TESS is Back Online

Posted on by onespaceman2000

As of May 3, NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) was functioning again after flipping into safe mode back on April 23.

NASA shared this info regarding the shutdown:

The operations team determined this latest safe mode was triggered by a failure to properly unload momentum from the spacecraft’s reaction wheels, a routine activity needed to keep the satellite properly oriented when making observations. The propulsion system, which enables this momentum transfer, had not been successfully repressurized following a prior safe mode event April 8. The team has corrected this, allowing the mission to return to normal science operations. The cause of the April 8 safe mode event remains under investigation.

TESS is currently on an extended mission after accomplishing it primary two-year mission that located 66 confirmed exoplanets and 2,100 exoplanet candidates. Click here for a story about exoplanet HD 21749c, the first Earth-sized exoplanet discovered by TESS.

Based on NASA’s latest information, TESS has already located 440 confirmed exoplanets and 7,147 exoplanet candidates. And now that its back online, the search can continue.

Space Stories: Missing Water on Venus, More About Planet Nine, and Possible Life on an Exoplanet

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): Venus from a composite of data from NASA’s Magellan spacecraft and Pioneer Venus Orbiter. (NASA/JPL-Caltech)

Here are some recent stories of interest.

—University of Colorado at Boulder: “Venus Has Almost No Water: A New Study May Reveal Why“

Planetary scientists at the University of Colorado Boulder have discovered how Venus, Earth’s scalding and uninhabitable neighbor, became so dry. The new study fills in a big gap in what the researchers call “the water story on Venus.” Using computer simulations, the team found that hydrogen atoms in the planet’s atmosphere go whizzing into space through a process known as “dissociative recombination” — causing Venus to lose roughly twice as much water every day compared to previous estimates.

—UniverseToday: “New Evidence for Our Solar System’s Ghost: Planet Nine“

Does another undetected planet languish in our Solar System’s distant reaches? Does it follow a distant orbit around the Sun in the murky realm of comets and other icy objects? For some researchers, the answer is “almost certainly.” The case for Planet Nine (P9) goes back at least as far as 2016. In that year, astronomers Mike Brown and Konstantin Batygin published evidence pointing to its existence. Along with colleagues, they’ve published other work supporting P9 since then. Now, they’ve published another paper along with colleagues Alessandro Morbidelli and David Nesvorny, presenting more evidence supporting P9. It’s titled “Generation of Low-Inclination, Neptune-Crossing TNOs by Planet Nine.” It’s published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.

—Astonomy.com: “Possible Hints of Life Found on Exoplanet K2-18b – How Excited Should We Be?”

Data from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has shown that an exoplanet around a star in the constellation Leo has some of the chemical markers that, on Earth, are associated with living organisms. But these are vague indications. So how likely is it that this exoplanet harbours alien life? …The planet in question is named K2-18b. It’s so named because it was the first planet found to orbit the red dwarf star K2-18.

Boeing Needs Just One More Day

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): Starliner autonomous uncrewed flight test to the ISS in May 2022. (NASA)

Today was supposed to be the day that Boeing launched a crewed capsule to the International Space Station (ISS), but things did not go according to plan (again). Two hours before the planned launch a valve issue on the Atlas V rocket’s second stage put everything on hold. A launch as early as tomorrow is still possible if the matter can be resolved.

The two astronauts aboard the Starliner capsule, Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore, will need to come back another day to lead this historic mission. The Starliner will be the second commercial vehicle contracted by NASA to bring and return astronauts from the station. SpaceX has been performing this task since its first successful crewed test flight in 2020.

Boeing needs this win after so many bad stories over the years, and not just the stories associated with the Starliner mission. Serious aircraft woes has put a spotlight on the company. A successful launch will not erase the past, but it would be much needed positive press.

Update: Okay, Boeing will need at least until May 17 to inspect the problem valve and prepare for a new launch. Not a great start, but at least the are still expecting a May launch.

China Returns to the Far Side of the Moon

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): China’s Chang’e 6 lunar probe at the Wenchang Space Launch Site in Hainan province prior to the launch on Friday. (CNSA)

Last Friday, China launched the Chang’e-6 lunar probe towards the moon with the goal of returning the first lunar soil sample from the far side of the Moon. An earlier mission in 2020, Chang’e-5, successfully returned lunar soil samples from the near side of the Moon for the first time in 44 years. Before that, in 2019, China place a rover on the far side of the Moon via the Chang’e-4 mission.

China is making some bold strides in space with, it might be added, some help from the Europeans. While the US bans any cooperation with the Chinese, France, Italy and Sweden have contributed to the Chang’e-6 mission. For example, Sweden added the Negative Ions at the Lunar Surface (NILS) instrument to the lunar probe.

Maybe one day we can join the Chinese on some of these missions, but that day seems to be far away. That said, we were able to find a way with the Russians, which allowed for the ongoing success of the International Space Station.