All About Space
Discussing news and questions around space flight, space science and astronomy. Beware, flat-earthers might get banned.
Open Loop 412
-
-
Mission engineers will track NASA's Lucy spacecraft nonstop as it prepares to swoop near Earth on Oct. 16 to use this planet's gravity to set itself on a course toward the Jupiter Trojan asteroids.
But they also will be closely tracking something else: more than 47,000 satellites, debris, and other objects circling our planet. A greater than 1-10,000 chance that Lucy will collide with one of these objects will require mission engineers to slightly adjust the spacecraft's trajectory.
https://phys.org/news/2022-10-nasa-lucy-thousands-earth-gravity.html -
NASA says the Artemis I mission will be ready to launch in one month
"A little more than two weeks have passed since NASA prudently rolled its Space Launch System rocket and Orion spacecraft inside the massive Vehicle Assembly Building at Kennedy Space Center to protect the hardware from Hurricane Ian."
https://arstechnica.com/science/2022/10/nasa-targets-mid-november-for-its-third-artemis-i-launch-attempt/ -
"A spacecraft that plowed into a small, harmless asteroid millions of miles from Earth succeeded in shifting the orbit of the space rock, Nasa said on Tuesday, announcing the results of its first such test."
Sound like success to me!
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2022/oct/11/nasa-dart-spacecraft-asteroid-successful -
"Despite its modest overall achievements, India's Mars Orbiter Mission is one of the more notable successes of the modern spaceflight era. Launched in 2013, it was the first Mars mission built by an Asian country to reach orbit around the red planet—only the United States, Soviet Union, and European Space Agency had done so before."
https://arstechnica.com/science/2022/10/after-an-amazing-run-at-mars-india-says-its-orbiter-has-no-more-fuel/ -
"NASA announced Thursday that it plans to study the possibility of using SpaceX's Crew Dragon vehicle to boost the aging Hubble Space Telescope into a higher orbit.
The federal agency has signed a "Space Act Agreement" with SpaceX to conduct a six-month study to determine the practicability of Dragon docking with the 32-year-old telescope and boosting it into a higher orbit. The study is not exclusive, meaning that other companies can propose similar concepts with alternative rockets and spacecraft."
https://arstechnica.com/science/2022/09/nasa-and-spacex-are-studying-a-hubble-telescope-boost-adding-15-to-20-years-of-life/ -
"The crashing of a spacecraft is, for once, a cause for celebration. The Dart (Double Asteroid Redirection Test) mission on Tuesday marked humanity’s first ever attempt at moving an asteroid in space."
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2022/sep/28/this-ones-for-the-dinosaurs-how-the-world-reacted-to-nasas-asteroid-smashing-success -
“The joint statement noted NASA and ESA cooperation on human space flight activities such as the International Space Station, Gateway, and the ESA-provided European Service Module for the Orion capsule, and highlighted ongoing discussions on future collaboration on the Moon,” NASA stated.
https://spacenews.com/nasa-and-esa-sign-lunar-cooperation-statement/ -
"NASA will roll the Artemis I Space Launch System rocket and Orion spacecraft back to the Vehicle Assembly Building on Monday, Sept. 26."
That means that another launch attempt of SLS is unlikley to happen before mid November.
https://blogs.nasa.gov/artemis/2022/09/26/nasa-to-roll-artemis-i-rocket-and-spacecraft-back-to-vab-tonight/ -
"Half a year after Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the implications of this war for the European space industry have been profound. Most notably, Europe has severed all connections with the Russian launch industry and cancelled a joint mission to place a European rover on Mars with the help of a Russian rocket and lander."
https://arstechnica.com/science/2022/09/european-space-chief-cannot-see-a-return-to-cooperation-with-russia/ -
"After scrubbing a launch attempt of the Space Launch System rocket on Monday, NASA officials said they're working toward a second attempt to fly the Artemis I mission on Saturday, September 3."
https://arstechnica.com/science/2022/08/nasa-will-make-second-attempt-to-launch-the-sls-rocket-on-saturday/ -
"Space is hard, certainly. But Monday's attempt—which NASA had promoted heavily by inviting celebrities to the launch and which included a visit by Vice President Kamala Harris—was perhaps a bit rushed. Why? "
https://arstechnica.com/science/2022/08/warning-sign-nasa-never-finished-a-fueling-test-before-todays-sls-launch-attempt/ -
NASA's DART mission, launched on a SpaceX Falcon 9 last year, will hit its target at 7:14 p.m. EDT on Monday, Sept. 26.
This test will show a spacecraft can autonomously navigate to a target asteroid and intentionally collide with it to change the asteroid’s motion in a way that can be measured using ground-based telescopes. DART will provide important data to help better prepare for an asteroid that might pose an impact hazard to Earth, should one ever be discovered.
https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-invites-media-to-witness-world-s-first-planetary-defense-test -
-
"Russia will opt out of the International Space Station (ISS) after 2024 and focus on building its own orbiting outpost, the country’s newly appointed space chief said on Tuesday."
Probably the best for everyone involved.
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2022/jul/26/russia-opt-out-international-space-station-2024-build-own-outpost
