Space Stories: Russia Destroys Own Cosmonaut Launch Site, Cosmonaut Removed from ISS Crew, and Martian Drainage Systems (Not Canals)

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Credit: Image by WikiImages from Pixabay

Here are some recent space-related stories of interest.

—The Independent: “Russia Accidentally Destroys its Only Way of Sending Astronauts to Space“

Russia’s only crewed-mission launch site has suffered major damage following a rocket launch on Thursday. The Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan will be unable to host launches until repairs are made, according to the space agency Roscosmos, marking the first time in decades that Russia has lost the ability to send people to space. The launch of the Soyuz MS-28 spacecraft was otherwise successful, with none of the crew members injured.

—United24 Media: “Russian Cosmonaut Allegedly Photographed Confidential SpaceX Docs, Removed From NASA Crew-12 Mission“

Russian cosmonaut Oleg Artemyev has been removed from the prime crew of SpaceX’s Crew-12 mission to the International Space Station and replaced by fellow Roscosmos cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev after sources alleged he photographed confidential SpaceX materials in California in violation of US export control rules, according to The Insider on December 2. The outlet reported that Trishkin also said NASA did not want the controversy around Artemyev to become public, while Artemyev was removed from training at SpaceX’s Hawthorne California, facility last week after allegedly photographing SpaceX engines and other internal materials on his phone and taking them off-site.

—University of Texas “Scientists Map Mars’ Large River Drainage Systems for First Time“

A new study published in PNAS from researchers at The University of Texas at Austin is the first to define large river drainage systems on the red planet. They outlined 16 large-scale river basins where life would have been most likely to thrive on the neighboring planet. “We’ve known for a long time that there were rivers on Mars,” said co-author Timothy A. Goudge, an assistant professor in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences at the UT Jackson School of Geosciences. “But we really didn’t know the extent to which the rivers were organized in large drainage systems at the global scale.”

Christmas Shopping Has Started

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Credit: The Mars Society

You may be spending the holiday weekend stuck in traffic jams at the mall, or maybe you want to find what you need online without all of the hassle. If you are going online, you might want to check out your friendly non-profit space organizations for ideas.

The Mars Rover socks shown above and much more can be found at the Mars Society’s gift shop. You can also find mugs, shirts, signed prints, models, books (such as The Case for Mars), and more. Better yet, the profits go to an organization that is actively lobbying for Mars missions and related space missions. You cannot go wrong.

I will share other ideas this season, but this first post is to get the shopping started.

Credit: The Mars Society

Note: This site is not affiliated with the Mars Society.

Space Stories: Telescope Moving from US to Spain, Starliner will be Cargo-Only, and Moss in Space

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): Artist’s rending of the Thirty Meter Telescope. (TMT International Observatory)

Here are some recent space-related stories of interest.

—Sky & Telescope: “Thirty Meter Telescope Considers Move to Spain“

The Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) was conceived more than two decades ago as the largest and most advanced telescope in the Northern Hemisphere. However, the telescope has encountered significant roadblocks, from funding uncertainties — now heightened by President Trump’s proposed budget cuts — to local resistance to building the telescope on Mauna Kea, a volcanic mountain in Hawai‘i that’s sacred to native communities. Now, the telescope might find a new home in La Palma on the Canary Islands of Spain. In July, the Spanish government offered to host the telescope, with an investment of up to €400 million ($460 million) to help cover some of the costs. In a brief statement posted on November 11th, the TMT announced that it is officially considering the move to La Palma.

—Spaceflight Now: “NASA, Boeing Pivot Starliner-1 Mission from 4-Person Astronaut Flight to Cargo-Only“

In its latest shakeup to the Commercial Crew Program, NASA announced on Monday it has reduced the number of missions Boeing is required to fly to the International Space Station and changing the next flight from a crew mission to a cargo mission. The original contract NASA awarded to Boeing and SpaceX called for each to fly an uncrewed demonstration flight to the ISS, followed by a crewed demo mission and then conduct six regular crew rotation missions.

—Vice: “Moss Just Survived a Full Year Outside the International Space Station“

In the airless, radiation-saturated void outside of the International Space Station, researchers tested whether a common moss species known as Physcomitrium patens could survive at all, and if it could, for how long. The answers are yes and probably forever if it wants...Tomomichi Fujita, the study’s lead author, thinks moss could last up to 15 years in space, knowledge that could help build future extraterrestrial farms or entire ecosystems on the Moon or Mars.

Video: Reasons to Settle Mars

Posted on by onespaceman2000

If you are interested in the idea of settling Mars, and the book A City on Mars has not scared you away, then you should plan on tuning into the upcoming 25-part video series by the Mars Society.

In a news release, the Mars Society defines the new series in this way:

Created for a broad public audience, each video offers a clear, accessible look at how Mars exploration drives scientific discovery, technological innovation, economic growth, and long-term planetary resilience.

I recommend you view the series, but also read the book cited above. The authors of that book seem to think we should have a Mars plan that will settle humans in the next few centuries rather than they next few decades. Or maybe we should be settling on a space station or asteroid, as suggested in the book The Giant Leap, though I expect that a society with “Mars” in its name might disagree.

I’m just trying to keep an open mind.

Stay tuned.

Astronomy Question: The Asteroid Belt

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): Asteroid 433 Eros, which is the first asteroid ever orbited by a spacecraft, Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous – Shoemaker (NEAR Shoemaker), in 1998. (NASA)

Multiple Choice: What is the average distance between the asteroids located in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter?

A. 4,000 miles
B. 50,000 miles
C. 600,000 miles
D. 1.1 million miles

Take a guess and then check your answer by going to the “Astronomy Question Answer Sheet” page.