Tuesday, August 01, 2023

COSPAR to launch new space science education program

INTERNATIONAL SCIENCE COUNCIL COMMITTEE ON SPACE RESEARCH

The Committee on Space Research (COSPAR) is pleased to announce the launch of an ambitious series of space science education projects through its Panel on Education, starting with participation in an Erasmus+ programme.

COSPAR and the Erasmus+ Education Programme

COSPAR’s participation in an Erasmus+ programme on education is part of the COSPAR Panel on Education’s new approach to its mission of developing “means and media to encourage and spread space-related education”. The recent successful proposal for this Erasmus+ programme on cooperation partnerships in school education, coordinated by the Austrian Space Forum (OeWF), marks the start of this new approach.

The EXpeditionary Program for Learning OppoRtunities in Analog Space Exploration (EXPLORE) is a 36-month project—starting 1 September 2023—to introduce a new trend of activities engaging students in space exploration experiences that meet the requirements of their STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics) curriculum. EXPLORE will invite students to engage in activities similar to existing analog missions that simulate Moon or Mars environments. Educators will receive training to deliver curriculum content and improve their knowledge of digital solutions, as well as student-centred, inclusive, equitable and accessible methodologies while implementing the project.

EXPLORE will produce a kit that will encourage students to embrace an exploratory mission to Mars. Educators will receive training and support to adapt this kit to the curricula and conduct classroom involvement in the preparation of the missions. A group of selected students will visit a planetary surface analog site where they will simulate an international space mission and collaborate with peers and professionals from participating countries.

Students will have the opportunity to learn about space exploration and its importance in our daily lives, understand the importance of preserving the Earth’s environment with hands-on experience, improve their digital skills, become problem solvers, learn to collaborate, and get acquainted with innovative digital solutions. Educators will be introduced to innovative student-centred methodologies that facilitate the integration of digital content into the STEAM curriculum.

EXPLORE will be coordinated by the Austrian Space Forum (OeWF), with the active participation of COSPAR, NUCLIO, Ellinogermaniki Agogi and BIOSKY, LDA.

At the heart of the COSPAR Panel on Education’s new initiatives is a move to enhance teacher training. Efforts to bring space research to educators and trainers will be stepped up, by expanding the teacher training programme during the biennial COSPAR Scientific Assembly, by including this opportunity in the COSPAR Symposia, held in alternate years to the Assembly, and by forming partnerships with organisations such as the International Astronomical Union (IAU) and the Global Hands-On Universe (G-HOU).

The COSPAR President, Professor Pascale Ehrenfreund said: “We are looking forward to including new activities within the COSPAR community that will address the Committee’s future sustainability, influence, and impact within the international space sector. It is my firm belief that focusing on the new generation of scientists and researchers, providing support, opportunities, and capacity building in space-developing countries is beneficial to all.”

The Executive Director of COSPAR, Dr Jean-Claude Worms, stated: “A generation of pioneering space researchers is retiring. COSPAR places great emphasis on enabling the next generation to reap the benefits of the heavy investments and efforts conducted in the space sector by a steadily growing number of actors, public and private. It is vital that this opening new age of space exploration and astronomy is conducted in an ethical and sustainable manner, allowing both scientific exploration and use of celestial bodies. This approach also applies to Earth observation from space, a critical aspect of the fight against climate change. Capacity Building of countries accessing the space field is crucial, as is the education and training of young researchers and teachers, in order to better address these issues, and inform the public and the decision-makers.”

Chair of COSPAR’s Panel on Education, Rosa Doran, said: “The next astronauts setting foot on the Moon or Mars are probably sitting in a classroom somewhere around the world. The space industry is blooming, and jobs related to this important field are become more and more relevant. COSPAR’s Panel on Education aims to bring this reality closer to the students’ learning experiences. EXPLORE will be the first of many new ideas and partnerships that will put COSPAR at the centre stage for Space Education.

Background

The COSPAR activity that is particularly relevant to this ERASMUS+ educational project is developed by the Panel on Education. The COSPAR Panel on Education, under the dynamic Chair Rosa Doran, aims to adopt a more active approach towards its growth and impact within COSPAR, to broaden its target audience from educators to a whole-school approach, involving all members of the schools and their local communities, to reach out to policy makers and to guarantee a deeper involvement of its members towards a common goal: generating greater awareness of the importance of space science and how it is already impacting society.

The Panel on Education works on the development of means and appropriate media for encouraging and spreading space-related education. The Panel meets during education-targeted sessions at Assemblies or other events and supports relevant educational initiatives or entities outside of Assemblies. It works with COSPAR Scientific Commission Chairs, Panels, and other interested parties to identify the audience to whom the outreach and education is aimed, whether primary and secondary schools, universities, the general public via journalistic media, students, and especially underprivileged students in countries where space-related activities do not exist.

The Panel seeks to identify how to make educational tools and media available, and it explores possible links to and interactions with already established educational programs on topics related to research areas covered by COSPAR. It seeks to identify funding opportunities within certain countries for education and outreach work, and sets up and maintains websites or other relevant communication tools. The Panel also establishes links and strategic partnerships and alliances, for example with UNESCO, so that its activities can be supported without unnecessary duplication. The four Officers in charge of this Panel, and the

very large body of volunteers (both teachers and scientists) working to support its activities and events have extensive experience of developing international educational projects, including EU-funded programmes, in particular ERASMUS+.

Issued by COSPAR Communications, Ms Leigh FERGUS leigh.fergus@cosparhq.cnes.fr

Note to Editors

COSPAR, the Committee on Space Research, was created in 1958, at the dawn of the space age, under the aegis of the International Council of Scientific Unions, now the International Science Council (ISC). COSPAR’s objectives are to promote on an international level scientific research in space, with emphasis on the exchange of results, information and opinions, and to provide a forum, open to all scientists, for the discussion of problems affecting space research. In its first years of existence as an entity that ignores political considerations and views all questions solely from the scientific standpoint, COSPAR played an important role as an open bridge between East and West for cooperation in space. When this role became less prominent with the end of the Cold War, COSPAR focused its objectives on the progress of all kinds of research carried out with the use of space means.

COSPAR has played a central role in the development of new space disciplines such as life sciences and fundamental physics in space, by facilitating the interaction between scientists in emerging space fields and senior space researchers.

A recent emphasis is the development of tighter bonds between science and industry, through the establishment of the Committee on Industry Relations, grouping 18 major aerospace companies worldwide, and advising COSPAR on how best to integrate the capabilities of industry into COSPAR’s activities and by doing so, to best serve the interests of industry and science in a synergistic way.

COSPAR strives to promote the use of space science for the benefit of humanity and for its adoption by developing countries and new space-faring nations, in particular through a series of Capacity Building Workshops which teach very practical skills enabling researchers to participate in international space research programs.

COSPAR advises, as required, the United Nations and other intergovernmental organizations on space research matters and on the assessment of scientific issues in which space can play a role, for example the Group on Earth Observations (GEO), in which COSPAR is a Participating Organization.

Finally, COSPAR is the key entity worldwide in terms of developing, maintaining and promulgating clearly delineated policies and requirements as to the standards that must be achieved to protect against the harmful effects of biological interchange in the conduct of solar system exploration and use.

COSPAR web page

COSPAR LinkedIn page COSPAR Facebook page

COSPAR Twitter account COSPAR YouTube channel

About Erasmus+
Erasmus+ is the EU's programme to support education, training, youth and sport in Europe. It has an estimated budget of €26.2 billion. This is nearly double the

funding compared to its predecessor programme (2014-2020). The 2021-2027 programme places a strong focus on social inclusion, the green and digital transitions, and promoting young people’s participation in democratic life. It supports priorities and activities set out in the European Education Area, Digital Education Action Plan and the European Skills Agenda. The programme also supports the European Pillar of Social Rights; implements the EU Youth Strategy 2019-2027; and develops the European dimension in sport.

Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). Neither the European Union nor EACEA can be held responsible for them.

About the Austrian Space Forum (OeWF)
The Austrian Space Forum is one of the world’s leading institutions conducting Mars analog missions, thus paving the way for the future human exploration of the Red Planet. Experts from a broad variety of disciplines as well as the spaceflight sector constitute the core of the OeWF’s continued endeavours that on a regular basis include national and international institutions from science and industry to work at the cutting edge of scientific research. In doing so the Austrian Space Forum is using its excellent contacts to opinion leaders, politics and media to further and internationally propagate Austrian top-level research. The Austrian Space Forum also contributes significantly to inspiring and educating young people in the sectors of science, technology and engineering. The OeWF offers internships to students and pupils, its experts supervise scientific papers on a regular basis.
Media Contact:
Mag. Monika Fischer
OeWF Media Team Lead
monika.fischer@oewf.org For more information, visit www.oewf.org

The universal sound of black holes

Mysterious and inescapable: Black holes are some of the most exotic objects in the Universe. Researchers at HITS, Germany, predict that the chirp sound that two black holes produce when they merge preferentially occur in two universal frequency ranges

Peer-Reviewed Publication

HEIDELBERG INSTITUTE FOR THEORETICAL STUDIES (HITS)

Simulation of a merging binary black-hole system — IMAGE: RIPPLES IN THE SPACETIME AROUND A MERGING BINARY BLACK-HOLE SYSTEM FROM A NUMERICAL RELATIVITY SIMULATION. view more
CREDIT: IMAGE CREDIT: DEBORAH FERGUSON, KARAN JANI, DEIRDRE SHOEMAKER, PABLO LAGUNA, GEORGIA TECH, MAYA COLLABORATION

The discovery of gravitational waves in 2015 – already postulated by Einstein one hundred years ago – led to the 2017 Nobel Prize in Physics and initiated the dawn of gravitational-wave astronomy. When two stellar-mass black holes merge, they emit gravitational waves of increasing frequency, the so-called chirp signal, that can be “heard” on Earth. From observing this frequency evolution (the chirp), scientists can infer the so-called “chirp mass”, a mathematical combination of the two individual black hole masses.

So far, it has been assumed that the merging black holes can have any mass. The team’s models, however, suggest that some black holes come in standard masses that then result in universal chirps. “The existence of universal chirp masses not only tells us how black holes form”, says Fabian Schneider, who led the study at HITS, “it can also be used to infer which stars explode in supernovae.” Apart from that it provides insights into the supernova mechanism, uncertain nuclear and stellar physics, and provides a new way for scientists to measure the accelerated cosmological expansion of the Universe.

“Severe consequences for the final fates of stars”

Stellar-mass black holes with masses of approximately 3-100 times our Sun are the endpoints of massive stars that do not explode in supernovae but collapse into black holes. The progenitors of black holes that lead to mergers are originally born in binary star systems and experience several episodes of mass exchange between the components: in particular, both black holes are from stars that have been stripped off their envelopes. “The envelope stripping has severe consequences for the final fates of stars. For example, it makes it easier for stars to explode in a supernova and it also leads to universal black hole masses as now predicted by our simulations”, says Philipp Podsiadlowski from Oxford University, second author of the study and currently Klaus Tschira Guest Professor at HITS.

The “stellar graveyard” – a collection of all known masses of the neutron-star and black-hole remains of massive stars – is quickly growing thanks to the ever-increasing sensitivity of the gravitational-wave detectors and ongoing searches for such objects. In particular, there seems to be a gap in the distribution of the chirp masses of merging binary black holes, and evidence emerges for the existence of peaks at roughly 8 and 14 solar masses . These features correspond to the universal chirps predicted by the HITS team. “Any features in the distributions of black-hole and chirp masses can tell us a great deal about how these objects have formed”, says Eva Laplace, the study’s third author.

Not in our galaxy: Black holes with much larger masses

Ever since the first discovery of merging black holes, it became evident that there are black holes with much larger masses than the ones found in our Milky Way. This is a direct consequence of these black holes originating from stars born with a chemical composition different from that in our Milky Way Galaxy. The HITS team could now show that – regardless of the chemical composition – stars that become envelope-stripped in close binaries form black holes of <9 and >16 solar masses but almost none in between.

In merging black holes, the universal black-hole masses of approximately 9 and 16 solar masses logically imply universal chirp masses, i.e. universal sounds. “When updating my lecture on gravitational-wave astronomy, I realized that the gravitational-wave observatories had found first hints of an absence of chirp masses and an overabundance at exactly the universal masses predicted by our models”, says Fabian Schneider. “Because the number of observed black-hole mergers is still rather low, it is not clear yet whether this signal in the data is just a statistical fluke or not”.

Whatever the outcome of future gravitational-wave observations: the results will be exciting and help scientists understand better where the singing black holes in this ocean of voices come from.

Publication:
Fabian R. N. Schneider, Philipp Podsiadlowski, and Eva Laplace: Bimodal Black Hole Mass Distribution and Chirp Masses of Binary Black Hole Mergers. The Astrophysical Journal Letters, 950, 2, DOI 10.3847/2041-8213/acd77a, https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/2041-8213/acd77a

HITS press release (with videos and images): https://www.h-its.org/2023/07/31/set-black-holes-sound/

The project has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (Grant agreement No. 945806).

Chirp mass distribution (IMAGE)

HEIDELBERG INSTITUTE FOR THEORETICAL STUDIES (HITS)

Distribution of the chirp masses of all binary black-hole mergers observed today. The top panel shows the raw data and probability distributions of the chirp masses of each individual event while the bottom panel shows a model inferred from the combined observations. The gap in chirp masses at 10–12 solar masses and the so-far identified features at about 8, 14, 27 and 45 solar masses are indicated. Figure reproduced from Abbott et al. 2021.
CREDIT
Abbott et al, 2021. **https://journals.aps.org/prx/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevX.11.021053**

JOURNAL

The Astrophysical Journal Letters

DOI

10.3847/2041-8213/acd77a

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Computational simulation/modeling

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Not applicable

ARTICLE TITLE

Bimodal Black Hole Mass Distribution and Chirp Masses of Binary Black Hole Mergers

Science enabling heat and air conditioning for long-term space habitats is almost fully available

Experiment launching to International Space Station aims to investigate how reduced gravity affects condensation

Business Announcement

PURDUE UNIVERSITY

NG-19 pre-flight loading — IMAGE: A PURDUE UNIVERSITY EXPERIMENT AIMING TO FIND OUT HOW CONDENSATION WORKS IN REDUCED GRAVITY IS ONBOARD NORTHROP GRUMMAN’S 19TH COMMERCIAL RESUPPLY SERVICES MISSION (NG-19) TO THE INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION FOR NASA. view more
CREDIT: PHOTO PROVIDED BY NASA/DANIELLE JOHNSON

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – To live on the moon or Mars, humans will need heat and air conditioning that can operate long term in reduced gravity and temperatures hundreds of degrees above or below what we experience on Earth.

Building these systems requires knowing how reduced gravity affects boiling and condensation, which all heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems use to operate in Earth’s gravity.

A Purdue University experiment launching Aug. 1 on Northrop Grumman’s 19th commercial resupply services mission (NG-19) to the International Space Station for NASA aims to collect data scientists need to answer decades-old questions about how boiling and condensation work in reduced gravity.

“We have developed over a hundred years’ worth of understanding of how heat and cooling systems work in Earth’s gravity, but we haven’t known how they work in weightlessness,” said Issam Mudawar, Purdue’s Betty Ruth and Milton B. Hollander Family Professor of Mechanical Engineering.

The NG-19 spacecraft is expected to launch at 8:31 p.m. on Aug. 1 from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia and arrive at the space station Aug. 4. A livestream of the launch is available via NASA Live.

Onboard this flight is a module for conducting the second experiment of a facility called the Flow Boiling and Condensation Experiment (FBCE), which has been collecting data on the space station since August 2021.

Last July, Mudawar and his students finished their first experiment gathering data from a module of FBCE on the space station that measures the effects of reduced gravity on boiling. When the facility’s additional components arrive with the NG-19 spacecraft, the researchers will be able to conduct the second experiment, which will investigate how condensation works in a reduced-gravity environment.

Both experiments’ modules for FBCE will remain in orbit through 2025, allowing the fluid physics community at large to take advantage of this hardware.

“We are ready to literally close the book on the whole science of flow and boiling in reduced gravity,” Mudawar said.

To develop FBCE, Mudawar’s lab worked with NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, which engineered and built the flight hardware funded by the agency’s Biological and Physical Sciences Division at NASA Headquarters. The team spent 11 years developing FBCE hardware to fit into the Fluids Integrated Rack on the orbiting laboratory.

FBCE’s answers on boiling and condensation will not only support exploration on the moon or Mars but also help spacecraft to travel longer distances. The farther missions are from Earth, the more likely that the spacecraft for those missions will need innovative power and propulsion systems, such as ones that are nuclear thermal or electric. Compared to other types of processes that enable heating and cooling in space, boiling and condensation would be much more effective at transferring heat for spacecraft with these systems.

In addition, FBCE data could help enable spacecraft to refuel in orbit by providing scientific understanding of how reduced gravity affects the flow boiling behavior of the cryogenic liquids spacecraft use as propellant.

FBCE is among NASA’s largest and most complex experiments for fluid physics research. Mudawar’s team is preparing a series of research papers unpacking data the FBCE has collected on the space station, adding to more than 60 papers they have published on reduced gravity and fluid flow since the project’s inception.

“The papers we have published over the duration of this project are really almost like a textbook for how to use boiling and condensation in space,” Mudawar said.

With more than 30,000 citations, Mudawar is one of the most highly cited researchers in the field of heat transfer. Google Scholar ranks him No. 1 in flow boiling, spray cooling, microchannels, and microgravity boiling. He also is the most cited author in the International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer.

For more than a decade, Mudawar and his students have been developing three sets of predictive tools to be validated using FBCE data. One set of tools puts the data into the form of equations that engineers can use to design space systems. Another set identifies fundamental information about fluid physics from the data, and the third set is computational models of the fluid dynamics.

All together, these models would make it possible to predict which equipment designs could operate in lunar and Martian gravity.

“The amount of data coming out of the FBCE is just absolutely enormous, and that’s exactly what we want,” Mudawar said.

Issam Mudawar’s research on heat transfer could enable space habitats to be built in extreme environments like the moon.

CREDIT

Purdue University photo/John Underwood