Space News and Discussions

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caltrek
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Australia to Build a Lunar Rover to Help NASA Find Oxygen on the Moon
October 13, 2021

https://www.courthousenews.com/australi ... n-on-moon/

Introduction:
CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — Australia has agreed to build a 20-kilogram (44-pound) semi-autonomous lunar rover for NASA to take to the moon as early as 2026 in search of oxygen.

The rover would collect soil that contains oxides and NASA would use separate equipment to extract oxygen from that soil, a government statement said. Oxygen extracted from the lunar surface would ultimately be used to sustain a human presence on the moon and support future missions to Mars.

Australian Space Agency deputy head Anthony Murfett said NASA had been impressed by technology used to remotely control from 1,600 kilometers (1,000 miles) huge dump trucks that transport iron ore from mines in northwest Australia.

NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said the agreement would strengthen a relationship with Australia related to space exploration that dates back more than 50 years.

The agreement depends on the rover meeting a range of conditions during its development
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For late detection of asteroids on collision course with Earth, there's only one defence: Nukes. But it works!

https://www.sciencealert.com/our-last-l ... tudy-shows
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The Next Era of Astronomy Will Look Back in Time to the Dark Ages of the Universe

by Chris Impey
October 14, 2021

https://www.alternet.org/2021/10/james- ... telescope/

Introduction:
(Alternet) Some have called NASA's James Webb Space Telescope the “telescope that ate astronomy." It is the most powerful space telescope ever built and a complex piece of mechanical origami that has pushed the limits of human engineering. On Dec. 18, 2021, after years of delays and billions of dollars in cost overruns, the telescope is scheduled to launch into orbit and usher in the next era of astronomy.

I'm an astronomer with a specialty in observational cosmology – I've been studying distant galaxies for 30 years. Some of the biggest unanswered questions about the universe relate to its early years just after the Big Bang. When did the first stars and galaxies form? Which came first, and why? I am incredibly excited that astronomers may soon uncover the story of how galaxies started because James Webb was built specifically to answer these very questions.
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Lucy in the sky: Spacecraft will visit record 8 asteroids
https://phys.org/news/2021-10-lucy-sky- ... roids.html
by Marcia Dunn
Attention asteroid aficionados: NASA is set to launch a series of spacecraft to visit and even bash some of the solar system's most enticing space rocks.
The robotic trailblazer named Lucy is up first, blasting off this weekend on a 12-year cruise to swarms of asteroids out near Jupiter—unexplored time capsules from the dawn of the solar system. And yes, there will be diamonds in the sky with Lucy, on one of its science instruments, as well as lyrics from other Beatles' songs.

NASA is targeting the predawn hours of Saturday for liftoff.
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Hubble finds evidence of persistent water vapor in one hemisphere of Europa
https://phys.org/news/2021-10-hubble-ev ... phere.html
by Space Telescope Science Institute
NASA's Hubble Space Telescope observations of Jupiter's icy moon Europa have revealed the presence of persistent water vapor—but, mysteriously, only in one hemisphere.

Europa harbors a vast ocean underneath its icy surface, which might offer conditions hospitable for life. This result advances astronomers' understanding of the atmospheric structure of icy moons, and helps lay the groundwork for planned science missions to the Jovian system to, in part, explore whether an environment half-a-billion miles from the Sun could support life.

Previous observations of water vapor on Europa have been associated with plumes erupting through the ice, as photographed by Hubble in 2013. They are analogous to geysers on Earth, but extend more than 60 miles high. They produce transient blobs of water vapor in the moon's atmosphere, which is only one-billionth the surface pressure of Earth's atmosphere.
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China Launches Shenzhou 13 Astronauts on Historic Mission to New Space Station
by Mike Wall
October 15, 2021

https://www.space.com/china-launches-sh ... ce-station

Introduction:
(Space.com) China's second crewed mission to its new space station is underway.

The nation's Shenzhou 13 spacecraft launched from Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in the Gobi Desert today (Oct. 15), rising off the pad atop a Long March 2F rocket at 12:23 p.m. EDT (1623 GMT; 00:23 Oct. 16 local time).

Shenzhou 13 and its three passengers — commander Zhai Zhigang, Wang Yaping and Ye Guangfu — are headed toward Tianhe, the core module of the Tiangong space station that China is building in low Earth orbit.

"Please rest assured that we will definitely succeed in this mission," Zhai told mission officials as he headed to pad before today's liftoff. (Zhai spoke in Mandarin; the translation was provided by Chinese TV station CCTV, which webcast the launch.) After reaching orbit, Zhai reported the crew was doing fine and all systems were nominal.

If all goes according to plan, Shenzhou 13 will meet up with Tianhe tonight, about eight hours after launch.
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New crew docks at China's first permanent space station

Chinese astronauts began Saturday their six-month mission on China's first permanent space station, after successfully docking aboard their spacecraft.

The astronauts, two men and a woman, were seen floating around the module before speaking via a live-streamed video.

The new crew includes Wang Yaping, 41, who is the first Chinese woman to board the Tiangong space station, and is expected to become China's first female spacewalker.

"We'll co-operate with each other, carefully conduct maneuvers, and try to accomplish all tasks successfully in this round of exploration of the universe," said Wang in the video.

The space travelers' Shenzhou-13 spacecraft was launched by a Long March-2F rocket at 12:23 a.m. Saturday and docked with the Tianhe core module of the space station at 6:56 a.m.

The three astronauts entered the station's core module at about 10 a.m., the China Manned Space Agency said.
https://phys.org/news/2021-10-crew-dock ... space.html
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Astronomers see white dwarf 'switch on and off' for first time
https://phys.org/news/2021-10-astronome ... dwarf.html
by Durham University

Astronomers have used a planet-hunting satellite to see a white dwarf abruptly switching on and off for the first time.

The researchers led by Durham University, UK, used NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) to observe the unique phenomenon.

White dwarfs are what most stars become after they have burned off the hydrogen that fuels them. They are approximately the size of the Earth, but have a mass closer to that of the Sun.

The white dwarf observed by the team is known to be accreting, or feeding, from an orbiting companion star.

With the new observations astronomers saw it lose brightness in 30 minutes, a process only previously seen to occur in accreting white dwarfs over a period of several days to months.
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caltrek
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Volcanism on the Moon Ended About 2 Billion Years Ago
by Matt Williams
October 17, 2021

https://www.universetoday.com/152906/vo ... ore-152906

Introduction:
(Universe Today) According to the most widely accepted theories, the Moon formed about 4.5 billion years ago after a Mars-sized object (Theia) collided with Earth. After the resulting debris accreted to create the Earth-Moon system, the Moon spent many eons cooling down. This meant that a few billion years ago, lakes of lava were flowing across the surface of the Moon, which eventually hardened to form the vast dark patches (lunar maria) that are still there today.

Thanks to the samples of lunar rock brought back to Earth by China’s Chang’e 5 mission, scientists are learning more about how the Moon formed and evolved. According to a recent study led by the Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences (CGAS), an international team examined these samples to investigate when volcanism on the Moon ended. Their results are not only filling in the gaps of the Moon’s geological history but also of other bodies in the Solar System.

The study, which recently appeared in the journal Science, was led by Xiaochao Che of the Beijing Sensitive High-Resolution Ion Micro Probe Center, located at the CGAS Institute of Geography. He was joined by researchers from the Planetary Science Institute (PSI), McDonnell Center for the Space Sciences, the Swedish Museum of Natural History, Shandong Institute of Geological Sciences, and several universities from the US, UK, and Australia.
The samples obtained by the Chang’e-5 rover are the first to be returned to Earth since the Apollo era (45 years ago) and were obtained from the volcanic plain known as Oceanus Procellarum (Latin for “Ocean of Storms”). This lunar region is unique among lunar terrae, as it is believed to have hosted the most recent basalt lava flows on the Moon. Jim Head, a research professor in Brown’s Department of Earth, Environmental and Planetary Sciences, was a co-author on the new study.

The Chang’e-5 spacecraft landed in this region on Dec. 1st, 2020, and managed to collect about 1,730 g (61.1 oz) of lunar rock from this region, including a core sample obtained from a depth of ~1 m (3.3 ft) beneath the surface
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