When in doubt, wait it out
NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day
December 29, 2024
Methane Bubbles Frozen in Lake Baikal
What are these bubbles frozen into Lake Baikal? Methane. Lake Baikal, a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Russia, is the world's largest (by volume), oldest, and deepest lake, containing over 20% of the world's fresh water. The lake is also a vast storehouse of methane, a greenhouse gas that, if released, could potentially increase the amount of infrared light absorbed by Earth's atmosphere, and so increase the average temperature of the entire planet. Fortunately, the amount of methane currently bubbling out is not climatologically important. It is not clear what would happen, though, were temperatures to significantly increase in the region, or if the water level in Lake Baikal were to drop. Pictured, bubbles of rising methane froze during winter into the exceptionally clear ice covering the lake.
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html
NASA Is Watching a Vast, Growing Anomaly in Earth's Magnetic Field
Dec 28, 2024
NASA has been monitoring a strange anomaly in Earth's magnetic field: a giant region of lower magnetic intensity in the skies above the planet, stretching out between South America and southwest Africa.
This vast, developing phenomenon, called the South Atlantic Anomaly, has intrigued and concerned scientists for years, and perhaps none more so than NASA researchers.
The space agency's satellites and spacecraft are particularly vulnerable to the weakened magnetic field strength within the anomaly, and the resulting exposure to charged particles from the Sun.
The South Atlantic Anomaly (SAA) – likened by NASA to a 'dent' in Earth's magnetic field, or a kind of 'pothole in space' – generally doesn't affect life on Earth, but the same can't be said for orbital spacecraft (including the International Space Station), which pass directly through the anomaly as they loop around the planet at low-Earth orbit altitudes.
During these encounters, the reduced magnetic field strength inside the anomaly means technological systems onboard satellites can short-circuit and malfunction if they become struck by high-energy protons emanating from the Sun.
These random hits may usually only produce low-level glitches, but they do carry the risk of causing significant data loss, or even permanent damage to key components – threats obliging satellite operators to routinely shut down spacecraft systems before spacecraft enter the anomaly zone.
Mitigating those hazards in space is one reason NASA is tracking the SAA; another is that the mystery of the anomaly represents a great opportunity to investigate a complex and difficult-to-understand phenomenon, and NASA's broad resources and research groups are uniquely well-appointed to study the occurrence.
"The magnetic field is actually a superposition of fields from many current sources," geophysicist Terry Sabaka from NASA's Goddard Space Flight Centre in Greenbelt, Maryland explained in 2020.
The primary source is considered to be a swirling ocean of molten iron inside Earth's outer core, thousands of kilometers below the ground.
The movement of that mass generates electrical currents that create Earth's magnetic field, but not necessarily uniformly, it seems.
A huge reservoir of dense rock called the African Large Low Shear Velocity Province, located about 2,900 kilometers (1,800 miles) below the African continent, is thought to disturb the field's generation, resulting in the dramatic weakening effect – which is aided by the tilt of the planet's magnetic axis.
"The observed SAA can be also interpreted as a consequence of weakening dominance of the dipole field in the region," said NASA Goddard geophysicist and mathematician Weijia Kuang in 2020.
"More specifically, a localized field with reversed polarity grows strongly in the SAA region, thus making the field intensity very weak, weaker than that of the surrounding regions."
010 nasa south atlantic anomaly 2
Satellite data suggesting the SAA is dividing. (Division of Geomagnetism, DTU Space)
While there's much scientists still don't fully understand about the anomaly and its implications, new insights are continually shedding light on this strange phenomenon.
For example, one study led by NASA heliophysicist Ashley Greeley in 2016 revealed the SAA slowly drifts around, which was confirmed by subsequent tracking from CubeSats in research published in 2021.
It's not just moving, however. Even more remarkably, the phenomenon seems to be in the process of splitting in two, with researchers in 2020 discovering that the SAA appeared to be dividing into two distinct cells, each representing a separate center of minimum magnetic intensity within the greater anomaly.
Just what that means for the future of the SAA remains unknown, but in any case, there's evidence to suggest that the anomaly is not a new appearance.
A study published in July 2020 suggested the phenomenon is not a freak event of recent times, but a recurrent magnetic event that may have affected Earth since as far back as 11 million years ago.
If so, that could signal that the South Atlantic Anomaly is not a trigger or precursor to the entire planet's magnetic field flipping, which is something that actually happens, if not for hundreds of thousands of years at a time.
A more recent study published this year found the SAA also has an impact on auroras seen on Earth.
Obviously, huge questions remain, but with so much going on with this vast magnetic oddity, it's good to know the world's most powerful space agency is watching it as closely as they are.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/nasa-watching-vast-growing-anomaly-223020792.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qpdQcw_52iM
>>22246715 LB
SpaceX Launches
SpaceX Astranis: From One to Many Mission
December 29, 2024
On Sunday, December 29 at 12:00 a.m. ET, Falcon 9 launched the Astranis: From One to Many mission to a geosynchronous transfer orbit from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.
This was the seventh flight for the Falcon 9 first stage booster supporting this mission, which previously launched Crew-8, Polaris Dawn, CRS-31, and three Starlink missions.
https://www.spacex.com/launches/mission/?missionId=astranis-from-one-to-many
Starlink Mission
December 30, 2024
SpaceX is targeting Monday, December 30 for a Falcon 9 launch of 21 Starlink satellites, including 13 with Direct to Cell capabilities, to low-Earth orbit from Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A) at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
Liftoff is targeted for 12:00 a.m. ET, with backup opportunities available until 3:28 a.m. ET. If needed, additional opportunities are also available Tuesday, December 31, starting at 12:00 a.m. ET.
A live webcast of this mission will begin about five minutes prior to liftoff, which you can watch here and on X @SpaceX. You can also watch the webcast on the new X TV app.
This is the 16th flight for the first stage booster supporting this mission, which previously launched Crew-6, BlueBird-1, USSF-124, mPOWER-B, and 11 Starlink missions.
Following stage separation, the first stage will land on the Just Read the Instructions droneship, which will be stationed in the Atlantic Ocean.
https://www.spacex.com/launches/mission/?missionId=sl-12-6
https://arstechnica.com/space/2024/12/after-60-years-of-spaceflight-patches-here-are-some-of-our-favorites/
After 60 years of spaceflight patches, here are some of our favorites
Dec 29, 2024 4:00 AM
The art of space mission patches is now more than six decades old, dating to the Vostok 6 mission in 1963 that carried Soviet cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova into low-Earth orbit for nearly three days.
The patch for the first female human spaceflight showcased a dove flying above the letters designating the Soviet Union, CCCP.
That patch was not publicly revealed at the time, and the use of specially designed patches was employed only infrequently by subsequent Soviet missions.
NASA's first mission patch would not follow for two years, but the practice would prove more sticky for missions in the United States and become a time-honored tradition.
The first NASA flight to produce a mission-specific patch worn by crew members was Gemini 5.
It flew in August 1965, carrying astronauts Gordon Cooper and Pete Conrad on an eight-day mission inside a small Gemini spacecraft. At the time, it was the longest spaceflight conducted by anyone.
Robert Pearlman has the story behind the patch at Collect Space, which came about because of the wishes of the crew. During the initial Mercury missions, the pilots were able to name their spacecraft—Freedom 7, Liberty Bell 7, and so on.
Cooper had named his Mercury spacecraft 'Faith 7.' But an increasingly buttoned-up NASA ended this practice for the Gemini missions, and when Cooper and Conrad were assigned to the third Gemini flight they considered alternatives.
"Several months before mission, I mentioned to Pete that I'd never been in a military organization that didn't have its own patch," Cooper recounted in Leap of Faith, his memoir. "We decided right then and there that we were at least going to have a patch for our flight."
They chose a covered wagon design to indicate the pioneering nature of the mission and came up with the "8 days or bust" slogan to highlight the extended duration of the flight.
Since then, virtually every NASA mission has included a patch design, typically with names of the crew members. The tradition has extended to non-human missions and has generally been adopted by space agencies around the world.
As such, there is a rich tradition of space mission patches to draw on, and we thought it would be fun to share some of our favorites over the decades.
Apollo 11
The first human mission to land on the Moon is one of the only NASA mission patches that does not include the names of the crew members, Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins.
This was a deliberate choice by the crew, who wanted the world to understand they were traveling to the Moon for all of humanity.
Another NASA astronaut, Jim Lovell, suggested the bald eagle could be the focus of the patch. Collins traced the eagle from a National Geographic children's magazine, and an olive branch was added as a symbol of the mission's peaceful intent.
The result is a clear symbol of the United States leading humanity to another world. It is simple and powerful.
Skylab rescue mission
Skylab was NASA's first space station, and it was launched into orbit after the final Apollo lunar landing in 1972.
From May 1973 to February 1974, three different crews occupied the space station, which had been placed in orbit by a modified Saturn V rocket.
Due to some problems with leaky thrusters on the Apollo spacecraft that carried the second crew to Skylab in 1973, NASA scrambled to put together a 'rescue' mission as a contingency.
In this rescue scenario, astronauts Vance Brand and Don Lind would have flown to the station and brought Alan Bean, Jack Lousma, and Owen Garriott back inside an Apollo capsule especially configured for five people.
Ultimately, NASA decided that the crew could return to Earth in the faulty Apollo spacecraft, with the use of just half of the vehicle's thrusters. So Brand and Lind never flew the rescue mission. But we got a pretty awesome patch out of the deal.
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Space shuttle program
With the space shuttle, astronauts and patch artists had to get more creative because the vehicle flew so frequently—eventually launching 135 times. Some of my favorite patches from these flights came fairly early on in the program.
As it turns out, designing shuttle mission patches was a bonding exercise for crews after their assignments. Often one of the less experienced crew members would be given leadership of the project.
"During the Shuttle era, designing a mission emblem was one of the first tasks assigned to a newly formed crew of astronauts," Flag Research Quarterly reports.
"Within NASA, creation of the patch design was considered to be an important team-building exercise.
The crew understood that they were not just designing a patch to wear on their flight suits, but that they were also creating a symbol for everyone who was working on the flight."
In some cases the crews commissioned a well-known graphic designer or space artist to help them with their patch designs. More typically they worked with a graphic designer on staff at the Johnson Space Center to finalize the design.
National Reconnaissance Office
The activities of the US National Reconnaissance Office, which is responsible for the design and launching of spy satellites, are very often shrouded in secret.
However, the spy satellite agency cleverly uses its mission patches as an effective communications tool. The patches for the launch of its satellites never give away key details, but they are often humorous, ominous, and suggestive all at the same time.
The immediate response I often have to these patches is one of appreciation for the design, followed by a nervous chuckle. I suspect that's intended by the spy agency.
In any case, these are my choices for the best space patches ever, perhaps because they are developed with such abandon.
European Space Agency
The space agency that consists of a couple of dozen European nations has also created some banger patches over the years that both recognize the continent's long history of scientific discovery—with Newton, Kepler, Galileo, and Curie to name but a few—and the potential for future discovery in space.
Attached are some of my personal favorites, which highlight the launch of European astronauts on the Russian Soyuz spacecraft to three different Russian space stations across three decades.
What I like about the European mission designs is that they are unique and not afraid to break from the traditional mold of patch design. They're also beautiful!
SpaceX mission patches
In recent years, some of the most creative patch designs have come from SpaceX and its crewed spaceflights aboard the Dragon vehicle. Because of the spacecraft's name, the missions have often played off the Dragon motif, making for some striking designs.
There is a dedicated community of patch collectors out there, and some of them were disappointed that SpaceX stopped designing patches for each individual Starlink mission a few years ago.
However, I would say that buying two or three patches a week would have gotten pretty expensive, pretty fast—not to mention the challenge designers would face in making unique patches for each flight.
If you read this far and want to know my preference, I am not much of a patch collector, as much as I admire the effort and artistry that goes into each design.
I have only ever bought one patch, the one designed for the Falcon 1 rocket's fourth flight. The patch isn't beautiful, but it's got some nice touches, including lights for both Kwajalein and Omelek islands, where the company launched its first rockets.
Also, it was the first time the company included a shamrock on the patch, and that proved fortuitous, as the successful launch in 2008 saved the company. It has become a trademark of SpaceX patches ever since.
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