In Space Infrastructure, Living in Space, SpaceCasts

Videos: “Space to Ground” & other space habitat reports – Feb.18.2022

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

** STEMonstrations: Vestibular System – NASA Johnson

NASA Astronauts Mark Vande Hei and Shane Kimbrough demonstrate the effects of the weightless-simulated environment on their perception of motion, spatial orientation, and balance aboard the International Space Station. Watch as NASA astronaut Megan McArthur and JAXA astronaut Aki Hoshide discuss the vestibular system and learn how the human body relies on external cues to provide us with important information about our environment. Be sure to check out https://www.nasa.gov/stemonstrations for more videos like this, along with their corresponding Classroom Connection lesson plans.

** ISS National Lab Research Overview – Northrop Grumman CRS-17  – ISS National Lab – YouTube

Northrop Grumman will launch a variety of critical research and supplies on its upcoming 17th Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) mission to the International Space Station (ISS). The launch, which take place at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia, is scheduled for no earlier than February 19 at 12:40 p.m. ET. The ISS National Laboratory is sponsoring more than 15 research and technology development payloads as part of this mission. These payloads, which represent diverse fields of study, intend to bring value to our nation through space-based research and enable a robust and sustainable market in low Earth orbit. This video highlights some of the ISS National Lab-sponsored investigations launching on Northrop Grumman CRS-17.

** Expedition 66 Astronaut Mark Vande Hei Talks with KARE 11, KNSI Radio, Minnesota – Feb. 17, 2022 – NASA Video

Aboard the International Space Station, Expedition 66 Flight Engineer Mark Vande Hei of NASA discussed life and work aboard the orbital outpost during an in-flight event February 17 with KARE-TV in Minneapolis, Minnesota and KNSI Radio in St. Cloud, Minnesota. Vande Hei is in the midst of a long duration mission in which he will break the record for longest single spaceflight by an American astronaut living and working aboard the microgravity laboratory. The goal of his mission is 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.

** Russia launches 80th Space Station cargo run atop Soyuz rocket – VideoFromSpace

The Progress MS-19 cargo spacecraft was launched to the International Space Station atop a Soyuz 2.1a rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Feb. 14, 2022 (Feb. 15 local time).

** Expedition 66 Progress 80 Cargo Ship Docks to International Space Station – Feb. 17, 2022 – NASA Video

Loaded with supplies and cargo, the uncrewed Russian ISS Progress 80 cargo vehicle docked to the Poisk docking compartment of the International Space Station February 17 two days after launching from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on a Soyuz booster. The resupply vehicle will remain docked to the space station until early next year.

** See the Chinese space station’s robotic arm in action – VideoFromSpace

The Chinese space station’s 10.2-meter-long mechanical arm on the Tianhe core module was recently used to grab a docking port. See footage of the activity. Full Story: https://www.space.com/china-space-sta… Credit: China Central Television (CCTV)

** Chinese astronaut Wang Yaping plays the guzheng in space – VideoFromSpace

Watch astronaut Wang Yaping play the Chinese folk song “Jasmine Flower” on the guzheng for the China Media Group Lantern Festival Gala. Yaping is currently aboard the Tiangong space station Credit: Space.com | footage courtesy: China Central Television (CCTV)

** 100 days of Cosmic Kiss – European Space Agency, ESA on Youtube

On 11 November 2021, ESA astronaut Matthias Maurer was launched to the International Space Station for his first mission, Cosmic Kiss. Around 100 days later, we reflect on some highlights from space. Matthias flew to the Station on a @SpaceX Crew Dragon alongside @NASA astronauts and fellow first-time fliers Kayla Barron and Raja Chari, and NASA spaceflight veteran Tom Marshburn. Collectively known as Crew-3, they were welcomed as members of Expedition 66 by Commander Anton Shkaplerov, cosmonaut Pyotr Dubrov and NASA’s Mark Vande Hei. While in orbit, Matthias is supporting over 35 European and many more international experiments. The outcomes of these experiments will advance our knowledge in areas ranging from human health to materials science, physics, Earth observation, technology development and more. Matthias is expected to spend approximately six months in orbit and there are many more highlights to come.

** Space stowage in 360° | Cosmic Kiss – European Space Agency, ESA on Youtube

Tour the Italian-built Permanent Multipurpose Module (PMM) of the International Space Station in 360° with ESA astronaut Matthias Maurer. Attached to Node 3, PMM is a large, reusable, pressurised element that was originally used to ferry cargo to and from the Station. It can hold up to 16 racks of equipment, experiments and supplies and has an end-cone with additional storage space for cargo bags, trash and other items. The only thing PMM has no room for is a fear of enclosed spaces. Watch as Matthias maneuvers between the boxes and bags in this vital module in orbit. Matthias is currently living and working aboard the International Space Station for his first mission, Cosmic Kiss. Find out more about Matthias and his ESA mission on the Cosmic Kiss mission webpage. Follow Matthias: https://bit.ly/ESACosmicKiss

** 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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ESO: Supermassive black hole feeds on dust cloud at galaxy’s center

The latest report from the European Southern Observatory (ESO):

Supermassive black hole caught hiding in a ring of cosmic dust

The left panel of this image shows a dazzling view of the active galaxy Messier 77 captured with the FOcal Reducer and low dispersion Spectrograph 2 (FORS2) instrument on ESO’s Very Large Telescope. The right panel shows a blow-up view of the very inner region of this galaxy, its active galactic nucleus, as seen with the MATISSE instrument on ESO’s Very Large Telescope Interferometer.

The European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope Interferometer (ESO’s VLTI) has observed a cloud of cosmic dust at the centre of the galaxy Messier 77 that is hiding a supermassive black hole. The findings have confirmed predictions made around 30 years ago and are giving astronomers new insight into “active galactic nuclei”, some of the brightest and most enigmatic objects in the universe.

Active galactic nuclei (AGNs) are extremely energetic sources powered by supermassive black holes and found at the centre of some galaxies. These black holes feed on large volumes of cosmic dust and gas. Before it is eaten up, this material spirals towards the black hole and huge amounts of energy are released in the process, often outshining all the stars in the galaxy.

Astronomers have been curious about AGNs ever since they first spotted these bright objects in the 1950s. Now, thanks to ESO’s VLTI, a team of researchers, led by Violeta Gámez Rosas from Leiden University in the Netherlands, have taken a key step towards understanding how they work and what they look like up close. The results are published today in Nature.

By making extraordinarily detailed observations of the centre of the galaxy Messier 77, also known as NGC 1068, Gámez Rosas and her team detected a thick ring of cosmic dust and gas hiding a supermassive black hole. This discovery provides vital evidence to support a 30-year-old theory known as the Unified Model of AGNs.

Astronomers know there are different types of AGN. For example, some release bursts of radio waves while others don’t; certain AGNs shine brightly in visible light, while others, like Messier 77, are more subdued. The Unified Model states that despite their differences, all AGNs have the same basic structure: a supermassive black hole surrounded by a thick ring of dust.

This illustration shows what the core of Messier 77 might look like. As other active galactic nuclei, the central region of Messier 77 is powered by a black hole that is surrounded by a thin accretion disc, which itself is surrounded by a thick ring or torus of gas and dust. In the case of Messier 77, this thick ring completely obscures our view of the supermassive black hole.   
This active galactic nucleus is also believed to have jets, as well as dusty winds, that flow out of the region around the black hole perpendicularly to the accretion disc around it.

According to this model, any difference in appearance between AGNs results from the orientation at which we view the black hole and its thick ring from Earth. The type of AGN we see depends on how much the ring obscures the black hole from our view point, completely hiding it in some cases.

Astronomers had found some evidence to support the Unified Model before, including spotting warm dust at the centre of Messier 77. However, doubts remained about whether this dust could completely hide a black hole and hence explain why this AGN shines less brightly in visible light than others.

“The real nature of the dust clouds and their role in both feeding the black hole and determining how it looks when viewed from Earth have been central questions in AGN studies over the last three decades,” explains Gámez Rosas. “Whilst no single result will settle all the questions we have, we have taken a major step in understanding how AGNs work.”

The observations were made possible thanks to the Multi AperTure mid-Infrared SpectroScopic Experiment (MATISSE) mounted on ESO’s VLTI, located in Chile’s Atacama Desert. MATISSE combined infrared light collected by all four 8.2-metre telescopes of ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) using a technique called interferometry. The team used MATISSE to scan the centre of Messier 77, located 47 million light-years away in the constellation Cetus.

“MATISSE can see a broad range of infrared wavelengths, which lets us see through the dust and accurately measure temperatures. Because the VLTI is in fact a very large interferometer, we have the resolution to see what’s going on even in galaxies as far away as Messier 77. The images we obtained detail the changes in temperature and absorption of the dust clouds around the black hole,”

says co-author Walter Jaffe, a professor at Leiden University.

This image, captured with the MATISSE instrument on ESO’s Very Large Telescope Interferometer, shows the very inner region of the active galaxy Messier 77. Active galactic nuclei are extremely energetic sources powered by supermassive black holes. By making extraordinarily detailed observations of the active centre of this galaxy, a team of astronomers detected a thick ring of cosmic dust and gas hiding a supermassive black hole. The black dot shows the most probable position of the black hole, while the two ellipses show the extent, seen in projection, of the thick inner dust ring (dashed) and extended dust disc.

Combining the changes in dust temperature (from around room temperature to about 1200 °C) caused by the intense radiation from the black hole with the absorption maps, the team built up a detailed picture of the dust and pinpointed where the black hole must lie. The dust — in a thick inner ring and a more extended disc — with the black hole positioned at its centre supports the Unified Model. The team also used data from the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array, co-owned by ESO, and the National Radio Astronomy Observatory’s Very Long Baseline Array to construct their picture.

“Our results should lead to a better understanding of the inner workings of AGNs,” concludes Gámez Rosas. “They could also help us better understand the history of the Milky Way, which harbours a supermassive black hole at its centre that may have been active in the past.”

The researchers are now looking to use ESO’s VLTI to find more supporting evidence of the Unified Model of AGNs by considering a larger sample of galaxies.

Team member Bruno Lopez, the MATISSE Principal Investigator at the Observatoire de la Côte d’Azur in Nice, France, says:

“Messier 77 is an important prototype AGN and a wonderful motivation to expand our observing programme and to optimise MATISSE to tackle a wider sample of AGNs.”

ESO’s Extremely Large Telescope (ELT), set to begin observing later this decade, will also aid the search, providing results that will complement the team’s findings and allow them to explore the interaction between AGNs and galaxies.

ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) has captured a magnificent face-on view of the barred spiral galaxy Messier 77. The image does justice to the galaxy’s beauty, showcasing its glittering arms criss-crossed with dust lanes — but it fails to betray Messier 77’s turbulent nature.

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Activism, Space Policy, SpaceCasts

The Space Show this week – Feb.14.2022

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

1. Tuesday, Feb. 15, 2022; 7 pm PST (9 pm CST, 10 pm EST): We welcome Jenna Bryant and Jordan Noone of Embedded Ventures. For more information, please see their website at www.embedded.ventures.

2. Hotel Mars – Wednesday, Feb. 16, 2022; 1:00 pm PST (3:00 pm CST, 4:00 pm EST): Douglas Messier of Parabolic Arc will talk with John Batchelor and Dr. David Livingston about Starship timelines, the FAA and more.

3. Friday, Feb.18, 2022; 9:30-11 am PST (11:30 am-1 pm CST, 12:30-2 pm EST): We welcome back the noted author Greg Klerkx who wrote the best selling 2004 book Lost In Space: The Fall of NASA And The Dream Of The New Space Age. [Amazon commission link]. Greg made amazing predictions in his book, which we documented on The Space Show (listen at Broadcast 198 (Special Edition) Greg Klerkx | The Space Show). This should be a fascinating discussion.

4. Sunday, Feb.20, 2022; 12-1:30 pm PST (2-3:30 pm CST, 3-4:30 pm EST): We welcome back Dr. Abraham (Avi) Loeb to discuss his new Galileo Project with us.

Some recent shows:

** Sunday, Feb.13.2022 – Joe Carroll discussed “his ideas on LEO space debris solutions. Be sure to follow along with his PPT slides uploaded to our blog for this program“.

** Friday, Feb.11.2022 – Brett Hoffstadt and Steve Tanaka talked about “their new children’s bedtime story book, Goodnight Moon Base [Amazon commission link, including] the illustrations, inspiring young children to dream big and do big things, to learn about the Moon and much more”.

** Tuesday, Feb.8.2022 – Douglas Messier discussed “the FAA and related issues to Starship being able to test and launch from Boca Chica. Other topics and timely news were also discussed“.

** See also:
* The Space Show Archives
* The Space Show Newsletter
* The Space Show Shop

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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Videos: “Space to Ground” & other space habitat reports – Feb.11.2022

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

** STEMonstrations: Centripetal Force – NASA Johnson

NASA Astronaut Shane Kimbrough discusses centripetal force and its connection to keeping the International Space Station safely orbiting Earth. Watch JAXA astronaut Aki Hoshide demonstrate centripetal force in the weightless-simulated environment aboard the space station and find out what happens to a revolving object when the centripetal force is lost. Be sure to check out https://www.nasa.gov/stemonstrations for more videos like this, along with their corresponding classroom connection lesson plans.

** Destination Station 2022  – ISS National Lab – YouTube

The International Space Station (ISS) is a one-of-a-kind research platform that is capable of groundbreaking innovations that are not possible on Earth. Just as importantly, the orbiting laboratory also provides a novel venue to inspire and engage the next generation of researchers and explorers. This year’s virtual Destination Station event took place Wednesday, Feb. 2, 2022, and featured NASA astronaut Victor Glover on what it is like to live and work in space. Additionally, representatives from NASA and the ISS National Lab offered overviews of the capabilities on station as well as current research opportunities to become part of the space station research community!

** Expedition 66 Astronaut Mark Vande Hei Answers Virginia Student Questions – Feb. 10, 2022 – NASA Video

Aboard the International Space Station, NASA Expedition 66 Flight Engineer Mark Vande Hei of NASA answered pre-recorded questions about life and work on the orbital laboratory during an in-flight event Feb. 10 with students attending Virginia Western Community College in Roanoke, Virginia. Vande Hei is in the midst of a record setting mission for a single spaceflight by a U.S. astronaut 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.

** Media Briefing: Space Station Science Highlights on Northrop Grumman’s 17th Resupply Mission – NASA Video

** Space repairs in 360° | Cosmic Kiss – European Space Agency, ESA on Youtube

Scientist, engineer, test subject and tradesperson – astronauts in orbit wear many different hats. In this 360° timelapse, ESA astronaut Matthias Maurer works to repair a faulty valve behind EXPRESS-Rack 3. Water On-Off Valve 8 (WOOV-8), along with WOOV-6 and WOOV-7, determines whether the cooling water of Europe’s Columbus module flows through, or bypasses, the heat exchange system that transfers waste heat to downstream cooling circuits outside the International Space Station. The valve has been a problem child for ground teams and astronauts for the past few years and was first replaced during a complicated operation in 2013. It was last replaced by ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet in October 2021, but continued issues led Matthias to try out a reserve valve to see if an unplanned conversion was possible.

The operation was successfully completed on the real WOOV-8 in December 2021, and all involved breathed a sigh of relief. Performing maintenance and repair tasks in weightlessness is especially difficult as astronauts have the added challenge of trying to hold themselves in position while turning a screw or securing a hatch. Watch Matthias carefully fold down the rack, set-up lighting and complete the task as you explore his workspace in 360°.

Matthias was launched to the International Space Station for his Cosmic Kiss mission on 11 November 2021. He will spend approximately six months living and working in orbit, supporting over 35 European and many more international experiments on board. Follow Matthias: https://bit.ly/ESACosmicKiss

** China to Complete Space Station with Six More Missions in 2022: Blue Book – CCTV Video News Agency

China plans to make a record six launches in 2022 to finish building its space station, according to a blue paper released by China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC), the main contractor of China’s space program, on Wednesday.

** Mechanical Arm on China’s Space Station Completes Another Grab Operation – CCTV Video News Agency

The mechanical arm attached to China’s Tiangong space station firmly grabbed a docking port in one operation, as shown in a video clip released by China Manned Space Agency on Tuesday.

** 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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ESO: Third planet found at Proxima Centauri, the star nearest our Sun

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

New planet detected around star closest to the Sun

This artist’s impression shows a close-up view of Proxima d, a planet candidate recently found orbiting the red dwarf star Proxima Centauri, the closest star to the Solar System. The planet is believed to be rocky and to have a mass about a quarter that of Earth. Two other planets known to orbit Proxima Centauri are visible in the image too: Proxima b, a planet with about the same mass as Earth that orbits the star every 11 days and is within the habitable zone, and candidate Proxima c, which is on a longer five-year orbit around the star.

A team of astronomers using the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope (ESO’s VLT) in Chile have found evidence of another planet orbiting Proxima Centauri, the closest star to our Solar System. This candidate planet is the third detected in the system and the lightest yet discovered orbiting this star. At just a quarter of Earth’s mass, the planet is also one of the lightest exoplanets ever found.

“The discovery shows that our closest stellar neighbour seems to be packed with interesting new worlds, within reach of further study and future exploration,”

explains João Faria, a researcher at the Instituto de Astrofísica e Ciências do Espaço, Portugal and lead author of the study published today in Astronomy & Astrophysics. Proxima Centauri is the closest star to the Sun, lying just over four light-years away.

The newly discovered planet, named Proxima d, orbits Proxima Centauri at a distance of about four million kilometres, less than a tenth of Mercury’s distance from the Sun. It orbits between the star and the habitable zone — the area around a star where liquid water can exist at the surface of a planet — and takes just five days to complete one orbit around Proxima Centauri.

The star is already known to host two other planets: Proxima b, a planet with a mass comparable to that of Earth that orbits the star every 11 days and is within the habitable zone, and candidate Proxima c, which is on a longer five-year orbit around the star.

This image of the sky around the bright star Alpha Centauri AB also shows the much fainter red dwarf star, Proxima Centauri, the closest star to the Solar System. The picture was created from pictures forming part of the Digitized Sky Survey 2. The blue halo around Alpha Centauri AB is an artifact of the photographic process, the star is really pale yellow in colour like the Sun.

Proxima b was discovered a few years ago using the HARPS instrument on ESO’s 3.6-metre telescope. The discovery was confirmed in 2020 when scientists observed the Proxima system with a new instrument on ESO’s VLT that had greater precision, the Echelle SPectrograph for Rocky Exoplanets and Stable Spectroscopic Observations (ESPRESSO). It was during these more recent VLT observations that astronomers spotted the first hints of a signal corresponding to an object with a five-day orbit. As the signal was so weak, the team had to conduct follow-up observations with ESPRESSO to confirm that it was due to a planet, and not simply a result of changes in the star itself.

“After obtaining new observations, we were able to confirm this signal as a new planet candidate,” Faria says. “I was excited by the challenge of detecting such a small signal and, by doing so, discovering an exoplanet so close to Earth.”

At just a quarter of the mass of Earth, Proxima d is the lightest exoplanet ever measured using the radial velocity technique, surpassing a planet recently discovered in the L 98-59 planetary system. The technique works by picking up tiny wobbles in the motion of a star created by an orbiting planet’s gravitational pull. The effect of Proxima d’s gravity is so small that it only causes Proxima Centauri to move back and forth at around 40 centimetres per second (1.44 kilometres per hour).

“This achievement is extremely important,” says Pedro Figueira, ESPRESSO instrument scientist at ESO in Chile. “It shows that the radial velocity technique has the potential to unveil a population of light planets, like our own, that are expected to be the most abundant in our galaxy and that can potentially host life as we know it.”

“This result clearly shows what ESPRESSO is capable of and makes me wonder about what it will be able to find in the future,” Faria adds.

ESPRESSO’s search for other worlds will be complemented by ESO’s Extremely Large Telescope (ELT), currently under construction in the Atacama Desert, which will be crucial to discovering and studying many more planets around nearby stars.

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