Image (Credit): The crew of the latest mission to China’s Tiangong space station – the Shenzhou 23 mission. (CMSA/CCTV)
“Well, I would just say, first, it’s not arguably like there- we are very much in a space race right now, and the Chinese are moving at incredible speeds, and they are certainly capable of doing what the Soviets were not during the- the first space race. The Chinese will land their taikonauts on the moon. There’s no question. The question is, will the United States return before them, and will we do so in a different way this time, when we build a base, establish that enduring presence? I think the answer is yes.“
-Statement by NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman on CBS’s Face the Nation this past Sunday. The interview addresses other issues in addition to the Artemis mission to the Moon, including efforts to save the Swift space telescope as well as the status of Blue Origin’s efforts to recover from the recent explosion of its New Glenn rocket.
Image (Credit): A crew inside NASA’s Human Exploration Research Analog. (NASA)
Do you need to get away from the ordinary for something more stimulating (and possibly away from the constant political news)? How about going into isolation to assist NASA with future Moon and Mars missions?
NASA is looking for a few hardy souls to start a new virtual space mission in August 2027 at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. Volunteers must meet a variety of criteria, including being between 30 and 55 years old and willing to spend approximately 14-months on this mission, which includes 12 months in two different confined habitats and two months of pre- and- post-mission training and data collection. Oh yeah, you cannot have a history of sleepwalking or taking sleeping aids.
The volunteers will basically live and work in isolation and confinement while performing simulated missions related to interplanetary transit and planetary surface operations. This will also include simulated rover missions and spacewalks.
You can read all about it on this NASA info page, which includes an email address to ask more questions as well as an application form.
It’s not for everyone, but maybe it’s for you.
By the way, even if the White House cuts off the funding after you start the program, at least you will still be in Houston rather than half-way on your way to Mars with no way to get back.
Image (Credit): Design of Blue Origin’s Orbital Reef space station. (Blue Origin)
The latest podcast episode of the Planetary Society’s Planetary radio had an informative discussion about space stations, including why we need them and who should be financing them. The episode, What’s Going on with Commercial Space Stations, is a conversation between Casey Dreier, Chief of Space Policy for The Planetary Society, and Clayton Swope, Deputy Director of the Aerospace Security Project and Senior Fellow for The Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).
Mr. Swope wrote an story last month for CSIS titled “NASA Changes Course on Commercial Space Stations.” In it, he notes that NASA’s recent change to its program for commercial space stations was due to greater skepticism about the private sector’s ability to make a business case for a space station and then properly construct one in a timely fashion. This is the crux of his discussion with Casey Dreier, which is fun to follow.
Should the federal government continue to take the lead on both the financing and construction of manned space stations to replace the International Space Station (ISS) once it is retired? And why do we even need another manned space station? Does it serve a commercial purpose that cannot be replicated with robots? Or is it more akin to our nation’s support and participation in the Olympics, where we can show American prowess while hopefully taking sports to a new level?
The conversation covers a fair amount of ground, while the Planetary Radio website offers a variety of background links as well as some useful information on the proposed commercial space stations, including:
Axiom Station,
Orbital Reef,
Starlab,
Cygnus spacecraft captured by Canadarm2, and
Sierra Space LIFE habitat.
NASA and the private sector will need to find a way to make this Earth-orbiting commercial space station a viable option before the ISS is little more than a shooting star. NASA has already killed the Moon’s space station earlier this year (aka Gateway), demonstrating that it is willing to move quickly and break things.
Image (Credit): Artist’s rendering of Gateway orbiting the Moon. (NASA)
Image (Credit): The PROMISE rover, as shown at a recent “NASA Moon Base Update” press conference. (NASA)
It seems NASA is looking for some shortcuts to get back on the Moon, including repurposing an earlier rover designed for Mars. The rover in question is called the Polar Rover for Observation, Mapping and In-Situ Exploration, or simply PROMISE. It is the test model for the Perseverance and Curiosity rovers currently exploring Mars.
One of the advantages of the Mars rover is its power source. Instead of relying on solar panels, the rover is powered by a nuclear battery. This will give it greater range on the Moon’s surface without having to wait for lunar daylight. Another advantage is that it is proven technology, as the two Martian rovers have demonstrated for years.
It sounds like a smart way to take something off the shelf, but one can only wonder why this is only being considered now after NASA spent more than $450 million on the Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover (VIPER) project. Was a nuclear battery ever considered for VIPER? These Martian rovers have been around for quite some time, and a nuclear reactor has been discussed as part of the Moon Base itself, so this is not a new idea.
Given this change in plans, one might expect that the contract with Blue Origin to bring the VIPER to the Moon in 2027 is no longer needed. Maybe VIPER will put on a shelf for years like PROMISE until someone comes up with a new purpose for it.
Emerging as a powerful symbol of regional industrial pride and the rapid privatization of deep-space logistics, Astrobotic Technology has officially unveiled its massive Griffin-1 lunar lander. The vehicle, which has been formally designated by NASA as the primary infrastructure vehicle for the Moon Base II task order under the Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program, represents a critical stepping stone toward establishing a permanent, self-sustaining human presence on the lunar surface. Unlike smaller, first-generation commercial scouts, the Griffin platform is an “infrastructure-class” logistics vehicle engineered to transport heavy industrial cargo. Boasting a massive 625 to 650-kilogram payload capacity, the stout aluminum isogrid lander is designed to ferry bulky machinery, scientific sensor arrays, and alternative energy installations directly to the rugged, hazardous terrain of the lunar south pole.
Caltech has approved the final design for the Deep Synoptic Array, a $200 million radio telescope project that will blanket a chunk of desert with 1,650 dishes over roughly 120 square miles—an array designed to scan the sky about 100 times faster than any existing telescope. Backed in part by Schmidt Sciences, the philanthropic effort of former Google CEO Eric Schmidt and his wife Wendy, the project is slated to be finished by 2029 and will be powered by a supercomputer that turns torrents of radio signals into sharp images on the fly.
Astronomers using W. M. Keck Observatory on Maunakea, Hawaiʻi Island, have discovered the third known galaxy apparently lacking dark matter, part of a strange linear structure that may have formed during a violent collision between galaxies.The discovery strengthens evidence for a rare and previously unseen process in which ordinary matter becomes separated from dark matter, offering astronomers a powerful new way to study one of the universe’s greatest mysteries.
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