Space Quote: New Horizons for New Horizons

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): Artist’s rending of the New Horizons spacecraft approaching Pluto. (Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute (JHUAPL/SwRI))

“The New Horizons mission has a unique position in our solar system to answer important questions about our heliosphere and provide extraordinary opportunities for multidisciplinary science for NASA and the scientific community…The agency decided that it was best to extend operations for New Horizons until the spacecraft exits the Kuiper Belt, which is expected in 2028 through 2029.”

–Statement by Nicola Fox, NASA’s associate administrator for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington, regarding the plans for the New Horizons spacecraft. The NASA statement notes that starting in fiscal year 2025, the New Horizons spacecraft will focus on gathering unique heliophysics data, which does not preclude additional flybys of later identified items in the Kuiper Belt.

Future Plans for a Spaceship to Decommission the ISS

Posted on by onespaceman2000

How much does it cost to decommission a space station? Well, according to NASA as cited by London’s Daily Mail, it will cost at least $1 billion to ensure the International Space Station (ISS) finds a safe spot to crash. And NASA even has a name for the spacecraft that will be needed to steer the ISS into the Earth – the US Deorbit Vehicle (USDV) – because everything needs an fancy acronym.

The ISS is not expected to disappear until 2031, but plans are underway to start the decommissioning process now. If you want to help build the USDV you have until November of this year to share your plans with NASA (see below and visit this link). Just as we have companies in a race to put humans on the Moon again, we will now have a race for the final days of the ISS.

And where will the ISS end up? In its Requiremenst for Request Information, NASA is asking for a “controlled reentry into an unpopulated region.” It appears the goal is to aim any burning remains at Point Nemo, which is a spot in the Pacific Ocean used many times for such purposes (see the diagram above).

The US apparently has plans for an ISS replacement. I just hope at least part of the new station is in orbit by 2031. We do not need a long gap with no space station. The gap between end of the space shuttle and the restart of US-controlled rocket missions to the ISS was far too long. We have time to get it right.

Credit: NASA

Queen’s Brian May and Bennu?

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Credit: University of Arizona Press.

I was surprised to hear from Queen’s Brian May regarding the recent landing of the asteroid Bennu sample in the Utah desert. Here is what he posted and stated on his page:

“Today is the day – the long awaited day – when the sample of a piece of material From Bennu – the asteroid most likely to hit the Earth in the future, is recovered to Earth. This box when it is opened of material from the surface of Bennu can tell us untold secret of the origins of the universe, the origins or our planet and the origins of life itself. What an incredibly exciting day. Tune into Nasa TV. Go to the OSIRIS-REx website. Read my new book for the full story – Bennu 3-D – written with leader of the mission, Dante Lauretta. And enjoy this wonderful forward step in our knowledge of the universe.”

As you can see above, Brian May is named on the book about the asteroid. He is also credited with assisting NASA with the location of the sample landing. I was not aware of his deep involvement with the Bennu mission, or astronomy in general. In addition to the points above, it is worth noted that Mr. May (per Wikipedia):

  • earned a PhD degree in astrophysics from Imperial College London in 2007;
  • was a “science team collaborator” with NASA’s New Horizons Pluto mission;
  • is a co-founder of the awareness campaign Asteroid Day; and
  • has an asteroid named after him – Asteroid 52665 Brianmay.

Pretty impressive for a guy with a singing day job.

Space Missions: Good News for an Asteroid Sample, But Bad News for a Lunar Rover

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): NASA’s OSIRIS-REx sample capsule safely situated in the Utah desert earlier today. (Keegan Barber/NASA)

First, let discuss the good news. The capsule carrying the sample material from the asteroid Bennu successfully landed in the Utah desert earlier today, as planned. NASA’s Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security, Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx) mission was a success. The space agency has plenty to celebrate.

And now for the bad news. India’s Chandrayaan-3 moon lander as well as its lunar rover were supposed to wake up around September 22 with the return of sunlight to the Moon’s South Pole. Unfortunately, neither craft showed any signs of coming back online. That said, the India space agency still has plenty to celebrate given its ability to successfully explore the South Pole before night set in.

Asteroid Sample Coming to Earth This Weekend

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Image (Credit): Asteroid Bennu as seen by the OSIRIS-REx as it begins its return to Earth back in May 2021. (NASA/Goddard/University of Arizona; Writer Daniel Stolte, University of Arizona)

This weekend will should see the safe landing of a asteroid sample from far away. On Sunday, NASA’s Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security, Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx) spacecraft will return to Earth with sample material from asteroid Bennu, which it encountered two years ago.

Launched on Sept. 8, 2016, the spacecraft spent about two years getting to Bennu and then more than two years studying the asteroid and collecting a 250-gram sample that should be in the hands of NASA scientists shortly. The graphic below shows the return path of the sample as it heads for the Utah desert. You can also watch this NASA video for more information on the overall mission and keep abreast of mission highlights via this mission blog. NASA also has a recent podcast discussing the spacecraft’s adventures and trip back to Earth.

And what about OSIRIS-REx after it makes this deposit? It will become OSIRIS-APEX (APEX for “Apophis Explorer”) and go back into the inner solar system before encountering asteroid Apophis in 2029.

We talk about rocket reuse, but this is a terrific example of spacecraft reuse.

The timing could not be better as NASA awaits 2024 budget decisions from Congress and further discussions about another sample return, this one from Mars.

Credit: NASA