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From Houston to the Moon: Johnson’s Thermal Vacuum Chamber Tests Lunar Solar Technology
Nov 19, 2024
Imagine designing technology that can survive on the Moon for up to a decade, providing a continuous energy supply. NASA selected three companies to develop such systems, aimed at providing a power source at the Moon’s South Pole for Artemis missions.
Three companies were awarded contracts in 2022 with plans to test their self-sustaining solar arrays at the Johnson Space Center’s Space Environment Simulation Laboratory (SESL) in Houston, specifically in Chamber A in building 32.
The prototypes tested to date have undergone rigorous evaluations to ensure the technology can withstand the harsh lunar environment and deploy the solar array effectively on the lunar surface.
In the summer of 2024, both Honeybee Robotics, a Blue Origin company from Altadena, California and Astrobotic Technology from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania put their solar array concepts to the test in Chamber A.
Each company has engineered a unique solution to design the arrays to withstand the harsh lunar environment and extreme temperature swings.
The data collected in the SESL will support refinement of requirements and the designs for future technological advancements with the goal to deploy at least one of the systems near the Moon’s South Pole.
The contracts for this initiative are part of NASA’s VSAT (Vertical Solar Array Technology) project, aiming to support the agency’s long-term lunar surface operations.
VSAT is under the Space Technology Mission Directorate Game Changing Development program and led by the Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, in collaboration with Glenn Research Center in Cleveland.
“We foresee the Moon as a hub for manufacturing satellites and hardware, leveraging the energy required to launch from the lunar surface,” said Jim Burgess, VSAT lead systems engineer. “This vision could revolutionize space exploration and industry.”
Built in 1965, the SESL initially supported the Gemini and Apollo programs but was adapted to conduct testing for other missions like the Space Shuttle Program and Mars rovers, as well as validate the design of the James Webb Space Telescope.
Today, it continues to evolve to support future Artemis exploration.
Johnson’s Front Door initiative aims to solve the challenges of space exploration by opening opportunities to the public and bringing together bold and innovative ideas to explore new destinations.
“The SESL is just one of the hundreds of unique capabilities that we have here at Johnson,” said Molly Bannon, Johnson’s Innovation and Strategy specialist.
“The Front Door provides a clear understanding of all our capabilities and services, the ways in which our partners can access them, and how to contact us.
We know that we can go further together with all our partners across the entire space ecosystem if we bring everyone together as the hub of human spaceflight.”
Chamber A remains as one of the largest thermal vacuum chambers of its kind, with the unique capability to provide extreme deep space temperature conditions down to as low as 20 Kelvin.
This allows engineers to gather essential data on how technologies react to the Moon’s severe conditions, particularly during the frigid lunar night where the systems may need to survive for 96 hours in darkness.
“Testing these prototypes will help ensure more safe and reliable space mission technologies,” said Chuck Taylor, VSAT project manager.
“The goal is to create a self-sustaining system that can support lunar exploration and beyond, making our presence on the Moon not just feasible but sustainable.”
The power generation systems must be self-aware to manage outages and ensure survival on the lunar surface.
These systems will need to communicate with habitats and rovers and provide continuous power and recharging as needed.
They must also deploy on a curved surface, extend 32 feet high to reach sunlight, and retract for possible relocation.
“Generating power on the Moon involves numerous lessons and constant learning,” said Taylor.
“While this might seem like a technical challenge, it’s an exciting frontier that combines known technologies with innovative solutions to navigate lunar conditions and build a dynamic and robust energy network on the Moon.”
https://www.nasa.gov/centers-and-facilities/johnson/from-houston-to-the-moon-johnsons-thermal-vacuum-chamber-tests-lunar-solar-technology/
Space Biology, Student Robotics Top Day as Cargo Craft Departs
November 19, 2024
Space biology to improve health and robotics to promote education were the primary research topics aboard the International Space Station on Tuesday.
The Expedition 72 crew members also saw the departure of a cargo craft as another one prepares for launch.
NASA Flight Engineer Don Pettit continued nourishing research samples and servicing an artificial gravity-generating incubator housing the samples inside the Kibo laboratory module.
Pettit will process the samples during the week inside Kibo’s Life Science Glovebox helping researchers prevent space-caused immune system dysfunction and protect astronaut health.
NASA Flight Engineer Nick Hague reviewed the biology study’s operations and will soon assist Pettit as they process the samples.
Hague also unpacked health accessories from the SpaceX Dragon cargo craft resupplying medical kits inside the space station.
He later joined Pettit troubleshooting cargo-securing hardware located inside Dragon.
Commander Suni Williams collected station water samples for microbial analysis at the beginning of her shift.
Then with assistance from Flight Engineer Butch Wilmore she serviced engineered bacteria and yeast samples for a biomanufacturing study and installed the specimens in cold stowage and a variable gravity simulator for later examination.
Wilmore also activated an Astrobee robotic free-flyer and tested its operation inside Kibo supporting a robotics competition to choose student-written algorithms that control the device.
Wilmore worked in conjunction with engineers on the ground monitoring the Astrobee’s flight trajectory and its gesture recognition software.
The Astrobee-Zero Robotics contest is meant to inspire students from around the world to pursue STEM and space-related careers.
The trash-packed Progress 88 cargo craft ended its resupply mission today undocking from the orbital outpost at 7:53 a.m. EST after six-months docked to the Poisk module.
The Progress 88 descended into Earth’s atmosphere just over three hours later for a fiery, but safe destruction above the South Pacific Ocean.
Roscosmos Flight Engineers Alexey Ovchinin and Ivan Vagner deactivated computer and video monitoring gear after the Progress 88’s departure.
Flight Engineer Aleksandr Gorbunov spent his day on orbital plumbing and cleaning duties throughout the station’s Roscosmos segment.
The Progress 90 resupply ship now stands at its launch pad at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan counting down to a lift off 7:22 a.m. on Thursday.
It will dock to the vacated Poisk module at 9:35 a.m. on Saturday loaded with about 5,500 pounds of cargo.
https://blogs.nasa.gov/spacestation/2024/11/19/space-biology-student-robotics-top-day-as-cargo-craft-departs/
NASA to Provide Coverage of Progress 90 Launch, Space Station Docking
7:22 am EST Nov 21, 2024
NASA will provide live launch and docking coverage of a Roscosmos cargo spacecraft delivering nearly three tons of food, fuel, and supplies to the Expedition 72 crew aboard the International Space Station.
The unpiloted Progress 90 spacecraft is scheduled to launch at 7:22 a.m. EST (5:22 p.m. Baikonur time) Thursday, Nov. 21, on a Soyuz rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
Live launch coverage will begin at 7 a.m. on NASA+ and the agency’s website.
Learn how to watch NASA content through a variety of platforms, including social media.
After a two-day in-orbit journey to the station, the spacecraft will dock autonomously to the space-facing port of the orbiting laboratory’s Poisk module at 9:35 a.m., Saturday, Nov. 23. NASA’s coverage of rendezvous and docking will begin at 8:45 a.m. on NASA+ and the agency’s website.
The Progress 88 spacecraft will undock from the Poisk module on Tuesday, Nov. 19. NASA will not stream undocking.
The spacecraft will remain docked at the station for approximately six months before departing for a re-entry into Earth’s atmosphere to dispose of trash loaded by the crew.
https://www.nasa.gov/news-release/nasa-to-provide-coverage-of-progress-90-launch-space-station-docking/
NASA succeeds for the first time in “holoporting” an astronaut…The shocking result
11/19/2024
When one thinks of “holoporting”—a portmanteau of “hologram” and “teleportation”—one might think of science fiction franchises such as “Star Trek” and “Star Wars” that feature advanced technology enabling instant communication across vast distances.
In a groundbreaking achievement, NASA has successfully holoported an astronaut to space. Sounds unbelievable, but the concept of holoporting has moved from the realm of sci-fi into reality.
NASA’s groundbreaking holoportation experiment on the International Space Station
At its core, holoportation is a blend of two concepts: holograms and teleportation.
Holograms are three-dimensional (3D) images generated by computers, creating the illusion of depth and form; teleportation refers to the instantaneous travel of objects or beings.
Combining the two allows individuals to project their 3D presence in real-time to distant locations—this enables real-time interaction with those physically present.
To test the capabilities of holoporting, NASA conducted an experiment aimed at holoporting a person onto the International Space Station (ISS).
To do so, they relied on a sophisticated setup that included a computer, camera, and special software developed in collaboration with Aexa Aerospace, a company specializing in holographic communications.
The team utilized a Kinect camera developed by Microsoft; it was designed to be paired with the HoloLens 2 headset, facilitating interaction between the holoported individual and those present on the ISS.
As part of the experiment, NASA employee Dr. Josef Schmid, along with members of Aexa’s technology team, became the first individuals to be “beamed up” to the ISS.
There, they appeared before the station’s crew in a lifelike holographic form. Dr. Schmid also had the opportunity to converse with Thomas Pesquet, an astronaut from the European Space Agency.
Holoportation: A new frontier in communications technology
As the experiment shows, holoportation technology is poised to revolutionize communication by allowing astronauts to interact with ground control as well as family as if they were physically present.
This can go a long way in reducing feelings of isolation and improving mental well-being during long missions.
It also creates the potential for real-time collaboration, allowing engineers and medical professionals back on Earth to provide immediate assistance and guidance to astronauts in space.
Holoportation is able to operate under extreme conditions, namely that the ISS is traveling at speeds of over 17,500 miles per hour in orbit.
The seamless integration of this innovative technology means that team members on the ground can instantly appear and support each other, regardless of the challenges presented by distance or motion.
Should any interruptions occur, the system efficiently resumes communication from where it left off.
Furthermore, holoportation has profound implications beyond aerospace. There are potential applications in various industries such as healthcare, manufacturing, and oil and gas.
For example, doctors will be able to conduct virtual consultations and even provide surgical support across various distances, ultimately enhancing access to medical knowledge and care worldwide.
Overcoming obstacles for holoportation technology
Of course, holoportation still has challenges to overcome. It relies heavily on advanced infrastructure and equipment, which can be both costly and costly to maintain, particularly in remote environments like space.
Technical glitches could disrupt communications during critical missions, which might lead to adverse effects on astronaut safety and operational effectiveness during crucial tasks or emergencies.
Additionally, the psychological effects of prolonged reliance on virtual interactions could exacerbate feelings of isolation, as human connection through physical presence is often essential for mental health, especially during long missions.
Nevertheless, holoportation heralds a new era of connectivity. It creates new opportunities for collaboration, innovation, and exploration across various industries.
Enriching our lives both in space and on Earth, it truly bridges the gap between sci-fi and reality.
https://www.riazor.org/news/nasa-holoportation-teleportation/1872/
Mount Fuji Bare Again After Fleeting Snow
November 19, 2024
As the calendar turned to November 2024, Japan’s iconic volcano and highest peak, Mount Fuji, still awaited the first snowfall of the season.
When white did appear on its flanks on November 6, it was the latest in the year for the mountain’s first seasonal snowfall since records began 130 years ago.
That beats the previous record of October 26, which occurred in both 1955 and 2016.
Ground and aerial photos from November 6 showed Mount Fuji with a fresh coating of snow on its peak.
A local office of the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) officially confirmed the presence of snow on November 7, according to news reports; clouds had obstructed their view of the mountain the previous day.
By the time the OLI (Operational Land Imager) on the Landsat 8 satellite acquired this image (right) on November 9, the new snow appears to have melted.
For comparison, an image from October 30, 2023 (left), acquired by the OLI-2 on Landsat 9, shows the mountain clad in white.
That year, the first snow on Mount Fuji came on October 5, a more typical time for this annual milestone.
The snow’s late arrival follows periods of exceptional warmth in Japan.
The average summer temperature, from June to August 2024, was 1.76 degrees Celsius (3.17 degrees Fahrenheit) higher than the 1991–2020 average, according to JMA weather station observations.
Those temperatures tied summer 2023 as the country’s hottest summer since comparable records began in 1898.
Above-average heat continued into the fall. Across Japan, over 120 million people experienced “unusual heat” in the first week of October 2024, reported Climate Central, when more than 70 Japanese cities recorded temperatures of 30°C (86°F) or higher.
Warmth was also felt at Mount Fuji’s summit, which, according to news reports, prevented early-season precipitation from falling as snow.
https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/153593/mount-fuji-bare-again-after-fleeting-snow
Making Mars’ Moons: Supercomputers Offer Disruptive New Explanation
Nov 20 2024
A NASA study using a series of supercomputer simulations reveals a potential new solution to a longstanding Martian mystery: How did Mars get its moons? The first step, the findings say, may have involved the destruction of an asteroid.
The research team, led by Jacob Kegerreis, a postdoctoral research scientist at NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley, found that an asteroid passing near Mars could have been disrupted – a nice way of saying “ripped apart” – by the Red Planet’s strong gravitational pull.
The team’s simulations show the resulting rocky fragments being strewn into a variety of orbits around Mars. More than half the fragments would have escaped the Mars system, but others would’ve stayed in orbit.
Tugged by the gravity of both Mars and the Sun, in the simulations some of the remaining asteroid pieces are set on paths to collide with one another, every encounter further grinding them down and spreading more debris.
Many collisions later, smaller chunks and debris from the former asteroid could have settled into a disk encircling the planet. Over time, some of this material is likely to have clumped together, possibly forming Mars’ two small moons, Phobos and Deimos.
To assess whether this was a realistic chain of events, the research team explored hundreds of different close encounter simulations, varying the asteroid’s size, spin, speed, and distance at its closest approach to the planet.
The team used their high-performance, open-source computing code, called SWIFT, and the advanced computing systems at Durham University in the United Kingdom to study in detail both the initial disruption and, using another code, the subsequent orbits of the debris.
In a paper published Nov. 20 in the journal Icarus, the researchers report that, in many of the scenarios, enough asteroid fragments survive and collide in orbit to serve as raw material to form the moons.
“It’s exciting to explore a new option for the making of Phobos and Deimos – the only moons in our solar system that orbit a rocky planet besides Earth’s,” said Kegerreis.
“Furthermore, this new model makes different predictions about the moons’ properties that can be tested against the standard ideas for this key event in Mars’ history.”
Two hypotheses for the formation of the Martian moons have led the pack. One proposes that passing asteroids were captured whole by Mars’ gravity, which could explain the moons’ somewhat asteroid-like appearance.
The other says that a giant impact on the planet blasted out enough material – a mix of Mars and impactor debris – to form a disk and, ultimately, the moons. Scientists believe a similar process formed Earth’s Moon.
The latter explanation better accounts for the paths the moons travel today – in near-circular orbits that closely align with Mars’ equator.
However, a giant impact ejects material into a disk that, mostly, stays close to the planet. And Mars’ moons, especially Deimos, sit quite far away from the planet and probably formed out there, too.
“Our idea allows for a more efficient distribution of moon-making material to the outer regions of the disk,” said Jack Lissauer, a research scientist at Ames and co-author on the paper.
“That means a much smaller ‘parent’ asteroid could still deliver enough material to send the moons’ building blocks to the right place.”
Testing different ideas for the formation of Mars’ moons is the primary goal of the upcoming Martian Moons eXploration (MMX) sample return mission led by JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency).
The spacecraft will survey both moons to determine their origin and collect samples of Phobos to bring to Earth for study.
A NASA instrument on board, called MEGANE – short for Mars-moon Exploration with GAmma rays and Neutrons – will identify the chemical elements Phobos is made of and help select sites for the sample collection.
Some of the samples will be collected by a pneumatic sampler also provided by NASA as a technology demonstration contribution to the mission.
Understanding what the moons are made of is one clue that could help distinguish between the moons having an asteroid origin or a planet-plus-impactor source.
Before scientists can get their hands on a piece of Phobos to analyze, Kegerreis and his team will pick up where they left off demonstrating the formation of a disk that has enough material to make Phobos and Deimos.
https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/153593/mount-fuji-bare-again-after-fleeting-snow
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D-gDbo-8W3c
Venturi Space welcomes Prince Albert II for exclusive visit
20 November 2024
On Monday 18 November, Prince Albert II of Monaco visited Venturi Space, accompanied by Apollo 15 mission commander David Scott and astronaut Jean-François Clervoy. Welcomed by Gildo Pastor, the company’s CEO, they discovered the innovative technologies being developed for Venturi Space’s future lunar missions.
On the programme: a presentation of the FLIP and FLEX rovers, a look at Venturi Space’s lunar battery manufacturing technologies and techniques, and a presentation of planned Venturi Astrolab missions.
The Venturi Space group also unveiled its hyper-deformable lunar wheel and an exhibition on the history of aerospace.
“The FLEX rover is very different from the one I drove. It’s much bigger and will have an enormous operating life,” said David Scott, the first man to drive a rover on the Moon.
Monegasque businessman Gildo Pastor expressed his pride at welcoming the figures from the world of space exploration:
“It gives me immense pleasure to welcome, in the presence of the Sovereign and Jean-François Clervoy, the first man to have driven a rover on the Moon.”
By the end of 2026, Venturi Space’s rovers will be in service on the Moon, in partnership with Venturi Astrolab.
https://www.monaco-tribune.com/en/2024/11/venturi-space-welcomes-prince-albert-ii-for-exclusive-visit/
>Silky Johnson
The Balkans too
Raven Space Systems opens up a whole new category of industrial 3D printing
7:00 AM PST · November 20, 2024
Manufacturing has been one of the hottest categories in venture this year, but there are still many innovative materials and processes yet to scale.
One example is thermoset composites, materials widely used in aerospace and defense due to their high heat resistance and light weight, but which typically have long lead times and high prices for customers.
Raven Space Systems, a startup based in Kansas City, Missouri, says it has developed a new process to enable the first scalable 3D printing of commercial, off-the-shelf thermoset composite components.
“We’re essentially unlocking an entire field of 3D printing to production scale,” Raven cofounder and CEO Blake Herren said in a recent interview.
“We’re taking these off the shelf materials that have been proven for both structures and thermal protection applications, and automating the near net shape production by 3D printing them for the first time.”
Raven is able to do this using a technology they’ve patented called Microwave Assisted Deposition (MAD) 3D printing.
Usually thermoset composites require hours or even days in an oven to harden or cure, but the MAD process essentially cures the materials during the printing process, a bit like laser-based metal additive printing.
Herren and his cofounder, Ryan Cowdrey, started working on the technology while grad students at the University of Oklahoma.
Around the time they graduated, they landed about a million in grants through the Small Business Innovation and Research program to take the MAD 3D printing concept from whiteboard to prototype.
Since 2020, Raven has scored around $4.5 million of non-dilutive contracts from the Air Force, NASA, the National Science Foundation and other awards.
To take the technology to the next level, the startup also just closed a $2 million pre-seed round led by Backswing Ventures with participation from 46 Venture Capital, Mana Ventures, What If Ventures, and Cape Fear Ventures.
The new capital will go toward the company’s first full-scale manufacturing lines: production-scale 3D printers, mixing systems, and machining.
By the second quarter of next year, Raven aims to move out of its 3,000-square-foot facility and into a larger factory certified for aerospace production.
There, they’ll start manufacturing components for customers, starting with smaller components and scaling up from there.
Raven’s go-to-market strategy is to provide thermal protection components for solid rocket motors and hypersonic vessels initially, because that’s where the two cofounders saw demand from the Department of Defense, Herren said.
“We’re not the world superpower we once were,” he said. “There’s a massive need there — supply chain, bottle-neck issues, everybody has a hair-on-fire problem with these thermal protection and structure materials.”
In these industries, “there are not enough suppliers,” he said. Of the suppliers that do exist, many work in outdated factories using methods dating back decades.
Herren said scaling the new 3D printing process will go hand in hand with building a next-gen factory, in order to reduce lead times to days instead of several months or over a year.
“I think the industrial base requires implementing software and robotics into our factories to solve these supply chain issues and, frankly, compete globally,” he said.
Beyond hypersonics and rockets, the company has also had conversations with autonomous systems providers, satellite manufacturers and space propulsion. Earlier this week, the company announced it was partnering with reentry capsule developer SpaceWorks to develop 3D-printed reentry vehicle aeroshells — the structure that encapsulates the spacecraft and provides the thermal protection — to enable the DOD to test hypersonic tech.
The tech is still early, in that there are still tech challenges involved with scaling it to print larger structures, Herren admits, but “once it’s fully developed, I see this as changing the way we make large-scale composites.”
“It’s going to take some capital and time to scale up to the very large systems that this can be used for … But right now, it’s simple, small parts, using designs that are delivered by customers, and solving the supply chain issues by really developing the most efficient production lines that we can.”
https://techcrunch.com/2024/11/20/raven-space-systems-opens-up-a-whole-new-category-of-industrial-3d-printing/