TYB
NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day
May 18, 2024
North Celestial Aurora
Graceful star trail arcs reflect planet Earth's daily rotation in this colorful night skyscape. To create the timelapse composite, on May 12 consecutive exposures were recorded with a camera fixed to a tripod on the shores of the Ashokan Reservoir, in the Catskills region of New York, USA. North star Polaris is near the center of the star trail arcs. The broad trail of a waxing crescent Moon is on the left, casting a strong reflection across the reservoir waters. With intense solar activity driving recent geomagnetic storms, the colorful aurora borealis or northern lights, rare to the region, shine under Polaris and the north celestial pole.
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html?
Dr. Lori Glaze to begin six-month Detail as Acting Deputy Associate Administrator for ESDMD
MAY 17, 2024
I am pleased to share some exciting news regarding senior executive detail backfills to provide broadening opportunities for some of our leadership team.
Agency leadership has chosen Dr. Lori Glaze to begin a six-month detail as the Acting Deputy AA for the Exploration Systems Development Mission Directorate (ESDMD) due to the transition of Kelvin Manning back to KSC at the end of May 2024. It is expected that this detail will begin imminently, to allow for some transition time before the end of May. Lori’s detail will be for a 6-month period, while ESDMD broadly advertises the Deputy AA position.
This is an incredible opportunity to have an exceptional leader and advocate for planetary science, and all science, within ESDMD. Lori’s outstanding leadership of the Planetary Science Division make her uniquely qualified and the ideal candidate to help continue to strengthen the ties between science and exploration. As we know, exploration enables science, and science enables exploration.
Lori has done an incredible job of leading the NASA Planetary Science community for the past six years. To name only a selection of highlights, Lori has overseen: Insight landing on Mars and completion of its mission, Perseverance beginning the task of Mars Sample Return, Ingenuity’s paradigm-changing 72 flights, DART’s successful impact, the launch of Lucy and Psyche, OSIRIS-REx’s incredible return of 121 g of material from Bennu, the start of a real renaissance in Venus exploration, and Europa Clipper preparing for its launch this fall.
To temporarily backfill Lori’s position, I have asked Dr. Gina DiBraccio to join the SMD leadership team on a short-term detail beginning May 27. Gina currently serves as the Deputy Director of the Heliophysics Science Division at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. Gina also serves as the Deputy Principal Investigator and Project Scientist of NASA’s MAVEN mission. Gina has also been involved in research at Mercury, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, and Uranus by utilizing data from the MESSENGER, MAVEN, Juno, Cassini, and Voyager 2 missions.
We are very excited about these temporary changes in ESDMD, SMD and GSFC leadership, and the broadening opportunities it provides for our Agency leaders. These changes strengthen all three organizations by taking advantage of the great leaders we have in place to ensure all our organizations have strong management. We look forward to continued success in leading the entire Agency team in achieving our mission and science objectives.
While it is hard to let Lori go from SMD, I am so pleased and excited that we will have an incredible leader in science help steward the Artemis campaign. Please join me in wishing Lori great success in her temporary new role and welcoming Gina into SMD and her new role!
https://science.nasa.gov/directorates/smd/dr-lori-glaze-to-begin-six-month-detail-as-acting-deputy-associate-administrator-for-esdmd/
Researchers achieve ultra-high-Q free space coupling to microtoroid resonators
MAY 16, 2024
Scientists from the University of Arizona have achieved far-field coupling of light to ultra-high quality factor microtoroids using a single objective lens. This could provide the foundation for a fully on-chip multiplexed microtoroid sensing platform.
The paper is published in the journal Light: Science & Applications.
Rapid and sensitive label-free sensors are needed for many biochemical applications including early diagnostics and prognostics, monitoring food and water quality, chemical threat sensing, and early detection of hazardous gases.
Whispering gallery mode (WGM) microtoroid optical resonators are one of the most sensitive biochemical sensors in existence, capable of single molecule detection.
Light is typically coupled into these resonators using a tapered optical fiber, which is easily broken, subject to vibrational noise, and time consuming to make, requiring bulky and, costly instrumentation as well as specialized expertise.
The use of tapered optical fibers is the main barrier to launching these sensors outside the laboratory.
Led by Prof. Judith Su, a research group from the Wyant College of Optical Sciences and Department of Biomedical Engineering at the University of Arizona has demonstrated a way to eliminate the need for a tapered fiber by performing far-field excitation with an SNR 26 dB.
This was done by using a single objective lens for resonator excitation, monitoring the resonance wavelength, and imaging.
The system is more compact, cost-effective, and stable than tapered fiber-based couplers. The complicated process of pulling a tapered fiber is no longer needed.
Ultra-high-quality factors (108) were achieved using 100-micron diameter microtoroids.
Su's team showed it was possible to enhance the far field coupling efficiency by using a highly divergent laser beam and by scanning the far-field beam, it was possible to study the electric field profile inside the resonator.
Achieving a far-field excitation system makes fully on-chip microtoroid resonator sensing platforms feasible for field use.
Su's group has previously demonstrated that microtoroid resonators can detect hazardous gases at low parts-per-trillion, and thus a hazardous gas early detection system for practical use can be developed soon.
The sensing performance of this system was verified through a temperature sensing experiment.
In parallel, Su's group is working on adapting the system for biosensing detection in aqueous environments as well as multiplexing the sensors for simultaneous multi-target detection.
"We believe that this far-field coupling system can be used for spectroscopy and biosensing, and is the foundation of a fully on-chip microtoroid resonator sensing platform.
This approach has made our experiments a lot easier. We aim to miniaturize our system to make it more convenient for practical use," said Sartanee Suebka, first author of the paper.
https://phys.org/news/2024-05-ultra-high-free-space-coupling.html
https://breakingdefense.com/2024/05/france-undecided-on-us-offer-to-join-olympic-defender-space-effort/
France undecided on US offer to join ‘Olympic Defender’ space effort
May 15, 2024 at 3:05 PM
PARIS — France remains undecided about an offer from US Space Command to take part in Operation Olympic Defender, the US-led initiative to strengthen defense and deter hostility in space — but says that if it does join up, it will not be turning over operational control of its military space capabilities to its US allies.
Gen. Philippe Adam, France’s Space Force commander, told media that France had been invited, together with Germany and New Zealand, to join the initiative. In parallel, the Ministry of the Armed Forces announced that “This invitation opens new operational perspectives and carries a message of strategic solidarity,” stressing that “France will maintain operational control over all its military space capabilities.”
While a spokesperson stressed that no decision had yet been made, the phrasing of the Ministry statement indicates it may be more a matter of when, not if, Paris signs up.
Olympic Defender is the US military’s operational plan for warfighting in space, first opened to allies in 2020, with Australia, Canada and the UK currently part of the effort.
Gen. Stephen Whiting, commander of US Space Command, had officially invited the three new nations to join on April 9 at the Space Symposium in Colorado Springs.
Geopolitically, the US invitation is significant as it reflects the Pentagon’s desire to more tightly tie its allies into its efforts to deter, and if it comes to it, defend against hostile Chinese and Russian activities.
“We share intelligence, we plan together, and we work to ensure that space is safe for all. And we’re working to even improve our integration through improved command and control and planning to make sure that we get even better in the future,” Whiting said in his keynote at the Space Symposium.
France’s acceptance would be a signal that Paris, at least, is on board with SPACECOM’s intentions to use both defensive and offensive measures to take out adversary space capabilities in any future battle.
A spokesperson for the New Zealand military said the country “is considering the invitation.” A spokesperson from the German embassy in the US did not respond by press time.
Radar Investments Needed
As part of a wide-ranging interview with reporters, organized for members of France’s Association of Defense Journalists, Adam took time to stress the need for an additional GRAVES (Grand Réseau Adapté à la Veillle Spatiale) radar-based space surveillance system — which could prove to be a pricey challenge.
The current system, which has been operational since Dec. 15, 2005. Its function is to keep an eye on objects in low Earth orbits (between 400 to 1,000 km) that are larger than 10cm in diameter.
The system was so effective it caused a minor international incident when it uncovered previously unknown Chinese and US spy satellites.
Having only one GRAVES radar means France cannot continuously track satellites, as it loses them on the other side of the globe. “If we had two it would be better, with the second one most likely based in French Guyana, but more would be ideal,” Adam said.
Combined with its age, it’s clear France needs to invest in a replacement.
The problem is that while the original was developed for just €30 million by state-run aerospace research laboratory ONERA, now, “We are being quoted hundreds of millions of euros to develop the next generation radar,” he complained, “and I need at least two of them.”
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The GRAVES system fits into the French Space Force’s “Active Defense” posture, Adam said. He defined this as a three-pronged approach: detecting an anomaly, which is where GRAVES comes into play; understanding what it is i.e. is it a threat or an error and finally, taking action —“which is newer, and for this we are developing a patroller.”
By “patroller,” he was referring to Yoda (Yeux en Orbite pour un Démonstrateur Agile), a project led by the CNES national center for space studies, to develop two demonstrator nano-satellites each weighing between 10 to 20 kg which will fly at a geostationary orbit of 35,786 km.
These will be used to validate technologies used to approach a satellite and to train operators, according to a National Defense and Armed Forces Commission parliamentary report by Jean-Jacques Ferrara.
Yoda would probably remain in orbit for five to 10 years and then be replaced by a heavier (100kg or so), operational patroller armed with a laser, potentially operational as soon as 2030.
The program was launched in September 2018 when Florence Parly, the Armed Forces minister at the time, revealed that Russian satellite Luch-Olymp had a year earlier approached one of the Franco-Italian Athenas Fidus satellites dedicated to military communications in.
It “got so close that we really thought it was trying to capture our communications. But trying to listen to your neighbours is not only unfriendly. It’s called espionage,” she said. (France had to cut communication with its satellite twice as a security measure.)
Adam noted that existing threats included jamming, listening, laser illumination, sabotage, cyber-attacks, anti-satellite missiles and orbital threats. “And there’s another which will come one day and that is directed energy weapons” he remarked.
Need For Improved Training
One of the major roles of the French Air Force is to police the nation’s airspace. “Well, ours is a little bit like policing space,” Adam said, “but there are no borders, everyone has the right to be there and we all cross paths so we have to take into account all the users of space.”
To help train Space Force personnel to do so, France created the AsterX exercise “which is unique in Europe,” Adam said. “We are extremely pleased to have this tool because the results largely outweigh our initial expectations.”
The fourth edition was held from March 4-15, at the Space Centre in Toulouse. This year, 15 foreign partners — Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Germany, Italy, Japan, Poland, Portugal, Romania, South Korea, Spain, the UAE, Untitd Kingdom, and United States — attended the exercise.
There were 140 participants (civilians included), 27 foreign players, 30 foreign observers, three institutional partners (CNES, ONERA and the NATO Space Centre of Excellence) and seven industrial partners, including Arianespace, Exotrail, MBDA and Safran.
The exercise provides “training in the most realistic, if simulated, environment possible” and this was the first year with red and blue teams playing an unscripted scenario, Adam said.
Training and operations should only get easier by the end of 2025, with the opening of the brand-new €80 million ($86.6 million) Space Force centre in Toulouse, just next to the CNES. Two-thirds of the building will be attributed to the 500 staff of the Space Force whilst one-third will house the NATO Space Centre of Excellence.
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