>Xeno's
NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day
May 4, 2024
3 ATs
Despite their resemblance to R2D2, these three are not the droids you're looking for. Instead, the enclosures house 1.8 meter Auxiliary Telescopes (ATs) at Paranal Observatory in the Atacama Desert region of Chile. The ATs are designed to be used for interferometry, a technique for achieving extremely high resolution observations, in concert with the observatory's 8 meter Very Large Telescope units. A total of four ATs are operational, each fitted with a transporter that moves the telescope along a track allowing different arrays with the large unit telescopes. To work as an interferometer, the light from each telescope is brought to a common focal point by a system of mirrors in underground tunnels. Above these three ATs, the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds are the far, far away satellite galaxies of our own Milky Way. In the clear and otherwise dark southern skies, planet Earth's greenish atmospheric airglow stretches faintly along the horizon.
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html?
Starlink on Mars? NASA Is Paying SpaceX to Look Into the Idea
MAY 3, 2024
NASA has given the go-ahead for SpaceX to work out a plan to adapt its Starlink broadband internet satellites for use in a Martian communication network.
The idea is one of a dozen proposals that have won NASA funding for concept studies that could end up supporting the space agency’s strategy for bringing samples from Mars back to Earth for lab analysis. The proposals were submitted by nine companies — also including Blue Origin, Lockheed Martin, United Launch Alliance, Astrobotic, Firefly Aerospace, Impulse Space, Albedo Space and Redwire Space.
Awardees will be paid $200,000 to $300,000 for their reports, which are due in August. NASA says the studies could lead to future requests for proposals, but it’s not yet making any commitment to follow up.
“We’re in an exciting new era of space exploration, with rapid growth of commercial interest and capabilities,” Eric Ianson, director of NASA’s Mars Exploration Program, said in a news release. “Now is the right time for NASA to begin looking at how public-private partnerships could support science at Mars in the coming decades.”
For years, SpaceX executives have been talking about using Starlink satellites in Martian orbit as part of billionaire founder Elon Musk’s vision of making humanity a multiplanetary species. In 2020, SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell told Time magazine that connectivity will be an essential part of the company’s Mars settlement plan.
“Once we take people to Mars, they are going to need a capability to communicate,” she said. “In fact, I think it will be even more critical to have a constellation like Starlink around Mars. And then, of course, you need to connect the two planets as well — so, we need to make sure we have robust telecom between Mars and back in Earth.”
Musk delved into more detail during last October’s International Astronautical Congress in Azerbaijan. “For Mars, you’d want a laser relay system, essentially,” he said. “It depends on what bandwidth you’re looking for. … Ultimately, we’d want terabit, maybe petabit-level data transfer between Earth and Mars.” Check out his comments on YouTube:
Musk could capitalize on NASA’s need to upgrade its communication relay system at the Red Planet, which relies on satellites that are up to 23 years old. The space agency’s main focus for future Mars exploration is its multi-mission strategy to retrieve samples that have been cached by the Perseverance rover. Last month, NASA said it would rework that strategy to reduce costs, in part by taking advantage of innovations coming from private industry. The innovations that are now the focus of the Mars Exploration Commercial Services program could play prominent roles in the revised strategy.
Blue Origin, the space venture founded by Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos, will look into adapting its Blue Ring transfer vehicle to host and deliver payloads heading for Mars. A separate study will focus on Blue Ring’s potential use for next-generation relay services. In a posting to X / Twitter, Blue Origin said it was “excited to be part of NASA’s studies around the future of Mars robotic science and the unique benefits our Blue Ring platform can provide by enabling large payload delivery, hosting, and next-gen relay services.”
Here are the other companies on NASA’s list, and the subjects of their studies:
Albedo Space: How to adapt an imaging satellite originally meant for low Earth orbit to provide Mars surface imaging.
Astrobotic Technology: How to modify a lunar-exploration spacecraft for large payload delivery and hosting services. Also, how to modify a lunar-exploration spacecraft for Mars surface imaging.
Firefly Aerospace: How to adapt a lunar-exploration spacecraft for small payload delivery and hosting services.
Impulse Space: How to adapt its Helios space tug to provide small payload delivery and hosting for Mars missions.
Lockheed Martin: How to adapt a lunar-exploration spacecraft for small payload delivery and hosting. Also, how to provide communication relay services for Mars with a spacecraft originally meant for use in the vicinity of Earth and the moon.
Redwire Space: How to modify a commercial imaging spacecraft originally meant for low Earth orbit to provide Mars surface-imaging services.
United Launch Alliance (through United Launch Services): How to modify an Earth-vicinity cryogenic upper stage to provide large payload delivery and hosting services.
https://www.universetoday.com/166864/starlink-on-mars-nasa-paying-spacex/
Fix & Fogg nut butter launched into space
4:25 pm on 4 May 2024
One Wellington peanut butter company has gone where no Kiwi food company has gone before.
Last year, nut butter brand Fix & Fogg was approached by NASA with a request to create a space rocket-approved product.
After months of working with the space agency to find the perfect delivery and storage pouch, Fix and Fogg's nut butter was launched into space on a recent six-month mission.
Fix & Fogg co-founder and chief executive Roman Jewell told Nights it was not something they thought would ever happen in "our wildest dreams".
"It's not something we were looking for, I wouldn't even know how to go about contacting NASA and connecting with them on this sort of level but this is a really organic, natural tale," he said.
As it happened, a fan of Fix & Fogg in New Zealand was sending jars overseas to friends and family, one of whom was an American astronaut.
"This astronaut, as we've been told, fell in love with the product and it became a part of their daily routine," said Jewell.
"[They] then got selected to go onto a mission up to the International Space Station and that's when NASA got in touch asking if we could supply the crew for that mission."
Jewell explained that astronauts were away for six months which was a really long time.
There are more than 200 different food items that are flown up to the station for each mission and within that there is leeway to include a few personal items.
"It's really important for morale, for mental well-being. There's only a few other people up there with them so if you can get those little nice moments up there, where food can be one of them, it's a really nice thing for them."
It was a "massive privilege" and "mind-blowing" to be included in the astronaut's comfort food preferences, said Jewell.
Developing a space-rocket approved product
But sending a food product into space definitely had its hurdles.
The whole process of creating a space-worthy version of Fix & Fogg's nut butter took about six to seven months, said Jewell.
He said initially they had no idea whether they could deliver what NASA wanted or anything about the requirements for sending products up to space.
"We jumped through all the wrong hoops first," he joked.
"I naively thought that we could just send NASA our product and they would look after it … so I sent them glass jars because that's what we have."
"We got a pretty stern no on that one."
NASA wanted to prevent risk of breakage as much as possible and sharp bits of glass in zero gravity was far from ideal, said Jewell.
In the end, Fix & Fogg settled on a 275g soft and lightweight plastic pouch with an extra wide nozzle.
Jewell hoped they would be able to continue working with NASA in the future.
"We've built the relationship with the [NASA] food lab, they've tested, they've vetted our product … and made the launch.
"I'd like to think we've proven ourselves and that we can be trusted to work with again.
He hoped the feedback from the crew was good and that they enjoyed the experience of having the nut butter in space.
"I'd like to think maybe NASA's eyes have been opened a bit wider and they'll look down this part of the world more for food."
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/515974/fix-and-fogg-nut-butter-launched-into-space
Eta Aquarid meteor shower peak could spawn over 100 'shooting stars' per hour this weekend
May 3, 2024
It has been 38 years since Halley's Comet last passed through the inner solar system. This famous comet takes roughly 75 years to circle the sun. But if you're 42 years old or younger, you probably have little or no memory of the 1986 appearance of this famous cosmic vagabond (your next chance will come in the summer of 2061).
Or maybe, if you were around back then, you didn't see Halley at all because of light pollution or the comet's low altitude above the horizon.
If you missed out on the 1986 event, or don't want to wait until 2061, you might want to step outside before sunrise during these next few mornings and try to catch a view of some "cosmic litter" that has been left behind in space by Halley's Comet.
The orbit of Halley's Comet closely approaches the Earth's orbit at two places. One point is in the middle to latter part of October, producing a meteor display known as the Orionids. The other point comes in the early part of May, producing the Eta Aquarid meteors.
When and where to watch
This year, the Eta Aquarid meteor shower is predicted to be at its best on Sunday morning, May 5, when the moon is a very thin (8% illuminated) waning crescent and safely out of harm's way to cause any disruption to visibility.
This mid-spring meteor display remains above one-quarter of its peak strength for about 10 days. And the 2024 version of this shower is also anticipated to provide a higher number of meteors than usual. More on that in a moment.
This is the best meteor shower of the year for those living in the Southern Hemisphere, typically yielding hourly rates of 60 or more.
There is, however, a bit of a drawback if you plan to watch for these meteors from north of the equator. The radiant (the point from which these meteors appear to originate in the sky) is found at the "Water Jar" asterism of the constellation Aquarius, which comes above the southeast horizon at around 3 a.m. local daylight time, and never gets very high as seen from north temperate latitudes.
That means the actual observed rates are usually lower than the oft-quoted 60 per hour; closer to 10 to 20 per hour at around latitude 40-degrees north (Philadelphia) to perhaps 20 to 40 per hour near latitude 25-degrees north (Brownsville, TX).
Enhanced activity in 2024?
According to the 2024 Observer's Handbook of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada, this year's Eta Aquarids are "expected to show a noticeable outburst" from meteoroids ejected from Halley's comet about 2,500 years ago.
In a technical paper published in the August 11, 2020 issue of the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics, astronomer Auriane Egal and four colleagues from the University of Western Ontario, present a new numerical model of the Eta Aquarid and Orionid meteor showers (referred to in the paper as the "Halleyids" meteor showers).
According to Dr. Egal and her colleagues, material that was shed by Halley's Comet, primarily in 983 B.C., with several smaller particle ejections from the 1058 B.C., 835 B.C. and 314 B.C. comet apparitions, augmented by close interactions of these meteoroids with the gravitational pull of Jupiter, should lead to enhanced Eta Aquarid activity in 2024.
Earth is expected to pass closest to this "rubble river" at around 13:30 UT on May 5. Unfortunately, it will be daylight over Europe and North America, but it is hoped that noticeable enhanced activity might last for perhaps a few days on either side of this predicted peak.
The number of meteors that may be seen might be as much as two or three times the normal rate for the 2024 Eta Aquarids. In their paper, Egal et al write that this year's outburst could produce "from 120 to 160 meteors per hour, with a 30% confidence on the predicted rates."
Catch an Earthgrazer
For most who live at mid-northern latitudes, perhaps your best hope is not necessarily to see a large number of meteors, but rather to catch a glimpse of a meteor emerging from the Eta Aquarid radiant that will skim Earth's atmosphere horizontally — much like a bug skimming the side window of an automobile. Meteor watchers call such shooting stars "Earthgrazers." They tend to leave colorful, long-lasting trails.
"These meteors are extremely long," says Robert Lunsford, of the International Meteor Organization. "They tend to hug the horizon rather than shooting overhead where most cameras are aimed."
cont.
https://www.space.com/eta-aquarid-meteor-shower-2024-peak-halleys-comet