Space Stories: Rogue Exoplanets, ISS Power Problems, and Eco-Friendly Airlines

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): Artist’s rendering of a rogue exoplanet. (NASA/JPL-Caltech)

Here are some recent stories of interest.

—Space.com : “400 Earth-size Rogue Planets could be Wandering the Milky Way“

New predictions suggest an upcoming NASA space telescope could spot over 400 Earth-mass worlds hidden throughout the Milky Way that have “gone rogue” and therefore wander our galaxy alone.  Such orphan worlds are thought to start their lives in a planetary system, akin to the solar system, but get kicked at some point out by a mechanism thus far unknown. Despite the familiar picture of planets neatly orbiting a star, new research suggests such orphaned starless worlds may outnumber stars in the Milky Way by 20 to 1. This implies untethered worlds in our galaxy are around six times more common than planets orbiting parent stars. 

—ABC News : “NASA Power Outage Temporarily Halts Contact with Space Station“

A NASA power outage disrupted communication between Mission Control and the International Space Station on Tuesday. Mission Control couldn’t send commands to the station and talk with the seven astronauts in orbit. The power outage hit as upgrade work was underway in the building at Houston’s Johnson Space Center. Space station program manager Joel Montalbano said neither the astronauts nor station were ever in any danger and that backup control systems took over within 90 minutes. The crew was notified of the problem through Russian communication systems, within 20 minutes of the outage.

—GeekWire : “Boeing and NASA Partner with Alaska and Other Airlines on Eco-friendly X-66A Aircraft“

Boeing and NASA say they’ll collaborate with Seattle-based Alaska Airlines and four other major airlines on the Sustainable Flight Demonstrator project, which aims to put Boeing’s innovative X-66 braced-wing aircraft design through flight tests in the 2028-2029 time frame. The X-66A makes use of a concept known as the Transonic Truss-Braced Wing, or TTBW, which features ultra-long, ultra-thin, drag-reducing wings that are stabilized by diagonal struts.

Future Guests on the ISS and Tiangong Space Station

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): China’s Tiangong space station. (The New York Times)

The CEO of the South African National Space Agency announced plans to send two female astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS). It is something that the space agency hopes to accomplish in the next two years.

This latest announcement appears to be based on Russian efforts to parlay better relations with African nations. The Russian RT news recently stated:

Roscosmos announced plans last month to expand its space partnerships with African countries. According to its director, an agreement will be signed with a number of the continent’s nations at the Russia-Africa summit this week in St. Petersburg.

In other news, the Chinese Tiangong space station is also getting visitors – zebrafish. The fish are part of experiments to learn more about bone loss in astronauts. The news story goes on to note that the Russians were the first to use zebrafish in space back in 1976.

Video: Another Look at Pluto’s Status as a Planet

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): Pluto as seen by the New Horizons spacecraft. (NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute)

You may enjoy last week’s Astronomy magazine video that is part of This Week in Astronomy with Dave Eicher titled “Is Pluto a Planet?“. The issue on the table is whether scientists were a little too quick to dismiss Pluto’s status under new criteria given that we may have not understood whether the Earth even met this criteria. Is Earth a dwarf planet?

Check out the video and the accompanying article, and then visit the NASA page on the earlier New Horizons mission for some interesting background on the little planet, or dwarf planet, depending on your view.

Space Quote: Meteorite Hunters

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): A meteorite in the Antarctic. (Rutgers University)

“We get a piece for our collection and a new meteorite sample for potential research…In turn, they know what they can sell the specimen for because they know what kind of meteorite it is.”

-Statement by Alan Rubin, a research geochemist and curator of the University of California, Los Angeles meteorite collection, in a Wall Street Journal article titled “A $25,000 Prize Still Sits in the Maine Woods. Meteorite Hunters Aren’t Giving Up.” The article discusses the meteorite-hunting hobby of some individuals and how it has created a symbiotic relationship between hunters and scientists. As another scientist in the article stated, ““We as scientists, with a few exceptions, don’t have the time, effort or money to go hunting meteorites.” You can also find the article here.

Travel to Moon and Mars Not Most Important Missions for the Public

Posted on by onespaceman2000

While both Buzz Aldrin and I believe that lunar and Martian colonies are important, it would appear the public has other ideas about NASA’s priorities. The graphic above shows in a recent Pew Research Center study indicates the more Americans are interested in monitoring the Earth’s climate as well as watching for asteroids.

Even finding exoplanets that could support life seems to be more important than occupying local moons and planets. I am not sure how that would help us now if we want to spread the risk of living on one planet, as some propose. We are nowhere near sending a probe to exoplanets, let alone getting humans there.

The study has quite a bit to ponder, including:

  • 58% of U.S. adults believe it is essential to include the use of human astronauts in the U.S. space program, while 41% say astronauts are not essential;
  • Some 44% of Americans have a great deal of confidence private companies will make a profit in their space-related ventures;
  • As the public considers the possibilities ahead for ordinary citizens to orbit the Earth in a spacecraft, more Americans say they would not want to orbit the Earth than say they would (58% to 42%); and
  • About seven-in-ten Americans (72%) say it is essential for the U.S. to continue to be a world leader in space exploration, and eight-in-ten (80%) say the space station has been a good investment for the country.

I am not sure the survey shows a lot of consistency in the answers, but this can be a difficult topic at the outset. NASA should just be worried if Americans saw no reason for a space program, which does not seem to be the case. As noted above, the majority of Americans want a strong space program. Let’s see if that helps with the ongoing congressional budget discussions.