Category: Other Worlds and Tech

Space Sunday: saying adieu to Ariane 5 and recalling Hermes

Posted on by Inara Pey
V-261: the final launch of Ariane 5, July 5th, 2023, as it lifts two communications satellites to orbit from Europe’s Spaceport, Kourou in French Guiana. Credit: Arianespace.

It is perhaps the unsung hero of space launch capabilities. Whilst the media focuses on its darling Falcon 9 – a vehicle which, to be sure, is innovative, successful and highly flexible -, or reflects on Russia’s veritable (if sometimes troublesome) Soyuz family, Europe’s Ariane 5 has quietly gone about the business of lifting payloads to various orbits and a deep space missions for 28 years, barely coming to prominence in the news, unless in exceptional circumstances. Such as on the occasion of its final flight, as has been the case this past week. This is a shame, because the Ariane 5 project has been remarkably successful.

First flown in 1996 as the latest iteration of the Ariane family, the rocket’s history goes back to the 1970s, when an Anglo-French-German project was established to develop a new commercial launch vehicle for Western Europe. Christened “Ariane” – the French spelling of the mythological character Ariadne – the project became largely French-driven but within the auspices of the European Space Agency (ESA). The latter charged Airbus Defence and Space with the development of all Ariane vehicles and all related testing facilities, whilst CNES, the French national space agency, spun-up a commercial operation called Arianespace – in which they retain around a 32.5% stake – to handle production, operations, marketing and launches of the Ariane family, the latter being made out of Europe’s Spaceport, aka the Guiana Space Centre at Kourou in French Guiana.

Arianespace was the world’s first commercial launch provider, initially offering customer launches atop the evolving family of Ariane vehicles, commencing with Ariane 1 in 1979. Then, from 2003 through 2019, then partnership with Russia to provide medium-lift launch capabilities utilising  the Soyuz-ST payload carrier under the Arianespace Soyuz programme, becoming the only facility to operate Soyuz vehicles outside of Russia (until the latter’s invasion of Ukraine brought the partnership to an end). In 2012, Arianespace further supplement its range of capabilities by adding the Italian-led Vega small payloads vehicle to their launch vehicle catalogue.

The Ariane launch vehicle family – an infographic released be Arianespace to mark the final launch of an Ariane 5. Credit: Arianespace

Ariane 5 was first launched in June 1996 in what was called the G(eneric) variant, capable of lifting 16 tonnes to low Earth orbit (LEO) or up to 6.95 tonnes to  geosynchronous transfer orbit (GTO). Over the coming years, it iterated through four evolutions – G+, GS, ECA, and ES – each bringing about a range of performance and other improvements which raised the vehicle’s maximum lift capabilities to 21 tonnes of payload to LEO and 10.86 tonnes to GTO whilst also allowing Arianespace to lower launch fees to customers. In addition – and while it was never used in such a capacity – Ariane 5 is the only member of the Ariane family to be designed for crewed launches, in part being designed to carry the Hermes space plane to orbit (of which more below).

In all, Ariane 5 flew a total of 117 launches from 1996 onwards, suffering three partial and two complete failures to deliver payloads as intended, with an maximum launch cadence of 7 per year. Notable among these launches are:

December 10th, 1999: the X-ray Multi-Mirror Mission (XMM-Newton). Itself an oft-overlooked mission when compared to NASA’s Great Observatories programme, XMM-Newton was one of the four “cornerstone” missions of the Horizon 2000 chapter of ESA’s science missions.

Named for English physicist and astronomer Sir Isaac Newton, the spacecraft comprises 3 X-ray telescopes feeding a range of science instruments and imaging systems. Its primary mission is the study of interstellar X-ray sources in both narrow- and broad-range spectroscopy, and performing the first simultaneous imaging of objects in both X-ray and optical (visible + ultraviolet) wavelengths. The programme was initially funded for two years, but its most recent mission extension will see it funded through until the end of 2026 – with the potential (vehicle conditions allowing) – for it to be extended up to the launch of its “replacement” mission, the  Advanced Telescope for High Energy Astrophysics (ATHENA), due to commence operations in 2035/6. As of May 2018, XMM had generated more than 5,600 research papers.

March 2nd 2004: Rosetta. Another Horizon 2000 “cornerstone” mission, Rosetta spent 10 years using the inner solar system to allow it to rendezvous with the nucleus of comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko – the first space vehicle to enter orbit around a comet following its arrival on August 6th, 2014.

For two years, the vehicle revealed an enormous amount about the comet, although it was perhaps overshadowed in the public consciousness by the adventures of the little Philae lander Rosetta dispatched to the surface of the comet, and which captured hearts and minds with its struggles.

November 12th, 2009, ESA’s Rosetta, launched via Ariane 5, approaches Earth for a final flyby before heading out into deep space for its rendezvous with comet. P67//Churyumov–Gerasimenko. Credit: ESA

May 14th, 2009: Herschel Space Observatory and Planck Observatory. These two ground-breaking missions were delivered to the Erath-Sun Lagrange L2 position (yes, the one also used by the James Webb Space Telescope – JWST -, and the one the Euclid mission will utilise where it arrives in an extended halo orbit around it in August 2023). Whilst separate missions, both spacecraft were launched on the same Ariane 5 booster and each utilised a service module built to a common design.

Initially planned for a 15-month primary mission, Planck – named for German physicist Max Planck – ran for just under 4.5 years, concluding in 2013 after on-board supplies of liquid helium were exhausted, and the primary instruments could longer be cooled to their required operating temperatures. As fuel remained for the craft’s manoeuvring thrusters, Planck was ordered to move away from the L2 position and into a heliocentric orbit, where its systems were decommissioned and the vehicle shut down.

The Herschel Space Observatory, meanwhile, operated for just over 4 years, and was the largest infrared telescope ever launched until the James Webb Space Telescope. It was yet another “cornerstone” mission for Horizon 2000, and was named for Sir William Herschel, the discoverer of the infrared spectrum. Its primary objectives comprised investigating clues for the formation of galaxies in the early universe, the nature of molecular chemistry across the universe, the interaction of star formation with the interstellar medium and, closer to home, the chemical composition of atmospheres and surfaces of planets, moons and comets within our solar system. In this regard, the observatory amassed more the 25,000 hours of science data used by 600 different science programmes.

 October 20th, 2018: BepiColumbo. Undertaken by ESA and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), BepiColumbo is the overall mission title given to two vehicles and their transfer bus, all launched as a “stack” via Ariane 5, in a mission to carry out a comprehensive study Mercury, the innermost planet of the solar system. It is named after  Italian scientist and mathematician Giuseppe “Bepi” Colombo.

Despite its orbit being relative close to Earth (when compared to the outer planets of the solar system that is), Mercury’s is one of the most technically complex to reach. “Bepi” Columbo calculated a vehicle could use a solar orbit and multiple fly-bys of the inner planets to reach Mercury in an energy-efficient manner – and it is this style of approach the mission is using to reach its destination. It has already completed five gravity assist manoeuvres (1 around Earth in 2020, two around Venus in 2020 and 2021 and 2 around Mercury in 2021 and 2022). A further fiver fly-bys of Mercury will occur in 2024/25 to bring the mission to its primary science orbit around the planet at the end of 2025.

An image captured by BepiColumbo on June 23rd, 2022 as the spacecraft flew past Mercury at a distance of 1,406km on its second major flyby of the mission. Between early 2024 and late 2025, the vehicle will use several more flybys to bounce itself int an extended orbit around Mercury and then into its primary science orbit. Credit: ESA / JAXA

At that time the vehicles will separate, the transfer bus, called the Mercury Transfer Module being discarded to allow the 1.1 tonne ESA-built Mercury Planetary Orbited (MPO) to commence what is expected to be at least one terrestrial year of operations studying the planet. During the initial phase of this mission, MPO will in turn deploy the Japanese-built Mio vehicle into its own orbit around Mercury, where it is also expected to operate for at least a terrestrial year.

Continue reading “Space Sunday: saying adieu to Ariane 5 and recalling Hermes” →

Space Sunday: a “dark” mission, recycling water and a round-up

Posted on by Inara Pey
Credit: European Space Agency

July 1st, 2023 saw the launch of a new space telescope – the European Space Agency’s (ESA’s) Euclid – on one of the most intriguing space missions yet started.

Classified as a M(edium)-class mission within ESA’s Cosmic Vision campaign, Euclid was originally to have been launched via Russian Soyuz ST-B; however, following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, ESA ended all partnerships with Roscosmos, the Russian space agency, and the mission was  – with NASA’s assistance – shifted to using a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launching out of NASA’s Kennedy Space Centre (KSC), Florida.

Following a flawless launch from Pad 39A, KSC at 15:12 UTC, the booster lifted the observatory to orbit, the second stage of the rocket successfully sending it on its way towards the Earth-Sun L2 Lagrange point, with the telescope will commence observations, in a 30-day gentle transit. Along the way, the instruments and systems on the spacecraft will be powered-up and go through check-out procedures so as to be ready for commissioning as the craft arrives at the  L2 position.

For those unfamiliar with the term, the  L2 position is one of five points of equilibrium for small-mass objects under the gravitational influence of two massive orbiting bodies (points where the gravitational influences of the larger bodies effectively “cancel one another out”). Also known as libration points, they are: the L1 position sitting between both bodies, but nearer the smaller than the larger; L2, located on the opposite side of the smaller body relative to the larger; L3, located on the opposite side of the larger body relative to the smaller; and L4 leading the smaller of the two in it orbit around the larger, and L5 trailing.

The Euclid spacecraft, pictured before being sent to Florida, will blast off on a mission to find out more about the ‘dark universe’. Credit: Airbus / ESA

Those familiar with the Lagrange points will likely recognise the L2 position as being the focal point for the James Web Space Telescope (JWST) in its journey around the Sun. On arrival, Euclid will enter a similar 1-million km wide elliptical orbit around the L2 position in a manner which will prevent it ever falling into Earth’s shadow. once in place, the 1.4 billion Euro spacecraft will spend a nominal 6 years within this orbit using a combination of a visible light camera and a near-infrared spectrometer/photometer in an attempt to gain a better understanding of dark energy and dark matter.

Sometimes (often in bad science-fiction) conflated as the same thing, dark matter and dark energy are two different entities. In simple terms, dark matter is a hypothetical form of matter with a physical mass, and thought to account for the so-called “missing mass” of the universe (some 85% of its expected mass). The “dark” of the name refers to the fact that it does not absorb, reflect, or emit electromagnetic radiation, making it extremely difficult to defect. However, various gravitational effects which can be observed can only take place if there is more matter involved than can be detected – thus implying dark matter’s existence.

Dark energy, however, is an unknown form of energy which was first suggested in 2011. Up until that point, it had been believed that the expansion of the universe – the result of the big bang – was slowing imperceptibly down through the aeons, the result of the gravitational mass of the billions of galaxies within it gradually overcoming the momentum imparted to them by the big bang. However, careful analysis of the measurement of numerous supernovae suggest that the expansion of the universe is actually accelerating – which could only be due to some unknown force acting on all the galaxies. Thus, the concept of dark (again meaning hard / impossible to directly detect) energy was born, a force potentially responsible for as much as 68% of the total energy contained with in the present-day observable universe.

Animation of Euclid (purple) in a halo orbit around the the Earth-Sun L2 position (light blue), as seen from “above” and following launch from Earth (dark blue). Credit: Phoenix777 utilising data from ESA / NASA

To try to better pin down both dark matter and dark energy, Euclid will use its instruments to chart some 2 billion galaxies across one third of the night sky relative to Earth, capturing light that has taken up to 10 billion of the universe’s 13.8 billion-year lifespan to reach us. In doing so, it will measure their shape and the degree of red shift evident, whilst also using the effects of gravitational lensing on some to reveal more data about them. From this, it is hoped that astrophysicists might be able to construct a model to explain how the universe is expanding which might both explain the nature and force of dark energy and potentially offer clues as to the actual nature of dark matter – the mass of which must be having some impact on dark energy as it pushes a the galaxies.

However, this is going to take time; from the start of operations in a couple of months, it will take the Euclid team 2 years to gather sufficient data  which can start to be meaningfully analysed. After that, it will take four years of gather additional data which might be used to refine and improve the initial analyses, and offer up at least some answers.

Urine is a Key to Mars

If humans are to travel to and from Mars, there are a number of issues which need to be addressed, among them the issue of drinking water for the 6-9 month trips to / from Mars (assuming the use of chemical propulsion).

One of these is how to supply the crew with water. NASA state that trained astronauts required 4.4 litres of water per day for drinking, food preparation, hygiene and cleaning. For a crew of four going to Mars that’s between 3.16 and 4.75 tonnes of payload mass alone (+ reserves for emergencies on top of that). While that mass might also be used to supplement a vehicle’s radiation shielding, the fact remains that carrying large amounts of water is just so much deadweight compared to other, more efficient means of providing radiation protection (such as Kevlar and high density polyethylene, or HDPE). To make water efficient, it needs to be recycled.

This is already the case on the International Space Station (ISS). As a part of the Environmental Control and Life Support System (ECLSS), the US / International element of the ISS has long been able to supply recycle water back into usable drinking water (the Russian segments of the station rely more heavily on resupply from Earth for water, as the Russian saw this as the easier solution to developing efficient and space-taking recycling systems).

The Brine Processor Assembly (BPA), prior to its transfer to the ISS in 2022. Credit: NASA

Within the US ECLSS are two water recycling systems – the primary Water Purification Assembly (WPA), which literally plucks water out of the station’s atmosphere in the form of condensate, sweat, exhale water molecules, water drops escaping during food processing and other acts, and water used for hygiene, and the Urine Processor Assembly, a subset of the WPA, which does exactly was that name suggests.

However, both systems have always been limited in their efficiency (the UPA to just 85% of all urine being recycled to a state where it is properly purified water). But over the last several years, various improvements have been made to the systems, raising their overall efficiency to 93.5%. In particular, urine recycling efficiency was raised to 87% through improvements in 2019/2020 and by cycling the semi-clean water through the primary WPA system to produce purified water suitable for drinking. However, a sticking point remained urine brine – a mix of water and body chemicals which could not be put through the WPA, but was simply tanked and disposed of.

Now water can even be extracted from that brine for recycling, thanks to a new addition to the ECLSS recently installed on the ISS and which has been undergoing evaluation. Called the Brine Processor Assembly (BPA), it is a combination of filter membranes and a heating system. The former traps the chemicals in the brine whilst allowing the water through. The water is then heated by the elements in the unit, forming a humid air flow which is then fed to the WPA, where the water is extracted alongside that gathered from other humid air captured by the WPA, and purified for re-use.

The result: up to 98% of all water consumed or used on the international segments of the ISS can now be recycled – an additional 4.5% compared to pre-BPA amounts. This is significant because NASA has always seen a 98% water recycling capability as a break-point for long duration space operations. It doesn’t eliminate the need for some measure of reserve supplies – but it drastically reduces the additional mass of water that might otherwise need to be carried, bringing the potential for crewed missions to Mars a little step closer to being practical.

Continue reading “Space Sunday: a “dark” mission, recycling water and a round-up” →

Space Sunday: of Earth and moons

Posted on by Inara Pey
Ice particles, with just a trace of phosphates, venting from near Enceladus’s south pole, as imaged by Cassini in 2010. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute

Even as Europe’s Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (Juice) is commencing its long trek to the Jovian system in order to study Ganymede, Callisto, and Europa, three of Jupiter’s Galilean moons, more is being learned about Europa and its far more distant “cousin”, Enceladus, as the latter orbits Saturn.

In the case of Europa, the findings of a new study suggest that it may have formed somewhat differently than has long been thought, and that it may actually be less subject to deep heating and volcanism that has been thought – potentially decreasing the chances for it to harbour subsurface oceans and possible life.

As has been mentioned numerous times in this column, Europa is of fascination because it is covered in an icy shell which appears to cover a liquid water ocean, churning over a rocky mantle and kept liquid due to a combination of internal heat radiating out from the Moon’s molten core and the gravitational “push/pull” inflicted on it by both Jupiter and other three Galilean moons, which give rise to heating through subsea volcanism and hydrothermal vents (which might also pump the ocean full of biologically useful molecules).

However, Kevin Trinh, a planetary scientist at Arizona State University (ASU), and his follow researchers suggest that Europa may have formed a lot slower than previously assumed, and somewhat differently to how it is generally assumed planets and small moons form, and that even now, it may not have a fully-formed core – possibly a result of its distance from the Sun.

Internal evolution of Europa. Credit: Kevin Trinh/ASU

The accepted theory for the formation of solid planets and moons is that as they coalesced out of ice, dirty, rocks, etc., and were compressed under increasing gravity – assisted by the Sun’s heat – underwent melting, the heavier filling into the centre of the planet / moon to form the core, with the “middleweight” rocks forming a semi-liquid, hot mantle, and the outermost becoming the brittle crust.

But given its size and distance from the Sun, Europa may never have reached the stage of the heaviest elements separating out of its mantle to for the core – or that it is still going through the process, but at a much slower rate and assisted by the gravitational flexing imposed on it by the other large Jovian moons and Jupiter itself.

This doesn’t mean the moon doesn’t have an ocean – Trinh and his colleagues believe the evidence for the ocean is too great to deny –, but rather its formation was different to previously thought, and may have been the result of a metamorphic process, which continues to power it today. In short, the rocks of the mantle were naturally hydrated (that is, contain water and oxygen), as the interior heat increased, it caused the water and oxygen to be released, forming the ocean and its icy shell.

For most worlds in the solar system we tend to think of their internal structure as being set shortly after they finish forming. This work is very exciting because it reframes Europa as a world whose interior has been slowly evolving over its whole lifetime. This opens doors for future research to understand how these changes might be observed in the Europa we see today.

– Carver Bierson, ASU’s School Of Earth and Space Exploration.

Just how far along the formation of a core might be, assuming this ASU study is correct, is an unknown. The study suggests that the core started to form billions of years after Europa’s formation, and that full differentiation has yet to occur.

Credit: Arizona State University

If the theory is correct, it has some significant implications for Europa as a possible abode of life. As noted above, the traditional view is that the moon has had a hot, molten core which could, thanks to the gravitational flexing by Jupiter and the other large Jovian moons, power subsea volcanism and venting sufficient to create hotspots of life in the ocean depths. Without such a fully-formed core, however, it is unlikely that such is the case. But this does not mean that Europa is necessarily lifeless.

It could be that the heat within the rocky mantle – again driven by gravitational flexing – could lead to a more uniform heating of the sea floor, allowing for life to be more widespread around Europa and feeding on the minerals and chemicals released by the hydration process.  However, the flipside to this is that such heating could equally leave much – if not all – of the ocean little more than an icy slush, either limiting any life to a very narrow band of heated water very close to the sea floor, or frozen out in the slush.

In the meantime, while Enceladus is even further from the Sun and a lot smaller than Europa – but the evidence for it having a subsurface ocean is more compelling. The southern polar area has long been subject to out gassing material into space – material which is known to be contributing to the growth of Saturn’s E-ring.

The out gassing was first imaged by NASA’s Voyager 2 vehicle in the 1980s and again by the joint European-NASA Cassini mission, which saw the Cassini spacecraft actually pass through some of the plume of material several times, confirming the presence of water vapour and other minerals, all of which are almost contributing to the tiny moon having a very tenuous atmosphere.

A sequence of images of Saturn’s moon Enceladus taken by the Cassini mission. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute

Data on the plumes gathered by Cassini have been the subject of extensive studies since they were gathered, revealing that do contain very simple organic molecules and even molecular hydrogen and silica. All of this indicates that chemical reactions between water and warm rock are occurring on the seafloor under Enceladus’ ocean, most likely around hydrothermal vents.

For the last 5 years, a team of scientists at Freie Universität Berlin, have been studying data from a number of sources – Cassini and Earth-based observations – relating to the materials found within Saturn’s E-ring, which, as noted, is at least in part made up of material ejected from Enceladus in an attempt to both better understand the composition of the ring and its relationship with material coming from the moon. What they’ve found has come as a surprise to many planetary scientists: phosphorus.

The importance here is that phosphorus is the rarest of six elements which life here on Earth utilises in various forms – such as combining it with sugars to form a skeleton to DNA molecules and also helps repair and maintain cell membranes. What’s more, the concentrations of the mineral within the plumes are about 500 times greater than the highest known concentrations in Earth’s oceans. While the phosphorus has been detected within Saturn’s E-ring rather than within the plumes rising from Enceladus, its discovery nevertheless is seen as offering “the strictest requirement of habitability” within the moon’s ocean, given that Enceladus is blasting material into the E-ring at the rate of 360 litres per second.

An image of Saturn’s moon Enceladus taken by NASA’s Cassini spacecraft. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

A 2018 study involving Enceladus’s ocean and the likely minerals in might contain had drawn the conclusion that any phosphorus concentrations on the moon would have been depleted in the moon’s oceans a long time ago, and thus unavailable for potential life. However, in reviewing the new findings, the team behind the 2018 study have stated their findings have now been overturned.

In particular, the Freie team also identified the presence of  orthophosphate within the phosphates of the E-ring. This is the only form of phosphorus that living organisms can absorb and use as a source of growth. This suggests that not only are phosphates “readily available” in Enceladus’ oceans, it is in forms simple life can make use off to help in its development. Coupled with the fact that the oceans of Enceladus are likely warm and rich in a broad range of minerals and chemical elements, further raises the potential for the moon to harbour microbial life. This had already led to renewed calls for a dedicated mission to the little moon for a more direct investigation.

Continue reading “Space Sunday: of Earth and moons” →

Space Sunday: launches and landings

Posted on by Inara Pey
Shenzhou 16 lifts-off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre, May 30th, 2023. Credit: CGTN

Rotating crews to / from a space station is so routine here in the west that the comings and going of crews at the International Space Station (ISS) rarely gain much of a mention unless something extraordinary happens, or they happen to be entirely privately-funded, as with the Axiom Space Ax-2 mission (of which more below).

Not so for the Chinese, however, who are still adjusting to life with an orbital outpost that is meant to remain under permanent occupation and also provide a stepping stone towards the Moon. What’s more, they are gradually become more public about things as they continue to rake up successes.

Following the completion of “construction” of the major elements of the Tiangong space station with the docking of the second science module in November 2022, the Shenzhou 15 crew, comprising taikonauts Fei Junlong, Deng Qingming and Zhang Lu have been at work commissioning the module and carrying out further work in preparing the station for full-time operations, building on the work of the Shenzhou 14 crew, as well as performing a full science programme.

Chinese astronauts Gui Haichao (left), Zhu Yangzhu (center) and Jing Haipeng of the Shenzhou 16 space mission attend a see-off ceremony at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center on May 30, 2023 in Jiuquan, Gansu Province of China. Credit: VCG/VCG via Getty Images

On May 30th, they were joined by the crew of Shenzhou 16, who performed a “fast burn” flight to rendezvous and dock with Tiangong just seven hours after their launch from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre in the Gobi Desert. This crew has garnered a lot of attention both nationally and internationally, as it includes China’s first non-military tiakonaut to fly in space: professor Gui Haichao, an aerospace researcher who has studied and taught in China and Canada.

The entire launch was covered live on Chinese national television, as was the rendezvous and docking, summarised for new broadcasts and viewing in the west in videos like the one below.

Gui is joined on the mission by commander Major General Jing Haipeng of the People’s Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF), and rookie taikonaut Colonel Zhu Yangzhu of the People’s Liberation Army. Scheduled for a duration of 180 days, the mission will see Jing become China’s most experienced taikonaut, with four missions under his belt and clocking up over 225 days (cumulative) in orbit.

Following docking, the Shenzhou 16 crew remained with the three men of Shenzhou 15 Through until the weekend, when the Shenzhou 15 crew departed the space station late on Saturday, June 3rd (Beijing time), to commence a 9-hour return to Earth, where they touched down at the Dongfeng landing site within North China’s Inner Mongolia autonomous region at 06:33 on Sunday, June 4th (Beijing time – (22:33 UTC on June 3rd).

The landing was also covered in detail by the Chinese media, and as with the Russian approach to crew returning from long duration orbital flights, the three men were not allowed to spend time standing or moving under their own power; instead they were helped out of their craft and into waiting chairs, where they were interviewed by a China Central Television (CCTV) crew in a live broadcast. This focused on Senior Colonel Deng Qingming, quite possibly one of the longest-serving astronauts-in-waiting in the world prior to lifting-off on this mission, having been in the PLA taikonaut corps for 26 years! He is actually the last of China’s “first generation” intake of astronauts to fly into space, and his perseverance has made him an icon on the PLA space corps.

In between Shenzhou 16 lifting-off for Tiangong and Shenzhoou 15 returning, the crew of Axiom AX-2 also wrapped up their stay at the International Space Station and returned to Earth.

As the name indicates, this was that second Axiom Space crewed mission to the ISS, carried out as part of the company’s progress towards running its own space station, and delivered a crew of four astronauts to the ISS for a period of eight days. Aboard were former astronaut Peggy Whiston as mission commander, John Shoffner, an aviator and entrepreneur, Ali AlQarni, a captain in the Royal Saudi Air Force and Rayyanah Barnawi, and Saudi biomedial researcher and the first Saudi woman to fly in space.

The Axiom AX-2 crew (l-to-right): Peggy Whitson, John Shoffner, Ali AlQarni, and Rayyanah Barnawi

The mission lifted-off from Kennedy Space Centre atop a Falcon 9 rocket on May 21st, 2023, and the Crew Dragon Freedom docked with the Harmony module of the ISS a day later. During their time on the station, the crew performed public outreach activities along with scientific research, including studies into the effects of microgravity on stem cells and other biological experiments which had been agreed with the Saudi Space Commission as part of the deal to fly the two Saudi nationals on the mission.

For Whitson, it was a fourth opportunity to fly in space and add to an already impressive record: in her first mission, she spent an extended mission on the ISS, in her second she became the first woman to command the ISS (and later became the first women to complete two tours on the ISS as mission commander), she has completed the most EVAs (spacewalks) thus far for a woman, having spent a total of 60 hours and 21 minutes outside of the ISS performing various tasks; she has spent a total of 675 days in space during her career and remains the oldest woman to orbit the Earth. She was also the first woman to become NASA’s Chief Astronaut, the most senior position in the NASA Astronaut Corps.

For the rest of the crew, it was the opportunity to experience space for the first time, and for Axiom Space, a further opportunity to study managing orbital operations and research endeavours of the kind they hope to both manage and host on their own space station. The latter is due to start life as modules attached to the ISS (and referred to as the Axiom Orbital Segment) in the late 2020s, before becoming an independent orbital facility when the ISS is decommissioned at the start of the 2030s.

On May 30th, 2023, the crew re-boarded Freedom and departed the ISS, splashing down successfully in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Panama City, Florida in the early hours of May 31st, local time, where it was recovered by the SpaceX recovery ship Megan.

Spaceport Company Performs At-Sea Launches

Landing returning crewed spacecraft on the world’s seas – as with the AX-2 mission – has long been a thing for the United States. However, it has also been the dream of some to use the oceans as a means of launching vehicles into orbit – perhaps most famously (thanks to it being referenced in the Apple TV series For All Mankind), the simply gargantuan Sea Dragon. Planned in the 1960s but never built, this behemoth was designed to lift 550 tonnes of cargo to orbit – and to start its journey by floating in open waters off the US coast.

Obviously, Sea Dragon never came to be, but in 1999, a multi-national corporation – Sea Launch – commenced payload launches from the deck of a modified oil rig – the Odyssey, operating in the Pacific Ocean close to the equator – using a specialised version of the Russian Zenit-3SL. The company carried out a total of 36 such launches from 1999 through 2014, when Russia’s first military incursion into Ukraine (which ultimately brought an end to the company), suffering only four failures.

A sounding rocket is launched from a proof-of-concept “liftboat” developed by the Spaceport Company as part of their efforts to develop a US offshore launch platform capability. Credit: The Spaceport Company

Now a US company – the appropriately-named The Spaceport Company – has hosted four sounding rocket launches with the support of Evolution Space, from a platform in the Gulf of Mexico. The launches were the latest step of a proof-of-concept study the company is carrying out into the feasibility of conducting payload-to-orbit flights from mobile platforms operating off the US coast.

In particular, the company stated the operation – performed on May 22nd – was intended to exercise the procedures -including getting approvals from the Federal Aviation Administration and U.S. Coast Guard, clearing airspace and waters to allow for a safe launch  – before any actual rocket launch from the platform.

The company plans to plans to use the platforms – called liftboats – which can sail / be towed to a designated location before temporarily anchoring itself to the sea bed by means of four legs which can be extended down into the water to a depth of up to 50 metres, and also left the platform clear of the water. A second platform then acts as the launch control centre, freeing launches from the need of any land-based infrastructure, outside of a docking and servicing facility with the means to accept launch vehicles and move them onto the launch platform safely.

These platforms will be capable of being deployed almost anywhere of the US coast, although the company particularly hopes to leverage the increasing demand for launches out of both the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station and Kennedy Space Centre. presenting companies operating smaller rocket systems with a viable off-shore alternative.

Both The Spaceport company and Evolution Space (who providing the rocket systems for the May 22nd launches) kept quiet about the event itself, only releasing a post-launch briefing on the launches 24 hours after they had taken place.  Further test flights on the platform are expected over the course of the nest two years, and the company is targeting 2025 for its first full-scale, fully commercial payload launch.

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Space Sunday: aiding three space telescopes

Posted on by Inara Pey
The Hubble Space Telescope, the Chandra X-Ray Observatory and the Spitzer Space Telescope. Credits: NASA

They are the grande dames, so to speak, of space-based astronomy, observatories launched into orbit around Earth and the Sun to provide us with unparalleled insight into the cosmos around us, born of ideas dating back to the early decades of the space age. They form three of the four elements of NASA’s Great Observatories programme, and all operated, or continue to operate well beyond their planned life spans; they are, of course, the Hubble Space Telescope (HST – launched in 1990), the Chandra X-Ray Observatory (CXO and formerly the Advanced X-ray Astrophysics Facility or AXAF – launched in 1999), and the Spitzer Space Telescope (SST, formerly the Space Infrared Telescope Facility or SIRTF – launched in 2003).

Today, only Hubble and Chandra remain operational. The fourth of the observatories (and 2nd to enter space after Hubble), the 16.3-tonne Compton Gamma Ray Observatory (CGRO), had its mission curtailed in June 2000, after just over 9 years, when it suffered an unrecoverable gyroscope failure. With fears raised that the failure of a second unit could leave the observatory unable to control its orientation, the decision was made to shut it down and de-orbit it in a controlled manner so it would break-up on entering the atmosphere and any surviving parts fall into the Pacific Ocean, rather than risk an uncontrolled re-entry which could shower major pieces of the observatory over populated areas.

Whilst the “youngest” of the surviving three observatories, Spitzer was placed into a “safe” mode in January 2020, ending 16.5 years of service. By then, the nature of the observatory’s orbit – it occupies a heliocentric orbit, effectively following Earth around the Sun  – were such that it was having to perform extreme rolls back and forth in order to carry out observations and then communicate with Earth, and these were affecting the ability of the solar arrays to gather enough energy to charge the on-board batteries. The “safe” mode meant that Spitzer could continue to recharge its batteries and maintain electrical current to its working instruments, potentially allowing it to be recovered in the future. However, while it is true that Hubble and Chandra continue to work, neither is without problems.

Hubble orbits close enough to Earth that even at over 500km, it is affected by atmospheric drag, causing it to very slowly but inexorably lose altitude. This used to be countered through the semi-regular servicing missions, when a space shuttle would rendezvous with HST to allow astronauts to carry out work, and then gently boost the telescope altitude using its thrusters. But the shuttle is no more, and the last such boost was in 2009 to 540 km; currently Hubble is at around 527 km, and at the present rate of decent, it will start to burn-up in another 10-15 years. However, a boost now could see Hubble – barring instrument / system failures – continue to operate through the 2050s.

The Hubble Space Telescope sitting on its holding platform in the cargo bay of the space shuttle Atlantis in 2009, seen through the orbiter’s rear deck windows during the 5th and final (and most extensive) servicing mission. Credit: NASA

Chandra, meanwhile, faces a different challenge. It lies in a highly elliptical orbit around the Earth, varying between 14,508 km at its closest and 134,527 km at its most distant. It has therefore been operating untended for its entire operational life, and is starting to show signs of wear and tear. In 2018, it suffered a glitch with one of the gyroscopes designed to keep it steady during observations (and orient it to look at stellar objects). Whilst the gyroscope was recovered, it was put into a reserve mode lest it fail again. This led to fears that should a second gyro fail, either orientation control might be lost if the 2018 gyro fail to come back on-line correctly to take over the work. Also, and while the main science instructions are in good order, they are aging and presenting concerns as to how well they are actually doing.

Ideas for both boosting Hubble’s orbit and carrying out a robotic servicing of Chandra have been floated for the last few years – but there are now signs both might actually get potentially life-extending missions.

In December 2022, NASA issued an RFI on how Hubble’s orbit could be boosted, and have received eight responses, one of which has also been publicly announced and would seem to offer potential. It involves two companies: Astroscale Holdings and Momentus Space, a US-based company. The former is in the business of clearing space junk from Earth’s orbit, and has already flown prototype vehicles capable of doing this in orbit. This includes the ability to carry tools to mate or grapple junk and then move them. Momentus, meanwhile, are in the satellite servicing business and recently demonstrated a small “space tug” in orbit that was largely successful in meeting its mission goals (7 out of nine small satellites deployed into individual orbits).

In their proposal, the two companies indicate Momentus would provide a variant of their tug, and Astroscale a dedicated capture tool designed to use the grapple holds on Hubble. Following launch, the Momentus craft would self-guide itself to Hubble’s orbit and rendezvous with it using the Astroscale mating tool. Once attached, the Momentus vehicle would use its thrusters to gently raise Hubble’s orbit by 50 km, then detach. The vehicle could then be used to remove orbital debris in orbits approaching Hubble, thus protecting it from the risk of collision.

NASA has yet to comment on any of the proposals received under the RFI, but the Momentus / Astroscale option, using equipment already being flight-tested and refined and which is of relatively low-cost, would appear to be a real option.

A similar, but more expensive and complex idea has been proposed by Northrop Grumman – the company effectively responsible for building Chandra – to help keep the X-Ray observatory going. This would involve the construction and deployment of a “mission extension vehicle”, a “space tug” capable of departing Earth and gradually extending and modifying its orbit to rendezvous with Chandra and link-up with it, taking over the operations related to orienting and steadying the platform using gyros, potentially extending the mission by decades.

This is important because Chandra has already proven invaluable in supporting the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) which operates in the infra-red. The ability to observe targets in both X-ray and infra-red can reveal a lot more about them.

A set of X-ray images of regions of space – including supernova remnants and merging galaxies – captured by the Chandra X-ray Observatory, released by NASA in 2009 to celebrate the telescope’s 20th anniversary. Credit: CXC/NASA, SAO

NASA has given no word on whether it would finance such a mission, although Northrop Grumman has apparently forwarded the results of its own study on the idea to the US agency. However, given the most recent U.S. decadal survey in astrophysics, released in 2021, included mention of a new X-ray telescope to replace Chandra, a servicing mission – even one this complex – capable of extending Chandra’s operations for decades at a fraction of the cost of a new telescope, which itself would take years if not decades to develop, could be highly attractive.

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Space Sunday: China, stations and bits

Posted on by Inara Pey
An artist’s impression of the Chinese lunar base by the late 2030s. Credit: Chinese Lunar Exploration Programme

China has been making a lot of space-related news recently, so it’s time to catch-up on things.

At the end of April, the country confirmed it intends to have boots on the Moon by 2030. This confirmation came during a wide-ranging interview with Wu Weiren, the head of the country’s lunar exploration programme, broadcast in China ahead of the “national Space Day”, held on April 24th.

As with the US-led Artemis programme, the Chinese aim to start with a short-term stay on the Moon, followed by additional missions intended to build up to a permanent presence within a research base called the International Lunar Research Station (LRS) by the end of the 2030s.

The CLEP logo of the crescent Moon and tiakonaut boot prints, combined to resemble the Chinese symbol for the Moon

In support of this, China is operating a highly integrated development programme – the Zhōngguó Tàn Yuè (Chinese Lunar Exploration Programme (CLEP) – overseen by Wu. This combines the development and operation of on-going and future robotic mission to the Moon along with the longer-term development of crew vehicles either designed specifically for, or in support of, lunar exploration. These activities fold into them the existing orbital and soft-landing missions of Chang’e 1 through Chang’e 5, and will continue in May 2024.

It is then that China will launch Chang’e 6, a mission to investigate the topography, composition and subsurface structure of the South Pole–Aitken basin, one of the sites seen as a potential location of a future lunar base. This mission will also see an attempt to return further lunar sample to Earth – the first time samples have been returned from the Moon’s far side.

Then in 2026, Chang’e 7 will visit the same region, leaving a communication relay satellite in orbit and delivering a lander and a miniature flying probe to the surface; in 2028, Chang’e 8 is likely to deliver of a small-scale 3D printing system intended to demonstrate the use of the Moon’s regolith in the construction of a lunar base.

As well as the Chinese mission, Russia is expected to provide input to the programme as the first major partner to join with China in their lunar ambitions. This involvement is due to commence later in 2023 with the launch of the Luna 25 lander, to be followed by the Luna 26 orbiter and Luna 27 lander missions in 2027 and 2028 respectively. Russia will also provide personnel and equipment for the LRS.

Alongside of this, the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp. (CASC) will work on crewed vehicles for transporting taikonauts to the Moon and delivering them to the surface and then back to orbit. If the plan progresses as intended, it is expected that the first phase of the International Lunar Research Station in operation by 2035 – potentially mirroring or possibly ahead of the US plans for an expanded Artemis base in the Moon’s South Polar Region.

Most recently for China has been the return to Earth of their ultra-secretive Chongfu Shiyong Shiyan Hangtian Qi (CSSHQ), an experimental spaceplane after 276 days in orbit.

An artist’s impression of China’s reusable Shenlong spaceplane. Credit: China Aerospace Studies Institute

Quite what the vehicle is remains unclear to western analysts – and matters have been muddled by differing statements made by Chinese authorities (some of which are doubtless intended to obfuscate matters), indicating that the vehicle is both an unscrewed cargo-carrying vehicle and a craft designed to carry a crew of 6 to orbit. However, this latter claim appears to be unrealistic; CCSHQ’s two flights have been aboard Long March 2F vehicles, which have a maximum payload capacity of 8.4 tonnes – but a vehicle capable of supporting a crew of six in orbit and returning them safely to Earth would have a mass well; perhaps as much as 20 tonnes at launch. The Chinese have also suggested the vehicle is a two-stage craft, using a scramjet engine for first stage propulsion.

The vehicle’s size approximates to that of the equally secretive X-37B spaceplane, some 8-9 metres in length and with a wingspan of between 3 and 4 metres. The May 8th return to Earth marks its second flight into space – the first being a modest 3-day flight in 2020.

The current mission commenced on August 4th, 2022, and gave rise to a lot of speculation when the vehicle deployed a small satellite, with some in the west claiming it was a  weapons platform – something China hotly denied. As it was, vehicle and cargo operated in close proximity to one another for a time, as if practicing rendezvous manoeuvres. In addition to this, CSSHQ performed more extensive manoeuvres, including altering its orbit, raising and lowering it.

The reusable test spacecraft successfully launched by our country at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre successfully returned to the scheduled landing site on May 8 after flying in orbit for 276 days. The complete success of this test marks an important breakthrough in our country’s research on reusable spacecraft technology, which will provide a more convenient and inexpensive way to and from the peaceful use of space in the future.

– China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp. (CASC) statement

The Chinese space plane is roughly the same size and the US X-37B, shown above in its former USAF marking. Credit: Giuseppe De Chiara

As with the first mission, the launch commenced from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre in the Gobi Desert and while accounts vary, it appears to have concluded with the craft landing at the Lop Nur military base in Xinjiang, as it did at the end of its maiden flight.

Some in the west have been keen to play down this mission, noting that the X-37B’s first flight lasted 224 days, and its most recent – which ended in November 2022 – was908 days in length. However, the X-37B has a development history going back, and took a decade to extend its flight envelope from 224 to 908 days. CSSHQ appears to have been in development for less than a decade, and saw its mission duration leap from 4 days to 276 in just two flights – so it is hardly something to be sneezed at purely on the basis of flight duration.

Vast Contract SpaceX to Launch “World’s First Commercial Space Station”

Vast (also styling itself Vast Space), a privately held American aerospace company founded in 2021, has announced ambitious plans to launch the world’s first commercial orbital facility, Haven-1 in August 2025, and that they have engaged SpaceX to handle the launch and deliver at least one 4-person crew to the station.

“Ambitious”, because prior to February 2023, all Vast has was a mission statement (to build artificial gravity space stations), a logo and a 10,700 square metre facility in Long Beach California; outside of the founders, it did not even have employees. That changed in February with the acquisition of another start-up, Launcher, a company developing 3D printed rocket motors and an orbital transfer vehicle; this afforded Vast assets, products – but not the expertise required to build a module capable of supporting 4 people in orbit for up to 30 days at a time.

An artist’s impression of the Vast Haven-1 module with a Crew Dragon docked against it. Credit: Vast Space LLC

However, Vast claim they can reduce the time required to build the unit by “repurposing” elements of the automated orbital transfer vehicle. If true, this still leaves them having to ensure the 10.1 metre by 3.8 metre module is fully capable of supporting life – something which is not a priority for robotic vehicles.

In addition, the module will have deployable solar panels capable of generating up to 15 kW of electrical power, a docking module at one end suitable for capturing Crew Dragon vehicles, and around 70 cubic metres of total pressurised volume. At 14 tonnes, it is intended to be launched with all the consumables needed to support a visiting crew during their stay, with additional crews able to carry further supplies with them aboard Crew Dragon.

Exactly what Haven-1 will be used for is unclear. “Research” has been mentioned, but it also seems to be about space tourism; as a part of a deal with SpaceX, which will see the module launched on a Falcon 9 rocket, Vast have committed to one 4-person Crew Dragon launch to the module (the “Vast-1” mission), and plan to sell these seat on to interested parties, who will also have to pay for training through SpaceX. The contract also includes the option to purchase a second Crew Dragon flight in 2026.

CAD drawings of the proposed “spinning stick” station (l) and a space wheel from Vast Aerospace, both of which will supposedly provide artificial gravity environments – the former by spinning the 7-metre diameter chain of modules around its longitudinal axis, a proposition that looks questionable at best. Credit: Vast Aerospace

Equally ambitious are the company’s longer-term plans. According to their website, they place to launch a much larger “Starship class” module with a diameter of 7 metres (but unspecified length) using the SpaceX Starship. This module class will then – they claim – be used to build 100-metre long “spinning stick” stations which will “provide various gravitational environments including Earth, Mars, Moon, and asteroid gravities” – although whether this is really practicable in a space just 7 metres across and spinning around its longitudinal axis is questionable at the least.

Vast claim these “spinning sticks” will be constructed over seven Starship launches apiece and support up to 40 people each, paving the way through the 2030s to a “proliferated space fleet” comprising “dozens” of stations of various types “across the solar system” in the 2040s. These, if the website is to be believed, will include units modelled on the classic “spinning wheel” stations beloved of science-fiction.

Just how well the company succeeds in these goals remains to be seen. I’m personally not holding my breath. I will give them full marks for the Haven-1 promo video, however.

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