This week’s image is from the International Space Station (ISS). It shows an October 1, 2022 photo of European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti enjoying a view of the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Peru. She is sitting in the ISS’s so called “window to the world.” You can learn more about photo’s taken from this window via this short NASA video.
While we await the Artemis III crew landing on the Moon and related lunar base, you might want to create your own mission with the Lego Lunar Research Base (shown above), which has “NASA-inspired” details. The playset has almost 800 Lego pieces, so you can build it yourself (to NASA specs, of course).
The playset comes with a “… lunar lander, VIPER rover and a domed accommodation module with laboratories, garage and air lock, plus 6 astronaut minifigures. I’m assuming the rocket that gets the astronaut minifigures to the Moon is sold separately.
And below is the Lego International Space Station is you are looking for something more traditional (and less expensive).
It’s great to see that Lego is allowing kids to build their own space missions at home.
Some of you may have played with Star Wars and Star Trek sets as kids, but at least these latest Lego set have a ring of credibility. Star Wars helped you destroy the galaxy, whereas Star Trek seemed more interest in exploration and at least had the veneer of Artemis CXXV.
I checked on whether Chinese and Russian kids with have their own space playsets and found the Russian Roscosmos Soyuz MS spacecraft (still a concept) and China’s Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center (made by a Lego copycat), both shown below.
The Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center playset comes with a Long March 2F rocket and an authentic warning sign stating, “Those stealing secrets will be caught, once they’re caught they will be killed [decapitated].”
Maybe even reality is not always the best model for play.
Extra: You can find more Lego space models at the NASA gift shop.
While the Biden Administration appears to have its issues with Saudi Arabia, this is not stopping the visit of two Saudi Arabian private astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS). Space News reports that NASA has confirmed that a male and female astronaut from Saudi Arabia will travel to the ISS next spring aboard a SpaceX rocket as part of the privately-run Axiom Space. Plans for this mission were reported back in September.
This will be the second Axiom Space mission to the ISS. Other missions are being planned involving additional countries, including astronauts from Turkey, Hungary, Canada, and the United Arab Emirates. Mission participants need to be approved by a NASA-chaired panel that includes the countries involved with the ISS program.
Axiom Space will send four crew members to the ISS for 12 days. Here is the pitch for the second mission, or Ax-2:
The Axiom Mission 2 (Ax-2) astronauts are part of the latest class of space explorers and Axiom’s next crew to advance a new method of access to the International Space Station (ISS) and low-Earth orbit. Aboard the orbiting laboratory, the four-person, multinational crew will conduct extensive research, investigate novel technologies, and engage with audiences around the world as champions of science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and the arts. Their efforts will continue to lay the groundwork and establish key capabilities for the future Axiom Station, the world’s first commercial space station.
You may recall that Saudi Arabia also signed onto the Artemis Accords over the summer. The Accords were established in 2020 to affirm each signatory’s commitment to sustainable space exploration “guided by a common set of principles that promote the beneficial use of space for all of humanity.”
All of this shows that space still remains a realm that does not need to be militarized or abused even if we have yet to figure out to resolve these issues here on Earth. Whatever problems with have with our neighbors, it’s good to see we are building some things together.
As noted earlier, even if the press on this Ax-2 mission demonstrates some unity, let’s just hope these “astronauts” are there for more than a joy ride. I am not convinced that space tourism is what we need. But given that Axiom Space is considering its own commercial space station, maybe there is some interest in real work in space by these parties.
Marina Koren’s article in The Atlantic, titled “The Russian Space Program Is Falling Back to Earth,” has plenty to say about the state of Russia’s space program. Her assessment is pretty bleak outside of the continued collaboration related to the International Space Station (ISS).
She notes:
Beyond the ISS, though, Russia’s space portfolio isn’t all that grandiose these days. Although cosmonauts fly into orbit regularly, Russia does not have a rover on the far side of the moon, as China has, or orbiters around Mars, as India and the United Arab Emirates have. It does not have a fleet of space telescopes like the U.S has. The Soviet Union was the first to send a human being to space, decades ago, and its early accomplishments are a distinct point of national pride. But the Russian space program has stalled for years, plagued by sparse budgets. And that was before Vladimir Putin’s onslaught on Ukraine: Some of the space plans the country still had in the works are falling apart. Now the Russian space effort may be more adrift than ever.
The Russian invasion of Ukraine may be the last straw. It led to the cancellation of various collaborative space projects with other nations. For instance, back in March the European Space Agency (ESA) was forced to suspend its joint ESA/Roscosmos ExoMars Rover mission to Mars.
China seems to be pulling ahead of Russia in the space race, with Russia taking a back seat on future projects, such as a Moon base or new space station. On the ground, Russia has shown it is not up to a war with Ukraine, making its role as a military power questionable. The article notes that Russia’s status as a space power is now also in question.
And shooting down another nation’s satellites will not be seen as a sign of strength in either the military or space arena.
“We are going to keep flying [to the] International Space Station as long as our new infrastructure [is being] buil[t]. We don’t know yet how it’s going to be built and what kind of modules we will have, but I’m sure that we will stay in international partnership when we fly [to the] ISS and [the] future station and future infrastructure is also going to be with international partnership.”
–Statement by Sergei Krikalev, executive director of human space flight programs at Roscosmos, during an October 5th briefing following the successful SpaceX launch of the latest crew to the International Space Station (ISS), which included Russian cosmonaut Anna Kikina. His comments were seen as part of a continuing Russian clarification of earlier comments about the Russians leaving the ISS in 2024. It appears the Russian will be staying with the station even longer, even if this support does not last until 2030.
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