate, Titan’s operator, and NASA, according to a press release by the company that announced the partnership in 2020.
Related article: Everything We Know About the Missing Titanic Tourist Sub
The partnership was forged under the Space Act of 1958, which allows NASA to help stimulate commercial manufacturing that could in turn benefit the space agency in future missions. Under the agreement, Titan was partially constructed at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center.
“NASA is committed to cutting-edge composites research and development that will not only further our deep space exploration goals, but will also improve materials and manufacturing for American industry,” John Vickers, principal technologist for advanced manufacturing technology at NASA, said in the 2020 press release. “This Space Act Agreement with OceanGate is a great example of how NASA partners with companies to bring space technology back down to Earth.”
The manufacturing of the carbon fiber and titanium submersible, in turn, helped NASA engineers gather more data on the development of vehicles that can survive under high pressure. Titan was created using aerospace grade carbon fiber, reducing its weight to about a fraction of what other deep diving crewed submersibles weigh, according to OceanGate.
The 22 foot-long (6.7 meters) craft weighs 23,000 pounds (10,432 kilograms) and is capable of going as deep as 19,800 feet (6,000 meters) below water. RMS Titanic, which famously sunk during its maiden voyage in April 1912, lies roughly 13,000 feet (4,000 meters) below the Atlantic surface.
Titan relies on Elon Musk’s Starlink for communication, the company revealed in a tweet last week. It’s still not clear, however, what caused the submersible’s communication system to fail.
The five-person crew on board Titan includes billionaire explorer Hamish Harding, who previously traveled to the edge of space on board Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket in June 2022. | Space Technology |
What Is High Tech – Overview
“What is high tech?” is a common question that arises when discussing technology. High tech is a concept that originated in the fields of science and engineering, and it has become an integral part of our daily lives. When we think about technology, we often think about products that involve information and digital aspects.
Even the June 2022 reports say that the United States imported around 157 billion U.S. dollars worth of information and communications goods. This shows the growth of advanced technology, information & communication worldwide.
While the term “high tech” is quite broad and can be applied in various contexts, it generally refers to products that utilize advanced engineering and production techniques. These products are typically complex and modern, incorporating cutting-edge technologies that are constantly evolving.
So, if you’re wondering what exactly high tech is, it can be understood as a category of products that are at the forefront of technological innovation. From smartphones to electric cars, high-tech products are characterized by their sophistication and ability to improve and simplify our lives.
Reasons Behind Calling It High Tech
The term “high tech” has a specific meaning behind it. The “high” in high tech refers to the significant amount of investment involved in the production process of these products. This is due to the fact that high tech products often require the use of modern, expensive technologies.
Understanding what high tech means can help us identify the industries and products that fall under this category. This blog post aims to provide a general understanding of high tech and the types of products or industries that can be considered high tech.
By delving into the world of high tech, we can gain a better appreciation for the cutting-edge technologies that drive innovation and shape our world. So, whether you’re a technology enthusiast or simply curious about the latest developments in the field, this blog post is for you!
Some Examples Of High Tech Products
If you are still confused about understanding what high tech is, these few examples will help you in getting a glimpse of the concept in a precise way!
#1. Electronic Devices:
Almost everyone has at least a few electronic appliances and other products at their home. All these are prominent examples of high tech products. These gadgets offer you tons of features and faster services. Also, producing these products involves a huge amount of technology and investment simultaneously.
#2. Space Technology:
High tech is used in building satellites or spacecraft that are inevitable for the growth of space technology and science in any nation. Over these years, different experiments have led even small companies to develop and assemble certain top-notch rockets with less investment, which are quite efficient too!
#3. Computers:
When we speak of what is high tech, what can be a better example than computers? The present-day computers have a huge variation from that of the earlier ones. The present-day computers are based on ICs, vacuum tubes, and similar others, which are significantly smaller in size.
With the development of high tech, the components are now produced at smaller sizes, which makes computers accessible and portable.
High Tech Industries
To get an even strong and broader idea of what is high tech, check out these industries that are considered high-tech!
#1. Computer Industries:
Nothing can be a better example than that of the computer industry when it comes to high tech. We are well aware of the strong impact that computers have spread on our society.
With technological advancements, the computer industry has expanded into the field of smartphones and other similar devices.
#2. Biotechnology:
This branch is concerned with the development of medicines and devices for medical industries. Due to the high amount of innovative steps and technological development in this sector, the employment rate has increased here as well!
#3. Manufacturing:
To cut down production costs, the manufacturing industries also include the latest technologies. Robots are the most common and widely found high-tech forms in the manufacturing industries.
Innovation In The High Tech Products And Industries
Any kind of technological advancement or new development in technology can be considered an innovation for high tech. A pretty good example of such an innovative step was the invention of the MRI scan, which is a revolutionary development.
Also, the invention of the Kindle by Amazon has changed the way people read books! Now, you can access books in digital format and at much lower rates with Kindle than the physical copies!
Moreover, you do not need to worry about the physical copies’ shelf space or storage issues because you can now own millions of books in digital format on your Kindle.
Apart from these, other kinds of innovation in nuclear technology, industrial designs, or even quantum technology have brought a wave of fresh change in this field.
What Happens When You Develop A New High Tech Idea?
If you develop a new high tech product and want credit for it, get it patented! It will be a legal document that will provide you with legal rights and protection against being copied by others.
Conclusion
By now, you may have got a decent idea about what is high tech product. High tech products have the potential to positively change the entire shape of an industry and bring a huge amount of growth in its operations. To use your innovation correctly and protect it from being copied, patent your high tech innovation!
See Also | Space Technology |
China and African nations are increasingly collaborating in space to develop their own ambitions in the next frontier analysts say.
Chinese astronauts known as taikonauts have been playing a role in space diplomacy while on a six-month mission on the Tiangong space station currently under construction.
Just last week, three taikonauts spoke to students from eight African countries via video link during an event hosted by the China Mission to the African Union.
“This event is a reflection of the ongoing collaboration between China and African countries. The space industry in Africa is growing at an incredible rate, hence countries and regions like China, Europe, Russia and the U.S. are beginning to compete for a stake in the industry,” Temidayo Oniosun, a Nigerian space scientist and managing director of the website ‘Space in Africa,’ told VOA.
A young Ethiopian wanted to know what astronauts eat in space and how they shower. A Somali student wanted to know about the future of space tourism and a female student from Egypt wanted to know whether it’s difficult for women to become astronauts.
The three taikonauts answered the questions in detail, showing them the food they eat in orbit, including “delicious purple rice porridge, tasty sautéed sweet corn with pine nuts, and sautéed diced beef in black pepper sauce,” and explained that because of zero-gravity it’s impossible to take a shower in space.
The event was not only a show of soft power on Beijing’s part, but also indicates the importance China is placing on the role Africa can help it play in the global space race, experts said.
China’s interests in Africa
“These engagements are not necessarily because China and the rest are engaging to help Africa, they’re doing so because they get economic, social and cultural capital in return,” said Oniosun.
China is second only to the U.S. in terms of the number of satellites in the world it controls.
A 2020 Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies working paper mentioned how “constructing remote sensing satellite networks” in Africa allowed China to “support logistical integration of Belt and Road (BRI) partner states” as one of the applications for cooperation in space.
In his remarks at the event in Addis Ababa last week, the head of China’s mission to the AU, Hu Changchun, said space was an important part of President Xi Jinping’s Belt and Road Initiative, which is rapidly building infrastructure in developing countries.
“African people are determined to explore space. In recent years under the guidance of the Belt and Road Initiative…space cooperation has become a highlight of China-Africa cooperation,” he said. “We have seen fruitful results of satellite launches, space infrastructure, as well as sharing of satellite resources … we have also provided high quality training for African researchers.”
Africa’s interests in space
Oniosun said the African space economy in 2021 was valued at $19.49 billion and is forecast to grow by some 16% in the next four years. However, as of 2022 only 13 African countries have 48 satellites, six of them built by China and one by the U.S., with experts saying satellite communication is essential to bridging the connectivity gap on the continent.
China launched Nigeria’s first communications satellite in 2007, and in 2011 launched Nigeria’s second one. Beijing also launched Algeria’s first communication satellite in 2017. In 2018, Tunisia became the site of the first ground receiving station outside of China for its Beidou Satellite Navigation System analysts said.
China helped Ethiopia and Sudan launch their first satellites in 2019. More than 20 African countries now have space programs, and the AU-China astronaut event was meant to generate enthusiasm among African youth and challenge the idea “in Africa that space is somehow a luxury or an excess pursuit,” Julie Klinger, assistant professor at the University of Delaware, told VOA.
In fact, African nations are not interested in competing in a controversial space race, she said, and don’t prioritize military applications or even human spaceflight.
They are more interested in “developing space capabilities in order to address matters of socio-economic development,” with climate change, environmental monitoring and disaster management all important parts of China-Africa space collaboration, Klinger added.
While China has intensified its international collaboration on space since the advent of its Belt and Road Initiative, Klinger emphasized that China has to enter competitive bidding processes when it comes to getting space technology contracts with African governments.
“Honestly they don’t always win, the majority of satellite activity in particular in Africa is funded by African governments,” she said, with the most contracts going to France, China second and the U.S. a distant fourth.
Regardless of which countries African nations partner with, the students who participated in the question-and-answer session with the taikonauts became some of the youngest space diplomats to represent their country and may one day become astronauts who make it to space themselves. | Space Technology |
Sign up for CNN’s Wonder Theory science newsletter. Explore the universe with news on fascinating discoveries, scientific advancements and more. CNN — A nuclear thermal rocket engine in development could one day transport humans to Mars. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, a research arm of the US Department of Defense, and NASA are setting their sights on a type of rocket engine that could be the holy grail for quickly and safely getting humans to the red planet. The first tests could occur as soon as 2027, according to a Tuesday news release from the space agency. “DARPA and NASA have a long history of fruitful collaboration in advancing technologies for our respective goals, from the Saturn V rocket that took humans to the Moon for the first time to robotic servicing and refueling of satellites,” DARPA director Dr. Stefanie Tompkins said in a statement. “The space domain is critical to modern commerce, scientific discovery, and national security.” The US military and NASA sought to develop this type of technology in the mid-20th century, but the program stalled. Now, the initiative is gaining new traction in the modern era as the Demonstration Rocket for Agile Cislunar Operations, or DRACO, program. Research into nuclear thermal rocket engines by NASA began in 1959. A key program in the 1960s, called the Nuclear Engine for Rocket Vehicle Application, even sought to demonstrate the technology in space — but that never came to fruition. “Funding for NERVA, however, decreased in the late 1960s and the program was cancelled in 1973 before any flight tests of the engine took place,” according to the space agency’s website. These days, NASA has renewed interest in sending humans to the red planet. The space agency’s Artemis program, which had its inaugural uncrewed test flight to the moon last year, directs the space agency to return humans to the lunar surface as a stepping stone for eventually putting the first humans on Mars. “Recent aerospace materials and engineering advancements are enabling a new era for space nuclear technology, and this flight demonstration will be a major achievement toward establishing a space transportation capability for an Earth-Moon economy,” Jim Reuter, associate administrator for NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate, said in a statement. As the name implies, a nuclear thermal engine would rely on a nuclear reactor, using a process called atomic fission — in which a neutron slams into an atom to rip it apart, setting off a powerful chain reaction — to heat up propellant and provide the thrust needed to propel a rocket through space. (The nuclear fission process is better known in the public consciousness for its role in energy production, and NASA previously signed a deal with the US Department of Energy to research its applications for space travel.) That process, according to NASA, is three or more times more efficient than the chemical propulsion used by the rockets currently in operation, in which an explosive fuel is mixed with an oxidizer to create a fiery blaze of thrust. The more efficient nuclear process, NASA said, could allow spacecraft to traverse the 140 million-mile (225 million-kilometer) average distance between the Earth and Mars far more quickly than is possible today, greatly reducing the amount of time astronauts are exposed to dangerous levels of radiation on future deep-space missions. Under the agreement with DARPA — which is perhaps best known for its role in laying the groundwork for the internet — NASA will lead the technological development of the new engine. DARPA will design an experimental spacecraft, as well as lead the overall program, according to the contract. | Space Technology |
On 2 September, India launched its first spacecraft to study the Sun, marking another aerospace engineering success for the nation, hot on the heels of landing a spacecraft on the Moon last month.
After a journey lasting 1.5 million kilometres and 4 months, the solar mission, named Aditya-L1, will join four other spacecraft circling a point in space known as Lagrange point 1 (L1).
Following the launch, Aditya-L1’s project director at the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) in Bengaluru, Nigar Shaji, said that the mission “will be an asset to heliophysicists of the country and even the global scientific fraternity”.
But with L1 already busy with solar missions and other solar observatories orbiting Earth, what makes the Indian mission different?
Solar flares and storms
Aditya-L1 is “a unique observatory”, according to solar physicist Dibyendu Nandi at the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Kolkata. He says it combines instruments that address three outstanding problems in solar physics, namely how stars such as the Sun sustain their super-hot outer layer; how variations in the Sun’s magnetic field affect Earth’s atmosphere; and how the Sun’s magnetic fields create violent solar storms.
Aditya-L1 is equipped with seven instruments to observe the Sun’s layers. Using electromagnetic and particle detectors it will, from a safe distance of 148.5 million kilometres, examine the outer atmosphere, or corona, of the Sun. The mission is expected to throw light on the properties of the corona and what prompts coronal mass ejections (CMEs) — large expulsions of electrons, ions and magnetic fields. Knowing how CMEs vary with latitude and longitude on the Sun and over time will help researchers to understand the physics of these events.
The mission will also examine the Sun’s lower atmosphere, called the chromosphere, and the boundary between the Sun’s atmosphere and its interior, called the photosphere.
India will be taking some new technology to the craft’s vantage point. Annapurni Subramaniam, director of the Indian Institute of Astrophysics in Bengaluru and her team have developed the Visible Emission Line Coronagraph (VELC) for Aditya-L1 to monitor the inner corona. “The uniqueness of the VELC is its simultaneous observations in multiple wavelength bands closer to the solar limb,” she says, referring to the darker edges of the Sun.
“Data from VELC will help to understand the initial acceleration of coronal mass ejections that are the most dangerous space-weather events,” she adds.
Scientists are also looking forward to data from Aditya-L1’s Solar Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope (SUIT), which will help them to study coronal heating and solar-wind acceleration. SUIT could, for the first time, provide images of the Sun’s disk — the outer visible layer of gas and dust — in the near=ultraviolet (light with wavelengths of 200–400 nanometres). “Such images have never been obtained and they will help us understand the crucial coupling or connections among the different layers of the solar atmosphere,” says Durgesh Tripathi, an astrophysicist at the Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics in Pune, India.
Lagrange 1
Aditya-L1 will enter orbit around L1, one of five Lagrange points in space where the gravity between two bodies — in this case, the Sun and Earth — cancel each other out, such that a spacecraft there can remain in position with minimal use of fuel. L1 offers a good view of the Sun.
It will join four other craft also orbiting L1: the 1995 European Space Agency Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO); NASA’s 1997 Advanced Composition Explorer (ACE); NASA’s 2009 Wide-Field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE); and 2015’s Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR), a mission involving NASA, the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the US Air Force.
Missions such as Aditya-L1 are providing more-accurate measurements than before thanks to advances in remote-sensing instrument design, says Juha-Pekka Luntama, who heads the space-weather office at the European Space Operations Centre in Germany. “All these missions complement each other, and it is a great scientific opportunity to have missions operating around the same time.”
Space weather
Aditya-L1 will also help scientists to understand how connections between, and the dynamics within, the corona and chromosphere drive space weather, says Subramaniam.
The Sun has a large and complex magnetic field which waxes and wanes, reaching a peak every 11 years, whereupon the field’s north and south poles flip. The current solar cycle is predicted to reach its maximum in 2024–2025. With scientists expecting solar activity to keep rising over the next two years, “this is a good time to collect data”, says Luntama.
Electrical and electronic infrastructure on Earth can be vulnerable to the fluctuating magnetic fields of space weather, with data corruption or equipment failure possible. “As our dependence on space technology, and technology in general, is increasing in leaps and bounds, it has become a necessity to protect our technological assets from space weather and solar activity,” says Subramaniam. Timely and accurate space-weather forecasts will help to protect crucial infrastructure and to ensure astronauts’ safety during future missions to the Moon and Mars, adds Luntama.
In addition to gathering data on the Sun, Aditya will monitor the solar wind at L1. Nandi says this will “help characterize the space weather just before it impacts the Earth, and of which we would like to have advance knowledge”. | Space Technology |
The late-night liftoff of a Falcon 9 rocket with another batch of Starlink Internet satellites on Sunday set a new record for the most flights by a SpaceX launch vehicle, with a first-stage booster flying for a 16th time. SpaceX now aims to fly its reusable Falcon 9 boosters as many as 20 times, double the company’s original goal.
The flight followed several months of inspections and refurbishment of SpaceX’s most-flown rocket, a process that included a “recertification” of the booster to prove, at least on paper, that it could fly as many as five more times after completing its 15th launch and landing last December.
Sunday night’s mission got the booster’s extended life off to a good start.
The record-setting rocket took off from Cape Canaveral, Florida, at 11:58 pm EDT (03:58 UTC) with 22 second-generation Starlink satellites. The rocket’s nine kerosene-fueled Merlin engines fired for about two and a half minutes to climb to the edge of space, then the booster detached to descend toward a landing on one of SpaceX’s landing platforms floating northeast of the Bahamas.
An upper-stage engine ignited to continue propelling the Starlink satellites into orbit. SpaceX declared the launch a success following the deployment of the Starlink payloads about an hour after liftoff. The company’s global Internet network now has about 4,400 satellites in orbit, according to Jonathan McDowell, an astrophysicist who tracks spaceflight activity.
SpaceX plans to haul thousands more Starlink satellites into orbit in the coming years to add to the network's capacity, which now has more than 1.5 million subscribers.
The first stage of the Falcon 9 rocket, itself standing about 15 stories tall, settled onto the deck of the drone ship less than nine minutes after launch, using thrust from its center engine to slow for touchdown. It was the 46th launch by SpaceX’s Falcon rocket family this year, an average cadence of one flight around every four days.
“The Falcon 9 first stage has now successfully launched and landed for a record-breaking 16th time,” said Kate Tice, a SpaceX engineer hosting the company’s launch webcast. “Today’s landing marks our 206th overall landing of an orbital class rocket, including Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy missions.”
It was SpaceX’s 216th successful mission in a row for the Falcon rocket family, a record unmatched in the history of space launch vehicles.
The booster flown Sunday night, numbered B1058 in SpaceX’s inventory, debuted with the company’s first launch of astronauts in May 2020, sending NASA crew members Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken toward space on the Crew Dragon Demo-2 mission. That mission ended a nearly nine-year gap in US launches carrying astronauts into orbit.
SpaceX’s fleet-leading booster has now launched 801 spacecraft and payloads, plus two astronauts, in more than three years of service.
This is Falcon 9’s second booster life extension
Bill Gerstenmaier, SpaceX’s vice president of build and flight reliability, said in May that engineers were in the process of certifying Falcon 9 boosters for up to 20 flights for Starlink missions. Launches with customer satellites may be limited to rockets with lower flight counts. NASA has only certified reused Falcon 9 boosters with five or fewer flights for the agency’s astronaut missions going to the International Space Station.
“That gives us a lot of capability to continue to reuse boosters and continue to keep flying,” Gerstenmaier said. “I think we are able to meet our manifest, plus some, with the boosters that we’ve got in work.”
SpaceX’s latest iteration of the Falcon 9 rocket design—called the Block 5—flew for the first time in 2018. At that time, SpaceX had the goal of launching each Falcon 9 Block 5 booster 10 times. With boosters still coming back in good shape after each flight, SpaceX extended the life to 15 launches and landings, according to a report last year by the trade magazine Aviation Week & Space Technology.
The magazine reported that SpaceX put booster components through vibration testing to four times the fatigue life of what they would experience over 15 flights, giving engineers confidence that the rockets will continue to fly successfully.
The company has around 16 flight-proven Falcon boosters in its fleet, with several more new-build rockets slated to fly by the end of the year. Each mission requires a brand new upper stage. Reusing the first stage and payload fairing not only cuts the company’s internal launch cost—a figure that is believed to be less than $30 million per Falcon 9 flight—it unlocks a higher flight rate without straining the factory.
SpaceX started the year with the goal of flying 100 missions in 2023, the most flights in a year by any launch provider. SpaceX flew 61 times in 2022. The Falcon 9 continues to be the workhorse for the launch industry as SpaceX tests its much larger Starship vehicle, which engineers designed to eventually be fully reusable with an even faster launch cadence.
But the main limitation of SpaceX’s blistering launch rate is not the availability of flight-ready rockets—it’s the turnaround of the company’s three Falcon 9 launch pads. SpaceX has flown out of Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station as often as once every five days. The Falcon 9 launch pad at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California can be set up for another mission in fewer than 10 days.
SpaceX’s other fully operational launch site, at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, is currently the only pad to support crew and cargo flights to the space station and the sole facility designed for the Falcon Heavy rocket. Those flights have taken priority at Kennedy’s Launch Complex 39A, and it takes up to three weeks to reconfigure the pad when alternating between Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy missions. | Space Technology |
January 5, 2023 | Microsoft News Center India Microsoft Founders Hub will support space tech startups with technology tools, platforms, go to market support and mentoring to help them scale and become enterprise ready.
India, January 5, 2023: Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and Microsoft today signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to fuel the growth of space-tech startups in India. The MoU seeks to empower space tech startups across the country with technology tools and platforms, go-to-market support and mentoring to help them scale and become enterprise ready.
The collaboration seeks to strengthen ISRO’s vision of harnessing the market potential of the most promising space tech innovators and entrepreneurs in India. Through this tie-up, the space-tech startups identified by ISRO will be onboarded onto the Microsoft for Startups Founders Hub platform, that supports startups at every stage of their journey-from idea to unicorn.
Through Microsoft for Startups Founders Hub, space-tech startup founders in India will have free access to the tech tools, and resources they need to build and run their business. This includes technical support to build and scale on Azure, best-in-class developer and productivity tools including GitHub Enterprise, Visual Studio Enterprise, and Microsoft 365, and access to smart analytics with Power BI and Dynamics 365.
Shri S Somanath, Chairman, ISRO, said, “ISRO’s collaboration with Microsoft will greatly benefit space tech startups in their analysis and processing of vast amounts of satellite data for various applications, using cutting-edge methods like AI, Machine Learning and Deep Learning. The Microsoft for Startups Founders Hub is a useful platform for bringing together startups and providers of technology solutions to support the national space technology ecosystem. We are pleased to work together to assist and support entrepreneurs, to in turn benefit the Indian economy as a whole.”
Anant Maheshwari, President, Microsoft India, said, “Space-tech startups in India are playing a significant role in advancing the country’s space capabilities with the power of technology. We are pleased to collaborate with ISRO to accelerate this transformation of what’s possible in space. Through our technology tools, platforms and mentorship opportunities, we are deeply committed to empowering space-tech startups in the country to drive cutting edge innovation and accelerate scientific discovery.”
Beyond access to technology, Microsoft will provide mentoring support to space tech entrepreneurs in areas ranging from space engineering to cloud technologies, product and design, fundraising and sales and marketing. In addition, founders will have access to Microsoft Learn for tailored startup centric training content and programs to help them build connections with the industry and potential customers.
Microsoft and ISRO will also jointly organize knowledge sharing and thought leadership sessions for the startups with space industry experts. In addition, the collaboration will support founders with go-to-market strategies, technical support and opportunities to sell their solutions via Microsoft channels and marketplace.
About Microsoft India
Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT” @microsoft) enables digital transformation for the era of an intelligent cloud and an intelligent edge. Its mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more. Microsoft set up its India operations in 1990. Today, Microsoft entities in India have over 20,000 employees, engaged in sales and marketing, research, development and customer services and support, across 11 Indian cities – Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, New Delhi, Gurugram, Hyderabad, Kochi, Kolkata, Mumbai, Noida, and Pune. Microsoft offers its global cloud services from local data centers to accelerate digital transformation across Indian startups, businesses, and government organizations. | Space Technology |
China’s robotic circumlunar test flight in 2014 snapped this image of the moon with Earth in the distance. Credit: Chinese Academy of Sciences HELSINKI — China’s main space contractor is working towards making the country a leading space power with a focus on developing capabilities, space infrastructure and self-reliance.
Wu Yansheng, chairman of China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC), the country’s main space contractor outlined a series of goals in a lecture broadcast by China Central Television Dec. 20.
Among the ambitions are known plans for a crewed lunar landing along with other exploration and transportation goals, while stressing the importance of space infrastructure and developing capabilities such as on-orbit servicing, building a space governance system.
The plans are presented as following a strategic plan of Communist Party of China General Secretary Xi Jinping to build a strong space nation. The plan is developing within a broader, Xi-driven push for technological and economic self-reliance amid the U.S. taking steps to “decouple” from economic engagement with China.
The overarching ambition is to make China one of the world’s main aerospace powers by 2030 and become a fully comprehensive space power by 2045. CASC, ranked 322 in this year’s Fortune 500 list, has previously stated plans to make China a global leader in space technology by 2045, a focus seen by some as a challenge to the U.S.
Major themes focus on space transportation, space exploration, governance, and national civil space infrastructure; the latter likely combining Earth observation, telecommunications and navigation and positioning constellations and services and providing global coverage.
Space transportation emphasizes developing smart and reusable launch vehicles to provide economical, fast and reliable access to space.
CASC aims to comprehensively improve China’s ability to use space, by continuing to “upgrade and improve our space infrastructure, build an in-orbit service and maintenance system, actively promote the construction of a next-generation space infrastructure system,” according to machine translation, and achieve efficient, low-cost transportation by 2030.
The giant space and defense contractor is already working on reusable rockets, including the Long March 8R, Long March 9 and suborbital and orbital spacecraft.
The presentation also notes the need for construction of a system of space law and space environment governance, and the development of capabilities for space domain awareness and space debris removal.
Wu stated that challenges exist, notably including conditions created by the U.S. “restarting great power competition,” the so-called “Wolf clause,” being kept out of the International Space Station project and Chinese aerospace firms being added to U.S. export blacklists. The U.S. is also seen by Wu as seeking to seize strategic resources including specific orbits, locations and radio frequencies.
The presentation highlights both long-term goals with apparent strong political backing, but also that China is focused on reaching targets and developing capabilities independently, rather than relying on international cooperation to a great degree.
In terms of nearer-term goals, Wu Yansheng stated plans for a crewed lunar landing by 2030, establishing the International Lunar Research Station (ILRS) in the 2030s, following three Chang’e robotic landing missions during this decade. China is however seeking partnerships for the IRLS, which will be developed alongside and separate to the U.S. Artemis program.
China also plans a Mars sample return mission in the “next 10 to 15 years,” suggesting a possible delay to earlier stated plans to deliver material from the Red Planet to Earth in 2031.
Missions targeting the head and tail of the heliopause and, separately, Jupiter and Uranus are also noted. A CASC-led program for studying exoplanets named “Miyin Project” is also mentioned.
CASC this year completed China’s Tiangong space station, manufacturing and then launching the three modules into low Earth orbit. China also has plans to expand Tiangong, starting with a second core module and docking hub.
CASC has previously released grand plans for space, including a space transportation roadmap to 2045, and plans to development a $10 trillion Earth-moon economic zone.
—
Edited at 2:49 a.m. Eastern Dec. 23 to correct an exploration target to Uranus, not Neptune. | Space Technology |
The design systems could be launched to the moon for demonstration by the end of the decade NASA has announced the names of three winners in a national contest to design concepts for nuclear power systems on the moon. Working with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), NASA selected three companies that designed concept proposals for a fission surface power system design. It could be ready to launch to the moon for a demonstration by the end of the decade. A fission surface power system. (NASA / Fox News)Three companies awarded are IX, of Houston, Texas, Lockheed Martin, of Bethesda, Maryland, and Westinghouse of Cranberry Township, Pennsylvania. Each company will be awarded a $5 million contract to turn their initial design concepts into a "40-kilowatt class fission power system" that can provide power on the moon for at least 10 years. ISS-BOUND BOEING STARLINER SUCCESSFULLY LAUNCHES AFTER 2 PREVIOUS FAILED ATTEMPTS NASA said fission systems are relatively small and lightweight compared to other power systems. Fission systems could also enable continuous power regardless of location, available sunlight, and other natural environmental conditions. "New technology drives our exploration of the Moon, Mars, and beyond," Jim Reuter, associate administrator for NASA's Space Technology Mission Directorate, said in a statement. "Developing these early designs will help us lay the groundwork for powering our long-term human presence on other worlds."CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX BUSINESS APPNASA said the Phase 1 awards will provide them with critical information from industry that can lead to a joint development for a full flight-certified fission power system. | Space Technology |
Subsets and Splits