Conceptual image of space junk in Earth orbit. Illustration: SCIPHO (AP)
An old rocket body and military satellite—large pieces of space junk dating back to the Soviet Union—nearly smashed into each other on Friday morning, in an uncomfortable near-miss that would’ve resulted in thousands of pieces of debris had they collided.
LeoLabs, a private company that tracks satellites and derelict objects in low Earth orbit, spotted the near-collision in radar data. The company, which can track objects as tiny as 3.9 inches (10 centimeters) in diameter, operates three radar stations, two in the U.S. and one in New Zealand.
The two objects whizzed past each other at an altitude of 611 miles (984 kilometers) on the morning of Friday, January 27. LeoLabs “computed a miss distance of only 6 meters [20 feet] with an error margin of only a few tens of meters,” the company said in a tweet.
That is unbelievably close, as Harvard-Smithsonian astrophysicist Jonathan McDowell conveyed in a graphic posted to Twitter. The SL-8 rocket body (NORAD ID 16511), specifically its second stage, has been in space since 1986, while the Cosmos 2361 military satellite (NORAD ID 25590), known as Parus, launched to low Earth orbit in 1998. A collision between the two objects would have produced thousands of new debris fragments that would have lingered in Earth orbit for decades.
G/O Media may get a commission
The conjunction happened in an orbital “bad neighborhood” located between 590 and 652 miles (950 and 1,050 km) above the surface, according to LeoLabs. This band has “significant debris-generating potential” in low Earth orbit “due to a mix of breakup events and abandoned derelict objects,” the company explained in a series of tweets. The so-called bad neighborhood hosts around 160 SL-8 rocket bodies along with their roughly 160 payloads launched decades ago. LeoLabs says around 1,400 conjunctions involving these rocket bodies were chronicled between June and September 2022.
LeoLabs describes this type of potential collision between “two massive derelict objects” as a “worst-case scenario,” saying it would be “largely out of our control and would likely result in a ripple effect of dangerous collisional encounters.” Indeed, a collision on this scale would most certainly accelerate the ongoing Kessler Syndrome—the steady accumulation of space debris that threatens to make portions of Earth orbit inaccessible.
Related story: What to Know About Kessler Syndrome, the Ultimate Space Disaster
Near-misses in space are becoming increasingly common, whether it’s conjunctions between defunct satellites or clouds of debris that threaten the International Space Station. Avoidance maneuvers are now a steady fixture for satellite operators, with SpaceX, as an extreme example, having to perform over 26,000 collision avoidance maneuvers of its Starlink satellites from December 1, 2020 to November 30, 2022.
In addition to focusing on collision avoidance, LeoLabs recommends the implementation of debris mitigation and debris remediation efforts. This could take the form of sensible guidelines having to do with the removal of satellites once they’re been retired, as well as the introduction of debris removal technologies.
More: The FCC Wants a 5-Year Deadline to Deorbit Defunct Satellites
An illustration of the Lucy spacecraft with both of its circular solar arrays fully deployed.Illustration: Southwest Research Institute
NASA is taking a break from attempts to unfurl a finicky solar array on the Lucy spacecraft, claiming that the probe is too cold and that efforts at deploying the array could be more fruitful when Lucy is closer to the Sun in December 2024.
After launching in October 2021, one of the spacecraft’s two 24-foot-wide (7-meter-wide) solar arrays, which supplies power to Lucy, failed to fully unfurl, remaining stuck in an unlatched position. While NASA has made previous attempts to fully deploy the array, the agency announced in a blog post that the Lucy team will be suspending attempts to completely unfurl the array, saying the spacecraft is too cold.
That said, NASA’s not sweating the issue, and estimated in a blog post that the array is 98% deployed and will be able to withstand the remainder of Lucy’s 12-year mission to visit Jupiter’s mysterious Trojan asteroids, which orbit both ahead and behind the gas giant.
More on this story: 7 Things to Know About NASA’s First Mission to the Jupiter Trojan Asteroids
“Ground-based testing indicated that the deployment attempts were most productive while the spacecraft was warmer, closer to the Sun,” NASA communication officer Erin Morton wrote in the post last week. “As the spacecraft is currently 123 million miles (197 million kilometers) from the Sun (1.3 times farther from the Sun than the Earth) and moving away at 20,000 mph (35,000 km/hr), the team does not expect further deployment attempts to be beneficial under present conditions.”
NASA noticed issues with the solar array shortly after the mission’s launch, and deduced that it was a loss in tension in a lanyard used to unfurl the circular array. Lucy is now hurtling away from the Sun, getting colder and colder, but will return to Earth for a gravity assist in December 2024. At this time, the Lucy team hopes that spacecraft will be warm enough to try again.
In the meantime, the team behind Lucy will be collecting data on the misbehaving solar array to see how it operates at its slightly incapacitated state as Lucy continues its mission to visit Jupiter’s Trojan asteroid clusters.
G/O Media may get a commission
Up to $100 credit
Samsung Reserve
Reserve the next gen Samsung device All you need to do is sign up with your email and boom: credit for your preorder on a new Samsung device.
More: NASA’s Moon-Bound Lunar Flashlight Is Experiencing Thruster Issues
The spiral structure appeared over Maunakea on January 18,Screenshot: Gizmodo/Subaru Telescope
Last week, astronomers at a Hawaiian observatory spotted a spiral-like structure over Maunakea. A SpaceX Falcon 9 upper stage is the likely source of the strange atmospheric feature, as this sort of thing has happened before.
The spiral was seen during the early morning hours of January 18, the same day that a Falcon 9 rocket blasted off from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. A tweet from Subaru Telescope astronomers provided a glimpse of the spectacle, which the scientists linked to SpaceX’s launch of a new satellite.
A “Mysterious” Flying Spiral over Maunakea 2023-01-18 UT / マウナケア上空にまた渦巻き出現！
The observatory also provided a time lapse video of the spiral, showing its evolution over time, along with an unsettling number of satellites zipping by. “Earlier that day, SpaceX launched a satellite to medium-Earth orbit,” Subaru Telescope said in the video. “We believe this phenomenon is related [to] its orbital deployment operation.” SpaceX’s GPS III Space Vehicle 06 mission did in fact launch earlier in the day, delivering a GPS satellite for the U.S. Space Force.
The Subaru Telescope is a 26.9-foot (8.2-meter) optical-infrared telescope located on the summit of Maunakea and operated by the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan. The team used the facility’s Subaru-Asahi Star Camera to spot and chronicle the spiral.
That a rocket could cause such an atmospheric formation seems surprising, but this isn’t the first time that a SpaceX rocket has caused such a structure to form; a similar “smoke ring” seen over Illinois on June 19, 2022 was linked to the launch of a Falcon 9 and the delivery of the Globalstar FM15 satellite.
G/O Media may get a commission
Up to $100 credit
Samsung Reserve
Reserve the next gen Samsung device All you need to do is sign up with your email and boom: credit for your preorder on a new Samsung device.
“This spiral was caused by the Falcon 9’s upper stage venting leftover fuel just before deorbiting into the Pacific Ocean,” Spaceweather reported at the time. “The upper stage was probably spinning on its longest axis to stabilize flight orientation—hence the spiral shape,” and similar spirals “have been seen after previous Falcon 9 launches.”
Falcon 9 launches are known for producing strange atmospheric effects, including bow shocks (as seen in the new video) and rocket “jellyfishes.” Sights like this are set to be a common occurrence, with SpaceX planning more than 100 Falcon 9 launches in the coming year.
More: Starlink Is Now Connecting Remote Antarctic Research Camps to the Internet
Russia’s Soyuz rockets were used to launch OneWeb satellites from French Guiana.
The Russian space agency may be willing to return 36 satellites it’s been keeping hostage in Kazakhstan in exchange for parts of its Soyuz rockets that are being held in French Guiana.
According to a report by Russian Space Web, French aerospace company Arianespace might be looking into a deal with Roscosmos to swap components of the Russian Soyuz rocket for 36 OneWeb satellites that have been held at its Kazakhstan launch site since March. Roscosmos’s newly appointed head Yuri Borisov is reportedly open to negotiations with Arianespace, a source told Russian Space Web.
Arianespace and OneWeb did not immediately respond to our request for confirmations of the Russian Space Web report. We’ll update this post should we hear back.
Under the helm of former Roscosmos head Dmitry Rogozin, the space agency severed ties with Europe in retaliation for Western-imposed sanctions against Russia. That included an ongoing deal it had with British company OneWeb to launch its internet satellites to orbit aboard the Soyuz rockets. OneWeb refused to agree to a list of unreasonable demands put forward by Roscosmos in March, prompting Russia to hold on to the company’s 36 satellites and store them indefinitely at its launch facility in Baikonur, Kazakhstan. OneWeb eventually forged new partnerships with SpaceX and India’s space agency to launch its remaining satellites to orbit, but its 36 lonesome satellites remained out of reach.
Roscosmos also halted its cooperation with Europe on Soyuz rocket launches from French Guiana and withdrew 87 employees from the launch site. But with Russian involvement in French Guiana terminated, the Soyuz rocket components were left abandoned, as Anatoly Zak writes at Russian Space Web:
On orders from Roskosmos head Dmitry Rogozin, dozens of Russian specialists were abruptly withdrawn from French Guiana in early March 2022, leaving behind the rocket stages, containers with propellant, support hardware and documentation. The Paris-based Arianespace company, which contracted Roskosmos to provide and support Soyuz launches with European and most non-Russian commercial payloads, took custody of the stored equipment until its expected return to Russia. However, due to the severe breakdown in diplomatic relations and economic activities between Europe and Moscow, the Russian hardware remained in French Guiana for the rest of 2022.
G/O Media may get a commission
Up to $100 credit
Samsung Reserve
Reserve the next gen Samsung device All you need to do is sign up with your email and boom: credit for your preorder on a new Samsung device.
With Russia gone from French Guiana, the European Space Agency is turning to U.S. company SpaceX to launch its upcoming Euclid telescope to orbit instead of launching it on board a Soyuz rocket.
Following Rogozin’s dismissal from his position at Roscosmos, the space agency could be taking a more diplomatic approach to its space partnerships. But it could still take some time. Russian Space Web’s source said some logistical hurdles still need to be addressed, which are causing negotiations to advance at a slow pace. For example, Russian specialists would need to obtain new visas to enter French Guiana and retrieve the rocket parts, a process made more difficult on account of Russia’s severed ties with Europe.
The previous year was tumultuous for both the Russian and European space industry; Russia lost key space partners while Europe scrambled to find ways of reaching orbit without access to Soyuz rockets. Whether or not this will change this year remains to be seen, but an ongoing swap agreement may be a good step for now.
More: Europe Has Few Options to Reach Space After Vega-C Rocket Crash
Three astronauts and cosmonauts need rescuing from the ISS. Photo: ASSOCIATED PRESS (AP)
Last year, there was some drama aboard the International Space Station as Russian cosmonauts were forced to abandon a spacewalk after a leak was found in a Soyuz capsule connected to the ISS. The leak, it transpired, was caused by a tiny meteoroid that hit the crew’s return ship and put the craft out of action, leaving three crew members stranded aboard, in need of rescue.
The leak aboard Soyuz capsule MS-22, which astronauts use for their return trip to Earth, was discovered in early December. It resulted in an increased cabin temperature and experts deemed the capsule “unfit” to use. With no return craft, a rescue flight is finally being planned to bring the space travelers home.
If you’re anything like me, Aerosmith is probably playing in your head as you imagine NASA assembling a team of the brightest and best to launch two rockets into space simultaneously to save the world and bring these brave heroes home.
The Soyuz capsule was struck by a meteor and sprung a leak. Photo: ASSOCIATED PRESS (AP)
Sadly, that isn’t quite what’s happening. Instead, The Guardian reports that Russia will launch a craft into space next month to rescue the stricken astronauts from the ISS. The Guardian reports:
“After deliberations, Roscosmos said it has decided to bring forward a planned March launch of the Soyuz MS-23 to 20 February so it can be used to transport the Russian cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitry Petelin and the US astronaut Francisco Rubio back to Earth.
“If a ‘particularly critical’ situation arose on the ISS in the weeks before then, Roscosmos said, the possibility of using the damaged Soyuz MS-22 to rescue the crew would be considered.”
G/O Media may get a commission
Up to $100 credit
Samsung Reserve
Reserve the next gen Samsung device All you need to do is sign up with your email and boom: credit for your preorder on a new Samsung device.
Prokopyev, Petelin and Rubio are part of a seven-strong crew onboard the ISS. The four other team members will be brought back to Earth on a Space X capsule currently docked with the station. Once the Space X craft leaves the ISS, this will free up the second of two docking stations on the space base. Then, Roscosmos will be able to fly a spare Soyuz craft up to the ISS to dock with the station and bring the crew members home.
Right – left: Frank Rubio, Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitri Petelin. Photo: ASSOCIATED PRESS (AP)
The rescue flight, Soyuz MS-23, was originally scheduled to fly a new crew up to the ISS. But, the flight will be empty when it launches into orbit on its rescue mission. Once it docks with the space station, the damaged MS-22 craft will return to Earth empty.
The TitanAir concept for exploring Saturn’s moon Titan. Illustration: Quinn Morley
The future of space exploration requires big ideas, and NASA has no objection to considering some of the biggest ideas out there. The space agency’s Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) program exists for this very purpose, and it has chosen the next crop of concepts worthy of an initial study.
The latest round of NIAC grants were awarded to 14 research teams, each receiving $175,000 to further develop their concepts, NASA announced yesterday. Of the 14, 10 are first-time NIAC recipients. These are all preliminary Phase I studies, which need to be completed within nine months.
“These initial Phase I NIAC studies help NASA determine whether these futuristic ideas could set the stage for future space exploration capabilities and enable amazing new missions,” Michael LaPointe, program executive for NIAC, said in the statement.
Success in Phase I could see some of these concepts move to Phase II, in which the researchers are granted more funding and two more years to further develop their ambitious schemes. Only a select few make it to third base: Phase III.
NIAC grants typically cover a wide spectrum of space-based interests, and the selections for this year are no different. NASA strikes a balance between Earth and space science, space exploration, and, of particular importance to the space agency, the furthering of its Artemis agenda, under which NASA is seeking a sustainable and prolonged return to the Moon.
Fly AirTitan
Among the more eye-catching concepts is the AirTitan project envisioned by planetary scientist Quinn Morley of Planet Enterprises. Various concepts for exploring Saturn’s moon Titan have been proposed before, and NASA is already in the midst of preparing the Dragonfly mission, but Morley’s idea is discernibly next level. The autonomous AirTitan vehicle would be just as comfortable flying in Titan’s thick atmosphere as it would be sailing on its methane lakes.
Artist’s concept of a lake at the north pole of Saturn’s moon Titan.Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Morley envisions daily flights for AirTitan, as it seamlessly transitions from watercraft (er, methanecraft?) to aircraft. In addition to sampling Titan’s complex atmosphere, the probe would collect and analyze liquid samples. Indeed, Titan is of significant astrobiological interest, as it may host prebiotic organic chemistry. That said, the thick oily lakes could present a problem, but an inflatable wing liner could “offer resiliency and mitigate sludge buildup problems,” according to Morley.
Satellite megaconstellations for astronomy
NASA is also interested in the Great Observatory for Long Wavelengths (GO-LoW) concept proposed by Mary Knapp from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. This space-based observatory would consist of thousands of identical satellites working at the fifth Earth-Sun Lagrange point (L5). By hunting for radio emissions at frequencies between 100 kHz and 15 MHz, the satellite array could study the magnetic fields of distant exoplanets and detect rocky exoplanets similar to our own.
Depiction of Great Observatory for Long Wavelengths (GO-LoW) with low-frequency vector sensors.Graphic: Mary Knapp
The “fail fast, fail cheap approach is a drastic departure from traditional practices,” Knapp writes, adding that “SpaceX and other new entrants to the launch vehicle market have pushed the market to lower and lower costs, through manufacturing innovations and the economics of scale behind mega-constellations.”
Pellet-beam propulsion
NASA wants Artur Davoyan from the University of California, Los Angeles, to further develop his pellet-beam propulsion system concept, which the mechanical and aerospace engineer envisions as means for transporting heavy spacecraft to targets across the solar system and even into interstellar space. The proposed propulsion system would employ a pellet beam—a beam of microscopic hypervelocity particles propelled by lasers—to push spacecraft to desired locations. Unlike other concepts, the pellet beam allows for the transport of heavy spacecraft, which Davoyan says “substantially increases the scope of possible missions.”
Depiction of Pellet-Beam Propulsion for Breakthrough Space Exploration Graphic: Artur Davoyan
Pellet-beam propulsion could take payloads to the outer planets in less than a year and to distances farther than 100 times the Earth-Sun distance (au) in about three years, he claims. For the current study, Davoyan will consider the efficacy of using the pellet-beam to transport a 1-ton payload to 500 au in less than 20 years. For reference, Pluto is “just” 35.6 au from Earth, while NASA’s Voyager 2, which launched 45 years ago, is now roughly 133 au from Earth.
An oxygen pipeline at the lunar south pole
A key priority for NASA’s Artemis program is to maintain a sustainable presence on the Moon, a challenge that the space agency could overcome by using on-site resources, such as extracting oxygen from the lunar regolith (soil) and water-ice. Peter Curreri from Lunar Resources in Houston agrees, but he’s not a fan of NASA’s current plan, as he explains:
Current funded efforts for in-situ [on-site] oxygen extraction consists of bottling the oxygen in compressed gas tanks or to liquefy and store it in dewars. Either approach requires trucking tanks or dewars to various facilities for use. The process of moving this oxygen on rovers is more energy intensive than the extraction process and is thought to be the MOST expensive aspect in obtaining in-situ oxygen for use on the Moon considering the long distances a resource extraction area will be from a human habitat or liquification plant.
Instead, Curreri proposes a lunar pipeline, which would be built at the lunar south pole, as that’s where most of the Moon’s water-ice is located. The concept attracted NASA’s attention, resulting in the Phase I research grant.
Depiction of the Lunar South Pole Oxygen Pipeline.Image: Peter Curreri
The pipelines would provide settlers with constant access to precious oxygen, while also linking scattered settlements. “A lunar pipeline has never been pursued and will revolutionize lunar surface operations for the Artemis program and reduce cost and risk,” Curreri says.
Growing bricks on Mars
NASA also has its sights set on Mars, so it wants Congrui Grace Jin, an engineer from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, to flesh out her idea for growing bricks on Mars, as opposed to importing them from Earth. Indeed, settlers will need to build structures on Mars, but that would require the launching of materials on separate missions, adding to costs. More practically, Jin’s research “proposes that, rather than shipping prefabricated outfitting elements to Mars, habitat outfitting can be realized by in-situ construction using cyanobacteria and fungi as building agents.”
These microbes would be coaxed into generating biominerals and polymers for gluing the Martian regolith into building blocks. “These self-growing building blocks can later be assembled into various structures, such as floors, walls, partitions, and furniture,” Jin writes.
These are only a few of the 14 concepts chosen by NASA for this year’s NIAC grant. You can learn more about the other research proposals here. And to be clear, these concepts haven’t been approved as actual projects—they all still need to pass NASA’s sniff test. Some and possibly all of these ideas may die on the vine, but these sorts of speculations are always worthwhile and a sneak preview to what may eventually be possible.
An illustration of the lunar gateway in orbit around the Moon.Illustration: NASA
Architects designing the living space for the upcoming lunar Gateway did their best to make it comfortable for astronauts, but technical constraints forced them to create a tiny, noisy corridor with no windows and barely enough room to stand upright.
The European-built international habitat, or I-Hab, is meant to provide living quarters for astronauts on board the Lunar Gateway, a future outpost that will orbit the Moon. The purpose of Gateway, a collaboration between NASA, the European Space Agency, and other international partners, is to provide a place for astronauts to conduct science in lunar orbit and to transfer from one spacecraft to another, such as a lunar lander. But an architect involved in I-Hab’s design recently revealed the claustrophobic conditions for the orbital habitat that’s supposed to house up to four astronauts for around 90 days at a time.
Related story: What to Know About Lunar Gateway, NASA’s Future Moon-Orbiting Space Station
During the Czech Space Week conference in Brno, Czechia (the country formerly known as the Czech Republic), René Waclavicek, a space architect and design researcher at Austria-based LIQUIFER Space Systems, stated that the Lunar Gateway will be roughly one-sixth of the size of the International Space Station (ISS), Space.com reported. Waclavicek, who was involved in I-Hab’s design, said that the architects behind the lunar living quarters were constrained by the amount of material that can be transported to the Moon, requiring them to make some sacrifices.
I-Hab “will have habitable space of about 8 cubic meters [280 cubic feet] and you will have to share it with three others,” Waclavicek said during the conference. “In other words, that would be a room 2 by 2 by 2 meters [6.6 by 6.6 by 6.6 feet], and you are locked in there.”
By comparison, the ISS stretches for about 357 feet (108 meters) from end-to-end, and is essentially a five-bedroom orbital complex complete with a gym, two bathrooms, and a 360-degree window with an enviable view of our home planet.
G/O Media may get a commission
$50 off preorder
Ring Car Cam
It’s a camera. For your car. The Ring Car Cam’s dual-facing HD cameras capture activity in and around your car in HD detail.
A view of the Moon wouldn’t be bad either, except I-Hab won’t be equipped with the same luxury. “We always get asked ‘where is the window?’,” Waclavicek said. “The moon is a thousand times farther away [than the ISS] and each window is a disturbance in the continuity of the structure. Also, glass is very heavy so a window is the first thing that gets canceled.” The Gateway will have windows, although not in the living quarters. Instead, the refueling module ESPRIT will have small windows, according to Waclavicek.
With an extremely curtailed view of the surrounding cosmos, the astronauts will have a hard time relaxing during their downtime—especially as they’re being serenaded by the robotic hum of onboard machinery. “Actually, you are living in a machine room,” Waclavicek said. “The life-support systems make noise, they have a lot of fans, and you have [a tiny amount] of private space where you can close the door and tame the noise.”
The architect admits that they began with a design for larger living quarters but had to shrink it down due to mass restrictions for the lunar outpost. As a result, astronauts will be cramped inside a tiny tube for the duration of their mission around the Moon. “[The I-Hab] really is just a cylinder with a hatch on each end and two hatches at the sides and a corridor going through the length axis,” he said. “Even if you want to pass one another, it’s already quite difficult, you have to interrupt whatever you are doing in the moment to let the other [person] pass by you.” It will be a cramped environment, no doubt, but it’s important to remember that a capsule, namely NASA’s Orion spacecraft, will be attached to the Gateway station during these missions, which will allow for some added elbow room. Lunar landers, such as SpaceX’s upcoming Starship, will also dock to Gateway.
NASA’s Artemis program is officially underway, having kicking off in November 2022 with the launch of Artemis 1. Unlike Apollo, Artemis is designed to establish a sustainable presence of astronauts on and around the Moon, with the Lunar Gateway being an essential part of the mission objective.
The first components of the Lunar Gateway could reach orbit as early as 2024, but I-Hab isn’t expected to make it up there until 2027. The living quarters may not sound like it would provide for a pleasant experience on board, but it will likely contribute some valuable science on Earth’s natural satellite and beyond.
More: Texas Company Wins $57 Million From NASA to Develop Lunar Construction Tech
The Danuri Lunar Orbiter caught this view of Earth.Image: KARI
From its position in low lunar orbit, South Korea’s first Moon mission caught a unique glimpse of Earth rising from behind the cratered surface of our natural satellite.
The Korean Pathfinder Lunar Orbiter (KPLO), also known as Danuri, beamed back beautiful black-and-white images of Earth captured by its high-resolution camera. The two images were taken on December 24 and 28 and released by the Korean Aerospace Research Institute on Monday.
Image: KARI
The images show a solemn Earth in the distance, while the Moon’s dusty surface appears in the foreground. From our perspective on Earth, we often see the Moon rising above our planet’s surface. But the images taken by Danuri from lunar orbit provide a counterintuitive view of our home planet glimmering behind the Moon’s surface.
Danuri captured the first image when it was 77 miles (124 kilometers) above the lunar surface and the second when it was around 213 miles (344 kilometers) above its surface.
G/O Media may get a commission
Image: KARI
Danuri launched on August 5 on board SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket, marking South Korea’s first deep space mission. On December 17, the spacecraft completed its first lunar orbit insertion maneuver and entered into lunar orbit.
The 1,100-pound (500-kilogram) probe is equipped with four science instruments built locally, as well as a NASA camera to capture views of the lunar surface. From its low orbit, Danuri will explore the Moon’s shadowed regions, which could hold water ice.
By launching Danuri, South Korea hopes to advance its lunar exploration, as the orbiter is designed to scope out potential landing spots for future missions to the Moon. South Korea also wants to launch a lander and a rover, in addition to another orbiter, for the second phase of the mission.
More: Chinese Mission to Pluck Samples from Moon’s Far Side Just Got More Interesting
A stream of particles shot out of the Soyuz spacecraft while it was attached to the ISS.Screenshot: NASA
NASA may turn to its commercial partner SpaceX to transport three astronauts back to Earth after a Russian Soyuz spacecraft suffered a coolant leak in mid-December.
In a blog post published on Friday, NASA said that it “reached out to SpaceX about its capability to return additional crew members aboard Dragon if needed in an emergency.” At the moment, NASA is investigating whether or not the Soyuz spacecraft would still be capable of carrying astronauts on the trip back from the International Space Station, the space agency added.
The Soyuz spacecraft transported NASA astronaut Frank Rubio and Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitri Petelin to the ISS in September 2022. On December 14, the spacecraft began leaking coolant into low Earth orbit while attached to the ISS. The coolant leak lasted for three hours and was captured on a livestream by NASA TV. The astronauts on board the space station were not harmed, but the fate of the three astronauts that were meant to use the Soyuz spacecraft to return to Earth remains up in the air.
“NASA and Roscosmos are continuing to conduct a variety of engineering reviews and are consulting with other international partners about methods for safely bringing the Soyuz crew home for both normal and contingency scenarios,” NASA wrote in the blog post. The two space agencies are expected to make a final decision regarding the viability of the spacecraft this month.
Roscosmos was hoping to make a decision by December 27, but the space agency announced that it needed more time to evaluate the flight capabilities of the Soyuz spacecraft. The exact reason behind the leak has not been announced, although it may have been caused by a micrometeorite or a tiny piece of space junk that left an 0.8-millimeter-wide hole in the Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft.
G/O Media may get a commission
42% Off
Hisense 58-Inch ULED LED 4K Smart TV
TV time This 58-inch smart TV has 4K visuals on a stunning ULED screen that boosts color, contrast, and brightness, has Fire TV built-in for convenience, and even includes Alexa.
Rubio was the first NASA astronaut to fly aboard a Russian Soyuz rocket since April 2021, the result of a recent seat-swap agreement between the two space agencies. The arrangement stipulated that a U.S. astronaut would ride aboard a Soyuz capsule in exchange for a Russian cosmonaut boarding a SpaceX Crew Dragon for the very first time. Should the Soyuz spacecraft be deemed unusable for a crew return, NASA may call on SpaceX to send a Crew Dragon to pick up the three astronauts from the ISS and bring them back to Earth. The astronauts are scheduled to return in the spring after having spent six months on board the ISS.
More: Russian Cosmonaut Forced to Abandon Spacewalk Due to Spacesuit Power Malfunction
The HAARP facility’s antenna array includes 180 antennas spread across 33 acres.Photo: HAARP
A group of researchers is attempting to bounce radio signals off a 500-foot-wide asteroid during its close flyby of Earth on Tuesday.
The High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program (HAARP) is aiming its antennas at asteroid 2010 XC15, a space rock that’s categorized as a near-Earth potentially hazardous asteroid. The effort is a test run to to prepare for a larger object, known as Apophis, that will have a close encounter with our planet in 2029.
“What’s new and what we are trying to do is probe asteroid interiors with long wavelength radars and radio telescopes from the ground,” Mark Haynes, lead investigator on the project and a radar systems engineer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, said in a statement. “Longer wavelengths can penetrate the interior of an object much better than the radio wavelengths used for communication.”
HAARP is a research facility in Gakona, Alaska (one that’s been the subject of plenty of conspiracy theories). It’s made up of 180 high-frequency antennas, each standing at 72 feet tall and stretched across 33 acres. The facility transmits radio beams toward the ionosphere, the ionized part of the atmosphere that’s located about 50 to 400 miles (80 to 600 kilometers) above Earth’s surface. HAARP sends radio signals to the ionosphere and waits to see how they return, in an effort to measure the disturbances caused by the Sun, among other things.
The facility launched a science campaign in October with 13 experiments, including one that involved bouncing signals off the Moon. At the time, HAARP researchers were considering sending a radio signal to an asteroid to investigate the interior of the rocky body.
During today’s experiment, the HAARP antennas in Alaska will transmit the radio signals to the asteroid, and then scientists will check if the reflected signals arrive at antenna arrays at the University of New Mexico Long Wavelength Array and California’s Owens Valley Radio Observatory Long Wavelength Array.
HAARP will transmit a continually chirping signal at slightly above and below 9.6 megahertz; the chirp will repeat at two-second intervals. At its closest approach on December 27, the asteroid will be twice as far as the Moon is from Earth.
Tuesday’s experiment is to prepare for an upcoming encounter with an asteroid in 2029. That potentially hazardous asteroid, formally known as 99942 Apophis, is around 1,210 feet (370 meters) wide, and it will come to within 20,000 miles (32,000 kilometers) of Earth on April 13, 2029. The near-Earth object was thought to pose a slight risk to Earth in 2068, but NASA ruled that out.
Still, HAARP wants to probe the asteroid to prepare for potential risks in the future from space rocks. “The more time there is before a potential impact, the more options there are to try to deflect it,” Haynes said.
In September, NASA’s DART spacecraft smacked into a small asteroid and successfully altered its orbit. Such a strategy could be one way to divert a space rock that threatens Earth.
Today’s test shows the potential of using long wavelength radio signals to probe the interiors of asteroids. “If we can get the ground-based systems up and running, then that will give us a lot of chances to try to do interior sensing of these objects,” Haynes said.
More: A Powerful Recoil Effect Magnified NASA’s Asteroid Deflection Experiment