1. Tuesday, Nov. 16, 2021; 7 pm PST (9 pm CST, 10 pm EST): We welcome Adlai Salcedo of SpaceIsForYou.com for a discussion of their space development plans and resources.
2. Hotel Mars – Wednesday, Nov. 17, 2021; 1:00 pm PST (3:00 pm CST, 4:00 pm EST): William Harwood will talk with John Batchelor and Dr. David Livingston about a strange new space debris field, the LUCY mission and JWST (James Webb Space Telescope).
3. Friday, Nov.19, 2021; 9:30-11 am PST (11:30 am-1 pm CST, 12:30-2 pm EST): We welcome Kasper Kubica regarding his idea for luxury condos in space as part of space settlement. See our blog for an explanation article.
4. Sunday, Nov.21, 2021; 12-1:30 pm PST (2-3:30 pm CST, 3-4:30 pm EST): We welcome back Charles Miller to discuss his new company, Lynk Global, Inc., plus additional selected topics
Some recent shows:
** Sunday, Nov.14.2021 – Christopher Stone provided “national security space updates and a discussion about the Chinese hypersonic nuclear capable weapon getting lots of play in the news of late“.
** Tuesday, Nov.9.2021 – Dr. Alice Gorman discussed “Space Archaeology, the space archaeology project on the ISS, settlement and archaeology, debris, historical debris, culture, the Moon, Mars, O’Neill cylinders, extraterrestrial life, and much more“.
Space in Miniature, led by Michael Mackowski, releases a new digital reference book for space model builders that focuses on payloads flown on the Space Shuttle missions:
The fifth installment in the Space In Miniature (SIM) digital-only “Tech Reports” series of reference booklets for spacecraft modelers is now available. This 48-page publication is a combination of material left over after updating the SIM 1.1 Primer and the SIM 3.1 Space Shuttle books, articles recycled from my IPMS Journal columns from the 1980s and early 1990s, and some new material from me and a few of my space modeling associates.
The result is a mix of detailed build articles (e.g., the STS-41C Solar Max repair mission), background material on what potentially could be an interesting build (e.g., the STS-41D Solar Array Flight Experiment), and a few concepts that were made into kits but never actually flew (e.g., Biomedical Experiments Scientific Satellite, aka BESS). This book has 48 pages including the cover and table of contents, with 130 color photos and detailed illustrations.
Here is the table of contents from the book:
Table of Space Shuttle Missions
Tracking and Data Relay Satellite – TDRS
Better Shuttle Astronauts
Spacelab
Buck Rogers of the 20th Century
Shuttle EVA Tools
Building the Solar Max Repair Mission
Long Duration Exposure Facility – LDEF
OAST-1 Solar Array Flight Experiment
Magellan Venus Orbiter
Hubble Space Telescope
HST Servicing Missions
EASE / ACCESS
Power Satellites
Biomedical Experiments Scientific Satellite: BESS
The SIM Tech Reports cover topics that are too short or too narrow in subject matter for full length printed books. These are also distributed only as electronic (pdf) copies, which can be printed by the customer. It allows the use of color illustrations, and customers get their books via a simple download. The pdf download of SIM TR-5 Shuttle Payloads sells for $10.00 and is available at spaceinminiature.com.
Cover for Space In Miniature Tech Report 5 – Shuttle Payloads.
Here is the latest episode in NASA’s Space to Ground weekly report on activities related to the International Space Station:
** See SpaceX Crew-2’s view of space station as they depart – VideoFromSpace
NASA’s Shane Kimbrough and Megan McArthur, JAXA astronaut Akihiko Hoshide and ESA’s Thomas Pesquet are on their way back to Earth after undocking from the space station on Nov. 8, 2021.
** Splashdown! Space Crew-2 astronaut back on Earth – VideoFromSpace
NASA’s Shane Kimbrough and Megan McArthur, JAXA astronaut Akihiko Hoshide and ESA’s Thomas Pesquet splashed down off the coast of Florida on Nov. 8, 2021.
Highlights from Crew-3 launch day at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Nov. 10, 2021.
** SpaceX Crew-3 astronauts have on-orbit zero-g fun with food & more – VideoFromSpace
SpaceX Crew-3 astronauts Raja Chari, Tom Marshburn, Kayla Barron, and Matthias Maurer show off their zero-g skills during their journey to the International Space Station on Nov. 11, 2021.
** NASA’s SpaceX Crew-3 Astronauts Arrive at the Space Station – NASA
Watch the SpaceX Crew-3 astronauts arrive at the International Space Station aboard the Crew Dragon Endurance spacecraft. Kayla Barron, Raja Chari, and Thomas Marshburn of NASA, and Matthias Maurer of the European Space Agency will begin a six-month mission aboard the orbiting laboratory. Once aboard, they will join their station crewmates to conduct hundreds of scientific experiments and perform space station maintenance and upgrades. Endurance is scheduled to automatically dock to the space station at 6:32 p.m. EST (23:32 UTC). Crew-3 lifted off from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 9:03 p.m. EST on Nov. 10 (02:03 UTC Nov. 11).
ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet is sharing scenes from life on board the International Space Station during his second mission “Alpha”. Here he gives a quick tour of the @SpaceX Cargo Dragon Endeavour that brought him to the Space Station together with @JAXA | 宇宙航空研究開発機構 astronaut Aki Hoshide and @NASA astronauts Shane Kimbrough and Megan McArthur. The same astronauts, Crew-2, will use the spacecraft to return home after undocking with the Station and fly to Earth for a splashdown off the coast of Florida, USA. Over 200 experiments are planned during Thomas’ time in space, with 40 European ones and 12 new experiments led by the French space agency @CNES. Follow Thomas: https://bit.ly/ThomasPesquetBlog
ESA astronaut Matthias Maurer and @NASA astronauts Raja Chari, Tom Marshburn and Kayla Barron liftoff to the International Space Station in the @SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft “Endurance”. Collectively known as “Crew-3”, the astronauts were launched from launchpad 39A at @NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, USA at 02:03 GMT/03:03 CET Thursday 11 November. The spacecraft docked to the International Space Station at 00:32 CET Friday, 12 November/23:32 GMT Thursday, 11 November, marking the official start of Matthias’s first mission ‘Cosmic Kiss’. Crew-3 will spend around six months living and working aboard the orbital outpost before returning to Earth. It is the first space mission for Matthias, who’s become the 600th human to fly to space. He chose the name “Cosmic Kiss” for his mission as a declaration of love for space. Matthias has a background in materials science and looks forward to supporting a wide range of science and research in orbit. The work he carries out throughout his mission will contribute to the success of future space missions and help enhance life on Earth. Follow Matthias: https://bit.ly/ESACosmicKiss
This artist’s impression shows a compact black hole 11 times as massive as the Sun and the five-solar-mass star orbiting it. The two objects are located in NGC 1850, a cluster of thousands of stars roughly 160 000 light-years away in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a Milky Way neighbour. The distortion of the star’s shape is due to the strong gravitational force exerted by the black hole. Not only does the black hole’s gravitational force distort the shape of the star, but it also influences its orbit. By looking at these subtle orbital effects, a team of astronomers were able to infer the presence of the black hole, making it the first small black hole outside of our galaxy to be found this way. For this discovery, the team used the Multi Unit Spectroscopic Explorer (MUSE) instrument at ESO’s Very Large Telescope in Chile.
Using the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope (ESO’s VLT), astronomers have discovered a small black hole outside the Milky Way by looking at how it influences the motion of a star in its close vicinity. This is the first time this detection method has been used to reveal the presence of a black hole outside of our galaxy. The method could be key to unveiling hidden black holes in the Milky Way and nearby galaxies, and to help shed light on how these mysterious objects form and evolve.
The newly found black hole was spotted lurking in NGC 1850, a cluster of thousands of stars roughly 160 000 light-years away in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a neighbour galaxy of the Milky Way.
“Similar to Sherlock Holmes tracking down a criminal gang from their missteps, we are looking at every single star in this cluster with a magnifying glass in one hand trying to find some evidence for the presence of black holes but without seeing them directly,”
says Sara Saracino from the Astrophysics Research Institute of Liverpool John Moores University in the UK, who led the research now accepted for publication in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.
“The result shown here represents just one of the wanted criminals, but when you have found one, you are well on your way to discovering many others, in different clusters.”
This first “criminal” tracked down by the team turned out to be roughly 11 times as massive as our Sun. The smoking gun that put the astronomers on the trail of this black hole was its gravitational influence on the five-solar-mass star orbiting it.
This image shows NGC1850, a cluster of thousands of stars roughly 160 000 light-years away in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a Milky Way neighbour. The reddish filaments surrounding the cluster, made of vast clouds of hydrogen, are believed to be the remnants of supernova explosions. The image is an overlay of observations conducted in visible light with ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) and NASA/ESA’s Hubble Space Telescope (HST). The VLT captured the wide field of the image and the filaments, while the central cluster was imaged by the HST. Among many stars, this cluster is home to a black hole 11 times as massive as the Sun and to a five-solar-mass star orbiting it. By looking at the star’s orbit, a team of astronomers were able to infer the presence of the black hole, making it the first small black hole outside of our galaxy to be found this way. For this discovery, the team used the Multi Unit Spectroscopic Explorer (MUSE) instrument at the VLT.
Astronomers have previously spotted such small, “stellar-mass” black holes in other galaxies by picking up the X-ray glow emitted as they swallow matter, or from the gravitational waves generated as black holes collide with one another or with neutron stars.
However, most stellar-mass black holes don’t give away their presence through X-rays or gravitational waves.
“The vast majority can only be unveiled dynamically,”
says Stefan Dreizler, a team member based at the University of Göttingen in Germany.
“When they form a system with a star, they will affect its motion in a subtle but detectable way, so we can find them with sophisticated instruments.”
This dynamical method used by Saracino and her team could allow astronomers to find many more black holes and help unlock their mysteries.
“Every single detection we make will be important for our future understanding of stellar clusters and the black holes in them,”
says study co-author Mark Gieles from the University of Barcelona, Spain.
The detection in NGC 1850 marks the first time a black hole has been found in a young cluster of stars (the cluster is only around 100 million years old, a blink of an eye on astronomical scales). Using their dynamical method in similar star clusters could unveil even more young black holes and shed new light on how they evolve. By comparing them with larger, more mature black holes in older clusters, astronomers would be able to understand how these objects grow by feeding on stars or merging with other black holes. Furthermore, charting the demographics of black holes in star clusters improves our understanding of the origin of gravitational wave sources.
To carry out their search, the team used data collected over two years with the Multi Unit Spectroscopic Explorer (MUSE) mounted at ESO’s VLT, located in the Chilean Atacama Desert.
“MUSE allowed us to observe very crowded areas, like the innermost regions of stellar clusters, analysing the light of every single star in the vicinity. The net result is information about thousands of stars in one shot, at least 10 times more than with any other instrument,”
says co-author Sebastian Kamann, a long-time MUSE expert based at Liverpool’s Astrophysics Research Institute. This allowed the team to spot the odd star out whose peculiar motion signalled the presence of the black hole. Data from the University of Warsaw’s Optical Gravitational Lensing Experiment and from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope enabled them to measure the mass of the black hole and confirm their findings.
ESO’s Extremely Large Telescope in Chile, set to start operating later this decade, will allow astronomers to find even more hidden black holes.
“The ELT will definitely revolutionise this field,” says Saracino. “It will allow us to observe stars considerably fainter in the same field of view, as well as to look for black holes in globular clusters located at much greater distances.”
ESO’s VISTA telescope reveals a remarkable image of the Large Magellanic Cloud, one of our nearest galactic neighbours. VISTA has been surveying this galaxy and its sibling the Small Magellanic Cloud, as well as their surroundings, in unprecedented detail. This survey allows astronomers to observe a large number of stars, opening up new opportunities to study stellar evolution, galactic dynamics, and variable stars.
3. Friday, Nov.12, 2021; 9:30-11 am PDT (11:30 am-1 pm CDT, 12:30-2 pm EDT): We welcome Michael Castle Miller to discuss space settlement and his Lunar Development Cooperative plus related topics.
4. Sunday, Nov.14, 2021; 12-1:30 pm PDT (3-4:30 pm EDT, 2-3:30 pm CDT): We welcome back Christopher Stone with national security space news plus Chris takes a look at China’s hypersonic nuclear weapon.
Some recent shows:
** Sunday, Nov.7.2021 – Open lines program in which Dr. David Livingston led a discussion with callers on a range of issues including a particular emphasis on space solar power and fusion energy.
