The first European Rocketry Challenge (EUROC) inter-collegiate student rocketry competition is being held in Ponte de Sor, Portugal this week (October 21-25). EUROC is
the first university rocket launch competition in Europe, which seeks to stimulate engineering students to design, build and launch their own vehicles
Here is the latest episode in NASA’s Space to Ground weekly report on activities related to the International Space Station:
** ISS Expedition 63/Soyuz MS-16 Undocking Coverage – NASA Video
Expedition 63 Commander Chris Cassidy of NASA and crewmates Anatoly Ivanishin and Ivan Vagner of Roscosmos undocked their Soyuz MS-16 spacecraft from the Poisk module on the International Space Station. Upon landing, Cassidy, Ivanishin and Vagner will have completed a journey of 196 days in space conducting research and maintenance aboard the orbital outpost.
** Expedition 63 Crew Lands Safely in Kazakhstan – NASA Video
Expedition 63 Commander Chris Cassidy of NASA and crewmates Anatoly Ivanishin and Ivan Vagner of Roscosmos landed safely on Earth near the town of Dzhezkazgan, Kazakhstan, Oct. 22 after bidding farewell to their colleagues on the complex and undocking their Soyuz MS-16 spacecraft from the Poisk module on the International Space Station. Cassidy, Ivanishin and Vagner completed a journey of 196 days in space conducting research and maintenance aboard the orbital outpost.
** Chris Cassidy – Space Station Scientist – NASA Johnson
On April 9, 2020, the Soyuz MS-16 lifted off from Site 31 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. This launch kicked off NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy’s third trip to the International Space Station. Cassidy’s 196-day mission as Expedition 63 Commander of the space station was filled with milestones for space exploration as well as numerous science experiments helping benefit life back on Earth. Take a look at the science he enabled during his research-filled stay in microgravity aboard the world class laboratory in low-Earth orbit: https://go.nasa.gov/350lpAO Learn more about the research being conducted on station: https://www.nasa.gov/iss-science
Former NASA astronaut and ISS veteran Jeff Williams reveals how the space station was constructed, what it’s like living and working on the Earth-orbiting laboratory, and gives his thoughts on the future of human spaceflight.
** Explore The International Space Station in Virtual Reality! | Mashable
Paul Raphäel, co-founder and creative director at Felix & Paul Studios, sat down with us to talk about the idea and process behind The ISS Experience.
What do the Golden Gate Bridge, the Chrysler Building, the film Citizen Kane, and America’s Space Program all have in common? They were touched by the hand of a wry-humored and slightly cantankerous artist named Chesley Bonestell (1888-1986).
His paintings of the Golden Gate Bridge convinced doubting San Franciscans that the bridge could be built. His designs for the Chrysler Building made it an art-deco masterpiece. As a special effects matte painter, he created the legendary Xanadu Castle for Orson Welles’ Citizen Kane.
Even greater was Chesley’s impact through his space art. First published in Life Magazine in 1944, his visions of planets and galaxies, made before the advent of powerful telescopes and satellites, sowed all the seeds necessary for one of the most revolutionary chapters of our country: the United States Space Program. His iconic “Saturn As Seen From Titan” became known as “the painting that launched a thousand careers.” His space art graced the covers of countless science fiction magazines of the 1940’s and 50’s. Teaming up with rocket experts Willy Ley and Wernher von Braun, he co-authored a long series of influential books beginning with the best-seller, The Conquest of Space. His evocative imagery fired the imaginations of a country looking to conquer the next frontier, and so the quest began!
Illustration of a Mars expedition landing site by Chesley Bonestell for Colliers Magazine, April 30, 1954.
Summoned by Hollywood producer George Pal, Chesley lent his talents to classics like Destination Moon and The War Of The Worlds. Television requested Chesley’s help with the series Men Into Space. Even today, you can see his influence on filmmakers like Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey and many others.
Chesley Bonestell: A Brush With The Future compellingly reveals a nearly-forgotten artist whose mysterious, almost magical, ability to envision distant worlds inspired generations to reach for the stars. Often compared to a twentieth-century da Vinci, this first-ever film about Bonestell explores the life and works of an artist whose influence and timeless imagery are regarded by many as unparalleled. This documentary was produced by award-winning filmmaker Douglass M. Stewart, Jr. and Co-Produced by Ron Miller and Melvin Schuetz, authors of the Hugo Award-winning book, The Art of Chesley Bonestell.
See previous HS items about the film here and here.
Sixteen years after NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission was first proposed and two years after the robotic spacecraft went into orbit around asteroid 101955 Bennu, mission team members are now counting down to the moment when it will descend to the surface, grab a sample—and then get out of there before anything can go wrong.
The sampling is set for next Tuesday, Oct. 20. If it works, it will be a first for the United States. (A Japanese probe is currently returning to Earth with samples from asteroid 162173 Ryugu.)
Though the mission plan has so far been executed almost flawlessly, an outsider might be forgiven for thinking there’s something a bit…well, counterintuitive about it. The spacecraft has no landing legs, because it will never actually land. Instead, the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft vaguely resembles an insect with a long snout—a honeybee, perhaps, hovering over a flower to pollinate it. The “snout” is actually an articulated arm with a 30.5 cm round collection chamber at the end. It’s called TAGSAM – short for Touch-And-Go Sample Acquisition Mechanism. You’ve doubtless heard the old expression, “I wouldn’t touch that with a 10-foot pole.” The TAGSAM arm is an 11-foot pole.
** A discussion of the OSIRIS-REx mission: NASA EZScience
The OSIRIS-REx spacecraft is scheduled to touch down on the asteroid Bennu on October 20, 2020, for its first sample collection attempt. To kick off the second season of #EZScience, NASA associate administrator for science Dr. Thomas Zurbuchen and National Air and Space Museum director Dr. Ellen Stofan discuss this exciting and innovative mission to return samples from an asteroid to Earth and the scientific opportunities it opens up.
…the OSIRIS REx mission to asteroid Bennu and the sample return from Bennu. We discussed landing at the Nightingale landing site on Bennu and why, the actual quantity of material being collected for sample return, material changes on the way back to Earth, instrumentation operational status, asteroid ejecta, Bennu collisions with asteroid material, Vesta rocks on Bennu, the expectation of finding organic prebiotic compounds in the sample and more.
This video shows a simulation of the NASA probe OSIRIS-REx’s sample collection on Asteroid Bennu planned for October 20, 2020:
00:00 Approach Burn 00:09 Solar Panels folding back 00:23 Samples Collection Arm Deployment 01:06 Samples Collection 02:21 Samples Weighting 03:42 Storing Samples in Return Container 06:04 Solar Panels unfolding 06:15 Approach Trajectory
The above mentioned application is a 3D solar system and space missions simulator available in the Microsoft® Store: https://www.microsoft.com/store/apps/…
An amateur astronomer has discovered a kilometer-wide asteroid that would create global devastation if it were to hit the Earth. Thankfully that won’t happen: the asteroid will miss our planet by 40 million kilometers as it passes on 10 September 2020, more than 100 times the distance between Earth and the Moon. But the fact that this relatively large near-Earth object, or NEO, wasn’t detected until now serves as a reminder that there’s much work to be done when it comes to defending our planet from dangerous asteroids.
Amateur astronomer Leonardo Amaral discovered the asteroid at the Campo dos Amarais observatory in Brazil. The Planetary Society in 2019 awarded Amaral an $8,500 grant to purchase a more stable telescope mount for better tracking and longer camera exposures. The Society’s Shoemaker NEO Grant program funds advanced amateur astronomers around the world who find, track, and characterize potentially dangerous space rocks. Much of this work follows up on asteroids discovered by large-scale sky surveys, providing observations crucial to orbit determination or asteroid characterization.
Roughly 15 to 30 feet wide, the object will make its closest approach on Sept. 24.
A small near-Earth asteroid (or NEA) will briefly visit Earth’s neighborhood on Thursday, Sept. 24, zooming past at a distance of about 13,000 miles (22,000 kilometers) above our planet’s surface. The asteroid will make its close approach below the ring of geostationary satellites orbiting about 22,000 miles (36,000 kilometers) away from Earth.
Based on its brightness, scientists estimate that 2020 SW is roughly 15 to 30 feet (5 to 10 meters) wide – or about the size of a small school bus. Although it’s not on an impact trajectory with Earth, if it were, the space rock would almost certainly break up high in the atmosphere, becoming a bright meteor known as a fireball.
Venus
** Discovery of phosphine in the clouds of Venus ignites speculation that it is produced by microbial life. However, there are inorganic processes that could produce it as well. Possible Marker of Life Spotted on Venus | ESO
An international team of astronomers today announced the discovery of a rare molecule — phosphine — in the clouds of Venus. On Earth, this gas is only made industrially or by microbes that thrive in oxygen-free environments. Astronomers have speculated for decades that high clouds on Venus could offer a home for microbes — floating free of the scorching surface but needing to tolerate very high acidity. The detection of phosphine could point to such extra-terrestrial “aerial” life.
“When we got the first hints of phosphine in Venus’s spectrum, it was a shock!”, says team leader Jane Greaves of Cardiff University in the UK, who first spotted signs of phosphine in observations from the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope (JCMT), operated by the East Asian Observatory, in Hawaiʻi. Confirming their discovery required using 45 antennas of the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) in Chile, a more sensitive telescope in which the European Southern Observatory (ESO) is a partner. Both facilities observed Venus at a wavelength of about 1 millimetre, much longer than the human eye can see — only telescopes at high altitude can detect it effectively.
The international team, which includes researchers from the UK, US and Japan, estimates that phosphine exists in Venus’s clouds at a small concentration, only about twenty molecules in every billion. Following their observations, they ran calculations to see whether these amounts could come from natural non-biological processes on the planet. Some ideas included sunlight, minerals blown upwards from the surface, volcanoes, or lightning, but none of these could make anywhere near enough of it. These non-biological sources were found to make at most one ten thousandth of the amount of phosphine that the telescopes saw.
To create the observed quantity of phosphine (which consists of hydrogen and phosphorus) on Venus, terrestrial organisms would only need to work at about 10% of their maximum productivity, according to the team. Earth bacteria are known to make phosphine: they take up phosphate from minerals or biological material, add hydrogen, and ultimately expel phosphine. Any organisms on Venus will probably be very different to their Earth cousins, but they too could be the source of phosphine in the atmosphere.
This finding greatly increases scientific and public interest in Venus, which has been visited by spacecraft far less often than Mars. The Venusian surface is a hell-scape with an atmospheric pressure over 90 times that of earth and temperatures close to 500 degrees Celsius. So the bare surface and thin atmosphere of Mars make it seem benign in comparison. However, there is the possibility of human habitats floating atop the thick Venusian atmosphere, though there would the challenge of dealing with the sulfuric acid present at such altitudes. Venus is similar to Earth in terms of gravity and so for human visitors it has at least this one advantage over the Red Planet, where gravity is about a third that of Earth’s.
** Interview with a member of the team that found evidence of phosphine in the Venusian clouds:
Could life exist elsewhere in the Solar System? Astronomers have announced the presence of phosphine in the clouds of Venus, which could be evidence of microbial life around the hellish planet. Dr Emily Drabek-Maunder, one of the astronomers behind the discovery, reveals how they did it, and why we need a new mission to explore Venus.
The ESA-JAXA BepiColombo mission has completed the first of two Venus flybys needed to set it on course with the Solar System’s innermost planet, Mercury.
The closest approach of the flyby took place at 03:58 GMT (05:58 CEST) this morning at a distance of about 10 720 km from the planet’s surface.
The Venus flyby offered an opportunity to test the science instruments on the spacecraft and to investigate the cloudy planet:
Seven of the eleven science instruments onboard the European Mercury Planetary Orbiter, plus its radiation monitor, and three of five onboard the Japanese Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter were active during the flyby. While the suite of sensors are designed to study the rocky, atmosphere-free environment at Mercury, the flyby offered a unique opportunity to collect valuable science data at Venus.
BepiColombo returns images of Venus during close approach. Credits: ESA
This weekend’s perihelion was set up by the probe’s third Venus flyby. On July 11, the spacecraft came within 518 miles above Venus’ surface — much lower than the previous two flybys but still well above Venus’ atmosphere — putting it on a path that brings it 3.25 million miles closer to the Sun than the last perihelion, on June 7. Mission Design and Navigation Manager Yanping Guo of APL noted that the gravity assist provided the mission’s largest orbital speed reduction since launch, trimming the spacecraft’s velocity by 8,438 miles per hour (13,579 kilometers per hour).
A sampling of links to recent space policy, politics, and government (US and international) related space news and resource items that I found of interest (find previous space policy roundups here):
In August, the National Academy of Public Administration (NAPA) published a report requested by Congress that affirmed the decision in Space Policy Directive 3 to give space traffic management responsibilities to the Commerce Department’s Office of Space Commerce. Former NASA Administrator Sean O’Keefe, who served on the NAPA panel that produced the report, and Office of Space Commerce Director Kevin O’Connell talk with SpaceNews about the report’s conclusions and what’s next in the effort to improve civil space traffic management.
Speakers:
Kevin O’Connell Office of Space Commerce director, U.S. Commerce Department
Sean O’Keefe Former NASA administrator and university professor at Syracuse University’s Maxwell School of Citizen and Public Affairs
MODERATOR Jeff Foust SpaceNews senior staff writer
** NASA and International Partners Sign Artemis Accords – NASA
On October 13, 2020, NASA and international partners from Australia, Canada, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, the United Arab Emirates and the United Kingdom signed the Artemis Accords agreements for international participation in the agency’s Artemis program, during a virtual meeting of the International Astronautical Congress. While NASA is leading the Artemis program, international partnerships will play a key role in achieving a sustainable and robust presence on the Moon while preparing to conduct a historic human mission to Mars. International cooperation on Artemis will bolster space exploration and enhance peaceful relationships between nations. The Artemis Accords will also reinforce the principles of the Outer Space Treaty.
** Engaging the Artemis Generation: A Virtual Q&A with Astronaut Michael Barratt plus Congresswoman Herrera Beutler and Administrator Jim Bridenstine – NASA
** NS-13 Full Interview With NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine – Blue Origin
NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine joined the New Shepard NS-13 webcast to talk about a key experiment on board, the Deorbit, Descent, and Landing Sensor Demonstration with NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate under a Tipping Point partnership.
** NASA Space Communications and Navigation Program’s Move to Commercial Communications Services – NASA
To support the early space program, then our continuous human presence in low Earth orbit (LEO), NASA had, literally, to build all communications infrastructure from the ground up. Now we’re looking to transition our missions to commercial services by 2030.
** 2020 Mars Society Virtual Convention – Day 4 Morning Plenaries – Mars Society
Our four-day event is free, and brings together prominent scientists, policymakers, entrepreneurs and space advocates to discuss the significance of the latest scientific discoveries, technological advances and political-economic-social developments that could affect plans for the human exploration and settlement of Mars. As always, the convention will involve a wide variety of timely plenary talks, panel discussions and public debates concerning key issues bearing on human Mars exploration.
