October 31, 2023 Zimmerman/Space Show podcast

3:19 pm

The podcast of my appearance last night on the Space Show with David Livingston is now available. You can download it here.

The discussion almost entirely centered on the delays getting government approvals for the next Starship/Superheavy test launch. The best part I think was the conversation between myself and Charles Lurio, publisher of the very well-respected space newsletter The Lurio Report.

Also, I think one of my regular readers and commenters here at BtB called in with some good questions, but I am not sure. If so, please confirm in the comments below.

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Lucy completes fly-by of main belt asteroid Dinkinesh

3:11 pm

Lucy's route through the solar system
Lucy’s route through the solar system

The Lucy science team has confirmed that the spacecraft has successfully completed its fly-by of the asteroid Dinkinesh (the white dot in the lower left of the main asteroid belt in the graphic to the right) and is in good health.

Based on the information received, the team has determined that the spacecraft is in good health and the team has commanded the spacecraft to start downlinking the data collected during the encounter. It will take up to a week for all the data collected during the encounter to be downlinked to Earth.

Though the images and data of Dinkinesh obtained during this fly-by have science value, the real purpose of the fly-by was to test the operations of Lucy for when it reaches the Trojan asteroids in Jupiter’s orbit, as shown by the graphic. The spacecraft will now do a flyby of Earth in 2025 to slingshot it to the orbit of Jupiter, where it will do its main work exploring the Trojan asteroids there. On the way it will fly past a second main belt asteroid, dubbed Donaldjohanson.

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Genesis cover

On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.

 

The print edition can be purchased at Amazon, any other book seller, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.


The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
 

"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News

November 1, 2023 Quick space links

2:48 pm

Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay.

 

 

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Gadsden flag kid sues school and its officials for violating his first amendment rights

1:26 pm

Jaiden and school official
Jaiden Rodriguez reacting with bemused
disbelief by the ignorance of the school
official behind him. Click to watch the video

In August 2023 the Vanguard School in Colorado Springs demanded that 12-year-old Jaiden Rodriguez remove patches on his daypack showing the Gadsden flag as well as some funny Pac-men holding guns or he would be banned from classes. Jaiden refused, and the resulting uproar — forcing the cancellation of a scheduled parents night — caused school officials to quickly back down and give Jaiden permission to attend classes with the daypack and Gadsden flag patch.

For the school the most embarassing part of the story was how it illustrated the total ignorance of school officials about American history as well as the First Amendment. School officials, who are supposed to teach history to their students, knew less about American history than Jaiden. They falsely claimed that the Gadsen flag had “its origins in slavery and the slave trade,” when it was actually created during the American Revolution as a symbol against tyranny. In addition, they ignorantly claimed they had the right to censor Jaiden, simply because his patches “might” offend some students, when the Supreme Court has consistently ruled for more than a half century that they did not have that right.

The uproar caused the school’s board of directors to issue a retraction, though they did not waive the ban on the armed Pac-men patches. Moreover:
» Read more

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Conscious Choice cover

Now available in hardback and paperback as well as ebook!

 

From the press release: In this ground-breaking new history of early America, historian Robert Zimmerman not only exposes the lie behind The New York Times 1619 Project that falsely claims slavery is central to the history of the United States, he also provides profound lessons about the nature of human societies, lessons important for Americans today as well as for all future settlers on Mars and elsewhere in space.

 
Conscious Choice: The origins of slavery in America and why it matters today and for our future in outer space, is a riveting page-turning story that documents how slavery slowly became pervasive in the southern British colonies of North America, colonies founded by a people and culture that not only did not allow slavery but in every way were hostile to the practice.  
Conscious Choice does more however. In telling the tragic history of the Virginia colony and the rise of slavery there, Zimmerman lays out the proper path for creating healthy societies in places like the Moon and Mars.

 

“Zimmerman’s ground-breaking history provides every future generation the basic framework for establishing new societies on other worlds. We would be wise to heed what he says.” —Robert Zubrin, founder of founder of the Mars Society.

 

All editions are available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and all book vendors, with the ebook priced at $5.99 before discount. All editions can also be purchased direct from the ebook publisher, ebookit, in which case you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.

 

Autographed printed copies are also available at discount directly from the author (hardback $29.95; paperback $14.95; Shipping cost for either: $6.00). Just send an email to zimmerman @ nasw dot org.

A Martian splash crater in the northern lowland plains

10:12 am

A Martian splash crater
Click for original image.

Cool image time (necessary when there is no real space news to report)! The picture to the right, cropped, reduced, and sharpened to post here, was taken on June 29, 2023 by the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). It shows what the scientists label as “steep crater walls.”

And the interior slopes of this 5-mile-wide unnamed crater are steep, about 600 feet high and descending at a grade of 10 to 13 degrees, getting steeper as you go down. In fact, the floor of the crater itself continues that slope downward to the west until it reaches the base of its western interior wall. For some reason the glacial material within it is piled up higher on its eastern end.

The dark streaks on the crater interior walls are either slope streaks or recurring slope lineae, with the former appearing somewhat randomly and the latter seasonal in nature. Both remain unexplained unique phenomenons of Mars. This new picture was likely a follow-up of a January 2014 MRO picture to see if anything had changed in the past decade.

To my eye it is difficult to detect any changes, but I am not looking at the highest resolution version of the picture. The lack of changes suggests the streaks are seasonal lineae, as both images were taken in the northern spring and the streaks in both appear much the same.
» Read more

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China successfully launches classified satellite

10:27 pm

China tonight (November 1, 2023 in China) successfully launched a classified satellite, its Long March 6 rocket lifting off from its Taiyuan spaceport in the north part of the country.

No video of the launch was released. Nor were any pictures. In addition, no information was released describing where the rocket’s first and second stages crashed. Both use kerosene and oxygen, so neither is as toxic as China’s other older rockets using hypergolic fuels, but China also does not make any apparent effort to control these crash landings.

The leaders in the 2023 launch race:

78 SpaceX
49 China
14 Russia
7 Rocket Lab
7 India

American private enterprise still leads China 90 to 49 in successful launches, and the entire world combined 90 to 78. SpaceX by itself is now tied with the rest of the world (excluding American companies) 78 to 78.

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Leaving Earth cover

Leaving Earth: Space Stations, Rival Superpowers, and the Quest for Interplanetary Travel, can be purchased as an ebook everywhere for only $3.99 (before discount) at amazon, Barnes & Noble, all ebook vendors, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit.

 

If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big oppressive tech companies and I get a bigger cut much sooner.

 

Winner of the 2003 Eugene M. Emme Award of the American Astronautical Society.

 
"Leaving Earth is one of the best and certainly the most comprehensive summary of our drive into space that I have ever read. It will be invaluable to future scholars because it will tell them how the next chapter of human history opened." -- Arthur C. Clarke

October 31, 2023 Quick space links

3:34 pm

Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay.

 

 

 

 

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Scour pits of volcanic Martian ash

3:12 pm

Scour pits in volcanic ash
Click for original image.

Cool image time! The picture to the right, cropped, reduced, and sharpened to post here, was taken on June 16, 2023 by the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). The science team describes this as “clusters of scour pits,” which means the pits here were formed by the prevailing winds, which according to a global analysis of dunes on Mars, is probably blowing from the west to the east at this location.

This image only covers a small section of these scour pits. The full field extends about 20 by 18 miles across, and appears to be the southeastern flank of a mile-high dome. The scour marks could therefore also be evidence of some sagging of this material downhill along that flank.

It is also possible that the flow of the prevailing winds across this southeastern downhill slope is causing the pit formation. Unlike this flank, the rest of this dome is relatively smooth.
» Read more

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Israel’s Pearl Harbor

1:27 pm

Israel's Israeli ambassador wearing a yellow star
The Israeli UN ambassador and his staff wearing
yellow stars to shame the world’s diplomatic com-
munity for its willingness to appease mass murderers.

For Israel, it is now quite apparent that the mass murder by Hamas of more than a thousand Israeli civilians, including women, children, and babies, was not perceived as just another terrorist attack requiring a measured and surgical response.

No, in this case the entire nation of Israel, from the secular left to religious right, has finally recognized that Hamas had long ago declared war on the Jewish people, and the massacre on October 7th was its way of underlining that state of war.

Israel is now responding in kind, just as the United States did after Pearl Harbor. After that attack on December 7, 1941, American were resolved that they were in a war of survival that could not end until the Axis powers of Germany and Japan were utterly obliterated. There would be no ceasefire or negotiations, as had happened at the end of World War I.

For the Israelis, October 7th is their day of infamy. It is for this reason that the Israeli ambassador put on a yellow star yesterday, similar to the Star of David the Nazis forced Jews to wear, but with the words “Never Again” emblazoned thereon. He then bluntly told the appeasers at the United Nations:
» Read more

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Ingenuity completes 64th flight on Mars

9:49 am

Overview map
Click for interactive map.

Ingenuity's view just before landing
Click for original image.

In a pattern that is beginning to be almost routine, on October 27, 2023 the Mars helicopter Ingenuity completed its 64th flight on Mars, flying 1,348 feet at a speed of 13 mph for 139 seconds at an altitude of 39 feet.

As with most of its recent flights, the distance and time was slightly longer than the flight plan, likely because the helicopter took extra time finding a good landing spot.

On the overview map above, the green line marks the flight path, and the green dot the helicopter’s present position. The blue dot marks Perseverance’s present position. The yellow lines indicate the area covered by the color image to the right, cropped, reduced, and enhanced to post here. This image was taken by Ingenuity just a few seconds before landing, and looks across the floor of Neretva Vallis, where Perseverance will soon be traveling.

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On the Space Show tonight

9:04 am

Tonight I will be doing another long appearance from 7:00-9:00 pm (Pacific) with David Livingston on The Space Show. I hope my readers tune in and, more importantly, call in with questions.

When I scheduled this with David several months ago, I told him my expectation was that Starship/Superheavy would still be on the ground due to government blockage. He hoped not. I am sad to say I was right, when I really really wanted to be wrong.

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Scientists detect salts and carbon-based molecules on Ganymede

8:47 am

Ganymede as seen by Juno
A close-up image taken during the June 7, 2021
Juno fly-by of Ganymede Click for original image.

Using data obtained during a close fly-by of Ganymede by Juno in June 2021, scientists have detected evidence of salts and organic carbon-based molecules.

On June 7, 2021, Juno flew over Ganymede at a minimum altitude of 650 miles (1,046 kilometers). Shortly after the time of closest approach, the JIRAM instrument acquired infrared images and infrared spectra (essentially the chemical fingerprints of materials, based on how they reflect light) of the moon’s surface. Built by the Italian Space Agency, Agenzia Spaziale Italiana, JIRAM was designed to capture the infrared light (invisible to the naked eye) that emerges from deep inside Jupiter, probing the weather layer down to 30 to 45 miles (50 to 70 kilometers) below the gas giant’s cloud tops. But the instrument has also been used to offer insights into the terrain of moons Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto (known collectively as the Galilean moons for their discoverer, Galileo).

The JIRAM data of Ganymede obtained during the flyby achieved an unprecedented spatial resolution for infrared spectroscopy – better than 0.62 miles (1 kilometer) per pixel. With it, Juno scientists were able to detect and analyze the unique spectral features of non-water-ice materials, including hydrated sodium chloride, ammonium chloride, sodium bicarbonate, and possibly aliphatic aldehydes.

The data indicated that the salts and organics were most concentrated in Ganymede’s equatorial regions, which are less impacted by Jupiter’s strong magnetic field. The scientists think these materials originally came from the brine of an underground ocean that somehow reached the surface, though this hypothesis remains unconfirmed.

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Chinese crew completes five-month mission on Tiangong-3 after return to Earth

8:32 am

The new colonial movement: A three-man Chinese crew successfully landed today in north China in their Shenzhou capsule, completing a five-month mission on the Tiangong-3 space station.

The full mission length was 154 days. China claims that one of the astronauts was a civilian, but that really means nothing considering the security required to participate in these missions.

The crew that has taken over on Tiangong-3 are expected to do a mission of comparable length, probably pushing the length to six-months.

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SpaceX launches another 23 Starlink satellites

4:30 pm

SpaceX today successfully launched 23 more Starlink satellites, its Falcon 9 rocket lifting off from Cape Canaveral.

The first stage successfully completed its eighth flight, landing on a drone ship in the Atlantic.

The leaders in the 2023 launch race:

78 SpaceX
48 China
14 Russia
7 Rocket Lab
7 India

American private enterprise now leads China 90 to 48 in successful launches, and the entire world combined 90 to 77. SpaceX by itself now leads the rest of the world (excluding American companies) 78 to 77.

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October 30, 2023 Quick space links

4:12 pm

Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay.

 

  • Visual maps showing who has put the most satellites in orbit in 2023, here and here

    • Not surprisingly, the maps make it obvious how much SpaceX now dominates the space industry.

 

 

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Chandra X-rays a giant hand in space

3:54 pm

A cosmic hand
Click for original image.

Cool image time! The picture to the right, cropped, reduced, and sharpened to post here, was taken by the Chandra X-ray Observatory, with data from the orbiting IXPE producing the lines that indicate the orientation of the magnetic field lines.

The image was part of research studying what the scientists call Pulsar Wind Nebulae (PWNe).

[E]arly-on when the new-born pulsar is still deep in its parent supernova remnant, or at late times after it has escaped to the relatively uniform interstellar medium, the pulsar wind is often uniform around the pulsar spin or velocity axis. In projection on the sky such structures have bilateral symmetry, that is, the two halves mirror each other. This makes them look (vaguely) like animals. This has led to many PWNe collecting animal monikers (‘The Mouse’, ‘The Dragonfly’, ‘The Rabbit’ – we are guilty of some of these…).

In between these early and late phases, the story is often more complex and the PWN interaction with the supernova shock wave leads to complicated morphologies. One of the prime examples is the PWN in the supernova remnant RCW 89 (also known as MSH 15-5(2)). Here the complex interactions form the PWN into the `Cosmic Hand’. Wanting to map the magnetic fields which structure this hand, the IXPE team took a long hard stare at MSH 15-5(2) and its central pulsar.

The scientists admit that the match between IXPE’s data and the structure of the hand is not really a surprise, but confirming the match was necessary if they are ever going to figure out the fundamental laws that govern magnetic fields, laws that presently are not well understood, at all.

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Don’t forget: The protesters supporting the Hamas mass murderers are all Democrats

12:51 pm

Pro-Hamas demonstrations

As Israel now ramps up its offensive against Hamas in Gaza, slowly but steadily moving tanks and troops into the strip from numerous directions, protests by supporters of Hamas’s mass murders on October 7th have exploded in numerous locations in the United States and elsewhere.

To the right are screen captures from two very large protests, the top showing a demonstration of an estimated 7,000 pro-Hamas protesters taking over the Brooklyn Bridge in New York on October 28, 2023. In the video at one point you can read a sign that clearly says, “Our soldiers will not be held accountable for anything.”

The second picture is from a protest in Chicago. The demonstrators at this moment are chanting “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free!”, a chant that has always meant in plain language, “We will kill all the Jews in Israel because Allah said only Muslims can live there.” It is also written into the Hamas founding charter, which states unequivocally that it “owes its loyalty to Allah, derives from Islam its way of life, and strives to raise the banner of Allah over every inch of Palestine.”
» Read more

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A spiral galaxy giving birth to a lot of stars

10:01 am

A spiral galaxy giving birth to a lot of stars
Click for original image.

Time for another cool galaxy image! The picture to the right, reduced and sharpened to post here, was taken by the Hubble Space Telescope, and shows what some informally refer to as the “‘Spanish Dancer Galaxy’ because the “vivid and dramatic swirling lines of its spiral arms … evoke the shapes and colours of a dancer’s moving form. ”

Though this galaxy’s two main arms cause it to resemble a barred galaxy, it lacks a central bar, suggesting it is young. The numerous reddish and pink regions in the arms, all of which are thought to be star-forming regions, also suggest the galaxy is young, still giving birth to many stars.

It is located about 60 million light years away, and is part of what scientists label the Doradus galaxy group, which contains less than a hundred galaxies. In comparison, a galaxy cluster is much larger, containing hundreds to thousands of galaxies.

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Two mouse embryos successfully grown on ISS

9:41 am

Mouse embryos from experiment
Taken from figure 2 of the paper

In a paper just published, scientists reveal that in 2021 they successfully grew two mouse embryos in weightlessness on ISS, suggesting that “perhaps mammalian space reproduction is possible, although it may be somewhat affected,” as they note in the conclusion of their paper [pdf].

From the papers abstract:

The embryos cultured under microgravity conditions developed into blastocysts with normal cell numbers, ICM, trophectoderm, and gene expression profiles similar to those cultured under artificial-1 g control on the International Space Station and ground-1 g control, which clearly demonstrated that gravity had no significant effect on the blastocyst formation and initial differentiation of mammalian embryos.

The images to the right come from the paper’s second figure, and compare the blastocysts from a ground control (top), an 1g artificial sample on ISS (middle), and the weightless result (bottom).

The experiment has many uncertainties, with the low number of embryos tested the most important. Quoting the paper’s conclusion again, the possibilities of refining this experiment for better results are great:

Unfortunately, the number of blastocysts obtained from the ISS experiment was not abundant; and we have not been able to confirm the impact on offspring because we have not produced offspring from embryos developed in space. We believe that the ETC [the experiment itself] will allow blastocysts to be frozen on the ISS if a cryoprotectant is used in place of PFA [a solution of formaldehyde]. Then, the frozen blastocysts could be brought back to Earth for transfer to a female recipient, and the viability of the blastocysts could be evaluated. Moreover, we could design a device to launch frozen oocytes and spermatozoa to the ISS, where in vitro fertilization experiments could be performed in microgravity. The use of this approach would be cheaper. Furthermore, the study of mammalian reproduction in space is essential to start the space age, making it necessary to study and clarify the effect of space environment before the ISS is no longer operational.

Despite the uncertainties, these results are significant. They suggest that human reproduction in zero gravity is possible, which also suggests it will be even more possible in lower gravity environments like the Moon or Mars.

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An infrared view of the Crab Nebula by Webb

9:14 am

Webb's image of the Crabb compared to Hubble's
Click for original image.

Using the Webb Space Telescope astronomers have taken the first detailed infrared image of the Crab Nebula, the remnant from a supernova that occurred in 1054 AD.

The two pictures on the right compare Webb’s false color infrared view with a natural light Hubble image in optical wavelengths, taken in 2005. From the press release:

The supernova remnant is comprised of several different components, including doubly ionized sulfur (represented in red-orange), ionized iron (blue), dust (yellow-white and green), and synchrotron emission (white). In this image, colors were assigned to different filters from Webb’s NIRCam and MIRI: blue (F162M), light blue (F480M), cyan (F560W), green (F1130W), orange (F1800W), and red (F2100W).

In comparing the images, it appears the scientists chose colors for the Webb image to more or less match those of Hubble’s natural color picture. However, as the press release notes:

Additional aspects of the inner workings of the Crab Nebula become more prominent and are seen in greater detail in the infrared light captured by Webb. In particular, Webb highlights what is known as synchrotron radiation: emission produced from charged particles, like electrons, moving around magnetic field lines at relativistic speeds. The radiation appears here as milky smoke-like material throughout the majority of the Crab Nebula’s interior.

This feature is a product of the nebula’s pulsar, a rapidly rotating neutron star. The pulsar’s strong magnetic field accelerates particles to extremely high speeds and causes them to emit radiation as they wind around magnetic field lines. Though emitted across the electromagnetic spectrum, the synchrotron radiation is seen in unprecedented detail with Webb’s NIRCam instrument.

The release also notes this remarkable but somewhat unfortunate fact:

Scientists will have newer Hubble data to review within the next year or so from the telescope’s reimaging of the supernova remnant. This will mark Hubble’s first look at emission lines from the Crab Nebula in over 20 years, and will enable astronomers to more accurately compare Webb and Hubble’s findings.

In 2005 repeated Hubble images of the Crab revealed that its filaments and radiation were stormy, with constant activity. The scientists actually produced a movie of those changes. It was expected that new images would be taken at regular intervals to track that activity. Apparently it was not, either because no scientist was interested or the committee that assigns time on Hubble decided this wasn’t important enough reseach.

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SpaceX successfully launches another 22 Starlink satellites

9:27 am

SpaceX early this morning successfully launched another 22 Starlink satellites, its Falcon 9 rocket lifting off from Vandenberg in California.

The first stage completed its seventh flight, landing on a drone ship in the Pacific.

The company has another Starlink launch scheduled for later today, taking off from Cape Canaveral. UPDATE: Aborted at T-30 seconds for a technical issue, and rescheduled for October 30, 2023.

The leaders in the 2023 launch race:

77 SpaceX
48 China
14 Russia
7 Rocket Lab
7 India

American private enterprise now leads China 89 to 48 in successful launches, and the entire world combined 89 to 77. SpaceX by itself is now tied with the rest of the world (excluding American companies) 77 to 77.

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Intuitive Machines delays launch of its Nova-C lunar lander two months

10:04 am

South Pole of Moon with landing sites

Intuitive Machines yesterday announced that it has decided to delay the launch of its Nova-C lunar lander from in November launch window to a new window beginning on January 12, 2023.

The company did not elaborate on the reasons for the delay. However, executives warned at a media event Oct. 3 that “pad congestion” at LC-39A could delay their launch. The mission has to launch from that pad, rather than nearby Space Launch Complex 40, because only LC-39A is equipped to fuel the lander with methane and liquid oxygen propellants on the pad shortly before liftoff.

That pad is used for Falcon 9 crew and cargo missions to the International Space Station as well as Falcon Heavy launches. The pad is scheduled to host the Falcon 9 launch of the CRS-29 cargo mission Nov. 5 followed by a Falcon Heavy mission for the Space Force in late November. Converting the pad between Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy launches can take up to three weeks.

The landing site is indicated by the green dot on the map of the south pole to the right. Note that this landing will be the closest to the south pole yet, though not at the south pole. It will also be the first to land next to a crater that has a permanently shadowed interior, though Nova-C will not be able to enter it because it carries no rover and is only designed to last through the first lunar day.

Based on the present launch schedule, Astrobotic now gets the first chance to successfully land a privately built lunar lander. It is scheduled to launch on December 24, 2023 on a Vulcan rocket. The Japanese company Ispace attempted and failed to land its Hakuto-R1 spacecraft in April.

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October 27, 2023 Quick space links

4:20 pm

Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay.

 

 

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The son of one of the co-founders of Hamas tells it like it is

2:13 pm

Rather than write another long essay detailing (based on facts) the evil and genocidal nature of Hamas in Gaza, I think it better today to let Mosab Hassan Yousef, the oldest son of Hamas co-founder Sheikh Hassan Yousef, do the speaking. An interview of him by Sky News Australia conducted yesterday is embedded below.

His passionate horror of Hamas — from long very personal experience — is evident and clear. So is his intellectual honesty. He will not lie to himself for the sake of alliance, ethnicity, religion, or anything. All that matters is the truth, which he states very bluntly.

“This is my message: an ex-Hamas member, as a son of one of Hamas’ founders, enough of this. If we don’t stop them now, the next war is going to be deadlier and only God knows what will happen next if Hamas is not finished as soon as possible,” Mr Yousef said.

“They opened the gates of hell on the Palestinian people.

“They are willing to actually sacrifice many Palestinian children, the entire Palestinian people and use them as fuel to … achieve their ideological agendas, their religious agendas.”

To underline the truth of his words, for his own protection Yousef now lives in the United States, his location was kept secret, and he refused to answer any personal questions about his specific plans. He knows better than anyone that Hamas will kill him if it can. It is a organization of violence, hate, and murder. Defy it, no matter who you are, and it will have no mercy upon you.

For such an organization civilized people should exhibit no mercy. It must be treated as the Nazis were treated in World War II. It must be obliterated, no matter the cost.

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A new global map of the near-surface ice on Mars

1:51 pm

Global map of near-surface ice on Mars
Click for interactive map.

A project begun in 2019 to use all the presently available orbital data to compile a global map of the near-surface ice on Mars has now been released that global map, shown by the graphic above, taken from Figure 16.7 from the project’s science paper.

The various areas in blue show the evidence of ice down to about 5 meters, or about 15 feet, with darker blue areas indicated ice at greater depth. The study focused on latitudes below 60 degrees latitude, while also blocking out areas above one kilometer in elevation (as indicated in black on the map above). As the paper noted,
» Read more

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Giant airship gets clearance for test flights

10:45 am

A giant rigid-frame balloon airship, dubbed Pathfinder-1 and reminiscent of the airships from the early 20th century, has gotten clearance to begin flight tests at Moffett Field in California.

At 407 ft (124 m) long and 66 ft (20 m) in diameter, it’s considerably longer than the “flying buttocks” of the Airlander 10, although less than half of its width. It might not qualify as the world’s largest aircraft, but it’s still absolutely enormous, approaching twice the length of an Airbus A380.

…Currently housed in a monstrous hangar in Mountain View, California, Pathfinder 1 has already flown indoors earlier this year. According to IEEE Spectrum, the company has now been awarded the special airworthiness certificate required to fly this beast outdoors – at less than 1,500 ft (460 m) of altitude, and within the boundaries of Moffett Field and the neighboring Palo Alto Airport’s airspace.

Because of the lightweight materials being used, Pathfinder-1 will use helium, not hydrogen, to lift it. The hope is that this airship can be used to transport cargo. The project is financed by Google co-founder Sergey Brin.

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