samedi 5 juin 2021

Crossing the Atlantic in 3 and a half hours, maybe achievable

 







Boom Supersonic logo.


June 5, 2021

United becomes first U.S. airline to sign aircraft purchase agreement with Boom Supersonic


United Airlines has ordered 15 supersonic planes from start-up Boom Supersonic. They may be able to fly from London to New York in 3.30 hours or from San Francisco to Tokyo in 6 hours by 2029.

United goes supersonic - Boom Supersonic

United will purchase 15 of Boom’s ‘Overture’ airliners, once Overture meets United’s demanding safety, operating and sustainability requirements, with an option for 35 more aircraft. Slated to carry passengers in 2029, the net-zero carbon aircraft will fly on 100% sustainable aviation fuel (SAF).


Transforming the way we travel

Through innovation and collaboration, United and Boom are realizing a shared mission to connect the world safely and sustainably. At speeds twice as fast as today’s passenger jets, United’s new Overture fleet will open countless possibilities for new experiences and human connection.

Boom The Future of Supersonic Flight

“United continues on its trajectory to build a more innovative, sustainable airline and today’s advancements in technology are making it more viable for that to include supersonic planes. Boom’s vision for the future of commercial aviation, combined with the industry’s most robust route network in the world, will give business and leisure travelers access to a stellar flight experience. Our mission has always been about connecting people and now working with Boom, we’ll be able to do that on an even greater scale.”

Related article:

The future "Concorde" will have to be silent
https://orbiterchspacenews.blogspot.com/2019/03/the-future-concorde-will-have-to-be.html

Related links:

United Airlines: https://www.united.com/

Boom Supersonic: https://boomsupersonic.com/

Images, Videos, Text, Credits: Boom Supersonic/CEO, United Airlines/Scott Kirby/Orbiter.ch Aerospace/Roland Berga.

Greetings, Orbiter.ch

SpaceX Cargo Craft Docks to Station

 







SpaceX - Dragon CRS-22 Mission patch.


June 5, 2021

SpaceX CRS-22 Dragon arrival at ISS

While the International Space Station was traveling more than 250 miles over the South Pacific ocean, a SpaceX Dragon cargo spacecraft autonomously docked to the space-facing side of the orbiting laboratory’s Harmony module at 5:09 a.m. EDT, Saturday, June 5. NASA astronauts Shane Kimbrough and Megan McArthur were monitoring docking operations for Dragon.

This 22nd contracted resupply mission for SpaceX delivers the new ISS Roll-out Solar Arrays (iROSA) to the space station in the trunk of the Dragon spacecraft. The robotic Canadarm2 will extract the arrays and astronauts will install them during spacewalks planned for June 16 and 20.

SpaceX CRS-22 Dragon docking

The Dragon launched on SpaceX’s 22nd contracted commercial resupply mission at 1:29 p.m. EDT Thursday, June 3 from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. After Dragon spends about one month attached to the space station, the spacecraft will return to Earth with cargo and research.


Image above: June 5, 2020: International Space Station Configuration. Five spaceships are parked at the space station including the SpaceX Crew Dragon and Cargo Dragon vehicles, Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus-15 resupply ship, all three from the United States, and Russia’s Progress 77 resupply ship and Soyuz MS-18 crew ship. Image Credit: NASA.

Among the science experiments Dragon is delivering to the space station are:

Symbiotic squid and microbes

The Understanding of Microgravity on Animal-Microbe Interactions (UMAMI) study uses bobtail squid and bacteria to examine the effects of spaceflight on interactions between beneficial microbes and their animal hosts. This type of relationship is known as symbiosis. Beneficial microbes play a significant role in the normal development of animal tissues and in maintaining human health, but gravity’s role in shaping these interactions is not well understood. This experiment could support the development of measures to preserve astronaut health and identify ways to protect and enhance these relationships for applications on Earth.

Producing tougher cotton

Cotton is used in many products, but its production uses significant amounts of water and agricultural chemicals. The Targeting Improved Cotton Through On-orbit Cultivation

(TICTOC) study focuses on improving cotton’s resilience, water-use, and carbon storage. On Earth, root growth depends upon gravity. TICTOC could help define which environmental factors and genes control root development in microgravity. Scientists could use what they learn to develop cotton varieties that require less water and pesticide use.

Water bears take on space

Tardigrades, also known as water bears for their appearance when viewed under a microscope, are creatures that can tolerate extreme environments. The Cell Science-04 experiment aims to identify the genes involved in water bear adaptation and survival in these high-stress environments. The results could advance scientists’ understanding of the stress factors that affect humans in space.

On-the-spot ultrasound

The handheld, commercial Butterfly IQ Ultrasound device could provide critical medical capabilities to crews on long-term spaceflights where immediate ground support is not an option. This study will demonstrate the use of an ultrasound unit alongside a mobile computing device in microgravity. Its results have potential applications for medical care in remote and isolated settings on Earth.

Developing better robot drivers

An ESA (European Space Agency) investigation, Pilote, test the effectiveness of remotely operating robotic arms and space vehicles using virtual reality and haptic interfaces. Pilote studies existing and new technologies in microgravity by comparing those recently developed for teleoperation to those used to pilot the Canadarm2 and Soyuz spacecraft. The study also compares astronaut performance in using the interfaces on the ground and during spaceflight. Results could help optimize workstations on the space station and future space vehicles for missions to the Moon and Mars.

Bonus power

New solar panels headed to station are made up of compact sections that roll open like a long rug. The ISS Roll-out Solar Arrays (iROSA) are based on a previous demonstration of roll-out panels performed on station. They are expected to provide an increase in energy available for research and station activities. NASA plans a total of six new arrays to augment the station’s power supply with the first pair launching on this flight. The Expedition 65 crew is scheduled to begin preparations for spacewalks to supplement the station’s existing rigid panels this summer. The same solar array technology is planned to power NASA’s Gateway in lunar orbit.

These are just a few of the hundreds of investigations currently being conducted aboard the orbiting laboratory in the areas of biology and biotechnology, physical sciences, and Earth and space science. Advances in these areas will help keep astronauts healthy during long-duration space travel and demonstrate technologies for future human and robotic exploration beyond low-Earth orbit to the Moon and Mars through Artemis.

Related links:

iROSA: https://www.nasa.gov/feature/new-solar-arrays-to-power-nasa-s-international-space-station-research/

Understanding of Microgravity on Animal-Microbe Interactions (UMAMI): https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Investigation.html?#id=8298

Targeting Improved Cotton Through On-orbit Cultivation: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Investigation.html?%20-%20id=8043

TICTOC: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Investigation.html?%20-%20id=8043

Cell Science-04: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Investigation.html?#id=7672

Butterfly IQ Ultrasound: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Investigation.html?#id=8211

Pilote: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Investigation.html?#id=8347

Gateway: https://www.nasa.gov/gateway

Moon and Mars: https://www.nasa.gov/in-lunar-orbit

Artemis: https://www.nasa.gov/specials/artemis/

International Space Station (ISS): https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/main/index.html

Images, Video, Text, Credits: NASA/Norah Moran/NASA TV/SciNews/Orbiter.ch Aerospace/Roland Berga.

Greetings, Orbiter.ch

vendredi 4 juin 2021

Space Station Science Highlights: Week of May 31, 2021

 







ISS - Expedition 65 Mission patch.


Jun 4, 2021

Scientific investigations conducted aboard the International Space Station the week of May 31 included studies of cotton plant root systems, testing drugs to improve astronaut health, and examining materials used for high-temperature manufacturing. Crew members also prepared for additional scientific research and technology demonstrations scheduled to arrive aboard the 22nd SpaceX cargo resupply mission early on June 5 following its June 3 launch.

The space station has been continuously inhabited by humans for 20 years, supporting many scientific breakthroughs. The orbiting lab provides a platform for long-duration research in microgravity and for learning to live and work in space, experience that supports Artemis, NASA’s program to go forward to the Moon and on to Mars.

Space to Ground: In Open Space: 06/04/2021

Here are details on some of the microgravity investigations currently taking place:

More cotton with less water

Production of cotton uses a significant amount of water and agricultural chemicals. Cotton plants that overexpress a certain gene show increased resistance to stressors such as drought, possibly because the plants have an enhanced root system that can tap into a larger volume of soil for water and nutrients. TICTOC studies how cotton root system structure affects plant resilience, water-use, and carbon storing. Root growth patterns depend on gravity, and the investigation could help define which environmental factors and genes control root development in its absence. Results could lead to development of more robust cotton varieties that require less water and pesticide use. The crew reviewed procedures in preparation for operations to begin once this investigation arrives on SpaceX-22.

Dragon cargo resupply caught by Canadarm2. Animation Credit: NASA

Testing drugs on worms

MME-2, an investigation from ESA (European Space Agency), tests whether a series of drugs that improve cell energy efficiency and muscle efficiency can improve overall heath in space. The investigation also examines whether a specific molecule controls some of the changes in human health observed during spaceflight. MME-2 uses the C. elegans worm as a model organism and expands on previous experiments that used this model to study genetic alterations to organisms in spaceflight. The investigation serves as pre-clinical trials for drugs with potential for improving astronaut health. Many health changes seen in space resemble those experienced with aging on the ground, and these drugs also could lead to new therapeutic targets to study on Earth. Crew members set up the experiment containers and began the five-day investigation run during the week.

International Space Station (ISS). Image Credit: NASA

Melting metals in microgravity

When raw materials are melted to make glass, metals, and other materials, reactions between those materials and the container that holds them can cause imperfections. ELF, an investigation from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), uses levitation rather than a container to reduce these imperfections and investigate the behavior of materials for high-temperature manufacturing of oxides, semiconductors, insulators, and alloys. Microgravity makes it much easier to levitate materials. This research obtains data on the thermal and physical properties around high melting temperatures, aiding in the search for new functional materials. During the week, crew members exchanged sample holders for runs of the experiment.

Other investigations on which the crew performed work:

- The ESA FLUIDICS investigation looks at how liquids move inside closed spaces, called sloshing, and at movement on the surface of a liquid in motion, or wave turbulence. Measurements of these phenomena can be used to more accurately determine how much liquid such as fuel remains in a tank.
https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Investigation.html?#id=2043


Image above: NASA astronaut Megan McArthur participates in Pilote, an experiment from ESA using virtual reality gear to test a crew member’s aptitude when maneuvering a computer-generated robotic arm toward a target. Image Credit: NASA.

- Pilote, an investigation from ESA, tests the effectiveness of remote operation of robotic arms and space vehicles using virtual reality and haptics, or simulated touch and motion. Results may influence the design of workstations and interfaces for future spacecraft and space habitats.
https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Investigation.html?#id=8347


Image above: ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Thomas Pesquet conducts operations for RTPCG-2, which demonstrates new methods for producing high-quality protein crystals with potential for developing better drugs to treat a variety of diseases on Earth. Image Credit: NASA.

- RTPCG-2 demonstrates new methods for producing high-quality protein crystals in microgravity for analysis on Earth to identify possible targets for drugs to treat disease.
https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Investigation.html?#id=8073


Image above: JAXA astronaut Akihiko Hoshide checks out SUBSA hardware used for DFM, an investigation that examines the effects of cooling and heating on the shape of dendrites, tiny crystals that form during solidification of metals during casting or additive manufacturing. Image Credit: NASA.

- Metals solidifying during casting or additive manufacturing form tiny crystals called dendrites that play a role in the strength of the resulting metal. DFM examines the effects of cooling and heating on the shape of these crystals in microgravity using the SUBSA facility.
https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Facility.html?#id=7965

- Vascular Aging, an investigation by the Canadian Space Agency (CSA), analyzes changes in the arteries of crew members. Results could point to mechanisms for reducing cardiovascular risk and help identify and detect blood biomarkers that predict early signs of cardiovascular aging.
https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Investigation.html?#id=7644

- Antimicrobial Coatings tests a coating to control microbial growth on different materials that represent high-touch surfaces on the space station. Some microbes change characteristics in microgravity, potentially creating new risks to crew health and spacecraft.
https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Investigation.html?#id=8352

- Standard Measures collects a set of core measurements from astronauts before, during, and after long-duration missions to create a data repository to monitor and interpret how humans adapt to living in space.
https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Investigation.html?#id=7711

- Food Physiology examines the effects of an enhanced spaceflight diet on immune function, the gut microbiome, and nutritional status indicators, with the aim of documenting how dietary improvements may enhance adaptation to spaceflight.
https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Investigation.html?#id=7870

- Food Acceptability looks at how the appeal of food changes during long-duration missions. Whether crew members like and actually eat foods directly affects caloric intake and associated nutritional benefits.
https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Investigation.html?#id=7562

- ISS Ham Radio provides students, teachers, parents, and others the opportunity to communicate with astronauts using ham radio units. Before a scheduled call, students learn about the station, radio waves, and other topics, and prepare a list of questions on topics they have researched.
https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Investigation.html?#id=337

Related links:

Expedition 65: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/expeditions/expedition65/index.html

TICTOC: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Investigation.html?#id=8043

MME-2: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Investigation.html?#id=8454

ELF: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Investigation.html?#id=1738

ISS National Lab: https://www.issnationallab.org/

Spot the Station: https://spotthestation.nasa.gov/

Space Station Research and Technology: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/overview.html

International Space Station (ISS): https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/main/index.html

Images (mentioned), Video (NASA), Animation (mentioned), Text, Credits: NASA/Ana Guzman/John Love, ISS Research Planning Integration Scientist Expedition 65.

Best regards, Orbiter.ch

Radioactivity May Fuel Life Deep Underground and Inside Other Worlds

 







Astrobiology logo.


June 4, 2021

New work suggests that the radiolytic splitting of water supports giant subsurface ecosystems of life on Earth — and could do it elsewhere, too.


Image above: The radioactive splitting of water molecules, a process studied more by nuclear chemists than by microbiologists, could yield enough energy to fuel a large portion of the deep subsurface biome. Image Credits: Samantha Mash for Quanta Magazine.

Scientists poke and prod at the fringes of habitability in pursuit of life’s limits. To that end, they have tunneled kilometers below Earth’s surface, drilling outward from the bottoms of mine shafts and sinking boreholes deep into ocean sediments. To their surprise, “life was everywhere that we looked,” said Tori Hoehler, a chemist and astrobiologist at NASA’s Ames Research Center. And it was present in staggering quantities: By various estimates, the inhabited subsurface realm has twice the volume of the oceans and holds on the order of 1030 cells, making it one of the biggest habitats on the planet, as well as one of the oldest and most diverse.

Researchers are still trying to understand how most of the life down there survives. Sunlight for photosynthesis cannot reach such depths, and the meager amount of organic carbon food that does is often quickly exhausted. Unlike communities of organisms that dwell near hydrothermal vents on the seafloor or within continental regions warmed by volcanic activity, ecosystems here generally can’t rely on the high-temperature processes that support some subsurface life independent of photosynthesis; these microbes must hang on in deep cold and darkness.

Two papers appearing in February by different research groups now seem to have solved some of this mystery for cells beneath the continents and in deep marine sediments. They find evidence that, much as the sun’s nuclear fusion reactions provide energy to the surface world, a different kind of nuclear process — radioactive decay — can sustain life deep below the surface. Radiation from unstable atoms in rocks can split water molecules into hydrogen and chemically reactive peroxides and radicals; some cells can use the hydrogen as fuel directly, while the remaining products turn minerals and other surrounding compounds into additional energy sources.

Although these radiolytic reactions yield energy far more slowly than the sun and underground thermal processes, the researchers have shown that they are fast enough to be key drivers of microbial activity in a broad range of settings — and that they are responsible for a diverse pool of organic molecules and other chemicals important to life. According to Jack Mustard, a planetary geologist at Brown University who was not involved in the new work, the radiolysis explanation has “opened up whole new vistas” into what life could look like, how it might have emerged on an early Earth, and where else in the universe it might one day be found.

Hydrogen Down Deep

Barbara Sherwood Lollar set off for university in 1981, four years after the discovery of life at the hydrothermal vents. As the child of two teachers who “fed me on a steady diet of Jules Verne,” she said, “all of this really spoke to the kid in me.” Not only was studying the deep subsurface a way to “understand a part of the planet that had never been seen before, a kind of life that we didn’t understand yet,” but it “clearly was going to trample [the] boundaries” between chemistry, biology, physics and geology, allowing scientists to combine those fields in new and intriguing ways.


Image above: Barbara Sherwood Lollar, a geochemist at the University of Toronto, and her colleagues showed that the large quantities of hydrogen in fluids from deep mine sites were probably generated by water radiolysis. Image Credit: University of Toronto.

Throughout Sherwood Lollar’s training in the 1980s and her early career as a geologist at the University of Toronto in the ’90s, more and more subterranean microbial communities were uncovered. The enigma of what supported this life prompted some researchers to propose that there might be “a deep hydrogen-triggered biosphere” full of cells using hydrogen gas as an energy source. (Microbes found in deep subsurface samples were often enriched with genes for enzymes that could derive energy from hydrogen.) Many geological processes could plausibly produce that hydrogen, but the best-studied ones occurred only at high temperatures and pressures. These included interactions between volcanic gases, the breakdown of particular minerals in the presence of water, and serpentinization — the chemical alteration of certain kinds of crustal rock through reactions with water.

By the early 2000s, Sherwood Lollar, Li-Hung Lin (now at National Taiwan University), Tullis Onstott of Princeton University and their colleagues were finding high concentrations of hydrogen — “in some cases, stunningly high,” Sherwood Lollar said — in water isolated from deep beneath the South African and Canadian crust. But serpentinization couldn’t explain it: The kinds of minerals needed often weren’t present. Nor did the other processes seem likely, because of the absence of recent volcanic activity and magma flows.

“So we began to look and expand our understanding of hydrogen-producing reactions and their relationship to the chemistry and mineralogy of the rocks in these places,” Sherwood Lollar said.


Image above: Bubbles of methane, hydrogen and nitrogen rise up through standing water in the Soudan Mine in Minnesota. Water radiolysis is likely to have produced at least some of these gases. Image Credits: J. Telling/University of Toronto.

A clue came from their discovery that the water trapped in those rocky places held not just large amounts of hydrogen but also helium — an indicator that particles from the radioactive decay of elements like uranium and thorium were splitting water molecules. That process, water radiolysis, was first observed in Marie Curie’s laboratory at the beginning of the 20th century, when researchers realized that solutions of radium salts generated bubbles of hydrogen and oxygen. Curie called it “an electrolysis without electrodes.” (It took a few more years for scientists to realize that the oxygen came from hydrogen peroxide created during the process.)

Sherwood Lollar, Lin, Onstott and their collaborators proposed in 2006 that the microbial communities under South Africa and Canada derived the energy for their survival from hydrogen produced through radiolysis. So began their long quest to unpack how important radiolysis might be to life in natural settings.

‘A Completely Self-Sustained System’

For much of the next decade, the researchers obtained samples from deep aquifers at various mining sites and related the complex chemistries of the fluids to their geological surroundings. Some of the water trapped beneath the Canadian crust had been isolated from the surface for more than 1 billion years — perhaps even for 2 billion. Within that water were bacteria, still very much alive.

“That had to be a completely self-sustained system,” Mustard observed. By the process of elimination, radiolysis looked like a possible energy source, but could there be enough of it to support life?


Image above: A sample of ancient water found deep within Kidd Creek Mine in Ontario, Canada. In such samples, researchers have detected abiotically produced hydrogen, sulfate and organic compounds that may sustain life far below ground. Image Credits: Pierre Martin, Ingenium – Canada’s Museums of Science and Innovation.

In 2014, when Sherwood Lollar and her colleagues combined the results of nuclear chemists’ lab work with models of the crust’s mineral composition, they discovered that radiolysis and other processes were likely to be producing a huge amount of hydrogen in the continental subsurface — on par with the amount of hydrogen thought to arise from hydrothermal and other deep-sea environments. “We doubled the estimate of hydrogen production from water-rock reactions on the planet,” Sherwood Lollar said.

Microbes could directly utilize the hydrogen produced by radiolysis, but that was only half the story: To make full use of it, they needed not just hydrogen as an electron donor, but another substance as an electron acceptor. The scientists suspected the microbes were finding that in compounds made when the hydrogen peroxide and other oxygen-containing radicals from radiolysis reacted with surrounding minerals. In work published in 2016, they showed that radiolytic hydrogen peroxide was likely interacting with sulfides in the walls of a Canadian mine to produce sulfate, an electron acceptor. But Sherwood Lollar and her colleagues still needed proof that cells were relying on that sulfate for energy.

In 2019, they finally got it. By culturing bacteria from the groundwater in mines, they were able to show that the microbes made use of both the hydrogen and the sulfate. Water, some radioactive decay, a bit of sulfide — “and then you get a sustained system of energy production that can last for billions of years … like an ambient pulse of habitability,” said Jesse Tarnas, a planetary scientist and NASA postdoctoral fellow.


Image above: Bacteria found deep within a gold mine in South Africa that subsist on hydrogen and sulfate. Similar bacteria are believed to live at the Canadian mining sites studied by Sherwood Lollar’s group. Image Credit: G. Wanger & G. Southam.

In their February paper, Sherwood Lollar and her colleagues showed that radiolysis is instrumental not just in the hydrogen and sulfur cycles on Earth, but in the cycle most closely associated with life: that of carbon. Analyses of water samples from the same Canadian mine showed very high concentrations of acetate and formate, organic compounds that can support bacterial life. Moreover, measurements of isotopic signatures indicated that the compounds were being generated abiotically. The researchers hypothesized that radiolytic products were reacting with dissolved carbonate minerals from the rock to produce the large quantities of carbon-based molecules they were observing.

To cement their hypothesis, Sherwood Lollar’s team needed additional evidence. It arrived just one month later. Nuclear chemists led by Laurent Truche, a geochemist at Grenoble Alpes University in France, and Johan Vandenborre of the University of Nantes had been independently studying radiolysis in laboratory settings. In work published in March, they pinned down the precise mechanisms and yields of radiolysis in the presence of dissolved carbonate. They measured exact concentrations of various byproducts, including formate and acetate — and the quantities and rates they recorded aligned with what Sherwood Lollar was seeing in the deep fractures within natural rock.

Beneath the Bottom of the Sea

While Sherwood Lollar was conducting her field research within the continental subsurface, a handful of scientists were trying to suss out the effects of radiolysis beneath the seafloor. Chief among them was Steve D’Hondt, a geomicrobiologist at the University of Rhode Island, who in February with his graduate student Justine Sauvage and their colleagues published the results of nearly two decades’ worth of detailed evidence that radiolysis is important for sustaining marine subsurface life.

In 2010, D’Hondt and Fumio Inagaki, a geomicrobiologist at the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology, led a drilling expedition that collected samples of sub-seafloor sediments from around the globe. Subsequently, D’Hondt and Sauvage suspended dozens of sediment types in water and exposed them to different types of radiation — and every time, they found that the amount of hydrogen produced was much greater than when pure water was irradiated. The sediments were amplifying the products of radiolysis. And “the yields were ridiculous,” D’Hondt said. In some cases, the presence of sediment in the water increased the production of hydrogen by a factor of nearly 30.

Image Credits: Samuel Velasco/Quanta Magazine

“Some minerals are just hotbeds of radiolytic hydrogen production,” D’Hondt said. “They very efficiently convert the energy of radiation into chemical energy that microbes can eat.”

Yet D’Hondt and his colleagues found barely any hydrogen in the sediment cores they’d drilled. “Whatever hydrogen is being produced is disappearing,” D’Hondt said. The researchers think it’s being consumed by the microbes living in the sediments.

According to their models, in deep sediments more than a few million years old, radiolytic hydrogen is being produced and consumed more quickly than organic matter is — making radiolysis of water the dominant source of energy in those older sediments. While it accounts for only 1%-2% of the total energy available in the global marine sediment environment — the other 98% comes from organic carbon, which is mostly consumed when the sediment is young — its effects are still quite sizable. “It might be slow,” said Doug LaRowe, a planetary scientist at the University of Southern California, “but from a geologic perspective, and over geologic time … it starts to add up.”

This means that radiolysis “is a fundamental source of bioavailable energy for a significant microbiome on earth,” Sauvage said — not just on the continents but beneath the oceans, too. “It’s quite striking.”

A Natural Lab for Life’s Origins

The newfound scientific importance of radiolysis may not just relate to how it sustains life in extreme environments. It could also illuminate how abiotic organic synthesis may have set the stage for the origin of life — on Earth and elsewhere.

Sherwood Lollar has been invigorated by her team’s recent observations that, in the closed environmental system around the Canadian mines, most of the carbon-containing compounds seem to have been produced abiotically. “It’s one of the few places on the planet where the smear of life hasn’t contaminated everything,” she said. “And those are pretty rare and precious places on our planet.”

Part of their unique value is that they can be “an analogue for what might have been the prebiotic soup that our Earth might have had before life arose,” she continued. Even if life didn’t arise in this kind of subsurface environment — higher-energy regions of the planet, like hydrothermal vents, are still more probable venues for an origin story — it provided a safe place where life could be sustained for long stretches of time, far away from the dangers found at the surface (like the meteor impacts and high levels of radiation that plagued the early Earth).

Modeling and experimental work have shown that even simple systems (consisting solely of hydrogen, carbon dioxide and sulfate, for example) can lead to extremely intricate microbial food webs; adding compounds like formate and acetate from radiolysis to the mix could significantly broaden the potential ecological landscape. And because acetate and formate can form more complex organics, they can give rise to even more diverse systems. “It’s important to see life operating with this amount of complexity,” said Cara Magnabosco, a geobiologist at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich, “even in something that maybe you would view as very simple and very energy-poor.”

“Let’s say [radiolysis] can only make basic organic carbons, like formate and acetate,” LaRowe said. “If you move those compounds into a different environmental setting, perhaps they can react there to form something else. They become starter or feeder material for more complex reactions in a different setting.” That might even help bring scientists closer to understanding how amino acids and other important building blocks of life arose.

Sherwood Lollar is now collaborating with other scientists, including colleagues at the CIFAR Earth 4D project, to study how the organic molecules present in the ancient Canadian water might “complexify” the chemistry at hand. In work they’re hoping to publish later this year, “we show how the coevolution of organics and minerals is key for the diversification of these organic compounds,” said Bénédicte Menez, a geobiologist at the Paris Institute of Earth Physics and one of the leaders of the research. Her aim is to determine how more complicated organic structures could form and subsequently play a role in some of the earliest microbial metabolisms.

Astrobiologists are also realizing how crucial it might be to consider radiolysis when constraining the habitability of planets and moons throughout the solar system and the rest of the galaxy. Sunlight, high temperatures and other conditions might not be strictly needed to sustain extraterrestrial life. Radiolysis should be practically ubiquitous on any rocky planet that has water in its subsurface.

Take Mars. In a pair of studies, one published a couple of years ago and the other last month, Tarnas, Mustard, Sherwood Lollar and other researchers translated quantitative work being done on radiolysis on Earth to the Martian subsurface. They found that based on the planet’s mineral composition and other parameters, Mars today might be able to sustain microbial ecosystems akin to those on Earth — with radiolysis alone. The scientists identified regions of the planet where the microbial concentration would likely be greatest, which could guide where future missions should be targeted.

“It’s really fascinating to me,” Inagaki said, “as we are now in an era where particle physics is necessary to study microbial life in Earth’s planetary interior and other worlds in the universe.”

Related link:

CIFAR Earth 4D project: https://cifar.ca/research-programs/earth-4d/

Images (mentioned), Text, Credits: Quanta Magazine/Jordana Cepelewicz.

Greetings, Orbiter.ch

A European in space – Thomas Pesquet in May

 







ESA - Alpha Mission animated patch.


June 4, 2021

With ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet in space for his first full month, let’s look at what he has been doing on the International Space Station in May.

Thomas grasping in VR space for science

Thomas’s first large-scale European experiment was a familiar one: he set up the Grasp and Grip equipment during his Proxima mission in 2017 and got the hardware ready for subjects to test how they judge distances when reaching for objects. Four years on – and many test subjects later – he ran the experiment himself by wearing a virtual reality headset and grasping objects while motion trackers recorded his arm movement and speed.

The next day Thomas did a session on Myotones together with NASA astronaut Megan MacArthur. This experiment is looking at muscle tone in space and how it changes during a mission. A device touches their muscles and records how it reacts. The astronauts also took blood draws and ultrasound measurements for the experiment the research could help us understand why muscles age the way they do.

Thomas storing samples in MELFI

Thomas took regular samples of his body and stored them in the European –80°C freezers for later analysis. This less glamorous part of being an astronaut is needed to chart health in general but also for research; the batch includes stool samples, blood samples, saliva and urine. The blood samples often go in a centrifuge before storage to separate the cells, and the centrifuge itself requires upkeep.

Thomas repairing Space Station exercise bike

Thomas repaired the Station’s exercise bike, which had a problem with its ergometer, and helped Megan with NASA’s SUBSA experiment that is casting metal alloys in space to observe the crystals that form, with hopes of developing better casting techniques on Earth. A similar ESA experiment observing crystal formation ran in May with different alloys in the Columbus laboratory.

Thomas spent some time servicing the toilet and maintenance on pumps in the first week of May, and worked on the educational Astro Pi initiative teaching schoolchildren to code with computers.

Thomas on Space Station exercise bike

The second week of May started with Cygnus cargo operations and clearing up to access the nanoracks airlock, as well as an educational experiment for NASA and safety drills for the whole Space Station crew. Thomas started preparing for the arrival of the 22nd Dragon cargo spacecraft and did the regular six-month and yearly maintenance of the Station’s treadmill as well as filling in a survey on the acoustics in the Station.

Thomas took part in the CNES Dreams experiment that is looking at astronauts’ sleep. It uses a novel headband to study how sleep is influenced by living in weightlessness and isolation. Using small ECG sensors, the device collected neuroscientific data while Thomas slept. These data will be analysed by researchers to help prepare for long missions to the Moon and Mars.

In the third week of May, Thomas started preparing equipment for the spacewalks that are planned in June to upgrade the Space Station’s solar panels. This includes checking batteries and charging them and preparing the EMU suits they will wear. This is quick to summarise but doing the work takes time and must be done meticulously, as nobody wants an empty battery when floating through the vacuum of space. The solar panels themselves will be launched on the SpaceX Dragon this week. He also did maintenance on the air conditioning in the crew quarters.

Thomas and Megan in BEAM module

On Wednesday, Thomas did a session on the ESA/CNES experiment Time that is charting reaction times and perception of time in space, to test if they decrease during spaceflight. On Friday, the crew entered the BEAM module that is usually closed off and used for long-term storage. Thomas was tasked with storage duties and organised the inflatable module’s items.

More toilet maintenance in the last week of May for Thomas and then on to some research, growing protein crystals for NASA. By growing these proteins in space, researchers can create the ‘perfect’ shape without gravity influencing the end result. The structure of these proteins is important because it defines how protein-based medicine is absorbed by our bodies, and tweaking the structure could allow for optimal administration of this new generation of medicine.

Time experiment infographics

The week finished with more work on metal casting, a full day of Myotones, more spacewalk preparations, medical drills and, on Wednesday, Thomas set up the new French Pilote experiment and did the first session that will evaluate a new way of providing tactile and visual feedback to astronauts when operating robots. A virtual reality headset and a haptic joystick could recreate the feeling of pressure and touch when tele-operating a robotic arm. The results from Pilote will improve the workspace on the Space Station and future spacecraft for lunar and martian missions, where astronauts in orbit could operate rovers on the surface.

Pilote timelapse

This monthly overview focused only on Thomas’s activities and does not mention the daily planning conferences and the two hours of daily exercise, cleaning duties and more, alongside sharing space with six other astronauts on the Space Station. Of course, many experiments run automatically in the background, meaning the science literally never stops in space.

Related links:

Myotones: https://www.esa.int/ESA_Multimedia/Images/2018/07/Tricorder

NASA’s SUBSA experiment: https://www.nasa.gov/centers/marshall/news/background/facts/SUBSA.html

Astro Pi: https://www.astropi.org/

Growing protein crystals: https://science.nasa.gov/biological-physical/investigations/RTPCG-2

Alpha: https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Human_and_Robotic_Exploration/Alpha

International Space Station (ISS): https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Human_and_Robotic_Exploration/International_Space_Station

Images, Videos, Text, Credits: ESA/NASA.

Best regards, Orbiter.ch

Detecting X-Rays From Uranus

 







NASA - Chandra X-ray Observatory logo.


Jun 4, 2021


Astronomers have detected X-rays from Uranus for the first time, using NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory, as shown in this image from March 2021. This result may help scientists learn more about this enigmatic ice giant planet in our solar system.

Uranus is the seventh planet from the Sun and has two sets of rings around its equator. The planet, which has four times the diameter of Earth, rotates on its side, making it different from all other planets in the solar system. Since Voyager 2 was the only spacecraft to ever fly by Uranus, astronomers currently rely on telescopes much closer to Earth, like Chandra and the Hubble Space Telescope, to learn about this distant and cold planet that is made up almost entirely of hydrogen and helium.

Chandra X-ray Observatory

In the new study, researchers used Chandra observations taken in Uranus in 2002 and then again in 2017. They saw a clear detection of X-rays from the first observation, just analyzed recently, and a possible flare of X-rays in those obtained fifteen years later.

NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/chandra/main/index.html

Image, Animation Credits: X-ray: NASA/CXO/University College London/W. Dunn et al; Optical: W.M. Keck Observatory/Text: NASA/Yvette Smith.

Greetings, Orbiter.ch

NASA’s OSIRIS-REx Celebrates Perfect Departure Maneuver from Asteroid Bennu

 






NASA - OSIRIS-REx Mission patch.


Jun 4, 2021

NASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft is 328,000 miles, or 528,000 kilometers, away from the asteroid Bennu, having fired its engines on May 10 to initiate a return trip to Earth. The spacecraft is on track to deliver an asteroid sample to Earth on September 24, 2023.

OSIRIS-REx Heads Home with Sample of Asteroid Bennu. Image Credit: NASA

Mission engineers had planned to do a small thruster firing last week to ensure the spacecraft stays on the correct path back to Earth. But, the May 10 departure maneuver was calculated and executed so precisely, the mission team decided not to do a clean-up maneuver last week.

The next possible maneuver adjustment could occur in 2022.

OSIRIS-REx Heads Home with Sample of Asteroid Bennu

Video above: After nearly five years in space, NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft is on its way back to Earth with an abundance of rocks and dust from the near-Earth asteroid Bennu. Video Credits: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center.

OSIRIS-REx (Origins Spectral Interpretation Resource Identification Security Regolith Explorer): http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/osiris-rex/index.html

Image (mentioned), Video (mentioned), Text, Credits: NASA/Lynn Jenner/GSFC/By Rani Gran.

Best regards, Orbiter.ch

jeudi 3 juin 2021

NASA’s Juno to Get a Close Look at Jupiter’s Moon Ganymede

 







NASA - JUNO Mission logo.


Jun 3, 2021

The first of the gas-giant orbiter’s back-to-back flybys will provide a close encounter with the massive moon after over 20 years.


Image above: Left to right: The mosaic and geologic maps of Jupiter’s moon Ganymede were assembled incorporating the best available imagery from NASA’s Voyager 1 and 2 spacecraft and NASA’s Galileo spacecraft. Image Credits: USGS Astrogeology Science Center/Wheaton/NASA/JPL-Caltech.

On Monday, June 7, at 1:35 p.m. EDT (10:35 a.m. PDT), NASA’s Juno spacecraft will come within 645 miles (1,038 kilometers) of the surface of Jupiter’s largest moon, Ganymede. The flyby will be the closest a spacecraft has come to the solar system’s largest natural satellite since NASA’s Galileo spacecraft made its penultimate close approach back on May 20, 2000. Along with striking imagery, the solar-powered spacecraft’s flyby will yield insights into the moon’s composition, ionosphere, magnetosphere, and ice shell. Juno’s measurements of the radiation environment near the moon will also benefit future missions to the Jovian system.

Ganymede is bigger than the planet Mercury and is the only moon in the solar system with its own magnetosphere –  a bubble-shaped region of charged particles surrounding the celestial body.

“Juno carries a suite of sensitive instruments capable of seeing Ganymede in ways never before possible,” said Juno Principal Investigator Scott Bolton of the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio. “By flying so close, we will bring the exploration of Ganymede into the 21st century, both complementing future missions with our unique sensors and helping prepare for the next generation of missions to the Jovian system – NASA’s Europa Clipper and ESA’s [European Space Agency’s] JUpiter ICy moons Explorer [JUICE] mission.”

Rotating Globe of Ganymede Geology

Video above: Animation of a rotating globe of Ganymede, with a geologic map superimposed over a global color mosaic. Video Credits: USGS Astrogeology Science Center/Wheaton/ASU/NASA/JPL-Caltech.

Juno’s science instruments will begin collecting data about three hours before the spacecraft’s closest approach. Along with the Ultraviolet Spectrograph (UVS) and Jovian Infrared Auroral Mapper (JIRAM) instruments, Juno’s Microwave Radiometer’s (MWR) will peer into Ganymede’s water-ice crust, obtaining data on its composition and temperature.

“Ganymede’s ice shell has some light and dark regions, suggesting that some areas may be pure ice while other areas contain dirty ice,” said Bolton. “MWR will provide the first in-depth investigation of how the composition and structure of the ice varies with depth, leading to a better understanding of how the ice shell forms and the ongoing processes that resurface the ice over time.” The results will complement those from ESA’s forthcoming JUICE mission, which will look at the ice using radar at different wavelengths when it becomes the first spacecraft to orbit a moon other than Earth’s Moon in 2032.

Signals from Juno’s X-band and Ka-band radio wavelengths will be used to perform a radio occultation experiment to probe the moon’s tenuous ionosphere (the outer layer of an atmosphere where gases are excited by solar radiation to form ions, which have an electrical charge).

“As Juno passes behind Ganymede, radio signals will pass through Ganymede’s ionosphere, causing small changes in the frequency that should be picked up by two antennas at the Deep Space Network’s Canberra complex in Australia,” said Dustin Buccino, a signal analysis engineer for the Juno mission at JPL. “If we can measure this change, we might be able to understand the connection between Ganymede’s ionosphere, its intrinsic magnetic field, and Jupiter’s magnetosphere.”

JUNO probe orbiting Jupiter. Animation Credit: NASA

Three Cameras, Two Jobs

Normally, Juno’s Stellar Reference Unit (SRU) navigation camera is tasked with helping keep the Jupiter orbiter on course, but during the flyby it will do double duty. Along with its navigation duties, the camera – which is well shielded against radiation that could otherwise adversely affect it – will gather information on the high-energy radiation environment in the region near Ganymede by collecting a special set of images.

“The signatures from penetrating high-energy particles in Jupiter’s extreme radiation environment appear as dots, squiggles, and streaks in the images – like static on a television screen. We extract these radiation-induced noise signatures from SRU images to obtain diagnostic snapshots of the radiation levels encountered by Juno,” said Heidi Becker, Juno’s radiation monitoring lead at JPL.

Meanwhile, the Advanced Stellar Compass camera, built at the Technical University of Denmark, will count very energetic electrons that penetrate its shielding with a measurement every quarter of a second.

Also being enlisted is the JunoCam imager. Conceived to bring the excitement and beauty of Jupiter exploration to the public, the camera has provided an abundance of useful science as well during the mission’s almost five-year tenure at Jupiter. For the Ganymede flyby, JunoCam will collect images at a resolution equivalent to the best from Voyager and Galileo. The Juno science team will scour the images, comparing them to those from previous missions, looking for changes in surface features that might have occurred over four-plus decades. Any changes to crater distribution on the surface could help astronomers better understand the current population of objects that impact moons in the outer solar system.

Due to the speed of the flyby, the icy moon will – from JunoCam’s viewpoint – go from being a point of light to a viewable disk then back to a point of light in about 25 minutes. So that’s just enough time for five images.

“Things usually happen pretty quick in the world of flybys, and we have two back-to-back next week. So literally every second counts,” said Juno Mission Manager Matt Johnson of JPL. “On Monday, we are going to race past Ganymede at almost 12 miles per second (19 kilometers per second). Less than 24 hours later we’re performing our 33rd science pass of Jupiter – screaming low over the cloud tops, at about 36 miles per second (58 kilometers per second). It is going to be a wild ride.”

More About the Mission

JPL, a division of Caltech in Pasadena, California, manages the Juno mission for the principal investigator, Scott J. Bolton, of the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio. Juno is part of NASA’s New Frontiers Program, which is managed at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, for the agency’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington. Lockheed Martin Space in Denver built and operates the spacecraft.

More information about Juno is available at:

https://www.nasa.gov/juno

https://www.missionjuno.swri.edu

Image (mentioned), Video (mentioned), Animation (mentioned), Text, Credits: NASA/Tony Greicius/Karen Fox/Alana Johnson/Southwest Research Institute/Deb Schmid/JPL/DC Agle.

Best regards, Orbiter.ch

NASA’s InSight Mars Lander Gets a Power Boost

 






NASA - InSight Mars Lander Mission patch.


Jun 3, 2021

The spacecraft successfully cleared some dust off its solar panels, helping to raise its energy and delay when it will need to switch off its science instruments.

InSight's Robotic Arm Trickles Sand in the Wind

Video above: NASA’s InSight lander cleaned a bit of dust from one of its solar panels by trickling sand in the wind on May 22, 2021, the 884th Martian day, or sol, of the mission. As the sand blew over the panel, it picking up some dust as it went, resulting in a boost to InSight’s power. Video Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech.

The team behind NASA’s InSight Mars lander has come up with an innovative way to boost the spacecraft’s energy at a time when its power levels have been falling. The lander’s robotic arm trickled sand near one solar panel, helping the wind to carry off some of the panel’s dust. The result was a gain of about 30 watt-hours of energy per sol, or Martian day.

Mars is approaching aphelion, its farthest point from the Sun. That means less sunlight reaches the spacecraft’s dust-covered solar panels, reducing their energy output. The team had planned for this before InSight’s two-year mission extension. They’ve designed the mission to operate without science instruments for the next few months before resuming science operations later this year. During this period, InSight will reserve power for its heaters, computer, and other key components.

Artist's view of InSight Mars Lander. Image Credits: NASA/JPL Caltech

The power boost should delay the instruments being switched off by a few weeks, gaining precious time to collect additional science data. The team will try to clear a bit more dust from the same solar panel this Saturday, June 5, 2021.

Dust in the Wind

InSight’s team has been thinking up ways to try to clear dust from its solar panels for almost a year. For example, they tried pulsing the solar panel deployment motors (last used when InSight opened its solar panels after landing) to shake the dust off but didn’t succeed.

More recently, several members of the science team started pursuing the counterintuitive technique of trickling sand near – but not directly on top of – the panels. Matt Golombek, a member of the InSight science team at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, which manages the mission, noted that it might be possible to strike dust on the panels with sand grains that would “saltate,” or hop off the solar panel surface and skip through the air in the wind. The larger grains might then carry off the smaller dust particles in the wind.

To try the technique, the team used the scoop on InSight’s robotic arm to trickle sand next to InSight’s solar panels on May 22, 2021, the 884th sol of the mission, at around noon Mars time – the windiest time of day. It was easiest for InSight’s arm to be positioned over the lander’s deck, high enough for the winds to blow sand over the panels. Sure enough, with winds blowing northwest at a maximum of 20 feet (6 meters) per second, the trickling of sand coincided with an instantaneous bump in the spacecraft’s overall power.

“We weren’t sure this would work, but we’re delighted that it did,” Golombek said.

While it’s no guarantee that the spacecraft has all the power it needs, the recent cleaning will add some helpful margin to InSight’s power reserves.

Surviving on Mars

InSight’s panels have outlasted the two-year prime mission they were designed for and are now powering the spacecraft through the two-year extension. Relying on solar panels for power enables such missions to be as light as possible for launch and requires fewer moving parts – thus, fewer potential failure points – than other systems. Equipping the spacecraft with brushes or fans to clear off dust would add weight and failure points. (Some members of the public have suggested using the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter’s whirring blades to clear off InSight’s panels, but that’s not an option, either: The operation would be too risky, and the helicopter is roughly 2,145 miles, or 3,452 kilometers, away.)

However, as the Spirit and Opportunity Mars rovers showed, gusts and whirlwinds can clear solar panels over time. In the case of InSight, the spacecraft’s weather sensors have detected many passing whirlwinds, but none have cleared any dust.

By August, as Mars moves in its orbit closer to the Sun, InSight’s solar panels should be able to gather more energy, allowing the team to turn the science instruments back on. Depending on the available power, they might begin by turning some on for short periods at key times during the day, as they’ve been doing to save energy.

Whether the instruments are on or off, InSight operations will pause again around Oct. 7, when Mars and the Earth will be on opposite sides of the Sun. Known as Mars Solar Conjunction, this period happens every two years. Because plasma from the Sun can interrupt radio signals sent to spacecraft at that time, all of NASA’s Mars missions will become more passive, continuing to record data and send updates to engineers on Earth, though no new commands will be sent back to them. The moratorium on Mars commands will last several weeks until late October.

More About the Mission

JPL manages InSight for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate. InSight is part of NASA’s Discovery Program, managed by the agency’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. Lockheed Martin Space in Denver built the InSight spacecraft, including its cruise stage and lander, and supports spacecraft operations for the mission.

A number of European partners, including France’s Centre National d’Études Spatiales (CNES) and the German Aerospace Center (DLR), are supporting the InSight mission. CNES provided the Seismic Experiment for Interior Structure (SEIS) instrument to NASA, with the principal investigator at IPGP (Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris). Significant contributions for SEIS came from IPGP; the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research (MPS) in Germany; the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH Zurich) in Switzerland; Imperial College London and Oxford University in the United Kingdom; and JPL. DLR provided the Heat Flow and Physical Properties Package (HP3) instrument, with significant contributions from the Space Research Center (CBK) of the Polish Academy of Sciences and Astronika in Poland. Spain’s Centro de Astrobiología (CAB) supplied the temperature and wind sensors.

Related links:

Seismic Experiment for Interior Structure (SEIS): https://mars.nasa.gov/insight/mission/instruments/seis/

Heat Flow and Physical Properties Package (HP3): https://mars.nasa.gov/insight/mission/instruments/hp3/

InSight Mars Lander: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/insight/main/index.html

Image (mentioned), Video (mentioned), Text, Credits: NASA/Tony Greicius/Karen Fox/Alana Johnson/JPL/Andrew Good.

Greetings, Orbiter.ch

Science, Solar Arrays Launch on NASA’s SpaceX Cargo Mission

 







SpaceX - Dragon CRS-22 Mission patch.


Jun 3, 2021

NASA's 22nd SpaceX cargo resupply mission launches. Image Credits: NASA TV

The latest SpaceX Dragon resupply spacecraft is on its way to the International Space Station after launching at 1:29 p.m. EDT Thursday from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, bearing more than 7,300 pounds of science experiments, new solar arrays, and other cargo.

The spacecraft launched on a Falcon 9 rocket from Launch Pad 39A at Kennedy. It is scheduled to autonomously dock at the space station around 5 a.m. Saturday, June 5, and remain at the station for about a month. Coverage of arrival will begin at 3:30 a.m. on NASA Television, the agency’s website, and the NASA app.

SpaceX CRS-22 launch and Falcon 9 first stage landing

This 22nd contracted resupply mission for SpaceX will deliver the new ISS Roll-out Solar Arrays (iROSA) to the space station in the trunk of the Dragon spacecraft. After the Dragon docks to the space station’s Harmony module, the robotic Canadarm2 will extract the arrays and astronauts will install them during spacewalks planned for June 16 and 20.

Among the science experiments Dragon is delivering to the space station are:

Symbiotic squid and microbes

The Understanding of Microgravity on Animal-Microbe Interactions (UMAMI) study uses bobtail squid and bacteria to examine the effects of spaceflight on interactions between beneficial microbes and their animal hosts. This type of relationship is known as symbiosis. Beneficial microbes play a significant role in the normal development of animal tissues and in maintaining human health, but gravity’s role in shaping these interactions is not well understood. This experiment could support the development of measures to preserve astronaut health and identify ways to protect and enhance these relationships for applications on Earth.

Producing tougher cotton

Cotton is used in many products, but its production uses significant amounts of water and agricultural chemicals. The Targeting Improved Cotton Through On-orbit Cultivation

(TICTOC) study focuses on improving cotton’s resilience, water-use, and carbon storage. On Earth, root growth depends upon gravity. TICTOC could help define which environmental factors and genes control root development in microgravity. Scientists could use what they learn to develop cotton varieties that require less water and pesticide use.

Water bears take on space

Tardigrades, also known as water bears for their appearance when viewed under a microscope, are creatures that can tolerate extreme environments. The Cell Science-04 experiment aims to identify the genes involved in water bear adaptation and survival in these high-stress environments. The results could advance scientists’ understanding of the stress factors that affect humans in space.

On-the-spot ultrasound

The handheld, commercial Butterfly IQ Ultrasound device could provide critical medical capabilities to crews on long-term spaceflights where immediate ground support is not an option. This study will demonstrate the use of an ultrasound unit alongside a mobile computing device in microgravity. Its results have potential applications for medical care in remote and isolated settings on Earth.

Developing better robot drivers

An ESA (European Space Agency) investigation, Pilote, test the effectiveness of remotely operating robotic arms and space vehicles using virtual reality and haptic interfaces. Pilote studies existing and new technologies in microgravity by comparing those recently developed for teleoperation to those used to pilot the Canadarm2 and Soyuz spacecraft. The study also compares astronaut performance in using the interfaces on the ground and during spaceflight. Results could help optimize workstations on the space station and future space vehicles for missions to the Moon and Mars.

Bonus power

New solar panels headed to station are made up of compact sections that roll open like a long rug. The ISS Roll-out Solar Arrays (iROSA) are based on a previous demonstration of roll-out panels performed on station. They are expected to provide an increase in energy available for research and station activities. NASA plans a total of six new arrays to augment the station’s power supply with the first pair launching on this flight. The Expedition 65 crew is scheduled to begin preparations for spacewalks to supplement the station’s existing rigid panels this summer. The same solar array technology is planned to power NASA’s Gateway, part of the Artemis program.

These are just a few of the hundreds of investigations currently being conducted aboard the orbiting laboratory in the areas of biology and biotechnology, physical sciences, and Earth and space science. Advances in these areas will help keep astronauts healthy during long-duration space travel and demonstrate technologies for future human and robotic exploration beyond low-Earth orbit to the Moon and Mars through NASA’s Artemis program.

Learn more about SpaceX’s mission for NASA at: https://www.nasa.gov/spacex

Related links:

NASA Television: https://www.nasa.gov/nasalive

Understanding of Microgravity on Animal-Microbe Interactions (UMAMI): https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Investigation.html?#id=8298

Targeting Improved Cotton Through On-orbit Cultivation: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Investigation.html?%20-%20id=8043

TICTOC: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Investigation.html?%20-%20id=8043

Science-04: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Investigation.html?#id=7672

Butterfly IQ Ultrasound: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Investigation.html?#id=8211

Pilote: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Investigation.html?#id=8347

ROSA: https://www.nasa.gov/feature/new-solar-arrays-to-power-nasa-s-international-space-station-research/

Moon and Mars: https://www.nasa.gov/in-lunar-orbit

Artemis: https://www.nasa.gov/specials/artemis/

Commercial Space: http://www.nasa.gov/exploration/commercial/index.html

Commercial Resupply: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/structure/launch/index.html

Space Station Research and Technology: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/overview.html

International Space Station (ISS): https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/main/index.html

Image (mentioned), Video, Text, Credits: NASA/Robert Margetta/Kathryn Hambleton/Stephanie Schierholz/JSC/Leah Cheshier/NASA TV/SciNews.

Best regards, Orbiter.ch

Accelerators meet gravitational waves

 







CERN - European Organization for Nuclear Research logo.


June 3, 2021

Physicists discuss the possibility of using particle accelerators to detect or even generate gravitational waves

Image Credit: CERN

In particle accelerators like the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), charged particles bob and weave in magnetic and electric fields, following tightly corralled trajectories. Their paths are computed assuming a flat Euclidean space-time, but gravitational waves ­– first observed by the LIGO and Virgo detectors in 2015 – crease and stretch this underlying geometry as they ripple out across the universe. For the past 50 years, there has been intermittent interest in the possibility of detecting observable resonant effects as a result of this extra curvature of the fabric of space-time, as the particles whizz around the accelerators repeatedly at close to the speed of light.

Advances in accelerator technology could now usher in an era of gravitational-wave astronomy in which particle accelerators play a major role. To explore this tantalising possibility, over 100 accelerator experts, particle physicists and members of the gravitational physics community participated in a virtual workshop entitled “Storage Rings and Gravitational Waves” (SRGW2021), organised as part of the European Union’s Horizon 2020 ARIES project. During this meeting, they explored the role that particle accelerators could play in the detection of cosmological backgrounds of gravitational waves. This would provide us with a picture of the early universe and give us hints about high-energy phenomena, such as high-temperature phase transitions, the nature of inflation and new heavy particles that cannot be directly produced in the laboratory.

Image Credit: CERN

Lively discussions at the SRGW2021 workshop – the first, apart from an informal discussion at CERN in the 1990s, to link accelerators and gravitational waves and bring together the scientific communities involved – attest to the prospective role that accelerators could play in detecting or even generating gravitational waves. The great excitement and interest prompted by this meeting, and the exciting preliminary findings from this workshop, call for further, more thorough investigations into harnessing future storage rings and accelerator technologies for gravitational-wave physics.

This text was extracted from the full meeting report in CERN Courier, where you can learn more about gravitational-wave research using particle accelerators.

Note:

CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, is one of the world’s largest and most respected centres for scientific research. Its business is fundamental physics, finding out what the Universe is made of and how it works. At CERN, the world’s largest and most complex scientific instruments are used to study the basic constituents of matter — the fundamental particles. By studying what happens when these particles collide, physicists learn about the laws of Nature.

The instruments used at CERN are particle accelerators and detectors. Accelerators boost beams of particles to high energies before they are made to collide with each other or with stationary targets. Detectors observe and record the results of these collisions.

Founded in 1954, the CERN Laboratory sits astride the Franco–Swiss border near Geneva. It was one of Europe’s first joint ventures and now has 23 Member States.

Related links:

Storage Rings and Gravitational Waves: https://indico.cern.ch/event/982987/

ARIES project: https://aries.web.cern.ch/home

CERN Courier: https://cerncourier.com/a/accelerators-meet-gravitational-waves/

Large Hadron Collider (LHC): https://home.cern/topics/large-hadron-collider

For more information about European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), Visit: https://home.cern/

Images (mentioned), Text, Credit: European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN).

Best regards, Orbiter.ch