SPACE
Small asteroid burns up over Luzon
By GMA Integrated News
Published September 5, 2024 _2024_09_05_06_01_41.jpg)
Screengrab from Unang Hirit report
A little asteroid hit the Earth's atmosphere early Thursday morning, producing a fireball that was seen in the skies over Luzon.
Netizens posted videos of the celestial event, which occurred at 12:39 a.m.
The asteroid, 2024 RW1, was only detected hours before it struck Earth.
Earlier, the European Space Agency said the asteroid, which is around one meter in size, was ''harmless."
“This is just the ninth asteroid that humankind has ever spotted before impact,” the ESA said.
— VBL, GMA Integrated News
An Asteroid Hit Earth’s Atmosphere Today—Here’s Why Astronomers Say That’s a Good Thing
Asteroid 2024 RW1 was discovered early this morning, marking the ninth time in history that humans have detected an approaching space rock before its impact
Margherita Bassi
Daily Correspondent
September 4, 2024
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Catalina Sky Survey's images identifying Asteroid 2024 RW1. Catalina Sky Survey via X
At around 12:40 p.m. Eastern time today, an asteroid raced through Earth’s atmosphere. You may have noticed, however, that scientific communities didn’t panic, nor did governments issue evacuation orders. That’s because the celestial object, designated asteroid 2024 RW1, posed no real danger to humans: It was only a little over three feet long, and it mostly burned up in the atmosphere over the Philippines’ Luzon Island. Any remnants of the rock probably landed in the ocean.
“An object this small can’t do any damage on the ground, we’re protected from them by the Earth’s atmosphere,” Alan Fitzsimmons, an expert in the field of asteroid and cometary science, tells New Scientist’s Matthew Sparkes and James Dinneen.
Instead, the asteroid simply created a dazzling spectacle for people in the area, streaking across the sky as a bright fireball. Despite an initial assessment from the European Space Agency (ESA) suggesting tropical storms might obscure the view of the asteroid, several videos of the space rock lighting up the night sky have popped up on social media.
Here’s how Asteroid RW1 looks like from Gonzaga, Cagayan, Philippines. Best shot so far!! pic.twitter.com/eYgQsHqxFP— Raymon Dullana (@raymongdullana) September 4, 2024
Jacqueline Fazekas, a research technologist at the NASA-funded Catalina Sky Survey, first spotted asteroid 2024 RW1 hurtling toward Earth early this morning. The news was announced by the Catalina Sky Survey on X less than nine hours before impact.
To some, that narrow statistic might seem worrying. The detection, however, “is a good thing,” writes EarthSky’s Kelly Kizer Whitt. “We’re getting better at spotting asteroids before they hit us.”
The occurrence was “a dramatic and scientifically valuable event,” writes the International Meteor Organization’s Karl Antier. Two or three objects similar to asteroid 2024 RW1 hit our planet every year, per New Scientist, but this is only the ninth time in human history that scientists spotted one of these Earth-impacting extraterrestrial objects before it entered the atmosphere.
“The really positive aspect about this is that the survey telescopes are now good enough to spot these things coming in and give us a bit of warning,” Fitzsimmons tells New Scientist. “Put another way, if this object had been much larger and so perhaps pose[d] a threat to people on the ground, then it would be much brighter, and we’d have projected it much further out. So, this actually is a really nice demonstration that the current survey systems are doing a very good job.”
This detection is actually great news! This is only the ninth time that humankind has discovered an asteroid before it impacts Earth and is a sign of our improving planetary defence capabilities.
Take a look at this graphic: https://t.co/jNz2KNE7tb
And find out more about the…— ESA Operations (@esaoperations) September 4, 2024
For example, one of the most notorious asteroids of the modern era, a rock called Apophis, was detected by a team of astronomers at Arizona’s Kitt Peak National Observatory in 2004. At first, researchers calculated that it had a 2.7 percent chance of crashing catastrophically into our planet, though that number has since been adjusted to zero percent for at least the next 100 years. The 1,100-foot-long asteroid is predicted to make a close pass by Earth on Friday, April 13, 2029—zooming by at a distance closer than geosynchronous satellites.
Today’s detection of asteroid 2024 RW1 is a small victory within the greater context of planetary defense. In 2022, NASA’s DART spacecraft smashed into a 525-foot-wide asteroid called Dimorphos to change its motion, demonstrating the viability of asteroid redirection. Basically, if a threatening object is found hurtling toward Earth, DART suggests we have a chance of diverting its path by crashing a spacecraft into it.
In October, the European Space Agency’s Hera spacecraft is scheduled to launch on a mission to carry out a post-impact survey of Dimorphos, in hopes of turning NASA’s DART experiment into a repeatable technique.
WELCOME TO EARTH, ASTEROID 2024 RW1!
Here's a clear shot of the much-awaited small asteroid 2024 RW1 (#CAQTDL2) burning bright into a greenish 'fireball' over Lal-lo, Cagayan around 12:39 AM PhST, 05 September 2024. Did you see it too?
… pic.twitter.com/B3oAm6nNdD— ScienceKonek (@sciencekonek) September 4, 2024
The advance detection of the asteroid that impacted Earth today is “a sign of our improving planetary defense capabilities,” ESA Operations writes on X.
Hopefully, that means that if a much larger object than asteroid 2024 RW1 gets too close for comfort in the future, we’ll be ready.
/https://tf-cmsv2-smithsonianmag-media.s3.amazonaws.com/accounts/headshot/Margherita_Bassi.png)
Margherita Bassi |
Margherita Bassi is a trilingual storyteller and freelance journalist with a particular interest in ancient history, astronomy and human interest stories.
At around 12:40 p.m. Eastern time today, an asteroid raced through Earth’s atmosphere. You may have noticed, however, that scientific communities didn’t panic, nor did governments issue evacuation orders. That’s because the celestial object, designated asteroid 2024 RW1, posed no real danger to humans: It was only a little over three feet long, and it mostly burned up in the atmosphere over the Philippines’ Luzon Island. Any remnants of the rock probably landed in the ocean.
“An object this small can’t do any damage on the ground, we’re protected from them by the Earth’s atmosphere,” Alan Fitzsimmons, an expert in the field of asteroid and cometary science, tells New Scientist’s Matthew Sparkes and James Dinneen.
Instead, the asteroid simply created a dazzling spectacle for people in the area, streaking across the sky as a bright fireball. Despite an initial assessment from the European Space Agency (ESA) suggesting tropical storms might obscure the view of the asteroid, several videos of the space rock lighting up the night sky have popped up on social media.
Here’s how Asteroid RW1 looks like from Gonzaga, Cagayan, Philippines. Best shot so far!! pic.twitter.com/eYgQsHqxFP— Raymon Dullana (@raymongdullana) September 4, 2024
Jacqueline Fazekas, a research technologist at the NASA-funded Catalina Sky Survey, first spotted asteroid 2024 RW1 hurtling toward Earth early this morning. The news was announced by the Catalina Sky Survey on X less than nine hours before impact.
To some, that narrow statistic might seem worrying. The detection, however, “is a good thing,” writes EarthSky’s Kelly Kizer Whitt. “We’re getting better at spotting asteroids before they hit us.”
The occurrence was “a dramatic and scientifically valuable event,” writes the International Meteor Organization’s Karl Antier. Two or three objects similar to asteroid 2024 RW1 hit our planet every year, per New Scientist, but this is only the ninth time in human history that scientists spotted one of these Earth-impacting extraterrestrial objects before it entered the atmosphere.
“The really positive aspect about this is that the survey telescopes are now good enough to spot these things coming in and give us a bit of warning,” Fitzsimmons tells New Scientist. “Put another way, if this object had been much larger and so perhaps pose[d] a threat to people on the ground, then it would be much brighter, and we’d have projected it much further out. So, this actually is a really nice demonstration that the current survey systems are doing a very good job.”
This detection is actually great news! This is only the ninth time that humankind has discovered an asteroid before it impacts Earth and is a sign of our improving planetary defence capabilities.
Take a look at this graphic: https://t.co/jNz2KNE7tb
And find out more about the…— ESA Operations (@esaoperations) September 4, 2024
For example, one of the most notorious asteroids of the modern era, a rock called Apophis, was detected by a team of astronomers at Arizona’s Kitt Peak National Observatory in 2004. At first, researchers calculated that it had a 2.7 percent chance of crashing catastrophically into our planet, though that number has since been adjusted to zero percent for at least the next 100 years. The 1,100-foot-long asteroid is predicted to make a close pass by Earth on Friday, April 13, 2029—zooming by at a distance closer than geosynchronous satellites.
Today’s detection of asteroid 2024 RW1 is a small victory within the greater context of planetary defense. In 2022, NASA’s DART spacecraft smashed into a 525-foot-wide asteroid called Dimorphos to change its motion, demonstrating the viability of asteroid redirection. Basically, if a threatening object is found hurtling toward Earth, DART suggests we have a chance of diverting its path by crashing a spacecraft into it.
In October, the European Space Agency’s Hera spacecraft is scheduled to launch on a mission to carry out a post-impact survey of Dimorphos, in hopes of turning NASA’s DART experiment into a repeatable technique.
WELCOME TO EARTH, ASTEROID 2024 RW1!
Here's a clear shot of the much-awaited small asteroid 2024 RW1 (#CAQTDL2) burning bright into a greenish 'fireball' over Lal-lo, Cagayan around 12:39 AM PhST, 05 September 2024. Did you see it too?
… pic.twitter.com/B3oAm6nNdD— ScienceKonek (@sciencekonek) September 4, 2024
The advance detection of the asteroid that impacted Earth today is “a sign of our improving planetary defense capabilities,” ESA Operations writes on X.
Hopefully, that means that if a much larger object than asteroid 2024 RW1 gets too close for comfort in the future, we’ll be ready.
Margherita Bassi |
Margherita Bassi is a trilingual storyteller and freelance journalist with a particular interest in ancient history, astronomy and human interest stories.
Space Development Agency Will Soon Deliver Capability to Warfighters
Sept. 5, 2024 |
The Defense Department wants missile-tracking capability available to combatant commanders for operational use by the end of calendar year 2025, the director of the Space Development Agency said yesterday.
Derek Tournear said the agency has launched 27 demonstration satellites, while keeping one on the ground for a test bed for debugging and software updates to those satellites in geosynchronous low Earth orbit at a Defense News Conference event in Arlington, Virginia.
During the discussion of advances in missile tracking from space using data transport and missile tracking satellites, Tournear said the Space Development Agency is still in tranche 0, which means the early stages of satellite deployment for capability demonstrations.
These satellites for national security are referred to as PWSA, or proliferated warfighter space architecture.
Tranche 0 proved that Link 16 from space to warfighter is feasible, he said. Link 16 is a secure military communications system that allows the exchange of real-time tactical data among military aircraft, ships and ground forces by U.S. and coalition forces.
Link 16 from space has "never been done before," he said. It was demonstrated with Australian partners and a U.S. Navy aircraft carrier and airframe. Future tests will include Norway, Tournear said.
The next question the agency will address is: Can you do the missile-tracking mission from low Earth orbit satellites with all of the space clutter in that orbit with a dim-appearing missile in flight in real time?
The answer is yes. There's been some success zeroing in on missile or rocket "targets of opportunity," including a SpaceX launch and some classified missile launches that can't be discussed, he said.
Another question answered by tranche 0: Can DOD form an optical network in low Earth orbit using laser communications? "Last night, it was actually demonstrated. Two tracking satellites did that, acquiring and maintaining links for several hours," he said.
Tranche 1 should be initiated around the end of this calendar year or a little after.
Tranche 2 is in the design phase, with launch scheduled to begin around September 2026.
Tranche 3 work is ongoing. These satellites have about a five-year design life, so tranche 3 will need to replenish some of the earlier satellites.
Tournear noted that his agency is a lean, fast-paced, results-driven organization that is cost-effective, and fully accountable to and supported by Congress.
Guardian Angel
A Space Force Guardian Is Bringing Stranded Boeing Astronauts Home
They're coming home.
Miguel J. Rodriguez Carrillo / AFP via Getty / Ruturism
Our Saviors
Sep 4, 2024
by Noor Al-Sibai
by Noor Al-Sibai
A Space Force Guardian is going on a mission none has ever attempted before: actually going to space.
In a press release, NASA announced that Col. Nick Hague will take charge as the first ever active-duty Space Force Guardian to journey into space (astronaut Michael Hopkins was deputized into the Space Force during a ceremony on board the ISS in 2020, but he wasn't yet a member when he traveled there, and the military branch's personnel weren't yet known as Guardians.)
Hague's mission is simple, according to Military.com's breakdown: bring back Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore, the now-stranded astronauts who took Boeing's doomed Starliner up to the International Space Station earlier this summer and have since been unable to return home in the malfunctioning capsule.
The international pair of saviors will fly with two empty seats on a SpaceX Dragon capsule for NASA's Crew-9 mission, which will launch later this month and return to Earth with their precious cargo no sooner than February with Wilmore and Williams in tow.
Delays on Delays
What was slated to be an eight-day jaunt to and from the ISS in early June will end up being at least seven months for the Starliner crew — but the uncrewed capsule itself is set to return to Earth alone on September 6.
Hague's historic first launch as a designated Space Force Guardian was also delayed by the Starliner fiasco.
Despite it being his first launch with the Space Force, this won't be Hague's first space rodeo, since he stayed aboard the ISS for six months when he was still in the Air Force back in 2019. Prior to that successful launch, Hague had also attempted a launch in 2018 on a Russian Soyuz rocket that ended up malfunctioning, resulting in a close call and mission abort.
Between then and now, Hague joined the Space Force and became the new branch's director of test and evaluation.
Now his branch-switching, close-calls, and patience are being rewarded — unless the mission slips yet again, that is.
In a press release, NASA announced that Col. Nick Hague will take charge as the first ever active-duty Space Force Guardian to journey into space (astronaut Michael Hopkins was deputized into the Space Force during a ceremony on board the ISS in 2020, but he wasn't yet a member when he traveled there, and the military branch's personnel weren't yet known as Guardians.)
Hague's mission is simple, according to Military.com's breakdown: bring back Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore, the now-stranded astronauts who took Boeing's doomed Starliner up to the International Space Station earlier this summer and have since been unable to return home in the malfunctioning capsule.
The international pair of saviors will fly with two empty seats on a SpaceX Dragon capsule for NASA's Crew-9 mission, which will launch later this month and return to Earth with their precious cargo no sooner than February with Wilmore and Williams in tow.
Delays on Delays
What was slated to be an eight-day jaunt to and from the ISS in early June will end up being at least seven months for the Starliner crew — but the uncrewed capsule itself is set to return to Earth alone on September 6.
Hague's historic first launch as a designated Space Force Guardian was also delayed by the Starliner fiasco.
Despite it being his first launch with the Space Force, this won't be Hague's first space rodeo, since he stayed aboard the ISS for six months when he was still in the Air Force back in 2019. Prior to that successful launch, Hague had also attempted a launch in 2018 on a Russian Soyuz rocket that ended up malfunctioning, resulting in a close call and mission abort.
Between then and now, Hague joined the Space Force and became the new branch's director of test and evaluation.
Now his branch-switching, close-calls, and patience are being rewarded — unless the mission slips yet again, that is.
NASA prepares for Starliner return from ISS
Jeff Foust
WASHINGTON — NASA is preparing for the uncrewed return to Earth of Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner spacecraft as the agency begins work on changes to the spacecraft to correct problems found during its test flight.
Agency officials confirmed at a Sept. 4 briefing plans for Starliner to undock from the station Sept. 6 at 6:04 p.m. Eastern. The spacecraft will quickly depart the vicinity of the ISS and perform a deorbit burn at 11:17 p.m. Eastern, setting up a landing of the Starliner crew capsule at White Sands Space Harbor, New Mexico, at 12:03 a.m. Eastern Sept. 7.
Steve Stich, NASA commercial crew program manager, said there were no technical issues being worked ahead of Starliner’s uncrewed departure to complete the Crew Flight Test (CFT) mission. Weather at White Sands was also forecast to be favorable, with a slight chance of rain the only concern. A backup landing opportunity is available Sept. 10.
Starliner’s departure from the station will be different from what was originally planned when it would have astronauts on board. The spacecraft will make a relatively rapid departure from the vicinity of the station, called a “breakout burn,” rather than a more gradual separation that would include a flyaround of the station.
The breakout burn allows for a faster departure from the station, said Anthony Vareha, the lead NASA space station flight director for the undocking, as well as accommodates the lack of crew on board. “Without the crew on board, able to take manual control if needed, there’s just a lot less variables that we need to account for when we do the breakout burn, and allows us to get the vehicle on a trajectory home that much sooner.”
Stich added that this trajectory puts “less stress” on reaction control system (RCS) thrusters, whose problems on approach to the station in June ultimately led to NASA’s decision to have the spacecraft return without a crew on board. “There’s a lot fewer thruster firings,” he said.
Once Starliner is away from the vicinity of the station, though, controllers to plan to test-fire several of the thrusters. Stich said engineers are still choosing what thrusters to test, but that they may involve some of the aft thrusters that experienced problems, including one that appeared to lose all thrust on approach to the station and did not recover in subsequent tests.
Those tests will be short pulses, lasting about 0.1 seconds, which will be enough to see how well they are performing. “The purpose of that is to continue to learn,” he said, collecting data in addition to tests performed while Starliner was docked to the station. “We really want to see how the thrusters perform and what the thrust levels exactly are after we undock and fire them for a little bit.”
The RCS thrusters will be used again to maintain attitude control during the deorbit burn, which is carried out by larger thrusters. The RCS thrusters will maneuver the spacecraft after that burn to separate the crew capsule from the service module and orient the capsule for reentry.
Assuming Starliner does safely return to Earth, NASA will turn its attention to changes to the spacecraft to address the thruster problems as well as helium leaks so that the vehicle can be certified for crew rotation missions.
“We’ve been entirely focused this summer on understanding what is happening on orbit, trying to decide if we could bring the crew back or not,” Stich said. “What we need to do now is really lay out the overall plan, which we have not had time to do.”
For the helium leaks, he said the leading explanation is that exposure to oxidizer vapors is causing a seal to degrade. “One of the things we’re looking at is a different material on the seal and maybe a different, slightly enlarged seal.”
He suggested, though, that the thruster problems could be resolved without major hardware changes. “Clearly, the way we fire the thrusters causes the thruster to overheat,” he said, causing a component called a poppet and made of Teflon to swell, constraining the flow of propellant to the thruster. “We need to understand what kinds of pulses in particular cause that swelling, the number of pulses.”
While he said nothing was ruled out, he indicated that NASA was leaning towards operational changes rather than replacing or modifying the thrusters themselves. “We know the thrusters are working well when we don’t command them in a manner that overheats them and gets the poppet to swell,” he said, noting that most thrusters worked without issue. “We know that the thruster is a viable thruster.”
“The easiest thing to do is to figure out how do we lower the temperature the thruster is operating at and maybe not firing it in a manner that causes it having this overheating phenomenon,” he said. He added later in the briefing that it could include modifications to structures on the service module called doghouses that contain the thrusters to better dissipate heat or cool thrusters.
At the briefing, NASA did not indicate how long post-flight reviews of Starliner and corrective actions might take, or if Boeing would be required to perform another test flight before certification. As with several previous briefings, Boeing was not a participant.
NASA officials, though, rejected reports that earlier meetings about whether to allow astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams to return on the spacecraft descended into yelling.
“I would not characterize it as heated,” Stich said, but acknowledged that there was “some tension in the room” as Boeing argued that Starliner was safe enough while NASA felt models of thruster performance were too uncertain. “I wouldn’t say it was a yelling screaming kind of meeting. It was a tense technical discussion.”
Jeff Foust
September 4, 2024
NASA is proceeding with plans for a Sept. 6 return of the Starliner spacecraft from the ISS without a crew on board. Credit: NASA
WASHINGTON — NASA is preparing for the uncrewed return to Earth of Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner spacecraft as the agency begins work on changes to the spacecraft to correct problems found during its test flight.
Agency officials confirmed at a Sept. 4 briefing plans for Starliner to undock from the station Sept. 6 at 6:04 p.m. Eastern. The spacecraft will quickly depart the vicinity of the ISS and perform a deorbit burn at 11:17 p.m. Eastern, setting up a landing of the Starliner crew capsule at White Sands Space Harbor, New Mexico, at 12:03 a.m. Eastern Sept. 7.
Steve Stich, NASA commercial crew program manager, said there were no technical issues being worked ahead of Starliner’s uncrewed departure to complete the Crew Flight Test (CFT) mission. Weather at White Sands was also forecast to be favorable, with a slight chance of rain the only concern. A backup landing opportunity is available Sept. 10.
Starliner’s departure from the station will be different from what was originally planned when it would have astronauts on board. The spacecraft will make a relatively rapid departure from the vicinity of the station, called a “breakout burn,” rather than a more gradual separation that would include a flyaround of the station.
The breakout burn allows for a faster departure from the station, said Anthony Vareha, the lead NASA space station flight director for the undocking, as well as accommodates the lack of crew on board. “Without the crew on board, able to take manual control if needed, there’s just a lot less variables that we need to account for when we do the breakout burn, and allows us to get the vehicle on a trajectory home that much sooner.”
Stich added that this trajectory puts “less stress” on reaction control system (RCS) thrusters, whose problems on approach to the station in June ultimately led to NASA’s decision to have the spacecraft return without a crew on board. “There’s a lot fewer thruster firings,” he said.
Once Starliner is away from the vicinity of the station, though, controllers to plan to test-fire several of the thrusters. Stich said engineers are still choosing what thrusters to test, but that they may involve some of the aft thrusters that experienced problems, including one that appeared to lose all thrust on approach to the station and did not recover in subsequent tests.
Those tests will be short pulses, lasting about 0.1 seconds, which will be enough to see how well they are performing. “The purpose of that is to continue to learn,” he said, collecting data in addition to tests performed while Starliner was docked to the station. “We really want to see how the thrusters perform and what the thrust levels exactly are after we undock and fire them for a little bit.”
The RCS thrusters will be used again to maintain attitude control during the deorbit burn, which is carried out by larger thrusters. The RCS thrusters will maneuver the spacecraft after that burn to separate the crew capsule from the service module and orient the capsule for reentry.
Assuming Starliner does safely return to Earth, NASA will turn its attention to changes to the spacecraft to address the thruster problems as well as helium leaks so that the vehicle can be certified for crew rotation missions.
“We’ve been entirely focused this summer on understanding what is happening on orbit, trying to decide if we could bring the crew back or not,” Stich said. “What we need to do now is really lay out the overall plan, which we have not had time to do.”
For the helium leaks, he said the leading explanation is that exposure to oxidizer vapors is causing a seal to degrade. “One of the things we’re looking at is a different material on the seal and maybe a different, slightly enlarged seal.”
He suggested, though, that the thruster problems could be resolved without major hardware changes. “Clearly, the way we fire the thrusters causes the thruster to overheat,” he said, causing a component called a poppet and made of Teflon to swell, constraining the flow of propellant to the thruster. “We need to understand what kinds of pulses in particular cause that swelling, the number of pulses.”
While he said nothing was ruled out, he indicated that NASA was leaning towards operational changes rather than replacing or modifying the thrusters themselves. “We know the thrusters are working well when we don’t command them in a manner that overheats them and gets the poppet to swell,” he said, noting that most thrusters worked without issue. “We know that the thruster is a viable thruster.”
“The easiest thing to do is to figure out how do we lower the temperature the thruster is operating at and maybe not firing it in a manner that causes it having this overheating phenomenon,” he said. He added later in the briefing that it could include modifications to structures on the service module called doghouses that contain the thrusters to better dissipate heat or cool thrusters.
At the briefing, NASA did not indicate how long post-flight reviews of Starliner and corrective actions might take, or if Boeing would be required to perform another test flight before certification. As with several previous briefings, Boeing was not a participant.
NASA officials, though, rejected reports that earlier meetings about whether to allow astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams to return on the spacecraft descended into yelling.
“I would not characterize it as heated,” Stich said, but acknowledged that there was “some tension in the room” as Boeing argued that Starliner was safe enough while NASA felt models of thruster performance were too uncertain. “I wouldn’t say it was a yelling screaming kind of meeting. It was a tense technical discussion.”
Chinese astronauts study ancient microbes aboard Tiangong space station
Chinese astronauts aboad the Tiangong space station are studying anaerobic archaea in an experiment to determine if some of Earth's early forms of life can handle a simulated cosmic environment.
Shenzhou 18 crewmembers — commander Ye Guangfu and crewmates Li Cong and Li Guangsu — have been aboard the Tiangong space station since late April and have been busy conducting spacewalks and running experiments.
That scientific work includes research on space radiation damage and adaptability of anaerobic archaea, as a newly released video shows.
The archaea are a domain of single-celled organisms and one of Earth's oldest lifeforms. The archaea used in the Tiangong experiment consume hydrogen and carbon dioxide, in turn producing methane as a waste product.
The research aims to test their survival under Mars-like conditions and extreme cosmic radiation, contributing to the search for alien life, according to a report from Chinese state-run broadcaster CCTV.
Methane, a potential biomarker but also a gas produced by geological processes, has been detected on Mars a number of times and is of great interest to scientists. Similar experiments have been sent to the International Space Station (ISS) as part of research into the potential for life to exist beyond Earth.
The anaerobic archaea were delivered to the space station aboard the Tianzhou 7 cargo spacecraft earlier this year and have been housed in a small centrifuge module aboard Tiangong.
Related: Weightlessness and its effect on astronauts
Meanwhile, Ye Guangfu and his crew have been working on a wide array of other experiments and maintenance tasks. This includes replacing samples in fluid physics cabinets and containerless cabinets, performing vacuum operations in the combustion chamber and conducting experiments related to microgravity fluid physics, combustion science and space materials science.
Other recent tests include pharmacokinetic studies to assess the impact of long-duration spaceflight on the human body and to provide reference for in-orbit medication, according to CCTV.
China completed the construction of Tiangong in late 2022 and aims to keep the orbital outpost permanently occupied and running experiments for at least a decade. The incoming Shenzhou 19 astronauts are expected to launch to Tiangong around November. They will take over from the current crew, who will return to Earth after a few days of sharing the space station.
SpaceX satellites with Tesat terminals achieve first laser data exchange for U.S. military
This marks the first time that satellites built for the Space Development Agency demonstrate laser communications in space using optical terminals compliant with military standards
September 4, 2024
SPACE NEWS
Tesat-Spacecom artist rendering of optical communications in space.
Credit: Tesat-Spacecom
ARLINGTON, Va. — Two SpaceX-built satellites successfully exchanged data using optical communications terminals in a milestone for the U.S. Space Development Agency (SDA), the agency’s director Derek Tournear said Sept. 4.
The satellites, part of SDA’s Tranche 0 experimental spacecraft in low Earth orbit, used laser terminals manufactured by Tesat-Spacecom to communicate. This marks the first time the agency has demonstrated laser communications in space using optical terminals compliant with military standards required for SDA satellites.
“We had not previously demonstrated laser communications,” Tournear said at a DefenseNews conference. He reported that the data exchange occurred on September 3, with the satellites establishing a connection in under 100 seconds and maintaining it for several hours.
The successful test involved two of four SpaceX satellites equipped with Leidos infrared sensors and Tesat terminals. Tesat-Spacecom, a Germany-based subsidiary of Airbus Defense and Space, has expanded its U.S. presence to support growing demand for optical communication technologies from SDA.
This demonstration addressed doubts about SDA satellites’ ability to form an optical network in low Earth orbit. It follows a 2021 test conducted with the Air Force Research Laboratory and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, which used different optical terminals that did not comply with the current standard required by the SDA, making the recent test even more significant.
Crucial step for SDA’s mesh network
The laser communications test is a crucial step in SDA’s Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture (PWSA) program. PWSA aims to create a network of hundreds of small satellites to enhance military communication and surveillance capabilities.
Tournear also noted that all four SpaceX satellites have successfully detected missile launches with their infrared sensors, including SpaceX’s Starship reentry in June.
In addition to the laser communications breakthrough, Tournear highlighted a late 2023 demonstration of Link 16 network entry from space, using satellites made by York Space. This test involved transmitting tactical messages from orbit to ground-based receivers, highlighting the potential for enhanced military communications through space-based platforms.
The Tranche 0 deployment included satellites from SpaceX, Lockheed Martin, York Space and L3Harris.
ARLINGTON, Va. — Two SpaceX-built satellites successfully exchanged data using optical communications terminals in a milestone for the U.S. Space Development Agency (SDA), the agency’s director Derek Tournear said Sept. 4.
The satellites, part of SDA’s Tranche 0 experimental spacecraft in low Earth orbit, used laser terminals manufactured by Tesat-Spacecom to communicate. This marks the first time the agency has demonstrated laser communications in space using optical terminals compliant with military standards required for SDA satellites.
“We had not previously demonstrated laser communications,” Tournear said at a DefenseNews conference. He reported that the data exchange occurred on September 3, with the satellites establishing a connection in under 100 seconds and maintaining it for several hours.
The successful test involved two of four SpaceX satellites equipped with Leidos infrared sensors and Tesat terminals. Tesat-Spacecom, a Germany-based subsidiary of Airbus Defense and Space, has expanded its U.S. presence to support growing demand for optical communication technologies from SDA.
This demonstration addressed doubts about SDA satellites’ ability to form an optical network in low Earth orbit. It follows a 2021 test conducted with the Air Force Research Laboratory and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, which used different optical terminals that did not comply with the current standard required by the SDA, making the recent test even more significant.
Crucial step for SDA’s mesh network
The laser communications test is a crucial step in SDA’s Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture (PWSA) program. PWSA aims to create a network of hundreds of small satellites to enhance military communication and surveillance capabilities.
Tournear also noted that all four SpaceX satellites have successfully detected missile launches with their infrared sensors, including SpaceX’s Starship reentry in June.
In addition to the laser communications breakthrough, Tournear highlighted a late 2023 demonstration of Link 16 network entry from space, using satellites made by York Space. This test involved transmitting tactical messages from orbit to ground-based receivers, highlighting the potential for enhanced military communications through space-based platforms.
The Tranche 0 deployment included satellites from SpaceX, Lockheed Martin, York Space and L3Harris.
Heat shield a hot decision —
After Starliner, NASA has another big human spaceflight decision to make
"We still have a lot of work to do to close out the heat shield investigation.”
Eric Berger - 9/4/2024,
Enlarge / The Artemis II Orion spacecraft being prepared for tests at NASA’S Kennedy Space Center in Florida in June 2024.
NASA / Rad Sinyak44
Now that NASA has resolved the question of the Starliner spacecraft and its two crew members on the International Space Station, the agency faces another high-stakes human spaceflight decision.
The choice concerns the Orion spacecraft's heat shield and whether NASA will make any changes before the Artemis II mission that will make a lunar flyby. Although Starliner has garnered a lot of media attention, this will be an even higher-profile decision for NASA, with higher consequences—four astronauts will be on board, and hundreds of millions, if not billions of people, will be watching humanity's first deep space mission in more than five decades.
The issue is the safety of the heat shield, located at the base of the capsule, which protects Orion's crew during its return to Earth. During the Artemis I mission that sent Orion beyond the Moon in late 2022, without astronauts on board, chunks of charred material cracked and chipped away from Orion's heat shield during reentry into Earth's atmosphere. Once the spacecraft landed, engineers found more than 100 locations where the stresses of reentry damaged the heat shield.
After assessing the issue for more than a year, NASA convened an "independent review team" to conduct its analysis of NASA's work. Initially, this review team's work was due to be completed in June, but its deliberations continued throughout much of the summer, and it only recently concluded.
The team's findings are not public yet, but NASA essentially faces two choices with the heat shield: It can fly Artemis II with a similar heat shield that Orion used on Artemis I, or the agency can revamp the design and construct a new heat shield, likely delaying Artemis II from its September 2025 launch date for multiple years.
What they’re saying
In recent comments, NASA officials have been relatively tight-lipped when asked how the heat shield issue will be resolved:NASA Administrator Bill Nelson, in an interview with Ars, in early August: "They are still deciding. I'm very confident [in a launch date of September 2025] unless there is the problem with the heat shield. Obviously, that would be a big hit. But I have no indication at this point that the final recommendation is going to be to go with another heat shield."
Now that NASA has resolved the question of the Starliner spacecraft and its two crew members on the International Space Station, the agency faces another high-stakes human spaceflight decision.
The choice concerns the Orion spacecraft's heat shield and whether NASA will make any changes before the Artemis II mission that will make a lunar flyby. Although Starliner has garnered a lot of media attention, this will be an even higher-profile decision for NASA, with higher consequences—four astronauts will be on board, and hundreds of millions, if not billions of people, will be watching humanity's first deep space mission in more than five decades.
The issue is the safety of the heat shield, located at the base of the capsule, which protects Orion's crew during its return to Earth. During the Artemis I mission that sent Orion beyond the Moon in late 2022, without astronauts on board, chunks of charred material cracked and chipped away from Orion's heat shield during reentry into Earth's atmosphere. Once the spacecraft landed, engineers found more than 100 locations where the stresses of reentry damaged the heat shield.
After assessing the issue for more than a year, NASA convened an "independent review team" to conduct its analysis of NASA's work. Initially, this review team's work was due to be completed in June, but its deliberations continued throughout much of the summer, and it only recently concluded.
The team's findings are not public yet, but NASA essentially faces two choices with the heat shield: It can fly Artemis II with a similar heat shield that Orion used on Artemis I, or the agency can revamp the design and construct a new heat shield, likely delaying Artemis II from its September 2025 launch date for multiple years.
What they’re saying
In recent comments, NASA officials have been relatively tight-lipped when asked how the heat shield issue will be resolved:NASA Administrator Bill Nelson, in an interview with Ars, in early August: "They are still deciding. I'm very confident [in a launch date of September 2025] unless there is the problem with the heat shield. Obviously, that would be a big hit. But I have no indication at this point that the final recommendation is going to be to go with another heat shield."
NASA Associate Administrator Jim Free, in conversation with Ars, in late August: "That’s on a good path right now."
NASA Associate Administrator for Exploration Systems Development, Catherine Koerner, in an interview with Ars in mid-August: "The entire trade space is open. But as far as the actual Artemis II mission, right now, we're still holding to the September ’25 launch date, knowing that we still have a lot of work to do to close out the heat shield investigation.”
NASA Deputy Associate Administrator for Moon to Mars Program Amit Kshatriya to the NASA Advisory Committee in late August: "The independent review team has just wrapped up their analysis, so I expect that to close out. We should have a disposition there in terms of how they incorporate those findings."
Ars VideoHow Scientists Respond to Science Deniers
In summary, the Independent Review Team's work is done, and it has begun to brief NASA officials. A final decision will then be made by NASA's senior leadership.
What happens now
In preparation for Artemis II, the Orion spacecraft underwent thermal and vacuum testing this year before it will be stacked onto the Space Launch System rocket. Initially, NASA planned to begin the stacking process this month but ultimately delayed this until there was clarity on the heat shield question. The shield is already attached to the spacecraft.
Most people Ars spoke to believe NASA will likely fly with the heat shield as is. Sources have indicated that NASA engineers believe the best way to preserve the heat shield during Artemis II is by changing its trajectory through Earth's atmosphere.
The inspector general's report May 1 included new images of Orion's heat shield.
NASA Inspector General
During Artemis I, the spacecraft followed a "skip" reentry profile, in which Orion dipped into the atmosphere, skipped back into space, and then made a final descent into the atmosphere. This allowed for precise control over Orion's splashdown location and reduced g-forces on the vehicle. There are other options, including a ballistic reentry, with a steeper trajectory that is harder on the crew in terms of gravitational forces, and a direct reentry, which involves a miniature skip.
A steeper trajectory would allow Orion's heat shield to be exposed to atmospheric heating and air resistance for a shorter period of time. NASA engineers believe that the cracking issues observed during Artemis I were due to the duration of exposure to atmospheric heating. So less time—theoretically—means that there would be less damage observed during the reentry of Orion during Artemis II.
Why this will be difficult
Theoretically, of course, Orion's heat shield was supposed to perform nominally in response to the skip entry profile during Artemis I. Assessing the performance of the vehicle's heat shield was one of the main objectives of that uncrewed spaceflight, to ensure its safety before putting astronauts on board the vehicle.
While the heat shield performed its function—a crew inside the Orion vehicle would have been fine—it sustained significantly more damage than NASA's engineers anticipated. That's why they've spent the better part of two years studying the issue, and it is why NASA has already delayed Artemis II from this year into September 2025.
The engineers are probably right about the heat shield's performance with a steeper trajectory, but there is no way to know for sure without flying the heat shield, as designed, through such a profile. This raises a third choice: NASA could also fly the Artemis II mission without crew, testing the new life support equipment not in place for Artemis I, as well as the heat shield.
Each of these options would be difficult. If NASA flies the existing heat shield with a steeper trajectory, there will likely be dissenters. As observed during the Starliner deliberation process, the NASA safety community was emboldened to speak up. Similarly, some people within the NASA safety community are likely to express concerns about flying the heat shield as is after the unexpected damage on Artemis I.
At the same time, redesigning and rebuilding the heat shield would add years to the Artemis timeline, as would flying Artemis II without a crew. Both of these decisions would be difficult politically and financially for the space agency at a time when Congress has been inclined to cut money from NASA's budget rather than add it.
Whatever NASA decides, don't expect an official decision soon. No one wants to touch this political quagmire before the US presidential election, and it may slip into next year.
Eric Berger is the senior space editor at Ars Technica, covering everything from astronomy to private space to wonky NASA policy, and author of the book Liftoff, about the rise of SpaceX. A certified meteorologist, Eric lives in Houston.
Distorted galaxy forming cosmic question mark
Story Source:
Materials provided by NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.
Related Multimedia:Galaxy cluster MACS-J0417.5-1154
Date: September 4, 2024
Source: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center
Summary
:It's 7 billion years ago, and the universe's heyday of star formation is beginning to slow. What might our Milky Way galaxy have looked like at that time? Astronomers have found clues in the form of a cosmic question mark, the result of a rare alignment across light-years of space.
FULL STORY
It's 7 billion years ago, and the universe's heyday of star formation is beginning to slow. What might our Milky Way galaxy have looked like at that time? Astronomers using NASA's James Webb Space Telescope have found clues in the form of a cosmic question mark, the result of a rare alignment across light-years of space.
"We know of only three or four occurrences of similar gravitational lens configurations in the observable universe, which makes this find exciting, as it demonstrates the power of Webb and suggests maybe now we will find more of these," said astronomer Guillaume Desprez of Saint Mary's University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, a member of the team presenting the Webb results.
While this region has been observed previously with NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, the dusty red galaxy that forms the intriguing question-mark shape only came into view with Webb. This is a result of the wavelengths of light that Hubble detects getting trapped in cosmic dust, while longer wavelengths of infrared light are able to pass through and be detected by Webb's instruments.
Astronomers used both telescopes to observe the galaxy cluster MACS-J0417.5-1154, which acts like a magnifying glass because the cluster is so massive it warps the fabric of space-time. This allows astronomers to see enhanced detail in much more distant galaxies behind the cluster. However, the same gravitational effects that magnify the galaxies also cause distortion, resulting in galaxies that appear smeared across the sky in arcs and even appear multiple times. These optical illusions in space are called gravitational lensing.
The red galaxy revealed by Webb, along with a spiral galaxy it is interacting with that was previously detected by Hubble, are being magnified and distorted in an unusual way, which requires a particular, rare alignment between the distant galaxies, the lens, and the observer -- something astronomers call a hyperbolic umbilic gravitational lens. This accounts for the five images of the galaxy pair seen in Webb's image, four of which trace the top of the question mark. The dot of the question mark is an unrelated galaxy that happens to be in the right place and space-time, from our perspective.
In addition to producing a case study of the Webb NIRISS (Near-Infrared Imager and Slitless Spectrograph) instrument's ability to detect star formation locations within a galaxy billions of light-years away, the research team also couldn't resist highlighting the question mark shape. "This is just cool looking. Amazing images like this are why I got into astronomy when I was young," said astronomer Marcin Sawicki of Saint Mary's University, one of the lead researchers on the team.
"Knowing when, where, and how star formation occurs within galaxies is crucial to understanding how galaxies have evolved over the history of the universe," said astronomer Vicente Estrada-Carpenter of Saint Mary's University, who used both Hubble's ultraviolet and Webb's infrared data to show where new stars are forming in the galaxies. The results show that star formation is widespread in both. The spectral data also confirmed that the newfound dusty galaxy is located at the same distance as the face-on spiral galaxy, and they are likely beginning to interact.
"Both galaxies in the Question Mark Pair show active star formation in several compact regions, likely a result of gas from the two galaxies colliding," said Estrada-Carpenter. "However, neither galaxy's shape appears too disrupted, so we are probably seeing the beginning of their interaction with each other."
"These galaxies, seen billions of years ago when star formation was at its peak, are similar to the mass that the Milky Way galaxy would have been at that time. Webb is allowing us to study what the teenage years of our own galaxy would have been like," said Sawicki.
The Webb images and spectra in this research came from the Canadian NIRISS Unbiased Cluster Survey (CANUCS). The research paper is published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.
FULL STORY
It's 7 billion years ago, and the universe's heyday of star formation is beginning to slow. What might our Milky Way galaxy have looked like at that time? Astronomers using NASA's James Webb Space Telescope have found clues in the form of a cosmic question mark, the result of a rare alignment across light-years of space.
"We know of only three or four occurrences of similar gravitational lens configurations in the observable universe, which makes this find exciting, as it demonstrates the power of Webb and suggests maybe now we will find more of these," said astronomer Guillaume Desprez of Saint Mary's University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, a member of the team presenting the Webb results.
While this region has been observed previously with NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, the dusty red galaxy that forms the intriguing question-mark shape only came into view with Webb. This is a result of the wavelengths of light that Hubble detects getting trapped in cosmic dust, while longer wavelengths of infrared light are able to pass through and be detected by Webb's instruments.
Astronomers used both telescopes to observe the galaxy cluster MACS-J0417.5-1154, which acts like a magnifying glass because the cluster is so massive it warps the fabric of space-time. This allows astronomers to see enhanced detail in much more distant galaxies behind the cluster. However, the same gravitational effects that magnify the galaxies also cause distortion, resulting in galaxies that appear smeared across the sky in arcs and even appear multiple times. These optical illusions in space are called gravitational lensing.
The red galaxy revealed by Webb, along with a spiral galaxy it is interacting with that was previously detected by Hubble, are being magnified and distorted in an unusual way, which requires a particular, rare alignment between the distant galaxies, the lens, and the observer -- something astronomers call a hyperbolic umbilic gravitational lens. This accounts for the five images of the galaxy pair seen in Webb's image, four of which trace the top of the question mark. The dot of the question mark is an unrelated galaxy that happens to be in the right place and space-time, from our perspective.
In addition to producing a case study of the Webb NIRISS (Near-Infrared Imager and Slitless Spectrograph) instrument's ability to detect star formation locations within a galaxy billions of light-years away, the research team also couldn't resist highlighting the question mark shape. "This is just cool looking. Amazing images like this are why I got into astronomy when I was young," said astronomer Marcin Sawicki of Saint Mary's University, one of the lead researchers on the team.
"Knowing when, where, and how star formation occurs within galaxies is crucial to understanding how galaxies have evolved over the history of the universe," said astronomer Vicente Estrada-Carpenter of Saint Mary's University, who used both Hubble's ultraviolet and Webb's infrared data to show where new stars are forming in the galaxies. The results show that star formation is widespread in both. The spectral data also confirmed that the newfound dusty galaxy is located at the same distance as the face-on spiral galaxy, and they are likely beginning to interact.
"Both galaxies in the Question Mark Pair show active star formation in several compact regions, likely a result of gas from the two galaxies colliding," said Estrada-Carpenter. "However, neither galaxy's shape appears too disrupted, so we are probably seeing the beginning of their interaction with each other."
"These galaxies, seen billions of years ago when star formation was at its peak, are similar to the mass that the Milky Way galaxy would have been at that time. Webb is allowing us to study what the teenage years of our own galaxy would have been like," said Sawicki.
The Webb images and spectra in this research came from the Canadian NIRISS Unbiased Cluster Survey (CANUCS). The research paper is published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.
Story Source:
Materials provided by NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.
Related Multimedia:Galaxy cluster MACS-J0417.5-1154
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