Note: Go here for more Earth Day images from NASA.
Happy Earth Day!
Space Stories: Blue Origin Brings Satellite to Wrong Orbit, Space Force Preparing for Moon Base, and Japan Refocuses After Deletion of Lunar Gateway
Here are some recent space-related stories.
—Associated Press: “Blue Origin’s New Glenn Rocket is Grounded After Launching Satellite into the Wrong Orbit“
Jeff Bezos’ rocket company, Blue Origin, blamed a bad engine Monday for a failed weekend launch that left a satellite in the wrong orbit, dooming it. Launches of the huge New Glenn rocket are grounded until Blue Origin and the Federal Aviation Administration complete their investigation.The rocket blasted off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on Sunday. The recycled first-stage booster performed well, landing on an ocean barge several minutes into the flight. But the upper stage was unable to put the satellite into a high enough orbit to begin operations.
—Breaking Defense: “With Eyes on Future NASA Moon Base, Space Force Launches Cislunar Acquisition Task Force“
The Space Force is launching a new acquisition task force to study how the Defense Department should move into cislunar space as it looks to support a planned NASA moon base, according to Maj. Gen. Stephen Purdy, senior advisor to Air Force Secretary Troy Mink for space acquisition. “We’re going to stand up a Cislunar Coordination Office on the Space Force acquisition side,” he told the annual Space Symposium here on April 15, who said the new office will bring together program managers and engineers to “build road maps” for “acquiring the necessary technology and a schedule for action.”
—South China Morning Post: “Japan to Focus on Lunar Rover After US Halts Moon Space Station“
A US move to freeze the Lunar Gateway orbiting space station could render Japan’s new technologies redundant – but its space agency is expected to be diplomatic in its response. The Lunar Gateway project was initially planned as an installation that would orbit the moon as part of the United States’ Artemis programme, which recently made headlines for a record-breaking journey that went deeper into space than anyone had ever flown before…On March 24, however, Nasa announced it was freezing the project to focus on the construction of a base on the lunar surface, with future crewed missions to Mars in mind…The agency is now expected to focus all its attention on the third element of its collaboration with Nasa, the pressurised lunar rover that is being developed with Toyota to allow astronauts to drive on the moon.
A Day in Astronomy: Apollo 13 Sets a Distance Record
On this day in 1970, the Apollo capsule traveled to the farthest point from Earth of any Apollo mission. It was an unbroken record until last week, with the Artemis II mission exceeded this distance by 4,105 miles.
Of course, that was a great achievement in an otherwise troubled Apollo mission. The Apollo 13 crew, consisting of Commander James A. Lovell, Command Module Pilot John L. “Jack” Swigert and Lunar Module Pilot Fred W. Haise, would never make it to the surface of the Moon. That is a story worth reading (as well as a movie worth watching).
Space Stories: Cygnus XL Cargo Craft Arrives at ISS, China Further Along Than US with Moon Lander, and a Martian Hopper Mission
Here are some recent space-related stories.
—NASA: “Canadarm2 Reaches Out and Captures Cygnus XL Cargo Craft“
At 1:20 p.m. EDT, NASA astronaut Chris Williams, with assistance from NASA astronaut Jack Hathaway, captured Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus XL spacecraft using the International Space Station’s Canadarm2 robotic arm…NASA’s Northrop Grumman Commercial Resupply Services 24 mission launched at 7:41 a.m. on April 11 on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida, carrying more than 11,000 pounds of scientific investigations and cargo to the orbiting laboratory.
—Scientific American: “How China Could Still Win the New Moon Race“
China is not yet ready to perform a crewed circumlunar mission like the U.S., which began development of the Orion spacecraft in the 2000s and redesigned it to go with the SLS rocket in the early 2010s. But China is progressing on all the necessary hardware to reach the moon, with a stated goal of a crewed landing before 2030. Notably, the nation has already tested a key component that the U.S. is still working to bring online: the landing hardware. Last year China demonstrated its Lanyue crewed lunar lander, performing a propulsive lunar landing and lunar launch tests in simulated moon gravity conditions. In the U.S. SpaceX and Blue Origin are both working on NASA-funded lander concepts needed to make a 2028 Artemis landing possible.
—Universe Today: “Meet Orpheus – A Hopper Mission Built To Hunt For Life In Martian Volcanoes“
We’ve spent decades scratching the surface of Mars trying to uncover life there. But we’ve been searching a barren wasteland bombarded by radiation and bathed in toxic perchlorates. The entire time, it’s likely that it’s been too hostile to harbor extant life. So if we want a better shot at finding currently living life on Mars, we need to go underground. That is exactly the purpose of Orpheus, a proposed Mars vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) hopper mission put forth by Connor Bunn and Pascal Lee of the SETI Institute at the 57th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference (LPSC).
Artemis II Was a Success
We are now one step closer to putting astronauts on the Moon, again.
The Artemis II crew safely landed off the coast of California earlier today after a 10-day, 694,481 mile trip around the Moon. Now NASA needs to spend some time reviewing the results, including the 7,000 images taken of the Moon and surroundings.
NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman stated:
Artemis II demonstrated extraordinary skill, courage, and dedication as the crew pushed Orion, SLS (Space Launch System), and human exploration farther than ever before. As the first astronauts to fly this rocket and spacecraft, the crew accepted significant risk in service of the knowledge gained and the future we are determined to build. NASA also acknowledges the contributions of the entire NASA workforce, along with our international partners, whose expertise and commitment were essential to this mission’s success. With Artemis II complete, focus now turns confidently toward assembling Artemis III and preparing to return to the lunar surface, build the base, and never give up the Moon again.
I like that part about never giving up the Moon again, though I doubt anyone in the 1970s thought it would be so easy to walk away from the lunar accomplishments and shut down the Apollo program. We were dealing with a war-torn world and a troubled presidency then, and little has changed today.
We shall see if we have changed at all.
Our Awesome Universe 