Anonymous ID: 692c1c Oct. 25, 2023, 6:54 a.m. No.19799023   🗄️.is 🔗kun   >>9388 >>9464

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day

Oct 25, 2023

 

Gone in 60 Seconds: A Green Flash Sunset

 

In 60 seconds, this setting Sun will turn green. Actually, the top of the Sun already appears not only green, but wavey along with all of its edges. The Sun itself is unchanged both effects are caused by looking along hot and cold layers in Earth's atmosphere. The unusual color is known as a green flash and occurs because these atmospheric layers not only shift background images but disperse colors into slightly different directions, like a prism. The featured video was captured earlier this month off the coast of Hawaii, USA. After waiting those 60 seconds, at the video's end, the upper part of the Sun seems to hover alone in space, while turning not only green, but blue. Then suddenly, the Sun appears to shrink to nothing – only to return tomorrow.

 

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J3_88eyN44w

Anonymous ID: 692c1c Oct. 25, 2023, 7:11 a.m. No.19799076   🗄️.is 🔗kun   >>9388 >>9464

NASA’s OSIRIS-REx Achieves Sample Mass Milestone

Oct 20, 2023

 

The curation team processing NASA’s asteroid Bennu sample has removed and collected 2.48 ounces (70.3 grams) of rocks and dust from the sampler hardware – surpassing the agency’s goal of bringing at least 60 grams to Earth.

 

And the good news is, there’s still more of NASA’s OSIRIS-REx (Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, and Security–Regolith Explorer) sample to collect.

 

The sample processed so far includes the rocks and dust found on the outside of the sampler head, as well as a portion of the bulk sample from inside the head, which was accessed through the head’s mylar flap. Additional material remaining inside the sampler head, called the Touch-and-Go Sample Acquisition Mechanism, or TAGSAM, is set for removal later, adding to the mass total.

 

In the last week, the team at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston changed its approach to opening the TAGSAM head, which contained the bulk of the rocks and dust collected by the spacecraft in 2020. After multiple attempts at removal, the team discovered two of the 35 fasteners on the TAGSAM head could not be removed with the current tools approved for use in the OSIRIS-REx glovebox. The team has been working to develop and implement new approaches to extract the material inside the head, while continuing to keep the sample safe and pristine.

 

As a first step, the team successfully accessed some of the material by holding down the head’s mylar flap and removing the sample inside with tweezers or a scoop, depending on material size. The collection and containment of material through this method, combined with the earlier collection of material located outside the head, yielded a total mass exceeding the 60 grams required.

 

The team will spend the next few weeks developing and practicing a new procedure to remove the remaining asteroid sample from the TAGSAM sampler head while simultaneously processing the material that was collected this week. The OSIRIS-REx science team will also proceed with its plan to characterize the extracted material and begin analysis of the bulk sample obtained so far.

 

All curation work on the sample – and the TAGSAM head – is performed in a specialized glovebox under a flow of nitrogen to keep it from being exposed to Earth’s atmosphere, preserving the sample’s pristine state for subsequent scientific analysis. The tools for any proposed solution to extract the remaining material from the head must be able to fit inside the glovebox and not compromise the scientific integrity of the collection, and any procedures must be consistent with the clean room’s standards.

 

While the procedure to access the final portion of the material is being developed, the team has removed the TAGSAM head from the active flow of nitrogen in the glovebox and stored it in its transfer container, sealed with an O-ring and surrounded by a sealed Teflon bag to make sure the sample is kept safe in a stable, nitrogen-rich, environment.

 

https://blogs.nasa.gov/osiris-rex/2023/10/20/nasas-osiris-rex-achieves-sample-mass-milestone/

Anonymous ID: 692c1c Oct. 25, 2023, 7:24 a.m. No.19799115   🗄️.is 🔗kun

Belarus, China sign declaration on cooperation on International Lunar Research Station program

Oct 23, 2023

 

The National Academy of Sciences of Belarus (NASB) and the China National Space Administration signed a joint declaration on cooperation on the International Lunar Research Station (ILRS) program, BelTA learned from the press service of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus.

 

The document was signed by Chairman of the Presidium of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus Vladimir Gusakov and Administrator of the China National Space Administration Zhang Kejian.

 

"According to the joint declaration, the parties will cooperate in the process of creating and operating the ILRS. The areas of cooperation will be fundamental and applied research in the field of engineering and technologies for space use, new materials and electronic component base, training and advanced training of scientific personnel and specialists. By mutual agreement, the parties shall determine other areas of cooperation," the NASB said.

 

During the video conference, Vladimir Gusakov stressed that Belarus has identified the information and communication and aerospace technologies, remote sensing of the Earth, space instrumentation and electronic industry as one of the priority avenues of innovative development. This suggests the broad integration of Belarusian research organizations and industrial manufacturers of the space industry within the framework of international research projects with friendly states.

 

Vladimir Gusakov emphasized the importance of further cooperation between Belarus and China in the aerospace sector and the readiness of Belarusian scientists to contribute to it within the framework of the Chinese-Russian IRLS program. This program is aimed at strengthening research cooperation and promoting the exploration and use of outer space for peaceful purposes for the benefit of all mankind. “The National Academy of Sciences of Belarus is interested in the most active participation in this project, and we are confident that space will become one of the priorities of our cooperation. Today we have a chance to give a fresh impetus to mutually beneficial cooperation and to advance our relations to a new level. I have no doubt that the signing of the joint declaration will facilitate our efforts to expand bilateral contacts and will benefit both economies that are strategic partners,” said Vladimir Gusakov.

 

Administrator of the China National Space Administration Zhang Kejian deems it necessary to step up work to develop joint projects and to involve the Belarusian side in Chinese deep space exploration programs. Zhang Kejian expressed his readiness to visit Belarus and the National Academy of Sciences to study research outcomes in space technology and invited the head of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus to visit China to familiarize himself with China's achievements in this field.

 

During the videoconference meeting on 23 October, the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus and the China National Space Administration agreed to draft a cooperation roadmap to include science and technology projects related to the creation and operation of the International Lunar Research Station.

 

https://eng.belta.by/society/view/belarus-china-sign-declaration-on-cooperation-on-international-lunar-research-station-program-162788-2023/

Anonymous ID: 692c1c Oct. 25, 2023, 7:37 a.m. No.19799179   🗄️.is 🔗kun   >>9188 >>9388 >>9464

Nearby asteroid may contain elements 'beyond the periodic table', new study suggests

Oct 23, 2023

 

A handful of asteroids in our solar system are so dense that no element on Earth can explain their properties. Instead, they may be made of naturally occurring "superheavy elements" beyond those listed in the periodic table — our current best catalog of 118 chemical elements — new research suggests.

 

"If asteroids do indeed contain superheavy elements, it would open numerous questions surrounding how these elements were formed and why we have not discovered them outside of asteroids yet," study co-author Johann Rafelski, a physics professor at the University of Arizona, told Live Science.

 

Immensely heavy space rocks, known as compact ultra dense objects (CUDOs), are typically heavier than osmium, the heaviest naturally occurring element on Earth. One such rock is 33 Polyhymnia, located in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. Scientists have long been puzzled by its density, as the 34-mile-wide (55 kilometers) object does not have the mass needed to squeeze minerals into ultradense forms. However, its makeup has been difficult to pin down, thanks to its small size and vast distance from Earth.

 

Previous research suggested that the density of CUDOs like 33 Polyhymnia could be explained if the objects were filled with mysterious dark matter particles that perhaps do not exist as freely distributed particles but rather in conglomerations within asteroids. Now, in a study published Sept. 15 in the The European Physical Journal Plus, Rafelski and two colleagues mathematically demonstrated that the existence of CUDOs can be explained not with dark matter, but with unknown classes of chemical elements beyond the periodic table that are much denser than osmium.

 

Scientists have long debated whether elements heavier than oganesson, the last one in the periodic table, could occur naturally and be stable. Such superheavy elements are highly radioactive and decay within milliseconds, thanks to repulsion among the high number of protons packed in their nuclei.

 

Previous work suggested there is a theoretical region of the periodic table termed an "island of stability" of superheavy elements around atomic number 164. At this weight, elements might not undergo rapid radioactive decay and would exist for short periods of time. New calculations by Rafelski and his team agree with this prediction.

 

"All super-heavy elements — those that are highly unstable as well as those that are simply unobserved — have been lumped together as 'unobtainium,'" Rafelski said in a statement. "The idea that some of these might be stable enough to be obtained from within our solar system is an exciting one."

 

To arrive at their conclusions, the researchers theorized the atomic structure of hypothetical superheavy elements using a crude model of an atom known as the Thomas-Fermi model. They found that elements with atomic numbers near 164 would have a density somewhere between 36 and 68.4 grams per cubic centimeter (20 and 39.5 ounces per cubic inch).

 

This range is close to the calculated density of 75.28 g per cubic cm (43.5 ounces per cubic inch) for 33 Polyhymnia. The results suggest that superheavy elements, if they really exist, could explain the massive density seen in the space rock and others similar to it, although dark matter cannot be fully ruled out as a possible resident within ultradense asteroids.

 

"What is especially exciting about this work is that we do not know exactly where this will lead," Rafelski told Live Science.

 

https://www.space.com/asteroid-may-contain-element-beyond-periodic-table-new-study

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1140/epjp/s13360-023-04454-8

Anonymous ID: 692c1c Oct. 25, 2023, 7:47 a.m. No.19799228   🗄️.is 🔗kun   >>9230 >>9253 >>9388 >>9464

Space Force identifying priorities for modernizing spaceports

October 23, 2023

 

The need to modernize U.S. spaceports has been discussed for years, but major upgrades have yet to materialize. With $1.3 billion in projected funding for spaceport improvements, the Space Force is now trying to move these plans forward, identifying the most critical areas needing attention in the near-term.

 

“There’s a significant effort to define what we need to be able to support the capacity and the pace of launch that our nation needs,” said Brig. Gen. Kristin Panzenhagen, program executive officer for assured access to space and director of launch and range operations of Space Systems Command.

 

Based at Patrick Space Force Base, Florida, Panzenhagen in June assumed command of Space Launch Delta 45, and oversees the nation’s busiest spaceport on the Florida coast.

 

Speaking Oct. 19 at the AFCEA Space Industry Days conference in Los Angeles, Panzenhagen expressed optimism that initiatives to bring East Coast and West Coast spaceports into the future could soon become reality. “It takes a lot of investment. It takes a lot of planning,” she said.

 

The Space Force has conducted a detailed analysis of spaceport requirements given the increased pace of commercial space launch, she said.

 

Increasing commerical launch pace

 

About 150 launches are forecasted for 2023, the majority conducted by SpaceX which is ramping up launches of its Starlink constellation as well as missions for commercial and government customers. The company is on track to launch more than 100 missions this year and projects about 144 for 2024.

 

Beyond 2024, the Space Force is preparing for an increased launch pace fueled not just by SpaceX but by other companies introducing new rockets, including United Launch Alliance, Blue Origin and others.

 

According to the consulting firm Deloitte, over the last five years, about 93% of all orbital missions launched from U.S. government ranges, including 70% from Cape Canaveral, 17% from Vandenberg, and 5% from Virginia’s Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport.

 

Topping the list of needed spaceport upgrades is a boosting in capacity for processing satellites and preparing them for launch, said Panzenhagen. This creates a significant bottleneck that slows down the launch pace, given the number of spacecraft requiring integration, testing, fueling and transport to the pad.

 

“We know it takes a long time to build a satellite. And it takes a while to get a booster out to the pad. But that integration timeline can be pretty extensive as well,” she said. “We need to put collective thought into how we decrease that time.”

 

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Anonymous ID: 692c1c Oct. 25, 2023, 7:48 a.m. No.19799230   🗄️.is 🔗kun   >>9231 >>9388 >>9464

>>19799228

At both East and West Coast ranges — at Cape Canaveral, Florida, and at Vandenberg Space Force Base, California — more capacity is needed for satellite processing, Panzenhagen said.

 

Many national security missions carry multiple payloads that share a ride, and each payload has to be processed at different security levels. “We just don’t have the capacity for that,” she added.

 

A number of “spaceport of the future” initiatives will be funded under a $1.3 billion budget line requested by the Biden administration for fiscal years 2024 through 2028.

 

“But that is still not going to be enough,” he said. “This is a huge effort and we are still defining what exactly the spaceport of the future looks like.”

 

Immediate priorities

 

Infrastructure is a big deal, said Panzenhagen. “We need to upgrade roads, bridges, airfields, anything that you use to transport either a rocket or a satellite to the pad.”

 

One of the bridges at the Cape, for example, “gives us a lot of concern,” because it may not be able to support larger rockets. Building a new bridge is the obvious answer, she said, “But that takes planning, it takes funding. And a lot of other organizations and even other priorities within this organization are competing for that funding.”

 

Another priority is improved port access. “We share port access with the busiest cruise port in the world, and a lot of things come to our base from the water,” said Panzenhagen. “So there’s a lot of conversations on how we’re going to work that out.”

 

Other planned upgrades are in the power infrastructure and physical security.

 

IT improvements needed

 

Panzenhagen said the Space Force recently hired commercial IT experts “to take a deep dive into our IT architecture.”

 

They suggested upgrades to the IT infrastructure, but there are still unresolved issues, such as the integration of data stovepipes.

 

As the Eastern Range director, Panzenhagen has to supervise every launch mission, but that requires looking at data from multiple systems, some located at separate facilities. “I don’t have a common operating picture at this point where I can see all of the data that I would need to make decisions.”

 

Data on the rocket is the most important, but it would be helpful to have an integrated picture that also shows, for example, the status of power or water supply, or the location of security roadblocks in the area. “I can’t do that from the console,” she said. “I have to get in my car and drive to a building where I have a board that has physical thumbtacks on it,” she said. “It’s still better than it was a few years ago.”

 

It’s not enough to have a room where multiple computer or TV screens are physically colocated, said Panzenhagen. The goal is to have a common picture that also could be accessed by leaders at Space Systems Command headquarters in Los Angeles, for example.

 

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Anonymous ID: 692c1c Oct. 25, 2023, 7:48 a.m. No.19799231   🗄️.is 🔗kun   >>9388 >>9464

>>19799230

Direct vs. indirect costs

 

Launch companies reimburse the Space Force for some expenses directly linked to usage of the range, such as utilities. Panzenhagen said “we are constantly looking at the cost models to make sure we are being completely accurate and completely transparent with what we’re doing.”

 

Under a separate initiative, the Defense Department has submitted a legislative proposal to create a “port authority” model for launch operations on the Eastern and Western Ranges, allowing the Space Force to charge commercial users fees to recoup its costs.

 

“When I’ve talked to the launch service providers about this so far, they haven’t had an issue with the potential for paying the indirect costs as long as they see exactly where they’re coming from,” said Panzenhagen.

 

So, again, we’re going back to our cost accounting and our cost modeling just to make sure that we are being fully transparent on that.

 

The Space Force also wants to simplify spaceport governance so launch companies are not required to comply with different sets of regulations and processes at each spaceport.

 

These policy issues, said Panzenhagen, are “extremely important for being able to launch successfully.”

 

Inland spaceports not in the cards

 

Orbital rocket launches are only allowed from spaceports on the coast for safety reasons. At the conference in Los Angeles, Panzenhagen was asked if she would support considering inland spaceports as possible launch sites.

 

She said the Space Force wants to diversify its options and is considering launching from overseas pads with international partners. “But as far as inland launch, I think it is worth doing a safety analysis and seeing where we are,” she said. “We’ve got a lot more data now than we did five or six years ago, just because we have a lot more launches.”

 

There are still concerns about the possibility of rockets exploding over populated areas, so she does not expect the current policy to change. “If we did the analysis and determined it was safe for the American public, that would also require a huge PR campaign,” Panzenhagen said.

 

“We’ve seen for example, China do inland launches and that does not work out well for their citizens oftentimes,” she said. “So we definitely don’t want to put the American public in that situation. But it’s worth studying. So I wouldn’t commit to an answer on that. But I think it’s always worth doing the study.”

 

https://spacenews.com/space-force-identifying-priorities-for-modernizing-spaceports/

 

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Anonymous ID: 692c1c Oct. 25, 2023, 7:54 a.m. No.19799260   🗄️.is 🔗kun   >>9388 >>9464

Former US Navy Admiral Reveals Area Containing Potential UFO Base

Oct 24, 2023

 

A former U.S. Navy admiral claimed in an interview published Sunday that there may be a UFO base off the American coast.

 

Former U.S. Navy Rear Admiral Tim Gallaudet was an oceanography expert throughout his career and now believes there is a secret base for UFOs on the seabed, according to the Daily Star. It appears the claim comes from an in-depth interview Gallaudet conducted for the Chris Lehto show, in which he not only detailed his extensive professional history, but also shared the mysteries that arose from his time in service and research.

 

There’s one particular area of the seabed Gallaudet believes gets a lot of attention. Though he won’t say specifically where the area is, he says it’s somewhere close to Catalina Island, California, the site of dozens of UFO sightings, including the Nimitz encounter.

 

Gallaudet asked a friend, Victor Vescovo, to scan the region. And the survey turned up a “wedge” on the ocean floor for which Gallaudet, an expert in his field, can’t find a “natural explanation.”

 

“The anomaly looks like a wedge taken out of a thing called a knoll. It’s an underwater ridge basically – and a wedge from it was totally carved out and horizontally displaced by two kilometres,” he said of the discovery. “I just want to find an explanation for it, but it does cause one to speculate. Is that evidence of an undersea UAP interaction with the seafloor? Or even a location for undersea infrastructure where these things go?”

 

Gallaudet may receive funding from Netflix to launch an expedition to the site, which is why he won’t reveal the exact coordinates yet.

 

But what if it’s not an underground UFO base and something else entirely? There’s growing evidence to suggest the sea level rise following the Last Glacial Maximum destroyed entire continents. Could we finally be on a pathway to find those lost civilizations, and the places they lived before the oceans swallowed them whole?

 

https://dailycaller.com/2023/10/24/former-us-navy-admiral-tim-gallaudet-potential-ufo-base-catalina-island/

Anonymous ID: 692c1c Oct. 25, 2023, 8:04 a.m. No.19799302   🗄️.is 🔗kun   >>9388 >>9464

Truth is out there – Trinity College going in search of alien life

Oct 24, 2023

 

Scientists in Trinity College have begun a quest to see if we are alone in the universe, teaming up with a Swedish facility to scan for 'signs of life' from other planets.

 

Known as 'technosignatures', these scientific markers provide evidence of past or present technologies and would provide support for there being intelligent, alien life in other parts of the universe.

 

The group will be using the Irish LOFAR Telescope (Low-frequency Array) located in Birr, Co Offaly, along with its counterpart in Onsala, Sweden (just south of Gothenburg), and the project is led by Associate Professor of Radio Astronomy in Trinity’s School of Physics, and Head of the Irish LOFAR Telescope, Professor Evan Keane.

 

Scientists in Trinity College have begun a quest to see if we are alone in the universe, teaming up with a Swedish facility to scan for 'signs of life' from other planets.

 

Known as 'technosignatures', these scientific markers provide evidence of past or present technologies and would provide support for there being intelligent, alien life in other parts of the universe.

 

The group will be using the Irish LOFAR Telescope (Low-frequency Array) located in Birr, Co Offaly, along with its counterpart in Onsala, Sweden (just south of Gothenburg), and the project is led by Associate Professor of Radio Astronomy in Trinity’s School of Physics, and Head of the Irish LOFAR Telescope, Professor Evan Keane.

 

Although scientists have been searching the skies and beyond for extraterrestrial radio signals for more than 60 years, most of the research projects have relied on single observatories.

 

As a result, there's a limit to their ability to filter out the haze of terrestrial interference on earth, making it more difficult to identify those not from our planet.

 

Also, most of these researchers' efforts focused on frequencies above 1 GHz, limiting the search even more.

 

The teams at Trinity College Dublin, the Breakthrough Listen team (who have developed dedicated instruments for this research) and the Onsala Space Observatory will be using a variety of telescope techniques allowing them to search for signals at much lower frequencies.

 

This, along with using multiple sites to perform the readings, will mean that the scientists evaluating the data will be able to understand what is an actual extraterrestrial reading as opposed to a 'false positive' one caused by interference from Earth.

 

Speaking on the research, Professor Keane said: 'In the last 50 years evidence has steadily mounted that the constituents and conditions necessary for life are relatively common in the universe, which begs one of life’s greatest unanswered questions: are we really alone?

 

'To some people the "Search for Extra-terrestrial Intelligence, or SETI" might seem like something from a movie, but it has been a scientific pursuit for decades, and for a host of very good reasons.

 

'With this project we are basing our search on the common assumption that civilisations elsewhere in the universe may employ similar technologies to those developed on Earth.

 

'As a result radio frequencies are a logical domain for conducting SETI surveys due to the widespread use of telecommunications and radar and our access to next-gen radio telescopes offers a great chance for a deep dive into the Universe.'

 

Owen Johnson, PhD Candidate in Trinity’s School of Physics working on the project, added: 'What makes surveys like this one truly captivating is the fact that we're pushing these telescopes to their absolute limits, directing them towards substantial portions of the sky.

 

'As a result, we have the exciting possibility of discovering all sorts of wild and wondrous phenomena during this process and if we're very fortunate, even encountering our cosmic neighbours.'

 

https://extra.ie/2023/10/24/news/irish-news/trinity-college-space-research

Anonymous ID: 692c1c Oct. 25, 2023, 8:17 a.m. No.19799358   🗄️.is 🔗kun   >>9359 >>9363 >>9388 >>9464

NASA’s SpaceX CRS-29 Mission Flies Research to the Space Station

OCT 23, 2023

 

The 29th SpaceX commercial resupply services (CRS) mission for NASA carries scientific experiments and technology demonstrations, including studies of enhanced optical communications and measurement of atmospheric waves. The uncrewed SpaceX Dragon spacecraft is scheduled to launch to the International Space Station from the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida no earlier than Nov. 5.

 

Here are details on some of the research launching to the orbiting lab:

 

Laser Communication from Space

NASA’s ILLUMA-T investigation tests technology to provide enhanced data communication capabilities on the space station. A terminal mounted on the station’s exterior uses laser or optical communications to send high-resolution information to the agency’s Laser Communications Relay Demonstration (LCRD) system, which is in geosynchronous orbit around Earth. LCRD then beams the data to optical ground stations in Haleakala, Hawaii, and Table Mountain, California. The system uses invisible infrared light and can send and receive information at higher data rates than traditional radio frequency systems, making it possible to send more images and videos to and from the space station in a single transmission. The ILLUMA-T demonstration also paves the way for placing laser communications terminals on spacecraft orbiting the Moon or Mars.

 

ILLUMA-T and LCRD create NASA’s first two-way laser communications relay system. Laser communications can supplement the radio frequency systems that most space-based missions currently use to send data to and from Earth. According to acting ILLUMA-T project manager Glenn Jackson at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, laser systems are smaller, more lightweight, and use less power than radio systems. The smaller size frees up more room for science instruments, the lighter weight reduces launch costs, and lower power use results in less drain on spacecraft batteries.

 

Managed by NASA Goddard in partnership with NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Lincoln Laboratory, ILLUMA-T is funded by the Space Communications and Navigation (SCaN) program at NASA Headquarters in Washington.

 

Watching Waves in the Atmosphere

NASA’s Atmospheric Waves Experiment (AWE) uses an infrared imaging instrument to measure the characteristics, distribution, and movement of atmospheric gravity waves (AGWs). These waves roll through Earth’s atmosphere when air is disturbed much like waves created by dropping a stone into water.

 

“Atmospheric gravity waves are one mechanism for transporting energy and momentum within the climate system and they play a role in defining the climate and its evolution,” says co-investigator Jeff Forbes of the University of Colorado Boulder. He explains that these waves are relatively small at the source but amplified at altitudes, and potentially indicate climate changes not readily observable at lower altitudes. This investigation’s long-term observations of physical processes in atmospheric circulation could increase insight into AGWs and improve understanding of Earth’s atmosphere, weather, and climate.

 

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Anonymous ID: 692c1c Oct. 25, 2023, 8:17 a.m. No.19799359   🗄️.is 🔗kun   >>9388 >>9464

>>19799358

Researchers also are looking at how AGWs contribute to space weather, which refers to the varying conditions within the Solar System, including solar wind. Space weather affects space- and ground-based communications, navigation, and tracking systems. Scientists know little about exactly how AGWs influence space weather and this investigation could help fill in these knowledge gaps. Results could support development of ways to mitigate the effects of space weather.

 

The space station provides an ideal platform for the investigation given its altitude and geographic and time coverage.

 

“AWE is pioneering research, making the first global measurements of gravity waves at the edge of space,” Forbes says. “This is an important step forward in understanding waves in the atmosphere and their contributions to near-Earth space weather.”

 

The Atmospheric Waves Experiment is managed by Goddard for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters.

 

More science going to the space station

Space Flight Induced Ovarian and Estrogen Signaling Dysfunction, Adaptation, and Recovery is a fundamental science investigation sponsored by NASA’s Biological and Physical Sciences Division. It advances previous microgravity studies that seek to better understand the combined effects of spaceflight, nutritional, and environmental stresses on control of ovulation and resulting effects on the skeleton. Results of this study could help identify and treat the effects of stress on ovulation and improve bone health on Earth.

 

Aquamembrane-3, an investigation from ESA (European Space Agency), continues evaluation of replacing the multi-filtration beds used for water recovery on the space station with a type of membrane known as an Aquaporin Inside Membrane (AIM). These are membranes that incorporate proteins found in biological cells, known as aquaporins, to filter water faster while using less energy. Initial testing of AIM technology in 2015 showed that water filtration by membranes is possible in microgravity, and this follow-up testing could demonstrate how effectively the membranes eliminate contaminants in space station wastewater. Results could advance development of a complete and full-scale membrane-based water recovery system, improving water reclamation and reducing the amount of material that needs to be launched to the space station. This water filtration technology also could have applications in extreme environments on Earth, such as military and emergency settings, and for decentralized water systems in remote locations.

 

Gaucho Lung, sponsored by the ISS National Lab, studies how mucus lining the respiratory system affects delivery of drugs carried in a small amount of injected liquid, known as a liquid plug. Conducting this research in microgravity makes it possible to isolate the factors involved, including capillary or wicking forces, mucus characteristics, and gravity. Understanding the role of these factors could inform the development and optimization of targeted respiratory treatments. In addition, the work could contribute to new strategies to control contamination in tubing for liquids used in the health care and food industries.

 

https://www.nasa.gov/missions/station/iss-research/nasas-spacex-crs-29-mission-flies-research-to-the-space-station/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UcaloWLCe3w

 

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