1. Tuesday, Oct. 18, 2022; 7 pm PST (9 pm CST, 10 pm EST): We welcome back Dr. John Bossard to discuss his ongoing work on his Turborocket engine.
2. Hotel Mars – Wednesday, Oct. 19, 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, Oct.21, 2022; 9:30-11 am PST (11:30 am-1 pm CST, 12:30-2 pm EST): We welcome back John Strickland on multiple timely and important topics.
4. Sunday, Oct.23, 2022; 12-1:30 pm PST (2-3:30 pm CST, 3-4:30 pm EST): We welcome OPEN LINES for you to discuss what is on your mind. Give us a call at 1-866-687-7223. We want to hear from you.
about his company TransAstra. Multiple topics were discussed regarding the TransAstra plan and the big picture Joel strives for. Sustainability, ethics, business decision making and much more were part of this program.
Here is the latest episode in NASA’s Space to Ground weekly report on activities related to the International Space Station:
** Watch SpaceX Crew-4 undock from space station for return trip – VideoFromSpace
SpaceX Crew-4’s Dragon spacecraft undocked from the International Space Station on Oct. 14, 2022. Aboard are NASA astronauts Kjell Lindgren, Robert Hines, Jessica Watkins and Samantha Cristoforetti from ESA. They are scheduled to splashdown off the coast of Florida in a few hours at 4:55 p.m. EDT (2055 GMT).
** Splashdown! SpaceX Crew-4 astronauts back on Earth – VideoFromSpace
SpaceX Crew-4’s Dragon spacecraft splashed down off the coast of Florida on Oct. 14, 2022. Aboard are NASA astronauts Kjell Lindgren, Robert Hines, Jessica Watkins and Samantha Cristoforetti from ESA.
** NASA’s SpaceX Crew-4: A Scientific Journey – NASA
After months aboard the International Space Station, the astronauts of NASA’s SpaceX Crew-4 mission are returning home. Traveling back to Earth inside a SpaceX Dragon capsule are NASA astronauts Kjell Lindgren, Robert Hines, and Jessica Watkins, along with ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti. During their time aboard the orbiting laboratory, these crew members contributed to ongoing and new scientific investigations and technology demonstrations, work that is helping to prepare humans for future space exploration missions and generating innovations and benefits for humanity on Earth.
** Expedition 68 NASA’s SpaceX Crew-4 News Conference – Oct. 11, 2022 – NASA Video
Aboard the International Space Station NASA astronauts Kjell Lindgren, Bob Hines, Jessica Watkins and ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti answered questions and gave remarks about their mission during a news conference October 11. The Crew-4 astronauts have been aboard the space station since April and will return to Earth via a parachute assisted splashdown this month. The four crew members have been living and working aboard the microgravity laboratory to advance scientific knowledge and demonstrate new technologies for future human and robotic exploration missions. Such research benefits people on Earth and lays the groundwork for future human exploration through the agency’s Artemis missions, which will send astronauts to the Moon to prepare for future expeditions to Mars.
** Change of command of International Space Station takes place – October12, 2022 – NASA Video
Aboard the International Space Station, Expedition 68 astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti oif ESA (European Space Agency) handed over command of the station to Roscosmos cosmonaut Sergey Prokopyev during a change of command ceremony October 12. Farewell remarks by Cristoforetti and NASA astronauts Kjell Lindgren, Bob Hines and Jessica Watkins preceded the change of command. The off-going Crew-4 astronauts are headed home to complete a six-month mission on the orbital outpost.
** Replay! Chinese astronauts deliver science lecture from space – VideoFromSpace
Shenzhou-14 astronauts Chen Dong, Liu Yang and Cai Xuzhe talked science and more from the Tiangong space station on Oct. 12, 2022. Full Story: https://www.space.com/chinese-astrona…
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!
This artist’s impression shows an ultra-hot exoplanet, a planet beyond our Solar System, as it is about to transit in front of its host star. When the light from the star passes through the planet’s atmosphere, it is filtered by the chemical elements and molecules in the gaseous layer. With sensitive instruments, the signatures of those elements and molecules can be observed from Earth. Using the ESPRESSO instrument of ESO’s Very Large Telescope, astronomers have found the heaviest element yet in an exoplanet’s atmosphere, barium, in the two ultra-hot Jupiters WASP-76 b and WASP-121 b.
Using the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope (ESO’s VLT), astronomers have discovered the heaviest element ever found in an exoplanet atmosphere — barium. They were surprised to discover barium at high altitudes in the atmospheres of the ultra-hot gas giants WASP-76 b and WASP-121 b — two exoplanets, planets which orbit stars outside our Solar System. This unexpected discovery raises questions about what these exotic atmospheres may be like.
“The puzzling and counterintuitive part is: why is there such a heavy element in the upper layers of the atmosphere of these planets?”
says Tomás Azevedo Silva, a PhD student at the University of Porto and the Instituto de Astrofísica e Ciências do Espaço (IA) in Portugal who led the study published today in Astronomy & Astrophysics.
WASP-76 b and WASP-121 b are no ordinary exoplanets. Both are known as ultra-hot Jupiters as they are comparable in size to Jupiter whilst having extremely high surface temperatures soaring above 1000°C. This is due to their close proximity to their host stars, which also means an orbit around each star takes only one to two days. This gives these planets rather exotic features; in WASP-76 b, for example, astronomers suspect it rains iron.
But even so, the scientists were surprised to find barium, which is 2.5 times heavier than iron, in the upper atmospheres of WASP-76 b and WASP-121 b.
“Given the high gravity of the planets, we would expect heavy elements like barium to quickly fall into the lower layers of the atmosphere,”
explains co-author Olivier Demangeon, a researcher also from the University of Porto and IA.
“This was in a way an ‘accidental’ discovery,” says Azevedo Silva. “We were not expecting or looking for barium in particular and had to cross-check that this was actually coming from the planet since it had never been seen in any exoplanet before.”
The fact that barium was detected in the atmospheres of both of these ultra-hot Jupiters suggests that this category of planets might be even stranger than previously thought. Although we do occasionally see barium in our own skies, as the brilliant green colour in fireworks, the question for scientists is what natural process could cause this heavy element to be at such high altitudes in these exoplanets.
“At the moment, we are not sure what the mechanisms are,”
explains Demangeon.
This illustration shows a night-side view of the exoplanet WASP-76 b. The ultra-hot giant exoplanet has a day side where temperatures climb above 2400 degrees Celsius, high enough to vaporise metals. Strong winds carry iron vapour to the cooler night side where it condenses into iron droplets. To the left of the image, we see the evening border of the exoplanet, where it transitions from day to night.
In the study of exoplanet atmospheres ultra-hot Jupiters are extremely useful. As Demangeon explains:
“Being gaseous and hot, their atmospheres are very extended and are thus easier to observe and study than those of smaller or cooler planets”.
Determining the composition of an exoplanet’s atmosphere requires very specialised equipment. The team used the ESPRESSO instrument on ESO’s VLT in Chile to analyse starlight that had been filtered through the atmospheres of WASP-76 b and WASP-121 b. This made it possible to clearly detect several elements in them, including barium.
These new results show that we have only scratched the surface of the mysteries of exoplanets. With future instruments such as the high-resolution ArmazoNes high Dispersion Echelle Spectrograph (ANDES), which will operate on ESO’s upcoming Extremely Large Telescope (ELT), astronomers will be able to study the atmospheres of exoplanets large and small, including those of rocky planets similar to Earth, in much greater depth and to gather more clues as to the nature of these strange worlds.
1. Tuesday, Oct. 11, 2022; 7 pm PST (9 pm CST, 10 pm EST): No program today due to host continuing dental work.
2. Hotel Mars – Wednesday, Oct. 12, 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.
4. Sunday, Oct.16, 2022; 12-1:30 pm PST (2-3:30 pm CST, 3-4:30 pm EST): We welcome back Dr. Erik Seedhouse for his latest updated SpaceX/Elon Musk book [Amazon commission link].
about his company TransAstra. Multiple topics were discussed regarding the TransAstra plan and the big picture Joel strives for. Sustainability, ethics, business decision making and much more were part of this program.
the finding of organics on Mars with the Perseverance Mars 2020 rover. This was a two segment discussion of organics on Mars and what it might mean, plus we talked about the sample return mission for Mars.
science journalism, nuclear and also extraterrestrial work, articles, and books including her current work in progress, we talked about her target market for her articles, commercial space, Artemis, settlement, SSP and much more.
** Sunday, Sept.25.2022 – Leonard David “was back with us for a wide ranging discussion on multiple topics that are in the space news today“.
Here is the latest episode in NASA’s Space to Ground weekly report on activities related to the International Space Station:
** Expedition 68 – NASA’s SpaceX Crew-5 Flight Day 1 Highlights – Oct. 5, 2022 – NASA Video
NASA’s SpaceX Crew-5 astronauts lifted off at 12 p.m. EDT Wednesday, Oct. 5, from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, bound for the International Space Station for the fifth commercial crew rotation mission aboard the microgravity laboratory. The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket propelled the Crew Dragon spacecraft with NASA astronauts Nicole Mann and Josh Cassada, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut Koichi Wakata, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Anna Kikina, into orbit to begin a long-duration science mission on the space station. The Crew Dragon spacecraft, named Endurance, will dock autonomously to the forward port of the station’s Harmony module at 4:57 p.m. EDT Thursday, Oct. 6.
** SpaceX Crew-5 mission launches to space station, booster nails landing – VideoFromSpace
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched a Crew Dragon spacecraft carrying NASA astronauts Josh Cassada and Nicole Mann, JAXA astronaut Koichi Wakata and Roscosmos cosmonaut Anna Kikina from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Oct. 5, 2022.
** See SpaceX Crew-5 inside Dragon – What stuffed toy did they bring? – VideoFromSpace
The SpaceX Crew-5 astronauts and cosmonaut have been strapped into the Crew Dragon spacecraft for launch. Every Crew that preceded the carried a stuff toy for a zero-g indicator, what will they they have aboard today?
** Expedition 68 – NASA’s SpaceX Crew-5 Flight Day 2 Highlights – Oct. 6, 2022 – NASA Video
NASA’s SpaceX Crew-5 astronauts docked autonomously to the forward port of the International Space Station’s Harmony module at 4:57 p.m. EDT Thursday, Oct. 6. NASA astronauts Nicole Mann and Josh Cassada, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut Koichi Wakata, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Anna Kikina, arrived after a one-day journey to begin a long-duration science mission on the space station. Following docking, Mann, Cassada, Wakata, and Kikina joined the Expedition 68 crew of NASA astronauts Bob Hines, Kjell Lindgren, Frank Rubio, and Jessica Watkins, and European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut and station commander Samantha Cristoforetti, as well as Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitri Petelin.
** SpaceX Crew-5 docks with the International Space Station – VideoFromSpace
Crew Dragon spacecraft carrying NASA astronauts Josh Cassada and Nicole A Mann, JAXA astronaut Koichi Wakata and Roscosmos cosmonaut Anna Kikina docked with the International Space Station on Oct. 6, 2022.
** SpaceX Crew-5 enters space station after docking – VideoFromSpace
NASA astronauts Josh Cassada and Nicole A Mann, JAXA astronaut Koichi Wakata and Roscosmos cosmonaut Anna Kikina entered the International Space Station shortly after docking on Oct. 6, 2022.
** See SpaceX Crew-5’s welcome ceremony aboard the International Space Station – VideoFromSpace
NASA astronauts Josh Cassada and Nicole A Mann, JAXA astronaut Koichi Wakata and Roscosmos cosmonaut Anna Kikina are welcomed aboard the International Space Station by commander Samantha Cristoforetti on Oct. 6, 2022.
ESA astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti will soon complete her second mission to the International Space Station, Minerva.
She was launched from Kennedy Space Center in late April, and since then has supported many European and international science experiments, as well as taken responsibility for all operations within the US Orbital Segment. In July 2022 she performed her first spacewalk, during which she carried out work in the Russian segment to bring the European Robotic Arm into operation.
This report provides a summary of the Minerva Mission, which will end shortly with Samantha’s return to Earth.
Samantha’s personal Twitter: https://twitter.com/AstroSamantha Samantha’s personal TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@astrosamantha
** Watch China move space station module to new docking port –VideoFromSpace
China’s Wentian lab module was moved to the “side port of the space station’s node cabin,” on Sept. 30, 2022. The Tiangong space station is now in an L shape as a result.
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!
