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5 sci-fi movies that weren't great but still deserve a sequel
NASA begins delivering 1st Artemis Moon Trees to be planted across United States
Japan’s Lunar Lander Survives its Third Lunar Night
Space travel and exploration was never going to be easy. Failures are sadly all too common but it’s wonderful to see missions exceed expectations. The Japanese Space Agency’s SLIM lunar lander was only supposed to survive a single day but it’s survived three brutal, harsh lunar nights and is still going. The temperatures plummet to -170C at night and the lander was never designed to operate into the night. Even sat upside down on the surface it’s still sending back pictures and data.
The Japanese agency’s lunar lander known as SLIM (Smart Lander for Investigating the Moon) began its lunar journey on 19 January 2024 when it touched down on the surface of the Moon. Its mission was to test the lunar landing technology and to collect data about the surface geology.
An artist’s conception shows Japan’s SLIM lander in its upended position on the lunar surface. (Credit: JAXA)Unfortunately, soon after landing it became clear that the probe had landed at a strange angle, leaning forwards, resting on its face. The orientation of the solar panels was all wrong and it meant they could not generate as much electricity as expected allowing it to operate for a few hours just after dawn and just before sunset.
Of course it is important to note that a day on the Moon lasts many days compared to a day here on Earth and so, the first night for SLIM began on 31 January. Surprisingly, SLIM survived the first long night where temperatures to -170 degrees. SLIM was never designed to survive the cold harsh nights on the Moon so it was with some surprise that it powered back up successfully on the 15 February.
The operations team for SLIM were disbanded in March but to their surprise, after the second lunar night, a signal was received again. Surpassing everyones expectations it seems SLIM wasn’t going to give up yet and still sending images. The lander was even picked up after its second night by cameras on board the Chandrayaan-2 orbiter as it flew over.
Just a few days ago on Wednesday 24 January, JAXA, the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency announced it had survived a third night on the freezing lunar surface. Using the plucky littler lander which measures just 1.5m x 1.5m x 2m, the agency hope to be able to learn more about the origin of the Moon by analysing the surface geology.
One of the fascinating elements to the mission was the pinpoint landing technology that was being tested. On descent, the lander would be able to recognise the craters using technology that has been developed by facial recognition systems. Using the data, it would be able to determine its location with pinpoint accuracy and perform a touch down with an accuracy of 100m. The landing was successfully accurate albeit slightly wobbly leaving the lander in a strange orientation.
source : Japan’s moon lander wasn’t built to survive a week long lunar night. It’s still going after 3
The post Japan’s Lunar Lander Survives its Third Lunar Night appeared first on Universe Today.
NASA’s Hubble Pauses Science Due to Gyro Issue
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NASA’s Hubble Pauses Science Due to Gyro Issue The Hubble Space Telescope as seen from the space shuttle Atlantis (STS-125) in May 2009, during the fifth and final servicing of the orbiting observatory.NASANASA is working to resume science operations of the agency’s Hubble Space Telescope after it entered safe mode April 23 due to an ongoing gyroscope (gyro) issue. Hubble’s instruments are stable, and the telescope is in good health.
The telescope automatically entered safe mode when one of its three gyroscopes gave faulty readings. The gyros measure the telescope’s turn rates and are part of the system that determines which direction the telescope is pointed. While in safe mode, science operations are suspended, and the telescope waits for new directions from the ground.
This particular gyro caused Hubble to enter safe mode in November after returning similar faulty readings. The team is currently working to identify potential solutions. If necessary, the spacecraft can be re-configured to operate with only one gyro, with the other remaining gyro placed in reserve . The spacecraft had six new gyros installed during the fifth and final space shuttle servicing mission in 2009. To date, three of those gyros remain operational, including the gyro currently experiencing fluctuations. Hubble uses three gyros to maximize efficiency, but could continue to make science observations with only one gyro if required.
NASA anticipates Hubble will continue making groundbreaking discoveries, working with other observatories, such as the agency’s James Webb Space Telescope, throughout this decade and possibly into the next.
Launched in 1990, Hubble has been observing the universe for more than three decades and recently celebrated its 34th anniversary. Read more about some of Hubble’s greatest scientific discoveries and visit nasa.gov/hubble for updates.
Media Contact:
Claire Andreoli
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD
claire.andreoli@nasa.gov
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NASA’s Commercial Partners Deliver Cargo, Crew for Station Science
NASA partners with commercial companies to provide safe, reliable, and cost-effective transportation of cargo and crew members to and from the International Space Station. A platform for long-duration research in microgravity, the station has operated continuously for more than 23 years, its crew members conducting a broad range of technology demonstrations and thousands of experiments in many scientific fields.
Human TransportationNASA’s Commercial Crew Program provides systems capable of carrying astronauts to low Earth orbit and the space station through industry partners who design, build, test, and operate these systems. Crew members providing hands-on operation of scientific research is one of the unique advantages of the orbiting laboratory. Human operators monitor events on Earth in real time, swap out experiment samples, observe results firsthand, assess when conditions are favorable for data collection, and troubleshoot and otherwise manage and maintain scientific activities. Crew members also pack experiment samples to return to the ground for detailed analysis.
NASA commercial partner Boeing is launching NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams on a Crew Flight Test of its Starliner spacecraft in May 2024. The spacecraft launches to the space station on a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida. This mission paves the way for NASA to certify the Starliner spacecraft for long-duration rotation missions to the space station.
Crew members Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams in the Boeing Starliner simulator at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston.NASA/Robert Markowitz
SpaceX, another commercial partner, conducted an uncrewed Demo-1 flight in March 2019, and in May 2020, the Demo-2 flight carried NASA astronauts Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley to the space station. The first operational mission, Crew-1, launched in November 2020. Since then, SpaceX has regularly sent crews to the orbiting laboratory for scientific missions. The Dragon spacecraft launches on the company’s Falcon 9 rocket from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
Crew-1 launches to the International Space Station in a Dragon spacecraft on Sunday, Nov. 15, 2020.NASA/Joel Kowsky
NASA’s commercial crew flights have significantly increased the amount of crew time available for research and expanded the potential for commercial use of the orbiting laboratory. More crew members mean more time for scientific research and technology demonstrations, and ultimately, more scientific results. To date, results generated by space station research range from improvements in the development of pharmaceuticals to better disaster response, improved materials manufacturing, advances in robotics, bioprinting human tissue, and more.
NASA astronaut Megan McArthur works with experiment samples with JAXA astronaut Akihiko Hoshide.NASA
By enabling regular rotation of crew members, commercial crew flights also contribute to research on how long-duration missions affect human health, helping to prepare for exploration missions to the Moon and Mars.
Cargo ResupplyThrough NASA’s Commercial Resupply Services program, partners SpaceX and Northrop Grumman fly cargo to the space station on rockets and spacecraft the companies developed.
Northrop Grumman transports scientific investigations and cargo on its Cygnus spacecraft. The company’s first resupply mission launched in 2013 and it had reached 20 missions by January 2024. When a Cygnus departs from the space station, it disposes of several thousand pounds of waste that burn up during re-entry into Earth’s atmosphere.
A Northrop Grumman Cygnus approaches the International Space Station as they orbit above the south Pacific Ocean.NASA
Departing Cygnus spacecraft also provide safe platforms to perform research that could create hazards if conducted on the space station, such as the Spacecraft Fire Safety Experiments (Saffire). This eight-year series of investigations studied flame growth and material flammability in space. The experiments were ignited in the cargo vehicles after their departure from the station and before re-entry to Earth, avoiding potential risk to the space station and its crew.
SpaceX launched its first Dragon cargo mission in October 2012 and by March 2024, had sent 30 commercial resupply services missions to the space station. Dragon is a reusable spacecraft that also returns samples from scientific investigations conducted on the space station. Beginning in 2021, these return flights started splashing down near Kennedy rather than in the Pacific Ocean. This capability allows scientists quick access to samples to make additional observations and analyses before the effects of gravity fully kick back in. Many researchers also conduct more in-depth analysis later in their home labs.
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A SpaceX Dragon splashes down in the Atlantic Ocean off the Florida coast. Credit: NASANASA also is working with Sierra Space to develop the Dream Chaser spacecraft to transport cargo to and from the space station. The reusable, winged spacecraft is designed to use commercial runways and its cargo is subject to reduced gravitational forces on the return flight. Sierra Space conducted an autonomous atmospheric test flight in 2017.
These commercial partnerships build a strong American commercial space industry, as NASA focuses on developing the next generation of rockets and spacecraft for deep space missions and to put the first woman and first person of color on the Moon.
Melissa Gaskill
International Space Station Research Communications Team
NASA’s Johnson Space Center
Search this database of scientific experiments to learn more about those mentioned above.
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NASA’s ORCA, AirHARP Projects Paved Way for PACE to Reach Space
It took the Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, ocean Ecosystem (PACE) mission just 13 minutes to reach low-Earth orbit from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in February 2024. It took a network of scientists at NASA and research institutions around the world more than 20 years to carefully craft and test the novel instruments that allow PACE to study the ocean and atmosphere with unprecedented clarity.
In the early 2000s, a team of scientists at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, prototyped the Ocean Radiometer for Carbon Assessment (ORCA) instrument, which ultimately became PACE’s primary research tool: the Ocean Color instrument (OCI). Then, in the 2010s, a team from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC), worked with NASA to prototype the Hyper Angular Rainbow Polarimeter (HARP), a shoebox-sized instrument that will collect groundbreaking measurements of atmospheric aerosols.
Neither PACE’s OCI nor HARP2 — a nearly exact copy of the HARP prototype — would exist were it not for NASA’s early investments in novel technologies for Earth observation through competitive grants distributed by the agency’s Earth Science Technology Office (ESTO). Over the last 25 years, ESTO has managed the development of more than 1,100 new technologies for gathering science measurements.
“All of this investment in the tech development early on basically made it much, much easier for us to build the observatory into what it is today,” said Jeremy Werdell, an oceanographer at NASA Goddard and project scientist for PACE.
Charles “Chuck” McClain, who led the ORCA research team until his retirement in 2013, said NASA’s commitment to technology development is a cornerstone of PACE’s success. “Without ESTO, it wouldn’t have happened. It was a long and winding road, getting to where we are today.”
Left to right: Gerhard Meister, Bryan Monosmith, and Chuck McClain are shown here at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., in 2015 with the Ocean Radiometer for Carbon Assessment (ORCA) prototype that led to the Ocean Color Instrument (OCI) aboard NASA’s Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, ocean Ecosystem (PACE) mission.NASA/Bill Hrybyk
It was ORCA that first demonstrated a telescope rotating at a speed of six revolutions per second could synchronize perfectly with an array of charge-coupled devices — microchips that transform telescopic projections into digital images. This innovation made it possible for OCI to observe hyperspectral shades of ocean color previously unobtainable using space-based sensors.
But what made ORCA especially appealing to PACE was its pedigree of thorough testing. “One really important consideration was technology readiness,” said Gerhard Meister, who took over ORCA after McClain retired and serves as OCI instrument scientist. Compared to other ocean radiometer designs that were considered for PACE, “we had this instrument that was ready, and we had shown that it would work.”
Technology readiness also made HARP an appealing solution to PACE’s polarimeter challenge. Mission engineers needed an instrument powerful enough to ensure PACE’s ocean color measurements weren’t jeopardized by atmospheric interference, but compact enough to fly on the PACE observatory platform.
By the time Vanderlei Martins, an atmospheric scientist at UMBC, first spoke to Werdell about incorporating a version of HARP into PACE in 2016, he had proven the technology with AirHARP, an airplane-mounted version of HARP, and was using an ESTO award to prepare HARP CubeSat for space.
HARP2 relies on the same optical system developed through AirHARP and HARP CubeSat. A wide-angle lens observes Earth’s surface from up to 60 different viewing angles with a spatial resolution of 1.62 miles (2.6kilometers) per pixel, all without any moving parts. This gives researchers a global view of aerosols from a tiny instrument that consumes very little energy.
HARP2, short for Hyper Angular Rainbow Polarimeter 2, undergoes calibration testing prior to launch aboard PACE.NASA/Denny Henry
Were it not for NASA’s early support of AirHARP and HARP CubeSat, said Martins, “I don’t think we would have HARP2 today.” He added: “We achieved every single goal, every single element, and that was because ESTO stayed with us.”
That support continues making a difference to researchers like Jessie Turner, an oceanographer at the University of Connecticut who will use PACE to study algal blooms and water clarity in the Chesapeake Bay.
“For my application that I’m building for early adopters of PACE data, I actually think that polarimeters are going to be really useful because that’s something we haven’t fully done before for the ocean,” Turner said. “Polarimetric data can actually help us see what kind of particles are in the water.”
Without the early development and test-drives of the instruments from McClain’s and Martins’ teams, PACE as we know it wouldn’t exist.
“It all kind of fell in place in a timely manner that allowed us to mature the instruments, along with the science, just in time for PACE,” said McClain.
To explore current opportunities to collaborate with NASA on new technologies for studying Earth, visit ESTO’s open solicitations page here.
By Gage Taylor
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
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Black Holes Can Halt Star Formation in Massive Galaxies
It’s difficult to actually visualise a universe that is changing. Things tend to happen at snails pace albeit with the odd exception. Take the formation of galaxies growing in the early universe. Their immense gravitational field would suck in dust and gas from the local vicinity creating vast collections of stars. In the very centre of these young galaxies, supermassive blackholes would reside turning the galaxy into powerful quasars. A recent survey by the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) reveals that black holes can create a powerful solar wind that can remove gas from galaxies faster than they can form into stars, shutting off the creation of new stars.
To remove the confusion and mystique around black holes, they are the corpse of massive stars. When supermassive stars collapse at the end of their lives their core turns into a point source that is so incredibly dense that even light, travelling at 300,000 kilometres per second, is unable to escape. It’s believed that many galaxies have supermassive black holes at their core.
Swift scene change to the earlier part of the life of a star. Fusion in the core generates incredible amounts of energy as new elements are synthesised. Along with new elements, heat and light, a powerful outflow of electrically charged particles rushes away and permeates the surrounding space. Here in our Solar System, charged particles rush Earthward and on arrival we experience the glorious display of the northern lights.
Visualization of the solar wind encountering Earth’s magnetic “defenses” known as the magnetosphere. Clouds of southward-pointing plasma are able to peel back layers of the Sun-facing bubble and stack them into layers on the planet’s nightside (center, right). The layers can be squeezed tightly enough to reconnect and deliver solar electrons (yellow sparkles) directly into the upper atmosphere to create the aurora. Credit: JPLA team of astronomers using the JWST have found that, over 90 percent of the wind that flows through a distant galaxy is made of neutral gas and to date, has been invisible. Until recently it was only possible to detect ionised gas – gas which carries an electric charge – which is warm. The neutral gas in the study revealed that neutral gas was cold but JWST was able to detect it.
The powerful outflow of neutral gas is thought to come from the supermassive blackholes at the core of some galaxies at the edge of the Universe. The team, led by Dr Rebecca Davies from Swinburne University first identified that black hole driven outflow in a distant galaxy over 10 billion light years away. The paper published in Nature explains how ‘The outflow is removing gas faster than gas is being converted into stars, indicating that the outflow is likely to have a very significant impact on the evolution of the galaxy.’
With a lack of gas and dust, star formation will slow and eventually stop. Just like a forest that always has new trees growing to replace old, dying trees, so galaxies usually have star formation to replace dying stars. Ultimately the forest, and a galaxy will be unable to grow and develop and eventually become static and slowly die with the final stars blinking out.
This is a JWST view of the Crab Nebula. Like other supernovae, a star exploded to create this scene.The result is a rapidly spinning neutron star (a pulsar) at its heart, surrounded by material rushing out from the site of the explosion. SN 2022jli could have either a neutron star or a black hole orbiting with a companion star.The team found that the active galactic nuclei with supermassive black holes are the driving force behind this outflow of gas. Those with the most massive black holes can even strip the host galaxy of all the star forming gasses playing a major role in the evolution of the galaxy.
Source : New JWST observations reveal black holes rapidly shut off star formation in massive galaxies
The post Black Holes Can Halt Star Formation in Massive Galaxies appeared first on Universe Today.