Credit: Taken from a 2024 NASA Office of the Inspector General report – NASA’s Readiness for the Artemis II Crewed Mission to Lunar Orbit (IG-24-011)
“What they’re talking about doing is crazy…We could have solved this problem way back when…Instead, they keep kicking the can down the road.”
-Statement by former astronaut Charlie Camarda, who does not believe the upcoming Artemis II mission is safe for the astronauts given his concerns about the Orion’s heat shield, as quoted by CNN. The news story cites others who state that the Orion heat shield issue has been resolved and the mission is ready to go. The Artemis II mission is set to launch as early as February 6th.
Using observations from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) and the Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA), researchers found that a growing supermassive black hole can slowly starve a galaxy rather than destroy it outright.The galaxy, catalogued as GS-10578 and nicknamed Pablo’s Galaxy, existed just three billion years after the Big Bang. Despite this early stage in cosmic history, it is enormous – around 200 billion times the mass of the Sun. Most of its stars formed between 12.5 and 11.5 billion years ago, indicating a rapid burst of star formation before the galaxy suddenly shut down.
Astronomers may have discovered a previously unknown type of astronomical object, nicknamed “Cloud-9,” that could shed light on dark matter, one of the biggest mysteries in the universe. …Cloud-9 is thought to be a dark matter cloud that could be a remnant of galaxy formation from the early days of the universe, according to new research published Monday in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.
The first crewed moon mission in more than 50 years remains on track to launch as soon as Feb. 6. NASA announced on Friday evening (Jan. 9) that it plans to roll the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and Orion spacecraft that will fly the Artemis 2 moon mission out to the pad for prelaunch checks on Jan. 17, weather and technical readiness permitting.
In a recent episode of What Next: TBD, titled “Are We Over the Moon?,” the host spoke with Joel Achenbach, freelance journalist and author of an article in Slate called Moondoggle about the upcoming Artemis missions.
The discussion covers the plans for multiple missions to the Moon, the difference in generational interest, and the confusion last year about NASA’s leadership and budget that only brings up more questions.
Overall, Mr. Achenback does not believe the younger generations have much interest in a mission to the Moon. This is a scary statement at a time that NASA is fighting to remain funded and relevant.
It is a podcast (and article) with lessons for NASA’s public relations team, assuming anyone over there is interested.
Image (Credit): Ildar Ibotullin’s “The Moon from Kyiv.” (Planetary Society)
This week’s image is from the Planetary Society’s magazine called ThePlanetary Report, which had a series of great photos in an article titled “The Year in Pictures.” This image is from 19-year-old student and amateur astrophotographer Ildar Ibatullin who lives in Kyiv, Ukraine. It is titled “The Moon from Kyiv.”
Here is the story behind the image taken from the website:
Ildar captured the photo in the midst of an air raid alert, an event that has become common in Kyiv since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. “Even as air raid sirens sounded throughout the city,” Ildar told The Planetary Society, “I was able to document the beauty above us, creating a powerful contrast between the realities of war on the ground and the unchanging celestial landscape. I believe it demonstrates how astronomy and astrophotography can provide moments of wonder and perspective even in the most challenging circumstances.”
Image (Credit): Hermann Julius Oberth. (European Space Agency)
On this day in 1989, rocket pioneer Hermann Julius Oberth died. He was born in Austria-Hungary in 1894 and at a young age was inspired by the rockets in the fictional stories by Jules Verne, such as From the Earth to the Moon.
Oberth’s interest in the stories of Verne led him to build his first rocket at the age of 14. His doctoral dissertation was on rocketry, he wrote books on rocketry, and he later joined an amateur rocketry group called the “Spaceflight Society” where he mentored other rocket enthusiasts, including Wernher von Braun.
Oberth was unable to get a security clearance to work on the Nazis V-2 rocket, thereby limiting his value to Americans following World War II, unlike Wernher von Braun and others who came to the United States under Project Paperclip and later assisted with NASA’s Apollo program.
Wernher von Braun was still able to get Oberth a position with the U.S. Army after the war and paid tribute to his mentor by stating:
I have a boundless admiration for the solitary genius which enabled him to bring into focus all of the essential elements of a gigantic concept, together with the human greatness which allowed him, in shy reserve, to bear with equanimity the “crucify him” as well as the “hosannas” of public opinion. I myself owe him a debt of gratitude not only for being the guiding light of my life but also for my first contact with the theoretical and practical aspects of rocket technology and space travel.
Oberth continues to be known today as the “Father of Space Travel.”
Our Awesome Universe 