The Artemis II Mission Has a Patch

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Image (Credit): Mission patch for the Artemis II mission. (NASA)

This week NASA unveiled the new mission patch for the Artemis II mission to return astronauts to lunar orbit (shown above). The Artemis II crew designed the patch with the hope that the mission to the Moon will occur next year. The four astronauts selected for the crew are NASA Commander Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover, and mission specialist Christina Koch, and Canadian Space Agency mission specialist Jeremy Hansen.

The crew also provided this description of the new mission patch:

The Artemis II test flight begins when a mighty team launches the first crew of the Artemis generation. This patch designates the mission as “AII,” signifying not only the second major flight of the Artemis campaign, but also an endeavor of discovery that seeks to explore for all and by all. Framed in Apollo 8’s famous Earthrise photo, the scene of the Earth and the Moon represents the dual nature of human spaceflight, both equally compelling: The Moon represents our exploration destination, focused on discovery of the unknown. The Earth represents home, focused on the perspective we gain when we look back at our shared planet and learn what it is to be uniquely human. The orbit around Earth highlights the ongoing exploration missions that have enabled Artemis to set sights on a long-term presence on the Moon and soon, Mars.

Now we have to do everything possible to make this mission happen before things fall apart at NASA or all of the attention shifts to a less likely quick mission to Mars.

Pic of the Week: Cosmic Tornado

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): Herbig-Haro 49/50 captured by the JWST. (NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI)

This week’s image is from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). The transparent red cloud in the middle of the image, nicknamed the “cosmic tornado,” is outflow of gas and dust from a newly formed star. Moreover, the bright blue glow at the top of the cloud has nothing to do with what you are seeing. The blue glow is a distant spiral galaxy.

Here is more about the image from NASA:

Angled from the upper left corner to the lower right corner of the image is a cone-shaped orange-red cloud known as Herbig-Haro 49/50. This feature takes up about three-fourths of the length of this angle. The tip of the cone positioned at the upper left appears translucent with a rounded end. Coincidently, a background spiral galaxy appears right near the tip too. The galaxy has a concentrated blue center that fades outwards to blend in with red spiral arms. The cones-shaped feature widens slightly from tip down to the lower right. Along the way there are additional rounded edges, like edges of a wave, and intricate foamy-like details. The nebula appears even more translucent to the lower right providing a clearer view of the black background of space. The black background of space is clearer, speckled with some white stars and smaller, more numerous, fainter white galaxies.

Upcoming Hearing on NASA Nominee

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The process continues to bring on a new NASA Administrator, even as Elon Musk and his DOGE team do all they can to cripple the agency.

The nomination hearing for Jared Isaacman, announced earlier today by the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, will take place next Wednesday, April 9, at 10am. The hearing will be streamed live via the Committee’s website as well as YouTube.

The same hearing will also discuss the nomination of Olivia Trusty to be a Member of the Federal Communications Commission, so it is not clear how much time will be dedicated to the NASA piece. Generally, the nominee reads from a prepared statement and the Senators who show up that day pepper the nominee with a few questions.

These hearings are usually pretty tame, but that may not be the case if Mr. Isaacman’s ties with Elon Musk become a topic. A recent Wall Street Journal story stated that Mr. Isaacman was hand-picked by Mr. Musk, which followed Mr. Isaacman paying SpaceX an undisclosed amount to go into orbit last year.

It has also been reported that Mr. Isaacman’s own companies may come under scrutiny because of their DEI initiatives, a big no-no with the White House and the ever-destructive DOGE.

Maybe it will be an interesting hearing.

Space Quote: More on the DEI Issue and Artemis

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Image (Credit): Artemis II crew members greeting a crowd in April 2023. From left to right is Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen and NASA astronauts Victor Glover, Reid Wiseman, and Christina. (NASA)

“[I]t is important to note that the change in language does not indicate a change in crew assignments.”

-Statement by a NASA spokesperson to Space.com regarding the recent removal of “DEI” language from the Artemis mission page. The scheduled crew for the upcoming Artemis II mission includes one woman, one person of color, and one international astronaut, as stated earlier on NASA’s website.

Space Stories: Cygnus Spacecraft Damaged, AI & Astronomy, and Toxic Martian Dust

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Image (Credit): The Cygnus cargo shit at the International Space Station. (Northrup Grumman)

Here are some recent stories of interest.

—Ars Technica: “After a Spacecraft was Damaged en route to Launch, NASA Says it Won’t Launch“

Three weeks ago, NASA revealed that a shipping container protecting a Cygnus spacecraft sustained “damage” while traveling to the launch site in Florida. Built by Northrop Grumman, Cygnus is one of two Western spacecraft currently capable of delivering food, water, experiments, and other supplies to the International Space Station. This particular Cygnus mission, NG-22, had been scheduled for June. As part of its statement in early March, the space agency said it was evaluating the NG-22 Cygnus cargo supply mission along with Northrop.

—Intelligent Computing: “AI Reshapes How We Observe the Stars“

AI tools are transforming how we observe the world around us—and even the stars beyond. Recently, an international team proved that deep learning techniques and large language models can help astronomers classify stars with high accuracy and efficiency. Their study, “Deep Learning and Methods Based on Large Language Models Applied to Stellar Light Curve Classification,” was published Feb. 26 in Intelligent Computing.

—CNN: “Toxic Dust on Mars Would Present Serious Hazard for Astronauts“

Toxic dust on Mars would make a future mission to the red planet extremely hazardous for astronauts and require significant countermeasures, new research suggests. Substances such as silica, gypsum, perchlorates and nanophase iron oxides contained in Martian dust could have life-threatening effects on members of a potential Mars mission, according to a study published in the journal GeoHealth last month.