Space Stories: Rogue Exoplanets, ISS Power Problems, and Eco-Friendly Airlines

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): Artist’s rendering of a rogue exoplanet. (NASA/JPL-Caltech)

Here are some recent stories of interest.

—Space.com : “400 Earth-size Rogue Planets could be Wandering the Milky Way“

New predictions suggest an upcoming NASA space telescope could spot over 400 Earth-mass worlds hidden throughout the Milky Way that have “gone rogue” and therefore wander our galaxy alone.  Such orphan worlds are thought to start their lives in a planetary system, akin to the solar system, but get kicked at some point out by a mechanism thus far unknown. Despite the familiar picture of planets neatly orbiting a star, new research suggests such orphaned starless worlds may outnumber stars in the Milky Way by 20 to 1. This implies untethered worlds in our galaxy are around six times more common than planets orbiting parent stars. 

—ABC News : “NASA Power Outage Temporarily Halts Contact with Space Station“

A NASA power outage disrupted communication between Mission Control and the International Space Station on Tuesday. Mission Control couldn’t send commands to the station and talk with the seven astronauts in orbit. The power outage hit as upgrade work was underway in the building at Houston’s Johnson Space Center. Space station program manager Joel Montalbano said neither the astronauts nor station were ever in any danger and that backup control systems took over within 90 minutes. The crew was notified of the problem through Russian communication systems, within 20 minutes of the outage.

—GeekWire : “Boeing and NASA Partner with Alaska and Other Airlines on Eco-friendly X-66A Aircraft“

Boeing and NASA say they’ll collaborate with Seattle-based Alaska Airlines and four other major airlines on the Sustainable Flight Demonstrator project, which aims to put Boeing’s innovative X-66 braced-wing aircraft design through flight tests in the 2028-2029 time frame. The X-66A makes use of a concept known as the Transonic Truss-Braced Wing, or TTBW, which features ultra-long, ultra-thin, drag-reducing wings that are stabilized by diagonal struts.

Future Guests on the ISS and Tiangong Space Station

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): China’s Tiangong space station. (The New York Times)

The CEO of the South African National Space Agency announced plans to send two female astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS). It is something that the space agency hopes to accomplish in the next two years.

This latest announcement appears to be based on Russian efforts to parlay better relations with African nations. The Russian RT news recently stated:

Roscosmos announced plans last month to expand its space partnerships with African countries. According to its director, an agreement will be signed with a number of the continent’s nations at the Russia-Africa summit this week in St. Petersburg.

In other news, the Chinese Tiangong space station is also getting visitors – zebrafish. The fish are part of experiments to learn more about bone loss in astronauts. The news story goes on to note that the Russians were the first to use zebrafish in space back in 1976.

Space Stories: Ingenuity Mars Helicopter is Back, Reclaiming More Water on the ISS, and Directly Imaging an Exoplanet

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter. (NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU/MSSS)

Here are some recent stories of interest.

—NASA: “NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter Phones Home“

The 52nd flight of NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter is now in the official mission logbook as a success. The flight took place back on April 26, but mission controllers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California lost contact with the helicopter as it descended toward the surface for landing. The Ingenuity team expected the communications dropout because a hill stood between the helicopter’s landing location and the Perseverance rover’s position, blocking communication between the two. 

—Phys.org: “NASA Achieves Water Recovery Milestone on International Space Station“

Astronauts on interplanetary missions will be a bit less thirsty after a new NASA system succeeded at reclaiming 98% of waste water aboard the International Space Station (ISS) by converting things like urine into a drinkable state. Future crewed deep space missions that will last months or even years will be very different from any that have come before. Until now, astronauts have either carried their own supplies along or relied on regular visits from cargo ships. As to waste products, these were simply disposed of in a variety of ways. Unfortunately, deep space missions don’t have that luxury.

—SCI.News: “Astronomers Directly Image Jupiter-Like Exoplanet around Nearby Young Star“

AF Leporis is a bright F8V star located about 87.5 light-years away from Earth in the constellation of Lepus. Also known as AF Lep, HD 35850, HIP 25486 and HR 1817, the star has an age of 24 million years and a mass of 1.2 solar masses. The star hosts a young exoplanet, AF Leporis b (AF Lep b), which is located about 8 times the Earth-Sun distance and is among the first ever discovered using a technique called astrometry. This method measures the subtle movements of a host star over many years to help astronomers determine whether hard-to-see orbiting companions, including planets, are gravitationally tugging at it.

Is the Backlash to the Titan Tragedy Coming for the Space Industry?

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): Recent Axiom Space crew that visited the International Space Station. (Axiom Space)

Axiom has an interesting article, “Titanic Sub Tragedy Stokes Fears for Space Tourism,” on how the recent Titan tragedy may impact the space tourism industry, noting:

Congress has explicitly prohibited the Federal Aviation Administration from enacting any regulations designed to protect the safety of people flying into space. It can only concern itself with the safety of people on the ground.

That may not be an acceptable state of affairs after last week. Yet Congress seems to have little focus these days, so it is unlikely it will get involved in new regulations. So potential passengers beware because your government is not really all that engaged in your welfare.

One big difference between a sea versus a space mission is that I do not foresee an extended rescue mission at taxpayer expense. While the Titan exploded in an environment that made it difficult to locate, involving enormous resources to find the wreckage, any space explosion or incident will be easy to see from the ground and come to a quick close with little need for additional resources. That may not sound good to the tourists on the spacecraft, but it is one less thing the taxpayers need to worry about.

Pic of the Week: The ISS Transiting the Sun

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): The ISS before the Sun. (Thierry Legault)

This week’s image was taken by French astrophotographer Thierry Legault. It shows the  International Space Station (ISS) transiting the Sun on June 9th. The other three dark objects are sun spots.

At the time this image was taken, two NASA astronauts, Stephen Bowen and Warren “Woody” Hoburg, were installing a new solar array on the station.