TYB
NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day
July 24, 2024
Exaggerated Moon
Our Moon doesn't really have craters this big. Earth's Moon, Luna, also doesn't naturally show this spikey texture, and its colors are more subtle. But this digital creation is based on reality. The featured image is a digital composite of a good Moon image and surface height data taken from NASA's Lunar Orbiter Laser Altimeter (LOLA) mission and then exaggerated for educational understanding. The digital enhancements, for example, accentuate lunar highlands and show more clearly craters that illustrate the tremendous bombardment our Moon has been through during its 4.6-billion-year history. The dark areas, called maria, have fewer craters and were once seas of molten lava. Additionally, the image colors, although based on the moon's real composition, are changed and exaggerated. Here, a blue hue indicates a region that is iron rich, while orange indicates a slight excess of aluminum. Although the Moon has shown the same side to the Earth for billions of years, modern technology is allowing humanity to learn much more about it and how it affects the Earth.
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html?
NASA Streams First 4K Video from Aircraft to Space Station, Back
JUL 24, 2024
A team at NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland streamed 4K video footage from an aircraft to the International Space Station and back for the first time using optical, or laser, communications.
The feat was part of a series of tests on new technology that could provide live video coverage of astronauts on the Moon during the Artemis missions.
Historically, NASA has relied on radio waves to send information to and from space. Laser communications use infrared light to transmit 10 to 100 times more data faster than radio frequency systems.
Working with the Air Force Research Laboratory and NASA’s Small Business Innovation Research program, Glenn engineers temporarily installed a portable laser terminal on the belly of a Pilatus PC-12 aircraft.
They then flew over Lake Erie sending data from the aircraft to an optical ground station in Cleveland.
From there, it was sent over an Earth-based network to NASA’s White Sands Test Facility in Las Cruces, New Mexico, where scientists used infrared light signals to send the data.
The signals traveled 22,000 miles away from Earth to NASA’s Laser Communications Relay Demonstration (LCRD), an orbiting experimental platform.
The LCRD then relayed the signals to the ILLUMA-T (Integrated LCRD LEO User Modem and Amplifier Terminal) payload mounted on the orbiting laboratory, which then sent data back to Earth.
During the experiments, High-Rate Delay Tolerant Networking (HDTN), a new system developed at Glenn, helped the signal penetrate cloud coverage more effectively.
“These experiments are a tremendous accomplishment,” said Dr. Daniel Raible, principal investigator for the HDTN project at Glenn.
“We can now build upon the success of streaming 4K HD videos to and from the space station to provide future capabilities, like HD videoconferencing, for our Artemis astronauts, which will be important for crew health and activity coordination.”
After each flight test, the team continuously improved the functionality of their technology.
Aeronautics testing of space technology often finds issues more effectively than ground testing, while remaining more cost-effective than space testing.
Proving success in a simulated space environment is key to moving new technology from a laboratory into the production phase.
“Teams at Glenn ensure new ideas are not stuck in a lab, but actually flown in the relevant environment to ensure this technology can be matured to improve the lives of all of us,” said James Demers, chief of aircraft operations at Glenn.
The flights were part of an agency initiative to stream high-bandwidth video and other data from deep space, enabling future human missions beyond low Earth orbit.
As NASA continues to develop advanced science instruments to capture high-definition data on the Moon and beyond, the agency’s Space Communications and Navigation, or SCaN, program embraces laser communications to send large amounts of information back to Earth.
While the ILLUMA-T payload is no longer installed on the space station, researchers will continue to test 4K video streaming capabilities from the PC-12 aircraft through the remainder of July, with the goal of developing the technologies needed to stream humanity’s return to the lunar surface through Artemis.
https://www.nasa.gov/centers-and-facilities/glenn/nasa-streams-first-4k-video-from-aircraft-to-space-station-back/
NASA Releases First Integrated Ranking of Civil Space Challenges
JUL 23, 2024
This spring, NASA published a document overviewing almost 200 technology areas requiring further development to meet future exploration, science, and other mission needs – and asked the aerospace community to rate their importance.
The goal was to better integrate the community’s most pervasive technical challenges, or shortfalls, to help guide NASA’s space technology development and investments.
Today, NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate (STMD) released the 2024 Civil Space Shortfall Ranking document, integrating inputs from NASA mission directorates and centers, small and large industry organizations, government agencies, academia, and other interested individuals.
STMD will use the inaugural list and annual updates as one of many factors to guide its technology development projects and investments.
“Identifying consensus among challenges across the aerospace industry will help us find solutions, together,” said NASA Associate Administrator Jim Free.
“This is the groundwork for strengthening the nation’s technological capabilities to pave the way for new discoveries, economic opportunities, and scientific breakthroughs that benefit humanity.”
The integrated results show strong stakeholder agreement among the 30 most important shortfalls. At the top of the list is surviving and operating through the lunar night, when significant and sustained temperature drops make it difficult to run science experiments, rovers, habitats, and more. Solution technologies could include new power, thermal management, and motor systems. Second and third on the integrated list are the need for high-power energy generation on the Moon and Mars and high-performance spaceflight computing.
Highly rated capability areas in the top 20 included advanced habitation systems, autonomous systems and robotics, communications and navigation, power, avionics, and nuclear propulsion.
Beyond the top quartile, stakeholder shortfall scores varied, likely aligning with their interests and expertise. With many shortfalls being interdependent, it emphasizes the need to make strategic investments across many areas to maintain U.S. leadership in space technology and drive economic growth.
STMD is evaluating its current technology development efforts against the integrated list to identify potential adjustments within its portfolio.
“This effort is an excellent example of our directorates working together to assess future architecture needs that will enable exploration and science for decades to come,” said Nujoud Merancy, deputy associate administrator for the Strategy and Architecture Office within NASA’s Exploration Systems Development Mission Directorate.The 2024 results are based on 1,231 total responses, including 769 internal and 462 external responses.
Twenty were consolidated responses, representing multiple individuals from the same organization.
Once average shortfall scores were calculated for each organization, STMD grouped, totaled, and averaged scores for nine stakeholder groups and then applied pre-determined weights to each to create the overall ranking.
In the document, NASA also published the ranked results for each stakeholder group based on the 2024 feedback.
The rankings are based on the numerical scores received and not responses to the open-ended questions. NASA anticipates the qualitative feedback will uncover additional insights and more.
NASA will host a webinar to overview the ranking process and results on July 26, 2024, at 2 p.m. EDT.
https://www.nasa.gov/general/nasa-releases-first-integrated-ranking-of-civil-space-challenges/
10 Things for Mars 10
JUL 23, 2024
Scientists from around the world are gathering this week in California to take stock of the state of science from Mars and discuss goals for the next steps in exploration of the Red Planet. In the spirit of Mars 10, formally known as the 10th International Conference on Mars, here are 10 recent significant events that got scientists talking:
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An International Science Fleet at Mars
July 2024: Nine spacecraft are now operating at Mars – two surface rovers and seven orbiters. NASA’s fleet includes the Perseverance and Curiosity rovers, and orbiters MAVEN, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, and Mars Odyssey. ESA (European Space Agency) operates Mars Express and the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter. Both China and the United Arab Emirates also have spacecraft studying Mars from orbit.
Mars Relay Network: Interplanetary Internet
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Curiosity Discovers Mysterious Surge in Methane – Which Then Vanishes
June 2019: NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover found a surprising result: the largest amount of methane ever measured during the mission.
“The methane mystery continues,” said Ashwin Vasavada, Curiosity’s project scientist.
“We’re more motivated than ever to keep measuring and put our brains together to figure out how methane behaves in the Martian atmosphere.”
“Curiosity’s Mars Methane Mystery Continues”
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Curiosity Discovers Evidence of Ancient Wave Ripples From a Lake Bottom
February 2023: NASA’s Curiosity rover team was surprised to discover the mission’s clearest evidence yet of ancient water ripples that formed within lakes in an area they expected to be much drier.
“NASA’s Curiosity Finds Surprise Clues to Mars’ Watery Past”
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InSight Detects First Quake on Another Planet
April 2019: NASA's Mars InSight lander measured and recorded for the first time ever a "marsquake."
"InSight's first readings carry on the science that began with NASA's Apollo missions," said InSight Principal Investigator Bruce Banerdt.
"We've been collecting background noise up until now, but this first event officially kicks off a new field: Martian seismology!"
“NASA’s InSight Detects First Likely ‘Quake’ on Mars”
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InSight Provides First View of Mars’ Deep Interior
July 2021: NASA’s InSight spacecraft’s seismometer revealed details about the planet’s deep interior for the first time, including confirmation that the planet’s center is molten.
“NASA’s InSight Reveals the Deep Interior of Mars”
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InSight Finds Stunning Impact on Mars – and Ice
October 2022: NASA’s InSight felt the ground shake during the impact while cameras aboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter spotted the yawning new crater surrounded by boulder-sized chunks of ice from space.
“NASA’s InSight Lander Detects Stunning Meteoroid Impact on Mars”
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Opportunity Rover Comes to an End After Nearly 15 Years
July 2021: One of the most successful and enduring feats of interplanetary exploration, NASA's Opportunity rover mission ended after almost 15 years exploring the surface of Mars and helping lay the groundwork for NASA's return to the Red Planet.
“NASA’s Opportunity Rover Mission on Mars Comes to End”
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Massive Dust Storm Spreads Across Mars
July 2018: For scientists watching the Red Planet from NASA’s orbiters, summer 2018 was a windfall. “Global” dust storms, where a runaway series of storms create a dust cloud so large they envelop the planet, only appear every six to eight years (that’s 3-4 Mars years). In June 2018, one of these dust events rapidly engulfed the planet. Scientists first observed a smaller-scale dust storm on May 30. By June 20, it had gone global.
“’Storm Chasers’ on Mars Searching for Dusty Secrets”
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NASA Maps Water Ice on Mars for Use by Future Astronauts
October 2023: The map could help the agency decide where the first astronauts to the Red Planet should land. The more available water, the less missions will need to bring.
“NASA Is Locating Ice on Mars With This New Map”
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Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Images Used to Make Massive Interactive Globe of Mars
April 2023: Cliffsides, impact craters, and dust devil tracks are captured in mesmerizing detail in a new mosaic of the Red Planet composed of 110,000 images from NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO).
https://science.nasa.gov/solar-system/planets/mars/10-things-for-mars-10/
Plans unveiled for stronger European Space Agency presence in UK and space skills training
23 July 2024
The joint plan, unveiled during the Farnborough International Airshow, includes strengthening work on the centre’s 5G/6G hub with a focus on satellite telecommunications and the wider applications of satellite services, which already support around £360 billion of UK GDP.
The space agencies will explore the potential for a space quantum technologies laboratory and the further development of activities related to in-orbit servicing, assembly and manufacturing – vital for improving sustainability, prolonging the lifetime of satellites in orbit, and delivering new services to businesses and citizens.
The UK Space Agency has also announced five new projects, worth £2.1 million, to help tackle key skills gaps identified by the UK space industry.
The funding will boost the availability of training programmes, courses and other learning interventions that can break down barriers to opportunities within this fast-growing, high-tech sector.
The projects will be led by the universities of Edinburgh, Leicester and Portsmouth, the Royal Institute of Navigation, and Plastron Training, a specialist provider of training services focused on safety in the commercial space sector.
UK Space Agency CEO Dr Paul Bate said:
As a founding member of the European Space Agency, UK scientists and engineers contribute to global scientific and commercial space endeavors, furthering human knowledge and bringing the benefits of space technologies to citizens on Earth.
Together with ESA, we believe there is vast potential to build on the success of the ECSAT facility in Harwell, to support even more businesses, accelerate the development of new technologies and take advantage of the UK’s wider strengths in science and innovation.
As space is a growing industry, we are also taking concrete steps to improve the availability of dedicated training programmes, which will help address skills gaps identified by the sector.
ESA Director General Josef Aschbacher said:
ECSAT is ESA’s home in the UK and a vital facility for Europe’s overall space ambitions.
Together with the UK Space Agency we want to build on ECSAT’s leadership role in commercial space applications and telecommunications, push forward new initiatives in high-growth areas, deliver better services to all European citizens, and grow our UK workforce to 200 people by 2030.
I’ve enjoyed spending time at Farnborough this week and meeting with so many of our current, and potential future, partners who we will work with to make this shared vision a reality.”
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/plans-unveiled-for-stronger-european-space-agency-presence-in-uk-and-space-skills-training
Star Catcher Industries raises $12.25M to provide energy grid in space for satellites
July 24, 2024 6:00 AM
Star Catcher Industries has raised $12.25 million in seed funding to provide an energy grid in space for satellites.
With this funding, the Jacksonville, Florida-based company is positioned to help eliminate power constraints on space operations through the construction of its Star Catcher Network, the world’s first space-based energy grid.
Once constructed, the Star Catcher Network will be a first-of-its-kind energy grid able to beam significant levels of broad spectrum energy to spacecraft in Low Earth Orbit (“LEO”) and beyond.
It’s kind of like a gas station in space, only for solar power. And it can provide more energy to the batteries of satellites than the solar panels on many spacecraft.
“Throughout my career and my personal life, I just want to enable us to do more in space to commercialize space and industrialize space,” said Andrew Rush, CEO of Star Catcher, in an interview with VentureBeat.
“The biggest constraint on spacecraft today on commercialization and industrialization of space is power availability.
You can drop the cost of launch with reusable rockets from SpaceX and Rocket Lab, but we still are really constrained in the amount of power that is available on spacecraft.”
Rush added, “And so that’s why we started here to alleviate that constraint on satellite operations.”
Star Catcher was founded at the beginning of 2024 by longtime space entrepreneurs Andrew Rush and Michael Snyder, alongside experienced VC investor and operator Bryan Lyandvert. Snyder and Rush have been working together for a decade.
Rush previously served as CEO & President of in-space manufacturing trailblazer Made In Space, where he led the company through its successful sale to Redwire Corporation in 2020. Following the sale, Rush became Redwire’s founding president and COO, where he managed hundreds of millions of dollars of development and delivery contracts for commercial, civil, and national security customers.
He has spearheaded programs and initiatives that include replacing solar arrays on the International Space Station, delivering multiple shipsets of solar arrays and spacecraft navigation components for national security customers, and developing and delivering camera systems for the Artemis I mission.
Snyder served alongside Rush as cofounder and chief engineer of Made In Space and CTO of Redwire.
One of the most accomplished space technologists of the modern era, Snyder has flown over a dozen payloads to space and holds more than 50 patents on a wide variety of cutting-edge space technologies.
Snyder is the 2022 recipient of the AIAA Lawrence Sperry Award for notable contributions made to the aerospace industry.
Meanwhile, Lyandvert is a well-known space investor with extensive experience in early-stage investing and capital formation from his time at MetaProp Ventures and T-Bird Capital.
Earlier in his career, Lyandvert worked at Amazon, managing a big wearables business.
Lyandvert said in an interview that the company raised the $12.25 million from a cold start from several core investors. The company has 11 people and it is hiring.
Handling communications from space is a very power-hungry service, Rush said.
“The SpaceX approach is to build the world’s largest rocket to brute force it and have enormous solar panels on each one of their spacecraft. So they’re really expensive,” Rush said.
“Our approach is more of an elegant solution. We’re augmenting the power of much smaller assets and enhancing them that way.”
With LEO projected to host more than 40,000 satellites by 2030, Star Catcher anticipates a need for 840 megawatts of power generation to operate these systems, compared to the tens of megawatts of power generation capacity in space today.
That’s enough to power 840,000 homes for one hour.
Rush said that the problem for satellites has been around for most of his career, but only in the recent months have they figured out some of the solutions.
cont.
https://venturebeat.com/data-infrastructure/star-catcher-industries-raises-12-25m-to-provide-energy-grid-in-space-for-satellites/
UK Space Agency awards ten technologies to purify water frozen in Moon’s soil
24 July 2024
UK finalists awarded funding through the joint UK-Canada £1.2 million Aqualunar Challenge to develop new lunar water purifying technologies.
-The Aqualunar Challenge is a £1.2 million international prize funded by the UK Space Agency’s International Bilateral Fund and delivered by Challenge Works
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today, it is awarding £300,000 to UK teams developing technologies to purify ice frozen in the Moon’s soil to make human habitation on the lunar surface viable
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diamond encrusted filtration units, concentrated sunshine and ultrasound purification are in the running to win the Aqualunar Challenge
Ten cutting-edge teams of innovators, engineers and scientists, that are developing new technologies to provide a permanent crewed base on the Moon with reliable water supplies, have been named finalists in the Aqualunar Challenge.
The Aqualunar Challenge is part of a £1.2 million international prize funded by the UK Space Agency’s International Bilateral Fund and delivered by Challenge Works – experts in designing and running innovation challenge prizes.
The challenge is a collaboration with the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) and Impact Canada.
The UK track of the challenge is awarding UK-led finalist teams £30,000 each to develop their technologies, before a winner and runners-up are announced in Spring 2025.
Around the lunar south pole, it’s estimated that 5.6% of the soil (regolith) is water frozen as ice. For a permanent crewed base on the moon to be possible, astronauts will need a reliable supply of water for drinking and growing food, as well as oxygen for air and hydrogen for fuel.
If the lunar ice can be successfully extracted, separated from the soil and purified, it makes NASA’s goal of establishing a base by the end of the decade viable.
The Artemis campaign, as it is known, is supported by the UK Space Agency through its membership of the European Space Agency.
cont.
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/uk-space-agency-awards-ten-technologies-to-purify-water-frozen-in-moons-soil
Sweden angles to fill a void in NATO’s space plans
Jul 24, 2024, 02:37 AM
Sweden is looking to establish itself as a key player in the international space domain by virtue of its northern geostrategic position and by ramping up research and development capabilities.
Earlier this month, the Swedish government adopted the country’s first-ever defense and security space strategy, which seeks to make Stockholm a space hub for allies.
“We might be the new kids on the block in NATO, but we have been doing space research for several decades in Sweden – we’ve [now] asked what void can we fill in the alliance in the space domain,” Col. Ella Carlsson, Sweden’s space chief, told reporters here.
Northern Sweden is home to the Esrange Space Center (ESP), the first European mainland orbital spaceport. The center has in part served as a launching pad for sounding rockets and has carried out research and testing of rocket engines and fuels.
In May, the Swedish Space Corporation announced that it signed an agreement with South Korean rocket company Perigee Aerospace to begin jointly launching satellites from the Arctic site in 2025.
According to a Perigee press release, the company’s Blue Whale 1 micro-launcher will be the “first-ever orbital rocket” set off from Esrange.
While the spaceport has previously focused its satellite launch capabilities on civilian purposes, its chief executive Charlotta Sund recently said that the installation will likely be utilized for military launches in the future.
Another key pillar of the Swedish space strategy will be to create a portfolio of space-related capabilities and services in line with the country’s “total defense and crisis preparedness” concept.
Carlsson noted that last year the Swedish Defense Materiel Administration acquired Smart-L long-range radars from Thales, which allows the military to detect threats at a range of up to 2,000 kilometers according to the vendor’s website.
“We can use space as part of the solution to find, detect and hit targets or threats with partners,” she said. She added that in Sweden’s quest for new sensors, the country is also cooperating with the Netherlands, which also has the Smart-L radar, to assess further use cases.
The Swedish Air Force additionally signed a Space Situational Awareness sharing agreement with the U.S. Space Command in 2022, with the Scandinavian country most recently participating in the U.S-led Global Sentinel space exercise in February.
https://www.defensenews.com/global/europe/2024/07/24/sweden-angles-to-fill-a-void-in-natos-space-plans/