Astronomy and space exploration

[eloic]

A few Mars-related news:

Ancient Mars had right conditions for underground life, new research suggests

A new study shows that the breakdown of water molecules trapped in ancient Martian rocks likely produced enough chemical energy to sustain microorganisms for hundreds of millions of years beneath the Red Planet's surface.

A new study shows evidence that ancient Mars probably had an ample supply of chemical energy for microbes to thrive underground.

"We showed, based on basic physics and chemistry calculations, that the ancient Martian subsurface likely had enough dissolved hydrogen to power a global subsurface biosphere," said Jesse Tarnas, a graduate student at Brown University and lead author of a study published in Earth and Planetary Science Letters. "Conditions in this habitable zone would have been similar to places on Earth where underground life exists."

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/09/180924102040.htm

How to Grow Crops on Mars If We Are to Live on the Red Planet

This article was originally published at The Conversation. The publication contributed the article to Space.com's Space.com's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights.
Preparations are already underway for missions that will land humans on Mars in a decade or so. But what would people eat if these missions eventually lead to the permanent colonization of the red planet?

https://www.space.com/41843-growing-crops-on-mars.html

Antarctica Greenhouse Produces Cucumbers, Tomatoes and More in Mars-Like Test

Fresh vegetables on Mars, anyone?

An Antarctic greenhouse known as EDEN ISS not only survived the polar night but emerged from it with a harvest for local researchers, thus providing hope that future Mars colonists could also enjoy fresh food during their time on the Red Planet, German Aerospace Center (DLR) officials said in a statement.

https://www.space.com/41863-antarctic-greenhouse-eden-iss-project.html

 

[eloic]

First Exomoon Found? Neptune-Sized World Possibly Spotted Orbiting Alien Planet
Scientists may have bagged the first-ever exomoon.

NASA's Kepler and Hubble space telescopes have spotted evidence of a Neptune-size satellite orbiting the Jupiter-like planet WASP-1625b, which lies about 8,000 light-years from Earth, a new study reports.

https://www.space.com/42008-first-exomoon-discovery-kepler-1625b.html

 

[nutball]

Maybe. I mean it's interesting, but...

(Cue the "that's no Moon" jokes!).

 

[eloic]

Maybe. I mean it's interesting, but...

(Cue the "that's no Moon" jokes!).

Yeah, maybe...

I just wonder when we'll get images of exoplanets and exomoons. Better ones than those we already have, I mean.

 

[nutball]

Well as direct imaging techniques improve, the images will get better. I seriously doubt that they will ever be much more than point sources though. Maybe space-based interferometry will get something, though I'm not aware of any proposed mission that has a hope in hell of getting funding in my lifetime to do that.

If you're wanting in-situ imaging (ie. sending a probe there to take a photo) you will be waiting a long time.

 

[eloic]

Well as direct imaging techniques improve, the images will get better. I seriously doubt that they will ever be much more than point sources though.

But... we already have "points", sort of. But you say that it will get better. How do you improve the image of an exoplanet without being something better than just a point?

 

[nutball]

I mean that what we have are images of planets that are very distant from their star, compared say to those in the Solar system, or the bulk of known exoplanets. Over time techniques will improve that will allow us to image planets closer to their host star.

More important direct imaging is probably the best way to get a spectrum of the atmosphere exoplanet that's more or less uncontaminated by the spectrum of the host, or dependent on some very marginal(*) techniques to disentangle the planet spectrum from the star. If you want to find biosignatures, this is perhaps your best bet.

You might not get pretty pictures, at best maybe something like the Voyager family portrait, but the best science doesn't always come from pretty pictures.

(*) techniques that are very difficult, low signal-to-noise, easy to get wrong, and the results of which are often presented with an ... *ahem* optimistic interpretation.

 

[eloic]

I mean that what we have are images of planets that are very distant from their star, compared say to those in the Solar system, or the bulk of known exoplanets. Over time techniques will improve that will allow us to image planets closer to their host star.

More important direct imaging is probably the best way to get a spectrum of the atmosphere exoplanet that's more or less uncontaminated by the spectrum of the host, or dependent on some very marginal(*) techniques to disentangle the planet spectrum from the star. If you want to find biosignatures, this is perhaps your best bet.

You might not get pretty pictures, at best maybe something like the Voyager family portrait, but the best science doesn't always come from pretty pictures.

(*) techniques that are very difficult, low signal-to-noise, easy to get wrong, and the results of which are often presented with an ... *ahem* optimistic interpretation.

That reminds me of the proposed starshade in the future New Worlds mission: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Worlds_Mission

 

[nutball]

Something like that, yes. That idea has been floating around for well over a decade now. Who knows if it will ever fly, particularly if they are proposing their own dedicated space-based 4m telescope to go along with it ($3bn? yeah right).

JWST going over budget and falling so far behind schedule has really killed the prospect for any large NASA astronomy missions for a long time to come. If NASA flies anything like New Worlds before the 2040s I'd be quite surprised. ESA likewise, their missions are basically all committed until the late 30s AFAIK.

Maybe some rich person will come along and stump up the cash. The two obvious high-profile names seem more intent on putting human footprints on the ground than astronomy.

 

[eloic]

Lockheed Martin Unveils Plans for Huge Reusable Moon Lander for Astronauts

Today (Oct. 3), aerospace giant Lockheed Martin revealed its concept for a reusable, single-stage spaceship capable of ferrying four astronauts between lunar orbit and the surface of the moon.

For comparison, the expendable lunar lander that NASA used during the Apollo program carried two people and weighed 4.7 tons (4.3 metric tons) without propellant. Lockheed's craft would weigh 24 tons (22 metric tons) dry and tip the scales at 68 tons (62 metric tons) when fully fueled.

https://www.space.com/42011-lockheed-martin-unveils-huge-moon-lander.html

 

[eloic]

Going Up? Waiting for the Space Elevator

Space-elevator tech, a longtime sci-fi staple, is about to get a test here in the real world.

The Japanese STARS-Me (Space Tethered Autonomous Robotic Satellite-Mini Elevator) payload arrived at the International Space Station (ISS) on Sept. 27, aboard Japan's robotic HTV-7 cargo spacecraft. The experiment was produced by researchers at Shizuoka University in Japan, in collaboration with Obayashi, a Japanese construction firm.

https://www.space.com/42041-space-elevator-test-stars-me.html

 

[eloic]

Falcon 9 first landing at new landing pad in California (the video shows the launch, too, from the launching pad in a different place):

 

[nutball]

Meanwhile, trouble with Hubble. Sounds like it's lost a gyro and is currently in safe-mode.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1049092469000953857

 

[eloic]

Meanwhile, trouble with Hubble. Sounds like it's lost a gyro and is currently in safe-mode.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1049092469000953857

Yeah, poor thing. I hope we can still get the most of it before new tech completely replaces it.

 

[eloic]

BepiColombo mission (Mercury) launched today. More info on the mission here:
http://sci.esa.int/bepicolombo/

BepiColombo is Europe's first mission to Mercury. It will set off in 2018 on a journey to the smallest and least explored terrestrial planet in our Solar System. When it arrives at Mercury in late 2025, it will endure temperatures in excess of 350 °C and gather data during its 1 year nominal mission, with a possible 1-year extension. The mission comprises two spacecraft: the Mercury Planetary Orbiter (MPO) and the Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter (MMO). BepiColombo is a joint mission between ESA and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), executed under ESA leadership.

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NASA's SLS Megarocket Over Budget, Behind Schedule, Report Finds

It'll cost several billion dollars more than originally planned to get NASA's huge Space Launch System (SLS) rocket off the ground, and that already-delayed first flight will probably end up being pushed back yet again, a new report by the agency's Office of Inspector General (OIG) finds.

https://www.space.com/42092-nasa-sls-rocket-delays-overruns-oig-report.html

 

[eloic]

Air Force Awards Launch Vehicle Development Contracts to Blue Origin, Northrop Grumman, ULA

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Air Force announced on Wednesday it is awarding three contracts collectively worth about $2 billion to Blue Origin, Northrop Grumman Innovation Systems and United Launch Alliance to develop launch system prototypes.

The funding is for the development of competing launch system prototypes geared toward launching national security payloads. Each company will receive an initial award of $181 million.

https://www.space.com/42093-air-force-launch-vehicle-awards-blue-origin-northrop-grumman-ula.html
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Mars related news:

Scientists are figuring out how to farm Mars
With long-term occupation comes the need for sustainable food sources on the Red Planet. We've already got some ideas.



A visit to Mars is almost guaranteed within the next decade or so, with everyone from NASA to warring tech billionaires setting their sights on the Red Planet. And long-term occupation may not be much farther behind.

But before we do, there are many obstacles to overcome, some highly technical. But one of them is a challenge humans have been tackling almost since our ancestors came down out of the trees: learning to farm in new places. And while we’ve never traveled so far from home before, there’s reason to be optimistic about our skills off-world.

http://astronomy.com/news/2018/10/scientists-are-figuring-out-how-to-farm-mars

NASA's next Mars rover could explore former mineral springs and a fossil river delta
Sometimes, a problem really can be solved by meeting halfway. For the past 4 years, planetary scientists have wrestled over where to send NASA's next Mars rover, a $2.5 billion machine to be launched in 2020 that will collect rock samples for eventual return to Earth. Next week, nearly 200 Mars scientists will gather for a final landing site workshop in Glendale, California, where they will debate the merits of the three candidate sites that rose to the top of previous discussions. Two, Jezero and Northeast Syrtis, hold evidence of a fossilized river delta and mineral springs, both promising environments for ancient life. Scientists yearn to visit both, but they are 37 kilometers apart—much farther than any rover has traveled.

http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2018...former-mineral-springs-and-fossil-river-delta

 

[hoom]

A Soyuz heading for ISS had 2nd stage failure, crew pod successfully separated & crashed/landed, both crew OK.

 

[Lightman]

I watched it 'Live' yesterday. This was the first time they successfully executed safety protocols after failure mid flight. Everything worked well for ballistic re-entry and this shows that engineers covered all eventualities.
I've seen some speculation about strange coincidences with hole on Soyuz 9 and now this separation issue. Two separate failures (or sabotages) in a short span of time. Hopefully it's just a coincidence, as risking astronauts life for some kind of personal gain is not acceptable.

 

[nutball]

Yeah, the Internet loves a conspiracy. If there isn't a conspiracy, the Internet will make one up to fill in the gap.

The Russian space programme is chronically under-funded, the engineers are under-paid, and for them the future only looks worse. Morale is unlikely to be high. Not exactly the sort of environment that fosters a culture of attention to detail and just plain giving a shit really.

So yeah, count me in the cock-up over conspiracy camp.

 

[cheapchips]

I watched it 'Live' yesterday. This was the first time they successfully executed safety protocols after failure mid flight. Everything worked well for ballistic re-entry and this shows that engineers covered all eventualities.

They had a more severe failure and ballistic reentry in 1975. The cosmonauts pulled +20g on that one!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soyuz_7K-T_No.39

I've seen some speculation about strange coincidences with hole on Soyuz 9 and now this separation issue. Two separate failures (or sabotages) in a short span of time. Hopefully it's just a coincidence, as risking astronauts life for some kind of personal gain is not acceptable.

Hopefully so. The worry I have is that the ISS leak looked like someone covering up incompetence. Regardless of that being due to an individual or supervisors, that's smacks of something worrying going on at Roscosmos. Yesterday's incident isn't encouraging in that regard.