Here is the latest episode in NASA’s Space to Ground weekly report on activities related to the International Space Station:

** Blastoff! Russia launches NASA astronaut and two cosmonauts to space station – VideoFromSpace

A Soyuz rocket launched NASA astronaut Frank Rubio and Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitri Petelin from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Sept. 21, 2022. Full Story: https://www.space.com/soyuz-ms22-inte…

** Soyuz docks to space station with NASA astronaut and 2 cosmonauts aboard – VideoFromSpace

NASA astronaut Frank Rubio and Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitri Petelin arrived at the International Space Station aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft on Sept. 21, 2022. Watch the launch: https://www.space.com/soyuz-ms22-inte…

** Large trash bag jettisoned from Space Station using ‘new capability‘ – VideoFromSpace

ESA astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti delivered video of a new trash disposal technique on the International Space Station. The “big trash bag was jettisoned from a depressurized airlock on the station & it burned up harmlessly in the Earth’s atmosphere,” according to a twitter post from Cristoforetti. Learn about the space station’s Bishop airlock: https://www.space.com/nanoracks-bisho…

** Expedition 67 Space Station Crew Answers Texas High School Student Questions – Sept. 22, 2022 – NASA Video

Aboard the International Space Station, NASA Expedition 67 Flight Engineers Kjell Lindgren and Bob Hines answered pre-recorded questions about life and work on the orbiting laboratory during an in-flight event Sept. 22 with students at the Sam Houston Math, Science, and Technology Center in Houston. Lindgren and Hines are in the midst of a science mission living and working aboard the microgravity laboratory to advance scientific knowledge and demonstrate new technologies for future human and robotic exploration missions as part of NASA’s Moon and Mars exploration approach, including lunar missions through NASA’s Artemis program.

– European Space Agency, ESA on Youtube

– Axiom Space

** China’s Shenzhou-14 astronauts complete 2nd spacewalk – See highlights! – VideoFromSpace

Chinese astronauts Cai Xuzhe and Chen Dong completed the Shenzhou-14 crew’s second extravehicular activities (EVA) outside the Tiangong space station on Sept. 17, 2022. They installed “extravehicular assistance handles and the extended pump set of the load circuits,” according to China Central Television. Full Story: https://www.space.com/chinese-astrona…

** ISS Live video stream – IBM/ISS HD Earth Viewing Experiment

Currently, live views from the ISS are streaming from an external camera mounted on the ISS module called Node 2. Node 2 is located on the forward part of the ISS. The camera is looking forward at an angle so that the International Docking Adapter 2 (IDA2) is visible. If the Node 2 camera is not available due to operational considerations for a longer period of time, a continuous loop of recorded HDEV imagery will be displayed. The loop will have “Previously Recorded” on the image to distinguish it from the live stream from the Node 2 camera. After HDEV stopped sending any data on July 18, 2019, it was declared, on August 22, 2019, to have reached its end of life. Thank You to all who shared in experiencing and using the HDEV views of Earth from the ISS to make HDEV so much more than a Technology Demonstration Payload!

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Astronomy, Education, Space Radio

ESO: Hot gas bubble observed orbiting the Milky Way’s supermassive black hole

September 22, 2022 TopSpacer

A new report from the European Southern Observatory (ESO):

Astronomers detect hot gas bubble swirling around
the Milky Way’s supermassive black hole

This shows a still image of the supermassive black hole Sagittarius A*, as seen by the Event Horizon Collaboration (EHT), with an artist’s illustration indicating where the modelling of the ALMA data predicts the hot spot to be and its orbit around the black hole. Credits: ESO

Using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), astronomers have spotted signs of a ‘hot spot’ orbiting Sagittarius A*, the black hole at the centre of our galaxy. The finding helps us better understand the enigmatic and dynamic environment of our supermassive black hole.

“We think we’re looking at a hot bubble of gas zipping around Sagittarius A* on an orbit similar in size to that of the planet Mercury, but making a full loop in just around 70 minutes. This requires a mind blowing velocity of about 30% of the speed of light!”

says Maciek Wielgus of the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy in Bonn, Germany, who led the study published today in Astronomy & Astrophysics.

The observations were made with ALMA in the Chilean Andes — a radio telescope co-owned by the European Southern Observatory (ESO) — during a campaign by the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) Collaboration to image black holes. In April 2017 the EHT linked together eight existing radio telescopes worldwide, including ALMA, resulting in the recently released first ever image of Sagittarius A*. To calibrate the EHT data, Wielgus and his colleagues, who are members of the EHT Collaboration, used ALMA data recorded simultaneously with the EHT observations of Sagittarius A*. To the team’s surprise, there were more clues to the nature of the black hole hidden in the ALMA-only measurements.

By chance, some of the observations were done shortly after a burst or flare of X-ray energy was emitted from the centre of our galaxy, which was spotted by NASA’s Chandra Space Telescope. These kinds of flares, previously observed with X-ray and infrared telescopes, are thought to be associated with so-called ‘hot spots’, hot gas bubbles that orbit very fast and close to the black hole.

“What is really new and interesting is that such flares were so far only clearly present in X-ray and infrared observations of Sagittarius A*. Here we see for the first time a very strong indication that orbiting hot spots are also present in radio observations,”

says Wielgus, who is also affiliated with the Nicolaus Copernicus Astronomical Centre, Poland and the Black Hole Initiative at Harvard University, USA.

“Perhaps these hot spots detected at infrared wavelengths are a manifestation of the same physical phenomenon: as infrared-emitting hot spots cool down, they become visible at longer wavelengths, like the ones observed by ALMA and the EHT,”

adds Jesse Vos, a PhD student at Radboud University, the Netherlands, who was also involved in this study.

The flares were long thought to originate from magnetic interactions in the very hot gas orbiting very close to Sagittarius A*, and the new findings support this idea.

“Now we find strong evidence for a magnetic origin of these flares and our observations give us a clue about the geometry of the process. The new data are extremely helpful for building a theoretical interpretation of these events,”

says co-author Monika Mościbrodzka from Radboud University.

This visible light wide-field view shows the rich star clouds in the constellation of Sagittarius (the Archer) in the direction of the centre of our Milky Way galaxy. The entire image is filled with vast numbers of stars — but far more remain hidden behind clouds of dust and are only revealed in infrared images. This view was created from photographs in red and blue light and form part of the Digitized Sky Survey 2. The field of view is approximately 3.5 degrees x 3.6 degrees. Credits: ESO

ALMA allows astronomers to study polarised radio emission from Sagittarius A*, which can be used to unveil the black hole’s magnetic field. The team used these observations together with theoretical models to learn more about the formation of the hot spot and the environment it is embedded in, including the magnetic field around Sagittarius A*. Their research provides stronger constraints on the shape of this magnetic field than previous observations, helping astronomers uncover the nature of our black hole and its surroundings.

The observations confirm some of the previous discoveries made by the GRAVITY instrument at ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT), which observes in the infrared. The data from GRAVITY and ALMA both suggest the flare originates in a clump of gas swirling around the black hole at about 30% of the speed of light in a clockwise direction in the sky, with the orbit of the hot spot being nearly face-on.

“In the future we should be able to track hot spots across frequencies using coordinated multiwavelength observations with both GRAVITY and ALMA — the success of such an endeavour would be a true milestone for our understanding of the physics of flares in the Galactic centre,”

says Ivan Marti-Vidal of the University of València in Spain, co-author of the study.

The team is also hoping to be able to directly observe the orbiting gas clumps with the EHT, to probe ever closer to the black hole and learn more about it.

“Hopefully, one day, we will be comfortable saying that we ‘know’ what is going on in Sagittarius A*,”

Wielgus concludes.

This image shows the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) looking up at the Milky Way as well as the location of Sagittarius A*, the supermassive black hole at our galactic centre. Highlighted in the box is the image of Sagittarius A* taken by the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) Collaboration. Located in the Atacama Desert in Chile, ALMA is the most sensitive of all the observatories in the EHT array, and ESO is a co-owner of ALMA on behalf of its European Member States. Credits: ESO

Links

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Education, Rocketry, Rockets

Hybrid rocket built by Texas students sets an altitude record for high school launches

September 20, 2022 TopSpacer

Chris McLeod, instructor for the rocket engineering program at Brazoswood High School in Clute, Texas near Houston, sent me the news that the 2022 senior “Goddard Rocket Team”

designed and built an SRAD [student researched and designed] hybrid rocket which launched to a verified 45,482′ AGL (49,523′ MSL). This came within 1% of the 50,000′ ceiling at WSMR [White Sands Missile Range].

The Horizon 1 rocket used nitrous oxide with a solid 3D printed fuel grain.

The team set a world record for high school rockets:

All information was validated by the U.S. Army at the White Sands Missile Range a few weeks later, “Brazoswood High School set a new world record for altitude achieved by a student-built, hybrid-motor propelled rocket reaching 45,482 feet above ground level, beating Fredericksburg High School’s record of 36,100 feet and earning the the SystemsGo Kepler Award.”

McLeod notes

that this rocket, from research, design, and fabrication, was all completed in just one school year, with just one chance at launch, and that the students themselves learned the machining, composites, and other fabrication required to build the vehicle.

Check out the project website, which includes details of the rocket’s design and construction and also a summary of the flight, which took place on June 26, 2022.

Here are videos of the flight and student activities before and after the launch.

See also their lessons learned and advice to those seeking to break this record.

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Activism, Space Policy, SpaceCasts

The Space Show this week – Sept.20.2022

September 20, 2022 TopSpacer

The guests and topics of discussion on The Space Show this week:

1. Tuesday, Sept. 20, 2022; 7 pm PST (9 pm CST, 10 pm EST): We welcome Dereck Williams of Start Aerospace (www.startaerospace.com) with a new commercial space manufacturing business model.

2. Hotel Mars – Wednesday, Sept. 21, 2022; 1:00 pm PST (3:00 pm CST, 4:00 pm EST): TBD. Check the Upcoming Show Menu at www.thespaceshow.com for updates on scheduling.

3. Friday, Sept.23, 2022; 9:30-11 am PST (11:30 am-1 pm CST, 12:30-2 pm EST): We welcome Grant Blaisdell of Copernic Space (www.copernicspace.com).

4. Sunday, Sept.25, 2022; 12-1:30 pm PST (2-3:30 pm CST, 3-4:30 pm EST): We welcome back master space journalist and author Leonard David. Please see www.leonarddavid.com for more information about his Inside Outer Space blog and report.

Some recent shows:

** Sunday, Sept.18.2022 – Dr. Armen Papazian talked about his new book, The Space Value of Money: Rethinking Finance Beyond Risk & Time [Amazon commission link].

** Hotel Mars – Wednesday, Sept.14.2022 – Eric Berger gave John Batchelor and Dr. David Livingston an update on “Starship and SLS [Space Launch System] prep work and more“.

** Tuesday, Sept.13.2022 – Dr. Ajay Kothari made

the case of using thorium molten salt reactors for power generation in the U.S. and globally. Ajay also talked about SSP, nuclear power, launchers and related topic. He provided us with numbers and statistics.

** Sunday, Sept.11.2022 – Dale Skran, Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of the National Space Society, discussed “SSP [Space Solar Power], settlement, the human gravity RX, Starship plans, NASA and much more“.

** Friday, Sept.9.2022 – Dallas Bienhoff talked about “his joining with OffWorld (see www.offworld.ai) in addition to talking about other timely topics impacting space development, our efforts for a lunar return, new rockets and spaceships, human spaceflight, policy, adversaries and much more“.

** Hotel Mars – Dr. Michael Hecht, principle investigator of the MOXIE experiment on the Perseverance rover on Mars, spoke with John Batchelor and Dr. David Livingston about the latest results in extracting oxygen from the CO2 in the Martian atmosphere. “Michael explained Moxie, talked about the results, we talked about its future for Mars visitors and explorers, scaling it up for humans and much more.”

The Space Show is a project of the One Giant Leap Foundation .

The Space Show - David Livingston — The Space Show – Dr. David Livingston

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In Space Infrastructure, Living in Space, SpaceCasts

Videos: “Space to Ground” & other space habitat reports – Sept.17.2022

September 17, 2022 TopSpacer

Here is the latest episode in NASA’s Space to Ground weekly report on activities related to the International Space Station:

** Expedition 67 Astronaut Kjell Lindgren Answers Georgia Student Questions – Sept. 15, 2022 – NASA Video

Aboard the International Space Station, NASA Expedition 67 Flight Engineer Kjell Lindgren answered pre-recorded questions about life and work on the orbiting laboratory during an in-flight event Sept. 15 with students at Franklin Country High School in Carnesville, GA. Lindgren is in the midst of a science mission living and working aboard the microgravity laboratory to advance scientific knowledge and demonstrate new technologies for future human and robotic exploration missions as part of NASA’s Moon and Mars exploration approach, including lunar missions through NASA’s Artemis program.

** Expedition 67 Space Station Crew Answers Chicago-Area Student Questions – Sept. 13, 2022 – NASA Video

Aboard the International Space Station, NASA Expedition 67 Flight Engineer Bob Hines and ESA (European Space Agency) Flight Engineer Samantha Cristoforetti answered pre-recorded questions about life and work on the orbiting laboratory during an in-flight event Sept. 13 with members of the Junior Achievement Club of Chicago in Illinois. Hines and Cristoforetti are in the midst of a science mission living and working aboard the microgravity laboratory to advance scientific knowledge and demonstrate new technologies for future human and robotic exploration missions as part of NASA’s Moon and Mars exploration approach, including lunar missions through NASA’s Artemis program.

** ESA astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti in-flight call with President Metsola – European Space Agency, ESA on Youtube

On 15 September 2022, ESA astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti conducted an in-flight call with the European Parliament from the International Space Station. In conversation with President Metsola and ESA Director General Josef Aschbacher, she provided insights into the importance Europe’s presence in space, as well as the scientific and technological progress enabled by its activities. The three also touched on Samantha’s upcoming commandership, life on the Station, and the pressing issue of space debris.

** Ax-1 Mission Highlights – Axiom Space

Where it started. #Ax1

** China’s Shenzhou-14 Astronauts Preparing for Second Round of Extravehicular Activities – CCTV Video News Agency

Three astronauts of China’s crewed spaceship Shenzhou-14 including Chendong, Liu Yang, and Cai Xuzhe are stepping up preparations as they gear for the second round of extravehicular activities (EVAs).

** Update: China’s Shenzhou-14 Crew Completes Second Extravehicular Activities – CCTV Video News Agency

China’s Shenzhou-14 crew successfully completed the second extravehicular activities (EVAs) and returned to the space station lab module Wentian at 17:47 Beijing time (0947 GMT) on Saturday, the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA) announced.

** CMSA Releases Panoramic Camera Footage of Earth, Space Station – CCTV Video News Agency

The China Manned Space Agency (CMSA) on Sept 13 released a video showing spectacular scenery of the earth and the solar panels of the Tiangong space station, which was filmed by the panoramic camera recently installed on the Wentian lab module.