Space Stories: Cargo Heading to ISS, Martian Nuclear Reactors, and a Cannibal Star

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Credit: NASA

Here are some recent space-related stories of interest.

—NASA: “NASA’s SpaceX 35th Commercial Resupply Mission Overview”

NASA and SpaceX are targeting no earlier than Tuesday, Oct. 13 to launch scientific investigations, supplies, and equipment to the International Space Station. Loaded with more than 6,300 pounds of supplies, the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft will lift off aboard the company’s Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. Following its arrival to the orbital complex, Dragon will autonomously dock to the space-facing port of the space station’s Harmony module.

—Ideastream: “NASA Glenn is Designing the First U.S. Nuclear Reactor in Space in More Than 60 Years“

Scientists at NASA Glenn in Cleveland are rushing to meet a two-year deadline for launching a small nuclear reactor to power the next Mars mission — the first time the U.S. has launched a nuclear reactor into space in 60 years. The mission to send three mini-helicopters to Mars will use a new nuclear electric propulsion system. NASA Glenn is designing both the reactor and the propulsion system. NASA Glenn nuclear engineer Lindsay Kaldon feels confident both will be ready in time for a federally imposed deadline of 2028. “It’s accomplishable — if that’s a word,” Kaldon said. “It’s something we can do.”

—Science Daily: “MIT Astronomers Catch a Star in a Feast That Could Last Billions of Years“

Astronomers have discovered an unusual star system about 300 light-years from Earth where a small star is gradually consuming a nearby brown dwarf. Instead of swallowing its companion in one dramatic event, the star is steadily pulling material from it, creating a cosmic feeding process that could continue for billions of years…The system, designated ZTF J0440+2325, lies within our Milky Way galaxy approximately 300 light-years away. It is the first observed example of a low-mass star steadily drawing material from another low-mass object.

Note: Here is the podcast version of this post.

Study Findings: Volatile Depletion in Rocky Planets as a Chemical Fingerprint of Hybrid Accretion

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): The Curiosity Mars rover on the Martian surface. (NASA)

Nature Astronomy abstract of study findings:

Volatile depletion in rocky planets relative to their host stars is commonplace in both the Solar System and exoplanetary systems, yet the connections between planet formation and composition remain elusive. Here we model devolatilization during pebble accretion in combination with collisional growth from volatile-depleted planetesimals to explore the formation pathways of Earth and Mars. Using Bayesian inference, we found that bulk silicate Earth is best reproduced by ≳75% contribution from two protoplanets formed via pebble accretion, supplemented by up to ~25% material from planetesimals that are compositionally akin to the asteroid Vesta. Using instead a planetesimal volatile-depletion curve that is not observed among known meteorite parent bodies would allow the planetesimal contribution to reach %. In comparison, bulk silicate Mars reflects 27 ± 5% pebble-accreted material and 73 ± 5% Vesta-like planetesimals. We identified volatile depletion as a chemical fingerprint of hybrid accretion, in which both pebble accretion and collisional assembly contribute to terrestrial planet growth. By quantitatively linking formation pathways to volatile budgets, our findings demonstrate how planetary accretion histories can be inferred from elemental signatures, with broad implications for interpreting the chemical diversity of rocky exoplanets.

Citation:  Wang, H.S., Johansen, A., Xu, Z. et al. Volatile depletion in rocky planets as a chemical fingerprint of hybrid accretion. Nat Astron (2026).

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41550-026-02984-6

Study-related stories:

University of Copenhagen Global Institute – “New Study Rekindles Contested Question: Earth and Mars Had Different Origins”

Quantum Zeitgeist– “Volatile Loss Reveals How Rocky Planets Grow”

A Moment of Zen: Martian Dawn

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): Zoomed-in crop of a broader panorama captured by NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover on August 11, 2026. (NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS)

With all the craziness in the world, it is worth taking a moment away from all of it to look at something different. NASA’s recently released image of a new morning on Mars, taken by the Curiosity rover at 8:30am local Mars time, is just what we need.

You can read more about this image here, once you have a moment to take it in and enjoy it.

Image (Credit): Full panorama shot captured by NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover on August 11, 2026. (NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS)

Space Quote: Dumbing Down NASA Contracts

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Credit: Image by OpenClipart-Vectors from Pixabay

“In accordance with Executive Order 14434, Inaugurating the Era of Super Intelligence, this solicitation uses the terminology “Super Intelligence (SI)” exclusively. This includes SI-enabled capabilities such as machine learning, large language models, and foundation models. Please note that certain existing governmental reference materials and documents predating this solicitation may still contain legacy terminology, as they were previously issues before the establishment of Executive Order 14434.”

-Statement in the cover letter to with the subject line “Request for Proposal (RFP), Solicitation No. 80JSC027R0004, for Commercial Low Earth Orbit (LEO) Destination Contract (CLDC) Asquisition.” Basically, NASA is looking for someone to build a space station but it is not allowed to acknowledge the term AI because the White House has a new name for it. It is bad enough NASA cannot say “space station,” but now it is unable to use common industry language when asking for help building one. There is little sign of SI, or any intelligence for that matter, at work in the government these days.

Pic of the Week: The Flower Bud Nebula

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): JWST’s view of NGC 7129. (NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI; Image Processing: Alyssa Pagan (STScI))

This week’s image is from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). It shows the overwhelmingly bright and active NGC 7129, also known as the Flower Bud Nebula, located about 3,300 light-years away.

NASA provided a helpful story explaining what you are seeing in the image above:

The stars from this cluster are in different stages of their development, as the more massive stars form and evolve the fastest. The most massive (and the most mature) is the region’s luminous central star, LkH(alpha) 234 (pronounced Lick-H-alpha). This star, which sports the image’s most prominent diffraction pattern, is a pre-main-sequence star weighing around 5 to 8 times the mass of our Sun. Pre-main-sequence stars like these have mostly finished gathering mass and are contracting under the force of gravity, causing their temperatures to rise. In time, this star will fuse its own hydrogen like our Sun.

The cavity to its left, which appears in gold and spans about 3.5 light-years, is the largest demonstration of the central star’s impact. Outflows from an earlier stage of the star’s life cycle carve into the dense molecular cloud of hydrogen. Both the outflows and the star’s light energize the gas, causing it to glow. While much of this hydrogen gas is blown away, a large amount is also compressed, creating the conditions for even more stars to form.