It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Saturday, January 06, 2024
NAKBA 2
Chad, DRC, Rwanda deny reports of talks with Israel on taking in forcibly displaced Palestinians from Gaza
Chad, the DRC, and Rwanda have all dismissed reports that they've had discussions with Israel on taking in Gaza's forcibly displaced Palestinians.
Chad was one of three African countries to dismiss reports it would take in forcibly displaced Palestinians [Getty]
Three African countries have dismissed Israeli media reports that they have had discussions Israel on taking in Palestinians in Gaza who have been forcibly displaced by Tel Aviv's war on the territory.
Officials from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, and Chad have all said that they have not had the discussions with Israeli officials that were reported Israeli media outlets including i24NEWS earlier this week.
Chad's government "categorically denies the recent allegations broadcasted by the Israeli channel i24, which claim that talks between Israel and Chad are taking place with the aim of receiving thousands of Palestinians from Gaza," an official spokesperson was reported as saying on Saturday.
"Our commitment to the fundamental principles of international law prohibits any agreement to displace individuals from Gaza or participation in such actions, as it would constitute a violation of these rights,” the spokesman reportedly said.
Rwanda's foreign ministry on Friday issued a "disinformation alert" over the reports, and said it is "not in discussion with Israel on transfer of Palestinians from Gaza".
DRC government spokesman Patrick Muyaya was also quoted as saying that the Israeli media claims were false, and that there were no plans to take in forcibly displaced Palestinians.
Most of Gaza's 2.3 million population have been displaced by Israel's indiscriminate and brutal war, which has so far killed at least 22,700 people.
Some Israeli ministers have called for Gaza to be ethnically cleansed of Palestinians, while others have said the territory will remain under some kind of Palestinian civil control. RELATED
Egypt's Sinai peninsula has been touted by some Israeli politicians as a possible site for Palestinians to be forced into - but Cairo has repeatedly rejected such a plan.
The permanent forced displacement of Palestinians would constitute a war crime, rights groups and legal experts have said.
Former Israeli Ambassador calls on the Western world to take the Gazan population
Dror Eydar, former Israeli Ambassador to Italy, made disturbing remarks on Channel 14 regarding the future of the war on Gaza. Eydar stated the land should be taken away from the Palestinians, given that the Palestinian culture considers a man without his land to be nothing. He emphasises that this is the appropriate ‘punishment’ and urges for the continuation in this direction despite opposing voices. Eydar called upon the Western world saying: ‘I expect the Western world, as they did by welcoming a million Syrian refugees, to open their doors and welcome the people of Gaza.’
January 6, 2024
French Foreign Minister: Gaza is Palestinian land, and “Israel” has no right to determine its future
[06/January/2024]
PARIS January 6. 2024 (Saba) - French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna confirmed that Gaza is Palestinian land and the Zionist enemy has no right to determine its future.
“These calls are irresponsible and keep us away from a solution. We need to return to the principle of international law and respect it,” Colonna explained in response to the statements of the two extremist ministers in the government of the Zionist enemy, Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben Gvir, calling for the displacement of the Palestinian people from Gaza Strip, the reoccupation of the Strip and the construction of colonies.
"Gaza is a Palestinian land that wants to become part of the future Palestinian state. We support the two-state separation, which is the only viable option, and Gaza and the West Bank together must be part of the future Palestinian state," she said.
Z.E
Japan criticizes Zionist ministers' remarks on Gaza displacement
[06/January/2024]
TOKYO January 06. 2024 (Saba) - Japan is worried about two Israeli ministers' remarks on displacement of the Palestinian people from Gaza and erection of settlements in the Strip, spokesperson for the Japanese foreign ministry said.
Settlement activities violate the international law and undermine the applicability of Two-State solution, Maki Kobayashi added in a statement.
These provocative, unacceptable remarks fuel tensions, she warned, as Tokyo "calls for refrainment from irresponsible words and actions."
K.N
‘Scientifically important…,’ What NASA scientist said on ISRO's Aditya-L1 entering Halo orbit
06 Jan 2024 Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) injects Aditya-L1 spacecraft into its final destination orbit, marking a significant scientific milestone.
India's first solar observatory Aditya-L1 has reached its destination
In a significant stride for India's space exploration endeavours, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) successfully maneuvered its Solar Mission Aditya-L1 into the Halo Orbit, garnering praise from NASA Scientist
Ghosh, reflecting on India's scientific achievements, said, "India is right now in most of the areas where it's scientifically important. And then there is 'Gaganyaan,' which is the human space flight part, that is in the works right now. So, it's been a tremendous stride for the last 20 years. Going from not having a planetary science programme to where we stand today, and particularly after the success of Aditya, it's been a very remarkable journey."
In a significant scientific milestone, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on Saturday injected Aditya-L1 spacecraft - the first dedicated solar mission - into its final destination orbit.
Prime Minister Narenendra Modi and Minister of State for Science and Technology Jitendra Singh were among leaders who hailed the achievement.
Aditya-L1 has reached Lagrange Point L1, about 1.5 million km from earth.
The PSLV-C57.1 rocket carrying the Aditya-L1 orbiter lifted off successfully from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh, in September.
The successful launch of the maiden solar mission of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) came on the heels of the historic lunar landing mission -- Chandrayaan-3.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi said India will continue to pursue new frontiers of science for the benefit of humanity.
"India creates yet another landmark. India's first solar observatory Aditya-L1 reaches it's destination. It is a testament to the relentless dedication of our scientists in realising among the most complex and intricate space missions. I join the nation in applauding this extraordinary feat. We will continue to pursue new frontiers of science for the benefit of humanity," he said in post on X.
Aditya L1 has seven different payloads on board, to conduct a detailed study of the sun, four of which will observe the light from the sun and the other three will measure in-situ parameters of the plasma and magnetic fields.
The largest and technically most challenging payload on Aditya-L1 is the Visible Emission Line Coronagraph or VELC. VELC was integrated, tested, and calibrated at the Indian Institute of Astrophysics' CREST (Centre for Research and Education in Science Technology) campus in Hosakote in collaboration with ISRO.
This strategic location will enable Aditya-L1 to continuously observe the sun without being hindered by eclipses or occultation, allowing scientists to study solar activities and their impact on space weather in real-time.
Also, the spacecraft's data will help identify the sequence of processes that lead to solar eruptive events and contribute to a deeper understanding of space weather drivers.
Major objectives of India's solar mission include the study of the physics of solar corona and its heating mechanism, the solar wind acceleration, coupling and dynamics of the solar atmosphere, solar wind distribution and temperature anisotropy, and origin of Coronal Mass Ejections (CME) and flares and near-earth space weather. (ANI)
Aditya-L1: India's Sun mission set to reach destination in hours
Geeta Pandey - BBC News, Delhi Fri, January 5, 2024 India's first Sun mission lifted off from the launch pad at Sriharikota on 2 September
India's first solar observation mission is set to reach its final destination in a few hours.
On Saturday, the space agency Isro will attempt to place Aditya-L1 in a spot in space from where it will be able to continuously watch the Sun.
The spacecraft has been travelling towards the Sun for four months since lift-off on 2 September.
It was launched just days after India made history by becoming the first to land near the Moon's south pole.
India's first space-based mission to study the solar system's biggest object is named after Surya - the Hindu god of the Sun, who is also known as Aditya. And L1 stands for Lagrange point 1 - the exact place between the Sun and Earth where the spacecraft is heading.
According to the European Space Agency, a Lagrange point is a spot where the gravitational forces of two large objects - such as the Sun and the Earth - cancel each other out, allowing a spacecraft to "hover".
L1 is located 1.5 million km (932,000 miles) from the Earth, which is 1% of the Earth-Sun distance. Isro recently said that the spacecraft had already covered most of the distance to its destination.
An Isro official told the BBC that "a final manoeuvre" will be performed on Saturday at around 16:00 India time (10:30 GMT) to place Aditya in L1's orbit.
Isro chief S Somanath has said they will trap the craft in orbit and will occasionally need to do more manoeuvres to keep it in place.
Once Aditya-L1 reaches this "parking spot" it will be able to orbit the Sun at the same rate as the Earth. From this vantage point it will be able to watch the Sun constantly, even during eclipses and occultations, and carry out scientific studies.
Aditya-L1's trajectory
The orbiter carries seven scientific instruments which will observe and study the solar corona (the outermost layer); the photosphere (the Sun's surface or the part we see from the Earth) and the chromosphere (a thin layer of plasma that lies between the photosphere and the corona).
After lift-off on 2 September, the spacecraft went four times around the Earth before escaping the sphere of Earth's influence on 30 September. In early October, Isro said they had done a slight correction to its trajectory to ensure it was on its intended path towards the final destination.
The agency says some of the instruments on board have already started work, gathering data and taking images.
Just days after lift-off, Isro shared the first images sent by the mission - one showed the Earth and the Moon in one frame and the second was a "selfie" that showed two of its scientific instruments.
And last month the agency released the first-ever full-disk images of the Sun in wavelengths ranging from 200 to 400 nanometres, saying they provided "insights into the intricate details of the Sun's photosphere and chromosphere".
Scientists say the mission will help them understand solar activity, such as the solar wind and solar flares, and their effect on Earth and near-space weather in real time.
The radiation, heat and flow of particles and magnetic fields of the Sun constantly influence the Earth's weather. They also impact the space weather where nearly 7,800 satellites, including more than 50 from India, are stationed.
Isro says these images of the Sun sent by Aditya-L1 provide insights into the Sun's photosphere and chromosphere
Scientists say Aditya can help better understand, and even give a forewarning, about solar winds or eruptions a couple of days ahead, which will help India and other countries move satellites out of harm's way.
Isro has not given details of the mission's cost, but reports in the Indian press have put it at 3.78bn rupees ($46m; £36m).
If Saturday's manoeuvre is successful, India will join a select group of countries that are already studying the Sun.
The US space agency Nasa has been watching the Sun since the 1960s; Japan launched its first solar mission in 1981 and the European Space Agency (ESA) has been observing the Sun since the 1990s.
In February 2020, Nasa and ESA jointly launched a Solar Orbiter that is studying the Sun from close quarters and gathering data that, scientists say, will help understand what drives its dynamic behaviour.
And in 2021, Nasa's newest spacecraft Parker Solar Probe made history by becoming the first to fly through the corona, the outer atmosphere of the Sun.
AKA
JOURNEY TO THE FAR SIDE OF THE SUN
The Implications Of ‘Oumuamua On Panspermia
Status Report astro-ph.EP January 5, 2024
‘Oumuamua — NASA
Panspermia is the hypothesis that life originated on Earth from the bombardment of foreign interstellar ejecta harboring polyextremophile microorganisms.
Since the 2017 discovery of the comet-like body ‘Oumuamua (1I/2017 U1) by the Pans-STARRS telescope, various studies have re-examined panspermia based on updated number density models that accommodate for ‘Oumuamua’s properties.
By utilizing ‘Oumuamua’s properties as an anchor, we estimate the mass and number density of ejecta in the ISM (rho_m [kg au^-3] and rho_n [au^-3]).
We build upon prior work by first accounting for the minimum ejecta size to shield microbes from supernova radiation. Second, we estimate the total number of impact events C_n on Earth after its formation and prior to the emergence of life (~0.8Gyr).
We derive a conditional probability relation for the likelihood of panspermia for Earth specifically of <10^-5, given a number of factors including f_B, the fraction of ejecta harboring extremophiles and other factors that are poorly constrained.
However, we find that panspermia is a plausible potential life-seeding mechanism for (optimistically) up to ~10^5 of the ~10^9 Earth-sized habitable zone worlds in our Galaxy.
David Cao, Peter Plavchan, Michael Summers
Comments: submitted to AAS journals, feedback welcome, 12 pages, 3 figures Subjects: Earth and Planetary Astrophysics (astro-ph.EP); Solar and Stellar Astrophysics (astro-ph.SR) Cite as: arXiv:2401.02390 [astro-ph.EP] (or arXiv:2401.02390v1 [astro-ph.EP] for this version) https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2401.02390 Focus to learn more Submission history From: David Cao [v1] Thu, 4 Jan 2024 18:06:24 UTC (303 KB) https://arxiv.org/abs/2401.02390 Astrobiology,
Calibrating Instruments For Exoplanets: What Neptune And Uranus Really Look Like
Press Release University of Oxford January 6, 2024
Voyager 2/ISS images of Uranus and Neptune released shortly after the Voyager 2 flybys in 1986 and 1989, respectively, compared with a reprocessing of the individual filter images in this study to determine the best estimate of the true colours of these planets. CREDIT Patrick Irwin.
Neptune is fondly known for being a rich blue and Uranus green – but a new study has revealed that the two ice giants are actually far closer in colour than typically thought.
The correct shades of the planets have been confirmed with the help of research led by Professor Patrick Irwin from the University of Oxford, which has been published today in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.
He and his team found that both worlds are in fact a similar shade of greenish blue, despite the commonly-held belief that Neptune is a deep azure and Uranus has a pale cyan appearance.
Astronomers have long known that most modern images of the two planets do not accurately reflect their true colours.
The misconception arose because images captured of both planets during the 20th century – including by NASA’s Voyager 2 mission, the only spacecraft to fly past these worlds – recorded images in separate colours.
The single-colour images were later recombined to create composite colour images, which were not always accurately balanced to achieve a “true” colour image, and – particularly in the case of Neptune – were often made “too blue”.
In addition, the early Neptune images from Voyager 2 were strongly contrast enhanced to better reveal the clouds, bands, and winds that shape our modern perspective of Neptune.
Professor Irwin said: “Although the familiar Voyager 2 images of Uranus were published in a form closer to ‘true’ colour, those of Neptune were, in fact, stretched and enhanced, and therefore made artificially too blue.”
“Even though the artificially-saturated colour was known at the time amongst planetary scientists – and the images were released with captions explaining it – that distinction had become lost over time.”
“Applying our model to the original data, we have been able to reconstitute the most accurate representation yet of the colour of both Neptune and Uranus.”
In the new study, the researchers used data from Hubble Space Telescope’s Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS) and the Multi Unit Spectroscopic Explorer (MUSE) on the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope. In both instruments, each pixel is a continuous spectrum of colours.
This means that STIS and MUSE observations can be unambiguously processed to determine the true apparent colour of Uranus and Neptune.
Uranus as seen by HST/WFC3 from 2015-2022. During this sequence the north pole, which has a paler green colour, swings down towards the Sun and Earth. In these images the equator and latitude lines at 35N and 35S are marked. CREDIT Patrick Irwin
The researchers used these data to re-balance the composite colour images recorded by the Voyager 2 camera, and also by the Hubble Space Telescope’s Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3).
This revealed that Uranus and Neptune are actually a rather similar shade of greenish blue. The main difference is that Neptune has a slight hint of additional blue, which the model reveals to be due to a thinner haze layer on that planet.
The study also provides an answer to the long-standing mystery of why Uranus’s colour changes slightly during its 84-year orbit of the Sun.
The authors came to their conclusion after first comparing images of the ice giant to measurements of its brightness, which were recorded by the Lowell Observatory in Arizona from 1950 – 2016 at blue and green wavelengths.
These measurements showed that Uranus appears a little greener at its solstices (i.e. summer and winter), when one of the planet’s poles is pointed towards our star. But during its equinoxes – when the Sun is over the equator – it has a somewhat bluer tinge.
Part of the reason for this was known to be because Uranus has a highly unusual spin.
It effectively spins almost on its side during its orbit, meaning that during the planet’s solstices either its north or south pole points almost directly towards the Sun and Earth.
This is important, the authors said, because any changes to the reflectivity of the polar regions would therefore have a big impact on Uranus’s overall brightness when viewed from our planet.
What astronomers were less clear about is how or why this reflectivity differs.
This led the researchers to develop a model which compared the spectra of Uranus’s polar regions to its equatorial regions.
It found that the polar regions are more reflective at green and red wavelengths than at blue wavelengths, partly because methane, which is red absorbing, is about half as abundant near the poles than the equator.
However, this wasn’t enough to fully explain the colour change so the researchers added a new variable to the model in the form of a ‘hood’ of gradually thickening icy haze which has previously been observed over the summer, sunlit pole as the planet moves from equinox to solstice.
Astronomers think this is likely to be made up of methane ice particles.
When simulated in the model, the ice particles further increased the reflection at green and red wavelengths at the poles, offering an explanation as to why Uranus is greener at the solstice.
Professor Irwin said: “This is the first study to match a quantitative model to imaging data to explain why the colour of Uranus changes during its orbit.”
“In this way, we have demonstrated that Uranus is greener at the solstice due to the polar regions having reduced methane abundance but also an increased thickness of brightly scattering methane ice particles.”
Dr Heidi Hammel, of the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA), who has spent decades studying Neptune and Uranus but was not involved in the study, said: “The misperception of Neptune’s colour, as well as the unusual colour changes of Uranus, have bedevilled us for decades. This comprehensive study should finally put both issues to rest.”
The ice giants Uranus and Neptune remain a tantalising destination for future robotic explorers, building on the legacy of Voyager in the 1980s.
Professor Leigh Fletcher, a planetary scientist from the University of Leicester and co-author of the new study, said: “A mission to explore the Uranian system – from its bizarre seasonal atmosphere, to its diverse collection of rings and moons – is a high priority for the space agencies in the decades to come.”
However, even a long-lived planetary explorer, in orbit around Uranus, would only capture a short snapshot of a Uranian year.
“Earth-based studies like this, showing how Uranus’ appearance and colour has changed over the decades in response to the weirdest seasons in the Solar System, will be vital in placing the discoveries of this future mission into their broader context,” Professor Fletcher added.
A United Launch Alliance Vulcan rocket is being prepared to launch from Cape Canaveral in Florida
UPI / Alamy Stock Photo Provider: Alamy Live
The flurry of missions to the moon in 2024 is starting big with the first launch of the new Vulcan rocket. The launch, planned for 8 January, will carry Astrobotic’s Peregrine lander to the moon in the first mission of NASA’s ambitious Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) programme.
Vulcan was built by the United Launch Alliance (ULA), a collaboration between Boeing and and Lockheed Martin. Prior to the arrival of SpaceX on the scene, ULA was a dominant force in the US space launch business, but in recent years SpaceX has performed the majority of US launches.
Vulcan could be ULA’s opportunity to snatch back some of that market share, which is particularly important for it because the company is now for sale. Potential buyers include Jeff Bezos’s space flight company Blue Origin, among others. If all goes well with this launch, there are six more planned for 2024.
The launch is meant to shuttle the Peregrine lander to the lunar surface. If it is successful, this will mark the first time a private company has successfully landed on the moon. The lander carries a variety of scientific instruments, including sensors to study lunar water and radiation on the surface of the moon, both of which are key to understand for future human exploration. The CLPS programme includes many other moon missions in the coming years, which will make complementary measurements to prepare for a sustained human presence on the moon.
The rocket also has two particularly controversial payloads aboard – capsules of human cremains being sent to space by a company called Celestis, which provides what it called “memorial spaceflights”. One of these capsules contains the ashes of Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry and actors James Doohan and Nichelle Nichols, due to be placed in orbit around the sun, and the other contains other human ashes bound for the moon.
Buu Nygren, the leader of the Navajo Nation, sent a letter to the US government objecting to the inclusion of this capsule, stating: “The placement of human remains on the moon is a profound desecration of this celestial body revered by our people.” NASA responded that because this is a private mission, the agency does not have power over what payloads it carries.
ULA says its Vulcan rocket is finally ready to fly
The United Launch Alliance Vulcan rocket is transported from the Vertical Integration Facility (VIF) to Space Launch Complex-41 at Cape Canaveral, Florida, in preparation for the certification mission (Cert-1). The mission will launch the Astrobotic Peregrine commercial lunar lander, as part of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative, into a highly elliptical orbit more than 220,000 miles (360,000 km) above Earth to intercept the Moon and carry a Celestis Memorial Spaceflight Payload into deep space. Image: ULA
Nearly a decade of planning, designing, assembly and testing for United Launch Alliance (ULA) is about to culminate in the first launch of its Vulcan rocket. The maiden flight of the launch vehicle is set for Monday, Jan. 8, at 2:18 am EST (0718 UTC) from Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.
The fully assembled rocket emerged from the Vertical Integration Facility around 10:40 a.m. EST on Friday to travel the roughly 500-meter journey to the launch pad. After the 61.6-meter-tall (202 feet) rocket completed its trek, ULA teams spent the rest of the day performing leak checks on the umbilicals that will fuel the rocket and checking out the guidance and flight termination systems.
Onboard, the primary payload, Astrobotic’s Peregrine lunar lander, is awaiting its ride to the Moon. It was hoisted atop the rocket inside the 15.5-meter-long (51 feet) payload fairing, manufactured by Beyond Gravity, on Dec. 20. Peregrine will be launched into a trans-lunar injection orbit to begin its journey to the Moon before the Centaur 5 upper stage continues on with Celestis Memorial Spaceflight’s “Enterprise Flight” to a heliocentric orbit around the Sun.
Mark Peller, ULA vice president of Vulcan Development, described the pending launch as a defining moment for many in the ULA company.
“It’s terribly exciting. It’s one of these once-in-your-career opportunities for most people and many people go through their whole career without ever getting this opportunity,” Peller said. “It’s been a lot of hard work, but it’s tremendously gratifying and it’s really helped us at ULA obviously develop our capabilities internally to bring new products to market.”
This version of the Vulcan rocket, a VC2S variant, is 61.6 meters (202 feet) tall and is initially powered by a combination of two Northrop Grumman GEM 63XL solid rocket boosters and two, methane/oxygen-fueled BE-4 engines from Blue Origin. The upper stage is powered by a pair of Aerojet Rockedyne-provided RL10C-1-1A engines that burn a combination of liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen.
Starting in 2025, the Centaur 5 will use the upgraded RL10C-X engines that are currently being developed and tested by Aerojet Rocketdyne about 150 miles south of the Cape near West Palm Beach, Florida.
The next few days will be a flurry of activity. On Sunday, the countdown to launch will start by powering on the Vulcan rocket at 3 p.m. EST (2000 UTC), 11 hours prior to liftoff. The launch complex will be cleared at L-6 hours (8 p.m. EST, 0100 UTC) and an hour later, they will start chilling the feed lines ahead of the start of tanking.
Vulcan is loaded with 454,000 kg (1 million lbs) of propellant, which is a combination of methane, liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen. It weighs 663,367 kg (1,462,474 lbs.) once it’s fully fueled.
ULA’s Vulcan rocket rolls out of its assembly building on Jan. 5, 2024. Photo: Adam Bernstein/Spaceflight Now.
Gary Wentz, ULA vice president of Government and Commercial Programs, said tanking will be completed at L-2 hours (12:00 a.m. EST, 0500 UTC). During a media teleconference about the mission on Friday, Wentz was asked about a more detailed timeline, but declined to go into more specifics.
This will be the first time a major U.S. rocket has been introduced without the launch company providing a countdown timeline to the news media. ULA was also limiting news media access to countdown audio and video of the rocket to the final hour of the countdown after the propellant loading process will be complete.
“This is a flight test. This is our first test. The initial timeline that we have had some margin in it and over time, those timelines will change and I imagine more detail, as we go through the process, will come out,” Wentz said. “But right now, we’ll say there’s some margin built into the timelines and so, we’re going to work through that.”
Wentz noted that there is a planned 60-minute hold at T-7 minutes, during which the launch team will assess their technical readiness.
While the launch is currently planned for 2:18 a.m. EST (0718 UTC) on Jan. 8, there are multiple backup opportunities available to ULA:
Jan. 8 – 2:18 a.m. EST / 0718 UTC (45 min. window)
Jan. 9 – 12:15 a.m. EST / 0515 UTC (9 min. window)
Jan. 10 – 12:12 a.m. EST / 0512 UTC (1 min. window)
Jan. 11 – 12:14 a.m. EST / 0514 UTC (3 min. Window)
Wentz said the varying times are driven by a combination of “orbital mechanics and us being able to rendezvous for the lunar injection.”
“As we go through the flow, the number of back-to-back attempts will depend upon how far we go into the count, how much consumables/commodities we actually expend in the scrub process, assuming it’s a weather delay or something like that,” Wentz said.
He added that if none of those dates work out, the next launch opportunity opens on Jan. 23.
Ready for flight
ULA President and CEO Tory Bruno formally announced Vulcan to the world on April 13, 2015, about seven months after its announced partnership with Blue Origin to acquire BE-4 engines to power the booster stage of this new rocket. The pivot away from the Russian RD-180 engines used on the Atlas 5 rocket came after pressure from the U.S. Congress following Russia’s invasion of Crimea in 2014.
The rocket was planned to make its debut in 2019, but would go on to encounter years of delays in development as well as delays in the delivery of the BE-4 engines themselves. During a press briefing on Friday, Astrobotic CEO John Thornton said the legacy of ULA, which boasts a 100 percent mission success rate since its inception in 2006, was a big reason they chose Vulcan as their ride to space.
“Vulcan has a new name, but it really is an upgraded Atlas 5, so that gives us great comfort in that as well,” Thornton said. “They’ve been a fantastic partner to us over the years in development of this capability in parallel with development of their rocket.”
Thornton added that because they are also operating on a constrained budget, they had to find creative ways to pay for their flight to the Moon. He said the risk of being on the debut flight of Vulcan helped a great deal with that.
“We chose United Launch Alliance’s first flight of Vulcan because we believe so much in the company and we’re very, very confident that this mission will be successful,” Thornton said. “And, of course, that came with some relief on the price and that makes this mission possible.”
Thornton didn’t go into detail on how much Astrobotic paid for the ULA flight, but NASA is paying Astrobotic $108 million to ferry its five payloads to the lunar surface as part of its Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program. That was an increase from the original $79.5 million for 14 NASA payloads. The additional cost stemmed from supply chain impacts of COVID-19 and a shifting of the landing location in 2022, according to NASA’s Joel Kearns, and the offloaded payloads will fly on other CLPS missions.
Wentz added that Vulcan is predominantly legacy hardware with a series of upgrades or variants to them, which ULA believes helps instil further confidence.
“The only hardware that hasn’t flown prior to this flight is the BE-4 engine. All the other, or variants there to, have flown on either Atlas or Delta flights on missions for other customers,” Wentz said. “So, that gave us confidence to be able to offer this to support NASA and Astrobotic’s missions.”
Preparing for what comes next
This first launch for ULA’s Vulcan rocket is a crucial proving ground for the company as it looks towards the critically important missions that are part of the U.S. Space Force’s National Security Space Launch (NSSL) program. Vulcan needs to complete two certification flights before it can launch its first NSSL mission.
After the Peregrine flight checks the box for Cert-1, ULA aims to launch Sierra Space’s Dream Chaser spaceplane to the International Space Station on the Cert-2 mission. Peller said after Cert-1 launches, they set aside 60 days for a data review and to ensure they’re ready to move on.
United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan rocket approaches the pad at Space Launch Complex-41 ahead of its planned launch on Monday, Jan. 8. Image: ULA
They hope to launch the Cert-2 mission around April, a month currently set to feature another ULA mission to the ISS: the launch of the Crew Flight Test mission for Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft. It’s unclear if both missions would launch within the same month.
Wentz said ULA has six Vulcan flights currently on the 2024 manifest with the four non-certification flights all poised to be NSSL missions. In addition to that, the company is also planning to fly nine Atlas 5 rockets and the final Delta 4 Heavy rocket.
“Next year, the rate increases to a total of on the order of 28 launches for the year,” Wentz said. “We’re also putting in place a secondary capability where we can do vertical integration of a second vehicle in parallel. And once that capability is brought on board, our flight rate will increase.”
New space probe could become first private mission to land on the Moon
Sarah Knapton Thu, January 4, 2024 The US space company Astrobotic, is scheduled to lift off from Cape Canaveral in Florida next Monday, and will attempt to land on February 23
The first private mission to the Moon could touch down on the lunar surface next month, carrying British technology.
The US space company Astrobotic, is scheduled to lift off from Cape Canaveral in Florida next Monday, and will attempt to land on February 23.
Unlike previous Moon missions, which have been led by national space agencies, Peregrine Mission One (PM1) marks an historic change in space use, which could allow any private entity to reach the lunar surface. Lander carrying payloads for Nasa
The lander is carrying payloads for Nasa, to help the agency prepare for humans returning to the Moon from 2025 under the Artemis mission. The British-made Ion Trap, pictured at the heart of the spectrometer after its integration to the rest of the instrument
Among its payload, the lander is carrying an instrument developed by British scientists which is hunting for water in the thin lunar atmosphere near to the surface, the first time technology from the UK has reached the Moon.
The Peregrine Ion Trap Mass Spectrometer (PITMS) - which is partly designed by The Open University and the Science and Technology Facilities Council RAL Space, will identify water molecules by measuring their mass as they pass through the sensor. Pave way for future lunar pole missions
The instrument will pave the way for future missions to the lunar poles, where spotting water will be crucial to provide water for astronauts and future colonies. The mission is part of Nasa’s broader Artemis programme, which plans to return humans to the Moon in 2025.
Dr Simeon Barber of the Open University, said: “Various new data in the last decade has overturned the Apollo-era notion of the Moon as a bone-dry place. ‘Various new data in the last decade has overturned the Apollo-era notion of the Moon as a bone-dry place.’
“We have seen hints of ice at the cold lunar poles, and suggestions of water globally, as well as new analyses of Apollo samples showing small pockets of water within the lunar rock itself.
“We are interested in how these water molecules travel through the lunar atmosphere under the influence of day-night temperature cycles, eventually reaching the super cold polar regions where they accumulate slowly as frost or ice layers.” Destined for Gruithuisen Domes
The Peregrine lunar lander is destined for an area in the Gruithuisen Domes - a series of volcanic domes named after the German astronomer Franz von Gruithuisen.
Once it’s on the surface, the PITMS is designed to operate for roughly two weeks - or one lunar day.
Chris Howe, production and software group leader at STFC RAL Space, said: “The utilisation of the Moon’s water could prove vital for future human endeavours in space, so we’re incredibly proud to have had the opportunity to help develop PITMS and are delighted to see it safely on its way. ‘The technology from PITMS will now help underpin future missions so whilst PITMS will only operate for one lunar day on the Moon, its legacy will be felt for years.’
“The technology from PITMS will now help underpin future missions so whilst PITMS will only operate for one lunar day on the Moon, its legacy will be felt for years.”
The spacecraft will blast off aboard a Vulcan Centaur rocket, built by US aerospace manufacturer United Launch Alliance.
It is part of Nasa’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative, which aims to involve commercial companies in the exploration of the moon. The Astrobotic lander is one of the first of at least eight CLPS deliveries planned by the space agency. Other instruments search for hydrogen on Moon
Also on board is a Laser Retroreflector Array, which will act like a homing beacon from future missions, providing a permanent marker from which to make precise measurements for orbiting and landing spacecraft.
Other instruments will be searching for hydrogen in the Moon dust, or regolith on the surface, as well as looking for methane and carbon dioxide and monitoring radiation.
Libby Jackson, head of space exploration at the UK Space Agency - which provided £14 million in funding to develop the PITMS instrument through its European Space Agency membership, said: “Witnessing the first instrument from the UK, and indeed Europe, launch to the moon is a hugely exciting moment.
“We are looking forward to seeing Peregrine safely on the surface and the return of important data from PITMS to help unlock the secrets of water on the Moon.”
Two companies will attempt the first US moon landings since the Apollo missions a half-century ago
MARCIA DUNN Thu, January 4, 2024
This illustration provided by Astrobotic Technology in 2024 depicts the Peregrine lunar lander on the surface of the moon. Its expected launch date is Monday, Jan. 8, 2024. (Astrobotic Technology via AP)
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — China and India scored moon landings, while Russia, Japan and Israel ended up in the lunar trash heap.
Now two private companies are hustling to get the U.S. back in the game, more than five decades after the Apollo program ended.
It’s part of a NASA-supported effort to kick-start commercial moon deliveries, as the space agency focuses on getting astronauts back there.
“They’re scouts going to the moon ahead of us," said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson.
Pittsburgh's Astrobotic Technology is up first with a planned liftoff of a lander Monday aboard a brand new rocket, United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan. Houston's Intuitive Machines aims to launch a lander in mid-February, hopping a flight with SpaceX.
Then there's Japan, which will attempt to land in two weeks. The Japanese Space Agency’s lander with two toy-size rovers had a big head start, sharing a September launch with an X-ray telescope that stayed behind in orbit around Earth.
If successful, Japan will become the fifth country to pull off a lunar landing. Russia and the U.S. did it repeatedly in the 1960s and 70s. China has landed three times in the past decade — including on the moon’s far side — and is returning to the far side later this year to bring back lunar samples. And just last summer, India did it. Only the U.S. has put astronauts on the moon.
Landing without wrecking is no easy feat. There's hardly any atmosphere to slow spacecraft, and parachutes obviously won't work. That means a lander must descend using thrusters, while navigating past treacherous cliffs and craters.
A Japanese millionaire’s company, ispace, saw its lander smash into the moon last April, followed by Russia’s crash landing in August. India triumphed a few days later near the south polar region; it was the country’s second try after crashing in 2019. An Israeli nonprofit also slammed into the moon in 2019.
The United States has not attempted a moon landing since Apollo 17’s Gene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt, the last of 12 moonwalkers, explored the gray, dusty surface in December 1972. Mars beckoned and the moon receded in NASA's rearview mirror, as the space race between the U.S. and the Soviet Union came to a close. The U.S. followed with a handful or two of lunar satellites, but no controlled landers — until now.
Not only are Astrobotic and Intuitive Machines looking to end America’s moon-landing drought, they’re vying for bragging rights as the first private entity to land — gently — on the moon.
Despite its later start, Intuitive Machines has a faster, more direct shot and should land within a week of liftoff. It will take Astrobotic two weeks just to get to the moon and another month in lunar orbit, before a landing is attempted on Feb. 23.
If there are rocket delays, which already have stalled both missions, either company could wind up there first.
“It’s going to be a wild, wild ride,” promised Astrobotic’s chief executive John Thornton.
His counterpart at Intuitive Machines, Steve Altemus, said the space race is "more about the geopolitics, where China is going, where the rest of the world’s going.” That said, “We sure would like to be first.”
The two companies have been nose to nose since receiving nearly $80 million each in 2019 under a NASA program to develop lunar delivery services. Fourteen companies are now under contract by NASA.
Astrobotic’s four-legged, 6-foot-tall (1.9-meter-tall) lander, named Peregrine after the fastest bird, a falcon, will carry 20 research packages to the moon for seven countries, including five for NASA and a shoebox-sized rover for Carnegie Mellon University. Peregrine will aim for the mid-latitudes' Sinus Viscositatis, or Bay of Stickiness, named after the long-ago silica magma that formed the nearby Gruithuisen Domes.
Intuitive Machines’ six-legged, 14-foot-tall (4-meter-tall) lander, Nova-C, will target the moon’s south polar region, also carrying five experiments for NASA that will last about two weeks. The company is targeting 80 degrees south latitude for touchdown. That would be well within Antarctica on Earth, Altemus noted, and 10 degrees closer to the pole than India landed last summer.
Scientists believe the south pole’s permanently shadowed craters hold billions of pounds (kilograms) of frozen water that could be used for drinking and making rocket fuel. That’s why the first moonwalkers in NASA’s Artemis program — named after Apollo’s twin sister in Greek mythology — will land there. NASA still has 2025 on the books for that launch, but the General Accountability Office suspects it will be closer to 2027.
Astrobotic will head to the south pole on its second flight, carrying NASA’s water-seeking Viper rover. And Intuitive Machines will return there on its second mission, delivering an ice drill for NASA.
Landing near the moon’s south pole is particularly dicey.
“It’s so rocky and craggy and full of craters at the south pole and mountainous, that it’s very difficult to find a lighted region to touch down safely," Altemus said. "So you’ve got to be able to finesse that and just set it down right in the right spot.”
While Houston has long been associated with space, Pittsburgh is a newcomer. To commemorate the Steel City, Astrobotic’s lander will carry a Kennywood amusement park token, the winner of a public vote that beat out the Steelers’ Terrible Towel waved at football games, dirt from Moon Township’s Moon Park, and a Heinz pickle pin.
The lander is also carrying the ashes or DNA from 70 people, including “Star Trek” creator Gene Roddenberry and science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke. Another 265 people will be represented on the rocket’s upper stage, which will circle the sun once separated from the lander. They include three original “Star Trek” cast members, as well as strands of hair from three U.S. presidents: George Washington, Dwight D. Eisenhower and John F. Kennedy.
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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
Human ashes, pet hair among items headed to Moon on Monday launch
Emilee Speck Thu, January 4, 2024
The first American launch to the Moon's surface in decades will carry unique items that will remain on the lunar surface forever. Some items include human ashes, personal mementos, artwork and letters from children worldwide.
NASA, Astrobotic and United Launch Alliance are targeting Monday at 2:18 a.m. ET to launch the Vulcan rocket with Astrobotic's Peregrine Moon lander. It's the first mission for ULA's Vulcan rocket and potentially the first commercial Moon landing.
This is not a NASA mission; instead, the space agency is one customer of many on the first commercial American mission to the Moon. The robotic mission is carrying five NASA science payloads as part of NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program. The Peregrine lander will also have a whole band of other science for customers, including Carnegie Mellon University, Mexico, Japan, Germany, the United Kingdom and Hungary.
But wait, there's more.
Astrobotic partnered with global shipping company DHL to sell space on the lander for people to send small items to the Moon.
"We've got folks that are sending inscriptions of family names, and sometimes there are photos of families," Astrobotic CEO John Thornton told FOX Weather in 2022. "We even have some pet hair from a family pet that passed. It's all sorts of different things that individuals like you and I can send up to the surface, and that's the very first time that is possible."
Astrobotic has its own payloads on Peregrine with a demonstration Terrain Relative Navigation sensor, and the company worked with Carnegie Mellon University staff and students to develop the tiny Iris Lunar Rover flying on Peregrine.
Five more small rovers will also launch on the mission. The Mexican Space Agency is sending miniature rovers about 12 cm across and weighing less than 60 grams for a demonstration mission on the lunar surface.
As a nod to its hometown, Astrobotic's lunar lander will also carry a token from local amusement park Kennywood. This item came down to a vote from Pittsburghers.
Space memorial companies Celestis and Elysium Space have also purchased space on the Peregrine lander. Friends and family can pay the companies to send their loved ones' ashes to the Moon, low-Earth orbit and deep space.
Arizona Public Radio first reported on Dec. 28 that Navajo Nation President Buu Nygren has asked NASA and the U.S. Department of Transportation to delay the launch because the Moon is part of the Navajo's spiritual heritage, and depositing human remains is "tantamount to desecration of this sacred space."
NASA Deputy Associate Administration for Exploration Joel Kearns said NASA received the letter from the Navajo Nation, and an intergovernmental team is looking into Nygren's request.
"We take concerns as expressed from the Navajo Nation very, very seriously," Kearns said. "And we think we're going to be continuing on this conversation."
NASA had previously been called to task by the Navajo Nation when the agency launched a memorial capsule on the Lunar Prospector mission in 1998.
A 1.75-inch capsule on the spacecraft contained the ashes of planetary geologist Eugene Shoemaker. The NASA mission ended after 18 years when the spacecraft crashed into the lunar surface.
Japanese company Astroscale purchased a ride on Peregrine for the Pocari Sweat Lunar Dream Capsule. The company said the time capsule shaped like the sports drink Pocari Sweat has 185,872 messages from children around the world.
A bus displays a commercial advertisement of the Japanese sports drink manufactured by Otsuka Pharmaceutical, Pocari Sweat, in Hong Kong.
(Photo by Budrul Chukrut/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
Cryptocurrency will land on the lunar surface, too, as BTC Inc. is sending up a copy of the Genesis Block, the first block of Bitcoin to be mined.
There are several art-related items launching to the Moon.
A group called "Writers on the Moon" purchased space on the DHL Moonbox, including work from 125 writers.
Another Carnegie Mellon payload includes MoonArk, a small museum on the Moon that "embodies arts, humanities, sciences and technologies in a set of intricately designed objects." Another art payload is the Lunar Mission One, a digital art gallery.
Still, none of these science payloads, words, digital art, ashes or personal items may make it to the lunar surface.
"The surface of the Moon holds many robotic spacecraft that were not able to land softly and complete the missions," NASA CLPS program manager Chris Culbert said on Thursday.
Over half of all lunar landings have been successful, and no private company has ever landed on the Moon. Thornton said in November that Astrobotic aims to be the first, and the mission carries "the hopes and dreams of Pittsburgh" along with all of its other customers. How to Watch Vulcan Centaur's First Launch on Its Historic Moon Delivery Mission
Passant Rabie Fri, January 5, 2024 The Vulcan Centaur rocket awaiting launch on the pad.
The Vulcan Centaur rocket awaiting launch on the pad.
Astrobotic’s Peregrine is gearing up for a chance to land on the Moon, hoping to become the first commercial lunar lander to touchdown on the dusty surface of the celestial body and pave the way for other private ventures to follow.
The lunar lander will ride on board United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan Centaur, which is scheduled for liftoff on Monday, January 8, at 2:18 a.m. ET from Cape Canaveral, Florida. The historic launch will be broadcast live on NASA Television, the NASA app, and the space agency’s website, and you can also tune in through the feed below. The live feed is set to begin at 1:30 a.m. ET.
Peregrine is scheduled for its lunar touchdown in late February, but landing on the Moon is no easy feat. So far, only NASA, Russia, and China have successfully landed on the Moon. Attempts by other nations have not ended well; Israel’s Beresheet crashed onto the Moon’s surface in April 2019, while India’s Vikram spacecraft did the same that September 2023. In April 2023, Japan’s ispace was also hoping to become the first private company to land on the Moon, but its Hakuto-R lander crashed on the surface.
The lander is aiming for a soft landing at the Moon’s Gruithuisen Domes—a cluster of volcanic formations in the Sinus Viscositatis region (meaning “Bay of Stickiness”).
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Peregrine mission, to launch Monday, will aid humans' return to moon
Chris Benson Fri, January 5, 2024 A United Launch Alliance Vulcan Centaur rocket rolls out from the Vertical Integration Facility to Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida on Friday. ULA will launch Vulcan Centaur on its maiden flight, carrying a number of payloads including the Astrobotic Peregrine lunar lander. Photo by Joe Marino/UPI
Jan. 5 (UPI) -- The goal of humans returning to the moon after more than 50 years will inch closer with the launch of the Peregrine Mission One planned for launch early Monday morning from at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.
Liftoff aboard a United Launch Alliance Vulcan Centaur rocket -- its first flight -- is planned for 2:18 a.m. EST, capping a long wait because of delays that date to mid-2022.
The payload's scheduled moon landing in February will be adjacent to the largest dark spot on the near side of the moon at a site described as a "geologic enigma."
For registered virtual watchers of the launch, access will be granted to resources like schedule changes and mission-specific information, as well as a commemorative stamp for a virtual guest passport.
The Vulcan rocket is to make its first flight, carrying the Peregrine commercial lunar lander for Astrobotic. The Peregrine robotic lander, which will carry experiments, scientific instruments and other payloads, also will carry two prototype satellites for Amazon's Kuiper broadband constellation.
Observers consider this a a crucial step in the Artemis moon program, in which the 10-day Artemis II mission planned for late this year will bring humans the farthest from Earth any astronaut has been.
NASA is looking to land astronauts on the moon in the Artemis III mission, which the space agency predicts will happen before the end of 2025. But that depends on a lot of contractors, including SpaceX, and space observers have said that date might be too optimistic.
One of 14 NASA providers under contract able to bid on task orders, so far only nine task orders have been granted to five providers -- Astrobotic included -- set to deliver over 40 loads to the moon's surface until 2025.
The chosen delivery providers are responsible for their own launch, lander design and landing operations. Nine U.S.-based companies were selected in 2018 to be eligible vendors to bid on contracts, with five more added the next year.
"Robotic science investigations delivered to the moon ... will lay the foundation for a new era of solar system science to better understand planetary processes and evolution, to search for evidence of water and other resources, and support long-term, sustainable human exploration," NASA said.
Through November, commercial contracts through NASA have a combined value of $2.6 billion. ULA's Vulcan rocket production spanned five states -- Washington, Utah, Colorado, Alabama and Florida
United Launch Alliance, Astrobotic ready for early Monday liftoff to the moon
Aria Alamalhodaei Fri, January 5, 2024
The countdown to launch is on. United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan Centaur rocket has been rolled to the launch pad at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station ahead of its early Monday morning launch, a mission that could end with the first fully private spacecraft landing on the moon.
Vulcan’s primary payload is Astrobotic’s Peregrine lunar lander. If all goes to plan, Peregrine will embark on a journey to the moon over the span of around 1.5 months, before attempting to land on the surface on February 23. The two companies had been targeting a Christmas Eve launch, but ULA decided to postpone due to ground system issues.
“If you’ve been following the lunar industry, you understand landing on the Moon’s surface is incredibly difficult,” Astrobotic CEO John Thornton said in a press release last month. “With that said, our team has continuously surpassed expectations and demonstrated incredible ingenuity during flight reviews, spacecraft testing, and major hardware integrations. We are ready for launch, and for landing.”
ULA and Pittsburgh-based Astrobotic are not the only firms with much riding on Monday’s launch. This will also be the first time Blue Origin’s BE-4 rocket engines take flight on Vulcan’s first-stage booster (after years of delays), and the first mission as part of NASA’s program to kickstart payload delivery to the lunar surface.
That program, Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS), has collectively doled out hundreds of millions to spur private development of moon landers. For this mission, Astrobotic was awarded $79.5 million from NASA in 2019.
The launch will be the first of many heading to the moon this year. Other lunar launches slated for 2024 include Intuitive Machines IM-1 lander, which is scheduled for liftoff on a SpaceX Falcon 9 in February; Japanese firm ispace’s second lunar mission (their first lander crashed into the lunar surface shortly before touchdown); and Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost lander in the third quarter of 2024. (Both Intuitive Machines’ and Firefly’s missions are part of the CLPS program.)
With such a lineup, it’s highly likely that 2024 will be the year that a private company lands a spacecraft on the moon for the first time, and the first time an American entity has gone to the lunar surface since 1972.
Astrobotic will attempt to land Peregrine near a region of the moon known as the Gruithuisen Domes, and it will be delivering a handful of NASA payloads and scientific instruments that will endeavor to better understand the lunar environment. Peregrine will also be delivering around 15 non-NASA payloads, including a rover from Carnegie Mellon University and a robotic project called Coleman from the Mexican Space Agency.
But come Monday afternoon, if all goes well, the space agency will be headed back. This time, though, it'll be piggybacking on a commercial mission, according to The Guardian, a sign of the ever-growing links between NASA and the private space sector.
The lunar lander Peregrine, built by private space company Astrobotic, is the first venture from NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services program, The Guardian reports, in which the space agency essentially contracts with American businesses to ferry payloads to the lunar surface.
Peregrine's lunar ETA is February 23, and if successful will be the "first commercial robotic launch to the Moon’s surface," according to NASA. Another private space business, United Launch Alliance, built the Vulcan rocket launching the lunar lander into space.
In addition to some important NASA technology and scientific equipment, the lunar lander will have on board various sundries including a piece of Mount Everest, a physical bitcoin, and the human remains of Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry, according to The Guardian. Space Biz
There is some attendant controversy with this launch. Officials from the Navajo Nation objected to launching human remains at the Moon, calling it "tantamount to desecration."
NASA officials in response said they weren't responsible for what kind of stuff Astrobotic wants to bring along for the space ride.
Swarming Robots, DNA, and Bitcoin: The Wild List of Stuff Heading to the Moon Next Week
George Dvorsky
GIZMONDO Thu, January 4, 2024
Conceptual image of the Iris rover, a student-built robot included in Astrobotic’s inaugural Peregrine mission.
Astrobotic’s Peregrine lunar lander is slated to blast off on Monday, January 8, carrying an assortment of goodies, including cutting-edge scientific rovers, bitcoin, and a piece of Mount Everest. No doubt, this ain’t your grandfather’s Moon mission, as the era of commercial space deliveries is now upon us.
The Moon will never be the same, thanks to a NASA-funded initiative meant to foster a new era of lunar exploration and enable private companies to deliver stuff to the lunar surface. This opens the door to a diverse range of non-scientific payloads, such as artworks, memorials, databanks, and a myriad of other imaginative items, effectively transforming the Moon into a new frontier for both scientific exploration and creative expression—for better or worse.
Delegating deliveries to the Moon
Peregrine is packed with payloads from both government and commercial partners. NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative, part of the Artemis program, collaborates with various U.S. companies to transport scientific and technological payloads to the Moon. These companies, tasked with responsibilities ranging from payload integration to lunar landing, are currently operating under contracts worth up to $2.6 billion through 2028. Astrobotic and Intuitive Machines (which is also planning to send a lander to the Moon in 2024) are set to launch lunar landers under NASA contracts worth $79.5 million and $77 million, respectively.
These collaborations are meant to support the space agency’s ongoing lunar exploration efforts and the preparation for future human missions to the Moon, and to do so affordably. Indeed, a key goal of Artemis is to make the Moon a sustainable place for long-term human presence and a springboard for future deep space exploration. CLPS is one of many initiatives that NASA has launched to foster commercial partnerships in space exploration, and with Astrobotic’s Peregrine Mission One (PM1), this vision is taking a major step forward.
Over 20 different payloads, including a diverse suite of scientific instruments, technologies, mementos, and other payloads from six different countries, dozens of science teams, and hundreds of individuals, are destined for the lunar surface, with a significant portion belonging to NASA. Though many have scientific purposes, others are distinctly non-scientific. But seeing as NASA helped to fund the mission, we’ll start with them. NASA’s lunar goodie bag
NASA’s Navigation Doppler Lidar (NDL) has been tested on Earth, as shown in this 2017 COBALT flight, but now it’ll be put to the test on the Moon.
The Near-Infrared Volatile Spectrometer System (NIRVSS) will analyze the lunar surface, identifying water and other substances. By examining lunar soil, the Peregrine Ion-Trap Mass Spectrometer (PITMS) aims to reveal the Moon’s composition, while the Navigation Doppler LIDAR (NDL) is designed to deliver accurate altitude, speed, and directional data to the guidance, navigation, and control subsystem, ensuring the safe landing of Astrobotic’s Peregrine lander on the Moon’s surface,” according to the space agency. Lastly, the Neutron Spectrometer System (NSS) will hunt for hydrogen to indicate potential water sources. Together, these tools mark a significant step in lunar exploration and potential habitation. Other gadgets gathering on the Moon
Mexico and Germany are also sending scientific projects to our lone natural satellite. Mexico’s mission, its first to the Moon, is called Colmena, and it involves a swarm of five tiny robots that should self-assemble to form a single solar panel. The German-built M-42 radiation detector will measure and analyze the levels of cosmic radiation during its journey to the Moon and while on the surface, providing crucial data for assessing the safety and feasibility of future human lunar missions.
A detailed view of one of the five Mexican-built robots headed to the Moon.
The 5-pound Iris Lunar rover, developed at Carnegie Mellon University, is no larger than a shoebox, but once it gets rolling, it’ll become the first U.S. robot to work on the Moon. The rover’s job is to showcase its mobility, capture images for geological sciences, and use radio signals to assist with its localization. “Hundreds of students have poured thousands of hours into Iris,” Raewyn Duvall, commander of the Iris mission, said in a statement. “We’ve worked for years toward this mission…Iris will open up lunar and space exploration by proving that a tiny, lightweight rover built by students can succeed on the moon.”
Carnegie Mellon is also sending a time capsule to the Moon. Called MoonArk and weighing roughly 8 ounces, the four-chamber time capsule will carry a diverse collection of items, including hundreds of images, poems, music pieces, nano-scale objects, and samples from Earth. “It is designed to direct our attention from the Earth outward, into the cosmos and beyond, and reflects back to Earth as an endless dialogue that speaks to humanity’s context within the universe,” according to a university statement.
A partial view of MoonArk, detailing a segment of its four chambers.
Also aboard Peregrine is Arch Mission Foundation’s Library II, a disc packed with more than 60 million pages of information, including English Wikipedia, selected records from the Internet Archive, a linguistic key to 5,000 languages, and various private collections. The library is printed onto nickel NanoFiche, an “ultra-durable analog nano storage medium,” according to Astrobotic.
The DHL MoonBox contains more than two dozen capsules filled with various items, including photos, novels, student projects, and even a piece of Mount Everest. Hungary’s “Memory of Mankind (MoM) on the Moon” plaque contains archival imagery and text, but future Moon explorers will need a 10x magnifier to read it. Other items destined for the lunar surface include Astroscale Japan’s Lunar Dream Capsule containing messages etched onto titanium plates, and the Lunar Mission One digital art and music gallery. Memorials on the Moon
Memorial spaceflight companies Elysium Space and Celestis are also participating in the Vulcan launch, sending the remains of deceased individuals to deep space and the lunar surface.
Space-bound capsules containing trace amounts of ashes.
Among those being memorialized are renowned science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke, whose DNA is included in the Celestis payload, and several original Star Trek actors, along with the show’s creator, Gene Roddenberry (but their remains—trace amounts of ashes—will stay in space). Elysium Space’s Lunar Memorial service includes capsules containing the cremated ashes of individuals, offering families a unique, if perhaps indulgent, way to honor their loved ones.
We’re in the midst of preparing a full-fledged article on this aspect of the Peregrine mission, so stay tuned for that in the coming days.
Cryptoshenanigans
And for better or worse, the Moon mission will include some cryptocurrency-themed payloads courtesy of BitMex and Bitcoin Magazine. The BitMex project involves a physical Bitcoin etched with a private key, and it’ll remain on the lunar surface “awaiting retrieval by future explorers,” the crypto platform company says. The mission will also carry the Genesis Block’s text—the inaugural block in the Bitcoin blockchain—to the Moon. This tribute to cryptocurrency protocol will be displayed on a metal plate, presenting the block’s raw hexadecimal data, alongside a hologram of the Bitcoin Magazine logo.
So, we choose to go to the Moon, not just for scientific discovery and exploration, but also to drop off a bunch of cool and wacky stuff. It’s a new era, no doubt, one now limited only by the amount of tools, toys, and junk we can squeeze into a tiny lander
