A New Crew Departs for the ISS

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): ISS crew preparing for August 26, 2023 launch. (Terry Renna/AP Photo)

A new crew departed Earth for the International Space Station (ISS) at 3:27am ET today from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida via a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. The crew includes:

  • NASA astronaut Jasmin Moghbeli,
  • ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Andreas Mogensen,
  • JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Satoshi Furukawa, and
  • Roscosmos cosmonaut Konstantin Borisov.

The new crew should be onboard the ISS tomorrow morning, bringing the number of occupants at the station to 11 until 4 crew members return to Earth in a few days.

Russia is probably happy to have attention back on the ISS rather than the Moon for the moment. It has not been a good week for the Russian space program.

You can read more about the new crew members at this NASA site.

Pic of the Week: Glowing Galaxy NGC 6684

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): Galaxy NGC 6684 captured by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. (ESA/Hubble & NASA, R. Tully)

This week’s image is from NASA/European Space Agency’s (ESA) Hubble Space Telescope. It shows the glowing galaxy NGC 6684, which is around 44 million light-years from Earth.

This oddly shaped galaxy is explained on the ESA’s website:

Lenticular galaxies like NGC 6684 (lenticular means lens-shaped) possess a large disc but lack the prominent spiral arms of galaxies like the Andromeda Galaxy. This leaves them somewhere between elliptical galaxies and spiral galaxies, and lends these galaxies a diffuse, ghostly experience. NGC 6684 also lacks the dark dust lanes that thread through other galaxies, adding to its spectral, insubstantial appearance.

Space Stories: Mars Ascent Vehicle, Dark Matter Stars, and a New Russian Space Station

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): Artist’s rendering of the Mars Ascent Vehicle. (NASA)

Here are some recent stories of interest.

—NASA/JPJ.com : “NASA Mars Ascent Vehicle Continues Progress Toward Mars Sample Return“

NASA’s Mars Ascent Vehicle (MAV) recently reached some major milestones in support of the Mars Sample Return program. The Mars Ascent Vehicle would be the first launch of a rocket from the surface of another planet. The team developing MAV conducted successful tests of the first and second stage solid rocket motors needed for the launch. Mars Sample Return will bring scientifically selected samples to Earth for study using the most sophisticated instrumentation around the world. This strategic partnership with ESA (European Space Agency) features the first mission to return samples from another planet. The samples currently being collected by NASA’s Perseverance Rover during its exploration of an ancient river delta have the potential to reveal the early evolution of Mars, including the potential for ancient life.

—ScienceNews : “The James Webb Telescope May Have Spotted Stars Powered by Dark Matter“

The James Webb Space Telescope has spotted objects in the early universe that might be a new kind of star — one powered by dark matter. These “dark stars” are still hypothetical. Their identification in JWST images is far from certain. But if any of the three candidates — reported in the July 25 Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences — turn out to be this new type of star, they could offer a glimpse of star formation in the early universe, hint at the nature of dark matter and possibly explain the origins of supermassive black holes.

—CNN : “Russia Proposes Joint Research Module on Space Station for China, India, Brazil and South Africa“

The head of Russia’s space agency has extended an offer to Moscow’s partners in the BRICS group – Brazil, India, China and South Africa – to participate in the construction of a joint module for its planned orbital space station, state media reported Monday. Construction of the planned space station follows Moscow’s decision last year to end its decades-long partnership with NASA and withdraw from the aging International Space Station – one of the last remaining channels of cooperation between Russia and the United States.

What Do Frozen Worms Say About Space Travel?

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): Hibernation pods for space travel as shown in the movie Aliens. (20th Century Fox)

Earlier this week we learned about worms taken from Siberian permafrost that have been revived after being frozen for 46,000 years. In the Scientific American, the co-author of the study with these finding, cell biologist Teymuras Kurzchalia, stated, “The radiocarbon dating is absolutely precise, and we now know that they really survived 46,000 years.”

So what does this mean for life that is somewhat more complex than a worm? Given that the findings are still being challenged, maybe nothing. Yet, if true, it may say something about life on this planet, life on other planets, and human life spans should we want to travel to distant locations. While such hibernation is a staple of science fiction, it seems to be a bit closer to reality with this study out there.

The European Space Agency (ESA) and others are already looking into human hibernation for space travel. In one ESA press article from 2019 regarding hibernation for travel to Mars, we read how one study concluded the following:

Not only does hibernation have positive psychological effects, it also allows for a complete mission and system re-design, optimised for human hibernation, which could minimise both mass and cost.

I think the “cost” point may be the key decider on this distant travel matter. Besides, how long can you play “I see a red star” before you go mad?

Russia is also Heading to the Moon

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): Russia’s Luna-Glob-Lander. (https://www.russianspaceweb.com/)

As noted in an earlier post, India left for the moon’s south pole last week, but it won’t be alone for long. Russia is planning to launch its Luna-25 spacecraft, also called the Luna-Glob-Lander, next month. According to NASA, the mission has two primary scientific objectives at the Moon’s south pole:

  • to study composition of the polar regolith, and
  • to study the plasma and dust components of the lunar polar exosphere.

The last Luna mission was Luna-24 back in 1976 and involved the return of lunar samples to Earth.

The European Space Agency was planning to be part of this latest mission until the invasion of Ukraine, so Russia is on its own now.

I imagine simpler missions like this will be necessary if Russia plans to eventually build a moon base, though finding a partner may be tough. It is clear that the US and Russia are no longer in a neck-to-neck race back to the Moon. Only China seems to have the stamina to compete with NASA’s Artemis program, though the US is still in the lead for now.

The Luna-25 launch is planned for August 10 if all goes well.