“…in order for a space program to be successful it has to be a multi-administration effort. It’s like building an aircraft carrier; that takes about 12 years and spans many administrations. So the space program has to be the same way.”
–NASA Administrator Bill Nelson responding to a Time Magazine question about the lack of continuity among presidential administrations on moon missions.
On Friday, February 4th, you can watch another crazy science fiction movie if you are up to it, but be prepared. Moonfall has the following premise from Movieinsider.com:
In Moonfall, a mysterious force knocks the Moon from its orbit around Earth and sends it hurtling on a collision course with life as we know it. With mere weeks before impact and the world on the brink of annihilation, NASA executive and former astronaut Jo Fowler (Academy Award® winner Halle Berry) is convinced she has the key to saving us all – but only one astronaut from her past, Brian Harper (Patrick Wilson, “Midway”) and a conspiracy theorist K.C. Houseman (John Bradley, “Game of Thrones”) believes her. These unlikely heroes will mount an impossible last-ditch mission into space, leaving behind everyone they love, only to find out that our Moon is not what we think it is.
Moonfall has plenty of stars, as was the case with the earlier disaster film Don’t Look Up. That said, I think you can just sit back and let this one wash over you without worrying about any science. I doubt NASA needed to be consulted on this one. In fact, late last week NASA sent out the following tweet:
At only ~240,000 miles away, our nearest neighbor affects our life here on Earth. Here are a few reasons why we’re grateful the Moon is stable in its orbit (no offense @MoonfallFilm)
After you enjoy the show, you may want to check out what is planned for the Moon as part of the Artemis Program. This accompanying video by NASA, How We Are Going to the Moon, is pretty dramatic all by itself (with the Moon remaining in orbit, of course).
The National Science Foundation’s NSF’s National Optical-Infrared Astronomy Research Laboratory (NOIRLab) recently reported that the Southern Astrophysical Research (SOAR) Telescope in Chile confirmed asteroid 2020 XL5 is in fact a second and the largest Trojan asteroid accompanying the Earth. “Trojan” means that the asteroid orbits the Sun along the same path as the Earth. The first discovered Trojan asteroid is called 2010 TK7, which is about 400 meters in diameter. The new asteroid 2020 XL5 is about 1.2 kilometers in diameter.
The Earth may have more than just two of these Trojan asteroids, so stay tuned. But we are not unique. Jupiter has more than 5,000 of them. Trojan asteroids are found at Lagrange point 4 (L4) and L5 (see graphic below). Both the the Trojans asteroids mentioned above are located in L4.
These companion asteroids could also be useful in the future. Cesar Briceño of NOIRLab stated:
If we are able to discover more Earth Trojans, and if some of them can have orbits with lower inclinations, they might become cheaper to reach than our Moon…So they might become ideal bases for an advanced exploration of the Solar System, or they could even be a source of resources.
Extra: To learn what else you can find at these Lagrange points, see my earlier post.
On January 28th, China the released its five-year plan for its space program. Titled China’s Space Program: A 2021 Perspective, the paper addresses both accomplishments to date as well as how the China National Space Administration (CNSA) and China Manned Space (CMS) Program will build upon those accomplishments. China has plenty to be proud of, including multiple lunar missions with a sample successfully returned to Earth, a Mars mission with a rover, and efforts to finalize the nation’s first space station. The paper states, “From 2016 to December 2021, 207 launch missions were completed, including 183 by the Long March carrier rocket series.”
In terms of space exploration, in addition to sending more missions to the Moon, the paper states China plans to:
· Launch asteroid probes to sample near-earth asteroids and probe main-belt comets;
· Complete key technological research on Mars sampling and return, exploration of the Jupiter system, and so forth; [and]
· Study plans for boundary exploration of the solar system.
The paper also addresses planned progress in some of the other areas already discussed on this site, including limiting the amount of debris in space and monitoring what is already up there. For instance, China plans to work on “space debris cleaning,” improve its “space debris monitoring system,” and “actively participate in formulating international rules regarding outer space.” Such actions should benefit all spacefaring nations.
Check out the paper for more on China’s plans for the future.
The January 31st edition of The New Yorker has an article written by Joshua Rothman where he interviews Kim Stanley Robinson they hike through the Sierra mountains. The article,”Best-Case Scenario,” covers a lot of ground and has its ups and downs (sorry, I could not help myself). The Sierras offer a nice setting for experiencing the beauty of this strange planet while also scaring the reader about what may be lost as the hikers deal with the smoke of distant forest fires.
The two most prominent books discussed in the article are Mr. Stanley’s recent The Ministry for the Future and his 2015 novel Aurora, allowing the reader to appreciate both the uniqueness of this world as well as attempts by his characters to reach more distant worlds. I enjoyed reading both Aurora and Mr. Stanley’s Mars trilogy, but I should probably spend some time reading his works focusing on planet Earth. Mr. Stanley has made it clear that we need to preserve the one place in the universe that we know can host us. As he stated in BoingBoing back in 2015, “…there is no Planet B. Earth is our only home.”
With regard to expanding into our galaxy, in the same article he stated:
I’m not saying we shouldn’t go into space; we should. We should send people to the moon, and Mars, and the asteroids, and every place we can in the solar system, putting up stations and swapping humans in and out of them. This is not only a beautiful thing to do, but useful in helping us to design a long-term relationship with Earth itself. Space science is an Earth science. The solar system is our neighborhood. But the stars are too far away.
Mr. Stanley has spoken far and wide for some time about his novels, his views on space travel, and his concerns regarding our future. For more on all of this, you can try his Facebook page or this unofficial site. And you may want to check out some other articles in The New Yorker as well, such as this May 2021 piece, “Is Mars Ours?“
Our Awesome Universe 