Year: 2023

Meandering ridges in Greg Crater

12:11 pm

Meandering ridges in Greg Crater
Click for original image.

Cool image time! The picture to the right, cropped, reduced, and sharpened to post here, was taken on November 29, 2022 by the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). It shows what the scientists label “curved ridges.”

These might be inverted channels, the beds on which either water or ice flowed, compacting it down so that it became very resistant to erosion, and thus remains when the surrounding terrain was worn away. However, none of them seem to follow any grade. A more likely explanation is that these are ancient moraines, the debris pile pushed ahead of a glacier and then left behind when the glacier goes away.

The location is the reason I favor this explanation.
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Puerto Rico’s Ports Authority is looking for an operator to run the island’s own spaceport

10:09 am

Ceiba spaceport map
The arrow points to the city of Ceiba

Puerto Rico’s Ports Authority has now issued a call for proposals from potential operators of the spaceport the authority wishes built at an airport in the town of Ceiba on the island’s eastern tip.

The developer — which would operate the Spaceport for several years, depending on the negotiation — would design and build the infrastructure needed for horizontal launches at JAT, using private capital, equity and investment.

…“Vertical launches in Puerto Rico are challenging, considering the population density, among others. However, we want to do a feasibility study for vertical launches in Puerto Rico, with an emphasis on the use of barges and launches in high seas,” the agency stated in the RFP.

Note that the first goal would be to make the airport usable for rocket companies that use an airplane for their first stage, such as Virgin Orbit and Northrop Grumman. The next step would be figure out where a vertical launchpad could be safely and practically established.

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Many carbon-based molecules identified in Ryugu samples

9:53 am

Researchers in Japan, Europe, and the U.S. have now identified many carbon-based molecules in the Ryugu samples brought back to Earth by Japan’s Hayabusa-2 asteroid probe. From their paper, published in Science yesterday:

We identified numerous organic molecules in the Ryugu samples. Mass spectroscopy detected hundreds of thousands of ion signals, which we assigned to ~20,000 elementary compositions consisting of carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, and/or sulfur. Fifteen amino acids, including glycine, alanine, and α-aminobutyric acid, were identified. These were present as racemic mixtures (equal right- and left-handed abundances), consistent with an abiotic origin. Aliphatic amines (such as methylamine) and carboxylic acids (such as acetic acid) were also detected, likely retained on Ryugu as organic salts.

The presence of aromatic hydrocarbons, including alkylbenzenes, fluoranthene, and pyrene, implies hydrothermal processing on Ryugu’s parent body and/or presolar synthesis in the interstellar medium. Nitrogen-containing heterocyclic compounds were identified as their alkylated homologs, which could have been synthesized from simple aldehydes and ammonia. In situ analysis of a grain surface showed heterogeneous spatial distribution of alkylated homologs of nitrogen- and/or oxygen-containing compounds.

The large number of carbon-based molecules is not unlike data from similar carbonaceous chondrite meteorites, though the differences appear to suggest Ryugu experienced chemical processes in connection with water during its lifetime.

Note for clarity: Organic molecules are not life. This is a term scientists use for any carbon-based molecule.

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Scientists pin down Venus’s most likely active volcanic regions

9:40 am

The Aine corona on Venus
The Aine corona on Venus, about 124 miles in diameter.
Click for original image.

Using archival data from the Magellan radar imaging Venus orbiter from the early 1990s, scientists think they have identified the regions Venus that are most likely to have active volcanoes, places that have a unique Venusian circular feature called coronae.

The researchers focused on 65 previously unstudied coronae that are up to a few hundred miles across. To calculate the thickness of the lithosphere surrounding them, they measured the depth of the trenches and ridges around each corona. What they found is that ridges are spaced more closely together in areas where the lithosphere is more flexible, or elastic. By applying a computer model of how an elastic lithosphere bends, they determined that, on average, the lithosphere around each corona is about 7 miles (11 kilometers) thick – much thinner than previous studies suggest. These regions have an estimated heat flow that is greater than Earth’s average, suggesting that coronae are geologically active.

Thus, more volcanic activity, releasing the planet’s interior heat outward.

This research confirms other work done looking at coronae back in 2020.

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ULA now targets May 4th for first Vulcan launch

9:23 am

According to ULA’s CEO, the company has now scheduled the first launch of its Vulcan rocket for May 4, 2023, a delay of about a month from the previous schedule.

The delay to the new date was caused by a variety of factors. First, the launch window for the prime payload, Astrobotic’s Peregrine lunar lander, is only open certain days of the month. Second, that lander is just finishing final testing, and the extra time was needed to get it to Cape Canaveral and stacked on the rocket. Third, the extra time was needed to complete all the dress rehearsal countdown tests prior to launch. However, the biggest reason for the delay appears to have been one of Blue Origin’s BE-4 rocket engines.

ULA and Blue Origin are finishing the formal qualification of the BE-4 engine, which Bruno described as the “pacing item” for the launch. “It’s taking a little bit longer than anticipated.”

He revealed that, in a qualification test of one of two engines, the liquid oxygen pump had about 5% higher performance than expected or seen on other engines. “When the performance of your hardware has even a small shift that you didn’t expect, sometimes that is telling us that there could be something else going on in the system that is potentially of greater concern.”

ULA and Blue Origin decided to take the engine off the test stand and disassemble it. Engineers concluded that the higher performance was just “unit-to-unit variation” and not a problem with the engine itself, Bruno said.

If Blue Origin was manufacturing and testing these engines as it needs to do, in large numbers, it would have known a long time ago the range of “unit-to-unit variation” in performance. That this is not known at this late time once again tells us that the company is still struggling to build these engines routinely. Yet it will soon need to produce plenty in short order in order to sustain not only ULA’s Vulcan launch schedule but the launch schedule of its own New Glenn rocket.

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China places classified satellite into orbit using Long March 2C rocket

9:12 am

From one of its interior spaceports China today successfully launched a classified “remote sensing” satellite using its Long March 2C rocket.

No information about the payload was released by China, not even a satellite name. Nor was there any word on whether the expendable first stage landed near habitable areas.

The 2023 launch race:

12 SpaceX
7 China
3 Russia
1 Rocket Lab
1 Japan
1 India

American private enterprise still leads China 13 to 7 in the national rankings, and the entire world combined 13 to 12. SpaceX on its own is now tied with the entire world 12 to 12.

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Ingenuity completes 45th flight; Perservance races to keep up

6:48 pm

Overview map
Click for interactive map.

On February 22, 2023, the Mars helicopter Ingenuity completed its 45th flight on Mars, flying 1,627 feet in 2 minutes and 24 seconds. This was 13 feet farther than planned, and 5 seconds longer, the extra distance likely because the helicopter needed to find a good landing spot.

The green dot on the map to the right indicates Ingenuity’s new position. The blue dot marks Perseverance’s position. The rover has been moving fast, quickly climbing up onto the delta behind Ingenuity only days after it has completed each recent flight. It appears the Perseverance science team wishes to reach the top of the delta as fast as possible, where it can then begin drilling for more core samples.

It is becoming increasing clear the limitations of Perseverance. It was designed to obtain these core samples for return to Earth, but in the process many of the geological tools and sensors that Curiosity carries were eliminated. The result is the Perseverance can’t actually find out as much about the geology in Jezero Crater as Curiosity can. This doesn’t mean it can’t do any geological work, because it certainly can, but all of the analysis of drill samples that Curiosity does is beyond Perservance’s capabilities. It basically can only do contact science and close inspection. The analysis of its drilled samples must wait until the samples are returned to Earth, about a decade from now.

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Russians launch unmanned Soyuz to ISS

5:34 pm

The Russians today successfully launched an unmanned Soyuz capsule to ISS to replace the capsule damaged by a coolant leak in December.

The new capsule will dock to ISS in two days, on February 25th. Then on February 27th a Falcon 9 rocket will launch four astronauts on its Endurance reusable Dragon capsule. The damaged Soyuz capsule will be de-orbited shortly thereafter.

Because of the new Soyuz was intended to remain in orbit with its crew until September, Roscosmos and NASA agreed to keep the crew from the damaged Soyuz on ISS until then, making the mission of these two Russians and American Frank Rubio about a year long. There is a chance Rubio could set a new record for the longest American mission, depending on the exact day his mission returns.

The 2023 launch race:

12 SpaceX
6 China
3 Russia
1 Rocket Lab
1 Japan
1 India

American private enterprise still leads China 13 to 6 in the national rankings, and the entire world combined 13 to 11. SpaceX alone still leads the entire world 12 to 11.

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February 23, 2023 Quick space links

3:53 pm

Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay.

 

 

 

 

  • Russia now targets a July 13, 2023 launch date for its Luna-25 Moon lander

    • Though this mission has been delayed endlessly, and Russia has also been forced to delay its later planned unmanned lunar probes due to its lack of certain components formerly obtained from the west before its invasion of the Ukraine, I now expect this launch to happen on that date or reasonable close to it.

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Today’s blacklisted American: Policeman forced to resign simply because he is Christian

1:42 pm

Kersey's forbidden opinion

They’re coming for you next: Rookie cop Jacob Kersey was forced to resign from his new job on the Port Wentworth, Georgia, police force when his superiors demanded he no longer express his own personal Christian beliefs on his own private Facebook account.

The screen capture to the right was the Facebook post by Kersey that instigated his problems. On January 3rd, the day after he posted it, his supervisor ordered him to take the post down. The situation then devolved as follows, as described in the letter [pdf] sent to the City of Port Wentworth by Kersey’s legal representative, First Liberty:
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Soft Martian buttes

12:00 pm

Soft Martian buttes
Click for original image.

Cool image time! The picture to the right, rotated, cropped, reduced, and sharpened to post here, was taken on January 1, 2023 by the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter to fill a gap in its shooting schedule so that the scientists could maintain the camera at its proper temperature.

In other words, the picture was not taken as part of any particular research project. Its target was in a sense chosen almost at random, though the science team always tries to find something of interest in such situations. In this case I think they succeeded, as these soft terraced buttes illustrate well the alien nature of Mars. The ground is barren, with absolutely no evidence of any life, and it appears that the buttes have been softened and eroded by eons of wind action. You can see evidence of this by the handful of dust devil tracks that cross the buttes.

There is more.
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