NASA’s SLS rocket soars into the Florida early morning sky, November 16th, 2022, at the start of the Artemis 1 mission to cislunar space.. Credit: United Launch Alliance
On November 16th, 2022 NASA launched what is – for a time at least – the world’s most powerful rocket, the Space Launch System (SLS), on its maiden flight. The uncrewed mission marks the first flight of a human-capable vehicle to the vicinity of the Moon under the aegis of NASA’s Project Artemis.
Lift-off came at 06:47 UTC on the morning, and the rocket – roughly the size of the Apollo Saturn V but massing around 400 tonnes less and with engines generating 5 meganewtons greater thrust – was no slow climber like Saturn V; instead it fairly leapt into the night sky, thundering from 0 to 120 km/h in just a handful of seconds as it lifted an Orion capsule and service module away from the launch pad and on their way to orbit.
The view home: a camera mounted on one of Orion’s four solar arrays looks back at Earth from a distance of almost 92,000 km, 12.5 hours after launch as the vehicle makes a sweeping 6-day arc out from Earth to the Moon. Credit: NASA TV
It was actually a launch that also nearly didn’t take place (again); during fuelling operations immediately ahead of the launch, a leak was detected. Such leaks have been the bane of this rocket’s existence, and for a time it was uncertain if NASA would stop or delay the fuelling operation – and even scrub the entire launch attempt.
Instead, a risky decision was taken to send in a Red Team to Pad 39B at Kennedy Space Centre to try to fix the leak with the liquid hydrogen propellant feed at the base of the rocket, even with propellants in the tank and the risk of a spark causing an explosion. The team – engineers Trent Annis, Billy Cairns and Chad Garrett worked under the “living” rocket – these monsters do not stand quietly when even partially fuelled, they creak, groan and periodically vent excess gasses – to tighten the “packing nuts” designed to hold the seals on the propellant feed line tightly in place. The crew arrived on the pad just 3.5 minutes ahead of the launch and had to work fast to fix the issue if a launch scrub was to be avoided.
The three-man Red Team address reporters following their trip to the launch pad to fix a liquid hydrogen propellant leak during fuelling operations. Credit: NASA TV
Obviously, the team was successful – which does not lessen the risks they took as unsung heroes of the launch – and at 07:01 UTC, the Interim Cryogenic Propulsion Stage (ICPS) upper stage of the rocket placed the Orion vehicle in an initial orbit, and just over 30 minutes afterwards, the Orion service module successfully deployed the four solar arrays required to provide it and Orion with electrical power.
An hour later, after raising Orion’s orbit, the IPCS stage re-lit is engines to propel Orion from Earth orbit and into a trans-lunar injection orbit at 08:37 UTC, the stage separating from the space vehicle at 09:13 UTC.
Since then, the mission has progressed precisely as planned. At 14:30 UTC, Orion completed its first engine burn, correcting its flight to the Moon, and then late in the day a camera mounted on one of the service module’s solar panels captured a shot of Earth as seen from the vehicle, already almost some 92 thousand kilometres from Earth. On November 18th, the vehicle returned a further image of Earth – in greyscale – as it reached the 299,000 km from Earth mark.
A view of Artemis 1 simulated by AROW – he Artemis Real-time Orbit Website – showing the vehicle as it approaches the Moon on Sunday, November 20th. Note the vehicle appear to be travelling sideways in order to keep its solar arrays facing the Sun. Credit NASA AROW
The next major milestone for the flight comes on Monday, November 21st, 2022, Orion will complete the first stage of its leisurely, widely-curved outbound flight to the Moon. At 12:44 UTC on that day, with the vehicle passing around the far side of the Moon at a distance of 130 km, the vehicle will undertake a 2.5 minute burn of its main engine to direct itself into a distant retrograde orbit (DRO) which will carry it as far as 432,000 km from Earth.
The critical aspect of this manoeuvre is that it will occur when the vehicle is out-of-communication with Earth, thanks to the Moon being in between. The entire manoeuvre will therefore be carried out entirely by the onboard flight systems.
The flight so far has tested almost all of Orion’s flight, navigation and other systems, with only 13 issues, the majority defined as “benign”, being recorded. The most significant issue has been the star tracker – part of the flight navigation system. This was getting “dazzled” by thruster plumes as the vehicle adjusted its orientation during flight. While the tracker itself was designed to ignore the plumes, their brightness did confuse the flight software – something that hadn’t been considered could happen during testing. However, now it has been identified, the problem can be dealt with by Mission Control.
More substantial damage was actually done by the rocket itself at launch; the sheer power on the four RS25 engines and two solid rocket boosters did unspecified, but apparently extensive, damage to the mobile launch platform and launch tower. How much damage they sustained is unclear, but Pad 39B has been known to cause launch platforms using it damage. This was particularly noticeable following the launch of Apollo 10 in ay 1969 and again with the Ares 1-X launch in October2009 which resulted in some US $800 million in damages to the pad, platform and tower – although this was in part due the vehicle having to be launched slightly off-vertical, resulting exhaust plume physically striking the tower.
The view inside Orion: “Commander Moonikin Campos” seated in the command position aboard Orion, facing a set of dummy digital display panels. The mannequin is testing the Orion Crew Survival System Suit (OCSSS), designed to keep crew alive in the event of the vehicle’s life support system experiencing a malfunction. Credit: NASA TV
As I noted in my previous Space Sunday report, Orion is carrying a range of experiments onboard, all of which are being monitored throughout the flight. Chief among these are the radiation experiments which will come into their own as the vehicle enters its extended orbit around the Moon, where it will remain through until it again uses the Moon to swing itself back onto a return course to Earth in December 2022.
If you want to interactive track Artemis 1, you can do so via NASA’s Artemis Real-time Orbit Website (AROW). In the meantime, the video below captures the stacking of the Artemis 1 SLS vehicle inside the Vehicle Assembly Building at Kennedy Space Centre, together with the original roll-out to the pad earlier this year, and the night-time roll-out ahead of the launch, together with the initial phase of the mission’s ascent to orbit.
A shot from the viewing stand at Kennedy Space Centre showing Artemis 1 on Pad 39B, and in the foreground is a sign marking the 5 Apollo launches, 53 space shuttle launches and single Constellation launch undertaken from the complex. Credit: AP Photo/Chris O’Meara
NASA has confirmed that the first launch of its Space Launch system rocket will still go ahead on November 16th, 2022.
Concerns about the launch had been raised after the US space agency decided to leave the vehicle on the pad in the face of category 1 tropical storm Nicole, which made a Florida landfall south of Kennedy Space Centre on November 10th, with high winds and rain lashing the launch centre. However, in a statement made on November 1tth after the storm had passed, NASA stated the vehicle had suffered only minor damage – all of which will be rectified in time for the launch attempt to go ahead.
NASA was aware of the approaching storm ahead of returning the vehicle to Pad 39B on November 4th, but at the time, Nicole was an unnamed mild tropical storm with wind speeds measured at between 65-74 km/h, well below the threat level for the rocket and its launch systems. However, following roll-out to the pad, the storm rapidly strengthened, and the decision was taken to leave the rocket bolted to the launch pad rather than being caught on the move on the back of the crawler-transporter.
Overall, winds at the pad during the worst of the storm reached 132 km/h at 18 metres above the ground – just 5 km/h below the stress limit for the vehicle at that height. At the top of the tower, the wind was recorded at 160 km/h against an October 2021 stated maximum for rocket and launch tower of 172 km/h. These resulted in some damage being done to covers that would be detached during launch.
An updated infographic for the Artemis 1 flight. Credit: NASA
The November 16th launched of Artemis 1 is – as I’ve noted before – designed to send an uncrewed Orion vehicle on an extended flight to cislunar space utilising a distant retrograde orbit (DRO) around the Moon. It will last some 39 days and is designed to be the final uncrewed test flight of Orion (and the first Orion flight to use the European-built Service Module to supply the capsule with power and propulsion) as well as the first test flight of SLS itself.
As well as testing the various vehicles and their systems for operation on missions to the Moon – and in preparation for sending humans onwards to Mars in the future – the Orion vehicle will also be carrying a set of sensor-laden mannequins dubbed “Moonikins”. As I’ve previously noted, two of these are part of research to better understand the radiation environment of space beyond the Earth’s protective magnetic field.
Despite the cavalier attitude shown towards it by the likes of SpaceX’s Elon Musk (radiation is “not that big a problem”), there is much we do not know about the impact of cosmic radiation on the human body – although there is growing evidence that long-terms exposure to GCRs and solar energetic particles (SEPs) can be extensively damaging – 60% of astronauts who have spent extended time on the ISS have developed herpes through the re-activation of naturally-occurring viruses in the human body such as the Epstein–Barr virus (EBV) as a likely result GCR / SEP exposure¹. These viruses can also give rise to serious medical conditions and (as well as the radiation itself) can also be responsible for various cancers².
This being the case, the “Moonikins” are constructed from materials that mimic human bone and tissue, as well as organs unique to adult females, such as breast tissue and ovaries, which are particularly susceptible to radiation damage. Equipped with over 6,000 sensors, the “Moonkins” are linked to a series of Earth-based computational 3D models which include cardiac and respiratory motions and can simulate any number of diseases. Overall, the aim is to gain a clearer understanding of the potential impact of high-energy radiation on human tissue, bone and organs that can hopefully help determine better means of mitigation – be it through recommendations on general exposure during things like space walks / lunar surface operations, or providing better primary and secondary radiation protection through the materials used in space vehicles and space suits.
An Artist’s rendering of the Artemis 1 Orion vehicle showing “Commander Moonikin Campos”, a full-body “Moonikin” designed to test the Orion Crew Survival System Suit (OCSSS), designed to be worn for up to 6 days and preserve the wearer’s life in the event of an issue with the vehicle’s primary life support systems, together with the two radiation research torsos “Helga” and “Zohar”. Credit: NASA / Lockheed Martin
In the meantime. those wishing to watch the launch of Artemis 1 can do so via NASA TV. The launch window opens at 06:04 UTC on Wednesday, November 2022 and lasts for 2 hours – although NASA is aiming to launch as close to the opening of the window as possible, with coverage of the launch preparations commencing some 24 hours in advance of the launch window opening.
Should the mission miss the November 16th launch window, there will be two further opportunities during the month. The first will open at 06:45 UTC on Saturday, November 19th, and the second on Friday, November 25th. Both will be “short form” missions of 25 days and between 26 and 28 days respectively. Should the mission miss those dates, there is an extended launch opportunity running from December 9th through 23rd (excluding December 10th, 14th, 18th and 23rd as currently stated by NASA), with windows then resuming in January 2023.
X-37B Returns Home
The US Space Force has ended the 6th flight of its orbital space plane, bringing the vehicle through re-entry and a rolling landing at NASA’s Kennedy Space Centre, Florida on Saturday November 12th, 2022. The landing brought to an end a mission of 908 days in space, the vehicle having launched on May 17th, 2020.
Officially called the Orbital Test Vehicle (OTV), the X-37B comprises two uncrewed vehicles of the same design, which together have completed six orbital missions for a combined time in space of 3,774.4 days (10.34 years). It was the first of these vehicles – OTV-1 – that completed this latest mission, itself slightly confusingly referred to as OTV-6, the first of these missions to be flown completely under the auspices of the United States Space Force, even if the vehicle carries the markings of the US Air Force.
The X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle 1 (OTV-1) sits on the runway at NASA’s Kennedy Space Centre following its landing on November. 12, 2022 to conclude the 908-day OTV-6 mission. Credit: U.S. Space Force
The exact function of the 8.92 metre long vehicle is rated as classified, leading it being labelled as a weapons platform. However, its primary cargoes thus far have been purely scientific in nature, with payloads being both military and civil in nature.
With this most recent flight, OTV-1 carried NASA’s Materials Exposure and Technology Innovation in Space, designed to further understand the effects of the space environment on different types of materials. It also carried an experiment to investigate the effects of long-duration space exposure on seeds. Past flights have carried both classified and unclassified tests of high-frequency communications and experimental propulsion systems, and one from the US Navy to convert sunlight directly into electrical energy.
A further first for this mission was the use of an expendable service module designed to both further extend the vehicle’s operational duration – the X-37B was originally designed to spend a maximum of 270 days at a time in space – and host additional experiments. This module was jettisoned from the vehicle prior to its return to Earth.
This mission highlights the Space Force’s focus on collaboration in space exploration and expanding low-cost access to space for our partners, within and outside of the Department of the Space Force.
– General Chance Saltzman, chief of space operations, USSF.
SpaceX Moving Towards Booster 7 Static Fire Tests
SpaceX has taken a further step towards a full static fire test of its Super Heavy booster as it continues to move towards the first orbital flight attempt of the Super Heavy / Starship combination.
As reported in my previous Space Sunday update, the company has been carrying out a series of cryogenic and pressurisation tests of both Booster 7 and Ship 24 – the pairing of booster and orbital vehicle to make this first attempt to reach orbit. These tests ended on Tuesday, November 8th, when Ship 24 was “unstacked” from the booster and moved to a sub-orbital test stand after its sibling, Ship 25, which had been undergoing its own propellant tanks cryogenic and pressurisations tests, being returned to the production facilities at Starbase Boca Chica, Texas, most likely to have its Raptor motors installed.
The “Mechazilla” arms on the SpaceX orbital launch tower start to lift Ship 24 clear of Booster 7 on Tuesday, November 8th, 2022. Credit: NasaSpaceFlight.com (not a NASA affiliate)
The removal of Ship 24 from Booster 7 leaves the way clear for the latter to undergo a further static fire engine test – part of the pre-requisites for any flight test. One such test has already been carried out with seven of the Booster’s 33 motors, and it is widely speculated that any forthcoming static fire test will involve around 14-15 of the booster’s motors, and could occur in the next week. A successful test should pave the way for a static fire of all of the vehicle’s motors, possibly before the end of November.
China Launches Tianzhou 5; Seeks to Launch More Long March 5 Vehicles
Following the successful rendezvous and docking of the Mengtian science module to their Tiangong space station, China has now furthered the operational campaign of the space station with the launch and rendezvous of the automated Tianzhou 5 re-supply vehicle.
The 10.6-metre long, 13.5-tonne (including 6.7 tonnes of cargo) vehicle departed the Wenchang Satellite Launch Centre, Hainan Province in on November 12th, lifted aloft by a Long March 7 booster. It was placed on a “fast rendezvous” track to the space station, reaching it just over 2 hours after launch. On arrival, it moved to dock with the rear axial docking port of the Tianhe-1 core module. That port had been occupied by the Tianzhou 4 re-supply vehicle since May 10th, 2022. However, that vehicle was detached from the station on November 9th under autonomous control and placed into an orbit in preparation for it to be safely de-orbited.
Images from China’s mission control showing pictures returned from Tiangong space station showing the Tianzhou 5 re-supply vehicle about to dock with the Tianhe-1 core module. Credit: CMSA
Tianzhou 5’s arrival at the station signals a further shift in Tiangong’s status as being “under construction” to being “operational”; it brings with it supplies for the upcoming Shenzhou 15 crew, who will flying to the station in December, and additional propellants for the station’s manoeuvring systems.
As I’ve recently covered, China has not made itself popular within the international community thanks to its unwillingness to manage the re-entries of the 21-tonne core stages of its Long March 5B booster. Most recently, the uncontrolled re-entry of such a core stage – the one used in the recent launch of the Mengtian space station module – saw cities and airspace across southern Europe and the Middle East on alert. This being the case, the news that China plans to step up the cadence of Long March 5B launches has raised some concerns.
In a statement made on November 11th, 2022, Liu Bing, director of the general design department at the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology (CALT), indicated that the Long March 5 booster will be transferred to “high density” launches. This means offering the vehicle to China’s emerging “private sector” space industry as a launch platform, and using it in high-volume “constellation” type launches of multiple satellites in one pass (as SpaceX does with its Starlink network).
To achieve this, the Long March 5B booster will likely be paired with the Yuanzheng-2 (YZ-2) upper stage. This may overcome the need for the core stage to achieve its own orbital velocity in lifting payloads, leaving it on a sub-orbital track to fall back into the ocean downrange from the launch site – although China has not, as yet, committed to this, and the YZ-2 tends to operate with varying levels of efficiency depending on the payload.
In the meantime, the next Long March 5B launch is due in late 2023, when the vehicle will be used to launch the free-flying Xuntian, the Chinese Survey Space Telescope (CSST), designed to operate alongside the Tiangong space station.
A rendering of the Chinese Tiangong space station as it appeared immediately following the Mengtian science module’s arrival. From left to right: The Mengtian module attached to the axial port of the Tinahe-1 docking hub; Centre: the Wengtian science module attached to the starboard port of the hub. Centre right: the Tianhe-1 core module with the Tianzhou 4 resupply vehicle docked against its after port. Just visible and extending away from the nadir port of the docking hub, centre, is the Shenzhou 14 crew vehicle. Credit: CMSA
China has completed all major construction activities with its Tiangong space station following the arrival of the ~20 tonne Mengtian laboratory module at the station. Launched at 07:37 UTC on Monday, 31st October, 2022, the module arrived at the space station 13 hours later, completing an automated docking with the axial port on the station’s docking hub, the docking overseen by the current crew on three on the station – Chen Dong, Liu Yang and Cai Xuzhe.
Following this, on November 3rd, ground personnel used the docking manipulator on the module to literally grapple itself around to the hub’s portside docking ring. once a hard dock and pressurisation of the inter-module area had been confirmed, the hatches were undogged and the crew entered the module to commence preparing it for operations.
Next up for the station is the flight of the Tianzhou 5 automated resupply vehicle, due to launch on a Long March 7 rocket on November 12th. This will deliver additional supplies to the station ahead of the handover of the station from the Tianzhou 14 crew to the Tianzhou 15 crew, which is due to take place before the end of 2022.
A rendering of Tiangong as it now appears: to the left, and “pointing towards Earth” is the Wengtian science module; Shenzhou 14 can be seen docked at the nadir port on the docking hub, and Mengtian is in the foreground, forming the station’s T-bar with Wengtian. Extending back from the docking hub is the Tianhe-1 core module and the Tianazhou 4 resupply vehicle. Credit: CMSA
This was not the end of the story for this launch however; on Friday, November 4th, the core stage of the Long March 5B rocket made an uncontrolled re-entry into the atmosphere. As I noted in my previous Space Sunday update, China has cavalier attitude towards large parts of its Long March core stages surviving re-entry to potentially fall on a populated area. In this case, the final track of the booster core saw it passing over numerous population centres in southern Europe and the Middle East, including Lisbon in Portugal, Barcelona and Madrid in Spain, Marseille in France, and Rome in Italy. As a result, emergency services were on alert, and an air safety notice was issued, closing EU airspace along the track of booster against the risk of smaller debris striking airliners and cargo aircraft.
Tracked by the US Space Force and EU Space Surveillance and Tracking (EUSST), the booster eventually re-entered the atmosphere over the Pacific Ocean, the remnants falling into the seas there without incident. The re-entry of this vehicle means the core stages of the Long March 5B account for 4 of the six largest objects making uncontrolled re-entries; only the U.S Skylab (1979; ~77 tonnes) and the Soviet Union’s Salyut 7 (1991; ~40 tonnes), are the only higher mass events.
Artemis 1 Back on the Pad; Artemis 4 Regains Lunar Landing
NASA’s Artemis 1 mission, featuring the first launch of the space agency’s massive Space Launch System (SLS) rocket has returned to the launch pad at Kennedy Space Centre.
The vehicle, which is due to launch an uncrewed Orion vehicle to cislunar space, has seen numerous issues and delays in making its maiden flight, and was most recently held-up by the arrival of hurricane / tropical storm Ian in late September. The roll-out to Launch Complex 39B on November 4th marked the fourth (and hopefully last) trip back to the pad, departing the Vehicle Assembly Building at 04:00 UTC, and reaching the pad 8.5 hours later. Following arrival, work immediately began integrating the mobile launch platform on which the vehicle sits into the the pad systems in readiness for the next launch attempt.
A unique fisheye lens view of the Artemis 1 mission SLS vehicle moving out of the Vehicle Assembly Building, Kennedy Space Centre, at the start of its fourth journey to Pad 39B, November 4th, 2022. Credit: Joel Kowsky / NASA
If all goes according to plan, the rocket will lift-off on Monday, November 14th, at the start of an extended 39-day mission which will see the Orion vehicle and its service module spend some 15-16 days in a distant retrograde orbit (DRO) around the Moon before returning to Earth, with the uncrewed capsule splashing down in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of California. Providing no significant issues are encountered, the mission will pave the way for a second such flight in 2024/25- Artemis 2 – carrying a crew. Then in 2027, Artemis 3 should undertake the first crewed landing on the Moon since the Apollo missions of the late 1960s / early 1970s.
in addition, NASA announced that Artemis 4 – the third crewed flight of an SLS vehicle to the vicinity of the Moon – will now include a lunar landing, marking a reversal to plans announced earlier in 2022. Under those plans, Artemis 4 was going to be a mission focused solely on the construction of the new Lunar Gateway station, due to be placed in a cislunar halo orbit in support of lunar landings. This was to allow time for NASA to switch away from using the SpaceX Starship-derived lander vehicle of Artemis 3 with lander craft to be supplied under the Sustaining Lunar Development (SLD) programme.
Artemis 4 was to have focused on the assembly of the Lunar Gateway space station. However, it will now also include a lunar landing. Credit: NASA
However, NASA also has a so-called “Option B” in its contract with SpaceX that specifies the latter to develop and supply – funded by NASA – an enhanced version of the Starship lander, and it is believed that this option has now been exercised to enable a crew landing on the Moon with Artemis 4, which will still use the upgraded Block 1B version of SLS to deliver a crewed Orion vehicle and the Gateway station’s habitation module to lunar orbit in 2027.
In the meantime, Dynetics, one of the two contenders for the original Human Landing System (HLS) contract, has indicated it may well pursue the SLD contract, whilst Blue Origin, Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman – the three main contractors in the so-called “National Team” and third contender for the original HLS contract – have indicated they will each independently pursue SLD contracts, with Lockheed Martin examining the use of nuclear thermal propulsion (NTP) in it vehicle architecture, seeing NTP as a key element for future human exploration of Mars.
Starliner Will Not Fly to ISS Until 2023
The first crewed flight of Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner to the International Space Station (ISS) has been further delayed to April 2023. However, the delay this time is not due to technical issues with vehicle, but rather to “deconflict” multiple planned arrivals at the station.
After a series of extended delays, Starliner finally completed an uncrewed flight to the ISS in May 2022, the second attempt at such a flight after software issues with the original December 2019 mission left the vehicle unable to achieve a rendezvous with the station.
Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner capsule “Spacecraft 2”, docked at the International Space Station during the uncrewed OFT-2 mission in May 2022. Credit: ESA
Whilst this second uncrewed flight was a success, there were a number of minor issues which meant the hoped-for December 2022 crewed flight to the ISS – called the Crewed Flight Test-1 (CFT-1) – had to be delayed until February 2023. However with a another crewed flight using a SpaceX dragon vehicle and a further resupply mission both due to reach the station in February 2023, the decision has been taken to slip the Boeing flight and reduce the volume of traffic arriving at the ISS in a relatively short time span.
A rendering of the Tiangong Space Station as it appears ahead of Mengtian’s arrival. Centre right is the Tianhe core module with the Tinazhou 14 resupply vehicle on its aft docking port. To the left, the Wengtian science module and the Shenzhou 14 crew vehicle are attached to the starboard and nadir ports of the main docking hub, respectively. Credit: Shujianyang
This coming week should see the launch of two rocket behemoths from very different parts of the world and with.
On Monday, October 31st, at approximately 07:30 UTC, Long March 5B (Y4) should depart the Wenchang Spacecraft Launch Site on the island of Hainan, off the south-east coast of the mainland, carrying aloft the ~20 tonne Mengtian laboratory module en route for a rendezvous with the Tiangong space station.
The massive Long March 5B, China’s most powerful launch vehicle, departed the vehicle integration facility at the launch complex on October 25th, carrying the space station module enclosed in its payload fairings, the combination sitting on their mobile launch platform.
The Long March 5B Y4 booster and payload sitting on its mobile launch platform within the vehicle integration building at the Wenchang Spacecraft Launch Site. Credit: Xihu News
At 17.9 metres in length and 4.2 metres in diameter, Mengtian – Chinese for ‘Dreaming of the Heavens” – is in many ways similar to the Wentian (“Quest for the Heavens”) module which launched and rendezvoused with the space station’s Tianhe core module in July 2022. In all, the module will provide three science experiment facilities:
A pressurised environment for researchers to conduct science experiments.
An unpressurised experiments / cargo module with doors that can be opened to space.
A series of external experiment racks.
To reach the unpressurised elements, the module includes its own dedicated airlock, and has a single docking port for connecting to the Tinahe core module and two robotic arm, the first 5 metres in length and a smaller unit called an “indexing robot arm”. Mengtian will initially rendezvous with Tiangong “head-on” relative to Tianhe, allowing it to dock with the core module’s axial port on its main docking hub, minimising the risk of setting the entire station into an unwanted rotation.
The Mengtian science module. Credit: Leebrandoncremer
The axial port was, up until the end of September 2022, occupied by Wentian, however this used its own “indexing robot arm” to move itself to the starboard docking adapter on Tianhe, temporarily giving the space station a lopsided “L” shape. Some time after initial docking, Mengtian will similarly use its own small but powerful indexing arm to disconnect from the axial port and swing around to connect with the hub’s portside docking ring, leaving the station in its final T-configuration.
Mengtian’s arrival at the space station will signal the end of Tiangong’s main construction phase, as there are currently no plans to add further modules permanently to the 60-tonne station. Instead, the fore and aft axial docking ports on Tinahe will be used primarily by crew-carrying vehicles and by Tianzhou automated re-supply vehicles.
However, China does plan to launch a free-flying space telescope called Xuntian (“Space Sentinel”) in December 2023. This will by roughly equivalent to the Hubble Space Telescope in size, but have a field of view 300–350 times larger, coupled to a 2.5 gigapixel imaging system. Xuntian will periodically dock with Tiangong to allow for servicing of its equipment and systems and to allow its propellant tanks to be topped-up.
The launch is also liable to result in controversy. By design, Long March 5B’s 21.6 tonne (unfuelled) core stage and engines are designed to reach orbit. However, China has thus far made no attempt to equip it with the means to make a controlled re-entry into the upper atmosphere so that any parts surviving that re-entry (such as the engines) do not strike any populated areas of Earth.
The Long March 5B Y4 and Mengtian science module and mobile launch platform move by rail from the vehicle integration building towards the launch pad, October 25th, 2022. Credit: Xiahua News
This cavalier attitude has caused consternation within the international community. In 2020, for example, debris from a Long March 5B core landed in Cote d’Ivoire, damaging several buildings; then in July of 2022, parts of the vehicle used to lift the Wentian module to orbit, came down uncomfortably close to populated areas in Indonesia and Malaysia. In this, China does itself no favours by refusing to share details regarding specific trajectory information related to these launches with the wider global community, even though doing so would allow a degree of forewarning in areas at risk from debris.
The second big launch for the week should then follow on November 1st, when A SpaceX Falcon Heavy – currently the world’s most powerful rocket vehicle – is due to depart Pad 39A at Kennedy Space Centre, Florida. It will mark the first Falcon Heavy launch in more than three years – and only the fourth overall for a vehicle which at one time was to have become the backbone of the SpaceX fleet (the company now intends for its Starship / Super Heavy combination to replace both Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy).
The launch is the first US Department of Defense mission for Falcon Heavy. Designated USSF-44, it will deliver at least four satellites directly to geosynchronous orbit. In order to achieve this, the core of the vehicle – A Falcon 9 booster core – will be expended, rather than attempt a landing. The two booster segments – also Falcon 9 booster cores – will be return for an attempted simultaneous landings at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida.
The Falcon Heavy booster performs a static fire test on Pad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Centre on October 27th, 2022. Following the test, the rocket was lowered back onto its side and returned to the processing facility at Pad 39A so that the payload can be integrated prior to the vehicle being returned to the pad ready for launch. Credit: SpaceX
The lack of Falcon Heavy launches since 2019 illustrates a potential problem SpaceX may have with its plans for Starship / Super Heavy.
Simply put, with its ability to lob 63.8 tonnes to low-Earth orbit (LEO) and 26.7 tonnes to geosynchronous transfer orbit, Falcon Heavy was supposed to lower the cost of lifting payloads to orbit. However, in order to get close to this, it needs to launch relatively close to its payload capacity, and in an age of increasingly smaller and lighter satellites and payloads, its capabilities are seen as too excessive for most customers. Even in a rideshare capacity, where the costs can spread among multiple payload providers, the additional lead time involved in waiting for sufficient customers to sign-on to a Falcon Heavy launch have made it unattractive to potential customers, thus limiting its commercial viability; something that may prove to be the case with Starship / Super Heavy, with its much greater capacity.
Roc Shows off Stratolaunch’s Talon
Stratolaunch, builder of the world’s largest airplane, flew a prototype of its planned air-launched Talon hypersonic vehicle for the first time on Friday, October 28th, 2022, slung beneath the massive Roc aircraft, which uses two modified 747 fuselages, lifted the Talon-A TA-0 vehicle into the Mojave desert sky in captive/carry flight lasting over five hours and designed to pave the way for more extensive test flights.
The Stratolaunch Roc takes to the air with Talon-A TA-0 prototype mounted on its central launch pylon, marking the first time the latter as been flown. Credit: Stratolaunch
At 8.5 metres in length and weighing 3.7 tonnes, Talon-A is an air-launched, automated hypersonic aircraft capable of flying at speeds of Mach 5 through Mach 7 (6,100–8,600 km/h). Previously known as Hyper-A, the vehicle is designed to offer a reliable test-bed for hypersonic research and experiments. It is intended to be used by the US the government, the US Department of Defense, the commercial sector, and academia, and can carry both internal and external experiment payloads.
The massive Roc aircraft is designed to act as an aerial launch vehicle for a range of vehicles being developed by Stratolaunch, including the orbit-capable Talon+ (formerly Talon-Z) and even larger Stratolaunch spaceplane (previously called Black Ice), which is intended to deliver larger payloads – and possibly humans – to orbit in the future. In addition, Stratolaunch are in discussions with a number of potential customers to use the aircraft as a launch platform.
Stratolaunch Talon-A. Credit: Stratolaunch
As it stands, the success of the captive / carry flight means the Stratolaunch will now likely move to a vehicle drop test – releasing the TA-0 test vehicle in flight so that it can glide to an automated landing – which may occur in December 2022. Assuming that flight is successful, testing will switch to the first Talon-A production model (TA-1), which will likely undertake the first powered flight test in early 2023. Providing flight testing with TA-1 is successful, Stratolaunch plan to start offering commercial, payload-carrying flights with fully reusable version of the vehicle designated TA-2 and TA-3 before the end of 2023.
After a treacherous journey, NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover has reached an area that is thought to have formed billions of years ago when the Red Planet’s water disappeared.
Lying part-way up the slopes of “Mount Sharp”, the mound of material deposited at the centre of Gale Crater (and formally called Aeolis Mons), is rich in salty minerals scientists think were left behind when the streams and ponds on the slopes of the mound finally dried up. As such, this region could hold tantalizing clues about how the Martian climate changed from being similar to Earth’s to the frozen, barren desert we know today.
These salty minerals were first spotted from orbit by NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter before Curiosity arrived on Mars in 2012, and that discovery marked the deposits as a prime target for the rover to examine. However, such is the rich diversity of rocks and minerals making up “Mount Sharp”, all of which have been subject to examination by the rover, it has taken the mission almost a decade to reach this “prime” target.
Even so, before Curiosity could obtain any samples from the site, the rover faced a couple of challenges.
The first lay in the fact that the rover’s position on “Mount Sharp” meant that the mission team had to drive and position the rover to ensure its antenna could remain aligned with the various orbiters it needs to use to communicate with Earth; this made navigating to the deposits a challenge, as has ensuring it can reach rocks that might yield interesting samples.
A view through “Paraitepuy Pass” captured by the MastCam on NASA’s Curiosity rover on August 14th, 2022, the 3,563rd Martian day, or sol, of the mission. Credits: NASA/JPL / MSSS
The second required further tests had to be carried out on the rover’s sample-gathering drill to ensure it would handle the stresses in cutting into the region’s rocks. As designed, the drill was intended to use a percussive action as it drilled into any target- but as I’ve reported in these pages, this hammering action started to affect the drilling mechanism as a whole, so a new algorithm was created and uploaded to the rover to minimise any use of the percussive action.
Because of this, the mission team now approach each sample gathering operation with an additional step: after scouring the surface of a sample rock to remove dust and debris, the team then position the drill bit against the rock and attempt to scratch the surface – any resultant marks would be a good indication the rock is soft enough to be drilled without the need for the hammer option.
In the case of this rock – nicknamed “Canaima” – no marks were left, indicating it might prove a difficult subject. However, a further test with the drill head turning revealed it could cut the rock without the use of the hammer action, so on October 3rd, 2022, Curiosity successfully obtained its 36th sample for on-board analysis.
A MastCam view of the 36th successful sample hole Curiosity has drilled, this one on the sulphate-rich rock dubbed “Canaima.” Inset: the hole as imaged by the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHlI) mounted on rover’s robot arm, along with the drill mechanism. These mages were taken on October 3rd, 2022, the mission’s 3,612th Martian day, or sol. Credits: NASA/JPL / MSSS
The route to this sulphate-rich area also required Curiosity pass through a narrow, sand-rich location dubbed “Paraitepuy Pass”, bordered on either side by slopes the rover could not drive over or along. Such is the nature of the sand the rover took over a month to traverse the pass, moving cautiously in order to avoid getting bogged-down. This meant that the rover celebrated its 10th anniversary crossing the pass.
The challenges also haven’t ended; the salty region comprises rocky terrain that is so uneven, it will be difficult for Curiosity to place all six wheels on stable ground. This isn’t a problem when on the move, but it could limit science operations in the area: if all of the rovers wheels are not in firm contact with the ground under them, operators won’t risk unfolding its instruments-loaded robot arm in case it clashes with jagged rocks.
Even so, the rover still has a lot of opportunities for science and discovery as it continues to climb “Mount Sharp”.
JWST Wows, HST, Chandra and IXPE Respond
It is now 100 days since the James Webb Space Telescope commenced operations, and in their most recent updates, NASA released a stunning image the observatory captured of the iconic Pillars of Creation.
The Pillars of Creation as imaged by the James Webb Space Telescope. Credit: NASA / ESA
Located in the Serpens constellation, roughly 6,500-7,000 light-years from Earth, the Pillars are gigantic “elephant trunks” of interstellar gas and dust, a birthplace of new stars, constantly, if slowly being changed by the very stars born within them. They were imaged by the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) in 1995, the image becoming famous the world-over despite HST imaging them again it 2014. However, the image developed by JWST’s Near Infra-red Camera (NIRCam) eclipses the Hubble image, revealing the pillars and their surroundings in incredible detail.
Newly formed stars lie outside of the column. Seen merely as a few bright red orbs with strong diffraction spikes radiating from them, they are reveal by JWST as in their truer colours – blues, yellows, whites, indicative of their spectral classes, a veritable sea of stars, These are the stars that are causing the pillars to change and collapse as a mix of their gravities and radiative energy influence their form.
The Pillars of Creation as images by the Hubble Space Telescope in visible light (1995 – left) and by the James Webb Space Telescope in the near infra-red (right – 2022). Credit: NASA / ESA
Also visible along the edge of the pillars are wavy forms, the ejections of gas and dust from stars that are still forming. The crimson glow seen within some of these wave-like forms is the result of energetic hydrogen molecules interacting with the supersonic outbursts of the still-forming stars. Within the cloudy forms of the pillar are red points of light – newly-formed stars that are just a few hundred thousand years old, the light just stars to break through the surrounding clouds of dust and material.
Around all of this is a translucent blue glow, a mix of dust and gas known as the interstellar medium, found in the densest part of our galaxy’s disk. It serves to block the view of the deeper universe, bringing the Pillars of Creation to the fore.
This new view of the Pillars will help researchers revamp their models of star formation by identifying far more precise counts of newly formed stars, along with the quantities of gas and dust in the region. Over time, they will begin to build a clearer understanding of how stars form and burst out of these dusty clouds over millions of years.
A Hubble Space Telescope image from Oct. 8 shows the debris blasted from the surface of an asteroid called Dimorphos 12 days after it was struck by NASA’s DART spacecraft. Credit: NASA / ESA / STScI / Hubble
The results are now in – to a degree – on the success of NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirect Test (DART) mission which has been the focus of my two previous Space Sunday updates.
An attempt to test the theory that a vehicle launched from Earth could successful divert the orbit of a near-Earth obit (NEO) threatening this planet with a collision simply through the kinetic force imparted through crashing into it, DART struck Dimorphos, a 160-m asteroid orbiting the much larger Didymos as both orbit the Sun every 2.11 years crossing and re-crossing Earth’s orbit.
As I’ve previously noted, Dimorphos was selected as a target as scientist know a lot about its orbits – it shares a stable solar orbit with Didymos, it had a near-circular equatorial orbit around Didymos once every 11.9 hours, allowing DART to strike it pretty much head-on, thus transferring all of its 22,530 km/h velocity into a force to counter Dimorphos’ own velocity and 5 million tonnes of mass.
Prior to the impact, the DART team indicated any change in Dimorphos’ orbit of Didymos of 73 seconds or more would be considered a success – although it would likely take a couple of weeks after the impact before the exact change in the asteroid’s orbit would be known, as detailed Earth-based observations would be required.
It turns out that DART didn’t affect the orbit of Dimorphos by seconds – by a whopping 32 minutes, altering it from 11 hours and 55 minutes to 11 hours and 23 minutes and also reducing the average distance between Dimorphos and Didymos. This strongly suggests such a mission, undertaken a the right time, could be an effective means of diverting an Earth-threatening asteroid. However, the team note further observations are required.
This result is one important step toward understanding the full effect of DART’s impact with its target asteroid. As new data come in each day, astronomers will be able to better assess whether, and how, a mission like DART could be used in the future to help protect Earth from a collision with an asteroid if we ever discover one headed our way.
– Lori Glaze, director of NASA’s Planetary Science Division.
One of the reasons DART may have had a much greater impact (no pun intended) on Dimorphos and give pause for further consideration is that while much was known about its orbit around Didymos, little was known about its composition. Post-impact, the images captured by the Hubble and James Webb space telescopes and Earth-based observatories suggest Dimorphos is essentially a ball of loosely packed gravel, dust and ice. Thus, DART’s impact was amplified by the jet of ejecta throw off of the asteroid. As such, it is unclear as to whether the impact would have had the same effect against a more closely-bound asteroid, such as those which are iron-rich.
A mosaic of enhanced imagery shows the material that was ejected from the asteroid Dimorphos as a result of the DART collision. The nested “windows” in the picture reflect how the exposure was adjusted to compensate for the brightness of the material. Credit; NASA
Given this, getting an early a warning as possible of a potential impact so that the threatening asteroid or comet could be struck at a point in its orbit where it is far enough from Earth, it only requires a slight alteration to its orbit in order to be deflected.
An upcoming mission that could achieve this is the Near-Earth Object (NEO) Surveyor. Due for launch in 2026, this Earth-orbiting observatory is specifically designed to seek out NEOs of 140 m diameter or larger which regularly cross Earth’s orbit around the Sun and come within 30 million kilometres of our planet while doing so.
An artist’s impression of the Near-Earth Object (NEO) Surveyor, due for launch in 2026. Credit: NASA
By using two heat-sensitive infrared imaging channels, the observatory will be able to make accurate measurements of NEO sizes and gain valuable information about their composition, shapes, rotational states, and orbits, allowing scientists and engineers to determine the best means to divert any that may come to present a real impact threat.
Gamma Ray Burst “The Most Powerful Flash of Light Ever Seen”
Astronomers just detected what may be the most powerful flash of light ever witnessed.
Gamma ray busts are the most energetic type of electromagnetic explosion known to exist in the universe. They are believed to come in two forms: short bursts, lasting around 2 seconds and believed to be caused by ultra-dense neutron stars colliding; and long bursts, lasting several minutes, believed to be caused by so-called “hypernovas”, – the death explosion of really super-massive stars prior to them collapsing into black holes.
Gamma-ray bursts are the most energetic flashes of light known to exist in the universe. Credit: NASA, ESA and M. Kornmesser
Up to 100 times brighter than supernovas, and therefore also referred to as super luminous supernovae, these latter blasts can give off as much energy in a minute or so as the Sun will generate throughout its 10 billion year lifespan.
The blast detected on Sunday, October 9th by NASA’s orbiting Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory, appears to have released 18 teraelectron-volts (TeV; one trillion electron volts) – almost double the energy of any such other burst thus far detected. In fact it was so powerful, it confused astronomers. Initially, it was believed the burst came from somewhere relatively close to the solar system and that it was an X-ray burst. It took additional analysis to confirm the flash was in fact a gamma-ray burst, and that it originated some 2.4 billion light-years away – which still makes it the closest such burst ever seen.
An artist’s impression of the explosion of SN 2006gy, a superluminous supernova. Credit: NASA
Officially designated GRB221009A, the burst was far enough away to cause excitement among astronomers rather than concern. However, should such a blast occur anywhere close to our stellar neighbourhood, it could very realistically end all life on this planet. In fact, it is believed that one of the biggest mass-extinction events in Earth’s history – the Late Ordovician mass extinction (LOME) event, which occurred 450 million years ago and eliminated up 60% of marine genera and nearly 85% of marine species in the second-largest mass extinction event of Earth’s history – may well have been triggered by such a blast.
Exactly which star caused GRB221009A isn’t known at this point, but it is so bright across all spectrums – X-ray, optical, radio and gamma – it is easy for observatories on Earth to monitor, allowing an extensive catalogue of data about it to be gathered.
When you are dealing with cosmic explosions that blast out stellar remains at near the speed of light, leaving a black hole behind, you are watching physics occurring in the most extreme environments that are impossible to recreate on Earth. We still don’t fully understand this process. Such a nearby explosion means we can collect very high quality data to study and understand how such explosions occur.
– Astronomer Gemma Anderson, Curtin University in Australia
After a treacherous journey, NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover has reached an area that is thought to have formed billions of years ago when the Red Planet’s water disappeared.
Inara Pey: Living in a Modemworld 