Crew Studies Space Physics and Ergonomics Before Cargo Craft Redocks

 

ISS - Expedition 66 Mission patch.

October 21, 2021

Five Expedition 66 crew members spent Thursday studying a variety of space phenomena while working on spacesuits and continuing the upkeep of the International Space Station. Two cosmonauts, in the meantime, will be monitoring the late night redocking of a Russian resupply ship.

NASA Flight Engineers Shane Kimbrough and Megan McArthur, also commander and pilot of the SpaceX Crew-2 mission, split their day packing up station gear and personal items inside the Crew Dragon Endeavour spacecraft. They and fellow astronauts Akihiko Hoshide and Thomas Pesquet are due to return to Earth and splashdown off the coast of Florida in early November aboard Endeavour ending their six-and-a-half month space mission.

Image above: Expedition 65 Commander Thomas Pesquet installs fluid physics and materials research gear inside the Kibo laboratory module. Image Credit: NASA.

Kimbrough also joined NASA Flight Engineer Mark Vande Hei for ongoing spacesuit work taking place inside the U.S. Quest airlock during the morning. The duo prepared the U.S. spacesuits for an upcoming spacewalk planned for after the arrival of the SpaceX Crew-3 mission. McArthur stowed hardware and checked valves after wrapping up two days of maintenance on the orbiting lab’s oxygen generation system.

Hoshide of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) worked a pair of crystal physics experiments throughout the day. One study may help improve manufacturing processes, the other may advance drug production and increase biochemistry expertise in space. Two-time ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Pesquet researched space ergonomics to help engineers design future space robot and spacecraft interfaces.

International Space Station (ISS). Animation Credit: ESA

The ISS Progress 78 resupply ship from Roscosmos is trailing the station by over 100 miles after temporarily undocking from the Rassvet module on Wednesday evening. Cosmonauts Pyotr Dubrov and Anton Shkaplerov will be on duty when it redocks to the Nauka multipurpose laboratory module just after midnight on Friday. The relocation maneuver will allow the Progress 78 to check the Nauka module’s propellant lines for leaks before the new science module’s thrusters resume orientation control.

Related links:

Expedition 66: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/expeditions/expedition66/index.html

U.S. Quest airlock: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/structure/elements/joint-quest-airlock

Improve manufacturing processes: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Investigation.html?#id=93

Advance drug production and increase biochemistry expertise: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Investigation.html?#id=7468

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

Rassvet module: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/structure/elements/rassvet

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), Animation (mentioned), Text, Credits: NASA/Mark Garcia.

Best regards, Orbiter.ch

Hubble Snapshot of 'Molten Ring' Galaxy Prompts New Research

 

NASA - Hubble Space Telescope patch.

Oct 21, 2021

The Hubble Space Telescope's glamour shots of the universe nearly always have a discovery behind them.

In this image, a remote galaxy is greatly magnified and distorted by the effects of gravitationally warped space. After its public release, astronomers used the picture to measure the galaxy's distance of 9.4 billion light-years. This places the galaxy at the peak epoch of star formation in cosmic evolution.

In this particular snapshot, a science discovery followed the release of a Hubble observation of a striking example of a deep-space optical phenomenon dubbed an "Einstein ring." The photo was released in December 2020 as an example of one of the largest, nearly complete Einstein rings ever seen.

Hubble Space Telescope (HST)

For more information about Hubble, visit:

http://hubblesite.org/

http://www.nasa.gov/hubble

http://www.spacetelescope.org/

Image, Animation Credits: ESA/Hubble & NASA, S. Jha; Acknowledgment: L. Shatz/Text Credits: NASA/Yvette Smith.

Greetings, Orbiter.ch

Two hundred million years of supermassive black hole activity

 

ROSCOSMOS & DLR - Spectrum-RG (Spektr-RG) patch.

Oct. 21, 2021

The LOFAR radio interferometer and the eROSITA telescope, installed at the Russian orbiting astrophysical observatory Spektr-RG, are studying impressive traces of supermassive black hole activity hundreds of millions of years ago in a nearby group of galaxies. By combining radio and X-ray images, astrophysicists have investigated a group of galaxies that contain an unusually rich array of radio-bright filaments immersed in an atmosphere of hot X-ray emitting gas. The results of the study are published in the journal Nature Astronomy.

These filaments were originally formed as a result of the activity of a supermassive black hole several hundred million years ago - around the time when dinosaurs appeared on Earth. Despite their venerable age, the filaments still have clear boundaries and form a strikingly complex web of filaments and geometric shapes, reminiscent of the structures that form when hot clouds of smoke rise in the atmosphere. The absence of complete mixing between X-ray and radio-emitting plasmas is especially interesting for the development of physical models of the influence of supermassive black holes on the environment.

Massive halos in our Universe, such as giant elliptical galaxies, galaxy groups and clusters are mostly composed of dark matter that forms their deep gravitational pits. However, a small part of their mass is accounted for by ordinary matter, that is, baryons, which form a hot (10 or 100 million degrees) gaseous atmosphere that fills the potential well of the halo. This gas emits in the X-ray range and is studied using modern space observatories such as, for example, Chandra (NASA), XMM-Newton (ESA) and Spektr-RG (Roscosmos State Corporation).

In the central part of each halo, the gas density is high, and it can cool and condense, providing material for the formation of new stars. However, for some reason this does not happen, and old stars dominate in the center of the halo. This mystery led to the development of a theory about the effect of supermassive black holes in cluster centers on the environment - the so-called feedback mechanism. According to this theory, as the gas cools, the supermassive black hole increases the accretion rate and begins to release a huge amount of mechanical energy in the form of plasma jets. This energy heats up the gas, preventing it from further cooling.

There are many analytical and numerical models that support this idea. But from first principles it is difficult to say unambiguously which specific physical processes are responsible for heating a relatively cold gas in a halo. These can be waves, turbulence, cosmic rays, viscosity, etc. To answer these questions, it is necessary to study nearby clusters and groups of galaxies, and preferably in different spectral ranges, since gas of different temperatures emits photons of different energies.

NEST200047 is one of the closest group of galaxies, about 75 megaparsecs from us (for comparison, the distance from the solar system to the center of our Galaxy is only 8 kiloparsecs). It is one of tens of thousands of similar objects found in galaxy catalogs. It was observed by radio telescopes of the ground-based radio interferometer LOFAR (short for Low Frequency Array, created by the Dutch Institute of Radio Astronomy ASTRON) and the eROSITA space telescope in radio and X-ray surveys. The characteristic wavelengths of these telescopes differ by about 5 billion times, and the data from the two observatories complement each other perfectly.

The X-ray data were obtained during two surveys of the entire sky by the Russian observatory "Spektr-RG". The effective exposure was 645 seconds. These observations confirm that the NEST200047 group has a hot gas atmosphere emitting X-rays. At its center is a giant elliptical galaxy, the core of which is a bright radio source. These are typical components for a group of galaxies in which the central black hole plays an important role.

The NEST200047 turned out to be very special. Radio emission comes not only from the center, but also from a rich and complex system of fibers covering an area of ​​more than 200 kiloparsecs. It shows structures that resemble vortex rings. They are similar to those previously found in the famous galaxy M87, but ten times larger. Radio and X-ray images show that the plasma ejected by the supermassive black hole was deformed by complex motions over a hundred million years, but during this time it has not completely mixed with the surrounding thermal plasma, most likely due to the presence of a dynamically important magnetic fields.

Spectrum-RG (Spektr-RG)

Overall, NEST200047 provides a unique example of an object that can trace the history of a supermassive black hole's activity over hundreds of millions of years. Rising bubbles of relativistic plasma work like a giant spoon, "stirring" the thermal X-ray plasma, preventing it from cooling.

The study is the result of a collaborative effort by an international group of astrophysicists. It included employees of the Institute of Space Research of the Russian Academy of Sciences E. Churazov, I. Khabibullin, N. Lyskova, R. Burenin and R. Sunyaev and Kazan Federal University I. Bikmaev, as well as the University of Bologna, INAF, Turin Observatory (Italy), Leiden Observatory, ASTRON (Netherlands), Hamburg Observatory, Institute of Astrophysics Society. Max Planck (Germany), University of Herdfordshire (UK), IASF, DIAS, SRON, WPI, Paris Observatory (France), Rhodes University (South Africa).

Black Holes, Neutron Stars, White Dwarfs, Beyond Space and Time

The Spektr-RG spacecraft, developed at the S.А. Lavochkin (part of the Roscosmos State Corporation), was launched on July 13, 2019 from the Baikonur cosmodrome. It was created with the participation of Germany within the framework of the Federal Space Program of Russia by order of the Russian Academy of Sciences. The observatory is equipped with two unique X-ray mirror telescopes: ART-XC (IKI RAS, Russia) and eROSITA (MPE, Germany), operating on the principle of oblique incidence X-ray optics. The telescopes are installed on the Navigator space platform (NPO Lavochkina, Russia), adapted to the project's objectives. The main goal of the mission is to map the entire sky in the soft (0.3–8 keV) and hard (4–20 keV) ranges of the X-ray spectrum with unprecedented sensitivity. The observatory must operate in space for at least 6.5 years.

Scientific director of the orbital X-ray observatory "Spektr-RG" Academician Rashid Sunyaev Scientific director of the ART-XC telescope named after M.N. Pavlinsky (Russia): Professor of the Russian Academy of Sciences Alexander Lutovinov Supervisor of the eROSITA telescope (Germany): Dr. Andrea Merloni.

Source: IKI RAN.

Related links:

ROSCOSMOS Press Release: https://www.roscosmos.ru/33030/

IKI RAN: https://www.roscosmos.ru/tag/iki-ran/

Spektr-RG: https://www.roscosmos.ru/tag/spektr-rg/

Images, Video, Text, Credits: ROSCOSMOS/IKI RAN/Evren Cinarli/Orbiter.ch Aerospace/Roland Berga.

Best regards, Orbiter.ch

NASA Mission Helps Solve a Mystery: Why Are Some Asteroid Surfaces Rocky?

 

NASA - OSIRIS-REx Mission patch.

Oct 21, 2021

Scientists thought Bennu's surface was like a sandy beach, abundant in fine sand and pebbles, which would have been perfect for collecting samples. Past telescope observations from Earth had suggested the presence of large swaths of fine-grained material smaller than a few centimeters called fine regolith. But when NASA's OSIRIS-REx mission arrived at Bennu in late 2018, the mission saw a surface covered in boulders. The mysterious lack of fine regolith became even more surprising when mission scientists observed evidence of processes potentially capable of grinding boulders into fine regolith.

Image above: This mosaic of Bennu was created using observations made by NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft that was in close proximity to the asteroid for over two years. Image Credits: NASA/Goddard/University of Arizona.

New research, published in Nature and led by Saverio Cambioni, of the University of Arizona, used machine learning and surface temperature data to solve the mystery. Cambioni conducted the research at the university's Lunar and Planetary Laboratory. He and his colleagues ultimately found that Bennu's highly porous rocks are responsible for the surface's surprising lack of fine regolith.

"The 'REx' in OSIRIS-REx stands for Regolith Explorer, so mapping and characterizing the surface of the asteroid was a main goal," said study co-author and OSIRIS-REx Principal Investigator Dante Lauretta, a Regents Professor of Planetary Sciences at the University of Arizona. "The spacecraft collected very high-resolution data for Bennu's entire surface, which was down to 3 millimeters per pixel at some locations. Beyond scientific interest, the lack of fine regolith became a challenge for the mission itself, because the spacecraft was designed to collect such material."

A Rocky Start and Solid Answers

"When the first images of Bennu came in, we noted some areas where the resolution was not high enough to see whether there were small rocks or fine regolith. We started using our machine learning approach to distinguish fine regolith from rocks using thermal emission (infrared) data," Cambioni said.

The thermal emission from fine regolith is different from that of larger rocks, because the size of its particles controls the former, while the latter is controlled by rock porosity. The team first built a library of thermal emissions associated with fine regolith mixed in different proportions with rocks of various porosity. Next, they used machine-learning techniques to teach a computer how to "connect the dots" between the examples, Cambioni said. They analyzed 122 areas on the surface of Bennu, that were observed both during the day and the night.

"Only machine learning could efficiently explore a dataset this large," Cambioni said.

Cambioni and his collaborators found something surprising when the data analysis was completed: the fine regolith was not randomly distributed on Bennu. Instead, it was up to several tens of percent in those very few areas where rocks are non-porous, and systematically lower where rocks have higher porosity, which is most of the surface.  

The team concluded that very little fine regolith is produced from Bennu's highly porous rocks because these are compressed rather than fragmented by meteoroid impacts. Like a sponge, the voids within rocks cushion the blow from incoming meteoroids. These findings are also in agreement with laboratory experiments from other research groups.

Image above: This image shows a view of asteroid Bennu’s surface in a region near the equator. It was taken by the PolyCam camera on NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft on March 21, 2019 from a distance of 2.2 miles (3.5 km). The field of view is 158.5 ft (48.3 m). For scale, the light-colored rock in the upper left corner of the image is 24 ft (7.4 m) wide. Image Credits: NASA/Goddard/University of Arizona.

"Basically, a big part of the energy of the impact goes into crushing the pores restricting the fragmentation of the rocks and the production of new fine regolith," said study co-author Chrysa Avdellidou, a postdoctoral researcher at the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) – Lagrange Laboratory of the Côte d'Azur Observatory and University in France. Additionally, Cambioni and colleagues showed that cracking caused by the heating and cooling of Bennu's rocks as the asteroid rotates through day and night proceeds more slowly in porous rocks than in denser rocks, further frustrating the production of fine regolith.

"When OSIRIS-REx delivers its sample of Bennu (to Earth) in September 2023, scientists will be able to study the samples in detail," said Jason Dworkin, OSIRIS-REx project scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. "This includes testing the physical properties of the rocks to verify this study."

Image above: This image shows a view of asteroid Bennu’s surface. Image Credits: NASA/Goddard/University of Arizona.

Other missions have evidence to support the team's findings. The Japan Aerospace and Exploration Agency (JAXA) Hayabusa2 mission to Ryugu, a carbonaceous asteroid like Bennu, found that Ryugu also lacks fine regolith and has high-porosity rocks. Conversely, JAXA's Hayabusa mission in 2005 revealed abundant fine regolith on the surface of asteroid Itokawa, an S-type asteroid with rocks of a different composition than Bennu and Ryugu. A previous study also from Cambioni and colleagues provided evidence that its rocks are less porous than Bennu's and Ryugu's using observations from Earth.

"For decades, astronomers disputed that small, near-Earth asteroids could have bare-rock surfaces," said study co-author Marco Delbo, research director with CNRS, also at the Lagrange Laboratory. "The most indisputable evidence that these small asteroids could have substantial fine regolith emerged when spacecraft visited S-type asteroids Eros and Itokawa in the 2000s and found fine regolith on their surfaces."

The team predicts that large swaths of fine regolith should be uncommon on carbonaceous asteroids, the most common of all asteroid types observed, and which the team expects to have high-porosity rocks like Bennu. By contrast, they predict terrains rich in fine regolith to be common on S-type asteroids, the second-most populous type of asteroids observed in the solar system, which they expect to have denser, less porous rocks than carbonaceous asteroids.

"This is an important piece in the puzzle of what drives the diversity of asteroids' surfaces," Cambioni said. "Asteroids are thought to be relics of the early solar system, so understanding the evolution they have undergone in time is crucial to comprehend how the solar system formed and evolved. Now that we know this fundamental difference between carbonaceous and S-type asteroids, future teams can better prepare sample collection missions depending on the nature of the target asteroid."

OSIRIS-REx sample capsule back on Earth. Animation Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Cambioni is continuing his research on planetary diversity as a distinguished postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

The University of Arizona leads the OSIRIS-REx science team and the mission's science observation planning and data processing. NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, provides overall mission management, systems engineering, and the safety and mission assurance for OSIRIS-REx. 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. 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 at NASA Headquarters in Washington, D.C.

University of Arizona Press Release:  Highly Porous Rocks Responsible for Bennu's Surprisingly Craggy Surface
https://news.arizona.edu/story/highly-porous-rocks-responsible-bennus-surprisingly-craggy-surface

Nature: Fine-regolith production on asteroids controlled by rock porosity
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-021-03816-5

Related links:

Lunar and Planetary Laboratory: https://www.lpl.arizona.edu/

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

Images (mentioned), Animation (mentioned), Text, Credits: NASA/Rani Gran/The University of Arizona/By Mikayla Mace Kelley.

Greetings, Orbiter.ch

Crew Works Maintenance, Botany Before Resupply Ship Relocation

 

ISS - Expedition 66 Mission patch.

October 20, 2021

Life support, spacesuits and botany work filled Wednesday’s schedule for the Expedition 66 crew aboard the International Space Station. The orbital residents are also gearing up for a Russian resupply ship backing away from the station tonight and switching docking ports just over a day later.

Astronauts Megan McArthur of NASA and Akihiko Hoshide of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) were back in the Tranquility module today replacing components inside the oxygen generation system (OGS). The duo started the work on Tuesday flushing OGS parts of contaminants. They closed out the work today and reactivated the U.S. life support device.

Image above: An aurora streams over the Earth as the space station orbited above the southern Indian Ocean in between Australia and Antarctica. Image Credit: NASA.

Commander Thomas Pesquet of ESA (European Space Agency) spent the afternoon in the U.S. Quest airlock working on a U.S. spacesuit. The two-time space station resident verified the resized suit is fully functional ahead of an upcoming spacewalk planned for later this year.

NASA Flight Engineer Mark Vande Hei serviced a pair of science freezers during the morning. Afterward, he cleaned debris around the Advanced Plant Habitat then photographed the condition of the botany research facility. Station Flight Engineer Shane Kimbrough of NASA, who is also commander of the SpaceX Crew-2 mission, is now packing cargo and turning his attention to early November’s return to Earth of he and his Crew-2 crewmates McArthur, Hoshide and Pesquet aboard the Crew Dragon Endeavour.

Image above: A vivid aurora streams over the Earth as the International Space Station orbits 274 miles above the southern Indian Ocean in between Australia and Antarctica. Image Credit: NASA.

Two Roscosmos cosmonauts are sleeping in today before monitoring tonight’s undocking of a Russian cargo craft from the Poisk module. They will shift their schedule again on Thursday when the ISS Progress 78 resupply ship redocks to the Nauka multipurpose laboratory module just over a day later.

Roscosmos Flight Engineers Pyotr Dubrov and Anton Shkaplerov will be on duty monitoring the Progress 78’s undocking tonight at 7:42 p.m. EDT. However, there will be no live TV coverage of the undocking. NASA TV will be on the air on Thursday at 11:30 p.m. and broadcast its redocking to Nauka set for Friday at 12:23 a.m.

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

Related links:

Expedition 66: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/expeditions/expedition66/index.html

Tranquility module: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/structure/elements/tranquility/

U.S. Quest airlock: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/structure/elements/joint-quest-airlock

Advanced Plant Habitat: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Facility.html?#id=2036

Poisk module: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/structure/elements/poisk-mini-research-module-2

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), Text, Credits: NASA/Mark Garcia.

Best regards, Orbiter.ch

CERN - The four LHC experiments are getting ready for pilot beams

 

CERN - European Organization for Nuclear Research logo.

Oct. 20, 2021

After over two years of upgrades and maintenance works, the four main LHC experiments are finalising preparations to receive pilot beams.

Image above: The acceleration of LHC pilot beams is operated and live-streamed from the CERN Control Centre (Image: CERN).

Since 2019, many places at CERN have been operating like beehives to complete the scheduled upgrades for the second long shutdown (LS2) of the accelerator complex. This period of intense work is now coming to an end with the injection of the first pilot beams into the LHC. This major milestone will be featured during a live event on CERN’s social media channels on 20 October at 4 pm (CEST).

The pilot beams are part of the commissioning of the LHC machine in preparation for its Run 3, starting in 2022. With an integrated luminosity equal to the two previous runs combined, the four LHC experiments will be able to perform even more precise measurements. Yet, to stay apace with the accelerator’s improved vigour, all of them had to undergo a series of upgrades and transformations.

After the refurbished Time Projection Chamber (TPC) and the revamped Miniframe joined the ALICE detector in the cavern, the reinstallation of its new Muon Forward Tracker subdetector followed. In May, a new Inner Tracking System (ITS), the largest pixel detector ever built, took the seat of the previous one, between the beam pipe and the TPC. The final piece of the ALICE puzzle – the Fast Interaction Trigger (FIT) – was installed in July.

At ATLAS, among the ongoing works, the muon spectrometer was upgraded, notably with the installation of one of the two New Small Wheels, which uses new technologies such as the novel small-strip Thin Gap Chambers (sTGC) and the Micromegas detectors. Its twin will be lowered into the detector’s cavern in November.

In 2020, the CMS experiment completed the installation of the first GEM (Gas Electron Multiplier) station, the brand new sub-detector system for detecting muons in the region closest to the beam pipe. This year, a new, redesigned beam pipe with a new vacuum pumping group was installed. Over the summer, after its design was improved and its innermost layer replaced, the Pixel Tracker was installed at the centre of the CMS detector, followed by the Beam Radiation, Instrumentation and Luminosity (BRIL) sub-detectors.

As for the LHCb experiment, an important metamorphosis happened during these two years. A new scintillating-fibre particle-tracking detector (SciFi) and upgraded ring-imaging Cherenkov detectors, RICH1 and RICH2, were installed this year, before the recommissioning of the beam pipe. The installation of a faster Vertex Locator (VELO) is planned for the coming months.

The first proton beams circulated in CERN’s accelerator chain in December last year, with the first beam being injected into the PS Booster (PSB), connecting it for the first time to the new Linac4. The Proton Synchrotron followed, accelerating its first beam in March, while the Super Proton Synchrotron (SPS) saw its first beams accelerated in May.

Now, with the LHC at its nominal temperature (1.9 K), the first pilot beams will be circulated on 18 October.

TEASER: LIVE from ISR - Injection of the first pilot beams into the LHC

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:

Second long shutdown (LS2): https://home.cern/tags/long-shutdown-2

Time Projection Chamber (TPC): https://home.cern/news/news/experiments/alice-tpc-upgraded

New Muon Forward Tracker: https://home.cern/news/news/accelerators/alice-takes-leap-forward-major-new-installation

New Inner Tracking System (ITS): https://home.cern/news/news/experiments/ls2-report-upgraded-inner-tracking-system-joins-alice-detector

Fast Interaction Trigger (FIT): https://home.cern/news/news/experiments/alice-fit-run-3-after-last-new-subdetector-installation

GEM (Gas Electron Multiplier): https://home.cern/news/news/experiments/ls2-report-cms-set-glitter-installation-new-gems

Pixel Tracker: https://home.cern/news/news/experiments/successful-installation-cms-pixel-tracker

Beam Radiation, Instrumentation and Luminosity (BRIL): https://home.cern/news/news/experiments/bril-luminosity-sub-detectors-prepare-cms-bright-run-3

A new scintillating-fibre particle-tracking detector (SciFi): https://home.cern/news/news/experiments/scifi-moment-lhcb-experiment

RICH1 and RICH2: https://cerncourier.com/a/building-the-future-of-lhcb/

Linac4: https://home.cern/news/news/accelerators/ls2-report-cerns-newest-accelerator-awakens

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

Image, Video, Text, Credits: CERN/By Cristina Agrigoroae.

Greetings, Orbiter.ch

Lift Underway to Top Mega-Moon Rocket with Orion Spacecraft

 

NASA - ARTEMIS Mission Exploration-1 patch.

October 20, 2021

Final stacking operations for NASA’s mega-Moon rocket are underway inside the Vehicle Assembly Building at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center as the Orion spacecraft is lifted onto the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket for the Artemis I mission. Engineers and technicians with Exploration Ground Systems (EGS) and Jacobs attached the spacecraft to one of the five overhead cranes inside the building and began lifting it a little after midnight EDT.

Photo Credit: Chad Siwik

Next, teams will slowly lower it onto the fully stacked SLS rocket and connect it to the Orion Stage Adapter. This will require the EGS team to align the spacecraft perfectly with the adapter before gently attaching the two together. This operation will take several hours to make sure Orion is securely in place.

NASA will provide an update once stacking for the Artemis I mission is complete.

Related links:

Orion: http://www.nasa.gov/orion

Space Launch System (SLS): http://www.nasa.gov/sls

Exploration Ground Systems (EGS): http://www.nasa.gov/egs

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

Image (mentioned), Text, Credits: NASA/Amanda Griffin.

Best regards, Orbiter.ch