August 31, 2019

Are Dark Photons the Secret 'Fifth Force' Holding Our Universe Together? (Source: Live Science)
Physicists on the hunt for the invisible hand that shapes our universe and the galaxies within it have turned their gaze to the dark side. Specifically, one team is looking behind every cosmic rock for so-called dark photons, which could transmit a previously unknown force of nature. These photons would mediate the interaction between all normal matter and the invisible stuff called dark matter.

But scientists have long understood that nature is stretched and pulled and smushed and torn by four known forces, so how could another force have hidden from us for so long? Is dark matter simple and unadorned, or does it hide a host of previously unknown forces in its clutches? Now, an international team of physicists, describing their work online in the preprint journal arXiv, have used a data dump from the Large Hadron Collider — the world's biggest atom smasher — to look for such a force.

One proposed communication portal between the light and dark realms is something called a dark photon, analogous to the familiar (light) photon of the electromagnetic force. We don't get to see or taste or smell the dark photons directly, but they might intermingle with our world. In this scenario, dark matter emits dark photons, which are relatively massive particles. This means they have effects over only a short range, quite unlike their light-bearing counterparts. But occasionally, a dark photon could interact with a regular photon, changing its energy and trajectory. (8/30)

Assignment, Space: How Military Spouses Support NASA's Newest Missions (Source: Military.com)
Air Force Col. Nick Hague's first flight to space last October didn't go as planned. In fact, as he and Russian cosmonaut Alexey Ovchinin approached low-Earth orbit, it went completely awry. The rocket booster of the Soyuz MS-10 failed, forcing the pair to execute a dangerous "ballistic" reentry, descending 31 miles to the desert floor in their tiny emergency capsule.

Nearly 260 miles away at Baikonur Cosmodrome, Hague's wife, Air Force Col. Catie Hague, had just watched her husband blast to space and waited an agonizing 45 minutes with the couple's two sons, then ages 8 and 11, before learning he was OK. It's those moments that set space deployments apart from Earthly assignments, even combat deployments, according to Catie Hague and Stacey Morgan, whose husband, Army Col. Drew Morgan, traveled to the Space Station on July 20. He joined Nick Hague and Ovchinin, who finally made it there March 14, and three other astronauts and cosmonauts.

In some ways, preparing a family and sustaining them through a deployment to space is similar to any other military separation, the two said. But in many other ways, it's different, a high-stakes game in a public arena for military spouses who are used to their anonymity and relying on the support of other military spouses and close friends. Catie and Stacey say their lives as astronaut wives, which include public appearances, interviews and intense moments of acute stress, are a unique extension of their service as military spouses. (8/28)

China's Lunar Rover Has Found Something Weird on the Far Side of the Moon (Source: Space.com)
China's Chang'e-4 lunar rover has discovered an unusually colored, 'gel-like' substance during its exploration activities on the far side of the moon. The mission's rover, Yutu-2, stumbled on that surprise during lunar day 8. The discovery prompted scientists on the mission to postpone other driving plans for the rover, and instead focus its instruments on trying to figure out what the strange material is.

Day 8 started on July 25; Yutu-2 began navigating a path through an area littered with various small impact craters, with the help and planning of drivers at the Beijing Aerospace Control Center. On July 28, the Chang'e-4 team was preparing to power Yutu-2 down for its usual midday 'nap' to protect the rover from high temperatures and radiation from the sun high in the sky. A team member checking images from the rover's main camera spotted a small crater that seemed to contain material with a color and luster unlike that of the surrounding lunar surface.

The drive team, excited by the discovery, called in their lunar scientists. Together, the teams decided to postpone Yutu-2's plans to continue west and instead ordered the rover to check out the strange material. So far, mission scientists haven't offered any indication as to the nature of the colored substance and have said only that it is "gel-like" and has an "unusual color." One possible explanation, outside researchers suggested, is that the substance is melt glass created from meteorites striking the surface of the moon. (8/30)

What Should We Call Members of a Space Force? (Source: Slate)
In the most recent development in the negotiations over President Trump’s contentious proposal to create a Space Force, acting Secretary of Defense Patrick Shanahan has proposed that the new organization follow the current Marine Corps/Department of the Navy model. Just as the Marine Corps is a military service within the Department of the Navy, this version of the Space Force would fall under the responsibility of the secretary of the Air Force.

Most Americans can easily rattle off soldier, sailor, airman, and Marine. (Despite being the fifth military service, the Coast Guard doesn’t always make the list.) On the very first day that a space service comes into being, Americans will want to know what to call its members. The wrong moniker would affect the morale, confidence, and credibility of the entire organization. The right name should be simple and should derive from a credible story—the explanation for it should make sense.

It has to be grounded in military tradition of the past, but it also has to speak to the present and the future. Given all the memes that have circulated since Trump first talked about a Space Force, Americans would likely support a name that nods toward pop culture. Three particular names have gained traction in space circles. In an informal poll recently conducted by the Army Space Professional Association, trooper, sentinel, and guardian were among those that received positive support. Spaceman was widely regarded as a nonstarter. (2/4)

The Era of Space Pirates (Source: Delaware Gazette)
What would happen if a Japanese astronaut stole the iPad of a German astronaut in a module belonging to Russia? Who gets to prosecute it then? The Japanese because their citizen committed the crime? The Germans, because they were the victim? The Russians, because it happened in their module? Would there have to be extradition proceedings? Would the case have to wait until they were all back on Earth?

The answers to those questions are … murky. The IGA says that we’ll all sit down and work it out together. But it doesn’t provide clear guidelines on what will happen if we can’t. It’s easy to imagine a situation in which those astronauts return to Russia and aren’t allowed to leave until the matter is settled. That could get ugly.

Fortunately, it isn’t particularly likely that those kinds of crimes are going to happen on the ISS. That said, we appear to be on the cusp of space as a realm of tourism. Imagine that an American company launches a spacecraft to a Russian station. While there, an Australian space tourist stabs another from Greece. Now what? The Outer Space Treaty, effective since 1967, provides that nations are responsible for their own spacecraft, but it doesn’t anticipate actions by private individuals, because in 1967 it simply wasn’t fathomable that private individuals would be in space. (8/30)

Building a Moon Base is a Huge Task – Here are the Tiny Satellites That Will Pave the Way (Source: The Conversation)
The space race between the US and Russia ended half a century ago when US astronauts became the first to walk on the moon. Today there’s yet another race, prompted by China’s successful landing on the far side of the moon and involving private companies as well as national space agencies, to put humans back on the lunar surface.

But building a moon base and actually living on the moon will require careful planning. First, we need to identify and map available lunar resources, including hydrogen and water ice. Such compounds are crucial if we are to create breathable air and rocket fuel, whether for an observatory or a launchpad to go to the outer planets in our solar system.

But sending missions to map the moon for resources in enough detail to enable future establishments is an expensive undertaking that will take a long time. Luckily, there is a shortcut – tiny satellites called CubeSats. Robotic exploration of the solar system using nano-satellites is attractive because they are cheaper, less risky and have a shorter development schedule compared to traditional science missions. NASA is therefore planning a series of lunar missions using CubeSats including Lunar Flashlight, LunaH-Map and Lunar Ice-Cube. (8/29)

Space Command is Real Now, So Are Alabama’s Headquarters Hopes (Source: Al.com)
President Trump made the new U.S. Space Command official in a Thursday ceremony at the White House, but he did not announce which of three finalist states – Colorado, California or Alabama – will house its permanent headquarters. The command’s startup headquarters will be in Colorado, where four of the final six headquarters candidates are located. But the lack of an announcement Thursday left supporters in Alabama’s entry of Huntsville hopeful.

Alabama’s bid for the Space Command headquarters rests on the number of Army space organizations and laboratories already in Huntsville. The new Space Command is an Air Force command, but city leaders say the Army will be key to America’s space effort. “We are optimistic about America’s commitment to investing in space technology as a national security and defense priority,” Huntsville Mayor Tommy Battle said in a statement after Trump’s remarks. “Today’s announcement begins the process of putting that commitment into action. (8/30)

Newt Gingrich's Moon Sweepstakes Are a Confounding Development in Today's Space Race (Source: TIME)
Newt Gingrich is going to the moon. Again. You might argue that Gingrich, the one-time Speaker of the House of Representatives, never went to the moon in the first place, that only 24 men have ever gone, all of them decades ago, that they were all test pilots and astronauts and that he’s…Newt Gingrich. And you’d be right.

This is not the first time Gingrich has caught the moon bug. That was in 2012, when he made an abortive run for the presidency, and during a campaign event promised that America would have a functioning lunar base by 2021, which, as he pointed out, would be the end of his second term in the White House. As I argued at the time, you can give Gingrich props for dreaming big dreams and having a vision. But dreams can be fever dreams and visions can be hallucinations and you have to know how to tell the difference.

NASA, it’s true, has bumbled away much of the last 50 years in human deep-space exploration, and the agency’s 2024 lunar target date may not be realistic. Musk and Bezos may well find that even great wealth and business acumen are no guarantee that they can overcome the punishing physics and engineering challenges of crewed lunar exploration. But they’re all pressing ahead in a steady, patient, prize-less way. Space travel is not a sweepstakes; it’s a science. There is no room in such a life-and-death business for someone who does not understand that. (8/29)