December 27, 2023

Will Artemis 2 Launch to the Moon in 2024? NASA Has a Lot of Work Ahead (Source: Space.com)
I'm used to seeing old moon spacecraft surrounded by museum crowds. So it was rather strange in August to not only visit the Artemis 2 lunar spacecraft under construction in Florida, but to speak with its four-astronaut crew standing nearby. Artemis 2 aims to circle the moon in late 2024, or perhaps 2025 if recent reported comments from NASA astronaut Randy Bresnik come to be.

As the first human moon mission since the Apollo 17 landing in 1972, the Artemis 2 crew told us how seriously they are taking the responsibility of prepping for their mission, and for laying the foundation for future moon crews.. "This is a developmental mission," NASA mission specialist Christina Koch told reporters at KSC Aug. 8. "We are going to not only be training, [but] we're going to be figuring things out with the team as we go. And we have to really embrace the uncertainty." Click here. (12/26)

How NASA's VIPER Rover Could Revolutionize Moon Exploration with AI Mission (Source: Space.com)
As NASA's second Artemis mission gets closer to launch, part of a program that's preparing for humanity's historic return to the moon,  the agency is looking into using advanced artificial intelligence technology to speed things along. NASA's Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover (VIPER), for instance, is set to revolutionize lunar exploration with its landing on the moon's Mons Mouton.

The project, a cornerstone of NASA's ambitious Artemis program, will not only be a triumph of human engineering but also a showcase of the potential of AI in space exploration. Unlike the self-aware robots of science fiction, however, the AI used in the VIPER mission will simply navigate the complexities and uncertainties of a real-time mission in a challenging environment. Nonetheless, it could mark a major step forward for lunar exploration. (12/26)

Project Kuiper: Amazon's Answer to SpaceX's Starlink Passes 'Crucial' Test (Source: Space.com)
Amazon's upcoming satellite broadband network, dubbed "Project Kuiper," just passed a key test test that paves the way for a 2024 launch. Similar to SpaceX's Starlink, Project Kuiper is Amazon's plan to provide high-speed internet by launching and connecting 3,236 satellites in low Earth orbit (LEO). The firm launched two prototype satellites in October and began testing the systems required for the network to operate.

One key test was validating the optical inter-satellite link (OISL) technology, which uses infrared lasers to send data between the spacecraft. Now, Amazon says the prototypes have passed this important hurdle. In testing, the two prototype satellites maintained a stable connection speed of 100 gigabits per second. (12/26)

Finally, a Good Reason to Travel to Space (Source: Washington Post)
onsider that we’re on the cusp of a new era of space travel. Engineer and space architect Ariel Ekblaw, founder of MIT’s Space Exploration Initiative, says that within a decade, a trip off the planet could become as accessible as a first-class airline ticket — and that, in 15 or 20 years, we can expect space hotels in near-Earth orbit.

She’s betting on it, having founded a nonprofit to design spherical, modular habitats that can assemble themselves in space so as to be lightweight and compact at launch, much like the James Webb Space Telescope that NASA vaulted into deep space two years ago. “The first era of space travel was about survival,” she told me as I recently toured her lab. “We’re transitioning now to build spaces that are friendlier and more welcoming so that people can thrive in space as opposed to just survive.”

There’s no reason, Ekblaw said, that a concert hall can’t be one of those structures. The music performed in space, however, would almost certainly be different. Two researchers formerly at the MIT Media Lab, Sands Fish and Nicole L’Huillier, invented an electronic instrument a few years ago they call the Telemetron, which is to be played in zero gravity. They brought variants of the instrument on parabolic flights to see what music they might create. Fish told me the instruments “had their own agency,” floating away from them after a touch and chiming in arpeggios. (12/26)

Biden’s Unnecessary Feud Against Musk Imperils America’s Space Effort (Source: The Hill)
Two facts have become apparent about the relationship between Elon Musk and the Biden administration. First, NASA and the military love how SpaceX has lowered the cost and raised the reliability of launching things into space. NASA is depending on SpaceX’s Starship Human Landing System to land astronauts on the moon for the first time since 1972.

Second, by all accounts, the Biden administration appears to have it in for the richest man in the world. Musk doesn’t think much of the current president and has publicly said that he would vote against him. The feud has the potential to derail the Artemis return to the moon program. Click here. (12/24)

Beagle 2: Failed Mars Mission Influencing Future Exploration (Source: BBC)
Twenty years after the UK's failed mission to Mars which hoped to detect life, a scientist reflects on what happened. On Christmas Day 2003, experts from the University of Leicester, who were working on the Beagle 2 mission, waited for a signal but none was detected. Years later, photographs showed it landed but could not send back data.

Mission manager Prof Mark Sims said lessons from Beagle 2 have been used to improve potential future space landers. The UK-built lander was successfully deployed from its mother craft Mars Express in December 2003 and was scheduled to land on the planet's surface on Christmas Day that year. Despite the failure, the legacy of Beagle 2 lived on and people can learn about it at the National Space Center in Leicester. Josh Barker, from the centre, said: "Even just the ambition of trying, can get people excited - well what happened? What can we learn from that and what can we build on, to go to the next few stages? (12/25)

Meet Mr Intergalactic, the World’s First Space Travel Agent (Source: Arabian Business)
Roman Chiporukha is known as Mr Intergalactic in the space tourism industry. The founder of SpaceVIP, the world’s first space tourism brokerage, believes the emerging private spaceflight industry has the potential to soon be available to the masses. What began as high–risk suborbital flights will soon include affordable orbital trips, he revealed to Arabian Business Traveller in an exclusive interview.

“We realized there was no platform in the world that aggregated all of these fascinating space adventure experiences in one place,” says Chiporukha. “Before SpaceVIP was launched, you would need to go to the Virgin website, or the Blue Origin website or Axiom’s website,” he says. “And those are just the top three players in the industry.”

Since securing the final $50 million spot aboard Axiom Space’s landmark AX–1 mission to the International Space Station, Chiporukha — who also co–founded the luxury lifestyle and travel company Roman&Erica — has witnessed a huge uptick in demand for commercial space travel. Today, he helps facilitate plans for dozens of individuals eager to experience adventures in the “space between space” and be among the planet’s very first space tourists. (12/25)

The James Webb Space Telescope's Continued Gifts (Source: CBS News)
The story of Christmas features a miraculous astronomical sight. But this Christmas, we're blessed with an abundance of new miraculous visions from the skies, courtesy of the James Webb Space Telescope, which lifted off on Christmas Day two years ago ... from Jupiter and its rings (a mere 385 million miles away), to the Carina Nebula (7,500 light-years away), the Phantom Galaxy (32 million light-years away), and the deepest regions of space (13 billion light-years away). Click here. (12/24)

China Launches 3 Satellites From Sea (Source: Xinhua)
China on Tuesday successfully launched a Long March-11 carrier rocket into space, sending three satellites into planned orbit. The Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center launched the rocket from waters off the coast of Yangjiang. The satellites, Shiyan-24C, will be mainly used for space science and technology experiments. It was the 503rd mission of the Long March carrier rocket series. (12/26)

SpaceX Bids Farewell To Workhorse Falcon Booster That Launched 2 Astronauts, Over 860 Satellites To Orbit (Source: Benzinga)
Elon Musk‘s rocket manufacturing company SpaceX on Saturday launched 23 Starlink satellites to low-Earth orbit with the help of a first-stage booster which successfully completed its 19th flight and is now set to retire. What Happened: The booster completed its 19th and final launch on Saturday and landed back on Earth. 19 re-flights is a milestone for the company which is eyeing reusability to bring down the cost of traveling to space. (12/25)

How 3000-Year-Old Babylonian Tablets Help Scientists Unravel One of the Weirdest Mysteries in Space (Source: Salon)
Among the most enigmatic mysteries of modern science are the strange anomalies which appear from time to time in the earth’s geomagnetic field. It can seem like the laws of physics behave differently in some places, with unnerving and bizarre results — spacecraft become glitchy, the Hubble Space Telescope can’t capture observations and satellite communications go on the fritz. Some astronauts orbiting past the anomalies report blinding flashes of light and sudden silence.

They call one of these massive, growing anomalies the Bermuda Triangle of space — and even NASA is now tracking it. With all the precisely tuned prowess of modern tech turning its eye toward these geomagnetic oddities, you might not expect that some key scientific insights about them could be locked inside a batch of 3,000-year-old Babylonian cuneiform tablets. But that’s exactly what a recently published study suggests.

“The geomagnetic field is one of the most enigmatic phenomena in earth sciences,” said Lisa Tauxe. “The well-dated archaeological remains of the rich Mesopotamian cultures, especially bricks inscribed with names of specific kings, provide an unprecedented opportunity to study changes in the field strength in high time resolution. The team of researchers studied the clay cuneiform for key data about an ancient anomaly. Studying the clay’s iron oxide grains in a method known as archaeomagnetism, researchers were able to see a snapshot of the aberration known as the Levantine Iron Age Anomaly. (12/25)

Why NASA's X-34 Mach 8 Spaceplane Failed (Source: National Interest)
Before the X-37B record-setting spaceplane that can orbit the earth for years, NASA had a precursor craft that planned to accomplish cheap spaceflight with a reusability feature. Hatched in the 1990s, the X-34 was a technology demonstrator that didn’t make it to fruition, but some of its best aspects were incorporated into the X-37B. Click here. (12/25)

NASA Astronauts Test SpaceX's Crucial Moon Elevator (Source: Mashable)
It sounds like a joke or the stuff of a children's fantasy novel: taking an elevator to the moon. But that's how astronauts plan to get from their spaceship to the lunar surface, and back, in a few years when NASA returns to the moon for Artemis missions III and IV.

The elevator is part of SpaceX's Starship human landing system, which will not only carry two crew members to the moon but serve as their home for about a week while they explore the south pole, a dark and cold region where scientists believe water ice is buried in craters. The natural resource is coveted because it could supply drinking water, oxygen, and rocket fuel for future missions, ushering a new era in spaceflight.

NASA astronauts Nicole Mann and Doug Wheelock recently tested a small mockup of the elevator — a crucial element to SpaceX's solution for getting humans from space to the moon's surface. This lift will be the portal from which the first woman and person of color step onto the moon. (12/23)

AI Unlocks Secrets of Oxygen Production on the Red Planet (Source: SciTech Daily)
An AI chemist has successfully created a catalyst for producing oxygen from Martian meteorites. Immigration to and living on Mars have often been themes in science fiction. Before these dreams can become reality, humanity faces significant challenges, such as the scarcity of vital resources like oxygen needed for long-term survival on the Red Planet. Yet, recent discoveries of water activity on Mars have sparked new hope for overcoming these obstacles.

Scientists are now exploring the possibility of decomposing water to produce oxygen through electrochemical water oxidation driven by solar power with the help of oxygen evolution reaction (OER) catalysts. The challenge is to find a way to synthesize these catalysts in situ using materials on Mars, instead of transporting them from the Earth, which is of high cost.

To tackle this problem, researchers recently made it possible to synthesize and optimize OER catalysts automatically from Martian meteorites with their robotic artificial intelligence (AI)-chemist. Their research, in collaboration with Deep Space Exploration Laboratory, was recently published in the journal Nature Synthesis. “The AI chemist innovatively synthesizes OER catalyst using Martian material based on interdisciplinary cooperation,” said Prof. Luo Yi, leading scientist of the team. (12/23)

SpaceX Marks Twin Victories with Dual Rocket Launches (Source: TS2)
In a remarkable display of aerospace prowess, SpaceX successfully executed two separate launches in a single weekend, underscoring the company’s growing dominance in the space industry. The two missions saw payloads for both the German military and SpaceX’s own Starlink internet service successfully sent into orbit. (12/24)