Category: Space Sunday

Space Sunday: A year on Mars and the Polaris Programme

Posted on by Inara Pey
Mars 2020 rover Perseverance. Credit: NASA/JPL

On February 18th, 2021, NASA’s Mars 2020 mission arrived in Jezero Crater, Mars to commence operations.

In the year since then, the 1 tonne Perseverance rover and its tiny companion, the 1.8 Kg helicopter drone Ingenuity, have achieved a tremendous amount, with Ingenuity far exceeding expectations and the rover really still in the earliest phase of its mission (it’s “sister” rover, Curiosity has now been exploring Gale Crater on Mars for over nine years).

Currently, Perseverance is close to wrapping up its first science campaign, studying the basin of the 45 km wide Jezero Crater, a place believed to have once been the home of a lake billions of years ago, and which features some of the oldest rocks scientists have been able to study up close via a rover.

Nor is the rover studying those rocks purely in situ. As I’ve reported in these pages, the rover has been gathering samples in seal containers which – much later in the mission – be deposited in at least one cache on the surface of Mars to await collection by a hoped-for future sample return mission.

So far, six samples have been gathered, and while Martian pebbles got caught in a part of the sample transfer mechanism in January (see: Space Sunday: pebbles, ALH84001 and a supernova) suspending further coring operations, these were finally cleared at the end of the month, leaving the way clear for the rover to collect two more samples in the next couple of weeks.

A raw (unprocessed for Earth lighting conditions) image taken via the forward Hazard Avoidance Cameras (Hazcams) on NASA’s Mars 2020 rover Perseverance as it uses its robot arms to examine an area of exposed rock dubbed “Rimplas” during the rover’s return trip to its landing point. This image was captured on February 8th, 2022 (Sol 345 for the mission). Credit: NASA/JPL

These will come from a type of dark, rubbly rocks seen across much of the crater floor and which have been dubbed Ch’ał (the Navajo term for “frog”). It is hoped that if returned to Earth, samples of these rocks could provide an age range for Jezero’s formation and the lake that once resided there.

The samples Perseverance has been collecting will provide a key chronology for the formation of Jezero Crater. Each one is carefully considered for its scientific value.

– Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate

As well as gathering and assessing samples, Perseverance has used the MOXIE (Mars Oxygen In-Situ Resource Utilisation Experiment) to produce oxygen from the Martian atmosphere – such capabilities will be vital for future Mars missions, not only for producing oxygen, but also methane fuel.   

The rover also recently broke the record for the most distance driven by a Mars rover in a single day, travelling 320 metres on February 14th, 2022. This was achieved using the AutoNav software that allows Perseverance to find its own path around rocks and other obstacles.

Having spent the first year of operations studying the crater floor, Perseverance recently started heading towards one of the major features within the crater, a large river delta that once helped feed water into the crater.

On Earth, river deltas are great at preserving carbon-containing organic compounds – the building blocks of life as we know it. As such, much of the rover’s second year on Mars will be spent exploring and study the Jerero river delta.

We are incredibly excited to finally get to the delta [it is] the reason we chose the landing site, and we hope to get to it later this spring. Once we’re there, we’ll be able to look at the bottom of the ancient lake that once filled Jezero to search for signs of ancient microbial life, and we plan to spend the whole next year travelling through the ancient lake deposits and ancient river deposits that are within the delta.

– Briony Horgan, associate professor of planetary science at Purdue University

In order to reach the delta, Perseverance has been backtracking from a rugged part of the crater floor called “South Séítah”, which it has been exploring for the last several months, and will return to its landing site – now called Octavia E. Butler Landing – in the next two week or so. From there, it will drive west to reach the delta region.

While this might sound a long-winded way of doing things, the fact is that the route back from “South Séítah” is known and therefore “safe”, and the landing site provides direct access to the river delta. Whereas going “cross country” from “South Séítah” to the delta would take the rover across a dune field, with the risk of it becoming stuck.

Exactly where the rover will start its studies in the delta has still to be determined, as there are several points of interest that have already been spotted by the science team. One of these is a hilly feature dubbed “Kodiak Hill”, which the rover imaged from the landing point just after it arrived on Mars, and which could provide a good vantage point from which to properly survey the delta as a whole.

It’s likely a final determination of where to go to first with the delta  may be made with the assistance of Ingenuity.

Having completed its regime of five test flights early in the mission, during which Perseverance was relegated to the role of passive observer, the little drone has completed a total of 19 flights and doesn’t show any sign of stopping. While there had been some concern that a recent dust storm might impact its ability to obtain sufficient sunlight to keep its batteries charged, Ingenuity came through in good condition and, once its batteries had been fully charged, proved itself to be able to take to the air once more.

Ingenuity manages to catch Preservice in one of the images it captured which manoeuvring during a test flight in April 2021. Credit: NASA/JPL

For the majority of its flights, Ingenuity had acted as an aerial scout for Perseverance, imaging its surroundings in order to help mission planners determine potential route the rover could follow and / or identify potential points of interest the rover could be directed to study. As such, it has proven itself an invaluable part of the overall mission and more than proven the benefit of having UAVs operating in support of surface missions.

I’ll continue to report on the mission’s progress – and that of Curiosity, as and when NASA provides updates.

Isaacman’s Polaris Programme

Jared Isaacman, the billionaire who paid for and commanded the first non-professional astronaut flight into space, Inspiration4 in September 2021 aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon vehicle (see: Space Sunday: Inspiration4 and Chinese Flights), is now planning a series of similar space flights  – potentially culminating in the first crewed flight of the Starship vehicle.

On February 14th, 2022 Isaacman announced the establishment of the Polaris Programme, which will run in cooperation with SpaceX.

Polaris is a series of pioneering Dragon space missions that will aim to rapidly advance capabilities for human exploration. This programme has been purposefully designed to advance long-duration human spaceflight capabilities and guiding us toward the ultimate goal of facilitating Mars exploration.

– Jared Isaacman, February 14th

Thus far, only the first mission in the programme has any specifics associated with it – and these are sketchy in places, at least for the moment. Called Polaris Dawn, it appears to be jointly funded by Isaacman and SpaceX. It will take place no sooner than the last quarter of 2022 and will comprise Isaacman as commander, Scott “Kidd” Poteet, a retired Air Force pilot who was one of the ground directors for the Inspiration Inspiration4, as pilot and mission specialists Sarah Gillis and Anna Menon, both SpaceX employees – Menon is married to Anil Menon, a former SpaceX flight surgeon who left the company to join NASA at the end of 2021 as part of its latest astronaut intake.

The other details revealed for the mission are:

  • It will aim to break the record for the highest Earth-orbiting crewed space flight That record was set in 1966, when Charles “Pete” Conrad Jr and Richard F. Gordon Jr piloted Gemini 11, the ninth crewed flight of that series in an extended elliptical orbit with a perigee of just 268 km and an apogee of 1,368 km.
  • This high altitude will allow the crew to study the radiation environment at the edge of interplanetary space – which is vastly different to that experienced by the majority of people who have flown into space – human missions rarely exceed 450 km above the Earth.

 

The Polaris Dawn crew (from L to R): Anna Menon, Scott Poteet, Jared Isaacman, and Sarah Gillis. Credit: Polaris Programme/John Kraus
  • The programme will aim to “raise funds and awareness” for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital (the Inspiration4 mission raised a total of US $240 million for the hospital) as a part of “a global health initiative” that will involve SpaceX, their Starlink satellite broadband network. But again, precise details as to what this will mean / entail were no elaborated.
  • The flight will include the first EVA (extravehicular activity) spacewalk by a commercial crewed mission.

This last aspect has drawn the most attention, as it will entail the entire crew utilising a modified version of the suits currently worn by crews using Dragon to fly to / from the International Space Station. It will also be a further hark-back to the Gemini (and Apollo) missions. Like the vehicles used in those programmes, Crew Dragon does not carry an airlock, so the entire vehicle will have to be depressurised the the EVA – something that shouldn’t be a problem, as the vehicle has from the start been designed to be able to vent down to vacuum. However, the exact purpose of the EVA – together with the overall science objectives for the mission – has yet to be detailed.

How many Polaris missions will take place after Dawn is unclear; in terms of Crew Dragon, Isaacman appears to suggest the number of missions will be dependent on how quickly Starship moves from development through operational status as a cargo vehicle to being capable for flying with crews.

This is not something that we can expect in the next few years; SpaceX have a lot to do just to prove Starship and Super Heavy form a viable cargo launch vehicle, after which the vehicle will have to go through an assessment and rating to clear it for flying crews and passengers. This is itself not a simple process – for example, it is expected that crewed launch vehicle have so form of abort / escape system, something  Elon Musk has thus far only “supposed” this could be possible for Starship.

However, for all the gaps in what has thus far been presented, the Polaris Project would appear to be an interesting new venture – one the goals that again reach beyond mere space tourism.

Space Sunday: Starship update

Posted on by Inara Pey
Starship S20, supported by the launch system “Mechazilla” arms, sits atop Super Heavy Booster 4, the Quick Disconnect Arm sitting between them, the sands of Boca Chica beyond. Credit: SpaceX

On Thursday February 10th, Elon Musk gave the first large-scale update on the work SpaceX is doing to develop the world’s first – and largest – fully reusable space transportation system in the form of the starship vehicle and its super heavy booster, and where things stand at present.

The presentation, which took place at the SpaceX Starbase facilities close to Boca Chica in Texas, came amidst on-going activity to both complete the first orbital launch facility for the massive booster and the payload-carrying starship vehicle, an in refining and finishing the first booster that will make an orbital launch attempt – Booster 4 and further testing of the first orbital attempt starship – number 20.

This incredible view, shared on Twitter but originator unknown, shows the base of Booster 4 as the rocket is lowered onto the launch table, the outer ring of 20 fixed Raptor motors surrounding the inner 9 that can be gimballed to provide directional thrust note the protective skirt between inner and outer engines.

In terms of the booster, this now appears to be pretty much launch complete: all of the anticipated protection has been added around sensitive equipment at the base of the rocket, the Raptor motors have been given a coat of protective paint, and work has been carried out into the rocket itself.

On the launch platform itself, work has been completed on the huge “Mechazilla” system that is designed to roll up and down the side of the launch tower, lifting both boosters and starships onto and off of the launch table using its two massive “chopstick” arms. Not only has the system, together with the Quick Disconnect Arm that provides fuel and power connections to the starship vehicle been put through their paces rising up and down the tower on their respective tracks, Mechazilla has also carried numerous tests using water-filled ballast bags to simulator the suspended weight of a booster or starship vehicle as it lifts, rotates and lowers them.

The Quick Disconnect (QD) Arm extends two claws either side of Booster 4, reaching for the hard points just visible below and between the grid fins. February 7th, 2022. Credit: Lab Padre

Such was the status of testing that many pundits had asserted that Mechazilla would be used to hoist both Booster 4 and Starship 20 from their transport cradles and hoist them up onto the pad and one another ahead of Musk’s presentation.

As it turned out, this was not quite the case. During the first part of the week ahead of Musk’s presentation, Booster 4 was moved the short distance to the launch facility, but one of the large cranes SpaceX has been using was used to hoist it from its transport platform and up on onto the circular launch platform, where clamps within the table’s ring to locked it into position. Following this upper Quick Disconnect (QD) Arm was positioned and connected.

The QD arm has two functions: holding the booster steady by extending two claws outwards and around the upper section of the booster so they mate with hard points mounted on the booster’s frame. Its second role is to similarly help secure a starship vehicle once stacked on top of a booster, and to provide with fuel and electrical power ahead of a launch. As the name implies, the QD arm is designed to rapidly disconnect from both booster and starship and swing out of the way at launch.

Gripped between its chopsticks, Mechazilla gently lifts Starship S20 upwards to where it can be swung over Booster 4. Credit: SpaceX

Following the securing of Booster 4, and under a night sky, Mechazilla did finally see action as Starship 20 was delivered to the launch facility and the huge arms of the mechanism were moved into position either side of the vehicle just below its forward canards and then gently closed so that they could engage with hard point on the starship before hoisting it clear of its transporter.

After what appeared to be a period of load testing / check out and a retraction / removal of the QD arm, Mechazilla was finally winched up the side of the launch tower, lifting Starship 20 up above Booster 4, prior to the mechanism and vehicle being rotated directly over the booster and then gently down onto it for mating with the booster, after which the QD arm rotated back into place and connected to both booster and starship.

Another view of the stacked Booster 4 and Starship 20 at the Starbase orbital launch facilities, Boca Chica. Note the tank farm, lower left. Credit: RGV Aerial Photography

This marked the third time booster and Starship had been mounted together on the launch table – but the first time in which both they, and the entire launch facility have been very close to being ready for that first launch attempt.

Mechazilla itself is a remarkable system. Not only will it lift and stack boosters and ships, it will (eventually) catch them out of the air. The animation below pretty much demonstrates how this will be done with a returning Super Heavy Booster, although after it was released, SpaceX revealed that rather than “dropping” onto Mechazillia’s arms, the booster will in fact come in to hover between the arms, which will them adjust their height and “hold” the booster, allowing the engines to shut down. When watching the video, note also the conveyors on the top of the Mechazilla arms correctly orient the booster ready for it to be swung over the launch table and lowered onto it, and also the V-shaped arms under the “chopsticks” that also connect to the booster to provide additional stability.

Continue reading “Space Sunday: Starship update” →

Space Sunday: the future of the ISS

Posted on by Inara Pey
The International Space Station. Credit: NASA

The United States has now formally announced its intention to end the International Space Station that the start of 2031.

The announcement comes on top of confirmation that the Biden-Harris administration has confirmed ISS operations should continue through until the latter half of 2030. In it, the agency confirms that they plan to replace the ISS with at least three commercial space stations under a joint public-private arrangement that will see the new facilities in part built using taxpayer’s funding through NASA, allowing them to be used for both NASA-operated and private sector research and other activities.

These new space stations will be developed during the nine years of remaining life for the ISS, allowing operations to gradually pivoted to them as they are commissioned.

The private sector is technically and financially capable of developing and operating commercial low-Earth orbit destinations, with NASA’s assistance. We look forward to sharing our lessons learned and operations experience with the private sector to help them develop safe, reliable, and cost-effective destinations in space. The report we have delivered to Congress describes, in detail, our comprehensive plan for ensuring a smooth transition to commercial destinations after retirement of the International Space Station in 2030.

– Phil McAlister, director of commercial space, NASA

Within the plan, NASA also outline how the ISS is to be through to its end-of-life, and provides a brief summary of some of its achievements, including:

  • Hosting more than 3,000 research investigations from over 4,200 researchers across the world.
  • Allowing 110 countries and to participate in research activities performed aboard the
  • Operating international STEM (Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) programme that has reached 1.5 million students world-wide each year it has been running.
  • Allowed for major breakthroughs in a range of Earth and space sciences.
The International Space Station is entering its third and most productive decade as a ground-breaking scientific platform in microgravity. This third decade is one of results, building on our successful global partnership to verify exploration and human research technologies to support deep space exploration continue to return medical and environmental benefits to humanity, and lay the groundwork for a commercial future in low-Earth orbit.

– Robyn Gatens, director of the International Space Station, NASA

However, there are still bumps in the road in terms of NASA’s planning. Whilst the Biden-Harris administration has green lit the station through until the end of 2030, it is Congress that will largely have the final say in things from the US side – and Congress has mixed views on ISS, a 4-year extension of ISS operations from 2024-2028 having previously proven contentious. Such is the reality of things, there are doubts if some of NASA’s plan can be achieved – something I’ll get to in a moment – which may leave Congress again arguing over the future of the ISS.

Another possible sticking point is continued Russian involvement in the ISS. In 2021, the Russian government and their national space agency, Roscosmos, announced plans to launch their own, independent space station. Currently referred to as the Russian Orbital Service Station (ROSS), which they planned to have “fully operational” and comprising multiple modules by 2030.

These plans will see Russia launch two modules originally intended for the ISS and called SPM-1/NEM-1 and SPM-2/NEM-2 as the backbone for ROSS. The first of these modules is to be launched in 2024 and the second in 2028. However,  under their original plans, Russia indicated that one SPM-1 was in orbit, they might actually detach the self-propelled Nauka science module together with the Prichal docking module attached to it (both delivered to the ISS in 2021) and move them to dock with the nascent ROSS facility, disrupting ISS operations.

But since then, the timeline for ROSS has been pushed out so that 2035 is now the target for completing 2035, potentially negating any need to remove modules from ISS in the late 2020s. Even so, that Russia is to push ahead with ROSS does level some concerns over their willingness to financially support ISS operations beyond 2028.

An artist’s conception of the Russian Orbital Service Station. Credit: Roscosmos

In terms of private venture facilities to replace the ISS, NASA initially indicated that 11 companies and organisations filed proposals under the agency’s Commercial Low Earth Orbit Destinations (CLD) programme. Several of these were rejected for a range of technical and practical issues, whilst three were granted initial seed funding amounting to US $415.6 million.

As I reported in December 2021, these three proposals are from Blue Origin / Sierra Space, Nanoracks and Northrop Grumman. Two further proposals received notes of merit by did not gain initial funding. One of these came from – unsurprisingly – SpaceX, who proposed using a variant of their Artemis lunar landing Starship vehicle, but failed to address core requirements – such as environmental support for long-duration missions, support for multiple vehicle docking and external payload handling capabilities.

The second proposal to receive merit came from an unexpected source: Relativity Space. This is 7-year-old start-up I’ve previously mentioned in these pages that is developing a line of expendable and reusable 3D-printed launch vehicles. They proposed perhaps the most novel concept to NASA: a small-scale research laboratory based on their yet-to-fly Terran-R reusable launch vehicle that could be placed in orbit and periodically returned to Earth for refurbishment, upgrade and re-launch.

An artist’s impression of the proposed Blue Origin / Sierra Space Orbital Reef space station. Credit: Blue Origin / Sierra Space
Overall, the CLD programme calls for at least one of the new orbital facilities to be ready to start some level of operation by the end of 2025, and to be ready for a full transition of ISS operations by 2030. And this is where Congress may view things differently.

At the time the initial CLD contracts were awarded, NASA’s own Office of Inspector General (OIG) was already casting doubt on whether the time frames for a private sector space station could be achieved:

In our judgment, even if early design maturation is achieved in 2025 — a challenging prospect in itself — a commercial platform is not likely to be ready until well after 2030. We found that commercial partners agree that NASA’s current timeframe to design and build a human-rated destination platform is unrealistic.

– NASA OIG report on commercial space stations, December 2021

Ergo, settling on December 2030 as an end date for ISS operations could again split Congress. On the one side, there might be those who believe the station should be financed beyond 2030 “just in case” alternatives are not available. On the other, the fact that alternatives may not be ready, coupled with recent concerns about issues with the ISS as a result of the increasing age of, and wear-and-tear to, the older modules on the station, might lead to calls for an earlier ISS “retirement” to allow funds to be targeted elsewhere.

But there is a potential alternative to a reliance on one of the CLD stations being rapidly developed. . Axiom Space already has a contract with NASA to launch a new module to the ISS in 2024 on a fixed-price basis. The module would be used for a mix of research and space tourism (Axiom will launch its first private crew to the ISS in March of this year aboard their Ax-1 mission). However, the company has additionally committed itself to developing four further modules, two of which they hope to add to the unit attached to the ISS by 2028 to form an “orbital segment”.

These three modules could then be detached from the ISS in 2030 to form a core of a new space station, to which the remaining to modules would be attached in the early 2030s. If Axiom can carry these plans forward between 2024 and 2030, then they could provide the means for NASA to pivot a fair portion of their ISS activities to the Axiom station and also to the CLD stations as they also come on-line in the 2030s, leaving the way clear for ISS to be decommissioned and de-orbited as announced.

Axiom at the ISS: a artist’s impression of how two Axiom modules, (seen right and centre-right) might look when attached to the Harmony module on the International Space Station. Credit: Axiom

This will actually start in around 2025, while the ISS is still in operation, when a gentle series of manoeuvres will be used to gradually lower the station’s altitude through until 2030. Then, after the last crew has departed the station, NASA intend to use the thrusters from a mix of Progress and Cygnus resupply vehicles to remotely lower the station and orient it so that as the frictional heat increases the larger, more delicate parts of the structure will burn up. The track of entry into the atmosphere will be designed so that what survives re-entry – liable to be a series of large sections falling in close proximity to one another – will fall into the southern Pacific Ocean in a region called Point Nemo between New Zealand and Chile, and 2,672 km from the nearest land, the traditional “graveyard” for objects making controlled returns from low Earth Orbit.

Continue reading “Space Sunday: the future of the ISS” →

Space Sunday: China’s plans, and space memorials

Posted on by Inara Pey
China’s nascent space station during a test of its robot arm manoeuvring a Tianzhou automated re-supply vehicle. Credit: CASC

China has published an overview of its plans for the next five years in its space exploration endeavours. It builds on the last five years, which have seen a remarkable acceleration in China’s capabilities with in the introduction of new Long March 5, 6, 7, 8 and 11 rockets, the commencement of work on the country’s multi-module space station, and the launch of missions to the Moon and Mars.

In particular, the plan – published on January 28th, 2022 – indicates that as well as completing its new modular space station, China will seek to develop its space transportation capabilities, test new technologies, embark on both crewed and robotic exploration missions, modernise space governance, enhance innovation and boost international cooperation.

Notably, the plan confirms China intends to the undertake crewed missions to the lunar surface – most likely commencing in the late 2020s, and also folds current private-sector space activities that are in progress within the country into its overall national strategy, utilising the private sector to leverage new technologies and innovation.

Robotic missions confirmed in the paper include:

  • Chang’e-6: a second lunar sample-return mission, scheduled for a 2024 launch, which will return around 2.2 kg of material from up to 2 metres below the Moon’s surface.
  • Chang’e-7: a 4-part lunar mission that will include an orbiter, a lander, a rover, and a robotic “flying probe”, all of which will focus on the Moon’s South Pole.
  • Chang’e 8: a mission to test technologies expected to be used in the establishment of a lunar base.
The Chinese Chang’e robotic lunar missions will continue with Chang’e 6 through 8. Credit: CASC
  • An asteroid sample-return mission (possibly in cooperation with Russia).
  • Developing technologies that will be used for a Mars sample-return mission and for a deep space mission to Jupiter and its moons.

In addition, the paper highlights on-orbit crew operations aboard the new space station which will include a range of sciences and helping to lay the groundwork for human operations in cislunar space in order to make and support actual lunar landings. It also makes mention of the introduction of China’s new crew launch system that will replace the current Shenzhou vehicles, the continued development of a fully reusable space transportation system, and  a possible spaceplane launch system – most likely as a payload delivery system, although one Chinese company has stated it plans to commence operating a spaceplane that, launched vertically, could be used for space tourism flights and point-to-point passenger flights around the Earth.

Some of China’s emerging capabilities have given rise to a certain amount of fear-mongering in the west (and notably within America’s political right). One such mission is that of Shijian 21, referred to by China as a “space debris mitigation mission” and launched in October 25th October 2021, but denounced as an “anti-satellite” mission by the US Right and touted as another failure of President Biden’s “woke” policies.

China’s Shijian 21 was launched in October 21 and has now completed its primary mission: “orbital debris mitigation”. Credit; CCTV

However, on January 22nd, 2022, Shijian 21 docked with the defunct Beidou-2 G2 navigation satellite. The latter had failed to reach its assigned orbit following its launch in 2009, and had since become a risk to other geostationary satellites. Having successfully docked, Shijian 21 pushed the defunct satellite into a much higher orbit, eliminating it as a threat, thus confirming the mission is part of China’s desire to develop a capability to remove its own space debris from orbit, with the Shijian class of vehicle also potentially capable of supply satellites with propellants to extend their lifespan.

The paper is also the first time that China’s private sector space ventures have been mentioned in a government document. This is seen as both a recognition of the rapid growth of the country’s private / commercial space sector, and of the benefits of folding such work into the nation’s broader ambitions and goals – just as the United States has done through NASA contracts with SpaceX, Boeing, Blue Origin, etc.

NASA Commemorates Comrades Lost

NASA has marked the 55th anniversary of the Apollo 1 fire with a video commemorating those of the US astronaut corps who have lost their lives whilst preparing for, or during, a US mission into space.  Those commemorated are not the only people to have lost their lives in the quest to achieve a human presence in space, but within the west, the 17 who are commemorated in the video are perhaps the most well-known.

initially designated AS-204, Apollo 1 was intended to be the first  crewed mission of the United States Apollo program, undertaking an Earth orbital test of the Apollo Command and Service module. Set for launch on February 27th, 1967, the mission never took place.

During a full launch rehearsal test at Cape Kennedy Air Force Station Launch Complex 34 on January 27th, 1967, a fire broke out within the command module and, due to the oxygen-rich nature of the atmosphere within the vehicle, coupled with the extensive use of flammable materials within it and the complex design of the entry / egress hatch, all three astronauts – Command Pilot Gus Grissom, Senior Pilot Ed White, and Pilot Roger B. Chaffee – were killed before the support crew on the launch gantry could successfully open the hatch to extract them from the vehicle.

Nineteen years later, on January 28th, 1986, the 25th flight of the Space Transportation System, officially designed STS-51-L, came to an abrupt end 68 seconds after launch when the massive external tank that fuelled the pace shuttle orbiter’s three main engines exploded beneath the vehicle, the result of a failure with one of the support solid rocket boosters. All seven souls aboard the shuttle Challenger  – mission commander  Francis R. “Dick” Scobee, pilot  Michael J. Smith, mission specialists Ellison S. Onizuka, Judith A. Resnik and  Ronald E. McNair, together with payload specialists Gregory B. Jarvis and S. Christa McAuliffe – were lost.

The third disaster marked by the video is that of the shuttle Columbia, lost on February 1st, 2003  at the end of the 113th shuttle system flight – and the vehicle’s 28th mission. It broke apart following re-entry into the atmosphere, the result of super-heated gases penetrating the vulnerable interior wing space of the vehicle as a result of damage received during the mission’s launch. Killed aboard it were Rick D. Husband (commander), William C. McCool (pilot), David M. Brown, Kalpana Chawla, Laurel B. Clark, Michael P. Anderson (mission specialists) and Israeli payload specialist Ilan Ramon.

Continue reading “Space Sunday: China’s plans, and space memorials” →

Space Sunday: JWST, Artemis and rockets delivering cargo to Earth

Posted on by Inara Pey
JWST art. Credit stsci.edu

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is due to enter its initial halo orbit around the Earth-Sun L2 position, 1.6 million kilometres beyond Earth’s orbit around the Sun, on Monday, January 24th, 2022.

With the deployment of its major external elements completed, the observatory has been engaged in the first phase of a sensitive operation to correctly align the 18 hexagonal segments of its primary mirror so it perfectly reflects light into the boom-mounted secondary mirror and thence back into the telescope’s interior for delivery to its space science payload.

This first part of what is an extensive operation saw all 18 segments gently eased 12.5 mm away from the mirror’s backing structure, each segment being propelled forward by six tiny motors, referred to actuators. This allowed each mirror segment to be gently moved away from the restraints that held it in place during launch, and provides enough space behind each segment so it can be gently adjusted to align with its companions as the alignment process continues, all of them coming together to form a single, focused parabola.

When it starts, the latter part of the work will involve the actuators moving in the micron and nanometre ranges of movement, and once started, is expected to continue for around 40 days.

However, before that process begins, at 19:00 UTC on Monday, January 24th, JWST will fire its thrusters to ease itself into its initial halo orbit around the Earth-Sun L2 position, marking its arrival in the area of space where it will operate.

Thanks to the sheer accuracy of the Ariane 5 launch vehicle and the “mid-course” correction thruster burns JWST has made en route to this point, it has been calculated the observatory currently has sufficient propellant reserves for at least 10 years of operations. If the insertion burn proves to be as accurate, mitigating any need for it to be further refined, then JWST may have its overall mission length extended a little more.

JWST is due to enter its Earth-Sun L2 Halo orbit on Monday, January 24th, 2022. Credit: NASA

Once safety inserted around the L2 point, the telescope will go through an additional period of cooling adjustment to bring its instruments down to their operational temperatures. This process, which will actually use heaters to ensure heat dissipation is properly controlled, will take a number of weeks to complete, after which the primary mirror alignment process will resume, allowing scientific instrument calibration to commence.

Artemis: No Immediate Second Lunar Landing

After landing astronauts on the Moon in the mid-2020s for the first time in more than a half-century, NASA will wait at least two further years before making a second crewed lunar landing as part of the Artemis program.

Artemis 3 is due to deliver a crew of 2 to the lunar surface in around 2025. However, the next mission slated for Artemis will not follow it to the lunar Surface. Instead, and as indicated at a two-day meeting of the NASA Advisory Council’s Human Exploration and Operations Committee on January 18th/19th, it was indicated that the Artemis 4 mission will target the assembly of the Lunar Gateway.

This is the space station that will be placed in cislunar orbit and used as a transfer station for crews arriving from Earth aboard NASA’s Orion capsule and the Human landing System (HLS) vehicles that will carry them to the surface of the Moon and back. The first elements of the Gateway, the Power and Propulsion Element and Habitation and Logistics Outpost, will be launched together via a SpaceX Falcon Heavy in late 2024. They will then spend a year spiralling around the Moon and settling into their halo orbit.

Artemis 4, which will feature the Block 1B Space Launch System rocket using the powerful Exploration Upper Stage (EUS), intended for heavy cargo launches and deep space missions will carry the International Habitat Module (I-Hab) for the gateway, along with a crewed Orion vehicle that will oversee attaching I-Hab to the Gateway modules already in lunar orbit.

Whilst conceptual in terms of what the Lunar Gateway might eventually become, this image indicates the core NASA NASA elements  – the Power and Propulsion Element and the Habitation and Logistics Output module (which will actually be docked one to the other) to be launched in 2024, and the JAXA / ESA I-Hab module, to be launched in 2025 as part of the Artemis 4 mission. The Orion capsule + service module are also shown. Credit:  NASA

Even with the more powerful EUS replacing the Interim Cryogenic Propulsion Stage that will fly on Artemis 1-3, the Gateway flight of Artemis 4 will be a challenge for the SLS. The Block 1B vehicle will be capable of delivering around 38 tonnes to lunar orbit – and some 27 tonnes of that capability will be taken up by the Orion crew capsule and its service module. That means the European and Japanese space agencies, responsible for providing I-Hab for Artemis, must ensure the module masses no more than 10 tonnes. By comparison, similar modules on the ISS average around 12-12.5 tonnes.

A further reason for focusing Artemis 4 on Lunar Gateway activities is that NASA will not actually have any HLS vehicle(s) at its disposal for lunar landings for a period of time after Artemis 3. In awarding the initial HLS contract to SpaceX to develop a lunar landing variant of its Starship vehicle, NASA did so on the basis of using only a single lunar landing. Once it returns to orbit, the SpaceX HLS will require refuelling in order to make a second trip – and currently, NASA has indicated that it would rather await a “sustainable” HLS system  – to be developed under a new, yet-to-be awarded contract called Lunar Exploration Transportation Services (LETS).

NASA HLS; the current contract with SpaceX is only for a single HLS vehicle (centre). After Artemis 3, the first lunar landing, NASA will be relying on a “sustainable” HLS design – yet to be contracted – which might be Dynetic’s versatile design (l), or the Blue-Origin led design (r), both of which originally competed against SpaceX for the initial HLS contract, or might be provided by another supplier. Credit: Dynetics / SpaceX / Blue Origin

Exactly what is so happen to the SpaceX HLS after Artemis 3 is unclear. That mission will not use the Lunar Gateway, but will see an Orion dock with the SpaceX vehicle in lunar orbit for the 2-person crew transfer. As such, it is entirely possible the SpaceX HLS might simply be “parked” in lunar orbit and left.

However, given any LETS contract has yet to be granted a further crewed landing on the Moon under the Artemis banner is unlikely to occur before late 2027 or (more likely) 2028 / 29.

Continue reading “Space Sunday: JWST, Artemis and rockets delivering cargo to Earth” →

Space Sunday: pebbles, ALH84001 and a supernova

Posted on by Inara Pey
Mars 2020 rover Perseverance. Credit: NASA/JPL

NASA’s Mars 2020 rover Perseverance rover is suffering what might considered a case of kidney stones that’s proving hard to clear up.

On December 29th, 2021, the rover drilled into a rock the mission team had dubbed “Issole”, coring the material out using the percussive drill at the end of its 2.1 m robotic arm. The coring went smoothly enough, the sample being cached inside one of the titanium tubes used for obtaining sample that are to be geocached on Mars for future collection by a joint NASA-ESA sample-return mission, however, it was then that a problem occurred.

The rover’s sample-gathering system is actually extremely complex, comprising three separate robotic systems. The first is the robot arm itself, which houses the drill mechanism and bit.

Mars 2020 SHArm robotic arm: hidden underneath the rover, SHArm is responsible for handling sample tubes (highlighted in yellow) before / after they have been used to gather core samples gathered by the rover’s drill. Credit: NASA/JPL

The second is another robot arm called SHArm – the Sample Handling Arm -, tucked into the underside of the rover. Its function is to select unused sample tubes from the storage cache at the back of the rover, and pass them forward so that they can be made available to the robot arm and the drill for sample gathering. This also takes tubes containing samples and delivers them to a number of sub-systems before sealing them and stowing them back into the cache area.

Between these two, and acting as a go-between, is the “bit carousel”. This is a wheel-like robot at the front of the rover. This is a go-between for both the main robot arm and SHArm, allowing empty tubes to be delivered to a position where they can be transferred to the robot arm / drill mechanism, and full tubes to be rotated down to where SHArm can collect them. In all the carousel has capacity for up to 10 full / empty sample tubes as they are moved between the robot arm and SHArm.

The “bit carousel” (highlighted in grey) with the robot arm and the drill head it carries (the large object on the left) transferring a sample core tube (yellow) to one of its transfer recesses. Credit: NASA/JPL

It was when attempting to transfer the tube with the latest sample to the carousel that the problem occurred, prompting the mission team to order Perseverance to return the tube to the drill mechanism and then rotate the robot’s hand to allow the WATSON image to photograph the carousel – revealing small pebbles of rock were caught in the mechanism.

While the carousel is designed to operate with a degree of dirt and debris in its mechanism, the decision was taken to attempt a debris removal operation and essentially “reset” the sample gathering mechanisms. This has also proven to be a complicated operation. Firstly, the carousel had to be carefully images to understand the full extent of the debris distribution. Then the ground beneath the rover needed to be imaged for an initial set of “before” photos.

A WATSON close-up of one of the sample tube recesses in the “bit carousel”, showing some of the pebble-like debris caught in the mechanism. Credit: NASA/JPL

After this, the main robot arm was order to rotate to a position where the current sample tube could be emptied, allowing it to be re-used in a future coring of “Issole”. Then, over the course of the weekend, the entire “bit carousel” was due to be put through two rotation operations designed to help shift some of the debris. Once completed, WATSON will again be used to image the mechanism – and the ground under the rover – to ascertain the status of the debris and what further actions need to be taken to clear the remaining debris.

In all, mission engineers believe it could be the end of the week before the sample system is ready to resume operations, at which point a decision will be taken on whether or not to gather a further sample from “Issole”.

 The Riddle of ALH84001 Finally Resolved?

In 1996 a fragment of a Martian meteorite that was found in the Allan Hills, Antarctica and designated ALH84001 (marking it as the first Martian meteorite found in the area 12 years earlier, in 1984), caused a storm of controversy- which appears to now being laid to rest.

A cartoon by Kevin Kallaugher that appeared in the Baltimore Sun on August 8th, 1996 highlighting the media’s response to the ALH84001 announcement by David McKay and his team

To summarise: when parts of the meteorite were examined by a group of scientists (it is not uncommon for multiple years to pass between meteorites being found , catalogued and stored and actually being examined) announcing they may have found trace evidence of past microscopic life from Mars. Unfortunately, the press responded in a manner typified by a cartoon from the time.

The pronouncement, over-amplified by the press, garnered immediate push-back by others in the scientific community which in turn resulted in the science team – which included David S. McKay, Chief Scientist for astrobiology at the Johnson Space Centre, Texas, during the Apollo programme to double down on their claims they have discovered fossilised Martian bacteria.

Since then, the debate concerning how the objects –  chain structures nanometres in length resembling living organisms – and whether or not they might be organic in origin has raged back and forth – although it did diminish somewhat following McKay passing away in 2013. Not another team of scientists believe they have definitive proof that whilst the structures were organic in nature, they are not signs of life having once been active on Mars.

Instead, the new study – the result of an extensive study of ALH84001 samples and all that has been learned about it in the intervening 25 years – points to the organic structures being the result of abiotic organic chemistry – that is, they formed as a result of chemical reactions between water and rock that did not involve any genuine organic processes.

The chemical interactions likely took place around 4 billion years ago – at a time when Mars was believed to be much warmer and wetter than it is now, and a time when life might have originated on the planet. However, in the case of ALH84001, the team carrying out this study found that the organic compounds in the meteorite are closely associated with serpentine-like minerals. Serpentine is a dark green mineral, sometimes mottled or spotted like a snake’s skin, that is associated with once-wet environments.

On Earth, this kind of association between organics and serpentine is often associated with water percolating / circulating through magnesium-rich volcanic rocks change their mineral nature, producing hydrogen. If the water is slightly acidic and contains dissolved carbon dioxide, it can additionally result in carbonate minerals also being deposited…When taken together, these two processes – referred to as serpentinization in the case of the first and carbonation in the second – can result in deposits that appear to be of an entirely organic origination.

An electron microscopy image showing chain structures resembling living organisms fossilised in meteorite fragment ALH84001. Credit: NASA

Given the rocks in which ALH84001 were formed 4 billion years ago and were exposed to a long period of repeated water interaction, and the similarity they share with similar abiotic mineral deposits found on Earth, the team believes they are more than likely of a similar, non-organic origin.

However, the study doesn’t discount the potential for life to ever have arisen on Mars – it may actually strengthen it. This is because while these abiotic processes are not the result of organic processes, they do leave deposits of chemicals and minerals that can go on to help kick-start microbial life. What’s more, the sheer age of the ALH84001 marks it as the first Martian rock fragment that is old enough to provide evidence that abiotic processes were at work at a time when Mars was warm and wet – and when other processes may have been at work that might have utilised the deposited compounds to get basic life started. And if the rocks in which ALH84001 formed – there may be other similar ancient deposits on the planet that microbial life may have been leveraged.

Astronomers Witness a Star’s Death and a Supernova’s Birth in Real-Time

For the first time, a team of astronomers have imaged in real-time as a red super giant star reached the end of its life, watching as it convulsed in its death throes before finally exploding as a supernova.

The star was about 10 times more massive than the Sun and lay within the NGC 5731 galaxy about 120 million light-years away – meaning what astronomers saw actually occurred 120 million years ago.

In the summer of 2020, astronomers using the Pan-STARRS observatory on Haleakala, Maui noticed the progenitor tar suddenly go through a dramatic rise in luminosity. This warned them something massive was about to happen, focusing attention at Pan-STARRS on the star, and also brought in the W. M. Keck Observatory on Mauna kea, Hawaii Island in to observe the star as it collapsed over 130 days, before it gave a bright flash prior to its final exceptionally violent detonation into supernova SN 2020tlf..

The data from the observations is relatively boring – the star was far, far, far too far away to be actually images by either observatory, so it amounts to lines and dots on a chart. However, it has allows the event to be computer modelled. More particularly, the event has given astronomers first-hand insight into a supernova event involving a red super giant, and raised some puzzling questions.

For a red super giant to go supernova is not uncommon. Normally, however, there is a period of shrinkage and material ejection, referred to as circumstellar material (CSM) prior to core collapse. But that process generally takes place on a much longer timescales than the 130 days experienced by SN 2020tlf, suggesting something unusual or unexpected was taking place within the star.

In addition, the mysterious bright flash prior to the final detonation was unexpected and – thus far – unexplained, although it is thought it be somehow related to the ejected CSM – although astronomers are currently at a loss to explain what this might be. The flash appears to also be liked to a mammoth ejection of gas from the star, another aspect that doesn’t fit with established understanding of red super giant supernovae.

All of this adds up to the end of the star and the birth of SN 2020tlf being far more violent that has been the accepted case for red super giants. The question now is: was this event out of the ordinary for such stars, or does it reflect a more expected behaviour for them. However, given the sudden rise in luminosity witnessed ahead of the event, astronomers involved in projects such as the Young Supernova Experiment now have a clue to what to look for when seeking future potential red super giant supernovae.