SPACE
Japan's SLIM survives 3rd lunar night, surprising designers
Japan's Lunar Excursion Vehicle (LEV-2) shows Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's SLIM (Smart Lander for Investigating Moon) on the Moon's surface, on January 20. The Lander survived a third lunar night, JAXA said on Wednesday. Photo by JAXA/EPA-EFE
April 24 (UPI) -- Japan's moon lander has survived a third lunar night, something that surprised even its designers, as it continued to take snapshots and probe the satellite's surface, officials said on Wednesday.
The Smart Lander for Investigating the Moon, or SLIM, came back to life after emerging from the darkness and sent signals to the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency.
"Last night (the night of April 23), we were able to successfully communicate with SLIM which had started up again, and confirmed that SLIM had survived for the third time," JAXA said on X on Wednesday. The space agency released a photo taken by the lander.
SLIM's ability to last lunar nights, which can last up to two weeks has been a concern since its landing but the spacecraft has continued to defy skeptics.
"SLIM has maintained its primary functions even after three overnight stays, which was not anticipated in its design," JAXA said. "We will continue to closely monitor SLIM's condition and hope to identify areas that deteriorate depending on the lunar day and night environment, as well as areas that are not prone to deterioration."
SLIM landed on the Moon on Jan. 20, allowing Japan to join the United States, China, Russia and India as the only countries to make a successful moon landing. SLIM, though, landed upside down and initially lost power for nine days before returning to power.
Last month, JAXA said the SLIM had survived its second lunar night that lasted two weeks and continued to function and communicate.
Eruption of mega-magnetic star lights up nearby galaxy
Thanks to ESA satellites, an international team including UNIGE researchers has detected a giant eruption coming from a magnetar, an extremely magnetic neutron star
UNIVERSITÉ DE GENÈVE
IMAGE:
ARTIST'S IMPRESSION OF A MAGNETAR. MAGNETARS ARE THE COSMIC OBJECTS WITH THE STRONGEST MAGNETIC FIELDS EVER MEASURED IN THE UNIVERSE.
view moreCREDIT: © ESA
While ESA’s satellite INTEGRAL was observing the sky, it spotted a burst of gamma-rays - high-energy photons - coming from the nearby galaxy M82. Only a few hours later, ESA’s XMM-Newton X-ray space telescope searched for an afterglow from the explosion but found none. An international team, including researchers from the University of Geneva (UNIGE), realised that the burst must have been an extra-galactic flare from a magnetar, a young neutron star with an exceptionally strong magnetic field. The discovery is published in the journal Nature.
On 15 November 2023, ESA’s satellite INTEGRAL spotted a sudden explosion from a rare object. For only a tenth of a second, a short burst of energetic gamma-rays appeared in the sky. “The satellite data were received in the INTEGRAL Science Data Centre (ISDC), based on the Ecogia site of the UNIGE Astronomy Department, from where a gamma-ray burst alert was sent out to astronomers worldwide, only 13 seconds after its detection,” explains Carlo Ferrigno, senior research associate in the Astronomy Department at UNIGE Faculty of Science, PI of the ISDC and co-author of the publication.
The IBAS (Integral Burst Alert System) software gave an automatic localisation coinciding with the galaxy M82, 12 million light-years away. This alert system was developed and is operated by scientists and engineers from the UNIGE in collaboration with international colleagues.
A curious signal from a nearby galaxy
“We immediately realised that this was a special alert. Gamma-ray bursts come from far-away and anywhere in the sky, but this burst came from a bright nearby galaxy,” explains Sandro Mereghetti of the National Institute for Astrophysics (INAF–IASF) in Milan, Italy, lead author of the publication and contributor of IBAS. The team immediately requested ESA’s XMM-Newton space telescope to perform a follow-up observation of the burst’s location as soon as possible. If this had been a short gamma-ray burst, caused by two colliding neutron stars, the collision would have created gravitational waves and have an afterglow in X-rays and visible light.
However, XMM-Newton’s observations only showed the hot gas and stars in the galaxy. Using ground-based optical telescopes, including the Italian Telescopio Nazionale Galileo and the French Observatoire de Haute-Provence, they also looked for a signal in visible light, starting only a few hours after the explosion, but again did not find anything. With no signal in X-rays and visible light, and no gravitational waves measured by detectors on Earth (LIGO/VIRGO/KAGRA), the most certain explanation is that the signal came from a magnetar.
Magnetars: mega-magnetic stars, recently dead
“When stars more massive than eight times the Sun die, they explode in a supernova that leaves a black hole or neutron star behind. Neutron stars are very compact stellar remnants with more than the mass of the Sun packed into a sphere with the size of the Canton of Geneva. They rotate quickly and have strong magnetic fields.” explains Volodymyr Savchenko, senior research associate in the Astronomy Department at UNIGE Faculty of Science, and co-author of the publication. Some young neutron stars have extra strong magnetic fields, more than 10 000 times that of typical neutron stars. These are called magnetars. They emit energy away in flares, and occasionally these flares are gigantic.
However, in the past 50 years of gamma-ray observations, only three giant flares have been identified as coming from magnetars in our galaxy. These outbursts are very strong: one that was detected in December 2004, came from 30 000 light-years from us but was still powerful enough to affect the upper layers of Earth’s atmosphere, like the Solar flares, coming from much closer to us, do.
The flare detected by INTEGRAL is the first firm confirmation of a magnetar flare outside of the Milky Way. M82 is a bright galaxy where star formation takes place. In these regions, massive stars are born, live short turbulent lives and leave behind a neutron star. “The discovery of a magnetar in this region confirms that magnetars are likely young neutron stars,” adds Volodymyr Savchenko. The search for more magnetars will continue in other extra-galactic star-forming regions, to understand these extraordinary astronomical objects. If astronomers can find many more, they can start to understand how often these flares happen and how neutron stars lose energy in the process.
INTEGRAL, a key instrument in a race against time
Outbursts of such short duration can only be captured serendipitously when an observatory is already pointing in the right direction. This makes INTEGRAL with its large field of view, more than 3000 times greater than the sky area covered by the Moon, so important for these detections.
Carlo Ferrigno explains: “Our automatic data processing system is highly reliable and enables us to alert the community immediately.” When unexpected observations like this are picked up, INTEGRAL and XMM-Newton can be flexible in their schedules, which is essential in time-crucial discoveries. In this case, had the observations been performed even just a day later, there would not have been such strong proof that this was indeed a magnetar and not a gamma-ray burst.
JOURNAL
Nature
METHOD OF RESEARCH
News article
SUBJECT OF RESEARCH
Not applicable
ARTICLE TITLE
''A magnetar giant flare in the nearby starburst galaxy M82''
ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE
24-Apr-2024
Growing plants on Mars: Utah State University Scientists among multi-institution team recognized with NASA Achievement Award
Lance Seefeldt, Bruce Bugbee among researchers honored for foundational research efforts toward sustaining human exploration on Mars
VIDEO:
UTAH STATE UNIVERSITY SCIENTISTS BRUCE BUGBEE AND LANCE SEEFELDT WERE PART OF THE CUBES STRI TEAM THAT SUCCESSFULLY CONDUCTED A FIVE-YEAR, $15 MILLION NASA-FUNDED MULTI-INSTITUTION PROJECT EXPLORING HOW TO GROW PLANTS ON MARS. NASA RECOGNIZED THEIR TEAM’S EFFORTS APRIL 24, 2024, WITH AN AGENCY GROUP ACHIEVEMENT AWARD.
view moreCREDIT: TAYLOR EMERSON, USU
China to send fresh crew to Tiangong space station
Astronauts Li Guangsu (left) and Ye Guangfu attend a press conference a day before the launch of the mission, at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre in the Gobi desert.
Wednesday, 24 Apr 2024
JIUQUAN, April 24 — China will send a fresh crew to its Tiangong space station tomorrow evening, Beijing’s Manned Space Agency announced, the latest mission in a programme that aims to send astronauts to the Moon by 2030.
The Shenzhou-18 mission — crewed by three astronauts — is scheduled to take off at 8.59pm Thursday from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre in northwest China, Beijing announced today.
It will be led by Ye Guangfu, a fighter pilot and astronaut who was previously part of the Shenzhou-13 crew in 2021.
He will be joined by astronauts Li Cong and Li Guangsu, who are heading into space for the first time.
At a press conference on Wednesday, Commander Ye described the launch as a “new beginning”.
“Facing the challenge, my two teammates and I are fully prepared. We are full of confidence in completing this mission!” he said.
Li Guangsu, in turn, said he wanted to take a “good look at the beautiful blue planet, the splendid mountains and rivers of the motherland, and find the places that have nurtured me along the way”.
“I also want to see for my lovely child if the stars in the sky can really twinkle or not,” he added.
The latest batch of Tiangong astronauts will stay in orbit for six months, carrying out experiments in gravity and physics, as well as in life sciences.
They will also carry out a “project on high-resolution global greenhouse gas detection”, Deputy Director General of the CMSA Lin Xiqiang said, according to state news agency Xinhua.
“All pre-launch preparations are on schedule,” he said.
“They will work with other active astronauts to carry out the follow-up space station missions and to realise the country’s manned lunar landing.”
The Tiangong, which means “heavenly palace”, is the crown jewel of a space programme that has landed robotic rovers on Mars and the Moon, and made China the third country to independently put humans in orbit.
It is constantly crewed by rotating teams of three astronauts, with construction completed in 2022.
The Tiangong is expected to remain in low Earth orbit at between 400 and 450 kilometres (250 and 280 miles) above the planet for at least 10 years.
The new crew will replace the Shenzhou-17 team, who were sent to the station in October.
Moon by 2030?
Plans for China’s “space dream” have been put into overdrive under President Xi Jinping.
The world’s second-largest economy has pumped billions of dollars into its military-run space programme in an effort to catch up with the United States and Russia.
Beijing also aims to send a crewed mission to the Moon by 2030, and plans to build a base on the lunar surface.
China has been effectively excluded from the International Space Station since 2011, when the United States banned Nasa from engaging with the country — pushing Beijing to develop its own orbital outpost.
China’s space agency said on Wednesday it had secured new international partners for its planned lunar base, known as the International Lunar Research Station, which Beijing has said will be completed by 2030.
The partners include Nicaragua, the Asia-Pacific Space Cooperation Organisation and the Arab Union for Astronomy and Space Sciences, Xinhua said.
Watch: Nasa, Rocket Lab launch solar sail from Hawke's Bay
Nasa has launched its new solar sail mission from the Māhia Peninsula in Hawke's Bay.
Once at a Sun-synchronous orbit, about 1000 km above Earth, the spacecraft will deploy its sails and use the pressure of sunlight for propulsion, instead of rocket fuel.
If the microwave oven-sized CubeSat is successfully deployed, the operation would be a precursor to larger-scale missions to the Moon and Mars, Nasa said.
The mission's principal investigator, Keats Wilkie, told Morning Report the solar sail was a thin but "very large mirror in space" made out of aluminium and plastic.
"The pressure of light exerts a pressure on objects. The sunlight bounces off of our sail and that gives us a tiny little push in the opposite direction.
"By angling our solar sail to the sun, sort of like a sailboat, you change your angle of the sail with the wind, we can change the direction of flight and we can do all this without burning any rocket fuel or propellant, so it's essentially a propellantless propulsion in space, so we never have to worry about running out of fuel."
An artist's impression of the Advanced Composite Solar Sail System spacecraft sailing in space using the energy of the Sun. Photo: Nasa / Aero Animation / Ben Schweighart
The satellite was a small box and inside it was a tightly packaged structure of composite booms and a very thin plastic film reflecting coating on it, he said. When fully deployed it measures about 10x10 metres.
It is not the first solar sail but it is the first to be launched from New Zealand.
"This is the first solar sail system that has all of the systems you need to actually fly and control the solar sail for propulsion."
The mission's primary objective is to successfully demonstrate the deployment of a new boom made from flexible polymer and carbon fibre materials which are stiffer and lighter than previous boom designs.
The solar sail will also perform a series of manoeuvres to demonstrate orbit raising and lowering.
Mariano Perez, quality assurance engineer at NASA Ames, inspects the Advanced Composite Solar Sail System spacecraft. Photo: Nasa / Brandon Torres
"It's on a path for verifying the technology we're using for much, much larger solar sails that we'd like to build in the next few years," Wilkie said.
"So the same technology will be used for very large sails that will sail into deep space and be used for science and space weather and other types of missions for Nasa and other customers."
He said everything was looking good ahead of the launch.
While in flight, there is a possibility of spotting the spacecraft with the naked eye in the night sky.
Nasa's Advanced Composite Solar Sail System was one of two satellites that Rocket Lab launched from Māhia Peninsula on Wednesday morning.
The other was for monitoring natural disasters along the Korean Peninsula.
Vandenberg Space Force Base Deemed Contaminant Free Amid Rising Cancer Concerns Among Missile Personnel
Author:
Thomas Novelly
GRANTEE
Project
The Health Debt to America’s Warriors
The Air Force has deemed Vandenberg Space Force Base in California free of certain potentially dangerous contaminants following a study prompted by concerns over rising cancer rates and exposure to carcinogens among service members who work with America's nuclear missiles.
The findings, released publicly Monday, "found no instances of contamination above regulatory action levels" after testing for polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs, and volatile organic compounds that are believed to have negative health effects, Air Force Global Strike Command said in a statement. The Space Force base conducted surface testing and air sampling as part of the study.
Vandenberg, alongside America's three intercontinental ballistic missile bases—Malmstrom Air Force Base in Montana, Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota and F.E. Warren Air Force Base in Wyoming —have all undergone testing for potential contaminants that could be linked to an alarming number of illnesses such as breast cancer, prostate cancer and blood cancers being reported among the U.S. military's missileers and maintainers.
"Ensuring the most comprehensive assessment of the operational environments our nuclear team operates in, the U.S. Air Force School of Aerospace Medicine's team added our test and training sites at Vandenberg to the [missile community cancer study]," Lt. Gen. Michael Lutton, the deputy commander of Global Strike Command, said in a statement. "Leadership remains committed to a comprehensive, science-based, transparent [study] serving our nuclear force and families."
Vandenberg, located on California's Central Coast, provides training for approximately 450 missileers and maintainers every year, using simulators that look like the launch control centers and launch facilities where, if called upon, officers would be able to fire a nuclear intercontinental ballistic missile at a moment's notice.
Amid concerns from missileers and maintainers about carcinogens at nuclear missile bases, officials decided to evaluate the testing and training sites too.
Military.com has conducted a monthslong investigation into cancer among missileers that included government records requests, a two-day site visit to one of the nation's nuclear missile bases, and dozens of interviews with current and former Air Force missileers, as well as the relatives of some who have passed away amid wide-ranging cancer concerns related to potential carcinogenic exposure to substances in those Cold War-era facilities.
The newsroom's investigation found the U.S. government has overlooked evidence of cancer clusters for years. Two studies of missileer cancer clusters in the early 2000s failed to recognize the growing problem in the community, with that lack of recognition making it difficult for some missileers to prove to the Department of Veterans Affairs that their illnesses were related to military service, a precursor to securing some benefits.
The military branches also appear to have failed to account properly for contaminants that have been linked to cancer for decades, particularly PCBs, which were detected last year at unsafe levels in some missile facilities during an initial round of environmental sampling and cleaning efforts that are still underway at those bases.
PBCs were detected at one launch facility and one missile alert facility at Vandenberg, according to officials, but they were well below the Environmental Protection Agency's threshold.
"Because these are below regulatory cleanup levels, no additional remediation is required. These sites will be labeled and access limited to these areas to further limit risk to personnel," Air Force Global Strike Command said.
But missile maintainers have also raised concerns to Military.com about exposure to a wide variety of chemicals, toxins and carcinogens in the launch facilities, or LFs, where nuclear missiles are held.
Notably, certain soil and water samples were not taken at Vandenberg "as those are byproducts of agricultural operations and Vandenberg's simulators are not located near agricultural land," officials said. Additionally, surface samples were not taken for contaminants other than PCBs, and results from a 90-day radon sample are not yet complete.
Air Force officials announced the testing at Vandenberg, which does rocket launches and missile tests as well as missileer training, late last year as part of a wide-ranging and ongoing cancer and environmental study to address the missile community's concerns. The medical study began in March 2023, when former missileers raised concerns about high rates of blood cancers among former and current officers who had served at Malmstrom in Montana.
Officials said late last year that the results at Vandenberg would "help inform further LF testing" at other missile bases. It's not clear yet whether additional testing at other launch facilities will occur in the wake of the Vandenberg results, but officials said they are waiting for more data to inform future decisions.
The study is also examining cancer rates among missileers, security forces, maintainers, facility managers and other career fields that may be at risk from exposure to carcinogens and toxins.
Early results of that medical study, reported by Military.com last month, indicated elevated rates of breast and prostate cancers. But, so far, the research has looked only at Defense Department records. The current phase of the study did not include data from Department of Veterans Affairs medical records, the DoD cancer registry or the VA cancer registry, according to an Air Force Global Strike Command memo, and "captures fewer than 25% of total cancer cases" that will likely be found by the study, officials wrote.
That initial data on cancer rates includes DoD medical records from 2001 to the present, accounting for more than 2 million individuals. Of that number, officials found data covering roughly 84,000 missile community members, including 8,000 missileers.
It "is a limited slice of our population of interest," Air Force officials said, adding that "notably, it does not capture cases seen outside the military system."
The data set used for those initial findings found 198 cancer cases in the missile community, including 13 cases of female breast cancer, 24 cases of prostate cancer and 23 cases of non-Hodgkin lymphoma in that cohort.
As the Air Force studies the issue, Torchlight, a group of former missile community members who have created a grassroots advocacy organization for those diagnosed with cancer, is seeking a presumptive service exemption—making it easier to get benefits—from the VA.
In an April 12 response letter, the VA said it is looking into the group's request, adding that it "will continue to gather as much science and evidence as possible to move swiftly for veterans facing serious illnesses due to military exposures."
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MD PSD speech to Space Symposium: EU space security and defence
It is a real pleasure to join you this afternoon in beautiful Colorado Springs at this important meeting.
Thank you to the Space Foundation for inviting the perspective from the European External Action Service. The EEAS, in short, is the European Union’s Foreign Affairs and Security Policy arm. Think of it as a combined Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Defence at EU level.
At EEAS, I am responsible for the EU’s Peace, Security and Defence Policy. This is a broad portfolio which ranges from dealing with the EU’s 24 civilian and military operations, including military support to Ukraine, to strategic domains – cyber, hybrid, maritime, and of course, space.
Space is a key capability of and for the EU.
Beyond being an industrial powerhouse in the defence and aerospace domain, the EU owns and operates its own space infrastructure, from the Galileo satellite navigation fleet to earth observations and soon communications constellations [which my colleague from the Commission, Christoph Kautz will outline later this afternoon] and has its own geospatial intelligence agency.
In the wider security [architecture] [governance] of EU space affairs – my responsibilities focus on space security and operational decision-making.
As our dependence on space services increases significantly, so do orbital threats.
We regularly see strategic competitors holding or preparing to hold space assets at risk:
whether through covert operations, by developing capabilities to kinetically destroy or incapacitate space infrastructure on a large scale, or by directly targeting governments, institutions and industry that are part of our unique space ecosystem.
Russia’s aggression against Ukraine only emphasised the vulnerability of our economies, societies, and defence forces to space threats.
Three key points
Allow me to share three points with you, focusing on space security and the EU’s role in ensuring it.
- What is our strategy?
- What do we do concretely to secure space?
- And how do we work with our partners to for a stable and secure space domain?
(1) Our strategy
In the EU, we have seen a clear paradigm shift towards a stronger focus on security and defence. This certainly applies in the space domain and much beyond.
If you’re intrigued by this – I would suggest glancing at a document called The EU Strategic Compass, our guiding doctrine as a peace, security and defence actor – including in space.
Part of this shift was that for the first time, our 27 Member States mandated us to craft a dedicated Space Strategy for Security & Defence.
Fastforward to March last year – we presented our strategy and marked the EU’s recognition of space as a strategic domain – which has broad security, economic and industrial implications.
Naturally, this strategy was developed in close cooperation with our 27 Member States. I wish to acknowledge colleagues present here today from the different space commands in Europe and their governments, who contributed to the debate.
Why is this so important? Because while our MS maintain their sovereign prerogative in space security and defence we are seeing an evolution towards more cooperation in this area, and 27 Member States had begun developing a shared strategic culture for space security – this truly marks a paradigm shift.
So what does this mean in practice?
(2) What do we do concretely to respond to space threats?
- This strategy has our work cut out for us across several pillars but let me focus specifically on space threat response and awareness.
- Earlier this year, we had our intelligence branch formulate a classified Space Threat Landscape Analysis.
- This analysis draws on increased information-sharing EU Member States and was complemented by insights from our geospatial intelligence agency, the EU Satellite Centre.
- This strategic intelligence is instrumental in helping us understand the range of counter-space capabilities our competitors are developing and testing. Beyond the orbital environment, it helps us understand implications for our ground-based infrastructure, data links, and of course space industry, where our companies and technologies are at risk of being targeted by espionage or hostile takeovers.
- After strategic intelligence comes insights on operational level.
- For nearly a decade [since 2016], the EU has in place a Space Threat Response mechanism. Let me explain how it works:
- For critical security-related events, our dedicated 24/7 team assembles a crisis staff of experts, connecting our high-level political decision-makers, including the EU’s Foreign Policy Chief at EEAS, where I work, and Member States’ with the technical experts [from the European Space Programme Agency] who monitor the security, for instance, of our global satellite navigation system Galileo.
- We exercise this process yearly and just completed our space threat response exercise last month, where we simulated incidents across the range of counterspace, from cyber-attacks to kinetic manipulation which may affect our Galileo infrastructure.
- Most critically perhaps, we have begun to explore the potential activation of the EU mutual assistance clause [enshrined in the EU Treaties], in case a space related incident may amount to an armed aggression on the territory of one or several EU Member States.
- As a stakeholder in the chain of command of this space threat response mechanism and bearing in mind the cooperation between the EU and US on satellite navigation, it was a particular pleasure to visit the GPS control center at Schriever Space Force Base yesterday.
- In the area of Space Domain Awareness, we are in regular exchange with our Member States towards detection and characterisation of space security incidents, to support possible attribution and response.
- Last autumn for instance, this helped us understand and ultimately call out the DPRK for its use of ballistic missiles to launch a reconnaissance satellite.
- Of course, strategic messaging around space security and technical recovery are important – but we are also preparing to extend our toolbox with additional countermeasures, including sanctions.
- Another example is that our Treaties provide us with an EU mutual assistance clause which ensures EU solidarity and response in case of an armed attack. This important provision also covers space related incidents.
(3) Partnerships
- The EU has partnerships in its DNA. In our security and defence policy, we will always try to work in concert with partners.
- This is especially important in space security, which both lends itself to, and requires, cooperation – whether for shared strategic messaging, burden-sharing in capabilities, or exchanging data and expertise.
- The US is the EU’s most important strategic partner. Space is no exception. Our annual EU US Space Security Dialogues are now in their 13th iteration, allowing high-level and expert exchanges on key areas such as evolving threats, multilateral engagement, space situational awareness or cyber security in space.
- The EU also engages in dedicated space security dialogues with other likeminded partners such as Japan, and expanding our engagement with Australia, Canada, and South Korea, many represented here.
- Our neighbour in Brussels, NATO is an important partner for us across our security and defence policy, and remains the main security guarantor for most of our MS. As the EU owns and operates its own space capabilities and NATO declared space as an operational domain, we intensified our space talks further.
- Finally, we practice [proactive] space diplomacy, especially at multilateral level in the UN. It is crucial to open channels with the ‘less likeminded’ to avoid unintended escalation.
- The UN remains a key forum for the EU, and we need to continue, together with all, to forge pragmatic steps though a responsible behaviour approach towards strengthening international security and stability in space – with renewed attention and alert this spring in view of [potential nuclear weapons in space] [potential violations of important treaties].
Conclusion
Let me leave you with three thoughts:
- The EU has been preparing for a more competitive and contested space environment, and we have undergone a fundamental transformation in this regard.
- We are gearing up to operate in a world where rules-based order and multilateralism are in decline and where power projection – including in space, and including in fundamentally disruptive ways – is becoming more frequent.
- Europe, as a technological, economic and normative power, is one of the world’s leading space actors with space assets that provide freely accessible services to billions of users in the world. This means we have a responsibility to defend and secure space. Peace, stability and mutual respect in space is a prerogative for our work for peace and stability on the ground. Thank you.
