Source of ISS Leak Identified on Russian Module

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): Russia’s Nauka laboratory module on the ISS. (NASA)

We know Mr. Putin wants to pursue his own space station, but how about fixing the one Russia is already part of?

Cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko and Nikolai Chub conducted a spacewalk this week to investigate the third leak aboard the International Space Station (ISS). Luckily, the source of the leak was found – a 2010 radiator attached to Russia’s Nauka laboratory module.

News reports indicate that Russia’s space agency, Roscosmos, is downplaying the leak, noting that it did not impact the primary coolant loop. Roscosmos finished by stating, “the crew and the station are not in any danger.” That’s hopeful, but still a worrisome incident for the aging space station.

A disaster with the $100 billion space station will set back if not kill future funding for similar stations. As with the US space shuttle, the space station could be a passing phase if we cannot keep it running and our astronauts and cosmonauts safe.

Maybe it is time for Russia to go its own way if it is not willing to keep the ISS afloat. I would rather Russia steps up its game, but it may have trouble fighting wars and funding space at the same time.

Note: The US and Russian need to get this fixed so that the focus can return to science. While the ISS crew was searching for leaks this week, China sent another team to its Tiangong space station.

Space Quote: Russia Moves Past Moon Crash and Readies for a New Space Station

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): View of the International Space Station from  a Crew Dragon spacecraft. (NASA)

“Mistakes are mistakes. It is a shame for all of us. This is space exploration and everyone understands that. It is experience that we can use in the future.”

-Statement by Russia’s President Putin, as reported by Reuters, addressing the Luna-25 crash on the Moon in August. He added that the lunar missions will continue. He also said Russia also hopes to have its first segment of a new space station in operation by 2027, stating, “As the resources of the International Space Station run out, we need not just one segment, but the entire station to be brought into service.”

Pic of the Week: Get Ready for Halloween!

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): View of Jupiter taken by the NASA’s Juno mission. (NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS, Vladimir Tarasov)

NASA has an image for all of us just in time for Halloween. The strange face you see above is a view of Jupiter taken on September 7, 2023 by NASA’s Juno spacecraft on its 54th close flyby of the planet.

NASA explains what you are seeing in this northern region of Jupiter:

The image shows turbulent clouds and storms along Jupiter’s terminator, the dividing line between the day and night sides of the planet. The low angle of sunlight highlights the complex topography of features in this region, which scientists have studied to better understand the processes playing out in Jupiter’s atmosphere.

Now I want to see the images from the first 53 flybys to understand what we might have missed.

Space Stories: Distant Spacecraft Updates, Lucy Gets Ready for a Flyby, and Lunar Near-Earth Asteroids

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): Voyager II spacecraft instruments. (NASA)

Here are some recent stories of interest.

—Space.com: “NASA’s interstellar Voyager Probes Get Software Updates Beamed from 12 Billion Miles Away“

About 46 years after NASA’s Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 launched on an epic journey to explore space, the probes’ antique hardware continues to receive tweaks from afar. One update, a software fix, ought to tend to the corrupted data that Voyager 1 began transmitting last year, and another set aims to prevent gunk from building up in both spacecraft’s thrusters. Together, these updates intend to keep the spacecraft in contact with Earth for as long as possible.

—NASA: “NASA’s Lucy Spacecraft Preparing for its First Asteroid Flyby“

NASA’s Lucy spacecraft is preparing for its first close-up look at an asteroid. On Nov. 1, it will fly by asteroid Dinkinesh and test its instruments in preparation for visits in the next decade to multiple Trojan asteroids that circle the Sun in the same orbit as Jupiter. Dinkinesh, less than half a mile, or 1 kilometer, wide, circles the Sun in the main belt of asteroids located between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. Lucy has been visually tracking Dinkinesh since Sept. 3; it will be the first of 10 asteroids Lucy will visit on its 12-year voyage. To observe so many, Lucy will not stop or orbit the asteroids, instead it will collect data as it speeds past them in what is called a “flyby.”

—UC San Diego: “How Could a Piece of the Moon Become a Near-Earth Asteroid? Researchers Have an Answer“

A team of astronomers has found a new clue that a recently discovered near-Earth asteroid, Kamooalewa, might be a chunk of the moon. They hypothesized that the asteroid was ejected from the lunar surface during a meteorite strike–and they found that a rare pathway could have allowed Kamooalewa to get into orbit around the sun while remaining close to the orbits of the Earth and the Moon. The research team details their findings in the Oct. 23 issue of the journal Nature Communications Earth & Environment. Kamo`oalewa has been the object of several astronomy studies in recent years. As a result, a Chinese mission launching in 2025 is set to land on the asteroid and return samples to Earth.

Speaking of Soil Samples…

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): Apollo 17 commander Eugene Cernan approaching the Lunar Roving Vehicle. (NASA)

In addition to the asteroid Bennu sample, a lunar sample from 1972 is also grabbing headlines. It appears that the lunar sample collected by the Apollo 17 crew indicates the Moon may be about 40 million years older than previously believed.

In a study published in the journal Geochemical Perspectives Letters, titled “4.46 Ga Zircons Anchor Chronology of Lunar Magma Ocean,” states (in part):

The atomic spatial resolution analysis of individual mineral grains demonstrates the absence of nanoscale clustering of lead, which supports a 4.46 Ga ancient formation age for lunar zircon in sample 72255. This age pushes back the age of the first preserved lunar crust by ∼40 Myr and provides a minimum formation age for the Moon within 110 Myr after the formation of the solar system.

If you can forgive the title of the piece, it basically resets the understanding of the Moon’s formation and, thereby, the formation of the early Earth.

In a Reuters story, Cosmochemist Philipp Heck, senior director of research at the Field Museum in Chicago and senior author of the study, noted:

The giant impact that formed the moon was a cataclysmic event for Earth and changed Earth’s rotational speed. After that, the moon had an effect on stabilizing Earth’s rotational axis and slowing down Earth’s rotational speed…The formation date of the moon is important as only after that Earth became a habitable planet.

What will we still be learning about asteroid Bennu in 50 years (assuming we can get all of that soil out of the canister)?