Image (Credit): A view of the Odysseus lunar lander as it flies over the near side of the moon on Wednesday. (Intuitive Machines/AP)
This week’s image come from Intuitive Machines and shows the Odysseus lunar lander orbiting the Moon just yesterday before its historic landing earlier today. After more than 50 years, the United States has returned to the Moon.
After troubleshooting communications, flight controllers have confirmed Odysseus is upright and starting to send data…Right now, we are working to downlink the first images from the lunar surface.
The Odysseus landed near the Malapert A crater, which is about 185 miles north of the Moon’s south pole.
The two-tonne ERS-2 spacecraft burnt up in the atmosphere over the Pacific. So far, there have been no eyewitness accounts of the mission’s demise or of any debris reaching Earth’s surface. ERS-2 was one of a pair of missions launched by the European Space Agency in the 1990s to study the atmosphere, the land and the oceans in novel ways. The duo monitored floods, measured continental and ocean-surface temperatures, traced the movement of ice fields, and sensed the ground buckle during earthquakes.
Houston-based Intuitive Machines is targeting 5:49 p.m. EST on Thursday, February 22, to put its Odysseus lunar lander on the surface of the moon—and it will be streamed live on NASA TV on YouTube. The first U.S. commercial moon lander, Odysseus—also known by its nickname “Odie”—will touchdown near a crater called Malapert A in the south pole region of the moon. If successful, this IM-1 mission—which is taking a scientific payload to the moon—will be the first spacecraft from the U.S. to land on the moon since Apollo 17 in December 1972.
There may be a lot more than we thought to the belt of icy debris that circles the outer Solar System. Data from the New Horizons probe as it sails serenely through the Kuiper Belt hints at unexpected levels of particles where dust ought to be thinning out, suggesting the donut-shaped field extends significantly farther from the Sun than previous estimates suggest.
Image (Credit): Changes in land levels on the U.S. East Coast between 2007 and 2020. (Virginia Tech’s EOI Lab).
NASA is funding missions looking near and far to understand planets. One such study issued by scientists at Virginia Tech’s Earth Observation and Innovation (EOI) Lab, who used satellite data and ground-based GPS sensors, shows some ongoing changes here on planet Earth.
…the team reported that more than half of infrastructure in major cities such as New York, Baltimore, and Norfolk is built on land that sank, or subsided, by 1 to 2 millimeters per year between 2007 and 2020. Land in several counties in Delaware, Maryland, South Carolina, and Georgia sank at double or triple that rate. At least 867,000 properties and critical infrastructure including several highways, railways, airports, dams, and levees were all subsiding, the researchers found.
The study notes a number of reasons for these changes, including the after effects from the last ice age, man-made dams, and efforts to pump water back into aquifers. For example, in the case of Charleston, South Carolina, which is one of the fastest sinking cities on the East Coast, groundwater pumping is though to be the primary cause of this elevated rate of sinking.
This gives new meaning to the idea of keeping your eyes on the heavens, but also watching where you are stepping.
Image (Credit): A picture of the 1,700-square-foot CHAPEA habitat, which contains individual living quarters for four volunteer crew members. (NASA/Bill Stafford)
Are you a motivated U.S. citizen or permanent resident who is a non-smoker, 30-55 years old, and proficient in English for effective communication between crewmates and mission control? Are you interested in helping NASA with its Mars program? If so, you have until April 2nd to contact NASA and volunteer for its second Crew Health and Performance Exploration Analog (CHAPEA) mission, which is set to begin in spring 2025.
And what does this mission entail? You will live in a 3D-printed habitat (the Mars Dune Alpha) with three other crew members for about a year. The mission includes simulated spacewalks, physical and behavioral health and performance challenges, and more.
NASA goals for the CHAPEA mission is as follows:
To obtain the most accurate data during the analog, the analog mission will be as Mars-realistic as feasible, which may include environmental stressors such as resource limitations, isolation, equipment failure, and significant workloads. The major crew activities during the analog may consist of simulated spacewalks including virtual reality, communications, crop growth, meal preparation and consumption, exercise, hygiene activities, maintenance work, personal time, science work, and sleep.
It may sound like a return to the time of Covid, but this time the results will be recorded and used by scientists for future space programs.
Last year we learned that Elon Musk denied the Ukrainians access to Starlink when operating in the occupied portions of their country. He stated he did not want to be “complicit in a major act of war and conflict escalation.” And yet now we learn that Russia may be using Starlink in this same territory to illegally attack Ukraine, and Mr. Musk seems flustered and cannot seem to believe it is even possible.
It is unlikely that SpaceX is unable to determine where its equipment is being operated and whether it is being used by an invading party to suppress a sovereign nation. Mr. Musk has done a lot of good for Ukraine, yet his statements about Ukraine’s need to give up territory and now this kerfuffle seem to be part of his improper straying into world affairs that are not his affairs. Maybe it is time for the U.S. government to get involved if he is allowing an enemy to use his equipment to destroy a U.S. ally.
When asked about this Russian misuse issue, SpaceX stated:
If SpaceX obtains knowledge that a Starlink terminal is being used by a sanctioned or unauthorized party, we investigate the claim and take actions to deactivate the terminal if confirmed.
Let’s hope this is the case. It may not be an easy task to sort out the users if both Ukranian and Russian troops are operating in the same area, but it may be critical to the survival of Ukranian forces at a time that Washington is sitting on its hands and incapable of assisting Ukraine nor its NATO partners depending on such assistance.
These are bleak times for Ukraine. It would be unfortunate if all the good will Starlink has acquired is erased with this misdirection of company assets.
Note: Former Congressman Adam Kinzinger tweeted, “Why is @elonmusk shilling for Russia now> Why is he still a US govt contractor?” None of this is good for Musk, SpaceX, or America.
Update: Now we read that Elon Musk may be blocking Taiwan’s use of Starlink. I thought the US government was running Starlink under a separate program called Starshield. Mr. Musk really needs to be taken out of the equation.
