Space News and Discussions

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NASA plans to retire the International Space Station by 2031 by crashing it into the Pacific Ocean
Source: CNN

(CNN)NASA intends to keep operating the International Space Station until the end of 2030, after which the ISS would be crashed into a remote part of the Pacific Ocean known as Point Nemo, according to newly published plans outlining its future.

Launched in 2000, the space lab has orbited 227 nautical miles above Earth with more than 200 astronauts from 19 different countries enjoying stints aboard -- representing a continuous human presence in space.

NASA said that commercially operated space platforms would replace the ISS as a venue for collaboration and scientific research.

"The private sector is technically and financially capable of developing and operating commercial low-Earth orbit destinations, with NASA's assistance. We look forward to sharing our lessons learned and operations experience with the private sector to help them develop safe, reliable, and cost-effective destinations in space," said Phil McAlister, director of commercial space at NASA Headquarters in a statement.

Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2022/02/02/world/na ... index.html

[weatheriscool]

Juno and Hubble data reveal electromagnetic 'tug-of-war' lights up Jupiter's upper atmosphere
https://phys.org/news/2022-02-juno-hubb ... f-war.html
by University of Leicester

New Leicester space research has revealed, for the first time, a complex 'tug-of-war' lights up aurorae in Jupiter's upper atmosphere, using a combination of data from NASA's Juno probe and the Hubble Space Telescope.

The study, published in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics, describes the delicate current cycle driven by Jupiter's rapid rotation and the release of sulfur and oxygen from volcanoes on its moon, Io.

Researchers from the University of Leicester's School of Physics and Astronomy used data from Juno's Magnetic Field Investigation (MAG), which measures Jupiter's magnetic field from orbit around the gas giant, and observations from the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph carried by the Hubble Space Telescope.

Their research provides the strongest evidence yet that Jupiter's powerful aurorae are associated with an electric current system that acts as part of a tug-of-war with material in the magnetosphere, the region dominated by the planet's enormous magnetic field.

Dr. Jonathan Nichols is a Reader in Planetary Auroras at the University of Leicester and corresponding author for the study. He said:

[Kevin_Hall]

JWST has found its first target, a star in the constellation of Ursa Major - HD84406.

Now that JWST has reached its final destination in space, the mission team is getting the next-generation space telescope prepped for observations. A bright point like HD 84406 provides a helpful target by which the team can align JWST's honeycomb-shaped mirrors and to start gathering engineering data, according to the tweet. This star will play an important role for this specific purpose, but it won't be studied by the observatory once it officially begins its science projects.

https://www.space.com/james-webb-space- ... arget-star

[caltrek]

New Company Run by Former NASA Leader Aims to Build Robotic Outpost Near the Moon
by Loren Grush
February 3, 2022

https://www.theverge.com/2022/2/3/22914 ... sa-artemis

Introduction:

(The Verge) A new startup run by a former acting NASA administrator hopes to capitalize on the recent zeal for lunar space exploration by building robotic outposts and spacecraft to send to space near the Moon. Their goal is to create a fleet of robotic helpers that can do a variety of tasks near the Moon, such as providing internet capabilities, collecting data, refueling spacecraft, and assembling structures in lunar space.

The company called Quantum Space was formed in 2021. At the helm is Steve Jurczyk, who served as NASA’s associate administrator beginning in 2018, before becoming the agency’s acting administrator when President Biden was inaugurated. After retiring in May, Jurczyk decided to team up with three additional entrepreneurs and experts in the space industry to create this new company based out of Maryland.

Jurczyk, who is the president and CEO of the company, says Quantum Space is focused on the Moon since NASA is also focused on returning there. The space agency’s primary human spaceflight enterprise at the moment is Artemis, a massive initiative to send the first woman and the first person of color to the lunar surface. Along with performing a series of human landings, NASA is also partnering with various commercial companies to send a fleet of landers and rovers to the Moon to explore the environment. Given all of these proposed lunar missions, Quantum Space felt like there was an opportunity to create vehicles that could be useful in the area.

[weatheriscool]

Puffy planets lose atmospheres, become super-Earths
https://phys.org/news/2022-02-puffy-pla ... arths.html
by Whitney Clavin, California Institute of Technology

Astronomers have identified two different cases of "mini-Neptune" planets that are losing their puffy atmospheres and likely transforming into super-Earths. Radiation from the planets' stars is stripping away their atmospheres, driving hot gas to escape like steam from a pot of boiling water.

The findings, published in two separate papers in The Astronomical Journal, help paint a picture of how exotic worlds like these form and evolve.

Mini-Neptunes are a class of exoplanets, which are planets that orbit stars outside our solar system. These worlds, which are smaller, denser versions of the planet Neptune, consist of large rocky cores surrounded by thick blankets of gas. In the new studies, a team of astronomers led by Caltech used the W. M. Keck Observatory atop Maunakea in Hawaiʻi to study one of two mini-Neptune planets in the star system called TOI 560, located 103 light-years away; and they used NASA's Hubble Space Telescope to look at two mini-Neptunes orbiting HD 63433, located 73 light-years away.

Their results show that atmospheric gas is escaping from the innermost mini-Neptune in TOI 560, called TOI 560.01, and from the outermost mini-Neptune in HD 63433, called HD 63433 c. This suggests that they could be turning into super-Earths.

"Most astronomers suspected that young, small mini-Neptunes must have evaporating atmospheres," says Michael Zhang, lead author of both studies and a graduate student at Caltech. "But nobody had ever caught one in the process of doing so until now."

The study also found, surprisingly, that the gas around TOI 560.01 was escaping predominantly toward the star.

[weatheriscool]

China presents space plans and priorities in new white paper
by Andrew Jones — January 28, 2022

HELSINKI — China has released a new white paper outlining the centrality of space to the country’s “overall national strategy” as well as major plans for the years ahead.

Over the next five years China will seek to develop its space transportation capabilities, test new technologies, embark on exploration missions, modernize space governance, enhance innovation and boost international cooperation.

Crewed lunar landings, on-orbit servicing and work on planetary defense are all noted as key areas for research and technical breakthroughs in the coming years, the paper reveals, while also providing a measure of transparency into a largely closed off Chinese space industry.

https://spacenews.com/china-presents-sp ... ite-paper/

[weatheriscool]

SpaceX, NASA looking into sluggish chutes on last 2 flights
https://phys.org/news/2022-02-spacex-na ... ights.html
by Marcia Dunn

SpaceX and NASA are investigating a parachute issue that occurred on the last two capsule flights.

One of the four main parachutes was slow to inflate during the return of four astronauts to Earth last November. The same thing happened last week as a Dragon cargo capsule was bringing back science experiments from the International Space Station. In both cases, the sluggish parachute eventually opened and inflated—although more than a minute late—and the capsules splashed down safely off the Florida coast.

Officials for SpaceX and NASA said Friday they want to better understand what's happening, especially before launching another crew in a month or two. They're looking at photographs and inspecting the parachutes for clues, taking "extra caution with this very critical system," said Steve Stich, manager of NASA's commercial crew program.

"We're not taking anything for granted," SpaceX's William Gerstenmaier, a former NASA official, told reporters.

[weatheriscool]

First ever free-floating black hole found roaming through interstellar space
https://phys.org/news/2022-02-free-floa ... ellar.html
by Bob Yirka , Phys.org

An international team of researchers has confirmed that a possible microlensing event witnessed in 2011 was due to the presence of a free-floating black hole roaming through interstellar space—the first of its kind ever observed. The group has published a paper describing their findings on the arXiv preprint server.

Scientists have assumed for some time that there are many black holes wandering around in interstellar space, but until now they had not found one. This is due to the very nature of a black hole—they are difficult to spot against the black backdrop of space. Still, the evidence for their existence was strong. Prior research has shown that black holes are often formed when stars reach the end of their lives and their cores collapse, generally producing a supernova. And because many such supernova have been observed, it seemed clear that many black holes must have been created as a result.

But finding them has meant looking for lensing effects, when light from stars is bent by the pull of the black hole. Given the great distances, the lensing effect is slight, making it nearly impossible to detect using even the best modern telescopes. But luck prevailed in 2011 when two project teams looking for such lensing spotted a star that appeared to brighten for no apparent reason. Intrigued, the researchers with this new effort began analyzing the data from Hubble. For six years, they watched as the light changed, hoping that the change was due to magnification from a black hole. Then, they found something else—the position of the star appeared to change. The researchers suggest the change could only be due to an unseen moving object exerting a force that was pulling on the light as it passed by—an interstellar black hole. The researchers continued to study the star and its light, and eventually ruled out the possibility of any light coming from the lensing and also confirmed that the magnification had a long duration, both of which are prerequisites to confirming the existence of a black hole.

[weatheriscool]

Saturn's high-altitude winds generate an extraordinary aurorae, study finds

by University of Leicester

Leicester space scientists have discovered a never-before-seen mechanism fuelling huge planetary aurorae at Saturn.

Saturn is unique among planets observed to date in that some of its aurorae are generated by swirling winds within its own atmosphere, and not just from the planet's surrounding magnetosphere.

At all other observed planets, including Earth, aurorae are only formed by powerful currents that flow into the planet's atmosphere from the surrounding magnetosphere. These are driven by either interaction with charged particles from the Sun (as at the Earth) or volcanic material erupted from a moon orbiting the planet (as at Jupiter and Saturn).

This discovery changes scientists' understanding of planetary aurorae and answers one of the first mysteries raised by NASA's Cassini probe, which reached Saturn in 2004: why can't we easily measure the length of a day on the Ringed Planet?

When it first arrived at Saturn, Cassini tried to measure the bulk rotation rate of the planet, that determines the length of its day, by tracking radio emission 'pulses' from Saturn's atmosphere. To the great surprise of those making the measurements, they found that the rate appeared to have changed over the two decades since the last spacecraft to have flown past the planet—Voyager 2, also operated by NASA—in 1981.

Leicester Ph.D. researcher Nahid Chowdhury is a member of the Planetary Science Group within the School of Physics and Astronomy and corresponding author for the study, published in Geophysical Research Letters. He said:

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