Tag: Spaceflight

Space Sunday: ESA’s future of spaceflight; Vulcan readies to fly

Posted on by Inara Pey
A screen cap of how ESA’s proposed SUSIE cargo / human-capable orbital vehicle might look in orbit. Credit: ArianeSpace

For 40 years, the European Space Agency (ESA) has been at the forefront of space innovation and exploration – although its work and contributions have oft been overshadowed by those of NASA and Russia -, and that drive to innovate is set to continue through the next decade and beyond.

To demonstrate this, on January 3rd, 2024, ESA issued a video showcasing upcoming projects and innovations which will help define the future of crewed and uncrewed voyages into orbit which are being driven from with Europe, either as direct ESA projects, ESA partnerships or ESA-supported private ventures. In particular, the 2:32 minute video (including end credits) showcases the following projects and launch vehicles:

  • 0:26: Space RIDER:  (Reusable Integrated Demonstrator for Europe Return) – a small-scale reusable lifting body supported by an expendable service module and capable of delivering 600 kg of payload to low-Earth orbit on missions of up to 2 months at a time. Payloads are intended to be experiments and science instruments, which the vehicle returns to Earth at the end of a mission. Designed to be launched atop ESA’s Vega-C launch vehicle, Space Rider will land horizontally, gliding to a landing under a parafoil, and the vehicle’s qualification flight is expected to take place in 2025.
An artist’s impression of ESA’s Space RIDER in orbit. The black module with solar panels to the rear is the vehicle’s expendable service module. Credit: ESA
  • 0:33: Prime Micro-launcher – a UK-led (by Orbex) private sector launcher designed to leverage the growing cubesat market, and deliver up to 150 kg of payloads to 500 km Sun-synchronous orbit (SSO), primarily from the UK’s SaxaVord Spaceport in the Shetland Isles, and potentially from Portugal’s Azores International Satellite Launch Programme (ISLP) facilities, currently being developed on the island of Santa Maria.
  • 0:44: Skyrora XL – a UK-developed 3-stage vehicle designed to place up to 315 kg into a 500 SSO from the UK’s SaxaVord Spaceport. Skyrora will be powered by its own in-house developed engines, including the Skyforce-2 70 kN motor, which is the focus of the video, and which uses liquid kerosene created from waste plastic as its propellant.
  • 1:06: Isar Spectrum – a German-led project to develop a two-stage launch vehicle designed to deliver up to 1 tonne to LEO orbits out of Europe’s Spaceport at the Guiana Space Centre, Kourou in French Guiana, and up to 500 kg to SSO from the Andøya Spaceport, Norway.
  • 1:26: second launch of Miura-1 – a Spanish-developed sub-orbital, reusable rocket system for flying experiments of up to 200 kg to altitudes between 80 and 110 km. The initial flight of the vehicle occurred in October 2023, but was only a partial success – range safety concerns limited the flight to less than 50 km altitude and the vehicle sank after splashdown, potentially due to its lower than intended altitude resulting in velocity-induced damage on impact with the sea. Once operational, Minura-1 will be Europe’s first fully-reusable launch vehicle and help pave the way for the Miura-5 orbit-capable launcher.
  • 1:32: RFA-1 – a German-led project to build and fly a three-stage multi-role launch vehicle capable of delivering up to 1.6 tonnes to LEO, 1.35 tonnes to polar orbit or 450 kg to geostationary transfer orbit (GTO). The first orbital flight attempt is due to take place from the UK’s SaxaVord Spaceport in the summer of 2024.
  • 1:52: Smart Upper Stage for Innovative Exploration (SUSIE) – potentially Europe’s most ambitious launcher vehicle development programme. A25-tonne lifting body intended to be launched atop the Ariane 64 booster, SUSIE – which is being developed for ESA by ArianeSpace – will be able to deliver either payloads of up to 7 tonnes to orbit when operating autonomously, or crews of up to five astronauts to orbital space facilities. The vehicle is intended to form the upper stage of the launch vehicle, requiring no fairings to protect it during orbital ascent. Following atmospheric re-entry, the vehicle will make a tail-first propulsive descent and landing in a manner akin to the DC-XA demonstrator vehicle, flown in the mid-1990s.
A comparison chart showing the proposed ESA SUSIE and the current crew launch vehicles operated by the United States and Russia. Credit: Ken Kirtland
  • Propulsion systems featured in the video include:
    • 0:40: M10 liquid methane-liquid oxygen motor currently being developed for use on ESA’s future Vega-E booster by Italy’s Avio aerospace company.
    • 0:50: Parafin-liquid oxygen hybrid propulsion – an in-development rocket motor by Germany’s HyImpulse, and designed to power the first and second stages of the company’s proposed SL1 launcher, designed to lift up to 500 kg to low-Earth orbit (LEO).
    • 1:44: Prometheus – a reusable methane-fuelled rocket motor, currently in development on behalf of ESA and intended to power a reusable test vehicle called Themis, starting in 2025. Both Prometheus and Themis are intended to pave the way for the semi-usable Ariane Next, which will replace Ariane 6 in the 2030s.

 Athena: a Space Engine in the Palm of Your Hand

One European innovation not featured in ESA’s video is the Spanish-developed Athena propulsion system. A palm-sized unit specifically designed to manoeuvre small satellites and cubesats once they are in orbit, thus helping them to become more flexible in the range of uses to which they might be put. And it does so in a highly innovative manner – via an electrospray.

An electrospray is an apparatus which uses and electrical current to disperse a liquid through an emitter. The idea itself is not new; its underpinnings were theorised in the 1960s by Sir Geoffrey Ingram Taylor, after whom the most ideal form the liquid is forced into under the influence of the electrical current – the Taylor cone – is named.

Sitting in a plastic handling tray, an Athena electrospray thruster system for smallsats and cubesats. Credit: IENAI Space

Electrosprays are used in a number of fields of science, and they have spurred the use of electrical currents to direct the thrust of cold gas thrusters on satellites However, what makes Athena (the name standing for Adaptable, THruster based on Electrospray powered Nanotechnology, rather than being drawn from mythology, as is the case with main space-related projects) so unique is a combination of its tiny size coupled with the use of a non-toxic propellant that does not require complex tank storage and pressurisation.

The system comprises a set of seven electrostatically charged thrust emitters, each about two finger tips across and containing an array of 500 pinhole-sized thrust ports each. A conductive salt is passed through these emitters, the electoral charge accelerating the particles and directing them into a cone of unified thrust which can be turned on and off by applying / removing the electrical current. The result is a set of tiny thrusters with practically no moving parts and a propellant which can be stored in a simple, compact container. This means that the overall mass of Athena thrusters and their propellant source is much lower than “traditional” cold-thrust systems, but they are capable of exceptionally fine control.

The current versions of Athena can be used on satellites of up to 50 kg, and can produce a sustained thrust of up to 20 m/s, if required. They are ideal for use on 10-cm-on-a-side cubesats, with the team behind them hoping to scale them up for use with smallsats of up to 300 kg mass.

Vulcan Set to Send Peregrine to the Moon

Monday, January 8th, 2024, is a major date for America’s United Launch Alliance (ULA), as the company seeks to successfully complete the first launch of its new Vulcan Centaur rocket.

Designed to replace ULA’s workhorse Atlas V and Delta IV rockets, Vulcan Centaur has had its share of hiccups and delays in getting to this point. This maiden flight had originally been targeting a 2019 date – although that was admittedly highly ambitious, given ULA only really started developing the vehicle in 2014 and hit some technical issues along the way as a result; other matters outside of ULA’s control – such as the SARS-COVID 19 pandemic and issues with the development of its payload – also contributed to the 4-year delay.

The Vulcan Centaur being transferred to the launch pad at Cape Canaveral Space Force Base, sitting on its mobile launch gantry, January 5th, 2024. Credit: ULA

For the company, a lot is riding on this launch. Technically referred to as a certification flight, rather than an operational launch, the two-stage rocket will nevertheless be carrying a functional payload in the form of Peregrine Mission One (aka Peregrine One). This is a privately-built but NASA-funded lunar lander, developed as a part of the agency’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) programme, designed to help pave the way for the agency’s crewed Artemis Moon landings with various robotic missions and vehicles supplied by the private sector.

The launch is designed to be the first of seven through the year, with the second (in April) serving as the final certification flight, although it will also carry a payload aloft in the form of the first Dream Chaser cargo vehicle to fly into space and delivery supplies and equipment to the International Space Station. After this, Vulcan Centaur will complete a series of US government military launches. Assuming this first flight is a success, and the same is true for the rest planned for 2024, they will vindicate the faith customers have in Vulcan Centaur – despite he delays in its development, the rocket already has 70 customers lined-up and waiting their turn to fly payloads aboard it.

The first Vulcan Centaur to fly, seen on the pad from between the arms of the railcars used to move the rocket and its payload from the integration facilities. Credit: ULA

This maiden flight is important in two other ways as well. It will be the first operational use of the Blue Origin BE-4 engine. This the the engine that will be used to power the first stage of Blue Origin’s upcoming heavy lift launcher, New Glenn. The latter is due to make its maiden flight towards the end of the year, so the data gathered from this flight and those that follow between it and the first flight of New Glenn will provide invaluable data on overall engine performance for Blue Origin as they move ever closer to their own launch.

Finally, and as I’ve recently noted, ULA is apparently up for sale. Ergo, a good maiden flight for the Vulcan Centaur would significantly enhance the company’s attractiveness to its potential buyers – whilst equally, a failure could cause one or more of the trio of potential buyers to either rethink or withdraw their offer.

For Astrobotic Technology, the company behind Peregrine One, the launch is equally important; after proposing and subsequently cancelling two prior lunar missions, it represents the company’s chance to both become the first private venture space vehicle to (hopefully) land on the Moon and confirm their position as a capable supplier of lunar lander services to NASA (in fact, the company is due to fly a second mission to the Moon in November 2024, also funded via NASA’s CLPS and featuring NASA’s VIPER lunar rover).

Peregrine One will deliver 90 kg of mixed payload to Mons Gruithuisen Gamma in the northern hemisphere of the Moon. Comprising experiments from the United States and Germany, the payload also includes time capsules from both of those nations, plus Argentina, Canada, Hungary, Japan, the Seychelles and the UK, as well as small rover vehicles – Iris, built by Astrobotic Technology and Carnegie Mellon University, designed to be a technology demonstrator; and Mexico’s Colmena, a set of 5 tiny little rolling landers, each just 12 cm across and weighing 60 grams, which will be catapulted from the lander and operate wherever they roll / bounce to.

The Peregrine Mission One lander undergoing preparations for integration into its payload fairings at the Astrotech Space Operations Facility near Kennedy Space Centre. Credit: NASA / Isaac Watson

If successful, Peregrine Mission One will likely be followed by two further Peregrine-class landers in additional to the November 2024 Griffin Mission One which will carry NASA’s VIPER rover, as mentioned above. Each of the follow-up Peregrine landers will carry increasingly heavier payloads, thus demonstrating the lander’s overall capabilities.

In the meantime, objections to the Peregrine Mission One landing have been lodged by the Navajo Nation. Their objections have been raised as the lander will carry a sealed container bearing DNA samples from Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry and his late wife, Majel Barratt-Roddenberry (Christine Chapel from the original series / Lawaxana Troi from The Next Generation / Deep Space Nine and the voice of the computer in both the original series and The Next Generation), and DNA samples together with memory files and some of the cremated remains of Star Trek actors Nichelle “Uhura” Nichols, James “Scotty” Doohan and Deforest “’Bones’ McCoy” Kelley). In particular the Navajo Nation state that placing human DNA on the Moon would desecrate a sacred place. In response, it has been pointed out by some associated with Peregrine Mission One  that human DNA is already present on the surface of the Moon in the form of human waste contained within the 100 bags of waste material collectively dumped out of their vehicles by the six Apollo crews who landed on the Moon between 1969 and 1972, whereas the container of DNA as remains will stay within the lander vehicle, and will not be deposited on the lunar surface.

The Vulcan Centaur launch is scheduled for 07:18 UTC, Monday, January 8th, 2024 from Cape Canaveral Space Force Base at the start of a 45-minute window, and will be livestreamed on You Tube. Further launch opportunities are available at 24-hour periods through the 9th to 11th January, with launch windows of between 1 and 9 minutes. Assuming the launch goes ahead as planned, the lander will depart Earth orbit 1 hour and 18 minutes after launch, boosted by the Vulcan Centaur’s upper stage. It is due to land on the Moon on February 23rd, 2024.

Space Sunday: looking at 2024

Posted on by Inara Pey
A computer-generated image of NASA’s Artemis 2 mission about to depart Earth orbit for its loop about the Moon – one of the major space missions targeting 2024. Credit: NASA / Liam Yanulis

With the ending of a year comes the start of another and with it an opportunity to take a look at some of what I consider to be the notable space events of 2024.

Space Missions

India

2024 is scheduled to get off the pad with the January 1st launch of the India Space Research Organisation’s (ISRO)  X-ray Polarimeter Satellite (XPoSat), another ambitious mission designed to further demonstrate India’s ability to stand alongside the likes of the United States, China an the European Space Agency at the forefront of space science.

ISRO’s XPoSat with solar panels furled, undergoing ground-based systems testing. Credit: ISRO

XPoSat’s 5-year primary mission lifespan of 5 years is to study cosmic ray polarisation by observing the 50 brightest known sources in the universe, including pulsars, black hole X-ray binaries, active galactic nuclei, neutron stars and non-thermal supernova remnants using its two primary instruments. Studying how radiation is polarised gives away the nature of its source, including the strength and distribution of its magnetic fields and the nature of other radiation around it.

January 7th should see India’s Aditya-L1 solar observatory, launched in September 2023, enter its operational halo orbit at the L1 Lagrange Point, located between the Earth and Sun at some 1.5 million kilometres from Earth. Once in place, it will spend an initial 5 years carrying out continuous observations of the solar atmosphere and study solar magnetic storms as they develop, together with their impact on the environment around the Earth.

In February, the most expensive Earth observation satellite should launch. The NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR) is intended to observe and understand natural processes on Earth, and will be able to observe both of the planet’s hemispheres over a period of at least 3 years. Intended to measure some of the planet’s most complex natural processes, including ecosystem disturbances, ice-sheet collapse, and natural hazards such as earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanoes and landslides, NISAR data will be made globally available within days of it being gathered – or in near-real time should it detect any natural disaster, so that agencies and organisations responsible for disaster relief might use the information in their planning and operations.

Also scheduled for the first quarter of 2024 is the first uncrewed test flight of India’s Gaganyaan space vehicle. Designed to carry crews of two or three into orbit, the capsule and its service / propulsion module, will be capable of spending up to 7 days at a time in orbit, and is the formative part of an ambitious programme to establish a national space station in orbit and send crews to the lunar surface.

A screen capture of Vyommitra, obtained during a telecon organised by ISRO featuring the robot responding to prompts. Credit: ISRO

Depending upon its outcome, the fully automated, 2-day Gaganyaan-1 mission could be followed before the end of the year by two further test flights, at least one (if not both) will include Vyommitra (from Sanskrit: vyoma, “space” and mitra, “friend”), a complex robot in the form of a female human upper body.

Initially intended to assess the effects of g-forces and weightlessness on humans flying in Gaganyaan, Vyommitra could in fact play an active role in crewed flights as well in place of a third person. It is not only programmed to speak Hindi and English, recognise various humans and respond to them, it can perform multiple mission-related tasks, including environment control and life support systems functions, handle switch panel operations, and give environmental air pressure change warnings.

Once the 3 uncrewed flights have been completed, the first crewed flight of Gaganyaan is set to occur in 2025, and if successful will mark India as only the fourth nation in the world to independently fly crews to orbit after Russia, the United States and China.

Finally (for this article that is – India has a number of other missions planned for 2024), at the end of the year, ISRO should launch their Venus Orbiter Mission, unofficially known as Shukrayaan (from the Sanskrit for Venus, “Shukra”, and yāna, craft”/ “vehicle”). Intended to study the atmosphere and surface of Venus, the mission will include an “aerobot” balloon it will release into the Venusian atmosphere.

United States – NASA

NASA obviously has a lot going on all the time, so the following really is an abbreviated “highlights” list.

In February, the remarkable Juno vehicle will complete the second of 2 extremely close approaches (both to 1,500 km) to Jupiter’s innermost Galilean moon, Io. These very close flybys (the first having occurred on December 30th, 2023) allow the probe to observe the most volcanically active place in the solar system in extraordinary detail, with the February flyby also allowing the spacecraft to reduce its orbital period around Jupiter and its moons to just 33 days.

Another mission to Jupiter will commence in 2024, with the October launch of NASA’s Europa Clipper at the start of a 5.5 year cruise out from Earth to Jupiter, with assistance from Mars and Earth (in that order) to get there. Once in orbit about Jupiter in 2030, the mission will commence a 4-year primary study of the icy moon of Europa to help scientists better characterise the moon, including the potential for it have an extensive liquid water ocean under its icy crust.

A rendering of the Europa Clipper vehicle. Credit: NASA/JPL

In terms of NASA’s human spaceflight operations and ambitions, 2024 should see three landmark flights:

  • April 2024 should see the first test flight of Dream Chaser Cargo to the International Space Station (ISS). An automated space plane which is launched via rocket (generally the ULA Vulcan Centaur) but lands like a conventional aircraft, Dream Chaser is intended to deliver up to 5.5 tonnes of cargo (pressurised and unpressurised) to the ISS, although for this first flight, the Dream chaser Tenacity will be limited to 3.5 tonnes. The flight will be the first of at least six the Dream Chaser system will make in support of ISS operations through until 2030, carrying both supplies to, and equipment and experiments from, the space station.
  • April 2024 should also see the long-overdue Crewed Flight Test (CFT) of Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner to the ISS. The eight-day mission is due to see test pilots Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams fly the reusable capsule to a rendezvous and docking with the space station. If successful, the mission will clear the way for operational flights of the Starliner vehicles carrying around 4 people at a time to the ISS from 2025 onwards.
  • Artemis-2 . Targeting an end-of-year launch, this mission – officially referred to Artemis Exploration Mission 2 (EM-2) will return humans to the vicinity of the Moon for the first time since 1972 and Apollo 17. Utilising the third Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle (MPCV), Orion CM-003, the 10-day mission will see the four-person crew of Americans Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Canadian Jeremy Hansen launched on a flight that will loop them around the Moon, with Glover and Koch respectively becoming the first person of colour and first woman to fly in space beyond low Earth orbit. The focus of the mission is to carry out multiple tests of the vehicle in preparation for the commencement of missions to return humans to the surface of the Moon with Artemis 3, officially targeting at end of 2025 launch date, but more realistically slated to fly no earlier than early-to-mid 2026.
The Artemis EM-2 crew (l to r): Commander Reid Wiseman (USA); Mission Specialist 1 Christina Koch (USA); Orion Capsule Pilot Victor Glover USA); Mission Specialist 2 Jeremy Hansen (Canada). Credit: ABC News

The US, with the largest share of the commercial spaceflight market will also see numerous private venture missions – some in support of NASA’s lunar exploration ambitions – take place. For me, the most notable commercial flights taking place in 2024 are:

  • January 8th, 2024: the maiden flight of the Vulcan Centaur rocket. The new workhorse launch vehicle for United Launch Alliance (ULA), this first flight will hopefully see the much-delayed launcher send the Peregrine Lander to the Moon. Also a private development (by Astrobiotic Technologies) the Peregrine Mission One has been funded under NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload services (CLPS) programme to deliver science and technology payloads to the Moon. If successful, the launch should be the first of 7 Vulcan Centaur launches for the year on behalf of NASA, the US military and commercial customers.
  • August 2024: the maiden flight of Blue Origin’s heavy lift launcher, New Glenn. With a first stage designed to be reused up to 10 times, New Glenn is intended to be Blue Origin’s entry into commercial and government-funded space launch operations, capable of delivering large payloads to a range of orbits around Earth and sending them into deep space. For its first flight, New Glenn will be responsible for sending NASA’s EscaPADE (Escape and Plasma Acceleration and Dynamics Explorers) orbiters to Mars.
  • Starship IFT-3: the third attempt by SpaceX to achieve a semi-orbit around Earth with their controversial-come-questionable Starship / Super Heavy launches combination. The exact date for the attempt is unknown given the on-going investigation into the failure of the second integrated flight test and the further loss of both vehicles.
  • Polaris Dawn: the first in a trio of privately-funded crewed orbital missions utilising the tried and trusted SpaceX Crew Dragon. Spearheaded by billionaire Jared Isaacman (who funded and flew the Inspiration4 flight in September 2021), the mission will feature Isaacman and three others – form USAF fighter pilot Scott “Kidd” Poteet and SpaceX employees Sarah Gillis and Anna Menon – none of whom are professional astronauts. As will as carrying out a range of experiments and raising money for St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee, the mission will attempt to set to records: become the highest Earth-orbiting crewed spaceflight to date (1,400 km above the Earth) and perform the first ever commercial spacewalks, utilising EVA suits designed and developed by SpaceX.

European Space Agency

The European Space Agency hopes to finally launch its Ariane 6 booster on its maiden flight around the middle of the year. Another launcher development programme that has had its share of issues, Ariane 6 is intended to replace the already retired Ariane 5 as ESA’s workhorse medium-to-heavy lift carrier, capable of achieving all of the common Earth orbits with payloads of up to 21.6 tonnes (LEO) and able to lob up to 8.6 tonnes into a lunar transfer orbit (LTO). The maiden flight will see the vehicle hopefully deliver an international mix of government and private missions to LEO in a rideshare arrangement, and will be followed by a French space agency / defence agency mission before the end of the year.

An artist’s impression of ESA’s Hera spacecraft studying the 170-metre across Dimophos asteroid, with its two cubesats called Milani and Juventas on their way to attempt soft landings on the asteroid. Credit: ESA

Later in 2024, ESA will utilise a SpaceX Falcon 9 booster to send its Hera spacecraft to rendezvous with the binary asteroids Didymos and Dimorphos, which it is scheduled to do in December 2026, 26 months after launch. Once there, Hera’s primary focus of study will Dimorphos, the target of NASA’s DART Impactor mission, which slammed into it in September 2022 in an attempt to assess the theory of kinetic impact as a means to deflect an asteroid on a collision course with Earth. As well as examining the physical aftermath of DART’s impact on Dimorphos, Hera will attempt to characterise both asteroids in detail, land two cubesats – Milani and Juventas on Dimorphos before itself attempting a landing on Didymos at the end of its mission.

2024 will also see the launch of the joint ESA-JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) EarthCARE (Cloud, Aerosol and Radiation Explorer) mission, designed to investigate the role that clouds and aerosols play in reflecting incident solar radiation back into space and trapping the infrared radiation emitted from Earth’s surface to better understand the evolution of Earth’s temperature.

Continue reading “Space Sunday: looking at 2024” →

Space Sunday: cat videos from space and images of a cold world

Posted on by Inara Pey
Credit: NASA/JPL via Associated Press

For 60 years, NASA’s Deep Space Network (DSN) has been the means by which the agency has maintained contact with every mission it has sent beyond Earth’s orbit. As missions have become more and more sophisticated, so has the amount of data flowing to and from the DSN’s three major ground stations – one in California, one in Spain, and one in Australia, and so positioned so that between them they provide a full 360O coverage of space around Earth – has increased.

While the DSN does work in cooperation with similar facilities operated by other nations – notably the Japanese Deep Space Network and EASTRACK , the European Space Agency’s network – NASA has been facing practical limits on how much data the DSN can send and receive – even allowing for past moves to higher bandwidth radio transmissions to increase data flow volumes – without increasing the number, size and power of the radio dishes the network has at its disposal; something which would be a long and costly process to put in place.

So instead, the agency is now moving to laser-based optical communications. some of these have been trialled with communications between Earth and orbiting satellites and the International Space Station, but a new system currently in development called DSOC (“dee-sock”), for Deep Space Optical Communications, now promises to revolutionise NASA’s deep space communications.

I first mentioned DSOC back in October 2023 when covering the launch of the Psyche mission to send a robotic vehicle to study the asteroid 16 Psyche (see: Space Sunday: Psyche and an eclipse). As I noted in that piece, the mission spacecraft – also called Psyche, carries a proof-of-concept DSOC system for communicating with Earth, and that system would be tested during – and possibly well beyond – the first twelve month’s of the vehicle’s outward flight from Earth.

Optical communications are of extreme importance for deep space missions for a number of reasons. First and foremost, that allow for the use of much greater bandwidths, allowing a greater volume of data to be transmitted in the same time as used for conventional radio transmissions. Secondly, the tight focus of optical transmissions removes a lot of the signal attenuation experienced by radio frequency transmissions, whilst also increasing overall signal strength and security. Finally, optical systems don’t require large receiving dishes, etc., and so can be far more compact and lighter than radio systems, allowing spacecraft mass to be reduced.

The Psyche mission’s route to asteroid 16-Psyche, going by way of a Mars gravity assist (2026). The dotted lines show the two main periods for testing DSOC. Credit: NASA

Testing of the Pysche mission’s DSOC proof-of-concept system recently started, and on December 22nd, 2023, it achieved a significant milestone by transmitting a pre-recorded 15-second high-definition video from the spacecraft to the Hale Telescope operated by the Palomar Observatory. On receipt, Palomar transmitted the video to to NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, where it was played in real time on the Internet. Transmitted across a distance of 31 million kilometres, the video was sent at a rate of 267 Mbps and took 101 seconds to reach Earth in its entirety.

And of course, being a video destined to be seen on the Internet, its subject was that of a cat; specifically a tabby called Taters, who was being entertained with a laser pointer toy.

Despite the light-hearted nature of the test, it underscores the potential for DSOC capabilities in future space missions. It shows that not only does the laser-based system transmit and receive far more data than can be achieved through conventional radio link in the same time period, it has the potential to bring “real time” (allowing for the  inevitable lag on transmission times) video to things like rover missions on Mars, allowing mission planners and vehicle drivers to see terrain, etc., with greater continuity and clarity and faster than can be achieved through the recording, transmission, receipt and stitching together of multiple still images.

When it comes to human missions into deep space, capabilities like DSOC could become invaluable in helping crews on Mars (for example) maintain a sense of grater connection to family and friends on Earth simply because of the ability to see and record personal messages in high-definition video. To both these ends, the DSOC tests using the Psyche spacecraft could be extended all the way out to its rendezvous with Mars, allowing engineers to gather precise data on the capabilities and options for enhancing optical communications systems for use with robotic and crewed missions.

JWST Reveals a Dynamic Uranus

Learning aside the prepubescent titters mention of its name tends to give rise two in some quarters, Uranus is one of the most enigmatic planets within our solar system. A gas giant, Uranus is smaller than Saturn, but slightly larger than Neptune. It has mean diameter four times that of Earth, with a mass some 14.5 time greater than that of Earth.

Orbiting the Sun at an average distance of 20AU – 20 times that of the Earth’s average distance from the Sun – Uranus takes 84 terrestrial years to complete a single circuit around our star. To put this in context, it has not even completed three orbits since William Herschel first observed it in 1781 and was able to determine it to be a planet (or possibly – as he originally thought – a comet) rather than dismissing it as just another star, as those before him all the way back as far as Hipparchus had done.

Earth and Uranus to scale. Credit: NASA

But what makes Uranus curious is the fact that it is the only major planet (that is, excluding Pluto and the other dwarf planets) to have an extreme axial tilt – some 82.23º. The exact cause for this isn’t known for certain, but the most common theory is that very early in its history, Uranus was dealt a blow from a body of rock larger than Earth, knocking it over whilst causing the impacting body to break apart.

The upshot of this is a very – by our standards at least – unusual set of circumstances for the planet. These include the fact that in each 84-Earth-year orbit around the Sun, each of Uranus’ poles receives around 42 years of continuous sunlight, followed by 42 years of continuous darkness, and it is during the dozen(ish) terrestrial years of the equinoxes, when the Sun is facing the equator of Uranus, that the planet’s mid-latitudes experience  a period of day–night cycles similar to those seen on most of the other planets. However, despite this – and because of a still-to-be-understand mechanism, the planet’s equatorial regions experience higher temperatures than are seen at its poles.

This mystery is deepened by the fact that Uranus is markedly colder than the other gas giants, but it has a low thermal flux, radiating little to no excess heat. Again, why this should by is unknown. One theory is that that force of the impact – if it was an impact – which tipped the planet over may have cause Uranus’ core to shed all of its primordial heat; another theory is that there may by one or more compositionally different layers within the planet’s mantle which cause convection flows which carry heat so far up towards the outer mantel and its boundary with the atmosphere before pushing the heat back down towards the core before it can be properly expelled.

The most widely-accepted view of the interior of Uranus. Credit: Frederik Beuk

Uranus, with its ring system and 27 known moons, all tilted in the same manner as the planet, has only ever been visited once by a vehicle from Earth, and that was Voyager 2, which came to within 81,500 km of the upper reaches of the planet’s atmosphere on January 24th, 1986 as it swung by the planet en-route to Neptune. At that time, Uranus appeared surprising bland and uninteresting, despite the fact is rotates around its axis once every 17 hours; in fact, the spacecraft only noted 10 features visible in the planet’s atmosphere as it passed, a marked contrast with the likes of Neptune, Saturn and Jupiter.

Since then, Uranus has been observed by the Hubble Space Telescope (HST), which allowed astronomers their first close-up glimpse of the planet’s north polar latitudes. HST’s imaging, largely in the visible and ultra-violet wavelengths did help to reveal a more dynamic thrust to Uranus’ atmospheric mechanisms, whilst further observations in the infra-red suggested that Uranus is every bit as dynamic as its gas giant siblings.

These latter findings have now been added to by the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), which earlier in 2023 was commanded to turn its huge eye towards Uranus and have a good look. In doing so, JWST was able to image the planet’s slender series of rings – so dark they are hard to discern in the visible spectrum when images by telescopes – and several of the tiny moons which orbit Uranus and help shepherd those rings.

An enlarged image in the infra-red spectrum, as taken by the James Webb Space Telescope, shown the northern hemisphere of Uranus, complete with its ring system and several of its 27 moons (the blue-white dots around the planet and its rings), some of which help “shepherd” the rings and keep them in their position around the planet. These nine moons are (starting upper right, in the 2 o’clock position and progressing clockwise): Rosalind, Puck, Belinda, Desdemona, Cressida, Bianca, Portia, Juliet, and Perdita. Credit: NASA / ESA / CSA / STSci

In particular, Webb was able to capture the elusive Zeta Ring, the closest to the planet and so diffuse it has proven hard to image with any clarity. In addition, JWST caught multiple atmospheric formations, including the planet’s “polar cap”.

This cap – a collection of high-altitude weather formations rather than any ice cap of the type with which we’re familiar – tends to form during the solstices, when one or other the Uranus’ poles is pointing more-or-less directly towards the Sun – in this case, the summer solstice, which reaches its peak in 2028. Observing the development of this cap, as JWST has and will continue to do over the next few years, may help unlock some of the mysteries surrounding the dynamics of the planet’s atmosphere and weather. Beyond the bright disc of the polar region, JWST also imaged cloud formations suggesting both developing and on-going storms, the understanding of which might inform astronomers as to the planet’s heat flow mechanisms.

A wider-field view of Uranus, as captured by JWST in September 2023, with more of the planet’s moons annotated, and several galaxies far beyond our own also visible. Credit: NASA / ESA / CSA / STSci

Gaining a clearer view of the planet’s ring system is important for those who want to send a mission to study the planet and its moons at some point in the future. Interest in doing this is actually fairly high in some quarters, with no fewer than five orbital missions being proposed in just the last 15 years alone. However, having a clearer understanding of the composition and disposition of the Urainian ring system, particularly the inner rings like the Zeta Ring, is seen as vital to the success of any orbital mission.

Thus, Webb’s unparalleled infrared resolution and sensitivity is allowing astronomers to see Uranus its system with unparalleled clarity, helping them to better understand the planet, the challenges any future missions their might face and – perhaps most intriguingly of all – helping them understand how exoplanets which show similarities with Uranus and Neptune may have formed and how they work.

Space Sunday: 1,000 sols and counting

Posted on by Inara Pey
NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover using the WATSON camera mounted on its robot arm to take this “selfie” showing the rover’s camera mast looking at WATSON and the Ingenuity helicopter sitting on the surface of Mars after being dropped there by the rover. This image was r=taken on the 46th sol of the mission (April 6th, 2021). Credit: NASA/JPL/ASU/MSSS

1,000 Martian sols ago, two further ambassadors from Earth arrived on the Red Planet, winched safely down onto the floor of Jezero Crater by a hovering “skycrane”. Since then, both have performed their work near-flawlessly over a period of almost 3 terrestrial years – one doing do for far, far longer than its designers and operators had ever hoped. They are, of course, the Mars 2020 mission rover Perseverance and its companion “Mars Helicopter” Ingenuity.

The mission actually arrived on Mars on February 18th 2021, but the passing of 1,000 sols (as the local Martian day is called) is an excellent opportunity to review the Mars 2020 mission as a whole, and look to the future.

Ingenuity had a planned mission duration of 90 terrestrial days during which it was expected to be able to make up to five flights; no-one really knew how well the craft’s batteries, electronics and mechanical systems would stand up to the hostile conditions on Mars once operations got underway. But as of December 2nd, 2023, the 1.8 kg drone has complete 64 flight and clocked up just over 2 hours of airborne time. In doing so, it has proven that entirely automated flight on other planets without direct human control is possible, and that a small, camera-equipped aerial vehicle can work in tandem with ground units to help reconnoitre potential routes of exploration and identify potential points of scientific interest.

Perseverance, meanwhile, has spent the intervening time studying an ancient river delta within the crater, believed to have formed as water poured down from the plains above early in Mars’ history, depositing clays and other minerals as they gradually flowed outwards and eventually gave rise to a lake within Jezero. The primary mission for the rover has thus far been to explore the delta and seek both evidence of past habitability and search for actual biosignatures indicative of past life. In doing so, Perseverance has gathered 23 air and soil samples, some of which may be returned to Earth in a future (if controversial, in terms of NASA funding) sample-return mission.

In this false-colour image of Jezero Crater, the river that once broached the crater walls and carried water into its basin to form a shallow lake can be seen on the left, with the river’s delta clearly visible on the crater floor. The colours are intended to highlight different mineral deposits within the delta, with green representing the widespread carbonates. Most recently, Perseverance has been exploring the green-tinted area above the main river channel. Credit: NASA/JPL/ASU/MSSS

The data gathered by the rover confirms that Jezero Crater – originally formed some 4 billion years ago via an asteroid impact – was subject to multiple periods of flooding which took place over an extended period commencing several hundred million years after the crater was formed. These periods of flooding initially gave rise to the deposition of sandstone and mudstone in the crater, suggesting a modest lake was created. Later, this lake underwent a more sustained period of cyclic flooding and evaporation, giving rise to the deposition of salt-rich mudstones as the waters expanded and contracted.

At its peak, it is believed the lake was perhaps 35 kilometres in diameter and 30 metres deep. Later, as Mars’ climate became more erratic, the crater was subjected to sudden, violent bursts of flooding from above, with large rocks and boulders from outside of the crater being deposited within it by repeated flash floods before the lake – and all surface water on Mars – slowly vanished, being lost to space through evaporation as the atmosphere was lost, or ras a result of it retreating underground, where it froze.

Of the samples gathered and studies by the rover’s on-board science lab, many carried tantalising markers which might be associated with the formation of basic forms of life. These include carbonates, minerals that form in watery environments often favourable to the development of organic molecules (although the molecules themselves could be the result of either organic or inorganic reactions within the water). The rover has also found quantities of fine-grained silica and deposits of phosphate, both of which have been rich in carbonates, and which are respectively known to both preserve fossilised microbes and help microbes kick-start their life processes here on Earth – although evidence of them doing the same on Mars remains elusive.  Some of the carbonate-carrying phosphates have been found to contain iron, something again associated with life here on Earth.

December 2023 is a key month for Perseverance, as it brings to a close the rover’s fourth science campaign within Jezero Crater and the start of a new endeavour. Commencing in 2024, Perseverance will follow the course of the river bed back towards the crater wall – a distance of around 4 km – to where mission personnel believe they have located an “easy” climb up the crater walls and which intersects the river’s channel at its lower end.

This image of Jezero Crater, captured by NASA’s Perseverance rover, shows the potential route (yellow line) that the robot may take to the crater’s rim. Credit: NASA/JPL/ASU/MSSS

Climbing the crater up to the plains above will expose Perseverance’s science instruments to bedrock and material even older then the outflow plain it has thus far studied, allowing it to reach back to the time the crater was formed. Along the way it will be able to both study the changing rocks and any atmospheric changes as it climbs upwards. As well as analysing the rock samples it gathers, the rover will also store some in the remaining 13 sample tubes contained in its belly, allowing them to be cached together with some of the remaining tubes of material gathered from the crater floor so that an alternate collection of samples can await the arrival of the still-to-be-fully-defined sample return mission, should landing within Jezero itself prove too difficult for the proposed lander part of the mission, and the samples cached there are abandoned.

 Video Promotes Rosalind Franklin

If fortune favours the unfortunate, the next rover to trundle across the surface of Mars will be Europe’s long-awaited Rosalind Franklin. Originally called the ExoMars rover, this vehicle has suffered a number of setbacks during its 20 years in development and pre-flight hell. However, (and touching large amounts of wood, given I have something of a loose association with the mission), things are currently on course for an October 2028 launch, that the European Space Agency felt confident enough to release a new promotional video showcasing the mission.

Some 60% heavier and slightly larger than NASA’s Mars Exploration Rovers Opportunity and Spirit, the European rover is, like them, solar-powered. It also shares a similar mission arc as both of the MER rovers and the nuclear-powered Curiosity and Perseverance: to locate evidence for water on Mars and seek out evidence for past signs of life. However, in one respect its mission does differ, as Rosalind Franklin will also focus seeking evidence for current microbial life on Mars.

To assist with the latter, the rover will be equipped with a drilling mechanism capable of reaching up to two metres beneath the planet’s surface – far beyond depths so far plumbed in the search for evidence of Martian microbial life – with the samples gathered then put through extensive study and analysis by the rover’s multiple science systems.

The landing site for the mission is Oxia Planum, a region located between two outflow channel systems: Mawrth Vallis to the northeast and Ares Vallis to the southwest. Scientists believe this region will contain remnants of the planet’s wetter past, increasing the potential for finding evidence for past or even current microbial life on the planet. Once there – the flight to Mars will take almost exactly 2 years, courtesy of the capabilities of its launch vehicle – Rosalind Franklin will travel up to 70 metres a day when on the move, with an overall primary mission expected to last some 7 months.

Voyager 1 Hits Problems

Humanity’s first interstellar ambassador, Voyager 1, is now just over 47 years into its voyage and more than 162 AU (or 24 billion kilometres) from Earth – and like all of us as we grow older, it is increasingly showing signs of its age. Already, the more energy-intensive science instruments on the lonely spacecraft have been shut down, and engineers have had to repeatedly work their way gingerly around assorted problems the craft has encountered; such is the distance separating vehicle and home planet that even the tiniest errors risks breaking all communications.

An artist’s impression of a voyager probe in deep space. Credit: NASA

Most recently, Voyager 1 has started having issues with two key systems: the Flight Data System (FDS) and the Telemetry Modulation Unit (TMU). The latter is responsible for transmitting to Earth data on the spacecraft’s condition, orientation, etc., together with information from its operational science instruments, and receiving and managing communications from Earth. The data it sends is gathered by the three computers of the FDS, which combine everything obtained from the other instruments and sub-systems into a single package for the TMU to send. Except recently, all the TMU has been sending is a repeating pattern of meaningless binary, although it has continued to act on messages from Earth.

It had been thought the problem lies with the TMU itself, but after careful and painfully slow diagnoses (round-trip communications between Voyager 1 and Earth are on the order of 45 hours); the problem was found to be within the FDS. Over the weekend of December 9th/10th, mission engineers ordered the FDS to perform a sequential restart, which it was hoped would kick-start the system into once again passing meaningful data to the TMU. It didn’t.

Created using NASA’s Eyes on the Solar System, this image shows what it might be like to look back at our solar system from 162 AU

So currently, Voyager 1 remains capable of receiving commands from Earth, but it cannot provide any understandable feedback on whether anything succeeded, or what systems are trying to report back through the FDS. As such, the Voyager mission team have indicated it will take several weeks to formulate a new plan of action in order to try to resolve the problem.

Spaceplanes, Spaceplanes

Both the United States and China were due to launch their highly secretive, automated “spaceplanes” this past week – although as it turned out, only one of them actually did so.

The United States X-37B programme had been due to commence its seventh mission – and the fourth flight of the 2nd of the two X-37B craft the US Space Force and US Air Force jointly operate – on December 14th. It was to be the first flight of the craft atop a SpaceX Falcon Heavy, seen as offering the craft the ability to fly missions at much higher orbits than can be achieved using its over launch vehicles – the ULA Atlas V 501and the Falcon 9 Block 4 -, potentially allowing for more flexible and even longer-duration on-orbit operations.

The USSF / USAF X-37B (vehicle 1), shortly after its return to Earth on November 22nd, 2022, following a 908-day orbital mission. Credit: US DoD

The cause of the delay has not been stated, but appears to have been called by SpaceX rather than the US DoD, and following the postponement, the Falcon Heavy was removed from Pad 39A at Kennedy Space Centre. At the time of writing, no revised launch target has been announced.

China, however, so no such delays in the third flight of its Shenlong “Divine Dragon” spaceplane, which lifted-off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre on December 14th, as planned, using a Long March 2F booster.

Little is actually known about the Chinese vehicle – although there is an emerging consensus that it is potentially similar in overall size and form to the US X-37B. The craft first flew the craft in September 2020 and then was launched a second time in August 2022 – this mission lasting for 276 days, which is still a small fraction of the time the US craft tends to spend in orbit (908 days on its last mission). That said, the second Shenlong mission did cause surprise and concern in the west when it apparently launch / placed / jettisoned something into space  – China has remained tight-lipped as to what it was.

An artist’s rendering of what the Chinese automated space plane might look like. Credit: Erik Simonsen / Getty

No information on the flight or its potential duration has been given by the Chinese authorities, with the official statement post-launch something of a laconic repetition of the announcements which followed the first two flights of the vehicle.

The test spacecraft will be in orbit for a period of time before returning to the domestic scheduled landing site. During this period, it will carry out reusable technology verification as planned to provide technical support for the peaceful use of space.

– Official and bland Chinese statement following the latest Shenlong launch

That both vehicles were originally intended to launch so close together is not a coincidence. The USSC/USAF has been very open in its desire to learn more about the Chinese vehicle’s purpose and capabilities – and the China probably likewise want to know more about the American vehicle. Thus, having them in space at the same time allows the two nations to observe one another’s craft via Earth-based means and – perhaps – mimic the manoeuvrings of one another’s vehicles.

Space Sunday: ISS reaches 25; HST resumes mission

Posted on by Inara Pey
Image of the ISS taken by SpaceX Crew-2 mission on November 8th, 2021 after it successfully undocked from the ISS Harmony module. Credit: NASA

The International Space Station celebrated its 25th anniversary on December 6th, 2023 – the date marking the orbital mating of the first two modules forming the station in 1998.

This operation was undertaken by the US space shuttle Endeavour, commanded by astronaut Robert Cabana. Launched on December 4th, 1998 from Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy Space Centre on STS-88, Endeavour carried the US- built Unity module in its cargo bay. Once in orbit, it started a series of manoeuvres to rendezvous with the 19.3 tonne Zarya Functional Cargo Block (referred to as the FGB, this being the Russian funktsionalno-gruzovoy blok), which had been launched out of Baikonur Cosmodrome Site 81 in Kazakhstan on November 20th, 1998.

As Endeavour approached the Russian module, the shuttle’s robot arm lifted the 11.6 tonne Unity node from its cavernous cargo bay and rotating it so that one of the module’s two Pressurized Mating Adapters (PMA) could be attached to the Orbiter Docking System also located in the shuttle’s cargo bay and connected to the shuttle’s airlock.

On reaching Zarya, Cabana then slowly eased Endeavour so it was paralleling Zarya’s orbital track whilst “below” the Russian module. He then gently manoeuvred the shuttle to within 10 metres of Zarya – close enough for Mission specialist Nancy J. Currie, who had mated Unity to the shuttle’s Docking System, to use the shuttle’s robot arm to “grab” the Russian module and gently mate it with the second PMA on the far end of Unity.

December 6th, 1998. Operated by NASA astronaut Nancy Currie uses the robot arm on the space shuttle Endeavour to gently position the Russian Zarya module over the USS Unity module, anchored against the Shuttle Docking System, in readiness to mate the two. Credit: NASA

EVAs were then conducted by Mission Specialists Jerry Ross and James Newman to connect power and data services between the two modules, and on December 10th, 1998 Cabana and Russian Cosmonaut Sergei Krikalev opened the hatch between the shuttle and the Unity module and entered the latter together as a symbol of US-Russian cooperation, after which members of the shuttle’s crew completed bringing the station’s power and communications systems on-line.

Whilst this marked the first time humans entered the nascent space station, it would not be until November 2001 that the first official crew – Expedition 1 – arrived at the ISS that the station’s “operational” phase would begin, the period between STS-88 and Expedition 1 being regarded as a “construction” period. However, given the latter actually continued well beyond the arrival of Expedition 1, the mating of Unity and Zarya has come to be regarded as the official anniversary of the ISS.

Excluding the astronauts who visited the ISS as a part of STS-88 and those missions ahead of Expedition 1, the space station ISS has hosted 273 individuals from 21 countries around the world. Together they have conducted over 2,500 short- and long-term science experiments and studies involving researchers from 108 countries and multiple disciplines including Earth and space science, educational activities, human research and healthcare, physical science, and technology.

To mark the 25th anniversary, NASA held a special event with the current ISS crew of Expedition 70 – who themselves represent the international nature of the project, as shown below – and special guest Robert Cabana, commander of STS-88.

The official Expedition 70 crew portrait with (top row from left) Roscosmos cosmonauts Nikolai Chub, Konstantin Borisov, and Oleg Kononenko; JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Satoshi Furukawa; and NASA astronaut Loral O’Hara. In the front row are, ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut and Expedition 70 Commander Andreas Mogensen and NASA astronaut Jasmin Moghbeli. Credit: NASA

For Cabana, the event was something of a triple celebration. Not only did it mark space station’s anniversary, but also the 25th anniversary of his 4th and final space mission with STS-88, and the fact that at the age of 74, he is now retiring from NASA. Throughout his later career at the agency, he remained close to the ISS project, joining the Operations team in 1999 to head-up its international aspect, working with other national space agencies. From here he went to work in Russia, heading up NASA’s ISS team there, before becoming the deputy head of the entire ISS project in the US for a two-year period through to 2004. After this he served as the Director of Flight Crew Operations, all the while maintaining his “active” flight status as an astronaut. In May 2021, after stints managing various NASA facilities – including Kennedy Space Centre -, Cabana was promoted to NASA Deputy Administrator, one of 16 former US astronauts holding senior management roles in the agency, the post from which he will now be retiring.

The event itself was a little dry, but also fascinating in the way to shone a light on the astronauts themselves in terms of their thoughts on living and working in space and what captivates them.

The celebration of the space station’s 25th anniversary came alongside the news that NASA is revising contract options and timings for the station’s “retirement”. This is due to come in late 2030 or early 2031, when the ISS will be de-orbited in a controlled manner so that it will break-up on entering the upper atmosphere, with any large elements falling into the South Pacific.

Originally, it had been planned to announce the contract for building the de-orbit vehicle at the end of 2023. However, this has now been pushed back until February 2024, the additional time to allow prospective bidders for the contract to review its updated options, which have been altered from a fixed-price basis to something a little more flexible.

This new contract calls for the de-orbit vehicle to be ready for launch no later than mid-2029, so that it can be launched to dock with the ISS where it will remain until called upon to de-orbit the station. Whilst planned for the end of 2030 / start of 2031, the new contract requires the vehicle must have “dwell in place” capability, allowing it to remain docked at the station but capable of performing its task for a period beyond 2031 so as to provide increased flexibility in the time frame for the decommissioning and de-orbit of the station.

Blue Origin to Purchase ULA?

United Launch Alliance (ULA) is something of the “granddaddy” of US government launch system providers. A joint venture between Lockheed Martin Space and Boeing Defense, Space & Security, it was formed in 2006 with its primary customers being the US Department of Defense (DoD) and NASA, proving them with the expendable Delta IV Heavy and Atlas V boosters and which will soon be replaced by ULA’s new Vulcan Centaur rocket.

However, at the end of October 2023, ULA’s current CEO Tory Bruno indicated the entire company could available for purchase by anyone willing to obtain it as a going concern, rather than breaking it up, stating the overall structure of the company – answerable in equal portions to the two parent companies – has prevented the company from flourishing as well as it could if under single ownership.

Prior to Bruno’s announcement it had been rumoured that either Boeing or Lockheed would buy the other out, but neither appeared willing to do so, each pursuing its own space contracts. As a result, and at the end of November 29th, 2023, it appeared that three bidders had expressed an interest in taking over ULA – although one has yet to be confirmed.

Th “possible” bidder has been referred to as a “well-capitalized aerospace firm that is interested in increasing its space portfolio” but which “does not have a large amount of space business presently”. Meanwhile the two “known” organisations interested in ULA are said to be a private equity fund – and Blue Origin, the privately-owned company founded (and largely funded) by billionaire Jeff Bezos.

The idea of Blue Origin gobbling up ULA might seem inconceivable, but there is actually a lot of synergy between the two already: Blue Origin has worked closely with ULA in the development of the company’s BE-4 engine which will be used to power ULA’s Vulcan Centaur and upgraded Atlas V (as well as Blue Origin’s own New Glenn).

An artist’s impression of the Vulcan Centaur rocket – designed by ULA and with a core stage powered by the Blue Origin BE-4 engine. Credit: ULA

Further, Vulcan Centaur’s capabilities overlap nicely with those of New Glenn, offering Blue Origin with a broad range of launch capabilities. ULA has also sought to eventually make Vulcan Centaur semi-reusable, the engine module being detached from the rocket’s first stage and recovered after splashdown, allowing it to be refurbished and re-used. Such a capability would both dramatically reduce operating costs with Vulcan Centaur – and also match Blue Origin’s desire to develop semi-reusable launch systems, as with its New Glenn. So again, there is a synergy here.

Perhaps most beneficial to Blue Origin is that an acquisition of ULA is the fact that the latter is already an establish provider of launch vehicles to the lucrative US defence market, which Blue Origin could then capitalise upon. In addition, ULA’s Atlas V and the Vulcan Centaur launches are designed to carry humans into space via the Boeing CST-100 Starliner capsule. Thus, Blue Origin gain the means to fly crews into space in partnership with Boeing – potentially vital to its space station plans.

An artist’s concept of the Orbital Reef facility proposed by Blue Origin and Sierra Space, showing the core modules (to be built by Blue Origin) with a Sierra Space Dream Chaser (l) and Boeing CST-100 (r) docked against them, with smaller inflatable and rigid modules mated to either side, with another CST-100 approaching. Credit: Blue Origin / Sierra Space

In 2021, Blue Origin and Sierra Space announced plans for an orbital facility called Orbital Reef, designed to provide facilities for up to 10 people at a time. Under current plans, Blue Origin would provide the station’s large-diameter modules and the launch vehicle (New Glenn), Sierra Space the smaller modules and cargo support via their Dream Chaser vehicle, and Boeing / ULA crew launch capabilities via Starliner / ULA launchers. If Blue Origin obtained ULA, it would further streamline Orbital Reef development / operations.  Plus, being able to fly the CST-100 via the Atlas and Vulcan Centaur allows Blue Origin to access a share of NASA’s crewed launch requirements to service the ISS, again through Boeing.

Thus far, neither Boeing nor Lockheed have either confirmed or denied whether ULA is in fact up for sale – but industry insiders believe an announcement on the state of play with ULA – including any winning bid – will be made in early 2024. However, exactly how long any acquisition might take to complete is also unclear, requiring as it would the approval via the US Federal Trade Commission.

Continue reading “Space Sunday: ISS reaches 25; HST resumes mission” →

Space Sunday: lunar delays and planetary dances

Posted on by Inara Pey
The Peregrine Mission One lander on the surface of the Moon, as imaged by Astrobotic Technology, the company responsible for the lander’s design and construction. Credit: Astrobotic Technology

America’s return to the surface Moon as a part of government-funded activities will start in earnest over Christmas 2023, with the launch of the NASA-supported Peregrine Mission One and the Peregrine lander, built by Astrobotic Technology, which will take to the sky on December 24th, 2023 atop a Vulcan Centaur rocket out of Cape Canaveral Space Force Base, Florida.

Originally a private mission, Mission One qualified for NASA funding under the agency’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) in 2018, effectively making it the first lander programme funded by NASA under the broader umbrella of the Artemis programme. In this capacity, the mission will fly 14 NASA-funded science payloads in addition to the original 14 private payloads planned for the mission.

The mission will be the inaugural payload carrying flight for the Vulcan Centaur, with the lander arriving in lunar orbit after just a few days flight – but will not land until January 25th, 2024, the delay due to the need to await the having to wait for the right lighting conditions at the landing site.

I’ll have more on this mission closer to the launch date, but in the meantime, as the Peregrine Mission One launch date is getting closer, the date for America’s return to the Moon with a crewed mission is slipping further away.

The Peregrine Lander (r) will mark the first flight of United Launch Alliance’s (ULA) new Vulcan Centaur launch vehicle (l). Credits: ULA and Astrobotic Technology

In terms of the Artemis crewed programmed, there have been a number of flags raised around the stated time-frame for Artemis 3, the mission slated to deliver the first such crew to the surface of the Moon in 2025, over the past few years. These have notably come from NASA’s own Office of Inspector General (OIG), but similar concerns have also started to be more openly voiced from within NASA.

These concerns largely focus on whether or not SpaceX can provide NASA with its promised lunar lander and its supporting infrastructure in anything like a timely manner, given that SpaceX has yet to actually successfully fly a Starship vehicle. In this, the awarding of the lander vehicle – called the Human Landing System (HLS) in NASA parlance – to SpaceX, who propose using a specialised version of the Starship vehicle, was always controversial. For one thing, Starship HLS will be incapable of being launched directly to lunar orbit. Instead, it will have to initially go to low Earth orbit and reload itself with propellants – which will also have to be carried to orbit by other Starship vehicles.

Infographic produced by Blue Origin highlighting the likely launch requirements for a Starship HLS. Credit: Blue Origin

At the time the contract for HLS was awarded (2021), competing bidders Blue Origin noted that according to SpaceX’s own data for Starship, a HLS variant of the vehicle would require the launch of fifteen other starship vehicles just to get it to the Moon. The first of these would be another modified Starship designed to be an “orbiting fuel depot”. It would then be followed by 14 further “tanker” Starship flights, which would transfer up to 100 tonnes of propellant per flight for transfer to the “fuel depot”. Only after these flights had been performed, would the Starship HLS be launched – and it would have to rendezvous with the “fuel depot” and transfer the majority of propellants (approx. 1,200 tonnes) from the depot to its own tanks in order to be able to boost itself to the Moon and then brake itself into lunar orbit.

Despite such claims being made on the basis of SpaceX’s own figures, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk pooh-poohed  them, claiming all such refuelling could be done in around 4-8 flights, not 16. Despite their own OIG and the US Government Accountability Office (GOA) agreeing with the 16-flight estimation, NASA nevertheless opted to accept Musk’s claim of 4-8 launches, going so far is to use it in their own mission graphics.

A NASA infographic showing the Artemis 3 mission infrastructure. Note the (optimistic)  6 Starship launches required to get the SpaceX Starship HLS to lunar orbit. Credit: NASA/SpaceX

However, the agency appeared to step back from this on November 17th, 2023, when Lakiesha Hawkins, assistant deputy associate administrator in NASA’s Moon to Mars Programme Office, confirmed that SpaceX will need “almost 20” Starship launches in order to get their HLS vehicle to the Moon, with launches at a relatively high cadence to avoid issues of boil-off occurring when storing propellant in orbit.

Now the US Government Accountability Office (GOA) has re-joined the debate, underlining the belief that SpaceX is far from being in any position to make good on its promises regarding the available of HLS. In particular the report highlights SpaceX is still a good way from demonstrating it can successfully orbit (and re-fly) a Starship vehicle, and it has not even started to demonstrate it has the means to store upwards of 1,000 tonnes of propellants in orbit, or the means by which volumes of propellants well above what has thus far been achieved can be safely and efficiently be transferred between space vehicles, and it has yet to produce a even a prototype design for the vehicle.

Nor does the report end there; it is also highly critical of the manner in which NASA has managed the equally important element of space suit design, firstly in awarding the initial contract for the Artemis lunar space suits to Axiom Space – a company with no practical experience in spacesuit design and development –  rather than a company like ILC Dover, which has produced all of NASA’s space suits since Apollo; then secondly in failing to provide Axiom with all the criteria for the suits, necessitating Axiom redesigning various elements of their suit to meet safety / emergency life support needs.

As a result, the GAO concludes that it is likely Artemis 3 will be in a position to go ahead much before 2027; there is just too much to do and too much to successfully develop for the mission to go ahead any sooner. In this, there is a certain irony. When Artemis was originally roadmapped, it was for a first crewed landing in 2028; however, the entire programme was unduly accelerated in 2019 by the Trump Administration, which wanted the first crewed mission to take place no later than December 2024, so as to fall within what they believed would be their second term in office. Had NASA been able to stick with the original plan of 2028, there is a good chance that right now, it would be considered as being “on target”, rather than being seen as “failing” to meet time frames.

Hubble Hits Further Gyro Issues

On November 29th, 2023, NASA announced that the ageing Hubble Space Telescope (HST) had entered a “safe” mode for an indefinite period due to further troubles with the system of gyroscopes used to point the observatory and hold it steady during imaging.

In all, HST has six gyroscopes (comprising 3 pairs – a primary and a back-up),with one of each pair required for normal operations. To help increase the telescope’s operational life, all three pairs of gyros were replaced in the last shuttle mission to service Hubble in 2009, and software was uploaded to the observatory to allow it to function on two gyros – or even one (with greatly reduced science capacity)  should it become necessary.

Today, only 3 of those gyros remain operational, the other three having simply worn out, and on November 19th, one of those remaining 3 started producing incorrect data, causing the telescope to enter a safe mode, stopping all science operations. Engineers investigating the issue were able to get the gyro operating correctly in short order, allowing Hubble to resume operations – only for the gyro to glitch again on November 21st and again on November 23rd, leading to the decision to leave the telescope in its safe mode until the issue can be more fully assessed.

The Hubble Space Telescope. Credit: NASA

The news of the problems immediately led to renewed calls for either a crewed servicing mission to Hubble or some form of automated servicing mission – either of which might also be used to boost HST’s declining orbit. However, such missions are far more easily said than done: currently, there isn’t any robotic craft capable of servicing Hubble (not the hardware or software to make one possible). When it comes to crewed missions, it needs to be remembered that Hubble was designed to be serviced by the space shuttle, which could carry a special adaptor in its cargo bay to which Hubble could be attached, providing a stable platform from which work could be conducted, with the shuttle’s robot arm also making a range of tasks possible, whilst the bulk of the shuttle itself made raising Hubble’s orbit much more straightforward.

Currently, the only US crewed vehicle capable of servicing HST is the SpaceX Crew Dragon – and it is far from ideal, having none of the advantages or capabilities offered by the space shuttle, despite the gung-ho attitude of many Space X supporters. In fact, it is not unfair to say that having such a vehicle free-flying in such close proximity to Hubble, together with astronauts floating around on tethers could do more harm than good.

A further issue with any servicing mission is that of financing. Right now, the money isn’t in the pot in terms of any funding NASA might make available for a servicing mission – and its science budget is liable to get a lot tighter in 2024, which could see Hubble’s overall budget cut.

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