Here is the latest episode in NASA’s Space to Ground weekly report on activities related to the International Space Station:
** Fruit Punch and Foam: Managing Liquids in Space – NASA Johnson
When NASA astronaut Doug Hurley squeezed a bag of fruit punch aboard the International Space Station last month, he did not get a refreshing drink. Instead, the red fluid that emerged from his drink bag wound down a clear tube, and soaked into a block of white foam. While it might not look like much, this simple experiment is providing researchers with better information about managing liquids in microgravity. Learn more here: https://go.nasa.gov/32JQUPM Learn more about the research being conducted on station: https://www.nasa.gov/iss-science
** SpaceX Crew Dragon Flies Through Habitability Testing – NASA Johnson
It is a “demonstration” mission, so the crew of the SpaceX Crew Dragon are demonstrating that the systems on this new commercial spaceship all work as designed while it’s docked to the International Space Station. Take a look inside while the Expedition 63 crew members verify that astronauts and cosmonauts can live, work, and sleep as planned when the vehicle is executing its mission in space. Additional footage from the Habitability tests on July 8, 2020
** Expedition 63 Inflight interview with Yahoo Finance KPRC TV – July 24, 2020
Aboard the International Space Station, Expedition 63 Commander Chris Cassidy of NASA and NASA Flight Engineers Doug Hurley and Robert Behnken discussed life on the orbital outpost and preparations for a return to Earth for Hurley and Behnken on the SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft during a pair of in-flight interviews July 24 with Yahoo Finance News and KPRC-TV, Houston. Cassidy is in the midst of a six-hand-a-half month mission on the laboratory while Hurley and Behnken are in the final days of their mission following their launch on the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket May 30 that restored a U.S. launch capability from U.S. soil. Hurley and Behnken are scheduled to return to Earth on the Crew Dragon vehicle Aug. 2 for the first splashdown of U.S. astronauts since the Apollo-Soyuz mission in July 1975.
** Expedition 63 Progress 76 Docking – NASA TV
An unpiloted Russian cargo ship blasted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan July 23 on a delivery mission to bring some three tons of food, fuel and hardware to the residents of the International Space Station. The ISS Progress 76 craft arrived at the complex less than four hours after launch, automatically docking to the Pirs Docking Compartment on the Russian segment of the station where it will spend a little more than three months.
A sampling of recent articles, press releases, etc. related to student and amateur CubeSat / SmallSat projects and programs (find previous smallsat roundups here):
Germany’s University of Wurzburg Experimental-4 (UWE-4) cubesat avoided a potential collision in early July while lowering its altitude with Morpheus Space’s NanoFEEP electric propulsion system.
It was the first time a one-unit cubesat performed a collision-avoidance maneuver, Istvan Lorincz, Morpheus president and co-founder, told SpaceNews.
“UWE ‑ 4 with Thrusters, Neutralizer and a new kind of sun sensors on each panel.” Credits: Univ. of Wurzburg
The 1U CubeSat, developed and built at the Chair for Robotics and Telematics, is equipped with the electric propulsion system NanoFEEP which has been developed by TU Dresden.
Several manoeuvres have been performed within 11 days between June 23rd – July 3rd 2020 such that the altitude of the CubeSat was reduced by more than 100 m, compared to an average of 21 m with natural decay. This marks the first time in CubeSat history that a 1U CubeSat changed its orbit using an on-board propulsion system.
As chance would have it, the team of UWE-4 received a conjunction data message (CDM) in the morning of July 2nd 2020 from the United Air Force’s 18th Space Control Squadron. A conjunction of UWE-4 with a non-operational Iridium satellite (ID: 34147) in the morning of July 5th 2020 with a minimum range of about 800 m was a threat to the safety of UWE-4. An analysis has shown that the altitude of UWE-4 would already be below the Iridium satellite at the time of conjunction. Thus the on-going altitude lowering manoeuvre could only improve the situation and can be considered as a collision avoidance manoeuvre. No further CDMs have been issued regarding this possible conjunction. An analysis of the orbit of the two spacecraft after July 5th 2020 results in a closest approach of more than 6000 m.
** AMSAT news on student and amateur CubeSat/smallsat projects:
PLIX CubeSats – “A series of creative learning workshops designed to support public library patrons in learning about outer space environments and how they can be characterized with small spacecrafts. “
Millennium Space experiment to measure speed of satellite deorbiting system – SpaceNews – “A few days into the mission, one of the satellites will autonomously deploy a 230-foot-long Terminator Tape tether provided by Tethers Unlimited. The untethered satellite will be allowed to naturally decay. Millennium will use radar to track them and collect data.”
** Florian Gautier – Landing CubeSats On Asteroids – Cold Star Project S02E50
University of Kansas Doctoral candidate (Physics and Astronomy) Florian Gautier is on the Cold Star Project to discuss several of the research projects he’s been involved in. With host Jason Kanigan, Florian describes his aerospace engineering and astrophysics education journey from Europe to North America and opportunities to work on:
– Student CubeSat project at ISAE-SUPAERO to develop 12U cubesats for missions like ATISE – Land3U project, simulation of CubeSat landing on asteroids, sponsored by ESA Drop Your Thesis! 2018 programme (the drop tower used is fascinating) – AGILE, development of a new compact particle detectors suitable to be flown on a CubeSat.
I also ask Florian, who has two Masters degrees (Astronautics & Space Engineering and Astrophysics, Space Science & Planetary Science), about his future goals and where he thinks space work will take him.
Welcome to Week 1 of PLIX CubeSats Online! 🛰️ In this session, we’ll be covering the PLIX CubeSats activities, a series of creative learning workshops designed to support public library patrons in learning about outer space environments and how they can be characterized with small spacecrafts. Read more about the CubeSats activity on our PLIX Activity Repository: – PLIX CubeSats
** Generating Quantum Random Numbers On a CubeSat (SpooQy-1)
CQT Online Talks – Series: Conference presentations This talk was given at CLEO. Speaker: Ayesha Reezwana, Alexander Ling Group, CQT,
NUS Abstract: We demonstrate a quantum random number generator based on entangled photon-pair statistics on-board a CubeSat orbiting in Low Earth Orbit.
A sampling of recent articles, videos, and images dealing with space transport (find previous roundups here):
** SpaceX Falcon 9 launches S. Korean ANASIS-II milcomm sat with same booster used for ISS crew mission. The booster landed safely on an ocean platform. The 51 day turnaround time was the fastest so far for reusing the Falcon boosters and faster than the best Space Shuttle turnaround of 54 days.
Both of the nosecone fairings were also captured in nets on two ships for the first dual catch on the same flight. While SpaceX has re-flown fairings recovered after landing in the ocean, it’s obviously better for reuse if they can avoid dealing with the effects of seawater and impacting the surface of the sea.
Falcon 9’s first stage has landed on the Just Read the Instructions droneship pic.twitter.com/fPbckYFySh
** Long March 5 moved to pad in preparation for launch of China’s Tianwen 1 Mars mission. The time for liftoff from the Wenchang Space Launch Center on the southern coast of Hainan province is currently given at SpaceflightNow as Thursday, July 23 at 12:45 am EDT (0445 GMT). The payload includes an orbiter, a lander, and a rover.
A Russian Soyuz rocket rolled out to a launch pad Monday at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, ready for final inspections, checkouts and fueling before liftoff Thursday with a Progress supply ship bound for the International Space Station.
The Soyuz-2.1a launcher emerged from a hangar at the Baikonur Cosmodrome just after sunrise Monday, riding a mobile railcar across the Kazakh steppe to Launch Pad No. 31. A hydraulic lift raised the launcher vertical on pad 31, and gantry arms rotated into position around the rocket to allow workers access to the vehicle for final pre-launch preparations.
Launch is scheduled for 10:26:22 a.m. EDT (1426:22 GMT; 7:26:22 p.m. Baikonur time) Thursday to kick off a three-hour pursuit of the space station. The launch time is set to occur around the time the research outpost flies over Baikonur.
The Progress will catch up with the ISS for docking in less than 3 hours after liftoff:
Russian ground teams loaded 3,351 pounds (1,520 kilograms) of dry cargo into the cargo freighter’s pressurized compartment, according to Roscosmos, the Russian space agency. Roscosmos says there’s around 1,322 pounds (600 kilograms) of propellant aboard the Progress MS-15 spacecraft for transfer into the space station’s tanks, along with 926 pounds (420 kilograms) of water and 101 pounds (46 kilograms) of compressed gas to replenish the space station’s breathing air.
**** Firefly sends mobile launch platform to Vandenberg launch facility:
Firefly’s Mobile Launch Stand (MLS) has shipped to our Vandenberg launch site. The 4 vertical components of the MLS are the hold-down and release mechanisms for the Alpha rocket. Great work by our design, analysis and fabrication teams! #Firefly#MakingSpaceForEveryonepic.twitter.com/vUiY3Y3sB1
Asia’s first [commercial] spaceport, located at Oita Airport on the Japanese island of Kyushu, is readying support for Virgin Orbit as the company looks to fire off its LauncherOne rocket in 2022.
Virgin Orbit — a space venture of the Virgin Group — will use a modified Boeing 747, christened “Cosmic Girl,” as the launch platform for LauncherOne, which carries small commercial satellites into either a sun-synchronous or low-Earth orbit, depending on customer requirements.
In addition to its prime Oita location, the U.S.-based company has chosen four airports in the U.S. and Europe for launching satellites, including Mojave Air and Space Port in California and the U.K.’s Spaceport Cornwall at Cornwall Airport Newquay.
Historically, launch sites have been constructed closer to the equator to support large satellites launches into equatorial orbit. However, direct launch to polar orbit is achieved most efficiently from launch sites nearer the poles, which have minimal interference from aviation and maritime traffic.
Southern Launch, founded in 2017, is developing a multi-user launch complex at the tip of the Eyre Peninsula in South Australia, offering a turn-key launch service solution to polar and sun-synchronous orbit.
In addition to providing the complete launch infrastructure, Southern Launch has the ability to undertake flight and range safety, vehicle design, avionics componentry and assist with launch permitting and other support services. The year-round temperate weather coupled with the highly skilled local workforce and a robust logistics supply network enables a launch site that offers high cadence launch operations at cost competitive prices.
The growing global demand for launch services and a world class launch location has attracted several early investors, with Southern Launch running an oversubscribed seed funding round at the end of 2019 with a larger Series A round to be finalised in coming months.
The first orbital rocket launch from the facility is expected in 2021.
Say hello to Rocket 3.1, our orbital launch vehicle that just passed its 2nd static hotfire test with flying colors. Having completed testing, Rocket 3.1 is now packed up and on its way to Kodiak, Alaska for our first orbital launch attempt!
** NASA targets August 1st for departure of the SpaceX Crew Dragon from the ISS on August 1st. The Endeavour Dragon spacecraft will bring back astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley to a splashdown in the Atlantic off the coast of Florida on August 2nd.
SpaceX has carried out cryogenic pressure testing the propellant tanks of the Starship SN5 prototype currently mounted on a launch fixture at Boca Chica. If the subsequent fueling and engine tests go well, then a hop of about 150 meters will come soon after:
SN5 is using a less advanced steel alloy than what is planned for operational vehicles. The SN8 prototype currently in construction is believed to be using the alloy labeled 304L – SpaceX begins building upgraded Starship prototype – Teslarati. However, Elon says the formulation of the final alloy for the Starships may not follow the standard recipe for 304L:
We’re rapidly changing alloy constituents & forming methods, so traditional names like 304L will become more of an approximation
New Starship parts are lining up at the build site including new ring stacks and the completed nosecone section. The high bay continues to grow at a rapid pace, and SN5 continues to be worked on ahead of engine testing. As a special bonus: 3 entire minutes of scrapping footage at the end for your enjoyment. Video and Pictures from Mary (@BocaChicaGal). Edited by Jack Beyer (@TheJackBeyer)
****** July 16: SpaceX Boca Chica – SN5 waits, expansion continues, fin washing – NASASpaceflight – YouTube
While Starship SN5 continues to wait for its Static Fire test (still at least a few days away) and soon-to-follow Hop, the expansion of Spaceport Boca Chica continues and future Starships get in line. Video includes fin power washing! Video and Pictures from Mary (@BocaChicaGal). Edited by Jack Beyer (@TheJackBeyer).
** July 21: SpaceX Boca Chica – SN8 Common Dome Spotted – SN5 Fueling Test – NASASpaceflight – YouTube
The Common Dome for Starship SN8 has been spotted, clearly labeled as such. SN5 underwent a fueling test, the results of which are unknown, the next level of High Bay sections has started to go up, and yet another new nosecone has been spotted inside Tent 3. Video and Pictures from Mary (@BocaChicaGal). Edited by Jack Beyer (@thejackbeyer).
****** July.21: SpaceX Boca Chica – High Bay Grows as Robots and Raptor arrive – NASASpaceflight – YouTube
While Spaceship SN5 remains in preparations for a Static Fire test, numerous new arrivals were spotted, from welding robots to a new Raptor engine, all while the High Bay continues to grow. Video and Pictures from Mary (@BocaChicaGal). Edited by Jack Beyer (@thejackbeyer).
**** Webcast reports on Starship and other rockets:
**** July 19: SpaceX Boca Chica Weekly Update – Starship fabrication continues at speed as high bay takes shape – NASASpaceflight – YouTube
NSF’s second weekly update video showing the highlights of work ongoing at SpaceX Boca Chica as Starship SN5 prepares to enter a week of testing. Video and Pictures from Mary (@BocaChicaGal), Nomadd and Jack Beyer. Edited by Jack Beyer (@TheJackBeyer)
**** July 18: SpaceX Starship SN5 150m flight countdown, Starlink Beta, Minotaur IV Launch and Skylab Anniversary – Marcus House
Many topics this week including a SpaceX Starship SN5 150m flight countdown update, Starlink Beta, the Minotaur IV Launch, and the 41st Skylab Anniversary. The Starship prototype Serial Number 5 still awaits that 150-meter flight test but getting very close now. Some news on the Starlink terminals and information on the roll-out of the private beta beginning this summer with a public beta to follow. We had the super-rapid Minotaur launch just the other day, look at that go, and we’re going to talk a little about Skylab that 41 years ago made its undignified return to earth into parts of the Indian Ocean and Western Australia.
**** July 21: SpaceX Starship Updates – Solar Orbiter: Close To The Inferno – What about it!?
The Common Dome for Starship SN8 has been spotted, clearly labeled as such. SN5 underwent a fueling test, the results of which are unknown, the next level of High Bay sections has started to go up, and yet another new nosecone has been spotted inside Tent 3. Video and Pictures from Mary (@BocaChicaGal). Edited by Jack Beyer (@thejackbeyer).
**** July 17: SpaceX Starship Updates – Boca Chica Developing Faster & Faster! – What about it!?
The European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope (ESO’s VLT) has taken the first ever image of a young, Sun-like star accompanied by two giant exoplanets. Images of systems with multiple exoplanets are extremely rare, and — until now — astronomers had never directly observed more than one planet orbiting a star similar to the Sun. The observations can help astronomers understand how planets formed and evolved around our own Sun.
This image, captured by the SPHERE instrument on ESO’s Very Large Telescope, shows the star TYC 8998-760-1 accompanied by two giant exoplanets. This is the first time astronomers have directly observed more than one planet orbiting a star similar to the Sun. The image was captured by blocking the light from the young, Sun-like star (on the top left corner) using a coronagraph, which allows for the fainter planets to be detected. The bright and dark rings we see on the star’s image are optical artefacts. The two planets are visible as two bright dots in the centre and bottom right of the frame.
Just a few weeks ago, ESO revealed a planetary system being born in a new, stunning VLT image. Now, the same telescope, using the same instrument, has taken the first direct image of a planetary system around a star like our Sun, located about 300 light-years away and known as TYC 8998-760-1.
“This discovery is a snapshot of an environment that is very similar to our Solar System, but at a much earlier stage of its evolution,”
says Alexander Bohn, a PhD student at Leiden University in the Netherlands, who led the new research published today in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.
“Even though astronomers have indirectly detected thousands of planets in our galaxy, only a tiny fraction of these exoplanets have been directly imaged,” says co-author Matthew Kenworthy, Associate Professor at Leiden University, adding that “direct observations are important in the search for environments that can support life.”
The direct imaging of two or more exoplanets around the same star is even more rare; only two such systems have been directly observed so far, both around stars markedly different from our Sun. The new ESO’s VLT image is the first direct image of more than one exoplanet around a Sun-like star. ESO’s VLT was also the first telescope to directly image an exoplanet, back in 2004, when it captured a speck of light around a brown dwarf, a type of ‘failed’ star.
“Our team has now been able to take the first image of two gas giant companions that are orbiting a young, solar analogue,”
says Maddalena Reggiani, a postdoctoral researcher from KU Leuven, Belgium, who also participated in the study. The two planets can be seen in the new image as two bright points of light distant from their parent star, which is located in the upper left of the frame (click on the image to view the full frame). By taking different images at different times, the team were able to distinguish these planets from the background stars.
This image, captured by the SPHERE instrument on ESO’s Very Large Telescope, shows the star TYC 8998-760-1 accompanied by two giant exoplanets, TYC 8998-760-1b and TYC 8998-760-1c. This is the first time astronomers have directly observed more than one planet orbiting a star similar to the Sun. The two planets are visible as two bright dots in the centre (TYC 8998-760-1b) and bottom right (TYC 8998-760-1c) of the frame, noted by arrows. Other bright dots, which are background stars, are visible in the image as well. By taking different images at different times, the team were able to distinguish the planets from the background stars. The image was captured by blocking the light from the young, Sun-like star (top-left of centre) using a coronagraph, which allows for the fainter planets to be detected. The bright and dark rings we see on the star’s image are optical artefacts.
The two gas giants orbit their host star at distances of 160 and about 320 times the Earth-Sun distance. This places these planets much further away from their star than Jupiter or Saturn, also two gas giants, are from the Sun; they lie at only 5 and 10 times the Earth-Sun distance, respectively. The team also found the two exoplanets are much heavier than the ones in our Solar System, the inner planet having 14 times Jupiter’s mass and the outer one six times.
Bohn’s team imaged this system during their search for young, giant planets around stars like our Sun but far younger. The star TYC 8998-760-1 is just 17 million years old and located in the Southern constellation of Musca (The Fly). Bohn describes it as a “very young version of our own Sun.”
These images were possible thanks to the high performance of the SPHERE instrument on ESO’s VLT in the Chilean Atacama desert. SPHERE blocks the bright light from the star using a device called coronagraph, allowing the much fainter planets to be seen. While older planets, such as those in our Solar System, are too cool to be found with this technique, young planets are hotter, and so glow brighter in infrared light. By taking several images over the past year, as well as using older data going back to 2017, the research team have confirmed that the two planets are part of the star’s system.
Further observations of this system, including with the future ESO Extremely Large Telescope (ELT), will enable astronomers to test whether these planets formed at their current location distant from the star or migrated from elsewhere. ESO’s ELT will also help probe the interaction between two young planets in the same system. Bohn concludes:
“The possibility that future instruments, such as those available on the ELT, will be able to detect even lower-mass planets around this star marks an important milestone in understanding multi-planet systems, with potential implications for the history of our own Solar System.”
This chart shows the location of the TYC 8998-760-1 system. This map shows most of the stars visible to the unaided eye under good conditions and the system itself is marked with a red circle.
1. Monday, July 20, 2020; 7 pm PDT (9 pm CDT, 10 pm EDT: We welcome Rand Simberg back for Evoloterra and Apollo 11 on the 51st anniversary of going to the Moon.
2. Tuesday, July 21, 2020; 7 pm PDT (9 pm CDT, 10 pm EDT): We welcome back Dr. Pat Patterson to tell us about the all virtual SmallSat Conference this year. Don’t miss it.
3. Wednesday, July 22, 2020: Hotel Mars TBA pre-recorded. See upcoming show menu on the home page for program details.
4. Thursday, July 23, 2020; 7-8:30 pm PDT (9-10:30 pm CDT, 10-11:30 pm EDT): No special program today.
5. Friday, July 24, 2020; 9:30-11 am PDT (11:30 am-1 pm CDT, 12:30-2 pm EDT): We welcome back Steven Wolfe regarding the Beyond Earth Institute and space settlement important news.
**Sun. July.19.202 – Open lines program hosted a “discussion on a wide variety of topics with your phone calls. Robert Jacobson was back on and has set up another ebook give away program.”
[Amazon commission link] and had “a wide ranging discussion on doing science in space as a priority over commercial, mining, resource usage and settlement”.
