Category Archives: Space Exploration

Foundation for the Future lists a virtual event entitled Conversations for the Future: Bringing Space Home for October 5 at 10:00 am ET through October 6 at 4:00 pm ET, 2021.

No agenda or list of speakers is available as of October 3. The website simply says:

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Oct 05, 10:00 AM EDT Oct 06, 4:00 PM EDT

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Why space? Dont we have enough problems at home? Our October event is called Bringing Space Home and will focus on how we space exploration, science, and technology benefit life here on earth. This will include benefits from both technology transfer of space science and technologies and applications that are made possible by space infrastructure.

AND DONT MISS OUR SPECIAL SEGMENTS:

Whats Goin On? Current events with Laura Forczyk of Astralytical

Saturday Space! Entertainment and Recreation

Space Money! Finance and economics

Student Spotlight

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CONVERSATIONS FOR THE FUTURE: BRINGING SPACE HOME (F4F), Oct 5-6, 2021, virtual - SpacePolicyOnline.com

Barbie is partnering with the European Space Agency and it's only European female astronaut in an effort to inspire young girls to pursue careers in space and STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics).

As part of an initiative called This World Space Week, a special one-of-a-kind Barbie doll modelled on Samantha Cristoforetti will go on sale across the UK and Europe.

Ms Cristoforetti, 44, will break new ground next year by becoming the first European to command the International Space Station.

She hopes the doll, which has been videoed floating at zero gravity like she will be at the space station, can inspire young people.

"As astronauts, something that we all care about is inspiring the next generation,'' Ms Cristoforetti said.

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"I think boys and girls, they get passionate about things because they see something intriguing because they see something funny and so maybe those images will kindle a passion in some girls' hearts and that will be incredible."

As part of the programme, educational resources are also being made available to spotlight different space careers, and teach primary school-aged children more about space.

Barbie's Marketing Director for Europe and Emerging Markets Isabel Ferrer said: "With Space & STEM careers still underrepresented by women, Barbie is using its platform this World Space Week to show girls exciting and diverse roles and activity in space to inspire them to explore their limitless potential."

This scheme isn't just aimed at aspiring astronauts though. It is also focused on potential engineers and space scientists like Dr Nicol Caplin.

As a Deep Space Exploration Scientist in the Human and Robotic Exploration Directorate, she works on a number of astrobiology experiments destined for the International Space Station.

Dr Caplin, who has noticed a lack of gender diversity in not just space but STEM careers more broadly, said young girls seeing the doll could be "extremely powerful".

"I think it's quite difficult to be what you can't see and so to imagine yourself as a Barbie doll floating through space. Maybe that could have some spark and could really inspire some girls to put on a space suit and to go into space themselves one day."

Dr Caplin, who joined the ESA as a research fellow at the age of 28, said she believes encouraging young people is mainly about choice.

"It's not so much about forcing girls into STEM. I think this is all about giving young girls the choice of knowing what they want to do in life and knowing what is open to them.

"It's all what the child enjoys and if it happens to be science, I'm all for that and that should be encouraged. Maybe this toy could help that."

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Barbie (the astronaut) jets off on zero-gravity flight to inspire young girls - Sky News

PASADENA, CA World Space Week is an international celebration of science and technology, and their contribution to the betterment of the human condition. The United Nations General Assembly declared in 1999 that World Space Week will be held each year from October 4-10. These dates commemorate two events: The October 4, 1957 launch of the first human-made Earth satellite, Sputnik 1, thus opening the way for space exploration; and the October 10, 1967 signing of the Treaty on Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Peaceful Uses of Outer Space, including the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies.

Greek-American Teddy Tzanetos, deputy operations lead for the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Southern California, on September 3 posted an update on the Mars Helicopter's blog, titled Lucky 13 Ingenuity to Get Lower for More Detailed Images during Next Flight.

Tzanetos begins with a quote from Winston Churchill who said: The longer you look back, the farther you can look forward.

Following Flight 12's scouting images of `South Stah,' which were the most valuable Ingenuity has taken to date, we are taking Winston's advice for Ingenuity's 13th flight, Tzanetos wrote, adding that we will again be venturing across into Setah to scout an area of outcrops glimpsed in Flight 12 imagery but we're taking these new pictures while looking back, pointing in the opposite direction.

Taking place no earlier than Saturday, Sept. 4 at 5:08 PM PDT, or 12:04 LMST (local Mars time), the 193rd sol (Martian day) of the Perseverance mission, the flight will again journey into the geologically intriguing South Stah region, Tzanetos continued, noting that however, instead of probing further into Stah and taking pictures of multiple ridgelines and outcrops (which we did on 12), we'll be concentrating on one particular ridgeline and its outcrops during Flight 13. We'll also be flying at a lower altitude 26 feet (8 meters), as opposed to the 33 feet (10 meters) during 12.

Another big difference is which way our camera will be pointing, Tzanetos, noted. For Flight 13, we'll be capturing images pointing southwest. And when they're combined with Flight 12's northeast perspectives, the overlapping images from a lower altitude should provide valuable insight for Perseverance scientists and rover drive planners.

The National Herald

This image of sand dunes, boulders, and rocky outcrops of the South Seitah region of Mars Jezero Crater was captured by NASAs Ingenuity Mars Helicopter on August 16 during its 12th flight. Ingenuitys shadow is visible in the lower third of the image, just right of center. Photo: NASA/JPL-Caltech

When you compare our estimated flight time and distance travelled for this trip, it again reinforces just how much we're concentrating our efforts in one small area, he pointed out, adding that on Flight 12 we covered 1,476 feet (450 meters) of Martian ground in 169.5 seconds and took 10 pictures (again all pointed northeast). On 13, we'll cover about 690 feet (210 meters) in around 161 seconds and take 10 pictures (pointing southwest).

And for those of you scoring at home, on 13 we'll also be traveling at 7.3 mph (3.3 meters per second), Tzanetos wrote, noting that we did 10 mph (4.3 meters per second) during 12.

Tzanetos' complete post, which includes a ledger of the most important numbers for Ingenuity's Mars flights so far, is available online: https://go.nasa.gov/3B9TTzp.

We're looking forward to add to these numbers and learning more about that ridgeline when `lucky 13' is in the books, Tzanetos noted.

Flight 13 was indeed a success on September 4, traveling about 689 feet horizontally and reaching an altitude of about 26 feet. The duration of the flight was 160.5 seconds.

Following a successful high-speed spin test on September 15, test flight 14 was scheduled for September 18 and was supposed to be a brief hover flight at 16 feet (5 meters) altitude with a 2,700 rpm rotor speed, wrote Jaakko Karras, Ingenuity Mars Helicopter Deputy Operations Lead at NASA's JPL, on September 28, adding that it turned out to be an uneventful flight, because Ingenuity decided to not take off.

Karras explained: Ingenuity detected an anomaly in two of the small flight-control servo motors (or simply `servos') during its automatic pre-flight checkout and did exactly what it was supposed to do: It canceled the flight.

We have a number of tools available for working through the anomaly and we're optimistic that we'll get past it and back to flying again soon, Karras wrote in the most recent blog post, noting that our team will have a few weeks of time to complete our analysis because Mars will be in solar conjunction until mid-October, and we won't be uplinking any command sequences to Ingenuity during that time.

Conjunction is a special period in which Mars moves behind the Sun (as seen from Earth), making communications with spacecraft on Mars unreliable, Karras pointed out, adding that Ingenuity will not be completely idle during this time, however; Ingenuity and Perseverance will be configured to keep each other company by communicating roughly once a week, with Ingenuity sending basic system health information to its base station on Perseverance.

We will receive this data on Earth once we come out of conjunction, and will learn how Ingenuity performs over an extended period of relative inactivity on Mars, Karras concluded. More information is available online: https://mars.nasa.gov/technology/helicopter/.

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World Space Week: Update on the Mars Helicopter Ingenuity from Teddy Tzanetos - The National Herald

COP26 provides the UK space industry with a springboard to establish itself as a global leader in the sector. Success relies on effective collaboration and taking a more holistic approach to its impact on the environment, society and economy.

More than three decades after the height of the US Space Shuttle programme, space travel is once again making the news. Recent investment and initiatives by billionaires have highlighted the potential of space tourism and commercial space flight. At the same time, the considerable carbon footprint of these journeys has shone a spotlight on the sustainability issues associated with travelling into space, whether for recreational, commercial, or scientific purposes.

The UK is committed to making the space industry more sustainable, working closely with its partners in the United Nations to ensure long-term space sustainability. Now, having recently become the first European country to introduce a framework for launching satellites and spacecraft from its home soil, the UK has a real opportunity to lead the space industry in a holistic effort to change the narrative around its environmental impact.

The space industry has a sustainability challenge. The carbon footprint of recent commercial spaceflight journeys is enormous, with the carbon dioxide emissions of each flight estimated to be around 100 times that of a standard commercial passenger flight. When you consider that Virgin Galactic alone hopes to offer 400 such flights per year, the potential environmental impact of the space tourism industry is worryingly high.

Space junk, too, has become an issue. ESA estimates there are currently about 34,000 objects larger than 10cm in orbit around the Earth, 3,000 of which are redundant satellites. Each of these objects moves at around 10km per second, representing a substantial threat to the integrity of operational satellites or even the International Space Station.

There is a real need, therefore, to tackle both the environmental consequences of space flight and the growing space junk problem. With recent announcements about its future as a centre of space flight in Europe, the UK has an opportunity to step up and lead the charge.

July 2021 saw the passing of the Governments Space Industry Regulations, described as a step toward space exploration from UK soil. Providing a framework for regulating the UK space industry as well as enabling launches to take place from British soil from 2022, the regulations are set to unlock a potential 4 billion worth of market opportunities and create thousands of jobs over the next decade. But, while this development is very welcome, there is a responsibility to ensure spaceflight from the UK is done in the right way, with due consideration for its environmental impact and with measures taken to make the space sector as sustainable as possible.

The UK is already actively working on sustainability measures, of course. Its the leading contributor to the European Space Agencys Space Safety programme, for example, and delegates from the UK Space Agency have played a key role in developing and agreeing the UNs Long Term Sustainability Guidelines, funding a project with the UN Office for Outer Space Affairs focused on helping to raise awareness and implement those guidelines. At the G7 summit in June, Boris Johnson and other leaders pledged to take action to tackle the growing issue of space junk.

Theres still more that could be done, though, particularly at a time when populations around the world are experiencing unprecedented extreme weather events due to the effects of global warming. Defra and other government bodies in particular have a role to play in addressing space beyond the Krmn line as a part of the environment.

A more holistic approach to space technology - and in particular to its environmental, societal, and economic impacts - is needed. By encouraging continued innovation and investment in new fuels, materials, technologies, manufacturing processes and designs, the industry as a whole can embrace the concept of green space and make spaceflight itself - and the broader space industry - more sustainable.

My company Skyrora, for example, has developed Ecosene, an eco rocket fuel that not only uses waste plastics but also produces 45 per cent lower emissions than traditional kerosene, effectively killing two birds with one stone. 3D printing technology can be a game-changer, too, significantly reducing the carbon cost of the processes typically associated with manufacturing a spacecraft or satellite. And Skyroras development of a mission-ready orbital transfer vehicle, or space tug, capable of performing a number of in-space missions, means its now possible to tackle the issue of space junk by removing redundant objects from orbit.

We need more stakeholders in the UK space sector - from early-stage innovators to major players - to put their focus on developing solutions to these problems.

Greater consideration should also be given to the role the space industry can play in mitigating the effects of climate change, including through facilitating the launch and deployment of Earth observation systems that can enable early detection and warning of extreme weather events, or locate previously undetected subterranean resources.

The space sector has attracted a great deal of negativity for its environmental impact, especially recently, with the advent of space tourism. But the tide is beginning to turn, with international initiatives and codes of conduct concerned with improving the sustainability of space travel.

Importantly, this impact needs to be considered holistically. The industry needs to think beyond simply reducing fuel emissions, and towards ways of addressing issues such as tackling space junk and mitigating the effects of global warming. Crucially, this will demonstrate a commitment to engaging the general public in the conversation as well.

Without the involvement of civil society, the space sector simply wont be able to shift the dial in the same way to enact change. The UK space industry has the opportunity to use COP26 in particular as a springboard, working collaboratively with other industries to attract the attention of the public and create a more significant impact.

Recent developments mean the UK is in a strong position to lead on this more comprehensive approach, for a greener future both in space and here on Earth.

Alan Thompson is head of government affairs at Skyrora.

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Now is the perfect time to build Britain's green space credentials - E&T Magazine

In their separate discourses ahead of the historic (and very short) flights, both Branson and Bezos pointed out that space travel needed to become more inclusive and accessible. This meant that civilians should get to enjoy it, as long as they had a cosmic budget to pay for it. Still, it was a first step towards democratizing space exploration and turning space tourism into a viable concept.

Elon Musk and his SpaceX were and remain ahead of both Virgin Atlantic and Blue Origin, both in terms of discourse and actual progress toward the stated goal. Still, in the race of launching the first private customers into space, Branson won by being the first and Bezos for being the most ridiculed.

Saturday Night Live (SNL) could not miss out on the chance of showing just how ridiculous and ridiculously expensive the whole thing has been so far. Host Owen Wilson took on Bezos himself, the space cowboy with a big mission and an equally big rocket, in a skit that played out like a trailer for a new Star Trekseries, aptly called Star Trek: Ego Quest. You can see it in full at the bottom of the page.

Described as a midlife crisis of cosmic proportions, the billionaire space race is not without surprise allegiances (and the occasional spot of racing, which may or may not take out the International Space Station) and lurking dangers (Musk is the bad guy and hes armed with photon torpedoes that hes not afraid to use). It is just as silly as it sounds.

Their mission: To sort of just fly around space goofing off is how the skit describes Blue Origins New Shepard record-breaking flight. Its the aptest comparison, considering the Bezos brothers spent the four minutes in zero gravity on a $5.5 billion mission, throwing skittles into their mouth and pretending to swim.

Just last week, former head of Blue Origin Employee Communications Alexandra Abrams, along with some 20 former and current Blue Origin employees, went on the record to say safety considerations were ignored in the rush to beat Branson and Musk to the finish line. Abrams said she would not trust a Blue Origin vehicle going to space, but she was happy the inaugural flight went off without a glitch, considering the fact that, in 2018 alone, over 1,000 problem reports related to the engines on the rocket were never addressed.

In other words, this was always an ego trip.

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SNL Rips Into Jeff Bezos and the Ridiculous Billionaire Space Race - autoevolution

Astronauts and NASA technicians will be taking part in a event which aims to encourage children from the North East to consider a future career within the space sector.

Schoolchildren and college students across the region will be taking part in STEMFest in Space, a free virtual event which will celebrates the many wonders of space, and explores the importance of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) learning. The event will combine classroom and hands-on learning with fun, interactive activities throughout the day.

The event will coincide with World Space Week running from 4-10 October, and has been organised by North East STEM hub, run by RTC North.

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The schools taking part include: Benfield School and Longbenton High School in Newcastle, Deaf Hill Primary School and Bishop Barrington School in Durham, Eastlea Primary School and Corbridge Middle School in Northumberland, Harton Academy in South Tyneside, Hudson Road Primary School in Sunderland, Easterside Academy in Redcar and St. Augustines RC Primary School in Middlesbrough

From their classrooms, children will be able to talk with some of the biggest names in the international space industry, and meet real-life astronauts who want to peak young people's interest in space exploration, and help them to considering a career in this field when they are older.

Speakers confirmed for the event include: Chief Pilot of Virgin Galactic, Dave Mackay, who was one of two pilots on the Unity 22 test flight, which launched on 11 July 2021 and flew founder Richard Branson and three other mission specialists briefly into space.

Project and Technical Lead in NASAs Orion Program Vehicle Integration Office, Sarah Murray, will also be attending STEMfest in Space.

Along with working for NASA, Ms Murray has worked in flight control and astronaut training and was also chosen to lead the Columbia Recovery Office, launched after the fatal Space Shuttle Columbia accident in 2003. The accident occurred after the shuttle broke up as it returned to earth, killing all seven astronauts on board and forcing NASA to suspend all space shuttle flights for more than two years while it investigated the disaster.

Also joining as a speaker is Andy Aldrin, son of American astronaut and second man to walk on the moon, 'Buzz' Aldrin. Mr Aldrin is now President & CEO of the Aldrin Family Foundation, which offers educational tools and programs that excite and prepare the next generation to take on space.

Astronaut and the first Canadian to walk in space, Chris Hadfield is the latest speaker confirmed to be attending. Mr Hadfield is a huge name within the space sector and has flown two Space Shuttle missions and served as commander of the International Space Station.

Suzie Imber, an Associate Professor of Space Physics at the University of Leicester who specialises in an area of research known as Space Weather will also be at the event, as will the former Director of Education at NASAsKennedy Space Center Visitor Complex, Jim Christensen.

Northumberland's very own Kielder Observatory will also be taking part. Known as one of the best places in the UK to look at stars, the observatory's expert in science communication, Finn Burridge, will be on hand to guide guests through the night sky in a digital tour of the constellations. If it's clear weather, there's also a opportunity to explore the night sky live.

Hosting the event is TV presenter and stage actor, Dallas Campbell, who starred in TV shows such as the Gadget Show on channel 5, and Bang Goes the Theory, a prime-time science show on BBC One.

Emma Foster, Y5 Teacher, Deaf Hill Primary School, Trimdon Station, said: "This is our second ever STEMFest in Space event and the children are psyched. We are studying Space this term and have built our lessons around space exploration.

"This is such an amazing opportunity for our pupils, who would never normally have an opportunity like this, to talk to leading experts in science, hopefully inspiring them to pursue a career in STEM. With the event being held virtually and free of charge, it has allowed us to get involved and we cannot wait."

Event organiser, Claire Willis, STEM Business Development Manager at RTC North, said: "We have organised a really exciting programme of presentations, discussions and activities that will appeal and engage young people and adults of all ages.

"Anyone interested in STEM or Space then this is the event for you. The response so far has been amazing and we have already received hundreds of registrations from schools, colleges and community groups right across the UK and worldwide.

Spacefest will run from 9.30am 7pm on Thursday, October 7.

Schools wanting to take part can book tickets here.

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North East schoolchildren to meet with astronauts as part of World Space Week event - Chronicle Live

The current record for a spacecrafts survival on the surface of Venus is 127 minutes. Set 40 years ago by the Soviet Venera 13, it was a triumph of engineering. Still, two hours after touchdown, it was curtains, and the landers that the Soviets later sent to visit succumbed in half that time. Now a U.S. team is developing a plan to send a more advanced and much more durable lander to Venusto brave a world of hellish heat, crushing barometric pressure, and a swirling carbon dioxide atmosphere laced with sulfuric acid.

A lot has changed since Veneras brief working life 39 years ago but not the conditions on Venus. So when I heard that U.S. planetary scientists were plotting an audacious flagship mission to revisit Earths evil twin, I was reminded of my first Venus encounter. In 1974, even before Venera gasped its last, I was a baby freelance reporter covering the 1974 press conference at NASAs Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) for the historic Mariner 10 flyby of Venus on its way to Mercury. Mariner 10 was the first U.S. spacecraft to return television images of the Venusian atmosphere, and at the press conference, I found myself in a mob of newspaper reporters who seemed to know little more about the planet than its locationSecond from the sun, right? In those days, most reporters were proud generalists. On Monday, you covered a train wreck and on Tuesday, Mariner 10s ultraviolet revelations of a dynamic Venus atmosphere. This was the heyday of Ted Baxter, the booming airhead TV anchor played by Ted Knight on The Mary Tyler Moore Show. In Pasadena that day, we had a Baxter type who sprang to his feet and, in a ringing baritone, asked mission chief Bruce Murray, Tell us, Doc, how long until men walk on Venus? With extraordinary equanimity, Murray reviewed what our press kits had explained: that the surface temperature of Venus was 842 degrees Fahrenheit, and the surface barometric pressure more than 90 times that of Earth. It would be a long time, Murray assured him.

Whether men and women will ever hotfoot it across the surface, exploring Venus is suddenly a hot topic again in planetary science. NASA announced last June that by the end of this decade, it will send two missions to Venus, and the European Space Agency is planning a third (see Everyones Going to Venus, p. 63). The much more elaborate Venus Flagship Mission is a concept for the 2030s. In NASAs mission hierarchy, a flagship is a large strategic science mission, and the Venus Flagship study team is definitely going large. It proposes to send a piggy-backed, two-craft lander; a big orbiter; a pair of mini-satellites; and an aerobot, a helium-balloon robot (actually two balloons with one pressurized half inside the unpressurized other).

The principal investigator for the Venus Flagship study is Martha Gilmore, an effervescent planetary geologist at Wesleyan University in Connecticut, who cheerfully admits that she has been fascinated by rocks and stars since she was five. Something of a prodigy, Gilmore finished high school at 14, her B.A. at Franklin & Marshall College at 19, and her Ph.D. at Brown University at 26. She worked at JPL before heading back to academia, arriving at Wesleyans Earth and environmental studies department in 2000. As a leader in her field and one of the few Black women to be a full professor in a university science department, Gilmore is an ardent advocate for women of color in the physical and Earth sciences.

Venus wasnt originally her preferred destination. I actually wanted to work on Mars, she says. But she got to grad school at Brown as the Magellan Venus orbiter was sending back images of long rift valleys and, as the New York Times reported, a cracked and splintered crust showing the strains of volcanic activity. The first spacecraft to map the entire surface of Venus, Magellan used a synthetic aperture radar to capture detail down to a resolution of 390 feet. So little was known about the planets surface that the Magellan data had the scientific world abuzz. When I was at grad school, there used to be three full days of Venus at [an annual meeting of planetary scientists in Houston]. As Magellan wound down, the scientific interest waned. Thered be like an afternoon on Venus, Gilmore says.

Her own interest stayed strong, however: Now that Ive been on Venus, I cant go back, she says and laughs. For a geologist like her, an Earth-size planet allows you to test so many of the ideas we have in geology that you cant test on smaller planets or on those that are less active. Venus is closer in mass and size to Earth than any other planet in our solar system (Mars is just over half Earths size). Every time you ask something about Venus, she says, you say well, this is how it should be working, because it works that way on Earth. But its not quite working that way.

The Way We Were

Planetary and climate scientists have long used Venus as a cautionary tale for what a runaway greenhouse effect could do to Earth. To the scientists who worked on the Flagship Mission study, it is not just a cautionary tale but the single most accessible example of a planet that may once have been as hospitable to life as Earth is today. Understanding its evolution could also help a group of researchers whose field of study didnt even exist in the heyday of Magellans orbitsexoplanet astronomers, especially those sorting through the thousands of planets discovered outside the solar system in the last two decades to find potentially habitable ones. No one is ever going to an exoplanet, says Gilmore, but we can go to Venus.

Michael Way is a physicist-turned-planetary-climate modeler with NASAs Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York City. His research group builds computer models of planetary climatespaleo-Earth, Mars, and in the last four years, a possible wet and temperate Venus. The models look forward and backward in time, essentially asking how Venus could have turned from a primordial magma planet to a moderately wet one and then on to a runaway greenhouse disaster, a parched oven cloaked in cloud. His computer models draw on a wealth of data, although Way warns that our knowledge about Venus is so spotty that even basic facts are in question. The conclusion that Venus does not have a magnetic field is based solely on data from Mariner 2, the first successful U.S. planetary satellite, which sailed by the planet in 1962. I mean, we dont know if Venus ever had a magnetic field or not, says Way. If Venus had a magnetic field the day before the Mariner 2 mission arrived there, we wouldnt know it. Better data on magnetism, volcanism, tectonics, surface-atmosphere interactionsthe kind of information that would be gathered by a flagship missionwill help in understanding the evolutionary processes of all planets everywhere.

Was there a time in the primordial solar system when a paleo-Venus had a temperate climate with oceans of liquid water, moderate surface temperatures, and a protective cloud cover? The evidence is there to be found in, on, and above Venus.

Hot Stuff

With all its virtuosity in space exploration, the United States has never attempted to land a craft on Venus. The landers proposed for the Flagship Mission are designed for survivability, says Gilmore, which on Venus is a relative term. The thermally protected main lander is built to last seven to eight hours. Its life expectancy is four times longer than Venera 13 managed before it croaked in 1982. Thats because of an ingenious design that will use off-the-shelf hardware and electronics that have been available, in some cases, since the Apollo lunar program. The reason the study engineers havent designed an eight-hour lander until now is, according to them, nobody asked.

Its pretty standard stuff, says David Steinfeld of the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, where the engineering and systems architecture of the Venus flagship mission were developed. Maybe were using some higher-temperature, multi-layer insulation materials but the [thermal protection strategies] are fairly standard knowledge weve had for 60 years. Were applying it a little differently.

The standard engineering solution to keeping electronics functioning in oven-like temperatures is to first isolate them from the titanium shellwhich will be wicked hot, says Steinfeld. The next step is to surround them with a material, embedded within the space probes inner structure, that absorbs heat as it changes phase from solid to liquid. Think of it as wax, says Steinfeld. The substance melts, but the temperature remains the same. Once its all melted, the temperature starts to increase. Phase-change material delays the temperature rise. Its a mass and volume problem, trying to stuff as much of that material as you can into the instrument deck.

Todays electronics are also more efficient than those used in the 1980s, says Michael Amato, planetary and lunar business lead at Goddard and an engineering lead on the report. There were 1,000 watts on Venus landers back then, but on the lander today, we [use] only 500 watts. So half the wattage, the power lasts twice as long.

Other elements of the mission besides the longer-lasting lander would allow for more data to be collected on the surface. This [mission] design was done for the Falcon Heavy rocket that can carry a lot more mass to Venus, says Amato. As a result, we were able to [include] an orbiter...so that we could talk to it from the lander. Venera had to talk to Earth. Thats a very slow data rate. Our system is designed to talk to a spacecraft that is much closer to the lander.

The big, eight-hour lander would not be the only robotic passenger bound for the surface. We have what I would call a conventional lander in that its a lander like Venera, says Gilmore, but still, its an eight-hour lander. So it will ingest samples. It will zap them with a laser on the outside to look at the mineralogy and measure the gases. But on that lander, we have bolted Tibors long-lived lander, which is the little guy, you know?

Tibor is Tibor Kremic, chief of the Space Science Project Office at the NASA Glenn Research Center in Cleveland where the little guy, known formally as the Long-Life, In-Situ, Solar System Explorer (LLISSE, pronounced Lizzie by Kremic and his team) is taking shape. LLISSE will be a small weather station and chemistry kit. On the surface of Venus, LLISSEs long life would mean an astounding 60 Earth days (or half a Venus solar day, Venus having an extremely slow rotation). LLISSE is built around a new generation of high-temperature computer chips made not from conventional silicon but from silicon-carbide (SiC), an industrial abrasive used in drill bits.

Extreme heat-tolerant electronics grew out of work in the 1990s at NASA Glenn, originally for aeronautical use inside jet engines and eventually for other types of hot spots. By 2010, electronics engineer Gary Hunter and his research group at Glenn were making progress on SiC integrated circuits for these smart sensors while Kremic was looking about for new uses. He found a bunch of them on Venus, or more accurately in discussions with the Venus Exploration Analysis Group (VEXAG), a professional focus group for the Venus exploration community. Around 2015, he says, I became familiar with the problems they were trying to solvegetting science data from the surface. It just became so interesting.

When Kremic heard VEXAG members bemoan the crushing heat and pressure on Venus that snuffed out surface probes in minutes, he thought that SiC electronics and other high-temperature sensors could be made tough enough to function unprotected on Venus. SiC instruments could be complex enough to gather real data while staying light enough to get on the bus, the spacecraft carrying an interplanetary payload.

Kremics test bed for developing SiC circuitry is the Glenn Extreme Environment Rig (GEER), a massive steel cylinder whose interior can be brought to 932F and 100 Earth atmospheres of pressure. GEER also offers your choice of corrosive gases to mix in. In 2018, a 175-SiC transistor clock spent 60 days under Venus surface conditions inside GEER and came out ticking. It could have gone longer, says Kremic, but we had a scheduling conflict for the chamber. The SiC test clock was no more powerful than a 1970s electronic calculator, but the next target is an instrument containing thousands of devices on an integrated circuit that would allow LLISSE to handle sensors, data, communications, and power management.

Around Venus for 60 Days

The aerobot is the other eye-catching element in the 2020 Venus Flagship proposal. Once again, the Soviet Union has been there, done that. Its French-designed balloons on the 1985 Vega missions were a huge success. This is what the new flagship study dryly calls, a significant flight heritage on Venus. Jeffery Hall, a JPL senior engineer and balloon technologist who advised on the flagship study, says, it will take some engineering care to make it work, but the idea of using balloons for planetary exploration is considered a solved problem because the Vega balloons did it many years ago.

That engineering care will be tested in the very narrow window between the aerobots exit from orbit and deploying mid-air on its way down. Its minutes. Its just minutes, says Hall. One thing to appreciate is that the Venus atmosphere is very dense. So its different from Mars where the atmosphere is so thin [that] its difficult to slow down. At Venus, you can slow down very quickly.

If everything works, the inflated aerobot, which has an altitude-control system, will spend 60 days circling the planet 12 times on the ambient winds, climbing and descending twice a day on command, while it samples atmospheric gases, scans the surface for seismic activity, and charts meteorological data. The aerobot will measure the composition and microphysics of cloud particles and will record the amounts of, among other things, noble gases. The wonderful thing about the noble gases is that theyre loners, says Gilmore. The gases are inert; their outer electron shells are complete, so they have no tendency to bond with other elements. They dont like to interact with anybody. Argon is like Im here, and Im not doing anything. This is who I am. Its amazing how this works, actually. You can measure the atmosphere of a planet and understand something about its original volatile inventory.

There are a whole set of gases that are acquired during the birth of a planet during accretion and out-gassing of the original atmosphere. You get your recipe for your planet, and that stays put. Gilmore adds: Again, we have a baseline for Mars. We have a baseline for Earth. We dont know the original inventory for volatile [gases] on Venus yet.

The weather around the aerobot, 50 to 62 kilometers above the surface, will be relatively mild, says Colin Wilson, an atmospheric physicist at Oxford University who worked on the European Venus Express mission in the 2000s and was on the science team for the 2020 Venus flagship study. Wilson points to a wonderful piece of NASA animation created to illustrate the 2015 High Altitude Venus Operational Concept (HAVOC), a hypothetical study of human exploration in the clouds of Venus. In the animation (airspacemag.com/havoc), two hypothetical Venus astronauts steer their exploration dirigible toward a hypothetical balloon cloud city that looks like a cluster of giant jellyfish floating in bright sunlight above the acid cloud tops. HAVOC may have been an exercise in engineering creativity, says Wilson, but if you had a human exploration vehicle and youre getting a bit stir-crazy in your cabin, you could pop open a porthole and walk out on a gangplank or a balcony outside your cabin. You would obviously need an oxygen mask out there but you would not need a pressure suit. You would not need even a sweater because its very much Earth-like temperatures.

The Competition

Such futuristic musings are fun, but Gilmore et al. are focused on the near term. The flagship study proposal was made at NASAs request for consideration in something called the Planetary Science and Astrobiology Decadal Survey 2023-2032, a large planning exercise by the National Academy of Sciences undertaken to help government agencies decide what projects to fund. The Venus Flagship will compete for the panels endorsement against other projects focused on other planets and exoplanets, as well as the search for extraterrestrial life and even protecting Earth from asteroid strikes. Even if the Venus Flagship is recommended as the decadal panels highest priority, it will have to get in line behind two big-ticket items that got high marks from past decadal reviews but still arent fully fundeda Mars sample return and a mission to Jupiters moon Europa.

Assuming the unlikelyNASA snaps up the Venus Flagship and makes it a priority missionthe earliest it could launch would be 2031. It would be 2034 before all its partsorbiter, mini-sats, aerobot, and dual-landerare in place above Venus and 2035 before the lander makes its descent to the surface. Space exploration is not for the impatient.

Obtaining a decadal surveys blessing is no guarantee of success for the comprehensive Venus mission, but the flagship study has already demonstrated to the planetary science communityand to Gilmores students at Wesleyan and maybe to all budding planetary geologists, physicists, and astrobiologiststhe profound importance of getting to know the planet next door, as well as some clever strategies for exploring it. If you cant stand the heat, design a lander that can. Go big, and go small. Get your head in the clouds. Be brilliant.

Venus is waiting.

Three Venus missions recently selected by NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) show how much we still have to learn about our intemperate neighbor. VERITAS (for acronym lovers: Venus Emissivity, Radio Science, InSAR, Topography, and Spectroscopy) will radar map the entire planet from Venus orbit in far higher resolution than was possible for NASAs 1994 Magellan mission, creating a 3-D relief map that, among other things, might identify a safe but geologically interesting spot for a long-lived lander. The VERITAS launch is proposed for 2026.

DAVINCI+ (Deep Atmosphere Venus Investigation of Noble Gases, Chemistry, and Imaging) will be a probe plus an orbiter. Both will study the atmosphere, but the probes mission will be the more daring: an hour-long plunge from top to surface. According to Giada Arney, the missions deputy principal investigator at the Goddard Space Flight Center, the free-falling probe will be constantly analyzing trace gases, water vapor, pressure, and temperature, relaying the data back instantly to the orbiter. The probe would emerge from the cloud deck at about 150,000 feet. In its last 20 minutes of life, its downward-facing cameras should have a clear view, in the ultraviolet and infrared, of its target: a highland region of ancient rock called Alpha Reggio. Then poof. Its not designed to survive impact. Launch is planned for 2029, with flybys of the planet the following year, and the probes free fall in June 2031.

ESA recently approved a new Venus radar-mapping orbiter, EnVision, an orbiter that will reach Venus in the early 2030s. Besides analyzing the atmosphere and surface composition, it will carry a radio science experiment that will study the planets internal structure.

Two other space programs are considering missions. Russia, the first nation to put a lander on Venus (or any planet) in 1972, has been talking about a future Venera-D lander return. The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) also has plans for a Venus orbiter called Shukrayaan-1.

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Journey to the Surface of Venus | airspacemag.com - Air & Space Magazine

Its happening Sydneyevents are back on the agenda. And one of the first to be revealed this week is Neighbourhood Earth, a follow-up to the epic multi-sensory Van Gogh Aliveexhibitionthat hit Sydney last year. This time, however, youll be swapping the European countryside for a wild ride through outer space.

Presented by M Live and developed by NEC Partners, in conjunction with the U.S. Space & Rocket Center and NASAs George C. Marshall (just casually), youll be travelling across the solar system to witness the sunsets on Mars, Venus lightning storms, and the vibrant colours of Jupiters giant red spot.

Neighbourhood Earth will be hosted at theInternational Convention Centrein Darling Harboura different location to the previousM Live showsbut it will follow the same super-scale immersive make-up as Van Gogh Alive. Instead of peering at awe-inspiring Hubble Telescope images of the far-flung reaches of the galaxyor watching the latest SpaceX launch on Twitter, youll feel as though youve actually left the Earth on your very own exploration of our neighbouring planets as they appear in vivid colours across towering screens.

The exhibition will also feature Museum-quality models, spacecraft, tools, and astronaut suits to tell the stories and achievements in space travel over time.

Tickets to Neighbourhood Earth will go on sale on Monday 11 October via Ticketek, with the exhibition opening Monday 22 November. It will be run as a COVID safe event, withhourly timed sessions and social distancing.

Head over here for more.

What: Neighbourhood EarthWhen: From Monday 22 November for a limited seasonWhere:International Convention Centre, Darling Harbour

Now, check out 10 of Sydney's prettiest jacaranda walks to take this spring.

Image credit: M Live

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A Massive Multi-Sensory Space Exploration Exhibition Is Coming To Sydney - The Urban List

From small satellites to giant rockets, in outer space business is booming. Despite fears that the global coronavirus pandemic would lead to a slowdown in commercial space investment, 2021 has been the best year yet for capital infusions into private space exploration with Q2 outperforming every other quarter to date. Venture capital firms (VCs) delivered a total of $4.8 billion to 102 different space companies during the quarter, according to data from the investment fund Space Capital.

SpaceX's cheap launch vehicles, such as the Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets, have opened up Earth's low orbit to commercial activity. Whether it's high-speed satellite internet or the GPS in your mobile phone's maps app, many new innovations rely on commercial space technology. With the test launch of the company's largest rocket to date, Starship, set for later this year, analysts expect commercial space activity to become even cheaper.

"Starship is going to fundamentally change how we operate in space," said Chad Anderson, founder of Space Capital, a venture capital firm that invests exclusively in space technology. According to Anderson, the wide availability of the enormous commercial rocket could make the cost of entering Earth's orbit a mere $2 million, an incredible 45 times cheaper than current prices of $90 million. It will also open up places like the moon and Mars as potential new areas for business. While the frothy feelings can be felt throughout the space industry, here are five space technology companies besides the well-known SpaceX, which is also VC funded generating the most excitement for investors.

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5 Most Innovative Space Exploration Companies According to VCs - Business Insider

Developer Multiverse has announced space exploration RPG Earth From Another Sun is set to launch on PlayStation and Xbox consoles in 2023.

Promising a dynamic and ever-evolving galaxy youll have free reign thanks to the open-ended gameplay. Youll be able to scour star systems for resources, establish a trading network or just conquer planets by force. Youll be able to explore planets, pirate dens and space stations, and take on missions for rewards. The game also promises user generated content and bi-weekly updates to keep things fresh.

Youll also be able to lead grand armies, promising up to 1000 units such as soldiers and mechs in strategic combat. Theres even a whole FPS aspect for battles themselves. The game boasts a near unlimited array of weapons, skills and mods and you can customise your guns.

If combat isnt your thing, youll be able to trade or treasure hunt too in Earth From Another Sun. Both single player and multiplayer modes are supported. The activities range from two-player co-op dungeon runs all the way up to a 60-player Galactic Dominion Conquest mode. Blimey!

The game will launch first in Early Access on PC in Q2 2022. Before that, however, those wanting to get their hands on the game a little earlier will be able to try a 30 minute demo. Thatll be available via the Steam Next Fest, taking place between October 1 and October 7.

Following the Early Access period, Earth from Another Sun intends to land on consoles in 2023. Itll head for Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PlayStation 5 and PlayStation 4. Check out a trailer for the game below.

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Earth From Another Sun is a space exploration RPG aiming for 2023 launch on PlayStation and Xbox - Videogamer.com