Mission Possible, But Not Yet

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): The Mission Possible vehicle during construction. (The Exploration Company)

A new European space company came close to success with its space capsule early this week until it had problems with reentry. The Exploration Company, discussing its Mission Possible vehicle, had this to say:

The capsule was launched successfully, powered the payloads nominally in-orbit, stabilized itself after separation with the launcher, reentered and reestablished communication after black out…We are still investigating the root causes and will share more information soon. We apologize to all our clients who entrusted us with their payloads.

The Mission Possible capsule was expected to complete the following tasks:

  • Phase 1: Separation from the Launcher
  • Phase 2: Stabilizing the Capsule and Putting its Heatshield Forward
  • Phase 3: Atmospheric Re-entry
  • Phase 4: Parachute Deployment and Descent
  • Phase 5: Splashdown and Recovery

The problem appears to be related to the parachute deployment in Phase 4.

Launched into space aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, the European company was preparing the way for its planned Nyx capsule. With the Nyx capsule, the company hopes to carve out a place for itself in the space cargo business – first in low-Earth orbit and later between the Earth and the Moon.

In an earlier press release, the company outlined its European roots:

Germany, Munich:Core of spacecraft avionics, power systems, and flight software. Also, a leader in additive manufacturing.
France, Bordeaux: Specializing in propulsion systems, reentry phase, thermal engineering, system engineering, and mission safety, also hosts the main control center.
Italy, Turin: Home to the babckup control center, docking and other complex mechanisms, life support system and high-thrust engine turbomachinery.
Luxembourg, opening in 2025: Dedicated to cryogenic refuelling, a critical development for deep-space missions.

This bold European company’s partial success should pave the way for more attempts and contribute to a greater European presence in the space industry.

In Case You Missed It/Podcast: Retelling the Story of the Mission to the Moon

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image: Chesley Bonestell art printed in “The Conquest of the Moon” (1953). Mr. Bonestell’s art is mentioned in the Moonrise podcast.

If you are looking for a good story that you to listen to during your next car trip, you cannot do better than the Washington Post’s Moonrise podcast. It has a bit of everything, including science fiction stories, Nazi war machines, Russian persecution, American post-WWII politics, and a bit of astronomy as well.

Here is how the program sells itself:

Want to uncover the real origin story behind the United States’ decision to go to the moon? In the 50 years since the moon landing, as presidential documents have been declassified and secret programs revealed, a wild story has begun to emerge. “Moonrise,” a Washington Post audio miniseries hosted by Lillian Cunningham, digs into the nuclear arms race of the Cold War, the transformation of American society and politics ⁠— and even the birth of science fiction ⁠— to unearth what really drove us to the moon. Come along with us on a fascinating journey from Earth to the moon.

You can learn how President Kennedy tried to get the Soviet Union to join the Apollo program – twice. You can also hear about the Apollo 11 mission competing with a Soviet spacecraft trying to land on the Moon at the same time. And have you heard about the civil rights protests at the Apollo 11 launch site?

The podcast is a well crafted story trying to weave together many threads in a mostly successful way. It is still astonishing that the early Space Race was really lead by a former Nazi representing the United States and a former political prisoner representing the Soviets. Today the Apollo story is mostly a warm blur from the past, but I believe it is worth your time to listen to the full story. It is the foundation of our space exploration efforts, for better or worse.

Russians Hijack A German Space Telescope

Posted on by onespaceman2000

Image (Credit): Artist’s impression of the spacecraft carrying the eROSITA (highlighted) and ART-XC space telescopes. (Max Planck Institute)

Remember all those sanctions and cancelled projects following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and how we hoped scientists would rise above it? Well, the Russians will have none of it. They have decided to switch on Germany’s eROSITA space telescope.

Built by the Max Planck Institute and launched in 2019 together with the Russian ART-XC space telescope, the eROSITA was placed in sleep mode back in February shortly after the Russian invasion. Both the German and Russian telescopes are designed to work in tandem to study Dark Energy.

The main scientific goals of eROSITA are

  • to detect the hot intergalactic medium of 50-100 thousand galaxy clusters and groups and hot gas in filaments between clusters to map out the large scale structure in the Universe for the study of cosmic structure evolution,
  • to detect systematically all obscured accreting Black Holes in nearby galaxies and many (up to 3 Million) new, distant active galactic nuclei, and
  • to study in detail the physics of galactic X-ray source populations, like pre-main sequence stars, supernova remnants and X-ray binaries.

In a recent Gizmodo article, Roscosmos chief Dmitry Rogozin stated:

They—the people that made the decision to shut down the telescope—don’t have a moral right to halt this research for humankind just because their pro-fascist views are close to our enemies.

Neither German nor Russian scientists are happy with this political decision. It is likely to have implications for future joint Russian missions.

Whether it is politics or micrometeroids, astronomers have plenty of outside factors messing up well-planned missions. 

A Space Telescope Goes Dark

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): Picture of the completely integrated mirrors and detectors before final packaging. (Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics)

You may have heard of Germany’s black hole-hunting telescope called the extended ROentgen Survey with an Imaging Telescope Arraye (eROSITA). It was launched in 2019 as part of a larger Russian-German mission called the “Spectrum-Roentgen-Gamma” (SRG) observatory and placed in the L2 Lagrange Point.

The eROSITA has three primary goals:

  • to detect the hot intergalactic medium of 50-100 thousand galaxy clusters and groups and hot gas in filaments between clusters to map out the large scale structure in the Universe for the study of cosmic structure evolution,
  • to detect systematically all obscured accreting Black Holes in nearby galaxies and many (up to 3 Million) new, distant active galactic nuclei and
  • to study in detail the physics of galactic X-ray source populations, like pre-main sequence stars, supernova remnants and X-ray binaries.

Well, similar to other joint Russian space missions, the telescope’s work was put on hold because of continuing events in Ukraine. The German government had this to say:

[Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt (DLR)] and the German Space Agency at DLR have been cooperating with Russian institutions on a number of research projects, in some cases with the participation of other German research organisations and universities, and international partners.

Against the backdrop of the aggressive attack on Ukraine, the DLR Executive Board is taking the following measures:

  • All collaboration activities with Russian institutions on current projects or projects in the planning stage will be terminated.
  • There will be no new projects or initiatives with institutions in Russia.

Where necessary, DLR will enter into coordination with other national and international partners.

We are slowly blocking our view of the bigger universe because of the reckless actions of a few. Hopefully, we can open up our eyes again shortly.