Starliner: Third Time’s the Charm

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): NASA astronauts Bob Hines and Kjell Lindgren greet “Rosie the Rocketeer” inside the Boeing Starliner spacecraft shortly after opening its hatch. (NASA)

Finally, we have another spacecraft that appears capable of bringing astronauts into orbit. After two earlier tries, Boeing’s Starliner was successfully launched on Thursday and then connected with the International Spaced Stations (ISS) today. Now we just need it to undock on Wednesday and safely return.

In a press release, Jim Chilton, Boeing’s senior vice president for Space and Launch, stated:

Starliner has proven safe, autonomous rendezvous and docking capability…We’re honored to join the fleet of commercial spacecraft capable of conducting transportation services to the space station for NASA.

We needed this redundancy in our ISS program and now we have it.

You can read more about the mission here.

Update: The Starliner spacecraft safely returned to Earth on Wednesday, May 22nd. Joel Montalbano, manager of NASA’s International Space Station Program, stated:

Congratulations to the NASA and Boeing teams…I am excited to see the completion of a critical step in bringing another system online to transport long-duration crew members to and from the International Space Station. Soon, we hope to see crews arrive to the space station on Starliner to continue the important microgravity scientific research and discovery made possible by the orbiting laboratory.

Image (Credit): Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner spacecraft lands at White Sands Missile Range’s Space Harbor, Wednesday, May 25, 2022, in New Mexico. (NASA/Bill Ingalls)

A Day in Astronomy: Pioneer Venus

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): Artist’s version of the Pioneer Venus Orbiter above Venus. (NASA)

On this day in 1978, NASA launched Pioneer Venus from Cape Canaveral, Florida. The mission had two components:

  • the Pioneer Venus Orbiter that remained in orbit around the planet until 1992 when it entered the Venusian atmosphere and burned up, and
  • the Pioneer Venus Multiprobe (known as Pioneer 13) that carried four probes later dropped into the Venusian atmosphere.

NASA described the descent of the four probes:

When the probes separated from the Multiprobe bus, they went “off the air” because they did not have sufficient on-board power or solar cells to replenish their batteries. Preprogrammed instructions were wired into them and their timers had been set before they separated from the bus. The on-board countdown timers were scheduled to bring each probe into operation again three hours before the probes began their descent through the Venusian atmosphere. On 9 December 1978, just 22 minutes before entry, the Large Probe began to transmit radio signals to Earth. Only 17 minutes before hurtling into the Venusian atmosphere at almost 42,000 km/hr (26,100 mph), all the Small Probes started transmitting.

All four probes were designed for a descent time of approximately 55 minutes before impacting the surface. None were designed to withstand the impact. However one Small Probe (the Day Probe) did survive and sent data from the surface for 67 minutes. Engineering data radioed back from the Day Probe showed that its internal temperature climbed steadily to a high of 126 degrees C (260 degrees F). Then its batteries were depleted, and its radio became silent.

A 2020 Nature Astronomy article noted that one of the probes may have detected signs of life in the Venusian atmosphere. The paper, Phosphine Gas in the Cloud Decks of Venus, has been controversial and was later modified to clarify some of the findings. However, a separate study in the Geophysical Research Letter, Venus’ Mass Spectra Show Signs of Disequilibria in the Middle Clouds, confirmed some of these finding and adding to the argument with the discovery of other chemicals that could also be linked to biological processes. The debate will continue as we learn more.

Image (Credit): The four terrestrial planets of our inner Solar System: Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars. These images were taken by the Mariner 10, Apollo 17 and Viking missions. (European Space Agency)

Pic of the Week: Mars InSight Lander

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): Mars InSight lander on the Martian surface. (NASA)

NASA recently shared an image showing the accumulation of Martian dust on the solar panels of the Interior exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy, and Heat Transport (InSight) Mars lander. The photo above was taken on April 24, 2022.

The Mars Insight lander was launched May 5, 2018 to study the interior of Mars. The lander already accomplished its primary mission and has been on extended mission. It has detected more than 1,300 marsquakes. However, as a result of the dust buildup, the mission is expected to end this summer.

In the NASA news release, Lori Glaze, director of NASA’s Planetary Science Division, stated:

InSight has transformed our understanding of the interiors of rocky planets and set the stage for future missions…We can apply what we’ve learned about Mars’ inner structure to Earth, the Moon, Venus, and even rocky planets in other solar systems.

You may recall an earlier posting about Martian dust and its impact on another mission.

Supernova: One Ring to Rule Them All?

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): Supernova Remnant J0624–6948. (NASA/CXC/A. Hobart)

Astronomers recently reported that a strange ring just outside of the Milky Way galaxy that may be an intergalactic supernova remnant. SciTechDaily had a story on the discovery first reported in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.

Initially detected by the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP), the object (later named J0624–6948) is believed to be located in the Large Magellanic Cloud, which is a satellite galaxy of the Milky Way.

Professor Miroslav Filipovic from Western Sydney University stated:

The most plausible explanation is that the object is an intergalactic Supernova Remnant due to an exploded star that resided in the Large Magellanic Cloud outskirts that had undergone a single-degenerate type Ia supernova which involves the explosion of two stars orbiting each other.

If you are a fan of The Lord of the Rings films, the image may remind you of another ring and accompanying poem:

Three Rings for the Elven-kings under the sky,
Seven for the Dwarf-lords in their halls of stone,
Nine for Mortal Men doomed to die,
One for the Dark Lord on his dark throne
In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie.
One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them,
One Ring to bring them all, and in the darkness bind them,
In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie.

I have not sought comments from NASA on this connection just yet.

Image (Credit): Ring from the Fellowship of the Ring movie. (Warner Bros. Entertainment)

The Little Martian Helicopter that Could

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): The Martian Ingenuity helicopter. (NASA)

The Washington Post recently posted a story about the great success and potential demise of NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter that accompanied the Perseverance Rover to the surface of Mars last year. It has already lasted for more than a year flying multiple missions, yet it may not make it through the Martian winter given the accumulation of dust on its solar panels.

The article, “NASA’s Mars helicopter was supposed to fly five times. It’s flown 28,” quotes Lori Glaze, the director of NASA’s planetary science division, who states, “We built it as an experiment…So it didn’t necessarily have the flight-qualified parts that we use on the big missions like Perseverance.” What an experiment it has been, setting the stage for bigger and bolder missions in the future to help us better understand the Martian surface.

You will also read about one symbolic piece of material that is part of the little helicopter – a postage-size piece of fabric from the Wright Brothers’ aircraft the Flyer (see below). I wonder what the Wright Brothers would think of this first flight on a distant planet?

You can read much more about Ingenuity’s adventures here. 

Image (Credit): 1903 Wright Flyer at the Smithsonian Institution National Air and Space Museum. (Smithsonian photo by Eric Long)