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PBD Podcast: “Our Country Has Been Poisoned” - Donald Trump On Putin, Obama, Tariffs & Iran
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dmwG54QsKc
NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day
October 17, 2024
The Clipper and the Comet
NASA's Europa Clipper is now headed toward an ocean world beyond Earth. The large spacecraft is tucked into the payload fairing atop the Falcon Heavy rocket in this photo, taken at Kennedy Space Center the day before the mission's successful October 14 launch. Europa Clipper's interplanetary voyage will first take it to Mars, then back to Earth, and then on to Jupiter on gravity assist trajectories that will allow it to enter orbit around Jupiter in April 2030. Once orbiting Jupiter, the spacecraft will fly past Europa 49 times, exploring a Jovian moon with a global subsurface ocean that may have conditions to support life. Posing in the background next to the floodlit rocket is Comet Tsuchinsan-ATLAS, about a day after the comet's closest approach to Earth. A current darling of evening skies, the naked-eye comet is a vistor from the distant Oort cloud.
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html
The View from Space Keeps Getting Better
Oct 16, 2024
The 30-acre pear orchard in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta has been in Brett Baker’s family since the end of the Gold Rush.
After six generations, though, California’s most precious resource is no longer gold – it’s water. And most of the state’s freshwater is in the delta.
Landowners there are required to report their water use, but methods for monitoring were expensive and inaccurate.
Recently, however, a platform called OpenET, created by NASA, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), and other partners, has introduced the ability to calculate the total amount of water transferred from the surface to the atmosphere through evapotranspiration.
This is a key measure of the water that’s actually being removed from a local water system. It’s calculated based on imagery from Landsat and other satellites.
“It’s good public policy to start with a measure everyone can agree upon,” Baker said.
OpenET is only one of the latest uses researchers and businesses continue finding for Landsat over 50 years after the program started collecting continuous imagery of Earth’s surface.
NASA has built and launched all nine of the satellites before handing them over to USGS, which manages the program.
Some of the most pressing questions people ask about Earth are about the food it’s producing.
Agriculture and adjacent industries are among the heaviest users of Earth-imaging data, which can help assess crop health and predict yields.
Even in this well-established niche, though, new capabilities continue to emerge.
One up-and-coming company is using Landsat to validate sustainable farming practices by measuring carbon stored in the ground, which can be detected in the reflectance rate in certain wavelengths.
This is how Perennial Inc. is enabling emerging markets for carbon credits, through which farmers get paid for maximizing their land’s storage of carbon.
The company is also discovering interest among food companies that want to reduce their environmental impact by choosing eco-conscious suppliers, as well as companies in the fertilizer, farm equipment, and agricultural lending businesses.
Landsat also enables countless map-based apps, studies of changes in Earth’s surface cover over half a century, and so much more.
https://www.nasa.gov/technology/tech-transfer-spinoffs/the-view-from-space-keeps-getting-better/
New Team to Assess NASA’s Mars Sample Return Architecture Proposals
Oct 16, 2024
NASA announced Wednesday a new strategy review team will assess potential architecture adjustments for the agency’s Mars Sample Return Program, which aims to bring back scientifically selected samples from Mars, and is a key step in NASA’s quest to better understand our solar system and help answer whether we are alone in the universe.
Earlier this year, the agency commissioned design studies from the NASA community and eight selected industry teams on how to return Martian samples to Earth in the 2030s while lowering the cost, risk, and mission complexity.
The new strategy review team will assess 11 studies conducted by industry, a team across NASA centers, the agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, and the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory.
The team will recommend to NASA a primary architecture for the campaign, including associated cost and schedule estimates.
“Mars Sample Return will require a diversity of opinions and ideas to do something we’ve never done before: launch a rocket off another planet and safely return samples to Earth from more than 33 million miles away,” said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson.
“It is critical that Mars Sample Return is done in a cost-effective and efficient way, and we look forward to learning the recommendations from the strategy review team to achieve our goals for the benefit of humanity.”
Returning samples from Mars has been a major long-term goal of international planetary exploration for more than three decades, and the Mars Sample Return Program is jointly planned with ESA (European Space Agency).
NASA’s Perseverance rover is collecting compelling science samples that will help scientists understand the geological history of Mars, the evolution of its climate, and potential hazards for future human explorers.
Retrieval of the samples also will help NASA’s search for signs of ancient life.
The team’s report is anticipated by the end of 2024 and will examine options for a complete mission design, which may be a composite of multiple studied design elements.
The team will not recommend specific acquisition strategies or partners. The strategy review team has been chartered under a task to the Cornell Technical Services contract.
The team may request input from a NASA analysis team that consists of government employees and expert consultants.
The analysis team also will provide programmatic input such as a cost and schedule assessment of the architecture recommended by the strategy review team.
The Mars Sample Return Strategy Review Team is led by Jim Bridenstine, former NASA administrator, and includes the following members:
Greg Robinson, former program director, James Webb Space Telescope
Lisa Pratt, former planetary protection officer, NASA
Steve Battel, president, Battel Engineering; Professor of Practice, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
Phil Christensen, regents professor, School of Earth and Space Exploration, Arizona State University, Tempe
Eric Evans, director emeritus and fellow, MIT Lincoln Lab
Jack Mustard, professor of Earth, Environmental, and Planetary Science, Brown University
Maria Zuber, E. A. Griswold professor of Geophysics and presidential advisor for science and technology policy, MIT
The NASA Analysis Team is led by David Mitchell, chief program management officer at NASA Headquarters, and includes the following members:
John Aitchison, program business manager (acting), Mars Sample Return
Brian Corb, program control/schedule analyst, NASA Headquarters
Steve Creech, assistant deputy associate administrator for Technical, Moon to Mars Program Office, NASA Headquarters
Mark Jacobs, senior systems engineer, NASA Headquarters
Rob Manning, chief engineer emeritus, NASA JPL
Mike Menzel, senior engineer, NASA Goddard
Fernando Pellerano, senior advisor for Systems Engineering, NASA Goddard
Ruth Siboni, chief of staff, Moon to Mars Program Office, NASA Headquarters
Bryan Smith, director of Facilities, Test and Manufacturing, NASA Glenn
Ellen Stofan, under secretary for Science and Research, Smithsonian
https://science.nasa.gov/missions/mars-sample-return/new-team-to-assess-nasas-mars-sample-return-architecture-proposals/
https://science.nasa.gov/mission/mars-sample-return
NASA to Embrace Commercial Sector, Fly Out Legacy Relay Fleet
Oct 16, 2024
NASA is one step closer on its transition to using commercially owned and operated satellite communications services to provide future near-Earth space missions with increased service coverage, availability, and accelerated science and data delivery.
As of Friday, Nov. 8, the agency’s legacy TDRS (Tracking and Data Relay Satellite) system, as part of the Near Space Network, will support only existing missions while new missions will be supported by future commercial services.
“There have been tremendous advancements in commercial innovation since NASA launched its first TDRS satellite more than 40 years ago,” said Kevin Coggins, deputy associate administrator of NASA’s SCaN (Space Communications and Navigation) program.
“TDRS will continue to provide critical support for at least the next decade, but now is the time to embrace commercial services that could enhance science objectives, expand experimentation, and ultimately provide greater opportunities for discovery.”
Just as NASA has adopted commercial crew, commercial landers, and commercial transport services, the Near Space Network, managed by NASA’s SCaN, will leverage private industry’s vast investment in the Earth-based satellite communications market, which includes communications on airplanes, ships, satellite dish television, and more.
Now, industry is developing a new space-based market for these services, where NASA plans to become one of many customers, bolstering the domestic space industry.
NASA’s Communications Services Project is working with industry through funded Space Act Agreements to develop and demonstrate commercial satellite communications services that meet the agency’s mission needs, and the needs of other potential users.
In 2022, NASA provided $278.5 million in funding to six domestic partners so they could develop and demonstrate space relay communication capabilities.
Inmarsat Government Inc.
Kuiper Government Solutions (KGS) LLC
SES Government Solutions
Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX)
Telesat U.S. Services LLC
Viasat Incorporated
A successful space-based commercial service demonstration would encompass end-to-end testing with a user spacecraft for one or more of the following use cases: launch support, launch and early operations phase, low and high data rate routine missions, terrestrial support, and contingency services.
Once a demonstration has been completed, it is expected that the commercial company would be able to offer their services to government and commercial users.
NASA also is formulating non-reimbursable Space Act Agreements with members of industry to exchange capability information as a means of growing the domestic satellite communications market.
The Communications Services Project currently is partnered with Kepler Communications US Inc. through a non-reimbursable Space Act Agreement.
As the agency and the aerospace community expand their exploration efforts and increase mission complexity, the ability to communicate science, tracking, and telemetry data to and from space quickly and securely will become more critical than ever before.
The goal is to validate and deliver space-based commercial communications services to the Near Space Network by 2031, to support future NASA missions.
NASA’s Tracking and Data Relay System
While TDRS will not be accepting new missions, it won’t be retiring immediately.
Current TDRS users, like the International Space Station, Hubble Space Telescope, and many other Earth- and universe-observing missions, will still rely on TDRS until the mid-2030s.
Each TDRS spacecraft’s retirement will be driven by individual health factors, as the seven active TDRS satellites are expected to decline at variable rates.
The TDRS fleet began in 1983 and consists of three generations of satellites, launching over the course of 40 years.
Each successive generation of TDRS improved upon the previous model, with additional radio frequency band support and increased automation.
The first TDRS was designed for a mission life of 10 years, but lasted 26 years before it was decommissioned in 2009. The last in the third generation – TDRS-13 –was launched Aug. 18, 2017.
“Each astronaut conversation from the International Space Station, every picture you’ve seen from Hubble Space Telescope, Nobel Prize-winning science data from the COBE satellite, and much more has flowed through TDRS,” said Dave Israel, Near Space Network chief architect.
“The TDRS constellation has been a workhorse for the agency, enabling significant data transfer and discoveries.”
https://www.nasa.gov/missions/tdrs/nasa-to-embrace-commercial-sector-fly-out-legacy-relay-fleet/
NASA's Hubble Sees a Stellar Volcano
October 16, 2024 10:00AM
NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has provided a dramatic and colorful close-up look at one of the most rambunctious stars in our galaxy, weaving a huge spiral pattern among the stars.
Located approximately 700 light-years away, a binary star system called R Aquarii undergoes violent eruptions that blast out huge filaments of glowing gas.
The twisted stellar outflows make the region look like a lawn sprinkler gone berserk.
This dramatically demonstrates how the universe redistributes the products of nuclear energy that form deep inside stars and jet back into space.
R Aquarii belongs to a class of double stars called symbiotic stars. The primary star is an aging red giant and its companion is a compact burned-out star known as a white dwarf.
The red giant primary star is classified as a Mira variable that is over 400 times larger than our Sun.
The bloated monster star pulsates, changes temperature, and varies in brightness by a factor of 750 times over a roughly 390-day period.
At its peak the star is blinding at nearly 5,000 times our Sun's brightness.
When the white dwarf star swings closest to the red giant along its 44-year orbital period, it gravitationally siphons off hydrogen gas.
This material accumulates on the dwarf star's surface until it undergoes spontaneous nuclear fusion, making that surface explode like a gigantic hydrogen bomb.
After the outburst, the fueling cycle begins again.
This outburst ejects geyser-like filaments shooting out from the core, forming weird loops and trails as the plasma emerges in streamers.
The plasma is twisted by the force of the explosion and channeled upwards and outwards by strong magnetic fields. The outflow appears to bend back on itself into a spiral pattern.
The plasma is shooting into space over 1 million miles per hour – fast enough to travel from Earth to the Moon in 15 minutes!
The filaments are glowing in visible light because they are energized by blistering radiation from the stellar duo.
Hubble first observed the star in 1990. R Aquarii was resolved into two very bright stars separated by about 1.6 billion miles.
The ESA/Hubble team now has made a unique timelapse of R Aquarii's dynamic behavior, from observations spanning from 2014 to 2023.
Across the five images, the rapid and dramatic evolution of the binary star and its surrounding nebula can be seen.
The binary star dims and brightens due to strong pulsations in the red giant star.
The scale of the event is extraordinary even in astronomical terms.
Space-blasted material can be traced out to at least 248 billion miles from the stars, or 24 times our solar system's diameter.
Images like these and more from Hubble are expected to revolutionize our ideas about such unique stellar "volcanoes" as R Aquarii.
https://hubblesite.org/contents/news-releases/2024/news-2024-021
Estonia joins Artemis Accords as moon-exploration coalition agrees to continue outreach efforts
October 15, 2024
The nations signed up to the Artemis Accords are looking to spread the word on common principles and best practices on exploring outer space.
Estonia became the 45th country to sign up to the Accords just ahead of the International Astronautical Congress (IAC) here, which opened on Monday (Oct. 14). But engagement and enlargement efforts won't stop there.
The Artemis Accords — a set of statements that set out common principles, guidelines and best practices for exploration of the moon and beyond — had its third heads-of-agencies meeting on the sidelines of the IAC in Milan.
NASA Deputy Administrator Pam Melroy, Canadian Space Agency (CSA) President Lisa Campbell and Teodoro Valente, president of the Italian Space Agency (ASI), briefed press on the outcomes of the meeting and work undertaken over the last year.
Nations agreed to a number of actions, including organizing workshops with emerging countries to involve them in the Artemis Accords framework. They will also seek new members.
"We actually talked, all the signatories, and we will each do outreach and try to bring on more members," Campbell said. "The goal is consensus.
You know, every country who has a mission towards space needs partners. We need to agree that we don't interfere with one another, that we will help one another if there's an emergency.
"Space is hard enough, and we can actually collaborate and help ourselves," Campbell added.
The members will conduct outreach to Asia-Pacific countries, including through the next IAC in Sydney in 2025, to promote the Artemis Accords.
"I do believe that, in preparation for IAC, there will be a lot more regional work in Asia," said Melroy.
They will also explore opportunities for outreach and engagement with African countries, such as Egypt, to inform them about the Artemis Accords and encourage their participation, Valente stated.
Egypt, notably, has signed up to the China-led International Lunar Research Station (ILRS), a planned moon base to be constructed in the 2030s.
Asked if China could sign the Accords, Melroy said: "I think China can sign the accords anytime."
However, there have been no discussions between China and the United States related to the Artemis Accords, she added.
Meanwhile, the Accords working groups will also continue discussions on the sharing of scientific, operational and engineering data.
"The work focused on six key topics: avoiding interference, interoperability, the sharing of scientific data, applying the guidelines for long-term sustainability of outer space, deep space activities and the registration of space objects," Campbell said.
Another issue of interest is plume surface interaction from lunar landings.
"How far does moon dust travel? When a lander lands on the surface of the moon, we know it's kicked up. We don't know how far it goes," Melroy said.
"So I think we've identified a lot of technical areas that we need to do more investigation on together as a team, and we'd like to tap into some existing technical models to help us with that."
The focus for the next year's workshop will be on space debris, orbits and space sustainability in lunar orbit, according to the panel.
https://www.space.com/estonia-joins-artemis-accords-moon-exploration
US and China will need to discuss moon mission plans, NASA chief predicts
October 16, 2024
NASA and China will need to discuss exchanges of data and mission plans as the two sides move to build sustainable presences on the moon, according to the NASA administrator.
NASA chief Bill Nelson met with the press at the 75th International Astronautical Congress (IAC) here on Tuesday (Oct. 15), addressing questions related to the agency's Artemis program.
Both NASA, with Artemis, and China, with its International Lunar Research Station (ILRS), are working to get astronauts to the moon and to build lunar infrastructure to support repeated and long-term missions.
China and NASA are planning landings at the lunar south pole, where permanently shadowed craters are thought to harbor lots of water ice.
The precious resource could be used to make rocket fuel or provide life support for astronauts.
Asked by Space.com if the United States and China have had conversations about the exploration of the lunar south pole, Nelson said, "The answer to that is no."
"We have had conversations in the deconfliction of orbit around Mars, and that was done a few years ago," Nelson added, referring to the arrival of China's Tianwen 1 orbiter at the Red Planet, along with missions from NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA) and others.
He expects similar exchanges relating to lunar missions to take place in the future, however.
"I assume that there will be some conversation of deconfliction of orbits around the moon, but those have not been held thus far.
With regard to the south pole of the moon, that's to be determined," Nelson said.
China, NASA and ESA are also planning to build lunar navigation and communications infrastructure in orbit around the moon.
Coordinating respective orbits will be required to reduce the chances of an accidental collision.
In the case of an emergency on the surface and the possibility of one side assisting the other, Nelson cited the Artemis Accords.
"The objective of the Artemis Accords is the peaceful exploration of space and coming to help each other in times of need," he said.
The difficulty here, however, may be that, while Artemis Accords partners will likely follow agreed-upon and shared standards and interfaces for equipment, those of China and its partners will be different, posing technological challenges if one were to attempt to assist the other.
Meanwhile, regarding Artemis, Nelson stated that SpaceX's successful Starship test flight on Sunday (Oct. 13) — which included a dramatic catch of the megarocket's first stage by the launch tower — is a boost for the schedule for Artemis 3.
The mission is currently targeted to launch in September 2026, but this is considered likely to be delayed, according to a December 2023 U.S. Government Accountability Office report. (NASA chose Starship to be the first crewed lunar lander for the Artemis program.)
"I think you saw as a result of Sunday's test of SpaceX and its big rocket that they are moving along very well, and of course, that will determine, ultimately, the timing for the landing of Artemis 3," Nelson said.
"And as of Sunday's test, it was right on the mark."
https://www.space.com/nasa-china-need-discuss-moon-mission-plans-bill-nelson
Artemis Accords signatories look to recruit new members
October 17, 2024
Countries that have signed the Artemis Accords say that even as their numbers continue to grow, they need to redouble their efforts to encourage more nations to join.
Estonia became the 45th country to sign the Accords in an event here before the start of the International Astronautical Congress (IAC), NASA announced Oct. 13.
That signing took place almost exactly four years after the United States and seven other nations became the first to sign the Accords.
“We are more than interested to share our knowledge with the global space community to make future collaboration in space exploration a success for humankind,” Erkki Keldo, Estonia’s minister of economy and industry, said in a statement.
“I am sure that joining the Artemis Accords will open attractive opportunities to Estonian enterprises too, to share their valuable knowledge and competences.”
The IAC also hosted a meeting of Artemis Accords signatories to discuss implementation of the Accords, which outline best practices for safe and sustainable space exploration, building upon the Outer Space Treaty and other international agreements.
Those discussions, space agency officials said Oct. 14, included work on capacity building, technical issues regarding lunar operations and sharing of scientific data.
“We’re all facing a breadth and depth of space missions, which means that we urgently need to agree on the rules of conduct as humanity goes forward into the cosmos,” said Lisa Campbell, president of the Canadian Space Agency, at an Oct. 14 briefing after the Artemis Accords briefing.
“It’s through implementation of the principles in the Accords, we believe, that will positively impact the safety and sustainability of deep space exploration.”
Besides working on those technical and policy issues, countries say they are looking to overcome obstacles that have kept more countries from signing the Accords, which include a lack of awareness of the Accords and their benefits.
“Some of these countries haven’t yet signed the Artemis Accords because they do not fully understand the reasons to be inside it,” said Teodoro Valente, president of the Italian space agency ASI.
“This is one of our duties, one of our tasks, to let them know what does it mean, what are the advantages.”
“It’s about not being sure what you’re signing up to,” said NASA Deputy Administrator Pam Melroy. “That’s on us.”
Campbell said one issue that came up during the meeting of Artemis Accords signatories is the need to build up technical and policy expertise in emerging space countries so they can contribute to discussions on topics related to the Accords. “Hopefully, that will bring out issues for others who haven’t joined, because there’s a reluctance or they’re concerned that established space countries are setting these rules and they don’t see themselves.”
Countries who are members of the Accords said they are working to reach out to those who have not yet joined.
Melroy said that Enrico Palermo, head of the Australian Space agency, had made outreach in the Asia-Pacific region a priority, as had Japan and South Korea.
Valente said his agency was working with African nations, noting the strong relationship ASI has with countries like Egypt and Kenya.
“The approach we are following is an approach where we try to understand their needs, trying to help them so they can solve their needs in cooperative programs,” he said.
“We think this approach is a valuable one that can help also the Artemis community to better inform them about the aims of the Artemis Accords and to positively push them to sign the Accords.”
The briefing also raised the topic of China and the Accords. China is not a signatory, but in a plenary session earlier at the IAC, Li Guoping, chief engineer of then China National Space Administration, echoed many of the principles of the document.
“China is free to sign the Accords any time they want to,” Melroy said.
https://spacenews.com/artemis-accords-signatories-look-to-recruit-new-members/
Silicon Valley startup Lyten building lithium-sulfur battery ‘gigafactory’ in Reno
Updated 12:28 p.m. PT Oct, 15, 2024
A Silicon Valley startup is building its own “gigafactory” — the world’s first large-scale lithium-sulfur battery facility — in the Biggest Little City.
San Jose-based Lyten announced on Tuesday that it will invest more than $1 billion on a 1.25 million-square-foot lithium-sulfur battery factory in Reno.
The project will be built on a 125-acre campus at Reno AirLogistics Park in Stead.
As part of the project, Lyten inked a deal with Dermody Properties to build the facility on land owned by the Reno-Tahoe Airport Authority.
The airport authority has about 3,000 acres of developable land by Reno Stead Airport.
The Lyten facility will allow for the production of a domestically manufactured battery by manufacturing cathode active materials and lithium metal anodes and also assembling lithium-sulfur cells.
“Lithium-sulfur is a leap in battery technology, delivering a high energy density, lightweight battery built with abundantly available local materials and 100% U.S. manufacturing,” said Dan Cook, Lyten co-founder and CEO, in a statement.
Lyten is the latest addition to Nevada’s “lithium loop” — an ecosystem where battery materials are sourced, assembled and recycled within the state.
The Nevada lithium loop is seen as a key economic driver for the state and was named by the Biden Administration as one of 31 regional tech hubs in the United States.
Lyten partners include the University of Nevada, Reno and Truckee Meadows Community College, which will help provide training and talent for staffing the battery facility.
“This is welcome news for Northern Nevada as we continue to grow every sector of the lithium economy and establish our region as the ideal location for the nation’s electrification needs,” said UNR President Brian Sandoval in a statement.
“Lyten’s technology is cutting-edge, and from the very beginning, has been at the forefront of our effort to catalyze this important economic sector through a circular materials and manufacturing loop.”
Lyten also cited the region’s qualified workforce as a key reason why it picked Northern Nevada.
Once built, the facility will manufacture up to 10 gigawatt hours of lithium-sulfur batteries per year and employ 200 workers.
Lyten plans to increase staffing to over 1,000 employees.
“Lyten’s decision to plant roots here in Nevada reflects the confidence in our state’s economic potential and we are excited about the anticipated high earning positions, workforce partnerships and community development that will follow,” said Tom Burns, executive director of the Nevada Governor’s Office of Economic Development.
Economic development incentives have yet to be approved for the project.
The lithium-sulfur battery cells manufactured at the Lyten facility will be fully compliant with the Inflation Reduction Act and National Defense Appropriations Act.
They also will not be subject to Section 301 tariffs on imports from China.
Lyten plans to break ground on its Reno factory in early 2025. The company was founded in 2015.
https://www.rgj.com/story/news/money/business/2024/10/15/lyten-building-world-first-lithium-sulfur-battery-gigafactory-in-reno/75689754007/
>>21774670 PB
Thanks. Fixed it.