Ashley McBryde – Four songs
An evening pause: Performed live March 2023. The songs: Light on in the kitchen, and small selections from Strawberry wine, Neon Moon, and Wide Open Spaces.
Hat tip Alton Blevins.
Category: Behind The Black
Endless ripple dunes in Mars’ third largest impact basin
Click for original image.
Cool image time! The picture to the right, cropped to post here, was taken on November 30, 2022 by the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO).
The section cropped shows only a small portion of the endless ripple dunes seen in this area. The color strip provides us some interesting other details as well as mysteries. The orange indicates dust on the ridges as well as the higher terrain near the center of the picture. The green in the hollows as well as to the east and west suggests coarser materials that have settled in lower elevations. This supposition is reinforced by the orange area near the bottom of the picture where the ripples have mostly dissipated. This is a high spot, and we appear to be looking at a dusty surface. (This impression is clearer in the full image.)
The latitude is high, 48 degrees south, but as far as I know orbital images have not found a lot of ice evidence in this part of Mars.
» Read more
Today’s blacklisted American: Rhode Island school district blacklists Christian afterschool club because it is Christian
Oppressive Rhode Island
They’re coming for you next: The Providence school district in Rhode Island has now been sued by the Child Evangelism Fellowship (CEF) for unfairly blacklisting CEF’s afterschool Good News clubs from using school facilities for meetings,
For nearly two years, the Providence Public School District has blocked CEF Rhode Island from hosting its elementary school Good News Clubs on district school facilities. However, other organizations such as Boys and Girls Clubs, Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, YMCA, and Girls on the Run are given free use of school facilities for after school programs.
Note too that the school district had already approved CEF’s Good News clubs in 2019. According to the lawsuit [pdf], filed by the non-profit legal firm Liberty Counsel:
The District approved CEF Rhode Island’s August 2019 Rental of School Facilities application, allowing CEF Rhode Island to lead an afterschool Good News Club at William D’Abate Elementary School for the 2019–2020 school year, without any facility rental fee. Forty-eight children signed up for the club, but the club could only accommodate twenty children due to space limitations at the school.
Student cubesat demonstrates how to use a solar sail for satellite deorbit
Using cheap off-the-shelf parts students at Brown University have successfully tested a simple solar sail in space and shown how it can be used to de-orbit satellites efficiently and inexpensively.
They built a satellite on a shoestring budget and using off-the-shelf supplies available at most hardware stores. They even sent the satellite — which is powered by 48 Energizer AA batteries and a $20 microprocessor popular with robot hobbyists — into space about 10 months ago, hitching a ride on Elon Musk’s SpaceX rocket.
…The students added a 3D-printed drag sail made from Kapton polyimide film to the bread-loaf-sized cube satellite they built. Upon deployment at about 520 kilometers — well above the orbit of the International Space Station — the sail popped open like an umbrella and is helping to push the satellite back down to Earth sooner, according to initial data. In fact, the satellite is well below the other small devices that deployed with it. In early March, for instance, the satellite was at about 470 kilometers above the Earth while the other objects were still in orbit at about 500 kilometers or more.
Based on the data, it is expected the cubesat will burn up in the atmosphere in five years, not twenty-five or so predicted for the other cubesats launched to the same orbital elevation.
This experiment above all proves that most of the very expensive demo missions to test this kind of technology have been grossly over-budget. The entire cost of this student-built project was just $10,000, and it actually was more successful in proving this technology than a number of past solar sail projects that cost millions.
Another study finds evidence of active volcanism on Venus
Click for original image.
Using archival data from the Magellan spacecraft that orbited Venus in the early 1990s scientists think they have identified an active vent that appeared to change shape based on radar images taken eight months apart.
From the abstract of their paper:
We examine volcanic areas on Venus that were imaged two or three times by Magellan and identify a ~2.2 km2 volcanic vent that changed shape in the eight months between two radar images. Additional volcanic flows downhill from the vent are visible in the second epoch images, though we cannot rule out that they were present but invisible in the first epoch due to differences in imaging geometry. We interpret these results as ongoing volcanic activity on Venus.
This result is different that other research released last month that used Magellan data to identify geological features on Venus most likely to be active. In today’s results the scientists think they have spotted an actual volcanic eruption, as shown in the two images to the right. The image is taken from Figure 2 of the paper, with the changes in the center bottom vent clearly visible.
There is much uncertainty in these results that must be mentioned. The images are not optical but radar, so the scientists had to do a lot of computer processing to get the final result. They also compared this work with computer simulations to help confirm their conclusions.
The results also leave open the question of the total amount of volcanism presently active on Venus. As the scientists note in their conclusion, “With only one changed feature, we cannot determine how common currently active volcanism is on Venus.”
Nonetheless, the research using both new and archival data in the past thirty years is increasingly telling us that there is some active volcanism on Venus, hidden beneath its thick hellish cloudy atmosphere.
Reassessed fuel measurements give Mars Odyssey until 2025 before it runs out
Using more refined methods for measuring the fuel left on Mars Odyssey, the oldest orbiter circling Mars at this time, engineers have determined that it will not run out until 2025, not this year as previously thought.
Mars Odyssey has been in orbit around Mars since 2001. The fuel is used by thrusters to help maintain the spacecraft’s orientation, which is mostly done by reaction wheels, or gyroscopes. We should therefore not be surprised if by 2025 engineers figure out a way to get the reaction wheels to do the whole job, when the fuel runs out.
Dragon freighter docks with ISS
A SpaceX Dragon freighter, on its third flight, today successfully docked with ISS, bringing with it several tons of supplies and several medical and engineering experiments.
It will remain at the station for about a month, during which astronauts will unload its supplies and experiments and load it with cargo and research results for safe return to Earth.
Virgin Orbit pauses operations; seeks funding
Virgin Orbit today paused all operations for at least a week, putting almost its entire staff on furlough as it seeks new financing.
Chief Executive Dan Hart told staff that the furlough would buy Virgin Orbit time to finalise a new investment plan, a source who attended the event told Reuters news agency. It was not clear how long the furlough would last, but Mr Hart said employees would be given more information by the middle of next week.
If Virgin Orbit dies, its death will be because a British government agency killed it. The company had planned on launching from Cornwall in the early fall of 2022, at the latest, and then do several other launches in 2022, all of which would have earned it revenue. Instead, the UK’s Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) delayed issuing the launch license until January 2023, about a half a year later, preventing Virgin Orbit from launching for that time and literally cutting it off from any ability to make money. The result was that it ran out of funds.
Obviously the launch failure that followed the CAA’s approval did not help. Nor did the company’s decision to rely on only one 747 to launch its satellites. Nonetheless, the fault of this company’s death can mostly be attributed to a government bureaucracy that failed in its job so badly that it destroyed a private company.
China’s Long March 11 rocket launches classified Earth observation satellite
China yesterday used its Long March 11 solid-fueled four-stage rocket to launch a classified Earth observation satellite into orbit.
The launch was from an interior spaceport, so the rocket’s lower stages crashed somewhere in China or Mongolia. No word on if they landed near habitable areas.
The 2023 launch race:
17 SpaceX
10 China
4 Russia
1 Rocket Lab
1 Japan
1 India
American private enterprise still leads China 18 to 10 in the national rankings, and the entire world combined 18 to 16. SpaceX alone is now tied with entire world, including the rest of the U.S., 17 to 17.
March 15, 2023 Zimmerman/Batchelor podcast
Embedded below the fold in two parts.
To listen to all of John Batchelor’s podcasts, go here.
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Mary Travers & The Kingston Trio – Where Have All The Flowers Gone
An evening pause: Performed live 1982, when lefties still believed in freedom and peace and the immutable importance of each individual soul. Somehow seems appropriate on the ides of March.
Hat tip Tom Biggar.
March 15, 2023 Quick space links
Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay.
- OneWeb’s next launch of 36 satellites now scheduled by ISRO no sooner than March 26th
The launch will complete OneWeb’s constellation in orbit.
- Op-ed touts need to transfer space regulation to Office of Space Commerce
The false argument put forth is that this new department will simplify regulation. The reality is that it is simply going to add another bureaucratic layer to the regulatory process whose leaders will be pushing to build their own empires.
- More hints that engineers in Russia suspect a manufacturing defect in their Soyuz/Progress coolant systems
The tweet wonders if the problem could pop up on the Soyuz now in orbit, and wonders how long it can remain in orbit safely.
Pushback: Legal and public pressure forces California college to cancel plans to fire employees for not getting jab
The board of trustees of San Diego Community College
They’re coming for you next: The board of trustees of San Diego Community College in late February 2023 had been moving to fire a number of teachers and employees because they all refused for various medical and religious reasons to get COVID shots or boosters.
The policy was senseless in all ways. As Tracy Kiser, a pregnant black professor who was refusing the jab because of the risk it posed to her unborn child, noted in a February 21st op-ed:
“Last year, after a decline in enrollment, the San Diego Community College District dropped the COVID-19 vaccine requirement for students, but it has not been dropped for faculty and staff,” wrote Kiser, who also directs her school’s math center. [emphasis mine]
If the college’s trustees believe blindly that the jab prevents COVID (which it does not) and wants to protect its employees, why does it allow those employees to teach unjabbed students?
The board’s idiocy was further illustrated by Kiser’s description of this incident during one board meeting:
» Read more
Geological evidence of past glacier found in Mars’ dry equatorial regions
Scientists have uncovered geological evidence of a past glacier in westernmost end of the giant Martian canyon Valles Marineris, right at the point where it transitions into the complex chaos region dubbed Noctis Labyrinthus. The white dot on the map to the right indicates the location.
The surface feature identified as a “relict glacier” is one of many light-toned deposits (LTDs) found in the region. Typically, LTDs consist mainly of light-colored sulfate salts, but this deposit also shows many of the features of a glacier, including crevasse fields and moraine bands. The glacier is estimated to be 6 kilometers long and up to 4 kilometers wide, with a surface elevation ranging from +1.3 to +1.7 kilometers. This discovery suggests that Mars’ recent history may have been more watery than previously thought, which could have implications for understanding the planet’s habitability.
“What we’ve found is not ice, but a salt deposit with the detailed morphologic features of a glacier. What we think happened here is that salt formed on top of a glacier while preserving the shape of the ice below, down to details like crevasse fields and moraine bands,” said Dr. Pascal Lee, a planetary scientist with the SETI Institute and the Mars Institute, and the lead author of the study. [emphasis mine]
You can read the paper here [pdf]. The research specifically suggests that near surface water ice in the dry equatorial regions of Mars could have been there much more recently that previously believed. It also suggests, by the rarity of this discovery, that there is likely almost no near surface ice in the equatorial regions, at present.
Perseverance captures a movie of Ingenuity’s 47th flight on Mars
Click for full movie.
Click for interactive map.
During Ingenuity’s 47th flight on Mars on March 9, 2023, one of Perseverance’s high resolution camera’s took rapid-fire images of the helicopter’s take-off and initial flight, from which the science team created a movie.
The overview map to the right provides the context for that movie at the link. The blue dot marks Perserverance’s location, with the yellow lines indicating the approximate area seen in the movie. The smaller green dot and line indicates Ingenuity’s take-off point and part of its flight seen in the movie, with the larger green dot its landing spot. From the press release:
This video shows the dust initially kicked up by the helicopter’s spinning rotors, as well as Ingenuity taking off, hovering, and beginning its 1,444-foot (440-meter) journey to the southwest.
At take-off Ingenuity was 394 feet away from Perseverance.
Firefly wins its second NASA contract to land payloads on the Moon
Capitalism in space: Firefly announced today that it has won a $112 million NASA contract to use its Blue Ghost lunar lander to bring three instruments to the Moon, one into orbit and two on the ground on the far side of the Moon.
Before landing on the Moon, the company’s Blue Ghost transfer vehicle will deploy the European Space Agency’s Lunar Pathfinder satellite into lunar orbit to provide communications for future spacecraft, robots, and human explorers. After touching down on the far side of the Moon, the Blue Ghost lunar lander will deliver and operate NASA’s S-Band User Terminal, ensuring uninterrupted communications for lunar exploration, and a research-focused payload that measures radio emissions to provide insight into the origins of the universe.
The NASA press release provides more details about the three payloads.
This is Firefly’s second NASA lunar lander contract. The first is scheduled to land in 2024 and deliver ten NASA science instruments to Mare Crisium, the large mare region in the eastern side of the Moon’s visible hemisphere. This second flight is tentatively scheduled to launch in 2026.
NASA agrees to Axiom’s third planned commercial passenger mission to ISS
NASA today announced that it has given Axiom the go-ahead for its third planned commercial passenger mission to ISS, now tentatively scheduled for November 2023.
Axiom Mission 3 (Ax-3) is expected to spend 14 days docked to the space station. A specific launch date is dependent on spacecraft traffic to the space station and in-orbit activity planning and constraints. NASA and Axiom Space mission planners will coordinate in-orbit activities for the private astronauts to conduct in coordination with space station crew members and flight controllers on the ground.
As NASA did in announcing its agreement to Axiom’s previous flight, the agency’s press release makes believe it “selected” Axiom for this flight, as if it had the power and right to do so. Hogwash. Axiom has purchased the flight from SpaceX, and wishes to rent space on ISS for two weeks for its customers. All NASA has done is agree to the deal, while also charging Axiom very large fees for that rental.
Sade – No Ordinary Love
An evening pause: Hat tip Judd Clark.
SpaceX launches cargo Dragon to ISS
Capitalism in space: SpaceX tonight successfully used its Falcon 9 rocket to put a cargo Dragon capsule into orbit and on its way to ISS.
The first stage successfully completed its seventh flight, landing on a drone ship in the Atlantic. The Dragon freighter is making its third flight, and will dock with ISS on the morning of March 16th.
The 2023 launch race:
17 SpaceX
9 China
4 Russia
1 Rocket Lab
1 Japan
1 India
American private enterprise now leads China 18 to 9 in the national rankings, and the entire world combined 18 to 15. SpaceX alone leads entire world, including the rest of the U.S., 17 to 16.
March 14, 2023 Quick space links
Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay.
- Next Rocket Lab launch presently scheduled for Wednesday, March 15th, with a 6-8 pm (Eastern) launch window
The launch is from Wallops Island in Virgina, using the company’s Electron rocket.
- Axiom to build the spacesuits to be used by the next American astronauts on the Moon
This isn’t news, as the contract was issued to Axion in September 2022. The company and NASA are simply unveiling the suit to the public, with typical PR fanfare.
- Chinese scientist provides update on Zhurong, which remains silent because of dust
Apparently they have found from orbital images that its solar panels are dust-covered, the result of the heavy winter dust storm season. They remain hopeful that with time and the arrival of Martian summer the dust will be blown off and they can reactivate the rover.
- Another Twitter report of Kazakhstan’s seizure of Roscosmos’ property at Baikonur
This was first reported on in the March 8th quick links, but today’s tweet adds that the seizure is due to a Russian debt to Kazakhstan of two billion rubles. The consequences of the seizure for future Russian launches remains unclear however.
- Amazon unveils user terminals for its Kuiper satellite constellation
The terminals look “futuristic”, but maybe that’s because they will be like all of Jeff Bezos’ futuristic projects, only in the future.
- PLD touts picture of its suborbital Miuri-1 rocket on the launchpad in Spain
No launch date is mentioned, though it does appear the company is getting close.