keyword: NASA

the-pandemic-couldn’t-keep-the-space-industry-down

The pandemic couldn’t keep the space industry down

As most of the world slowed to a pandemic-induced halt this year, the space industry rocketed forward. A pair of astronauts launched to orbit on a private spacecraft for the first time. Three separate missions blasted off to Mars. And a robot hundreds of millions of miles from Earth grabbed the largest sample of an asteroid ever captured.

Looking back on 2020, space turned out to be a relative bright spot in a particularly dark year. Boosted by government contracts and increased demand in some sectors, the private space industry pushed through the chaos of this year. At the same time, public exploration missions scrambled to meet rigid timetables. And both groups managed to triumph while adhering to rapidly changing public health restrictions around the globe.

Despite the turmoil, the world launched more than 1,200 satellites this year, according to spaceflight tracker Jonathan McDowell — more than in any other year past. And while many of those satellites were either small in size, or bulk satellites from SpaceX, the numbers are indicative of just how much the space economy has grown in the previous years — and how resilient spaceflight has become even when faced with a pandemic.

“Governments around the world have increased their focus on space as a priority, either for national defense like in the US, or for exploration,” Carissa Christensen, founder and CEO of Bryce Space and Technology, a space analytics and engineering firm, tells The Verge. Even during a pandemic, that emphasis continued, she says.

The space world wasn’t completely immune to COVID-19, though. When the pandemic first got underway, many companies had to slow down or pause their activities as they adjusted to new social distancing guidelines, staggered shifts, and new cleaning practices. Europe temporarily ceased flights out of its spaceport in French Guiana in mid-March, and some satellite launches suffered delays as travel restrictions made it difficult to transport hardware. Engineers even turned off some instruments on spacecraft already in space to reduce the labor needed to keep them running.

ULA’s Atlas V rocket launched NASA’s Perseverance rover to Mars in July.
Image: NASA

A few companies suffered major losses, too. Bigelow Aerospace, which aims to build inflatable space habitats, let go all of its employees in late March, citing lockdown restrictions. And certain sectors of the satellite industry suffered slowdowns, especially those that provide communications and services for cruise and maritime industries, as well as airlines, says Christensen. “Some of the changes in travel patterns have had an impact on satellite operators,” she says.

But other areas of the satellite world saw a huge increase in demand this year. Governments and industries sought out data from companies that provide high-resolution imagery of Earth and geospatial intelligence, says Chad Anderson, CEO of angel investment and venture capital firm Space Angels. People were eager to learn more about how the pandemic has impacted travel and what new global trends have emerged on Earth in 2020.

“In times of uncertainty, businesses and leaders are really hungry for information and insight, which is exactly the type of data that space companies provide,” says Anderson. “So as the world gets more uncertain, and as anxiety goes up, people are clamoring for more information.”

Not only did the government seek more data from the industry, but in the US, it classified many aerospace companies as “essential,” since they held contracts with NASA or the Department of Defense. This allowed companies to continue to bring employees on site to continue working on all their projects, both government-related and commercial.

The US government also provided a lifeline in the form of contract payouts, Anderson says. Government agencies restructured how they paid out their contractors, providing more money at the height of the pandemic. That kept a lot of organizations afloat until investment picked back up again, Anderson says. And after a second quarter slowdown, the third quarter of 2020 became “one of the biggest quarters on record for investment and growth in infrastructure space,” he says.

Satellite imagery from Planet reveals the Great Mosque of Mecca on January 25th, 2020 (L) and March 10th, 2020.
Image: Planet

Of course, much of the spotlight in space this year was on SpaceX’s first crewed mission to the International Space Station. On May 31st, two NASA astronauts — Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley — flew to space on the company’s new Crew Dragon capsule, marking the first crewed launch to orbit from US soil since the end of the space shuttle program. Thousands of viewers from all over the world tuned in to the launch, providing a hopeful distraction for a suffering public.

SpaceX’s flight was just the headliner of a massive year in space-related accomplishments. Three missions launched to Mars from three separate countries, including NASA’s new Perseverance rover, equipped with tools to look for life on the Red Planet. NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission grabbed what could be the largest sample of an asteroid ever retrieved. And China landed its third robotic mission on the Moon, in a quest to bring a sample of lunar dirt back to Earth.

Some of these achievements were more or less an exercise in weird timing. All three Mars missions had to get off the ground this year, or they’d miss the window to reach the Red Planet. If they hadn’t launched this summer, they would have been forced to wait until 2022, resulting in loss of time and money. OSIRIS-REx, on the other hand, has been in space since 2016, with longstanding plans to grab a sample of an asteroid this year. Postponing the grab for too long just wasn’t an option, as the vehicle has limited fuel on board.

“Some of that was just very good luck — or very bad luck, depending,” says Christensen. “You’ll have a five, seven, 10-year program, and it launches when it launches. So I think that for the exploration program, it’s kind of a reflection of a long schedule.”

Still, the fact that these major achievements happened during the pandemic is a testament to the strength of the people who run their spacecraft. NASA engineers told tales of racing to get Perseverance off the ground just in time, while adhering to stricter guidelines and new work from home policies. And it wasn’t just them. Everyone in the space world was still grappling with the pandemic here on Earth, while trying to keep their space robots launching and functioning.

While the humans of Earth are doing their best to stay in one place, we’re still thrusting our way into the cosmos — a sign that we’ll continue to explore the stars even in times of incredible adversity. “It was definitely a bright spot in an otherwise horrible year, and more is on the way,” says Anderson.

nasa-twin-study:-weightlessness-may-increase-stress-in-astronauts

NASA twin study: weightlessness may increase stress in astronauts

Tests of the blood of astronauts indicate an increased stress level during a longer stay in weightlessness. They have a significantly higher concentration of certain pieces of DNA in the blood, so-called cfDNA, as an international team has found. “For the study, we examined the blood of a NASA astronaut before, during and after his mission on the ISS and compared it with the blood of his identical twin brother on Earth,” said Daniela Bezdan from the University Hospital in Tübingen. The 1964 born twin brothers Mark and Scott Kelly have already participated in numerous examinations. They were each a few times in space.

Preparations for flights to Mars The researchers hope that the study will also provide better medical surveillance for astronauts during their space flights. Cell changes could be analyzed with the help of blood markers on board the space shuttle in the future, as Bezdan explained. “Astronauts are trained to draw blood.”

Samples could also be sent to earth by capsules from the International Space Station ISS in order to examine them more closely in laboratories. “We have already tested that in the twin study.” The research results should also provide approaches for possible drugs and treatment therapies that could be used in longer space flights such as to Mars.

The industry of space health care grow economically enormously, so Bezdan. “I hope that through my work I can make Germany better known as a space science location.” The study from Tübingen was part of a package of 20 specialist articles on space research published in different journals published by Cell Press.

Recognizing cheerful places with Scott Kelly (20 Photos) Scott Kelly has the people on the ground keep guessing what he is currently about with his workplace.

(Image: NASA) (mho)

space-travel:-too-few-natural-resources-on-the-moon-–-warning-of-conflicts

Space travel: Too few natural resources on the moon – warning of conflicts

The occurrence of important resources on the moon is so small that there could soon be strong tensions, lack of space and conflicts if exploitation actually begins in the coming years. This was the result of two researchers who published their findings in the journal Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A. The problem is that there are now more and more plans for landings on the moon, but only comparatively few places that are suitable for lunar bases or resource extraction. In addition, there are no legal regulations for who gets raw materials there.

Too few raw materials The scientific article is part of a series about the importance of the moon for astronomy in the coming decade. The satellite has recently come back into focus, especially after NASA announced that it would be sending astronauts there in a few years and setting up a space station in its orbit. The US space agency itself had officially started the hunt for the resources there a few weeks ago. On-site access is an indispensable prerequisite for construction projects on the moon, for example because it would be “absurdly expensive” to bring the iron from the earth there, as the researchers put it.

The interest in the raw materials there is not new, explains the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, where the study was carried out, but the urgency is now different. In addition, there have been discussions so far about scientific uses in competition with economic resource access, or about who is actually allowed to get access. The biggest problem is that there are far too few resources on the moon, which are also concentrated in a few places. There could quickly be a lack of space, the resulting conflicts and exploitation that is far too rapid. In addition, there is a risk that the deposits discovered so far will turn out to be much smaller than assumed after better-resolved analyzes. However, the opposite can also be the case.

Legal foundations such as the space treaty of 1967 would not aim at robust protection of deposits, it is said . Nevertheless, the researchers see possibilities to prevent the conflicts. Potential users of the resources – such as states and private companies – could sit down and run through worst-case scenarios in order to coordinate how these could be prevented. There are also usage scenarios on earth, for example on the oceans, that could serve as models here. To do this, however, it would first have to be determined which resources are involved, because in addition to physical raw materials, the few locations with particularly short nights are also a scarce resource in themselves.

(mho)

china's-moon-flight-chang'e-5-takes-off-successfully

China's moon flight Chang'e 5 takes off successfully

China has successfully put an unmanned spaceship on its way to the moon. The spaceship, named after the Chinese moon goddess “Chang’e 5”, is supposed to land on the earth’s satellite and bring rock samples back to earth for the first time in 44 years. Researchers are waiting with great curiosity for the lunar rock, which will be significantly younger than all previous samples and thus provide new knowledge about the history of the moon.

On a successful return, China would be in the USA and the Soviet Union in the 60 he and 70 years the third space travel nation to succeed in such a project. With a rocket of the type “Long March 5”, the spacecraft lifted off smoothly from the space station in Wenchang on the southern Chinese island of Hainan on Tuesday morning local time (Monday evening CET).

“Voller Success ” One and a half hours after take-off, the spaceship unfolded its awnings for the power supply. A little later, the control center commander Zhang Xueyu announced the “complete success of the launch of Chang’e 5”. The spaceship is expected to land on Sunday in a volcanic area named after the German astronomer Karl Rümker (1788 – 1862), which lies in the “ocean of storms” – in the upper, left-hand part of the earth-facing side of the moon.

NASA Science Director Thomas Zurbuchen congratulated China to a successful start. “We look forward to seeing how sample collection will advance the international scientific community,” wrote Zurbuchen on Twitter. “The moon is an exciting place!” He expressed the hope that scientists from other countries could also benefit from studying the “valuable cargo”.

The “Ocean of Storms” is 1.2 million years old. Moon rocks collected by the USA and the Soviet Union, on the other hand, are significantly older at 3.1 million and 4.4 million years ago. Researchers hope the samples will provide new information about the volcanic activity of the moon. The US Apollo missions brought with them around 380 kilograms of moon rock. The Soviet Union collected 300 grams – most recently with the unmanned “Luna 24 “1976, when 170 grams of moondust were brought to earth.

china-launches-the-chang'e-5-moon-mission-with-champions-returning-to-earth

China launches the Chang'e-5 moon mission with champions returning to Earth

China launched tonight ( Italian time) the new Chang’e-5 lunar mission! This is a critical step as it will bring rock samples back to Earth from the Moon and serve as a base for future manned missions.

by Mattia Speroni published , at 21: 41 in the Science and Technology channel

NASA ESA

The space missions continue and in particular towards Moon! Tonight (at 21: 30, Italian time) it was the turn of China send a new mission to our satellite! And it is a very special mission. In fact, with Chang’e-5 we aim to bring back to Earth samples of lunar rock, which which had not happened since the end of the years’ 70.

The launch took place as planned as well as the separation of the fairing (which showcased the components of the sample collection system and for their return to the ground), the separation of the side boosters (which provided much of the necessary thrust) and the separation of the main stage from the upper one.

With Chang’e-5, China points to the Moon

Using a rocket Long March 5 (a carrier with a power that places it on top of a Falcon 9) with a weight of just under 900 tons, the robotic system was launched, Chan g’e-5 , for sample collection. The latter has a weight of 8.2 tons.

The sample collection system is very complex and should comprise four distinct modules, even if all the details were not provided by the Chinese space agency. This modular system would appear to be a “dress rehearsal” to bring China to the satellite with a human crew. Those that appear to be ancillary operations recall what was done by United States during the Apollo moon missions where the command and service modules remained in orbit around the Moon , while the actual lunar module descended to the surface.

Of the four modules of Chang’e 5 , two will remain in lunar orbit . The other two will be used, one for the collection of samples (with a mechanical shovel and a drill that will reach up to 2 meters deep), the other to bring the samples back to the modules in orbit and from there the return to Earth. . It is estimated that the samples collected should be approximately 2 kg .

The intended landing zone is the one called Oceanus Procellarum (Ocean of storms) which in the past had already been explored by the Apollo mission 12 and from the robotic missions Luna 9, Luna 13, Surveyor 1 and Surveyor 3. The mission will have a short duration considering that the lunar rock samples should land in the desert of Mongolia in mid-December.

Also the ESA was involved by China for this mission. In fact, the European space agency will monitor two fundamental steps for the mission. The first phase, after the launch which took place a few minutes ago, is carried out by the communication station in French Guiana (Kourou) which will monitor the rocket moving away from Earth. In December, instead, a Spanish communication station (Maspalomas) will be used, which will follow the return to Earth. In both cases the ESA will provide the information to the Chinese space agency thus helping it in the management of the mission.