Space Stories: Stalled Martian Rover, Early Mega-Galaxies, and Soviet Space Debris

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): Artist’s rendering of China’s Zhurong rover about to roll off the lander and drive onto Mars. (WEIBO)

Here are some recent stories of interest.

—SpaceNews: “NASA Mars Orbiter Reveals China’s Zhurong Rover Has Not Moved for Months“

Images from NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter reveal that China’s Zhurong rover remains stationary on the Red Planet as China remains silent on the status of its spacecraft. The High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera aboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) captured images of the rover on March 11, 2022, a second on Sept. 8, 2022 and finally Feb. 7, 2023. The images were published Feb. 21 by the HiRISE Operations Center.

—Los Angeles Times: “Space Telescope Spots Massive Galaxies Near Cosmic Dawn and Blows Astronomers’ Minds“

Astronomers have discovered what appear to be massive galaxies dating back to within 600 million years of the big bang, suggesting the early universe may have had a stellar fast-track that produced these “monsters.” While the new James Webb Space Telescope has spotted even older galaxies, dating to within a mere 300 million years of the beginning of the universe, it’s the size and maturity of these six apparent mega-galaxies that stunned scientists. They reported their findings Wednesday in the journal Nature.

—Newsweek: “Russian Rocket Crashes Back Into Russia After 42 Years“

A decades-old Soviet era piece of space junk has crashed back to Earth after over 40 years in orbit, improbably crash landing back in its home country, Russia. The abandoned Soviet Vostok-2M Blok E rocket stage, weighing more than 3,000 pounds, “made an uncontrolled reentry over Novaya Zemlya at 1016 UTC Feb 20 after 42.7 years in orbit,” tweeted Jonathan McDowell, an astrophysicist and group leader at the Chandra X-ray Center Science Data Systems.

Podcast: Assist UCLA with a SETI Project

Posted on by onespaceman2000

I found another episode from The Planetary Society’s podcast Planetary Radio that is worth checking out. In this episode, Are we Alone? The Search for Alien Technosignatures, Professor Jean-Luc Margot and doctoral student Megan Li discuss their project at University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) to identify signals from other civilizations in the galaxy and then extract information encoded in those extraterrestrial signals. This project, called UCLA SETI, was also the winner of a Planetary Society STEP Grant as well as a NASA grant to conduct this work.

As of last week, a volunteer site was set up to assist the UCLA SETI team with this project. Here is some key information from its website:

We host a citizen science collaboration on Zooniverse. Please consider partnering with us to identify the most interesting signals in our data. Subscribe to our newsletter to stay informed about our progress. Past issues of our newsletter are available.

Watch a two-minute video about the UCLA SETI course or a 30-minute talk about the search for life in the universe.

The video is actually a 55-minute talks, but the key section related to this project starts at the 23:38 minute mark where the downloaded data is discussed.

This is your chance to identify something that no one has every seen before. Put some of that time you might have spent watching The Ark toward something useful.

Television: UFOs and Star Trek

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): Promotion for UFOs: Investigating the Unknown. (National Geographic)

With all the ongoing media chatter about unidentified flying objects (UFO), National Geographic has perfect timing with its new series UFOs: Investigating the Unknown. The new series started on February 13th. You can watch it on Hulu, Disney+, and ESPN+.

National Geographic promises that this new five-part series will explore the government’s decades long investigations into UFOs. It seems those investigations just expanded into new areas with the U.S. Air Force recently firing missiles at objects in Canada and the United States. Maybe the new series can help to explain some of these sightings.

If the whole UFO issue has bored you, then tag along with Captain Picard for the third and last season of Star Trek: Picard. The series returned on February 16th. You get to see some of your old favorites joining the cast this season, including Geordi La Forge, Worf, William Riker, Dr. Beverly Crusher, and Deanna Troi.

Here is the basic plot from Paramount+:

In the epic, thrilling conclusion of Star Trek: Picard, a desperate message from a long-lost friend draws Starfleet legend Admiral Jean-Luc Picard into the most daring mission of his life, forcing him to recruit allies spanning generations old and new. This final adventure sets him on a collision course with the legacy of his past and explosive, new revelations that will alter the fate of the Federation forever.

I know, the plot reads like a cover letter on a resume promising everything. That said, I think I will start with Star Trek: Picard and continue to follow UFOs in the daily news. That will be enough drama for me these days.

Image (Credit): Promotional poster for Star Trek: Picard’s third season. (Paramount+)

What’s Going on at the International Space Station?

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): The Progress 82 cargo craft approaches the ISS on October 27, 2022. (NASA)

It appears that we now have two problematic capsules attached to the International Space Station (ISS). Late last year, we learned about a liquid coolant lead in the Russian Soyuz Crew Return Vehicle (Soyuz MS-22 crew ship), and now we have a leak in the second Russian capsule as well (Progress 82 cargo capsule). This is not a good sign for the seven ISS crew members, some of whom were already scheduled to go home.

After inspecting the Progress 82 spacecraft, it was set loose on Friday to burn up over the Pacific Ocean, as noted by NASA:

Loaded with trash, Progress 82 undocked from the space station’s Poisk module at 9:26 p.m. EST Friday, Feb. 17. The Progress deorbit was delayed about 24-hours while Roscosmos engineers analyzed imagery acquired after undocking of the radiator area of the spacecraft, which is the suspected region where a coolant leak occurred on Feb. 11.

As a result of this second incident, the Russian launch of a replacement capsule (Soyuz MS-23), scheduled for this week, may need to be delayed until the issues with both spacecraft are fully discussed and understood. In a discussion about the two leaks, an NPR commentator noted:

Analysts say Russia’s supply chain has been stretched thin due to the war in Ukraine.

This is not good news for anyone. If we cannot rely on the Russian missions, the SpaceX and Northrop Grumman will be doing double duty.

A Day in Astronomy: Discovery of Pluto

Posted on by onespaceman2000

Image (Credit): The dwarf planet Pluto. (NASA)

On this day in 1930, Clyde Tombaugh discovered Pluto. The 23-year old astronomer was working for the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona at the time of his discovery.

Pluto, recognized as the ninth planet in our solar system, was demoted to a dwarf planet in 2006 since it was one of many such objects in the Kuiper Belt and did not meet the definition of a planet.

When NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft visited Pluto in 2015, it was carrying some of Clyde Tombaugh’s ashes. The canister with the ashes had the following inscription:

Interned herein are remains of American Clyde W. Tombaugh, discoverer of Pluto and the solar system’s “third zone.” Adelle and Muron’s boy, Patricia’s husband, Annette and Alden’s father, astronomer, teacher, punster, and friend: Clyde W. Tombaugh (1906-1997).

You can learn a number of interesting facts about Pluto here.

Credit: https://byjus.com/