Category: Points of Information

Very brief descriptions, with appropriate links, of current or recent news items.

Japan awards development agreements with four rocket startups

1:14 pm

Capitalism in space: Japan’s space agency this week awarded development agreements to four Japanese rocket startups, signaling that nation’s attempt to shift from depending on JAXA’s government-built rockets to becoming a customer of an industry of competing commercial rocket companies.

Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and Interstellar signed a basic agreement in March. Space One, whose Kairos solid rocket exploded seconds after liftoff earlier this month, was also selected under the JAXA-SMASH (JAXA-Small Satellite Rush Program) initiative. Two further companies also signed basic agreements. These are Space BD and Mitsui Bussan Aerospace, which offer services aimed at the commercial utilization of space.

The agreements mean the companies will have priority for future contracts. These are designed to support private-sector entities capable of launching satellites developed under JAXA’s small satellite missions and advance the commercialization of space transportation services.

These deals are part of a new policy announced in November that includes $6.6 billion to help encourage the growth of a Japanese commercial space sector, independent of that nation’s space agency.

It remains uncertain whether JAXA will let go the purse strings and actually allow these new companies ownership of what they do. The deals as described sound like the agency is using its power to attempt to capture the companies, rather than encourage their independent growth.

We shall have to wait and see. On its face this announcement is very good news for Japan’s space industry, as it suggests that things might be changing.

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A detailed look at the international partners for China’s Moon base

1:03 pm

Link here. The article provides a nice summary of who has signed on to China’s project to build a Moon base in competition with the American Artemis project, prompted by the announcement that an astronomical association in Colombia has now signed on.

The contrast is stark between the nations that have signed the Artemis Accords to participate in the American project (36 so far) and the entities that have partnered with the Chinese. China at present only has seven partner nations (Belarus, Pakistan, Azerbaijan, Russia, Venezuela, South Africa, Egypt), only one of which, Russia, has any space capabilities. The remaining nine partners are all academic organizations of one kind or another, all of which also have little or no major space capabilities.

Essentially, these partners are mostly PR by China to make it appear it has an international team. In reality almost all of its lunar project will be done by China. China doesn’t even expect Russia to contribute that much. As the article notes, “China has regularly omitted any mention of Russia as an ILRS partner” since the Russia invaded the Ukraine in February 2022. Before then Russia’s ability to accomplish much of anything new in space had long been questionable, and since then the doubts have escalated.

Though many of the nations who have signed the Artemis Accords are as weak, the list also includes almost all the world’s major players in space, such as France, Germany, India, Japan, and Luxembourg.

Like the Cold War, the western capitalist alliance is larger and more capable, because no one really wants to join an partnership that discourages freedom and private enterprise.

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Martian waves of ridges and cracks

12:42 pm

Martian waves of ridges and cracks
Click for original image.

In preparing today’s cool image I initially planned to post an picture taken on December 26, 2023 by the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO), as it showed a strange series of ridges that almost resembled waves or ripples on a pond.

In digging into MRO’s context camera archive to get the larger context, however, I immediately switched to the photo on the right, cropped, reduced, and sharpened to post here. Taken on December 17, 2010, it shows a much more mysterious and striking set of geological features than the closer view of the high resolution image, with the wave-shaped ridges on its western half but another set of wave-shaped cracks on its eastern half.

Even more intriguing, the arcs for the ridges curve in the opposite direction from the arcs for the cracks. It is almost as if there were two flows moving in opposite directions, right next to each other.
» Read more

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The remnant of the supernova from 1181, as seen in multiple wavelengths

9:44 am

Supernova remnant as seen in multiple wavelengths
Click for original image.

Using a number of different telescopes and observing in many wavelengths outside the visible spectrum, astronomers have produced a new composite image of the remnant of a supernova that was detected in the year 1181 and remained visible to the naked eye for about six months.

That composite picture is to the right, cropped and reduced to post here. From the press release:

X-ray observations by ESA’s XMM-Newton (blue) show the full extent of the nebula and NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory (cyan) pinpoints its central source. The nebula is barely visible in optical light but shines bright in infrared light, collected by NASA’s Wide-field Infrared Space Explorer (red and pink). Interestingly, the radial structure in the image consists of heated sulfur that glows in visible light, observed with the ground-based Hiltner 2.4 m telescope at the MDM Observatory (green) in Arizona, USA, as do the stars in the background by Pan-STARRS (white) in Hawaii, USA.

Because the remnant is so dim in visible light, it has taken years of searching to locate it.

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SLIM survives its second lunar night, re-establishes contact

9:33 am

SLIM's view after surviving its 2nd night on the Moon
Click for original image.

According to Japan’s space agency JAXA, the SLIM lunar lander has successfully survived its long night on the Moon, re-establishiing contact with ground controllers yesterday.

Last night, we received a response from #SLIM, confirming that the spacecraft made it through the lunar night for the second time! Since the sun was still high and the equipment was still hot, we only took some shots of the usual scenery with the navigation camera

One of those pictures is to the right, reduced slightly to post here. It looks west across the floor of Shioli Crater, with the far rim about a thousand feet away. The picture is identical to previous images, tilted because the spacecraft landed on its side and has limited scientific capabilities, being primarily an engineering test mission.

That this engineering test has now survived two lunar nights speaks well for its design. It tells us that future Japanese lunar landers (and rovers) will have a good chance of surviving for a long time on the Moon.

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March 27, 2024 Quick space links

4:07 pm

Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay. This post is also an open thread. I welcome my readers to post any comments or additional links relating to any space issues, even if unrelated to the links below.

 

 

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Scientists release detailed geological map of the landing site for Europe’s Franklin rover

10:01 am

Low resolution cropped section of map
Click for original image.

Scientists today released a new high resolution and very detailed geological map of the landing site for Europe’s Franklin rover, produced using orbital data from the U.S.’S Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and Europe’s Trace Gas Orbiter.

A very low resolution version of the map is to the right.

The work was divided into 134 one-square-kilometre areas, so that the [80-person] team could fully cover the estimated landing area. Scientists used a web-based system that allowed everyone to work on the map in parallel. The software was provided by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and set up at ESA [European Space Agency]. Data came from the Colour and Stereo Surface Imaging System (CaSSIS) onboard the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter and several instruments on NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO), including the HiRISE camera, which returns images from Mars orbit at 25 cm per pixel.

The mapping leads then pieced together the information on all the areas to form a coherent map that shows the geology of the landing site in unprecedented detail. The map includes the main types of bedrock, and structures with distinct shapes like ridges and craters. It even features the material that rests on top, for example blown by the wind, or thrown long distances when meteorites impacted the surface.

The result is the highest resolution map of Oxia Planum yet, created at a scale of 1:25 000, by which every centimetre equals 250 metres on the martian surface. An average drive of 25 to 50 metres a day for Rosalind Franklin would be one to two milimetres on the map.

The team had the extra time to compile this map because the launch of Franklin to Mars was delayed a number of times because of engineering issues and the Ukraine War, which ended the Europe’s partnership with Russia, requiring ESA to find other means to launch and land the rover.

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Data from Perseverance suggests the delta in Jezero Crater was formed by a wide variety of different “fluvial” events

9:43 am

Jezero Crater delta
Jezero Crater delta

Using data from the Perseverance rover in Jezero crater, scientists now conclude that the delta that poured through a gap in the crater’s rim was formed by a wide variety of different “fluvial” events, not a steady flow as previously assumed.

From the paper’s conclusions:

The origin of this variability as well as that of the high discharge represented by the boulder conglomerate is still unknown. Realistic hypotheses include seasonal variations due to melting of snow, glacial input with possible episodic surges punctuating more regular fluvial input, or arid climate type of flows with intense storms and related flash floods.

We do not speculate further about the nature of fluvial activity in this study. However, the variability and the presence of high discharge rates have important implications on the lake evolution. Firstly, previous modeling of Jezero delta formation used steady-state discharge rates to estimate the time required to form the delta, an assumption that we can no longer justify according to our observations. Secondly, estimates of discharge rates … may be used as upper limits for some of the peak discharge rates, although the number of flood events is still difficult to determine from the sparse outcrops and the ubiquitous presence of scree.

In other words, the delta was not formed by a single event or a long stream of liquid flowing into the crater to form the lake that scientists believe once filled the crater. Instead, that flow varied, involved numerous distinct and different events over time, and likely included glacial ice transport as well.

Not that this is a surprise, but as always, the closer we get to a planet and the more detailed our data about it, the more complicated we find its nature and origins.

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Members of Texas Space Commission unveiled

9:27 am

The governor of Texas, Greg Abbott, yesterday revealed the names of the 18 individuals who will head the Texas Space Commission, created by the legislature to encourage the development of that state’s commercial space industry.

The Texas Space Commission will be tasked with developing a statewide strategy that promotes innovation, creates incentives (including grant funding) and develops workforce training. They initially have $350 million to work with, $150 million budgeted for grants and $200 million for a new research and training facility built by the Texas A&M University System.

The Texas Aerospace Research and Space Economy Consortium, which is part of the Texas Space Commission, will identify research and development opportunities and find ways to further integrate space into the Texas economy.

The commission appears strongly made up of representatives from many commercial companies, including the big companies SpaceX, Lockheed Martin, and Boeing as well as a number of newer smaller companies. Linked as it is so closely with the state government, this commission will be well placed to eliminate any obstacles within the state to commercial development.

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The spiraling magnetic field surrounding the Milky Way’s central supermassive black hole

9:19 am

The magnetic field lines surrounding Sagittarius A*
Click for original image.

Astronomers have now produced the first detailed image of polarized light surrounding the Milky Way’s central supermassive black hole, dubbed Sagittarius A* (pronounced “Sagittarius A-star”) which in turn maps out the spiraling field lines of that black hole’s magnetic field.

The image to the right, reduced to post here, shows that image. From the press release:

“What we’re seeing now is that there are strong, twisted, and organized magnetic fields near the black hole at the center of the Milky Way galaxy,” said Sara Issaoun, CfA NASA Hubble Fellowship Program Einstein Fellow, Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory (SAO) astrophysicist, and co-lead of the project. “Along with Sgr A* having a strikingly similar polarization structure to that seen in the much larger and more powerful M87* black hole, we’ve learned that strong and ordered magnetic fields are critical to how black holes interact with the gas and matter around them.”

Light is an oscillating, or moving, electromagnetic wave that allows us to see objects. Sometimes, light oscillates in a preferred orientation, and we call it “polarized.” Although polarized light surrounds us, to human eyes it is indistinguishable from “normal” light. In the plasma around these black holes, particles whirling around magnetic field lines impart a polarization pattern perpendicular to the field. This allows astronomers to see in increasingly vivid detail what’s happening in black hole regions and map their magnetic field lines.

Despite this similarlity, it still remains a mystery why the much larger M87 black hole is very active while Sagittarius A’ remains generally quiet.

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Engineers resolve issue on IXPE space telescope

9:01 am

Engineers have resolved the issue on the IXPE (Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer) space telescope that was jumbling the data it was sending to Earth, and expect to return it to full science operations shortly.

On March 26, using procedures developed following that previous interruption, the team initiated a spacecraft avionics reset to address the issue, which put IXPE into a planned safe mode. The team has confirmed that IXPE is once again transmitting valid telemetry data and is now working to resume science operations, in as rapid and safe a manner as possible. The spacecraft is in good health.

The “previous interruption” was in 2023. In both cases it appears that simply rebooting the telescope’s software fixed the problem.

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