Space Stories: Redefining Planets, Second Thoughts About Crashing the ISS, and NASA Preparing for Artemis II

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Credit: AdisResic at Pixabay

Here are some recent stories of interest.

—Space.com: “‘What Exactly is a Planet?’ Astronomers Want to Amend the Definition“

Three astronomers last week proposed expanding the official definition of a planet to encompass worlds orbiting stars other than our own, a nuance not currently included in the formal definition of the term established in 2006 by the International Astronomical Union, or IAU. If the trio’s new definition pans out, thousands of celestial bodies across the universe could be confirmed as formal planets.

—Forbes: “U.S. Plan To Crash Space Station Is Condemned By Space Agency Leaders“

An American plan to destroy the International Space Station by propelling it to burn through the atmosphere, and then crashing it into the Pacific Ocean, would rob citizens of the future of one of civilization’s greatest technological masterworks, and should be halted, say one-time leaders of NASA and of the European Space Agency. NASA’s draft blueprints to send the ISS on a peacetime kamikaze mission, to explode on impact with Antarctic waters, would obliterate a pole star of human ingenuity, says Jean-Jacques Dordain, Director General of the European Space Agency when the ISS was being built and expanded.

—NASA: “‘NASA Barge Preparations Underway for Artemis II Rocket Stage Delivery“

Team members are installing pedestals aboard NASA’s Pegasus barge to hold and secure the massive core stage of NASA’s SLS (Space Launch System) rocket, indicating NASA barge crews are nearly ready for its first delivery to support the Artemis II test flight around the Moon. The barge will ferry the core stage on a 900-mile journey from the agency’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans to its Kennedy Space Center in Florida…Measuring 212 feet in length and 27.6 feet in diameter, the core stage is the largest rocket stage NASA has ever built and the longest item ever shipped by a NASA barge.

Space Stories: Fewer Eyes on Asteroids, Volunteer Martians Released, and Russians Plans for a New Space Station

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): NEOWISE space telescope. (NASA)

Here are some recent stories of interest.

—Flying Magazine: “NASA’s Asteroid, Comet Hunting Telescope Set to Retire at End of Month“

A NASA space telescope designed to “hunt” asteroids and comets that could pose a threat to life on Earth and orbiting spacecraft will soon burn up in orbit. In late 2024 or early 2025, the agency’s Near-Earth Object (NEO) Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer—or NEOWISE—is expected to come home in pieces following the conclusion of its second mission later this month…However, NASA has a replacement lined up: the Near Earth Object Surveyor (NEO Surveyor), set for a 2027 launch. The infrared space telescope is the first to be designed specifically for hunting large numbers of NEOs in and around Earth orbit. It has a baseline development cost of $1.2 billion to which NASA committed in 2022.

—NPR: “Volunteers Who Lived in a NASA-created Mars Replica for Over a Year Have Emerged“

Four volunteers who spent more than a year living in a 1,700-square-foot space created by NASA to simulate the environment on Mars have emerged. The members of the Crew Health and Performance Exploration Analog mission — or CHAPEA — walked through the door of their habitat at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston on Saturday to a round of applause…Haston and the other three crew members — Anca Selariu, Ross Brockwell and Nathan Jones — entered the 3D-printed Mars replica on June 25, 2023, as part of a NASA experiment to observe how humans would fare living on the Red Planet.

—Reuters: “Russia Plans to Create Core of New Space Station by 2030“

Russia is aiming to create the four-module core of its planned new orbital space station by 2030, its Roscosmos space agency said on Tuesday. The head of Roscosmos, Yuri Borisov, signed off on the timetable with the directors of 19 enterprises involved in creating the new station. The agency confirmed plans to launch an initial scientific and energy module in 2027. It said three more modules would be added by 2030 and a further two between 2031 and 2033.

Space Stories: Moss for Mars, Martian Space Rocks, and a Red Planet Practice Habitat

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): A detailed view of the Martian surface. (ESA/DLR/FU Berlin)

Here are some recent Mars-related stories of interest.

—The Guardian: “Scientists Find Desert Moss ‘That Can Survive on Mars’”

While Matt Damon relied on potatoes cultivated in crew biowaste to survive in the hit film The Martian, researchers say it is a humble desert moss that might prove pivotal to establishing life on Mars. Scientists in China say they have found Syntrichia caninervis – a moss found in regions including Antarctica and the Mojave desert – is able to withstand Mars-like conditions, including drought, high levels of radiation and extreme cold.

—CNN: “Mars Gets Hit by Hundreds of Basketball-size Space Rocks Every Year“

Hundreds of basketball-size space rocks slam into Mars each year, leaving behind impact craters and causing rumblings across the red planet, according to new research. Mission planners could use the revelations, recorded in data collected by a now-retired NASA mission, as they determine where to land future robotic missions as well as astronaut crews on the red planet. NASA’s InSight mission ended when the stationary lander lost a battle to an accumulation of Martian dust on its solar panels in December 2022, but the wealth of data the spacecraft collected is still fueling new research.

—UPI: “Crew Inside NASA’s Mars Habitat Simulator to Exit After More Than a Year“

The first volunteer crew, to live for more than a year inside NASA’s Mars habitat at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, will exit the simulated Red Planet ground mission on Saturday…The crew entered CHAPEA on June 25, 2023, and enacted Mars mission operations, including virtual reality “Mars-walks” while growing and harvesting vegetables to supplement their shelf food. They also spent their time maintaining equipment while being tested with stressors, including isolation and communication delays with Earth.

Space Stories: Truncated Artemis III Mission, Origins of a Local Galaxy, and Chandra X-ray Observatory Exoplanet Efforts

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): The launch of a Starship. (SpaceX)

Here are some recent stories of interest.

—Ars Technica: “As NASA Watches Starship Closely, Here’s What the Agency Wants to See Next“

NASA and SpaceX are planning for the possibility of modifying the Artemis III mission. Instead of landing on the Moon, a crew would launch in the Orion spacecraft and rendezvous with Starship in low-Earth orbit. This would essentially be a repeat of the Apollo 9 mission, buying down risk and providing a meaningful stepping stone between Artemis missions. Officially, NASA maintains that the agency will fly a crewed lunar landing, the Artemis III mission, in September 2026. But almost no one in the space community regards that launch date as more than aspirational. Some of my best sources have put the most likely range of dates for such a mission from 2028 to 2032. A modified Artemis III mission, in low-Earth orbit, would therefore bridge a gap between Artemis II and an eventual landing.

—Sci.News: “Astrophysicists Offer Explanation for Origin of One of Milky Way’s Largest Satellites“

The satellite galaxy Crater II (or Crater 2) of the Milky Way is located approximately 380,000 light-years away from Earth in the constellation of Crater. This galaxy is extremely cold and exceptionally diffuse, and has low surface brightness. According to new research, Crater II exists thanks to a self-interacting dark matter.

—Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics: “Coming in Hot: NASA’s Chandra Checks Habitability of Exoplanets“

Using NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and ESA’s (European Space Agency’s) XMM-Newton, astronomers are exploring whether nearby stars could host habitable exoplanets, based on whether they emit radiation that could destroy potential conditions for life as we know it. This type of research will help guide observations with the next generation of telescopes aiming to make the first images of planets like Earth. A team of researchers examined stars that are close enough to Earth that future telescopes could take images of planets in their so-called habitable zones, defined as orbits where the planets could have liquid water on their surfaces. Any images of planets will be single points of light and will not directly show surface features like clouds, continents, and oceans. However, their spectra — the amount of light at different wavelengths — will reveal information about the planet’s surface composition and atmosphere.

Space News: Extending Hubble’s Life, Another Step for the Habitable Worlds Observatory, and Asteroid Breakups

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): The deployment of the Hubble Space Telescope on April 25, 1990 from the space shuttle Discovery. (NASA/Smithsonian Institution/Lockheed Corporation)

Here are some recent stories of interest.

—NPR: “Hubble will Change How it Points, But NASA Says ‘Great Science’ will Continue“

The Hubble Space Telescope is suffering the kinds of aches and pains that can come with being old, and NASA officials say they’re shifting into a new way of pointing the telescope in order to work around a piece of hardware that’s become intolerably glitchy. Officials also announced that, for now, they’ve decided not to pursue a plan put forward by a wealthy private astronaut who wanted to go to Hubble in a SpaceX capsule, in a mission aimed at extending the telescope’s lifespan by boosting it up into a higher orbit and perhaps even adding new technology to enhance its operations.

—NASA: “NASA Awards Advance Technologies for Future Habitable Worlds Mission“

NASA announced Friday it selected three industry proposals to help develop technologies for future large space telescopes and plan for the agency’s Habitable Worlds Observatory mission concept, which could be the first space telescope designed to search for life outside our solar system. The mission would directly image Earth-like planets around stars like our Sun and study their atmospheres for the chemical signatures of life, as well as enable other investigations about our solar system and universe. NASA is currently in the early planning stages for this mission concept, with community-wide working groups exploring its fundamental science goals and how best to pursue them. The agency is also in the process of establishing a Habitable Worlds Observatory Technology Maturation project office at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.

—Southwest Research Institute: “Flyby of Asteroid Dinkinesh Reveals a Surprisingly Complex History“

When NASA’s Lucy spacecraft flew past the tiny main belt asteroid Dinkinesh last November, the Southwest Research Institute-led mission discovered a trough and ridge structure on the main asteroid as well as the first-ever-encountered contact binary satellite. The flyby data of this half-mile-wide object revealed a dramatic history of sudden breakups and transformation. Scientists think a big chunk of Dinkinesh suddenly shifted, excavating the trough and flinging debris into its vicinity. Some materials fell back to the asteroid body, forming the ridge, while others coalesced to form a contact binary satellite known as Selam. The complex shapes show that Dinkinesh and Selam have significant internal strength and a complex, dynamic history.