Space Quote: Hurry Up with that New Administrator

Posted on by onespaceman2000

“The global space race is accelerating, and America faces an urgent challenge in maintaining its leadership in space exploration, technological innovation, and national security – especially in the face of China’s rapidly advancing space program…Jared Isaacman is uniquely qualified to deliver strong leadership that will strengthen NASA’s core programs and ensure the United States remains at the forefront of scientific discovery, space commerce, and exploration.”

-Statement by Tennessee Governor Bill Lee and six other governors in a letter to the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee regarding the appointment of NASA’s next Administrator. It is likely that the governors see the continuing disruptions at NASA, including the recent elimination of two departments and office of chief scientist, and understand that this destruction will probably continue without permanent leadership at the agency.

China is Building Its Own James Webb Space Telescope

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): Artist’s rendering of the China Space Station Telescope called Xuntian. (Changchun Institute of Optics, Fine Mechanics and Physics)

Just as we have competition with China for the next human to visit the Moon, we now have competition for the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST).

China has stated it plans to launch the China Space Station Telescope (CSST) in 2026, which should be as powerful as the JWST while having the extra benefit of remaining in Earth orbit. As a result, when compared to the JWST, the CSST will be easier to maintain as well as upgrade.

A Chinese paper on the new telescope noted the following regarding its potential:

It can simultaneously perform multi-band imaging and slitless spectroscopic wide- and deep-field surveys in ten years and an ultra-deep field (UDF) survey in two years, which are suitable for cosmological studies. Here we review several CSST cosmological probes, such as weak gravitational lensing, two-dimensional (2D) and three-dimensional (3D) galaxy clustering, galaxy cluster abundance, cosmic void, Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia), and baryonic acoustic oscillations (BAO), and explore their capabilities and prospects in discovering new physics and opportunities in cosmology. We find that CSST will measure the matter distribution from small to large scales and the expansion history of the Universe with extremely high accuracy, which can provide percent-level stringent constraints on the property of dark energy and dark matter and precisely test the theories of gravity.

Of course, there is nothing wrong with a little competition. Let’s just hope NASA can get back on track after its latest budget problems as well as its current unstructured reorganization under the new White House. While the agency has other powerful telescopes under development, it doesn’t take much to throw things out of balance.

Space Quote: Next Step Mars?

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Credit: NASA

“We will pursue our manifest destiny into the stars, launching American astronauts to plant the Stars and Stripes on the planet Mars.”

-Inaugural statement by President Trump on January 20, 2024. He may want to check with NASA on the Artemis program given that the planned trip to the Moon has already cost taxpayers billions of dollars. He might also want to read a recent Politico story that discusses congressional preference for a Moon first program. The story quotes Texas Republican Brian Babin, who stated, “To bypass the moon would be a mistake.” It might also look bad to give the Moon to the Chinese long before we figure out a way to safely get to Mars. For all of Musk’s talk on this matter, the loss of a Starship rocket last week was not encouraging. We are having trouble enough getting ready to return to the Moon.

2024 Space Hightlights – Missions

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): An artist’s rendering of NASA’s Europa Clipper spacecraft over Europa. (NASA/JPL-Caltech)

Another list worth highlighting at year-end covers all of the space missions from 2024. For example, this list from Freethink, “the top 10 space stories of 2024,” includes the launch of the Europa Clipper, China’s Chang’e 6 round-trip to the Moon, and a successful commercial launch to the Moon (Odysseus lunar lander).

Here are some other lists of missions from 2024:

Note: The Awesome-Universe list of top missions looking back in 2024 include: