Space Stories: Meteor Shakes Ohio, Executive Order Could Impact Pluto, and Musk May Muck Up Space Again

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): Dwarf planet Pluto. (NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute)

Here are some recent space-related stories of interest.

—Fox 8 News: “NASA Confirms Boom was 17,000-pound Meteor“

A loud “boom” was reported across Northeast Ohio just before 9 a.m. on Tuesday. People around Northeast Ohio flooded the FOX 8 newsroom with reports of what heard like a “large explosion” lasting several seconds and causing homes and businesses to “shake.” NASA has confirmed a 6-foot, 17,000-pound meteor traveled 44,000 miles per hour over northeast Ohio. It was 50 miles above Lake Erie when the first flash was detected.

—USA Today: “NASA’s Isaacman Latest to Endorse Trump Reclassifying Pluto as a Planet“

President Donald Trump campaigned on “America first,” but some of his supporters and appointees apparently want Pluto to once again be … ninth. The ninth planet in our solar system, that is. Ever since Pluto was infamously stripped of its planetary status two decades ago, debate has raged for years over the distant icy world – half the size of the United States – and just what sort of cosmic body it should be classified as. Now, Jared Isaacman, NASA’s new chief, has appeared to signal his support for Trump to designate Pluto as a planet once again through executive order.

—Newsweek: “New 1M‑Satellite Plans Could ‘Permanently Scar’ Night Sky, Astronomers Warn“

The Royal Astronomical Society (RAS) has issued a stark warning over proposals by Elon Musk’s SpaceX and the California-based startup Reflect Orbital, saying the plans could cause lasting damage to ground‑based astronomy and dramatically alter the night sky for skywatchers. In comments submitted to U.S. regulators, the RAS said the scale and brightness of the proposed satellite constellations risk overwhelming astronomical observations from Earth. The society, alongside the European Southern Observatory (ESO), has formally opposed both projects in filings to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), where the companies have sought approval.

A Day in Astronomy: First Liquid-Propellant Rocket

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Image (Credit): Robert Goddard with his rocket on March 8, 1926 before a failed launch. He was able to successfully launch it on March 16th. (Smithsonian Air & Space Museum)

On this day in 1926, Robert Goddard launched the world’s first liquid-propellant rocket in Worcester, Massachusetts. The rocket climbed to about 41 feet and traveled a distance of only 184 feet, but it was a success. After that, he kept the results under his hat for almost a decade.

Although in fragile health as a young man, Goddard pursued ideas in science, watched the heavens with his telescope, and became a fan of the writings of H.G. Wells, particularly The War of the Worlds. He also survived a bad case of tuberculosis at age 31, but he fought his way back to his scientific work.

Robert Goddard had a productive, yet at times frustrating, academic career involving rocketry, at times dabbling with potential military projects as well. For example, during the World War I period he came up with the idea of a hand-held tube-based rocket launcher that would later become the bazooka. However, the U.S. military was slow to show interest in larger rockets until the Germans leaped ahead in the 1940s, which the Germans did by building on Goddard’s work. It did not help that Goddard was very protective of his ideas and did not always work well with others, in part due to some early criticism.

In a 1932 letter to writer H.G. Wells, Robert Goddard stated:

How many more years I shall be able to work on the problem I do not know; I hope, as long as I live. There can be no thought of finishing, for ‘aiming at the stars’ both literally and figuratively, is a problem to occupy generations, so that no matter how much progress one makes, there is always the thrill of just beginning.

He was right. One hundred years later we are continuing his work as we aim for the Moon, Mars, and eventually the stars.

You can read more about this early rocket flight at this Smithsonian site.

AI is Impersonating Carl Sagan and Others

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): Dr. Carl Sagan poses with a model of the Viking lander in Death Valley, California. (NASA)

AI can do a number of things well, including astronomy-related tasks, but it also has a tendency to step on toes and steal other peoples creations. This was certainly the case with the editing program Grammarly, which wanted to go beyond simple grammar-related corrections. Instead, it started bragging about how it could edit like various famous writers and other well known individuals via a service called Expert Review.

Would you like Carl Sagan to edit your work? Well, Expert Review can help. How about Neil deGrasse Tyson? Sure, why not?

The problem is that Grammarly never obtained permission to mimic these parties, so now it faced a multi-million dollar lawsuit. The Guardian newspaper cites an company official who stated that Expert Review has already been taken down for redesign. That sounds a lot like a “rapid disassembly” of the service.

Many would like the equivalent of a Carl Sagan to be only a click away for advice and input, but this is not the way to do it.

We can only hope that AI services, currently backed by billions in investment funds, can one of these days figure out a way to (1) seek permission beforehand for data use and (2) share the wealth with true creators.

Until then, AI should stick to the raw AI astronomy data and stop impersonating the astronomers.

Space Quote: Possible Chinese Lunar Landing Spot

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

“Rimae Bode is a high-priority ‘sweet spot…Think of it as a prime piece of lunar real estate: its location near the equator provides much flatter, safer terrain for landing, along with constant sunlight for power [during the lunar day] and a direct line of sight to Earth for easy communication.”

-Statement by Jun Huang, a planetary geologist at the China University of Geosciences in Wuhan, discussing a potential landing site for the Chinese crewed Moon mission, as quoted by Scientific American magazine. He is co-author of a new study, Geology of Rimae Bode Region as Priority Site Candidate for China’s First Crewed Lunar Mission, published in Nature Astronomy.

Artemis II Reset for April 1 Launch

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Credit: NASA

It’s a “go,” for now at least, per NASA’s Artemis II Flight Readiness Review.

NASA has a small window in April to launch the Artemis II mission (see above), so the plan is for a launch on April 1.

The next step is to get the Space Launch System and Orion capsule back onto the launch pad, which is planned for March 19.

If you are so interested, you can watch yesterday’s press conference regarding the Artemis II Flight Readiness Review. The participants included:

  • Lori Glaze, acting associate administrator, Exploration Systems Development Mission Directorate
  • John Honeycutt, chair, Artemis II Mission Management Team
  • Shawn Quinn, manager, Exploration Ground Systems Program
  • Norm Knight, director, Flight Operations Directorate