Space News and Discussions

[Time_Traveller]

British spaceflight to become reality as government provides launchpad for spaceports

May 25, 2021

Satellites and rockets could launch from UK soil in 2022, with spaceports planned for Cornwall, Wales and Scotland.

Another barrier to space exploration from UK soil has been lifted, with spaceports expected to be in operation from next summer.

Developed with the UK Space Agency and the Civil Aviation Authority, new regulations being laid in Parliament will mean satellites and rockets can launch from UK soil for the first time - with spaceports planned for Cornwall, Wales and Scotland.

Future satellite launches will improve our access to data and communications, and revolutionise services such as satellite navigation and earth observation - enhancing the way we live, work, travel and interact with our planet.

https://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Brit ... s_999.html

[Time_Traveller]

Merida Aerospace plans to begin rocket test launches in 2021

May 25, 2021

All eyes in the space launch and logistics industry are now set on Merida Aerospace following the latest announcement of starting rocket test launches in late 2021. With unique expertise, talent, and resources for spacecraft manufacturing, satellite design, satellite data collection, data distribution, and now, spacecraft launch, the company has stepped into the big game and is ready to go all out. Currently, no other organization offers all these services in one place, which gives Merida Aerospace a unique advantage in the industry.

Over the past years, the team at Merida Aerospace has showcased exemplary projects, including the development of patented satellite communication systems and specialized satellite and rocket communication antennas. The team has also successfully managed satellite earth station projects, from design and development to installation.

https://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Meri ... 1_999.html

[Time_Traveller]

Astroscale UK to develop space debris removal technology innovations with OneWeb

May 25, 2021

Astroscale UK announces funding award from partners OneWeb, the global satellite communications network, to mature their technology and capability towards a commercial service offering by 2024.

This latest 2.5 million pound award forms part of a larger beam-hopping satellite programme, totalling over 32 million pounds, granted from the UK Space Agency, via the European Space Agency's Sunrise Programme to partners including OneWeb, SatixFy, Celestia UK and Astroscale UK.

OneWeb is leading the way in providing satellite services with space sustainability at the heart of their mission goals. John Auburn, Managing Director of Astroscale UK and Group Chief Commercial Officer says, "This ambitious project with OneWeb is the next step towards maturing our technologies and refining our UK capabilities to develop a full-service Active Debris Removal offering by 2024."

https://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Astr ... b_999.html

[weatheriscool]

Europa's interior may be hot enough to fuel seafloor volcanoes
https://phys.org/news/2021-05-europa-in ... floor.html
by Gretchen McCartney, Karen Fox, Alana Johnson, Jet Propulsion Laboratory

This illustration, updated as of December 2020, depicts NASA’s Europa Clipper spacecraft. The mission, targeting a 2024 launch, will investigate whether Jupiter’s moon Europa and its internal ocean have conditions suitable for life. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Jupiter's moon Europa has an icy crust covering a vast, global ocean. The rocky layer underneath may be hot enough to melt, leading to undersea volcanoes.

New research and computer modeling show that volcanic activity may have occurred on the seafloor of Jupiter's moon Europa in the recent past—and may still be happening. NASA's upcoming Europa Clipper mission, targeting a 2024 launch, will swoop close to the icy moon and collect measurements that may shed light on the recent findings.

[weatheriscool]

SpaceX Super Heavy Booster Will Have Hot Gas Thrusters
May 26, 2021 by Brian Wang

SpaceX Super Heavy booster will have hot gas thrusters instead of nitrogen thrusters for maneuvering in space before reentry. This will be the case before the first orbital flight.

https://www.nextbigfuture.com/2021/05/s ... sters.html

[weatheriscool]

SpaceX Starbase City Will Build a Hundred Starships Each Year
May 26, 2021 by Brian Wang

SpaceX is building Starbase City which will build a hundred Starships each year. This will be eight Starship per month. They will launch each Starship three times per day.

SpaceX is converting two oil rigs as sea launch and landing platforms.

https://www.nextbigfuture.com/2021/05/s ... -year.html

[weatheriscool]

NASA's Roman mission to probe cosmic secrets using exploding stars

by Ashley Balzer, NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center
Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center

NASA's upcoming Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope will see thousands of exploding stars called supernovae across vast stretches of time and space. Using these observations, astronomers aim to shine a light on several cosmic mysteries, providing a window onto the universe's distant past and hazy present.

Roman's supernova survey will help clear up clashing measurements of how fast the universe is currently expanding, and even provide a new way to probe the distribution of dark matter, which is detectable only through its gravitational effects. One of the mission's primary science goals involves using supernovae to help pin down the nature of dark energy—the unexplained cosmic pressure that's speeding up the expansion of the universe.

Space's biggest mystery

"Dark energy makes up the majority of the cosmos, but we don't actually know what it is," said Jason Rhodes, a senior research scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. "By narrowing down possible explanations, Roman could revolutionize our understanding of the universe—and dark energy is just one of the many topics the mission will explore!"

https://phys.org/news/2021-05-nasa-roma ... osmic.html

[Time_Traveller]

Glow-in-the-dark baby squid and tardigrades to be blasted into space

about 2 hours ago

NASA is preparing to rocket around 5,000 tardigrades — those adorably pudgy "water bears —" and 128 glow-in-the-dark baby squid into space.

The animals are heading to the International Space Station (ISS) next week as part of SpaceX's 22nd cargo resupply mission.

SpaceX is set to launch the microscopic critters onboard a Falcon 9 rocket on June 3 1:29 p.m. EDT from Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Tardigrades are tiny, just 0.04 inches (1 millimeter) long, and get their popular nickname from their tubby, bear-like appearance when viewed through a microscope. And these little guys are no pushovers — capable of surviving extreme radiation; pressures six times those found in the deepest parts of the ocean; and the total vacuum of space, making the microscopic animals much tougher than their ursine namesakes. In fact, the Israeli spacecraft Beresheet was carrying thousands of dehydrated tardigrades onboard when it crashed into the moon during a failed landing attempt on April 11, 2019. If any life-form could survive the crash, perhaps these creatures would, especially since they were in their dehydrated "tun" state from which they could be resuscitated.

https://www.livescience.com/baby-squid- ... nched.html

[weatheriscool]

Black hole simulations provide blueprint for future observations
https://phys.org/news/2021-05-black-hol ... uture.html

Astronomers continue to develop computer simulations to help future observatories better home in on black holes, the most elusive inhabitants of the universe.

Though black holes likely exist abundantly in the universe, they are notoriously hard to see. Scientists did not capture the first radio image of a black hole until 2019, and only about four dozen black hole mergers have been detected through their signature gravitational ripples since the first detection in 2015.

That is not a lot of data to work with. So scientists look to black hole simulations to gain crucial insight that will help find more mergers with future missions. Some of these simulations, created by scientists like astrophysicist Scott Noble, track supermassive black hole binary systems. That is where two monster black holes like those found in the centers of galaxies orbit closely around each other until they eventually merge.

[weatheriscool]

Experiments validate the possibility of helium rain inside Jupiter and Saturn
https://phys.org/news/2021-05-validate- ... aturn.html
by Breanna Bishop, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

An international research team, including scientists from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, have validated a nearly 40-year-old prediction and experimentally shown that helium rain is possible inside planets such as Jupiter and Saturn (pictured). Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute.

Nearly 40 years ago, scientists first predicted the existence of helium rain inside planets composed primarily of hydrogen and helium, such as Jupiter and Saturn. However, achieving the experimental conditions necessary to validate this hypothesis hasn't been possible—until now.

In a paper published today by Nature, scientists reveal experimental evidence to support this long-standing prediction, showing that helium rain is possible over a range of pressure and temperature conditions that mirror those expected to occur inside these planets.

"We discovered that helium rain is real, and can occur both in Jupiter and Saturn," said Marius Millot, a physicist at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) and co-author on the publication. "This is important to help planetary scientists decipher how these planets formed and evolved, which is critical to understanding how the solar system formed."

[Time_Traveller]

South Korea signs Artemis Accords; Brazil, New Zealand likely next

May 27, 2021

SEOUL, South Korea — South Korea signed the Artemis Accords May 27, becoming the 10th signatory to the pact that governs norms of behavior for those who want to participate in the NASA-led Artemis lunar exploration program.

On the same day, South Korea and the United States signed an agreement on “civil global navigation satellite systems cooperation” under which the U.S. will support South Korea developing its own satellite navigation system.

The two events were follow-up measures of the May 21 summit between South Korea’s President Moon Jae-in and his U.S. counterpart Joe Biden at the White House, during which the two leaders agreed to strengthen the bilateral partnership in civil space exploration, science, aeronautics research and cooperate for effective joint response against security threats in space.

“For successful space exploration, it is critical to implement space development activities transparently and responsibly by collaborating with the international community,” said Science and ICT Minister Lim Hye-sook who signed the Artemis Accords on behalf of the Korean government. “With the signing of the Artemis Accords, Korea would be able to strengthen cooperation with nations participating in the Accords in exploring outer space.”

NASA’s chief celebrated South Korea’s coming on board.

https://spacenews.com/south-korea-signs ... s-accords/

[weatheriscool]

Dark energy survey releases most precise look at the universe's evolution

by Amanda Kocz, Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA)

In 29 new scientific papers, the Dark Energy Survey examines the largest-ever maps of galaxy distribution and shapes, extending more than 7 billion light-years across the universe. The extraordinarily precise analysis, which includes data from the survey's first three years, contributes to the most powerful test of the current best model of the universe, the standard cosmological model. However, hints remain from earlier DES data and other experiments that matter in the universe today is a few percent less clumpy than predicted.

New results from the Dark Energy Survey (DES) use the largest-ever sample of galaxies observed over nearly one-eighth of the sky to produce the most precise measurements to date of the universe's composition and growth.

https://phys.org/news/2021-05-dark-ener ... verse.html

[Time_Traveller]

Japanese space company ispace aims to send landers to the moon

Thu, 27 May 2021

Tokyo-based ispace has been selected to deliver rovers from Canada and Japan to the lunar surface after they launch aboard SpaceX rockets. The company will use its recently revealed Hakuto-R lander for both missions, currently scheduled for 2022 and 2023.

The Canadian Space Agency selected three private Canadian companies, each with separate scientific missions, to ride the lander. Mission Control Space Services, Canadensys and NGC are the first companies to receive awards under the CSA's Capability Demonstration program, part of the agency’s Lunar Exploration Accelerator Program. LEAP, unveiled by the Canadian government in February 2020, earmarks $150 million over five years to support in-space demonstrations and science missions from Canadian private industry.

As part of the mission, the ispace lander will deliver the United Arab Emirates’ The Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Centre (MBRSC)'s 22-pound rover, "Rashid." The rover will be equipped with an artificial intelligence flight computer from space robotics company Mission Control Space Services. Mission Control’s AI will use deep-learning algorithms to recognize lunar geology as the Rashid rover traverses the surface.

https://uk.news.yahoo.com/japanese-spac ... 26492.html

[weatheriscool]

Curiosity rover captures shining clouds on Mars
https://phys.org/news/2021-05-curiosity ... -mars.html
by Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Cloudy days are rare in the thin, dry atmosphere of Mars. Clouds are typically found at the planet's equator in the coldest time of year, when Mars is the farthest from the Sun in its oval-shaped orbit. But one full Martian year ago—two Earth years—scientists noticed clouds forming over NASA's Curiosity rover earlier than expected.

This year, they were ready to start documenting these "early" clouds from the moment they first appeared in late January. What resulted are images of wispy puffs filled with ice crystals that scattered light from the setting Sun, some of them shimmering with color. More than just spectacular displays, such images help scientists understand how clouds form on Mars and why these recent ones are different.

[weatheriscool]

Curiosity rover on Mars spotted from space as it climbs 'Mont Mercou' (video)
By Mike Wall 2 days ago

We now have a bird's eye view of the Curiosity rover and its latest Martian digs.

NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) captured a dramatic image last month of Curiosity ascending Mont Mercou, a landform on the slopes of the Red Planet's 3.4-mile-high (5.5 kilometers) Mount Sharp.

MRO took the picture on April 18 using its High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) instrument, which can resolve features as small as a coffee table on the Martian surface. So the car-sized Curiosity is plainly visible, even though MRO was flying 167.5 miles (269.4 kilometers) above the rover at the time, according to the HiRISE team's image description.

More:
https://www.space.com/mars-rover-curios ... rbit-photo

[weatheriscool]

Chinese cargo spacecraft docks with orbital station

An automated spacecraft docked with China's new space station Sunday carrying fuel and supplies for its future crew, the Chinese space agency announced.

Tianzhou-2 spacecraft reached the Tianhe station eight hours after blasting off from Hainan, an island in the South China Sea, China Manned Space said. It carried space suits, living supplies and equipment and fuel for the station.

Tianhe, or Heavenly Harmony, is third and largest orbital station launched by China's increasingly ambition space program.

https://phys.org/news/2021-05-chinese-c ... bital.html

[weatheriscool]

Japanese space agency to put Transformable Lunar Robot on the moon
https://phys.org/news/2021-05-japanese- ... robot.html
by Bob Yirka , Phys.org

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) has announced on its website that the agency has plans to put a Transformable Lunar Robot on the moon. In their announcement, they note that the goal of the robot deployment is to learn more about the surface of the moon as part of preparation for the deployment of a future crewed rover.

JAXA has made clear its aim to be part of establishing a permanent crewed presence on the moon, and as part of that, the agency has developed a lunar lander and is working on a rover. The lander, officially called the ispace lunar lander, has been designed to be a generic host for multiple entities. Customers planning to use the lander include the Canadian Space Agency and The Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Center. JAXA is developing a rover as well, which it plans to send to the moon in 2029. The lander will be launched aboard SpaceX rockets.

[Time_Traveller]

Government of Japan to support UNOOSA “Space Law for New Space Actors” project

Monday, May 31, 2021

VIENNA, 31 May (United Nations Information Service) — the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA) and the Government of Japan announced their new cooperation on UNOOSA‘s “Space Law for New Space Actors” project.

The project offers UN Member States, upon request, capacity building to draft national space legislation and/or national space policies in line with international space law, promoting the long-term sustainability of outer space activities. Furthermore, the project raises awareness of and adherence to the existing normative framework governing outer space activities.

The Asia-Pacific region is a leading driver in global space activities: investments in the space sector are booming across the region, including from private sector actors. In this context, there is increasing interest from Asia-Pacific countries in international space law. A core part of the UN’s capacity building activities on space law, the Space Law for New Space Actors project helps countries conduct space activities responsibly and sustainably. The generous financial contribution from Japan will support the delivery of the project’s activities.

http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewpr.html?pid=57511

[Yuli Ban]

Space Debris Has Hit And Damaged The International Space Station

The inevitable has occurred. A piece of space debris too small to be tracked has hit and damaged part of the International Space Station - namely, the Canadarm2 robotic arm.

The instrument is still operational, but the object punctured the thermal blanket and damaged the boom beneath. It's a sobering reminder that the low-Earth orbit's space junk problem is a ticking time bomb.

Obviously space agencies around the world are aware of the space debris problem. Over 23,000 pieces are being tracked in low-Earth orbit to help satellites and the ISS avoid collisions - but they're all about the size of a softball or larger.

Anything below that size is too small to track, but travelling at orbital velocities can still do some significant damage, including punching right through metal plates.

(CSA/NASA)

[Time_Traveller]

New Zealand becomes latest nation to sign space agreement with Nasa

June 01 2021

New Zealand has announced it is the latest country to sign a space agreement with Nasa, just as the country’s nascent space industry begins to take off.

New Zealand became the 11th signatory to the Artemis Accords, a blueprint for space cooperation and supporting the US space agency’s plans to return humans to the moon by 2024 and to launch a historic human mission to Mars.

Foreign minister Nanaia Mahuta said New Zealand is one of only a handful of nations able to launch rockets into space.

“New Zealand is committed to ensuring the next phase of space exploration is conducted in a safe, sustainable and transparent manner and in full compliance with international law,” Ms Mahuta said.

https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news ... 90480.html