Nova-C Will Ship to Cape Canaveral Soon!

Intuitive Machines

Intuitive Machines Opens Lunar Production and Operations Facility at the Houston Spaceport and Confirms Lander Ship Date in the Coming Days (Press Release - September 29)

HOUSTON (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Intuitive Machines, Inc. (Nasdaq: LUNR, LUNRW) (“Intuitive Machines”) (“Company”), a leading space exploration, infrastructure and services company, today opened its Lunar Production and Operations Center.

Located at the Houston Spaceport in Houston, Texas, the Intuitive Machines Lunar Production and Operations Center represents a new lunar access capability for the United States, NASA and global commercial partners. Construction on the site began in June 2021, with the now-completed facility ready to support each of Intuitive Machines’ three NASA-awarded missions.

Designed to support each of the Company’s four core business units, the Lunar Production and Operations Center serves as the pivotal bridge between the Earth and the Moon, enabling sustainable, safe and efficient human and robotic space exploration.

At a press conference held today, Intuitive Machines confirmed that its first mission lunar lander, Nova-C, will be shipped from the new facility in the coming days ahead of its upcoming launch. The mission to deliver NASA and commercial payloads to the Moon’s south pole marks the United States' first attempted soft landing since Apollo 17 in 1972.

“The Moon is no longer a distant dream; it’s a destination within our grasp, and this facility is our lunar gateway – a national asset,” said Steve Altemus, Co-Founder, President and Chief Executive Officer of Intuitive Machines. “We’re proud that the United States' return to the Moon will have Houston, Texas, stamped on the shipping container that will leave this facility for launch, and we look forward to working under a roof that matches the technical excellence our employees demonstrate each day.”

“The opening of Intuitive Machines’ facility at the Houston Spaceport was made possible by the tireless support of teammates like Burns & McDonnell, the Houston Airport System and Griffin Partners,” said Jack Fischer, Vice President of Production and Operations at Intuitive Machines. “The thought and support provided by our partners built a perfect home that can grow with us, removing barriers for our company to reach its potential. In that spirit, we’ve left several walls that are simply white; they are empty pages in a future history book. One which we look forward to writing from our new home in Space City.”

“Houston has always been a city that reaches for the stars, and with Intuitive Machines operating at the Houston Spaceport, our city is poised to shine even brighter in the cosmos,” said Mayor Sylvester Turner. “Aerospace is more than a source of pride for our city; the innovation here is just another example of why the Houston economy is thriving. Intuitive Machines is fueling high-paying jobs, fostering innovation, and attracting talent and investment from every corner of the world.”

“Today’s celebration confirms that Houston is home to the fastest growing commercial spaceport on the planet and is also home to the first and only 5-Star airport in North America,” said Mario Diaz, Director of Aviation for Houston Airports. “The skies and the stars are fast converging, and the merger is reshaping the way we think about travel, innovation and human potential. We are delighted to join Intuitive Machines in endeavoring towards a future where humanity’s reach extends even further than we can dare to imagine today.”

“When your business is lean and your goal is to be the first private company in history to land on the Moon, your only choice is to pioneer something new,” says Leslie Duke, Burns & McDonnell CEO-elect. “Our work is always about more than buildings; it is about solving our clients’ challenges. While Burns & McDonnell is not designing or constructing lunar landers, we have built the propulsion, processing, testing, technology, research and manufacturing facilities needed to empower Intuitive Machines to focus safely on opening access to the Moon for the progress of humanity.”

Source: Intuitive Machines

America's Next Interstellar-bound Space Probe Will Operate Through At Least 2028...

NASA / Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory / Southwest Research Institute / Roman Tkachenko

NASA’s New Horizons to Continue Exploring Outer Solar System (News Release)

NASA has announced an updated plan to continue New Horizons’ mission of exploration of the outer solar system.

Beginning in fiscal year 2025, New Horizons will focus on gathering unique heliophysics data, which can be readily obtained during an extended, low-activity mode of operations.

While the science community is currently not aware of any reachable Kuiper Belt object, this new path allows for the possibility of using the spacecraft for a future close flyby of such an object, should one be identified. It will also enable the spacecraft to preserve fuel and reduce operational complexity while a search is conducted for a compelling flyby candidate.

“The New Horizons mission has a unique position in our solar system to answer important questions about our heliosphere and provide extraordinary opportunities for multidisciplinary science for NASA and the scientific community,” said Nicola Fox, associate administrator for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington. “The agency decided that it was best to extend operations for New Horizons until the spacecraft exits the Kuiper Belt, which is expected in 2028 through 2029.”

This new, extended mission will be primarily funded by NASA’s Planetary Science Division and jointly managed by NASA’s Heliophysics and Planetary Science Divisions.

NASA will assess the budget impact of continuing the New Horizons mission so far beyond its original plan of exploration. As a starting point, funding within the New Frontiers program (including science research and data analysis) will be rebalanced to accommodate extended New Horizons operations, and future projects may be impacted.

Launched on January 18, 2006, NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft has helped scientists understand worlds at the edge of our solar system by visiting the dwarf planet Pluto (its primary mission) and then venturing farther out for a flyby of the Kuiper Belt object Arrokoth, a double-lobed relic of the formation of our solar system, and other more remote observations of similar bodies.

The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland, designed, built and operates the New Horizons spacecraft, and manages the mission for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate. The Marshall Space Flight Center Planetary Management Office provides NASA oversight for New Horizons.

The Southwest Research Institute, based in San Antonio, directs the mission via Principal Investigator Stern, and leads the science team, payload operations and encounter science planning. New Horizons is part of the New Frontiers Program managed by NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama.

Source: NASA.Gov

The MSR Mission Architecture May Need a Major Re-Design to Stay Within Budget...

NASA / JPL - Caltech

NASA Releases Independent Review's Mars Sample Return Report (News Release - September 21)

The agency established the board in May 2023 to evaluate the technical, cost and schedule plans prior to confirmation of the mission’s design.

An Independent Review Board (IRB) looked at NASA’s current plans and goals of the first mission to return samples from Mars, and NASA is establishing a team to respond.

In addition to bringing home the first sample collected from Mars, this highly-complex mission would include the first launch from the surface of another planet, as well as the first in-orbit rendezvous at another planet. Mars Sample Return is a partnership with ESA (European Space Agency).

“NASA has plans for a robust Moon to Mars exploration approach,” said Nicola Fox, NASA’s associate administrator for science. “Mars is (a) rich destination for scientific discovery and understanding the red planet supports the agency’s Artemis program to ultimately send humans to Mars.”

The board provided its report to NASA earlier this month, which noted the scientific importance of the mission, but expressed concerns over the mission’s budget, among other areas. After a two-month evaluation, they provided the agency a report with 20 findings and 59 recommendations.

“Mars Sample Return is a very complex program and campaign with multiple parallel developments, interfaces and complexities,” said Orlando Figueroa, chair of the independent review board. “The development of this historic effort follows many decades of strategic investment.”

NASA established the Independent Review Board in May 2023 to evaluate the technical, cost and schedule plans prior to confirmation of the mission’s design. The board interviewed a wide variety of NASA and external experts to understand the program’s scope and management, technical approach, schedule and funding profile.

In response to the report, NASA has set up a team – led by Sandra Connelly, NASA’s deputy associate administrator for science – to review the Mars Sample Return report. The team will make a recommendation by the second quarter of fiscal year 2024 regarding a path forward for Mars Sample Return within a balanced overall science program.

The agency will delay its plans to confirm the official mission cost and schedule until after the completion of this review.

“Independent review boards like the one we commissioned for Mars Sample Return help review whether we’re on the right track to meet our mission goals within the appropriate budget,” said Connelly. “We thank the board for its work, and now our job is to assess the report and address if there are elements of the program that need to change.”

NASA’s planned Mars Sample Return campaign would fulfill one of the highest-priority solar system exploration goals identified by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine in the past three decadal surveys. Returning samples will revolutionize our understanding of Mars by bringing scientifically-selected samples to Earth for study using the most sophisticated instrumentation around the world.

A copy of the Independent Review Board’s Mars Sample Return report is available online at:

https://www.nasa.gov/news/reports/index.html

Source: NASA.Gov

The Rock Samples from Asteroid Bennu Will Soon Be Revealed in Texas...

NASA

The OSIRIS-REx Sample Canister Lid is Removed (News Release)

NASA scientists found black dust and debris on the avionics deck of the OSIRIS-REx science canister when the initial lid was removed today. The canister from the OSIRIS-REx sample return capsule was delivered to NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston on September 25 after landing in the Utah desert on September 24.

Johnson houses the world’s largest collection of astromaterials, and curation experts there will perform the intricate disassembly of the Touch and Go Sample Acquisition Mechanism (TAGSAM) to get down to the bulk sample within. These operations are happening in a new laboratory designed specifically for the OSIRIS-REx mission.

The aluminum lid was removed inside a glovebox designed to enable working with the large piece of hardware.

When the TAGSAM is separated from the canister, it will be inserted in a sealed transfer container to preserve a nitrogen environment for up to about two hours. This container allows enough time for the team to insert the TAGSAM into another unique glovebox.

Ultimately, this speeds up the disassembly process. There is a very high level of focus from the team — the sample will be revealed with an amazing amount of precision to accommodate delicate hardware removal so as not to come into contact with the sample inside.

With an array of team members on deck, scientists and engineers at Johnson will work together to complete the disassembly process and reveal the sample to the world in a special live broadcast event on October 11 at 11 a.m. ET, streamed at NASA.gov/live.

Source: NASA.Gov

OSIRIS-REx Has Successfully Brought a Piece of Bennu Back to Earth!

NASA / Keegan Barber

NASA’s First Asteroid Sample Has Landed, Now Secure in Clean Room (Press Release)

After years of anticipation and hard work by NASA’s OSIRIS-REx (Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification and Security – Regolith Explorer) team, a capsule of rocks and dust collected from asteroid Bennu is finally on Earth. It landed at 8:52 a.m. MDT (10:52 a.m. EDT) on Sunday, in a targeted area of the Department of Defense’s Utah Test and Training Range near Salt Lake City.

Within an hour and a half, the capsule was transported by helicopter to a temporary clean room set up in a hangar on the training range, where it is now connected to a continuous flow of nitrogen.

Getting the sample under a “nitrogen purge,” as scientists call it, was one of the OSIRIS-REx team’s most critical tasks today. Nitrogen is a gas that doesn’t interact with most other chemicals, and a continuous flow of it into the sample container inside the capsule will keep out earthly contaminants to leave the sample pure for scientific analyses.

The returned samples collected from Bennu will help scientists worldwide make discoveries to better understand planet formation and the origin of organics and water that led to life on Earth, as well as benefit all of humanity by learning more about potentially hazardous asteroids.

“Congratulations to the OSIRIS-REx team on a picture-perfect mission – the first American asteroid sample return in history – which will deepen our understanding of the origin of our solar system and its formation. Not to mention, Bennu is a potentially hazardous asteroid, and what we learn from the sample will help us better understand the types of asteroids that could come our way,” said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson. “With OSIRIS-REx, Psyche's launch in a couple of weeks, DART’s one year anniversary, and Lucy’s first asteroid approach in November, Asteroid Autumn is in full swing. These missions prove once again that NASA does big things. Things that inspire us and unite us. Things that show nothing is beyond our reach when we work together.”

The Bennu sample – an estimated 8.8 ounces, or 250 grams – will be transported in its unopened canister by aircraft to NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston on Monday, September 25. Curation scientists there will disassemble the canister, extract and weigh the sample, create an inventory of the rocks and dust, and, over time, distribute pieces of Bennu to scientists worldwide.

Today’s delivery of an asteroid sample – a first for the U.S. – went according to plan thanks to the massive effort of hundreds of people who remotely directed the spacecraft’s journey since it launched on September 8, 2016. The team then guided it to arrival at Bennu on December 3, 2018, through the search for a safe sample-collection site between 2019 and 2020, sample collection on October 20, 2020, and during the return trip home starting on May 10, 2021.

“Today marks an extraordinary milestone not just for the OSIRIS-REx team but for science as a whole,” said Dante Lauretta, principal investigator for OSIRIS-REx at the University of Arizona, Tucson. “Successfully delivering samples from Bennu to Earth is a triumph of collaborative ingenuity and a testament to what we can accomplish when we unite with a common purpose. But let’s not forget – while this may feel like the end of an incredible chapter, it’s truly just the beginning of another. We now have the unprecedented opportunity to analyze these samples and delve deeper into the secrets of our solar system."

After traveling billions of miles to Bennu and back, the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft released its sample capsule towards Earth’s atmosphere at 6:42 a.m. EDT (4:42 a.m. MDT). The spacecraft was 63,000 miles (102,000 kilometers) from Earth’s surface at the time – about one-third the distance from Earth to the Moon.

Traveling at 27,650 mph (44,500 kph), the capsule pierced the atmosphere at 10:42 a.m. EDT (8:42 a.m. MDT), off the coast of California at an altitude of about 83 miles (133 kilometers). Within 10 minutes, it landed on the military range.

Along the way, two parachutes successfully deployed to stabilize and slow the capsule down to a gentle 11 mph (18 kph) at touchdown.

“The whole team had butterflies today, but that’s the focused anticipation of a critical event by a well-prepared team,” said Rich Burns, project manager for OSIRIS-REx at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. “For us, this was the World Series, ninth inning, bases-loaded moment, and this team knocked it out of the park.”

Radar, infrared and optical instruments in the air and on the ground tracked the capsule to its landing coordinates inside a 36-mile by 8.5-mile (58-kilometer by 14-kilometer) area on the range. Within several minutes, the recovery team was dispatched to the capsule’s location to inspect and retrieve it.

The team found the capsule in good shape at 9:07 a.m. MDT (11:07 a.m. EDT) and then determined that it was safe to approach. Within 70 minutes, they wrapped it up for safe transport to a temporary clean room on the range, where it remains under continuous supervision and a nitrogen purge.

NASA Goddard provides overall mission management, systems engineering, and the safety and mission assurance for OSIRIS-REx. The University of Arizona, Tucson leads the science team and the mission's science observation planning and data processing.

Lockheed Martin Space in Littleton, Colorado, built the spacecraft and provides flight operations. Goddard and KinetX Aerospace are responsible for navigating the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft.

Curation for OSIRIS-REx, including processing the sample when it arrives on Earth, will take place at NASA Johnson. International partnerships on this mission include the OSIRIS-REx Laser Altimeter instrument from CSA (the Canadian Space Agency) and asteroid sample science collaboration with JAXA’s (the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) Hayabusa2 mission.

OSIRIS-REx is the third mission in NASA’s New Frontiers Program, managed by NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, for the agency’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington.

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NASA


NASA TV


NASA / Keegan Barber

A Discovery by Hubble's Successor Has Generated More Excitement for the Europa Clipper Mission...

Science Credit: Geronimo Villanueva (NASA/GSFC), Samantha Trumbo (Cornell Univ.), NASA, ESA, CSA. Image Processing Credit: Geronimo Villanueva (NASA/GSFC), Alyssa Pagan (STScI)

NASA’s Webb Finds Carbon Source on Surface of Jupiter’s Moon Europa (News Release)

Jupiter’s moon Europa is one of a handful of worlds in our solar system that could potentially harbor conditions suitable for life. Previous research has shown that beneath its water-ice crust lies a salty ocean of liquid water with a rocky seafloor.

However, planetary scientists had not confirmed if that ocean contained the chemicals needed for life, particularly carbon.

Astronomers using data from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope have identified carbon dioxide in a specific region on the icy surface of Europa. Analysis indicates that this carbon likely originated in the subsurface ocean and was not delivered by meteorites or other external sources.

Moreover, it was deposited on a geologically-recent timescale. This discovery has important implications for the potential habitability of Europa’s ocean.

“On Earth, life likes chemical diversity – the more diversity, the better. We’re carbon-based life. Understanding the chemistry of Europa’s ocean will help us determine whether it’s hostile to life as we know it, or if it might be a good place for life,” said Geronimo Villanueva of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, lead author of one of two independent papers describing the findings.

“We now think that we have observational evidence that the carbon we see on Europa’s surface came from the ocean. That's not a trivial thing. Carbon is a biologically-essential element,” added Samantha Trumbo of Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, lead author of the second paper analyzing these data.

NASA plans to launch its Europa Clipper spacecraft, which will perform dozens of close flybys of Europa to further investigate whether it could have conditions suitable for life, in October 2024.

A Surface-Ocean Connection

Webb finds that on Europa’s surface, carbon dioxide is most abundant in a region called Tara Regio – a geologically-young area of generally-resurfaced terrain known as “chaos terrain.” The surface ice has been disrupted, and there likely has been an exchange of material between the subsurface ocean and icy surface.

“Previous observations from the Hubble Space Telescope show evidence for ocean-derived salt in Tara Regio,” explained Trumbo. “Now we’re seeing that carbon dioxide is heavily concentrated there as well. We think this implies that the carbon probably has its ultimate origin in the internal ocean.”

“Scientists are debating how much Europa’s ocean connects to its surface. I think that question has been a big driver of Europa exploration,” said Villanueva. “This suggests that we may be able to learn some basic things about the ocean’s composition even before we drill through the ice to get the full picture.”

Both teams identified the carbon dioxide using data from the integral field unit of Webb’s Near-Infrared Spectrograph (NIRSpec). This instrument mode provides spectra with a resolution of 200 x 200 miles (320 x 320 kilometers) on the surface of Europa, which has a diameter of 1,944 miles, allowing astronomers to determine where specific chemicals are located.

Carbon dioxide isn’t stable on Europa’s surface. Therefore, the scientists say it’s likely that it was supplied on a geologically-recent timescale – a conclusion bolstered by its concentration in a region of young terrain.

“These observations only took a few minutes of the observatory’s time,” said Heidi Hammel of the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, a Webb interdisciplinary scientist leading Webb’s Cycle 1 Guaranteed Time Observations of the solar system. “Even with this short period of time, we were able to do really big science. This work gives a first hint of all the amazing solar system science we’ll be able to do with Webb.”

Searching for a Plume

Villanueva’s team also looked for evidence of a plume of water vapor erupting from Europa’s surface. Researchers using NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope reported tentative detections of plumes in 2013, 2016 and 2017.

However, finding definitive proof has been difficult.

The new Webb data shows no evidence of plume activity, which allowed Villanueva’s team to set a strict upper limit on the rate of material potentially being ejected. The team stressed, however, that their non-detection does not rule out a plume.

“There is always a possibility that these plumes are variable and that you can only see them at certain times. All we can say with 100% confidence is that we did not detect a plume at Europa when we made these observations with Webb,” said Hammel.

These findings may help inform NASA’s Europa Clipper mission, as well as ESA’s (European Space Agency’s) upcoming Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (JUICE).

The two papers will be published in Science on September 21.

Source: NASA.Gov

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Science Credit: Geronimo Villanueva (NASA/GSFC), Samantha Trumbo (Cornell Univ.), NASA, ESA, CSA. Image Processing Credit: Geronimo Villanueva (NASA/GSFC), Alyssa Pagan (STScI)


NASA / JPL - Caltech

Rock Samples from Asteroid Bennu Are 5 Days Away from Reaching Earth!

NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center / Conceptual Image Lab

OSIRIS-REx Makes Final Course Adjustment Before Sept. 24 Sample Delivery (News Release)

On September 17, NASA’s OSIRIS-REx engineers slightly shifted the spacecraft’s trajectory to refine the landing location of its sample capsule, which the spacecraft will deliver to Earth on September 24. The spacecraft briefly fired its thrusters on Sunday to change its velocity by 7 inches per minute (3 millimeters per second) relative to Earth.

This final correction maneuver moved the sample capsule’s predicted landing location east by nearly 8 miles, or 12.5 kilometers, to the center of its predetermined landing zone inside a 36-mile by 8.5-mile (58-kilometer by 14-kilometer) area on the Defense Department’s Utah Test and Training Range.

Sunday’s maneuver was a tweak of a critical maneuver on September 10, which set the spacecraft on course to release its sample capsule, with rocks and dust from asteroid Bennu, from 63,000 miles (or 102,000 kilometers) above Earth’s surface this weekend.

The spacecraft is currently about 1.8 million miles (or 2.8 million kilometers) away, traveling at about 14,000 mph (about 23,000 kph) towards Earth.

Source: NASA.Gov

The Alpha Rocket Conducts Another Nominal Orbital Flight from Central California...

Firefly Aerospace

Firefly Aerospace Successfully Launches U.S. Space Force VICTUS NOX Responsive Space Mission with 24-Hour Notice (Press Release - September 14)

Ground-breaking operation showcases Firefly’s capability to rapidly launch and deploy a satellite, supporting critical national security missions

VANDENBERG SPACE FORCE BASE, Calif – Firefly Aerospace, an end-to-end space transportation company, today announced that the company successfully launched its Alpha rocket and deployed the VICTUS NOX spacecraft following a 24-hour notice to complete final payload operations and mission preparations. Led by U.S. Space Force Space Systems Command’s (SSC) Space Safari Program Office and in close partnership with the Rocket Systems Launch Program, the mission advances the nation’s capability to rapidly respond to on-orbit needs during a conflict or in response to a national security threat.

“Today was an incredible success for the Space Force, the Firefly team and our nation after nailing this complex responsive space mission,” said Bill Weber, CEO of Firefly Aerospace. “Our combined commercial and government team executed the mission with record speed, agility and flexibility, adding a critical capability to address national security needs.”

Upon receiving the notice to launch and orbit requirements from the U.S. Space Force, Firefly completed all final launch preparations, including trajectory software updates, payload encapsulation, transport to the launch pad, mating to Alpha and fueling, within 24 hours. Alpha then launched at the first available window, 27 hours after receipt of launch orders.

The flight began with a nominal countdown and liftoff at 7:28 p.m. PDT on September 14 and progressed seamlessly through each stage of flight, including stage one main engine cutoff (MECO), stage separation and stage two ignition. Alpha then deployed the Millennium Space Systems satellite at the target destination in low-Earth orbit.

Firefly also successfully tested an Alpha stage two relight and targeted re-entry.

“I’m incredibly proud of this team for completing these critical mission milestones and successfully launching in a matter of hours rather than weeks or months in a typical operation,” said Adam Oakes, VP of Launch Vehicles at Firefly Aerospace. “As our third flight, this mission further validates Firefly’s technology rigor, passion and dedication that’s required to prevail as the leading responsive launch provider for both government and commercial customers.”

“The success of the VICTUS NOX mission not only proves a key aspect of the United States’ TacRS capability but provides true utility to the warfighter,” said Col. Bryon McClain, Program Executive Officer for the Space Domain Awareness and Combat Power directorate, which oversees SSC’s Space Safari program office. “Working closely with our Assured Access to Space team and industry partners, the Space Safari team continues to demonstrate how TacRS enables us to quickly respond to urgent on-orbit needs.”

Building on today’s success, Firefly is ramping up Alpha production and testing for multiple upcoming launches, including missions in support of Lockheed Martin, NASA, the NRO and more.

Source: Firefly Aerospace

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As images of Firefly’s Alpha rocket soaring through the night sky were captured across the southwest United States, a team of passionate Fireflies flawlessly executed a mission that has never been done before — launching after a 24-hour notice.

Here’s how the U.S. Space Force’s… pic.twitter.com/TcEjpHqYyi

— Firefly Aerospace (@Firefly_Space) September 15, 2023

JWST Takes a Stunning Image of a Herbig-Haro Object...

ESA / Webb, NASA, CSA, T. Ray (Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies)

NASA’s Webb Snaps Supersonic Outflow of Young Star (News Release)

Herbig-Haro (HH) objects are luminous regions surrounding newborn stars, formed when stellar winds or jets of gas spewing from these newborn stars form shock waves colliding with nearby gas and dust at high speeds. This image of HH 211 from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope reveals an outflow from a Class 0 protostar, an infantile analog of our Sun when it was no more than a few tens of thousands of years old and with a mass only 8% of the present-day Sun (it will eventually grow into a star like the Sun).

Infrared imaging is powerful in studying newborn stars and their outflows, because such stars are invariably still embedded within the gas from the molecular cloud in which they formed. The infrared emission of the star’s outflows penetrates the obscuring gas and dust, making a Herbig-Haro object like HH 211 ideal for observation with Webb’s sensitive infrared instruments.

Molecules excited by the turbulent conditions, including molecular hydrogen, carbon monoxide and silicon monoxide, emit infrared light that Webb can collect to map out the structure of the outflows.

The image showcases a series of bow shocks to the southeast (lower-left) and northwest (upper-right) as well as the narrow bipolar jet that powers them. Webb reveals this scene in unprecedented detail — roughly 5 to 10 times higher spatial resolution than any previous images of HH 211.

The inner jet is seen to “wiggle” with mirror symmetry on either side of the central protostar. This is in agreement with observations on smaller scales and suggests that the protostar may in fact be an unresolved binary star.

Earlier observations of HH 211 with ground-based telescopes revealed giant bow shocks moving away from us (northwest) and moving towards us (southeast) and cavity-like structures in shocked hydrogen and carbon monoxide respectively, as well as a knotty and wiggling bipolar jet in silicon monoxide. Researchers have used Webb’s new observations to determine that the object’s outflow is relatively slow in comparison to more evolved protostars with similar types of outflows.

The team measured the velocities of the innermost outflow structures to be roughly 48-60 miles per second (80 to 100 kilometers per second). However, the difference in velocity between these sections of the outflow and the leading material they’re colliding with — the shockwave — is much smaller.

The researchers concluded that outflows from the youngest stars, like that in the center of HH 211, are mostly made up of molecules, because the comparatively low shock wave velocities are not energetic enough to break the molecules apart into simpler atoms and ions.

Source: NASA.Gov

America's Newest Stealth Bomber Is a Step Closer to Becoming Airborne for the Very First Time...

Northrop Grumman

Northrop Grumman’s B-21 Raider Continues Progression to Flight Test (Press Release)

PALMDALE, Calif. – The U.S. Air Force announced today that the B-21 Raider has commenced engine runs as part of its ground test program at Northrop Grumman’s Palmdale, California, facility. Engine testing is an essential milestone for the program as the world’s first sixth-generation aircraft continues on the path to flight test.

The B-21’s first flight will remain a data-driven event that is monitored by Northrop Grumman and the United States Air Force.

Developed with the next generation of stealth technology, advanced networking capabilities and open systems architecture, the B-21 Raider will serve as the backbone of America’s bomber fleet.

Source: Northrop Grumman

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U.S. Air Force

Hubble's Successor Finds More Evidence of a Potentially Habitable Exoplanet...

NASA, CSA, ESA, J. Olmsted (STScI), Science: N. Madhusudhan (Cambridge University)

Webb Discovers Methane, Carbon Dioxide in Atmosphere of K2-18 b (News Release)

A new investigation with NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope into K2-18 b, an exoplanet 8.6 times as massive as Earth, has revealed the presence of carbon-bearing molecules including methane and carbon dioxide. Webb’s discovery adds to recent studies suggesting that K2-18 b could be a Hycean exoplanet, one which has the potential to possess a hydrogen-rich atmosphere and a water ocean-covered surface.

The first insight into the atmospheric properties of this habitable-zone exoplanet came from observations with NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, which prompted further studies that have since changed our understanding of the system.

K2-18 b orbits the cool dwarf star K2-18 in the habitable zone and lies 120 light-years from Earth in the constellation Leo. Exoplanets such as K2-18 b, which have sizes between those of Earth and Neptune, are unlike anything in our solar system.

This lack of equivalent nearby planets means that these ‘sub-Neptunes’ are poorly understood, and the nature of their atmospheres is a matter of active debate among astronomers.

The suggestion that the sub-Neptune K2-18 b could be a Hycean exoplanet is intriguing, as some astronomers believe that these worlds are promising environments to search for evidence of life on exoplanets.

"Our findings underscore the importance of considering diverse habitable environments in the search for life elsewhere," explained Nikku Madhusudhan, an astronomer at the University of Cambridge and lead author of the paper announcing these results. "Traditionally, the search for life on exoplanets has focused primarily on smaller rocky planets, but the larger Hycean worlds are significantly more conducive to atmospheric observations."

The abundance of methane and carbon dioxide, and shortage of ammonia, support the hypothesis that there may be a water ocean underneath a hydrogen-rich atmosphere in K2-18 b. These initial Webb observations also provided a possible detection of a molecule called dimethyl sulfide (DMS).

On Earth, DMS is only produced by life. The bulk of the DMS in Earth’s atmosphere is emitted from phytoplankton in marine environments.

The inference of DMS is less robust and requires further validation. “Upcoming Webb observations should be able to confirm if DMS is indeed present in the atmosphere of K2-18 b at significant levels,” explained Madhusudhan.

While K2-18 b lies in the habitable zone, and is now known to harbor carbon-bearing molecules, this does not necessarily mean that the planet can support life. The planet's large size — with a radius 2.6 times the radius of Earth — means that the planet’s interior likely contains a large mantle of high-pressure ice, like Neptune, but with a thinner hydrogen-rich atmosphere and an ocean surface.

Hycean worlds are predicted to have oceans of water. However, it is also possible that the ocean is too hot to be habitable or be liquid.

"Although this kind of planet does not exist in our solar system, sub-Neptunes are the most common type of planet known so far in the galaxy," explained team member Subhajit Sarkar of Cardiff University. “We have obtained the most detailed spectrum of a habitable-zone sub-Neptune to date, and this allowed us to work out the molecules that exist in its atmosphere.”

Characterizing the atmospheres of exoplanets like K2-18 b — meaning identifying their gases and physical conditions — is a very active area in astronomy. However, these planets are outshone — literally — by the glare of their much larger parent stars, which makes exploring exoplanet atmospheres particularly challenging.

The team sidestepped this challenge by analyzing light from K2-18 b's parent star as it passed through the exoplanet's atmosphere. K2-18 b is a transiting exoplanet, meaning that we can detect a drop in brightness as it passes across the face of its host star.

This is how the exoplanet was first discovered in 2015 with NASA’s K2 mission. This means that during transits a tiny fraction of starlight will pass through the exoplanet's atmosphere before reaching telescopes like Webb.

The starlight's passage through the exoplanet's atmosphere leaves traces that astronomers can piece together to determine the gases of the exoplanet's atmosphere.

"This result was only possible because of the extended wavelength range and unprecedented sensitivity of Webb, which enabled robust detection of spectral features with just two transits," said Madhusudhan. "For comparison, one transit observation with Webb provided comparable precision to eight observations with Hubble conducted over a few years and in a relatively narrow wavelength range."

"These results are the product of just two observations of K2-18 b, with many more on the way,” explained team member Savvas Constantinou of the University of Cambridge. “This means our work here is but an early demonstration of what Webb can observe in habitable-zone exoplanets.”

The team’s results were accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.

The team now intends to conduct follow-up research with the telescope's MIRI (Mid-Infrared Instrument) spectrograph that they hope will further validate their findings and provide new insights into the environmental conditions on K2-18 b.

"Our ultimate goal is the identification of life on a habitable exoplanet, which would transform our understanding of our place in the universe," concluded Madhusudhan. "Our findings are a promising step towards a deeper understanding of Hycean worlds in this quest."

Source: NASA.Gov

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NASA, CSA, ESA, R. Crawford (STScI), J. Olmsted (STScI), Science: N. Madhusudhan (Cambridge University)

On This Day in 1993: Agents Mulder and Scully Begin Searching for the Truth That's Out There...

It was 30 years ago today that The X-Files made its debut on television! I was just starting 8th grade when the sci-fi mystery drama by Chris Carter (a fellow alumnus at my college, Cal State Long Beach) began airing on FOX TV, and was about to complete my fourth year in college when the original 9-season run of The X-Files ended on May 19, 2002.

I watched the first X-Files movie that was shown in theaters back in 1998, but never saw the sequel, The X-Files: I Want to Believe, in 2008. (Based on the Rotten Tomatoes reviews for this film, I didn't miss out on anything!)

And of course, I watched FBI agents Fox Mulder (David Duchovny, who I saw on set when I worked as a background actor on an episode of his SHOWTIME series Californication in Culver City 10 years ago) and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) make their return to television for Seasons 10 and 11 of The X-Files between January 2016 and March 2018, respectively.

The X-Files inspired other sci-fi and paranormal TV shows like Fringe and Supernatural over the last two decades—with Supernatural itself employing the monster-of-the-week and mythology episode format during its 15-season run, just like what the Chris Carter series did.

The 1996 hit alien invasion flick Independence Day also paid its respects to The X-Files...though Chris Carter's homage to that summer blockbuster with the '98 X-Files movie (where in one scene, Mulder is seen outside a bar urinating on the poster for Independence Day that's hanging to the side of the building) isn't exactly something that ID4 filmmakers Roland Emmerich and Dean Devlin would find flattering!

The X-Files will always be one of my favorite television programs...along with shows like 24, Prison Break, Supernatural and The Big Bang Theory (which of course, isn't a serialized drama).

Would I watch Season 12 of The X-Files if FOX ever decided to give this trailblazing series one more year? You betcha!

And as a reminder: The truth is out there. Happy Sunday!

America's Next Asteroid Explorer Is Set to Launch in Less Than 30 Days...

NASA / JPL - Caltech

NASA’s Psyche Mission on Track for Liftoff Next Month (News Release - September 6)

Bound for a metal-rich asteroid of the same name, the Psyche mission is targeting October 5 to launch from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

The spacecraft’s solar arrays are folded like an envelope into their stowed position. Xenon gas – fuel for the journey to the asteroid belt – is loaded.

All four thrusters have passed their final tests. Engineers have confirmed the massive high-gain antenna is set to transmit data.

The software is tested and ready. The science instruments – a multispectral imager, magnetometer, and gamma-ray and neutron spectrometer – that will investigate the asteroid Psyche are poised for action.

NASA’s Psyche spacecraft has less than 30 days to go before the opening of its launch period, which runs from Thursday, October 5 through Wednesday, October 25. What the mission learns from the metal-rich asteroid may tell us more about how planets form.

“These missions take so many people and so much meticulous, rigorous, personally-driven work,” said Lindy Elkins-Tanton, principal investigator for Psyche at Arizona State University. “I am ready to be ecstatic. We all are, but we are not ecstatic yet. Let’s launch and establish communications – then we can scream, jump and hug each other!”

Within two weeks, technicians will begin encapsulating the spacecraft in its payload fairing – the cone at the top of the rocket – and the spacecraft will move to SpaceX facilities at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Psyche is set to launch atop a SpaceX Falcon Heavy from the center’s Launch Complex 39A at 10:38 a.m. EDT on October 5.

“It’s getting increasingly real,” said Henry Stone, Psyche’s project manager at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. “We are counting the days. The team is more than ready to send this spacecraft off on its journey, and it’s very exciting.”

After escaping Earth’s gravity, Psyche will use solar electric propulsion to accomplish its six-year journey to the asteroid. The efficient propulsion system works by accelerating and expelling charged atoms, or ions, of the neutral gas xenon – creating a thrust that gently propels the spacecraft with a force akin to what you’d feel holding a single AA battery in your hand.

Technicians recently loaded 2,392 pounds (1,085 kilograms) of xenon onto the spacecraft over the course of about two weeks.

Measuring roughly 173 miles (279 kilometers) at its widest point, the asteroid Psyche presents a unique opportunity to explore a metal-rich body that may be part of a core of a planetesimal, the building block of an early planet. Once the spacecraft reaches Psyche in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, it will spend about 26 months orbiting the asteroid, gathering images and other data that will tell scientists more about its history and what it is made of.

Source: NASA.Gov

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NASA / JPL - Caltech / ASU

An Instrument on the Perseverance Rover Completes Its Trailblazing Work on the Red Planet...

NASA / JPL - Caltech

NASA's Oxygen-Generating Experiment MOXIE Completes Mars Mission (News Release)

Riding with the Perseverance rover, the instrument has proved to be a viable technology for astronauts on Mars to produce oxygen for fuel and breathing.

When the first astronauts land on Mars, they may have the descendants of a microwave-oven-size device to thank for the air they breathe and the rocket propellant that gets them home. That device, called MOXIE (Mars Oxygen In-Situ Resource Utilization Experiment), has generated oxygen for the 16th and final time aboard NASA’s Perseverance rover.

After the instrument proved far more successful than its creators at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) expected, MOXIE's operations are concluding.

“MOXIE’s impressive performance shows that it is feasible to extract oxygen from Mars’ atmosphere – oxygen that could help supply breathable air or rocket propellant to future astronauts,” said NASA Deputy Administrator Pam Melroy. “Developing technologies that let us use resources on the Moon and Mars is critical to build a long-term lunar presence, create a robust lunar economy, and allow us to support an initial human exploration campaign to Mars.”

Since Perseverance landed on Mars in 2021, MOXIE has generated a total of 122 grams of oxygen – about what a small dog breathes in 10 hours. At its most efficient, MOXIE was able to produce 12 grams of oxygen an hour – twice as much as NASA’s original goals for the instrument – at 98% purity or better.

On its 16th run, on August 7, the instrument made 9.8 grams of oxygen. MOXIE successfully completed all of its technical requirements and was operated at a variety of conditions throughout a full Mars year, allowing the instrument’s developers to learn a great deal about the technology.

“We’re proud to have supported a breakthrough technology like MOXIE that could turn local resources into useful products for future exploration missions,” said Trudy Kortes, director of technology demonstrations, Space Technology Mission Directorate (STMD) at NASA Headquarters in Washington, which funds the MOXIE demonstration. “By proving this technology in real-world conditions, we’ve come one step closer to a future in which astronauts ‘live off the land’ on the Red Planet.”

MOXIE produces molecular oxygen through an electrochemical process that separates one oxygen atom from each molecule of carbon dioxide pumped in from Mars’ thin atmosphere. As these gases flow through the system, they’re analyzed to check the purity and quantity of the oxygen produced.

First of Its Kind

While many of Perseverance’s experiments are addressing the mission’s primary science goals, MOXIE was focused on future human exploration. MOXIE served as the first-ever demonstration of technology that humans could use to survive on, and leave, the Red Planet.

An oxygen-producing system could help future missions in various ways, but the most important of them would be as a source of rocket propellant, which would be required in industrial quantities to launch rockets with astronauts for their return trip home.

Rather than bringing large quantities of oxygen with them to Mars, future astronauts could live off the land, using materials they find on the planet’s surface to survive. This concept – called in-situ resource utilization, or ISRU – has evolved into a growing area of research.

“MOXIE has clearly served as inspiration to the ISRU community,” said the instrument’s principal investigator, Michael Hecht of MIT. “It showed NASA is willing to invest in these kinds of future technologies. And it has been a flagship that has influenced the exciting industry of space resources.”

Future Focus

The next step wouldn’t be building MOXIE 2.0 – although Hecht and his team have learned a lot about how to design a more efficient version of the instrument. Rather, it would be to create a full-scale system that includes an oxygen generator like MOXIE and a way to liquefy and store that oxygen.

But more than anything, Hecht would like to see other technologies get their turn on Mars. “We have to make decisions about which things need to be validated on Mars,” Hecht said. “I think there are many technologies on that list; I’m very pleased MOXIE was first.”

Source: NASA.Gov

India's Resounding Success Has Been Spotted on the Moon's Surface by a U.S. Spacecraft...

NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center / Arizona State University

NASA’s LRO Observes Chandrayaan-3 Landing Site (News Release)

NASA’s LRO – the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter – spacecraft imaged the Chandrayaan-3 landing site on the Moon’s surface.

The ISRO (Indian Space Research Organization) Chandrayaan-3 touched down on the Moon on August 23, 2023. The Chandrayaan-3 landing site is located about 600 kilometers from the Moon’s South Pole.

The LROC (short for LRO Camera) acquired an oblique view (42-degree slew angle) of the lander four days later. The bright halo around the vehicle resulted from the rocket plume interacting with the fine-grained regolith (soil).

Visit the ISRO gallery of Chandrayaan-3 images.

Source: NASA.Gov

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ISRO / SAC / LEOS

Chandrayaan-3 Mission:
The Rover completed its assignments.

It is now safely parked and set into Sleep mode.
APXS and LIBS payloads are turned off.
Data from these payloads is transmitted to the Earth via the Lander.

Currently, the battery is fully charged.
The solar panel is…

— ISRO (@isro) September 2, 2023

Chandrayaan-3 Mission:
🇮🇳Vikram soft-landed on 🌖, again!

Vikram Lander exceeded its mission objectives. It successfully underwent a hop experiment.

On command, it fired the engines, elevated itself by about 40 cm as expected and landed safely at a distance of 30 – 40 cm away.… pic.twitter.com/T63t3MVUvI

— ISRO (@isro) September 4, 2023

Well Done, President Biden and VP Harris!

Now do something about the gas prices, please! Friggin' OPEC.

The Buffoonery of MAGA...

One of my friends posted this image on Facebook. I'd say that the message on the T-shirt is only inspirational to those who don't know that Trump was literally surrendering to law enforcement folks in Fulton County, Georgia when this mug shot was taken last month.

This is how you know Trump loves the "poorly educated." Of course, this was also indicated by the non-existent election defense fund he created that clueless MAGA folks donated $250 million to after the 2020 election...

Make America Gullible Again! According to Trump... To hell with that guy.

Russia's Latest Failure May Have Been Spotted on the Moon's Surface by a U.S. Spacecraft...

NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center / Arizona State University

NASA’s LRO Observes Crater Likely from Luna 25 Impact (News Release - August 31)

NASA’s LRO – the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter – spacecraft imaged a new crater on the Moon’s surface that is likely the impact site of Russia’s Luna 25 mission.

During its descent, Luna 25 experienced an anomaly that caused it to impact the surface of the Moon on August 19.

Roscosmos, Russia’s space agency, published an estimate of the impact point on August 21. The LROC (short for LRO Camera) team and the LRO Mission Operations team were able to design and send commands to the LRO spacecraft on August 22 to capture images of the site.

The sequence began on August 24 at 2:15 p.m. EDT (18:15 UTC) and was completed about four hours later, at 6:12 p.m. EDT (22:12 UTC). The LROC team compared images taken prior to the impact time and the sequence taken after and found a small new crater.

LRO’s most recent "before" image of the area was captured in June 2022 (frame No. M1410024427R above); thus, the crater formed sometime after that date. Since this new crater is close to the Luna 25 estimated impact point, the LRO team concludes it is likely to be from that mission, rather than a natural impactor.

The new crater is about 10 meters in diameter and is located at 57.865° south latitude and 61.360° east longitude at an elevation of about -360 meters. The impact point was on the steep (greater than 20° grade) inner rim of Pontécoulant G crater, about 400 kilometers short of Luna 25’s intended landing point at 69.545° south, 43.544° east.

Source: NASA.Gov

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N.P.O. Lavochkin (www.laspace.ru)