NASA - Page 7 of 10

Virgin Orbit brings satellites into space for the first time

Virgin Orbit put satellites into orbit for the first time. For this purpose, the company detached and detonated a liquid fuel rocket from an airplane flying off the coast of California on Sunday afternoon (California time). Ten small satellites were on board for the “Launch Demo 2” mission.

These are One satellite each from eight American universities and one satellite tandem from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. NASA is paying for the launch, which should actually have taken place in December. At that time, however, the coronavirus pandemic forced important Virgin Orbit employees into quarantine.

Horizontal takeoff from the air Virgin Orbit uses a Boeing 747 and attaches a two-stage rocket called the LauncherOne to its underside. This rocket has a payload of up to 300 kilograms and is supposed to bring satellites into sun-synchronous orbits. Last May, Virgin Orbit detonated one of these space rockets in the air for the first time, back then without any real satellites on board. The Virgin Group and other shareholders hold further shares in the listed group. Both Virgin Galactic and Virgin Orbit want to launch missiles mounted on the underside of an aircraft.

While Virgin Orbit is carrying satellites and its subsidiary VOX Space is to launch military satellites, Virgin Galactic is planning people for several Minutes to bring in or close to space. These tourist space flights should actually have started 14 years ago.

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NASA SLS test does not go as expected, problems with one of the engines

NASA SLS conducted in the evening ( Italian time) yesterday a hot fire test but it did not go as expected! Instead of taking about 8 minutes, the test was stopped after just over a minute due to a problem with an RS engine – 25.

by Mattia Speroni published 17 January 2021 , at 15: 42 in the Science and Technology channel

NASA

Last night the ignition test of the four RS engines was held – 25 of the core stage of NASA SLS . Initially the test was scheduled for 23 approximately (Italian time), then brought forward to 22 and finally performed at shortly after 23. As planned, the hot fire test should have had a duration of 485 seconds but also a duration of 250 seconds would have been considered a good result. Unfortunately, not everything went as planned.

NASA SLS and the test of the four RS engines – 25

Self 250 seconds was still considered a good result (the RS engines – 25 have however been pushed to 109%), after 50 seconds from power on there was an MCF, acronym of major component failure , at about 1 minute and 9 seconds there was the start of a shutdown of engines and 1 minute and 23 seconds the test was stopped. The good news is that the security systems have worked properly preventing NASA SLS from taking more damage. But certainly was not the expected result nor the desired one.

The NASA did not the scheduled press conference, answering only a few questions sent electronically and issuing a press release. The details are still scarce but they will be fundamental to understand if the goal of launching Artemis I , the first mission (unmanned) towards the Moon of the new cycle, it can still be held in November 2021.

We remind you that the four RS engines – 25 installed on NASA SLS are those already used on the Space Shuttle (which used three at the same time). In particular we know that:

IS2045 has well 12 flights assets
IS2056 has 4 flights under its assets
IS2058 has 6 flights under its assets
IS2060 has 3 flights

From the first information it would seem that the problem has been to the thermal cover which protects part of the systems near the engine area, but damage estimates are still missing. Two engines reserves (which are those dedicated to Artemis II) are already present in Mississippi at the Stennis Space Center and this could reduce rre the replacement times (which should last at most 00 days), if needed.

To stay within the roadmap which foresees the launch in November 2021, the test must be successfully performed by February 2021. This will allow the core stage to be sent to the Kennedy Space Center for the assembly of the side boosters and the integration of the Orion capsule. This is the first hot fire test for a Artemis mission and in general for NASA SLS . The space agency itself stated that it was a “full-fledged test” , not a simple demonstration. Now all that remains is to wait for the results of the data and hardware analyzes to know if the deadlines will be met.

Virgin Orbit set to try and send satellites to space for the first time

Virgin Orbit — the sister company of billionaire Richard Branson’s space tourism outfit Virgin Galactic — will try a second test of its small satellite-launching rocket later today, months after it failed to reach orbit during a first attempt. It will also be the first time that the company tries to launch working satellites into space on behalf of NASA.

Sometime after 1PM ET, Virgin Orbit’s customized Boeing 747 will take off from Virgin Galactic’s spaceport in the Mojave desert and ascend to 35,000 feet with the satellite-launching rocket attached to its wing. Once it reaches a predetermined location, the rocket is supposed to drop and ignite, taking the small satellites on board the rest of the way into orbit around the Earth. Virgin Orbit says the window for launch will last until 5PM ET.

There is no live stream of the test, though the company plans to tweet updates throughout the flight. It will make photos and video available sometime after the test is completed.

Virgin Orbit has spent years developing this method of airborne rocket-launching, and it has performed increasingly complex flight tests since 2018. But the first full test of the company’s rocket-launching capabilities in May of last year did not go completely as planned. The plane ascended correctly, the rocket dropped, and the main engine ignited. But a problem in the liquid oxygen fuel line prevented the rocket from reaching orbit.

Dan Hart, Virgin Orbit’s CEO, said during a conference call earlier this month that the company has made changes to those propellant lines and done an “enormous amount of testing” since May, despite the pandemic.

“Watching [Virgin Orbit] rise to the occasion and dive into the details and drive the maturation of the system, and doing it in a pandemic environment, is really amazing to watch,” Hart said.

Technical fixes aside, another difference between the previous test and this one is that Virgin Orbit will be attempting to deliver real commercial payloads for a customer for the first time: NASA. The space agency has tasked Virgin Orbit with carrying 10 different small satellites for various universities. Each will perform a variety of missions, from cleaning up space debris, to practicing inspection and maintenance of other spacecraft, to making weather observations. A full list is available on Virgin Orbit’s website.

This mission was supposed to take place back in December, but was delayed because some members of Virgin Orbit’s launch team had to quarantine. Hart said Virgin Orbit has “done a huge amount to ensure the safety of the team” ahead of today’s launch. A big part of that is having people work remotely, but for those who have to be on site, Hart said Virgin Orbit is enforcing social distancing, making employees use PPE, disinfecting spaces, and installing air purifiers. “Every single tool that you can imagine that is out there in industry, we have applied, but we have a team that’s eager, that’s focused,” he said.

The launch attempt was rescheduled to earlier this month, though that has slipped a few times now to today’s window. The company tweeted on Saturday that the hardware is “in great shape” and that the weather looks favorable.

Virgin Orbit’s approach to launching satellites is quite different from that of SpaceX or the other major launch providers that NASA and others typically use. But it’s one that the company believes will help take a bite out of the burgeoning small satellite market. By launching from a plane in the air, Virgin Orbit’s system doesn’t need as big a rocket, or as much fuel, which helps keep costs down. The company argues that this is a potentially more flexible system, since it makes satellite launches theoretically possible from anywhere a 747 can take off and land.

(Those reasons may be why Virgin Orbit has also inked a contract with the Department of Defense. Virgin Orbit wants to launch missions to Mars, too.)

But first Virgin Orbit must prove that the system works, and that the company can be profitable. Backers like Branson and Abu Dhabi’s sovereign wealth fund, Mubadala, have sustained it through development so far. The company is now seeking up to $200 million in new funding after spending hundreds of millions of dollars developing the airborne launch system it will test again today.

Hart stressed on the call that this is a test flight, and that the company will be “thrilled to get the data” that’s generated along the way so it can continue developing and refining the launch system. He also said the Virgin Orbit team is “mindful that there’s risk on whether we will get to the final orbit.”

But Hart said Virgin Orbit has been “working vigorously and looking at all the details and making sure that we have the best shot possible to get to orbit” considering there are real satellites on board this time. That work has included help from an investigation team made up of people from launch partner NASA, the Federal Aviation Administration, the Air Force, and industry professionals.

“We really immersed our engineering team with a fresh set of eyes to make sure that basically that we weren’t drinking our own bathwater,” Hart said.

The 'mole' fails: NASA gives up measuring the internal temperature of Mars

NASA raises the white flag and gives up to measure the temperature of Mars. The “mole” that had to place a thermal probe 3 meters deep to measure the heat loss of the Red Planet did not go beyond 3 centimeters.

by Manolo De Agostini published 17 January 2021 , at 08: 01 in the Science and Technology channel

Nothing to do, the probe thermal developed by the German Aerospace Center (DLR) for the lander InSight of NASA on Mars failed to hit its target , even if it tried to 28 February 2019. The probe, called “mole” (mole), had the task of “pierce” his Martian up to 3 meters deep to collect information on internal temperature of the Red Planet. Unfortunately, as announced by NASA itself, “the unexpected tendency of the ground to clump has deprived the mole of the friction it needs to position itself at sufficient depth “. Moving the mole is not possible and should not have encountered a stone, as explained by the space agency in a Q&A.

The mole only pierced the surface by 2 or 3 centimeters , and even the last attempt on January 9 failed. Scientists tried to use a dustpan on InSight’s robotic arm to scrape the soil on the probe and compress it to provide additional friction, but then others 500 shots without any progress have acknowledged the impossibility of solving the problem.

Part of an instrument called Heat Flow and Physical Properties Package (HP3) , the probe is a long post driver 40 centimeters connected to the lander by a cable with integrated temperature sensors designed to measure the heat loss of Mars as soon as it reaches a depth of at least 3 meters. “We gave everything we had, but Mars and our heroic mole remain incompatible ,” said Tilman Spohn of the DLR. “Fortunately, we have learned things that will serve future missions who will attempt to dig underground”.

No mission before InSight had tried to make such a hole in the Martian soil, the Phoenix lander had in fact collected a surface layer, without going further. Entering the planet’s subsoil is useful for several aspects, including gathering useful information for future astronauts looking for ice water and understanding if the soil is suitable for supporting microbial life.

While remembering that solving problems from millions of miles away is an incredibly difficult undertaking, it is clear that there was something that went wrong. The mole project was in fact based on the soil seen in previous missions to Mars (mainly sandy), but once on the field he found a very different terrain than expected. In these two years the scientists have worked to adapt the instrument to the new circumstances, without success.

In misfortune, there remain some positive aspects (in this regard the NASA recently extended the InSight mission): More information about the ground and a greater understanding of how Insight’s robotic arm works and how to use it for unscheduled tasks. It’s all hay to put in the farmhouse in view of future missions: space history is made up of great achievements, but to get there you also need some missteps.

Critical NASA rocket test ends early with a shutdown

A critical NASA rocket test ended with a shutdown on Saturday, a little over a minute into what was planned to be an eight-minute test. This trial run was a vital checkpoint for NASA’s much-delayed Space Launch System. The SLS is set to play a key role in the agency’s Artemis program which aims to return astronauts to the Moon.

During today’s Green Run test, the four rocket engines in the SLS core fired for a little over a minute while anchored in NASA’s rocket test stand. The team had planned to have the engines fire for approximately eight minutes, or about the same amount of time it will take to launch future missions to the Moon.

The first 250 seconds of the anticipated test were especially key for the engineering team — during that time they planned to have the engines move through a series of maneuvers designed to test the responsiveness of the engines while they were lit.

During the test, about 1,400 sensors were gathering data on the rocket and its performance. Among other things, the sensors monitored the core for vibration, temperature, acoustics, and stress. Even though the test was cut short, those sensors did gather a lot of data that may eventually help NASA determine the path forward.

The SLS has been in development for years, and was originally scheduled to make its flight debut in 2017. Instead, it has been plagued by delays and is massively over budget. NASA had previously pushed back the rocket’s debut to November 2021, and was still hoping to make that launch date, even after a December 2020 delay in their testing schedule.

The rocket being tested today was slated to be part of that first launch — an uncrewed mission called Artemis I that would send NASA’s Orion spacecraft around the moon. It’s unclear how the results of today’s test might affect that mission’s timeline.

NASA plans to hold a press conference tonight approximately two hours after the test.

Developing…

Watch NASA test fire its massive new rocket

Four huge rocket engines will roar to life on Saturday, in a crucial test for NASA’s powerful next-generation rocket. This long-awaited trial run won’t leave the ground, but it will be so powerful that officials have warned that it may be heard up to 60 miles away.

Saturday’s test is the last step in series of tests that NASA calls a Green Run for the Space Launch System (SLS), a powerful rocket designed to launch missions to the Moon and deep space. It will test the 212 foot tall core of the SLS, which consists of four engines, liquid fuel tanks, and the computer and technical systems that NASA calls the “brains” of the rocket.

The rocket was originally intended to debut in 2017, but it has consistently been over budget and behind schedule. Now, NASA will finally have a chance to see how the rocket’s systems work while the four engines are firing ahead of the SLS’ first launch later this year. Engineers and technicians have already tested the core’s backup systems, run through dress rehearsals to double check-timing, and loaded and unloaded hundreds of thousands of gallons of fuel ahead of the big event. Now they just need to put it all together for the first time to really mimic a launch.

“To be able to run a test like this, it takes not only a village, but small city,” said Ryan McKibben, the Green Run test conductor at Stennis Space Center, in a press conference. It will take six barges to haul more than 700,000 gallons of super cold propellent needed for this test — roughly 200,000 gallons of liquid oxygen, and 500,000 gallons of liquid hydrogen.

The four engines themselves were originally built for NASA’s Space Shuttle program, which ended in 2011. They’ve been updated with upgrades including new engine controllers to get them ready to become part of the SLS. When the engines are fired, they will produce 1.6 million pounds of thrust — more than enough to send the core soaring. “When we ignite the engines, the stage actually will think it is flying. That’s what it’s built to do,” McKibbin said.

While the core of the SLS is built to fly, the massive test stand is designed to keep it firmly grounded. The huge structure is anchored into the ground with over 144 feet of concrete and steel that will absorb and redirect the thrust from the engines, McKibbin said. The engines will burn for about eight minutes — approximately the same amount of time that it will take to launch the rocket to the Moon on future missions.

This is the last big rehearsal for the rocket before it heads to space, which means it’s also one of the last chances for NASA to get data on how the rocket might perform. The team plans to run the engines through the same thrust changes that they will eventually endure when they fly through the Earth’s atmosphere. The core stage is packed with over 1,400 sensors to help document all aspects of the test and gather data that NASA will analyze intensely over the next several days after the test.

“The reason we test is to uncover issues on the ground and not in space,” said Julie Bassler, SLS stages manager, at a NASA press conference this week. “We are doing everything we can to ensure that we get the most out of this hot fire test and we are ready to launch.”

If the test is successful, the core stage will be inspected and shipped to Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida, where it will be joined to other parts of the rocket and the Orion crew capsule. Sometime after that, the SLS will make its launch debut on the uncrewed mission called Artemis 1. That mission doesn’t have a firm date yet, but NASA is aiming for that launch to happen in November 2021.

Even as the SLS heads for space, it’s worth noting that it is not the only deep space rocket on the horizon. SpaceX is rapidly prototyping its Starship system in Texas, and the Starship design is being considered as a candidate lunar lander for future NASA missions.

The window for the SLS hot fire test opens at 5:00PM ET, and coverage on NASA TV will start at 4:20PM ET. NASA’s livestream coverage can be found on YouTube and on the agency’s website.

Mars drilling instrument HP³ does not get into the ground: researchers give up

NASA and the German Aerospace Center (DLR) are giving up their attempts to get the HP³ drilling instrument of the Insight probe further into the soil of Mars. Even after HP³ was last pushed under the surface with the help of the robot arm from Insight, 500 hammer blows had not brought any noticeable progress last weekend.

The scientists are now giving themselves up because of this and will no longer try to hammer the measuring device deeper into the ground. It should now at least continue to measure the temperatures in this uppermost layer of the underground. “This planet is and will remain a difficult neighbor to research”, states the DLR.

Drilling instrument does not get into the ground Als Insight end 2018 landed on Mars, the NASA probe had, among other things, the HP³ (Heat Flow and Physical Properties Package) instrument from Germany on board. It looks like a big nail, has a built-in hammer and pulls a cable behind it that is equipped with temperature sensors. The HP³ should actually hammer itself at a depth of three to five meters and measure the temperature to within a thousandth of a degree Celsius. This would have made it possible to determine, among other things, how the interior of the red planet developed and whether it still has a hot, liquid core. But after the first hammer blows in March 2019, things soon got stuck and the researchers tried different ways to solve the unexpected problems.

After HP³ simply couldn’t penetrate the ground on its own, the scientists changed the procedure last year. They placed the Insight robot arm as a resistance behind HP³ to push it into the ground. In this way they managed to push HP³ so deep into the ground that it was completely covered with sand, but that was probably not more than an inch. Later they also filled the side cavities so that the instrument had enough resistance. Despite the careful preparation, the last 500 hammer blows once again failed to get the instrument into the ground, the DLR now explains. With this all possibilities are exhausted and the researchers give up.

“Experience gained” “The mole was based on the soil analyzes of NASA rovers like Spirit and Opportunity, “explains Troy Hudson from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. But the underground at Insight’s landing site, “is completely different from anything we’ve seen before.” After all, we have gained a lot of experience that will help in future attempts to get below the surface of Mars, says Tilman Spohn from DLR.

Heike Rauer, also from DLR, adds that one is of course sad that after many years of planning, developing and constructing the instrument, not all components work as hoped. But “we will continue to try to elicit its secrets from Mars in order to find out whether there really was life there. The next experiments are already in development.”

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Seven warmest years: NASA sees continued dramatic warming trend

“The past seven years have been the warmest seven in history,” says Gavin Schmidt, director of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS). This characterizes the global sustained and dramatic warming trend.

The GISS has determined that the global average surface temperature in the past year together with 2016 was highest. The World Weather Organization (WMO) recently announced that 2020 was just behind 2016 the second warmest year in a century and a half. According to GISS, the average worldwide temperature 2020 was around 1, 02 ° C higher than the base value from 1951 to 1980. Since the late 19. In the 20th century, the average temperature of the earth had risen by 1.2 ° C.

Schmidt emphasizes that it is not important whether a year becomes a record holder or not, it is more important long-term trens. In view of the development so far, further records are to be expected.

Ice is melting The rising temperatures are melting the ice in the sea And the ice sheet mass is decreasing, the sea level is rising, there are longer and more intense heat waves and the habitats of animals and plants are shifting, explains NASA. Understanding such long-term trends is important for people to adapt by growing suitable crops, managing water reserves and preparing for extreme weather events.

In the first half of the year 2020 the Australian bushfires 46 burned millions of hectares of land and smoke and other particles 30 km high into the atmosphere. These blocked sunlight and so likely cooled the atmosphere slightly. On the other hand, restrictions related to the coronavirus pandemic would have helped the industry to emit fewer particles, allowing more sunlight to reach the surface of the earth. This has resulted in a small but potentially significant warming effect. Due to the shutdown of power plants and other emitters, less CO 2 was emitted, but the total CO 2 – concentration increased further.

El Niño The greatest cause of global temperature fluctuations is the El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO), a naturally occurring cycle of heat exchange between the ocean and the atmosphere. 2020 started in a cool ENSO phase and ended in a warm one. The cooling influence from the negative phase will probably have a greater influence on 2021 than on 2020 . 2016 a strong El Niño gave a significant heat boost.

The scientists of the US weather service NOAA, who at are involved in the evaluations of the WMO, use largely the same raw temperature data for their analysis, but with the years 1901 to 2000 a different starting period and a different methodology, explains NASA. Unlike NASA, NOAA does not derive temperatures in polar regions without observations; that makes up a large part of the difference between NASA and NOAA datasets.

NASA takes measurements from satellites as well as from 26. Weather stations and thousands of ship- and buoy-based observations, she explains. Uncertainties in the results are mainly due to the fact that the locations of weather stations and temperature measurement methods have changed over time.

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More than 500 brown dwarfs: 3D map of the neighborhood of our sun

With the help of thousands of volunteers, a team of astronomers has created the most comprehensive 3D map of so-called brown dwarfs in the vicinity of the sun to date. You have now presented the map with 525 celestial bodies, including 38 newly discovered objects. According to the research results, the closer environment of our sun is also particularly diverse compared to other areas in the Milky Way, they explain. It is the latest scientific analysis based on the “Backyard Worlds: Planet 9” project, in which amateur researchers help evaluate astronomical recordings.

Search for stars on the internet “Backyard Worlds: Planet 9” was the beginning 2017 with a special website went online. Interested parties can watch thumb-cinema-like film sequences recorded by NASA’s Wise space telescope and search for moving objects on them. Human observers can play to their strengths here, because algorithms are overwhelmed by the many image artifacts. Anyone who finds something can mark it for examination by astronomers.

The brown dwarfs sought in this project are celestial bodies that are not massive enough to ignite a nuclear fusion, as in stars, but at the same time clearly more massive than (exo-) planets. Some aren’t even as hot as boiling water and might even have clouds of water. Especially with the finds of several of these particularly cold specimens, the project is making a significant contribution to closing previous gaps. Overall, the map covers an area with a radius of 65 light years.

In the end, the researchers and their helpers ran out of time because that NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope was shut down a year ago. Before that, it could be used again to determine the position of hundreds of the discovered brown dwarfs – as the basis for the 3D map now being presented. “Without the Citizen Scientists, we would not have been able to create such a complete compilation in such a short time,” explains Davy Kirkpatrick of the California Institute of Technology. They also found the coldest brown dwarf to date with temperatures below freezing point (of water). The scientists are now presenting the current status of their research in the specialist magazine The Astrophysical Journal Supplement, with many helpers from “Backyard Worlds: Planet 9” being listed as co-authors.

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NASA rover Curiosity: on the Red Planet for 3000 (Mars) days

NASA’s Curiosity rover has been exploring Mars for exactly 3000 (Mars) days (“Sol” ) and the end of the successful mission is not in sight. While his successor, Perseverance, is already approaching the red planet, Curiosity continues to climb the Aeolis Mons mountain in the center of the Gale crater and searches for traces of former life.

The rover has now almost 19 kilometers covered – on Mars only Opportunity got further. Curiosity was on 26. November 2011 was sent to Mars and there after a risky landing approach on August 5th 2012 arrived.

Search for traces of life As the responsible team of scientists explains, Curiosity has just completed another investigation of the underground. He slipped slightly once, whereupon the rover stopped its activities and waited for new instructions. At his 3000. On the day on Mars, the rover will take various measurements, for example, to determine the amount of dust in the atmosphere. In the afternoon he should set off again to reach easier terrain and continue up the mountainside.

Aeolis Mons consists of sediments that are in different epochs of Martian history. This also includes areas made of clay that was formed ages ago by liquid water and which today point to more life-friendly epochs in the history of Mars. Also because Curiosity has at least found indications that there could have been life on the planet back then, the mission has long been considered a complete success. Originally it was only intended for two years, but the rover has now been rolling over the red planet for more than eight years and has also become an ambassador for research at NASA.

Details from Curiosity’s 2nd gigapixel panorama (13 Pictures) A crater in the crater

(Image: NASA / JPL-Caltech / MSSS) Crowd on Mars In addition to Curiosity, NASA’s Insight probe is currently active on Mars, which has been researching there since 758 Martian days. In the orbit of the Red Planet have also been orbiting for more than 19 years the Odyssey probe, for almost 13 years of Mars reconnaissance Orbiter MRO and Maven for 6 years. Curiosity’s successor Perseverance is slated to land on Mars in February. In addition to NASA, ESA also operates two Mars probes, Mars Express (since 17 years) and the Trace Gas Orbiter (for four years). The Mars Orbiter Mission of the Indian space agency ISRO has been orbiting Mars for seven years and currently a probe from the United Arab Emirates and one from China are on their way to Mars.

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Russia is considering banning foreign satellite internets

In Russia fines for access to the Internet via foreign providers could soon be threatened. A corresponding legislative proposal is being processed in the Parliament of the Russian Federation. It is justified with national security. Citizens could bypass Russian network monitoring via providers such as SpaceX and OneWeb.

The proposed law provides for fines of 10. 000 to 30.000 Rubles (converted approximately 111 to 335 Euro) for private individuals. Companies even face fines of 500. 000 up to one million rubles (5575 to 11.150 Euro). That comes from a report in the Russian edition of the magazine Popular Mechanics . However, for the time being, this would only be relevant in selected border regions. The near-earth satellites need a ground station in sufficient proximity to the end user.

Roskosmos sees SpaceX as a rival Through Use of western infrastructure such as SpaceX ‘Starlink or the recently launched satellites of the Indo-British OneWeb could bypass Russian telecommunications providers. This means that users are beyond the control of Russian authorities. Such internet access contradicts the security regulations of Russia. The EU is also planning its own satellite internet, the use of which would also be punishable.

Dmitri Olegowitsch Rogozin, head of the Russian space organization Roskosmos, sees SpaceX and thus also the Starlink satellite internet as a major rival. Rogozin has criticized both NASA and the US Department of Defense for subsidizing SpaceX through government contracts. However, SpaceX offers the USA rocket launches in return for less than other clients.

Roskosmos operates OneWeb, Sfera plans The draft law covers all foreign providers of satellite Internet. This also includes a Roskosmos customer: OneWeb uses Russian Soyuz rockets for the satellite launches. By the time commercial services commence at the end of the year, Roskosmos is expected to bring more than 500 more OneWeb satellites into low earth orbit. At the same time, Russia itself plans to introduce Internet access via satellite. However, the constellation “Sfera” (sphere) will only go into operation in a few years, possibly 2030. Many details are unknown. Sfera still has no official budget.

According to Vice Prime Minister Yuri Borissow, ten billion rubles (111 million euros) to 2022 released. The entire project could cost more than 16 billion euros. That would go beyond Russia’s budget. The Russian space agency currently receives only two billion euros annually.

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2020 was one of the three hottest years in a century and a half

The Corona year 2020 was one of the three hottest years since temperature records began in the middle of 19. Century. The World Weather Organization (WMO) confirmed December forecasts in Geneva on Thursday. The WMO reported that 2020 almost broke all previous records. Only the naturally occurring cooling weather phenomenon La Niña caused a slight cooling at the very end of the year.

The global average temperature was 14, 9 ° C, 1.2 ° above the pre-industrial level (1850 to 1900), with an error margin of 0.1 °. The three hottest years were thus 2016, 2019 and 2020. Nominally 2016 was warmer, said WMO spokeswoman Clare Nullis. In view of the margin of error, it is practically impossible to differentiate between the three years. The WMO points out that 2016 was characterized by a strong weather phenomenon El Niño, which, in contrast to La Niña, has a warming effect. “We are on the way to catastrophic warming of 3 to 5 ° this century,” said UN Secretary General António Guterres. “To make peace with nature is the main task in the 21. Century.”

Waning trade winds El Niño and La Niña occur every few years. At El Niño, the tropical trade winds subside and this weakens the usual buoyancy of cooler water off the west coast of South America. La Niña mostly follows El Niño and is accompanied by stronger trade winds, which ensure cooler surface water off the coast of Peru. Both phenomena have practically worldwide effects, including droughts and heavy rainfall depending on the region.

For its analysis, the WMO evaluated data from the US weather agency NOAA, the Goddard Institute of NASA, from the Hadley Center the British Meteorological Institute and the Research Unit of the British University of East Anglia, the European Center for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts and the Copernicus Earth Observation Program and the Japanese Meteorological Agency.

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Measurements at the edge of the solar system: The universe is brighter than expected

Our universe is quite dark, but it is brighter than assumed. At least one group of researchers who evaluated data from NASA’s New Horizons probe came to this conclusion. After all, it is further away from the sun than almost all other earthly instruments. At a distance of well over seven billion kilometers from our home star, their starry sky is measurably darker than anything we or probes in the inner solar system see, the researchers explain. Measurements carried out in this environment would have shown that it is a little brighter there than expected. The origin of this light is still unknown.

New Horizons researches and researches New Horizons was started 2006 and had on 14. July 2015 is the first probe ever to pass the dwarf planet Pluto. She had revealed a surprisingly complex world. Two years ago it was the first human object to reach a celestial body in the even further distant Kuiper Belt – Arrokoth with its snowman shape. It hasn’t had a new target since, but most recently it helped astronomers make the largest parallax measurement in history. At the same time, its instruments continue to work and it provides valuable data for exploring the limits of the solar system.

That far from the sun, its influences are actually once again significantly smaller, the researchers now explain. It is around ten times darker around New Horizons than in the darkest places that the Hubble Space Telescope can target in Earth orbit. How bright it is at New Horizons, however, was determined using the so-called LORRI cameras on board. After subtracting known light sources such as the Milky Way and known reflection sources, it turned out that more light was left than expected. The scientists who presented their analysis at a meeting of the American Astronomical Society do not know its origin.

“Only” hundreds of billions of galaxies It is possible that a large number of dwarf galaxies exist in the vicinity of the Milky Way just below the detectability. The halos around galaxies could also be brighter than previously assumed. It is also possible that there are many more unbound stars in intergalactic space than current theories predict. In the meantime, however, the measurements would also have shown that the number of galaxies that cannot be directly detected must be significantly lower than expected. There seems to be “only” hundreds of billions of galaxies in the universe and not around two trillion, as was recently determined with Hubble.

Pluto probe New Horizons ( 67 Pictures) Plutos Surface

(Image: NASA / Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory / Southwest Research Institute) (mho)

Astronomy: Unusual exoplanet in a triple star system

After several years of searching, and thanks only to various telescopes, a group of US researchers has confirmed an exoplanet orbiting on an unusual orbit in a triple star system. That explains the Exoplanet Science Institute of NASA, whose space telescopes Kepler and TESS were decisive for the find. KOI-5Ab (the name in the Kepler data) or TOI – 1241 b (his TESS name) orbits the star KOI-5A , which in turn forms a double system with KOI-5B. They are all orbited by the KOI-5C. At the same time, the orbital plane of the exoplanet is strongly shifted compared to that of the stars.

The orbits of the stars and of KOI-5Ab

(Image: Caltech / R. Hurt (Infrared Processing and Analysis Center, or IPAC))

Exoplanet or is it a star? As the scientists now explain, KOI-5B was the second potential exoplanet that Kepler discovered after starting his mission in 2009 had – several thousand were to follow. But because it is such a complicated system, no one has undertaken the necessary follow-up analyzes. It was only years later that David Ciardi and others from the Exoplanet Science Institute turned to the candidate again and took a closer look at the telescopes WM Keck in Hawaii, Palomar near San Diego and Gemini North in Hawaii. This confirmed the suspicion that it was an exoplanet, but they weren’t really sure. It could also have been a fourth star, explains Ciardi.

The real confirmation only has the new exoplanet hunter NASA delivered the TESS (Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite) space telescope. That also discovered a candidate in this system, reason enough to take another closer look. Through precise analyzes, Ciardi and his team were able to confirm that it is an exoplanet that orbits its star approximately once every five days.

Its shifted orbital plane, which is not the same as that of the matches both stars KOI-5A and KOI-5B. If all three celestial bodies have formed from the same disk of dust, one would expect planes – like in the solar system. The researchers speculate that the second inner star threw the exoplanet from its original orbit into its current one.

(Source: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center) KOI-5Ab is not the first exoplanet in one Multiple star systems, but the researchers point out that significantly fewer have so far been discovered in such systems than in individual stars. This could be due to the difficulty of proving this, or it could indicate a deeper difference. About every tenth star system is a triple star system, they explain.

(mho)

NASA has extended the duration of the Juno and InSight missions for Jupiter and Mars

NASA announced that it has extended the Juno and InSight missions (for Jupiter and Mars) given the scientifically relevant results obtained in recent months. It is also a way to limit spending while still collecting data.

by Mattia Speroni published 11 January 2021 , at 16: 20 in the Science and Technology channel

NASA

La NASA announced that it has extended the duration of the missions Juno and InSight due to the scientific results obtained by the latter. Good news for enthusiasts and researchers who will have access to new data regarding Jupiter and Mars. The decision was made after an external commission assessed its scientific performance.

Lori Glaze (director of NASA’s planetary science division) stated “the Senior Review has validated that these two planetary science missions will likely continue to bring new discoveries and produce new questions about our solar system “.

Not the first time missions are extended. Furthermore, as specified by NASA , this will reduce the overall costs since it will not be necessary to develop new missions for objectives already reachable from existing ones.

NASA extends the Juno and InSight missions

Di InSight we wrote several times. Although not a mission with rover but “only” a lander, it is a series of useful tools to understand the structure of Mars beyond to meteorology. Unfortunately, not everything went as planned, and in particular the self-pounding mole is giving particular problems in achieving the set goals. Despite everything, however, the other tools are working regularly, collecting useful information also in view of possible missions over the years 2021.

Mission NASA Juno collected information precious on the Jovian system and its moons. This allowed us to have a better understanding of the Solar System, its structure, its evolution. In addition, the foundations have been laid for future dedicated missions that will allow for further details on promising scenarios such as Ganymede, Io and Europa.

The independent commission has stated that the two missions have “produced an exceptional science” recommending the extension of duration. The mission Juno , as reported on the website of the NASA , will be extended until September 2025 , or a failure of the probe itself (which could happen sooner).

The goals are to continue monitoring , its rings (less spectacular than those of Saturn, but still present). In addition there will be close observations with the main moons of the gas giant: Ganymede, Europa and Io.

As for the mission NASA InSight , its duration is now given for December 2022 (two years beyond the initial provision). The extended mission will aim at the collection of high quality and long-lasting seismic data. In addition, the weather station will continue to operate and an attempt will be made to operate the self-hammering mole in order to have more data available.