NASA Plans Deep Space Outpost
Near Moon
“Placing a spacecraft at the
Earth-Moon Lagrange point beyond the moon as a test area for human access to
deep space is the best near-term option to develop required flight experience
and mitigate risk,” a recent NASA report
concludes.
The crew of such an outpost could
run missions like the study of nearby asteroids or the sending of robots to the
moon with the aim of collecting rocks and bringing them back. The outpost could
also be a potential gateway for manned missions to Mars or
one of its moons. A purpose would be finally given to the Orion space capsule
and the Space Launch System rocket which are currently being developed.
The funding of the project remains one of the major concerns. Due to
deficit reduction initiatives across the US federal government, it is unlikely
that NASA can get more in coming years than its current budget of $17.7
billion. Strong White House backing would be required to convince Congress to
finance building of the outpost.
A second concern is astronaut safety. How NASA would
address the dangers of deep space and radiation is not known. Neither do we
know how astronauts could be rescued if something goes wrong. Orbiting at
446,000 km from Earth, the outpost
would be far more remote than the International Space Station and it would take
days to get back to Earth.
A first flight of NASA’s Space Launch System is
planned for 2017. According to NASA planning documents, the construction of the
outpost could begin two years later in 2019.
NASA
Commercial Crew Partner 'Blue Origin' Completes Rocket Engine Thrust Chamber
Test
NASA’s Commercial Crew Program
(CCP) partner Blue Origin has successfully fired the thrust chamber assembly
for its new 100,000 pound thrust BE-3 liquid oxygen, liquid hydrogen rocket
engine. As part of Blue’s Reusable Booster System
(RBS), the engines are designed eventually to launch the biconic-shaped Space
Vehicle the company is developing.
The test was part of Blue Origin’s work supporting its funded Space Act Agreement with NASA
during Commercial Crew Development Round 2 (CCDev2). CCDev2 continues to bring
spacecraft and launch vehicle designs forward to develop a U.S. commercial crew
space transportation capability that ultimately could become available for the
government and other customers.
“Blue Origin continues to be
extremely innovative as it develops a crew-capable vehicle for suborbital and
orbital flights,” said Ed Mango, CCP manager. “We’re thrilled the company’s engine test fire was met with success.”
The test took place early this month on the E-1 test stand
at NASA’s Stennis Space Center near
Bay St. Louis, Miss. Blue Origin engineers successfully completed the test by
powering the thrust chamber to its full power level.
“We are very excited to have
demonstrated a new class of high-performance hydrogen engines,” said Rob Meyerson, president and program manager of Blue
Origin. “Access to the Stennis test
facility and its talented operations team was instrumental in conducting
full-power testing of this new thrust chamber.”
As part of CCDev2, Blue Origin also completed a system
requirements review of its spacecraft. During the review, engineers and
technical experts representing NASA, the Federal Aviation Administration and
the company assessed the spacecraft’s ability to meet safety and
mission requirements to low-Earth orbit. That review also included results from
more than 100 wind tunnel tests of the vehicle’s
aerodynamic design, stability during flight and cross-range maneuverability.
All of NASA’s industry partners, including
Blue Origin, continue to meet their established milestones in developing
commercial crew transportation capabilities.
While NASA works with U.S. industry partners to develop
commercial spaceflight capabilities, the agency also is developing the Orion
spacecraft and the Space Launch System (SLS), a crew capsule and heavy-lift
rocket to provide an entirely new capability for human exploration. Designed to
be flexible for launching spacecraft for crew and cargo missions, SLS and Orion
will expand human presence beyond low-Earth orbit and enable new missions of
exploration into the solar system.
For more information about NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, please visit ...
< Apollo 11
crew arriving in a mobile quarantine facility
There is obviously reason to worry. There are many examples
from the past when a microbe, plant, bug or mammal, virtually innocent in its
original habitat, caused havoc when transferred to another continent: Think
about rabbits in Australia, or recently, a germ decimating the population of
North American bats. Or remember the case of the indigenous inhabitants of
America who suffered extremely after encountering European diseases such as
smallpox or measles.
Let’s try to imagine what would
have happened, if such a newcomer into an ecosystem hadn’t represented a species coming “only” from another continent. What
if it is was a completely alien organism from a different planet? NASA
scientists and administrators were considering this threat as early as they
started to think seriously about a Moon landing.
Special suits were designed prevent potential > microbes from spreading
The Office of Planetary Protection (OPR) was established in
1967, as a reaction to the United Nations Treaty on Principles Governing the
Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space, Including the
Moon and Other Bodies. This treaty binds the party countries to avoid any
harmful contamination of other celestial bodies while pursuing exploration.
As no one really knew what type of microbes or bacteria
could be found out there, the precautionary approach was more than recommended. What if the Apollo astronauts returned infected by some
incurable and highly contagious space fever? Or what if, on the contrary, they
infected the unspoiled lunar biosphere with dangerous earthly streptococcus? It
would have been impossible to learn anything about the original life on Moon,
had all the collected data been modified by the contaminants.
Several governmental agencies worked closely with NASA and
decided that in case any harmful microorganism was brought back to Earth, it
would most probably demonstrate itself within 21 days. The resulting solution
was simple – a three week’s quarantine for the returning
astronauts accompanied by regular medical check-ups.
But what to do with the landing module after its splash
down in the Pacific? How to prevent the germs from spreading before it is
transported to NASA? A super high-tech – for its time – bio container was created called the Mobile Quarantine Facility (MQF). It
was carried aboard the USS Hornet Naval Aircraft Carrier to the site of the
splashdown. The astronauts inside the module were supposed to put on special
Biological Isolation Garments made from special material that prevented
microorganisms from their bodies from entering the atmosphere.
The astronauts were to breath through special
respirators while waiting for the landing module to be lifted by a helicopter
onto the Hornet and inside the Mobile Quarantine Facility.
Before leaving the landing module, the crew had to go
through a sodium-hypochlorite shower and the module’s hatch was disinfected with betadine. After that, all the equipment the crew and the module had
touched was cleaned and sunk. Even the helicopter that had transported the crew
aboard the Hornet was locked into quarantine.
For the whole duration of the journey from the middle of
the Pacific to Houston, the astronauts were not allowed to leave the Mobile
Quarantine Facility for a single moment. It was large enough for an even bigger
crew. It had a built-in lounge, kitchenette, and bedrooms. Strong negative
internal pressure and an ultra modern filtration system prevented airborn
particles from inside the facility from spreading around. Also stored and
hermetically sealed was all the biological waste.
Upon arriving at Houston, the crew would
move into another specially designed habitat –
the Lunar Research Laboratory. There, they would spend another 21 days, living
in an area of 7700 square meters. Together with the astronauts, all the support
staff including doctors, cooks and engineers lived for these three weeks inside
the facility. In case an outbreak of a space disease had taken place, the
astronauts would have been treated inside the facility.
As no biological material was found, the later lunar
missions didn’t require such a strict
regime. Today, missions are classified into six categories according to the
risks of either bringing biological material to another celestial body or
bringing any sort of contaminants back.
Astronomers Uncover a
Surprising Trend In Galaxy Evolution
WASHINGTON -- A comprehensive
study of hundreds of galaxies observed by the Keck telescopes in Hawaii and
NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has revealed an unexpected pattern of change that
extends back 8 billion years, or more than half the age of the universe.
"Astronomers thought disk galaxies in the nearby universe
had settled into their present form by about 8 billion years ago, with little
additional development since," said Susan Kassin, an astronomer at NASA's
Goddard Space Flight Centre in Greenbelt, Md., and the study's lead researcher.
"The trend we've observed instead shows the opposite, that galaxies were
steadily changing over this time period."
Today, star-forming galaxies take the form of orderly
disk-shaped systems, such as the Andromeda Galaxy or the Milky Way, where
rotation dominates over other internal motions. The most distant blue galaxies
in the study tend to be very different, exhibiting disorganised motions in
multiple directions. There is a steady shift toward greater organisation to the
present time as the disorganised motions dissipate and rotation speeds
increase. These galaxies are gradually settling into well-behaved disks.
Blue galaxies -- their colour indicates stars are forming
within them -- show less disorganised motions and ever-faster rotation speeds
the closer they are observed to the present. This trend holds true for galaxies
of all masses, but the most massive systems always show the highest level of
organisation.
Researchers say the distant blue galaxies they studied are
gradually transforming into rotating disk galaxies like our own Milky Way.
"Previous studies removed galaxies that did not look
like the well-ordered rotating disks now common in the universe today,"
said co-author Benjamin Weiner, an astronomer at the University of Arizona in
Tucson. "By neglecting them, these studies examined only those rare
galaxies in the distant universe that are well-behaved and concluded that
galaxies didn't change."
Rather than limit their sample to certain galaxy types, the
researchers instead looked at all galaxies with emission lines bright enough to
be used for determining internal motions. Emission lines are the discrete
wavelengths of radiation characteristically emitted by the gas within a galaxy.
They are revealed when a galaxy's light is separated into its component colours.
These emission lines also carry information about the galaxy's internal motions
and distance.
The team studied a sample of 544 blue galaxies from the
Deep Extragalactic Evolutionary Probe 2 (DEEP2) Redshift Survey, a project that
employs Hubble and the twin 10-meter telescopes at the W. M. Keck Observatory
in Hawaii. Located between 2 billion and 8 billion light-years away, the
galaxies have stellar masses ranging from about 0.3 percent to 100 percent of
the mass of our home galaxy.
A paper describing these findings will be published Oct. 20
in The Astrophysical Journal.
The Milky Way galaxy must have gone through the same
rough-and-tumble evolution as the galaxies in the DEEP2 sample, and gradually
settled into its present state as the sun and solar system were being formed.
In the past 8 billion years, the number of mergers between
galaxies large and small has decreased sharply. So has the overall rate of star
formation and disruptions of supernova explosions associated with star
formation. Scientists speculate these factors may play a role in creating the
evolutionary trend they observe.
Now that astronomers see this pattern, they can adjust
computer simulations of galaxy evolution until these models are able to
replicate the observed trend. This will guide scientists to the physical
processes most responsible for it.
The DEEP2 survey is led by Lick Observatory at the
University of California at Santa Cruz in collaboration with the University of
California at Berkeley, the University of Hawaii at Manoa, Johns Hopkins
University in Baltimore, Md., the University of Chicago and the California
Institute of Technology in Pasadena.
The Hubble Space Telescope is a project of international
cooperation between NASA and the European Space Agency. NASA's Goddard Space
Flight Centre in Greenbelt, Md., manages the telescope. The Space Telescope
Science Institute (STScI) in Baltimore, Md., conducts Hubble science
operations. STScI is operated by the Association of Universities for Research
in Astronomy, Inc. in Washington.
For images and video related to this story, please visit:
For more information about NASA's Hubble Space Telescope,
visit:
Russia
may build rocket to destroy Earth-threatening asteroids
MOSCOW, Oct. 19 (Xinhua) -- Russia could start building a
space rocket capable of destroying asteroids threatening the Earth, chief of rocket
and space corporation Energia said Friday.
"There are three large asteroids, including Apophis,
whose orbits cross the Earth's orbit and which could hit the Earth in the next
several decades," Vitaly Lopota told the state newspaper Rossiyskaya
Gazeta.
To change the orbit of a small planet of Apophis' size, a
70-ton rocket was needed to "tow" an asteroid away from Earth or to
destroy it with a thermonuclear blast, Lopota said.
Apophis was discovered in 2004. It will approach the Earth
dangerously close, at about 30,000 km, which is less than one-tenth of the
Moon's distance from Earth, in 2029. Experts calculate impact of a collision
between Apophis and the Earth will be equal to a 1,700-Megaton explosion.
Lopota said existing Russian rocket carriers with RD-171
engines could be redesigned to produce a rocket capable of destroying an
asteroid. Energia was ready to build such a rocket within three to five years,
he said.
Currently, RD-171 engines made by NPO Energomash have been
used on Zenit-3SL missiles employed in the Russia-Ukraine-Norway-U.S. joint
project Sea Launch.
"We call them Tsar Engines, which no other country
possesses," Lopota said, referring to Russian artifacts, the Tsar Cannon
and Tsar Bell, which were the world's largest in their time.
Rover eyes 'man-made' objects
in Martian dirt
< Part of
the small pit created when NASA's Mars rover Curiosity collected its second
scoop of Martian soil at a sandy patch called 'Rocknest'. The bright particle
of interest is at the centre of the image.
LOS ANGELES: NASA's Mars rover has swallowed its first
scoopful of dirt from the Red Planet's surface –
and found some bright-coloured objects that experts briefly thought might be
man-made, the U.S. space agency said. In an update on Curiosity's two-and-a-half
month-old mission, NASA said its Chemistry and Mineralogy (CheMin) instrument,
deep in the car-sized rover's belly, will analyse the soil to learn more about
its make-up.
Some experts wondered if one of the bright-coloured objects
– seen on a photo of a scoop
hole in the Martian soil – could be man-made, like an
object seen earlier this month thought to be plastic from the rover itself.
Strong
consensus particle is Martian
"We began to see some bright flecks in the scoop
areas," Curiosity's project scientist told reporters in Pasadena,
California, adding: "The science team started calling them schmutz."
Some suggested they could be man-made, but following
discussions between scientists and engineers, there was a "strong
consensus" that they were indigenous to Mars.
This conclusion was backed by the fact that the objects
were left visible at the bottom of holes left by the rover's scoop, meaning
they were normally underneath the planet's surface.
"We can't rule out that they're something man-made but
we don't think that they are," he said.
A
major milestone
Last week, NASA determined that a bright object observed on
the ground near the robot several days previously was a bit of plastic that may
have dropped from the rover itself, and did not jeopardize the rover's
operations.
"The rover team's assessment is that the bright object
is something from the rover, not Martian material," the mission said at
the time. "It appears to be a shred of plastic material, likely
benign."
But for the scientists, the first use of the CheMin device,
to analyse the mineral make-up of the Red Planet's soil – is a major milestone.
"We are crossing a significant threshold for this
mission by using CheMin on its first sample," said Curiosity's project
scientist, John Grotzinger of the California Institute of Technology in
Pasadena.
"This instrument gives us a more definitive
mineral-identifying method than ever before used on Mars: X-ray diffraction.
Confidently identifying minerals is important because minerals record the
environmental conditions under which they form."
Falcon
9, Delta 4 Investigation Boards Formed
On
October 4, 2012 the launch of a GPS satellite aboard a United Launch Alliance
(ULA) Delta 4 rocket experienced low
thrust in its upper stage, requiring compensation using reserve fuel to put the
satellite in its proper orbit. On October 7, 2012 a Falcon 9 rocket carrying
the Dragon cargo ship to ISS experienced loss of one of its nine engines,
resulting in incorrect insertion of its secondary payload, an experimental
satellite from Orbcomm. Now, investigation boards into both incidents have been
formed.
ULA is
conducting its own investigation into the Delta 4 anomaly, of course, but it
seems the US Air Force, which relies heavily on ULA launch vehicles, was a bit
concerned and launched its own investigation. Until the issue is resolved, ULA
is holding off on an October 25, 2012 Atlas 5 launch using the same RL-10 upper stage. The October
25 launch is supposed to carry the next prototype of the super-secret X-37B
space plane. This will be the third orbital test of the X-37B. The last X-37B
mission lasted 468 days, well beyond its designed flight duration of 270 days.
The Air Force is not releasing the expected duration of this flight.
Meanwhile,
following several days of public silence regarding the cause of an engine
failure on Falcon 9′s October 7 launch, SpaceX has
announced formation of a joint investigation board with NASA to get to the
bottom of the issue. SpaceX is scheduled to launch a second supply mission to
ISS on January 18, 2013 hopefully leaving plenty of time to get the engine anomaly straightened out. No further
word has been released after SpaceX’s initial statement fingered a localised pressure issue that caused
the engine to be shut off and its fairing to detach. It was this fairing that
is presumed to have caused the debris seen in a slow motion video of the launch
that led some to believe the engine had exploded.
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