Solar Orbiter publishes a wealth of science results from its cruise phase

 

ESA / NASA - Solar Orbiter Mission patch.

Dec 14, 2021

For a mission yet to have entered its main science phase, Solar Orbiter has already generated a lot of great science. Today sees the publication of a wealth of results from the mission’s cruise phase.

Searching for solar jets

Forensic observations of the solar surface, measurements of a giant outburst of energetic particles, and an encounter with a comet’s tail are just some of the highlights out of the more than fifty papers comprising a special issue of Astronomy and Astrophysics and presented today at the annual AGU meeting.

“The results published today demonstrate the variety of solar science that the mission is making possible, and signals the wealth of data that is now flowing back to Earth,” says Yannis Zouganelis, ESA Deputy Project Scientist for Solar Orbiter.

Zooming in on solar jets

Solar Orbiter’s cruise phase began on 15 June 2020, and lasted until 27 November 2021. During that time, the spacecraft acquired scientific data with its in-situ instruments, which are designed to measure the environment around the spacecraft. It also used its remote sensing equipment to look at the Sun in order to characterise and calibrate those instruments. Some of these data turned out to be of such good quality that they enabled the first scientific studies to be undertaken ahead of the main science phase, which began in late November 2021.

Seeing the solar campfires in more detail

When the spacecraft first opened its eyes, following its launch in February 2020, its Extreme Ultraviolet Imager (EUI) discovered a series of miniature solar flares that the scientists nicknamed ‘campfires’. These could play a key role in explaining the million-degree-temperature of the Sun’s outer atmosphere, the corona, which has defied explanation for many decades.

Solar corona in detail

In the latest results, the EUI instrument has been acquiring some observations in a ‘high cadence’ mode, returning an image of the solar corona every two seconds. These image sequences are among the highest cadence observations of the solar corona to ever be recorded in the extreme ultraviolet. The data reveals a dynamic class of campfires that shoot out jets of electrified gas known as plasma at speeds of a hundred kilometres per second. These jets are observed to exist for just 10 to 20 seconds.

“We are now getting to the essence of this process,” says Pradeep Chitta, Max-Planck-Institut für Sonnensystemforschung, Göttingen, Germany, who led this study. He likens the past to being like having bad eyesight, and only being able to seeing blurred images. Now, however, EUI is bringing the campfires into sharper and sharper focus.

And the view will only continue to get better as Solar Orbiter gets closer to the Sun. And thanks to an upgrade at the ESA ground stations, the spacecraft can beam back more of the high cadence data than anticipated before launch.

Solar Orbiter's first widespread energetic particle event

As well as the ‘small-scale’ campfires, Solar Orbiter has also witnessed its first large-scale event. On 29 November 2020, the first widespread energetic particle event for several years burst from the Sun.

The Sun goes through a cycle of magnetic activity that lasts approximately 11 years, and this particular event was the first widespread energetic particle event of cycle 25. As the name implies, the event spread particles across a large swathe of the inner solar system. By the time the eruption had reached Earth’s distance, the ejected particles were spread over more than 230 degrees of solar longitude.

They were detected not only by Solar Orbiter, but also by NASA’s Parker Solar Probe and STEREO-A, and the ESA/NASA SOHO spacecraft, all of which were close to Earth’s orbit but at varying solar longitudes. So, the question is how big was the event’s source region on the Sun, and how much did the eruption expand after it was released? This is where Solar Orbiter’s goal of ‘linkage science’ becomes important.

Solar particle event seen by SOHO

“I come from the in-situ observations,” says Alexander Kolhoff, Institut für Experimentelle und Angewandte Physik, Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel, Germany, who led the analysis of the November event. “We see a particle event around the spacecraft and then go to the remote sensing observations and try to pinpoint the source on the Sun.”

In this particular case, the data is inconclusive about whether the size of the source region alone was large enough to explain the wide spread of particles or not. But the hints in the data are enough to show great promise as the scientists continue to refine this technique.

Tracking down the solar stealth CMEs

Also making painstakingly detailed observations of the solar surface was Jennifer O’Kane, Mullard Space Science Laboratory, University College London, UK. Together with colleagues, she went in search of so-called Stealth CMEs.

CME stands for coronal mass ejection. These are the giant eruptions of solar plasma and magnetic field that usually occur alongside solar flares — an explosive magnetic event in the Sun’s lower atmosphere that ejects the particles out into space. In the case of a stealth CME, however, there doesn’t appear to be an associated flare.

Using the most sophisticated image processing tools available, Jennifer looked at solar images to see if she could find evidence of a triggering event that launched a CME in April 2020.

Magnetic Sun

Its magnetic field strength, as measured by Solar Orbiter, was particularly large as well, around double that of a normal CME, but the puzzle was that the visible surface of the Sun was completely blank at that time. There were no sunspots or any other active regions. It was only the high magnetic field strength of the plasma that engulfed Solar Orbiter that alerted the team to the CME in the first place.

After a painstaking search of the data, Jennifer found a dark region in the extreme ultraviolet images that indicated a low-density cavity in the solar corona, that lifted off very slowly from the Sun.

Slow in this context is another relative term. Whereas most CMEs travel at hundreds or even thousands of kilometres a second, this one was moving outwards at tens of kilometres per second.

“It was the most difficult event that I've ever studied,” says Jennifer, referring to how much effort it took to find even a hint of its origin.

From a space weather forecasting perspective, stealth CMEs are a particular challenge because forecasters rely on seeing something on the Sun that they can recognise in real time in order to know that something is incoming that might change the near-Earth space environment.

Rendezvous with a comet’s tail

Lorenzo Matteini, Imperial College London, UK, led another painstaking investigation to determine whether Solar Orbiter has crossed the tail of Comet ATLAS during June 2020.

The possible crossing was predicted shortly after Solar Orbiter’s launch and so the team scrambled to make sure at least some instruments were ready in time to acquire data. By a rather cruel twist of fate, however, just ten days before the crossing, the comet disintegrated under the heat of the Sun and the beautiful tail faded.

Nevertheless, Lorenzo and his colleagues found evidence consistent with a crossing of the comet’s tail remnant in data taken on 4 June. Specifically, they saw the magnetic field around Solar Orbiter suddenly change its polarity, which would be expected if the Sun’s magnetic field were draped around a piece of the broken comet’s nucleus.

Solar Orbiter

“This is the first time that we have encountered a comet tail inside Earth’s orbit,” says Lorenzo.

And it may not be the last. Comets are falling in towards the Sun all the time. The way they interact with the Sun’s magnetic field provides yet another way for Solar Orbiter to investigate this fascinating region of the solar system.

Following its November 2021 flyby of Earth, Solar Orbiter is now in its main science phase. All involved are preparing for its close pass of the Sun in March 2022.

“I couldn’t be more pleased with the mission. These results show both how much great science has already been done, and how much there is still to come,” says Daniel Müller, ESA Project Scientist for Solar Orbiter.

Notes for editors

Solar Orbiter’s cruise phase results are published in the December 14 special edition of Astronomy and Astrophysics: https://www.aanda.org/component/toc/?task=topic&id=1340

The papers highlighted in this news story, published alongside 52 other Solar Orbiter papers are:

Capturing transient plasma flows and jets in the solar corona by L. P. Chitta et al.

The first widespread solar energetic particle event observed by Solar Orbiter on 2020 November 29 by A. Kollhoff  et al.

Solar origins of a strong stealth CME detected by Solar Orbiter by Jennifer O’Kane et al.

Solar Orbiter’s encounter with the tail of comet C/2019 Y4 (ATLAS): magnetic field draping and cometary pick-up ion waves by L. Matteini et al.

Related link:

Solar Orbiter: https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Space_Science/Solar_Orbiter

Images, Videos, Text, Credits: ESA/Solar Orbiter/EUI Team/ESA & NASA/ESA, NASA SOHO/LASCO team/ATG medialab/NASA/SDO/Goddard.

Best regards, Orbiter.ch

Aeolus paves the way for future wind lidars in space

 

ESA - Aeolus Mission logo.

Dec. 14, 2021

It’s hard to believe that ESA’s Aeolus wind mission has now been orbiting Earth for three years and, remarkably, exceeded its design life milestone. Aeolus has gone way further than its original goal of demonstrating that ground-breaking laser technology can deliver global profiles of the wind; its data are being distributed to weather forecasting services across the world in less than three hours of measurements being made in space. Moreover, Aeolus has laid the foundation for future Doppler wind lidar satellite missions.

Profiling the world's winds

Being such a dynamic and relatively invisible aspect of Earth’s environment, the wind is particularly challenging to measure from space. Nevertheless, the need for these measurements was identified many years ago by, for example, the World Meteorological Organization which is responsible for the World Integrated Global Observing System. This system, which comprises a vast number of meteorological and environmental observations taken from the ground, ships, upper atmosphere and space, is used by meteorological services all over the world.

As part of ESA’s FutureEO programme, Aeolus is an Earth Explorer research mission. But it was also designed to demonstrate how sophisticated Doppler wind lidar technology can address the need for more wind measurements to improve weather forecasts.

Aeolus’ single instrument is called ALADIN. Its laser transmits short fast pulses of ultraviolet light towards Earth. This light bounces off air molecules and particles such as dust in the atmosphere. The small fraction of light that scatters back towards the satellite is collected by a large telescope. All of this allows the horizontal speed of the world’s winds to be measured in the lowermost 30 km of the atmosphere.

Over the last three years, scientists have been using information from Aeolus to understand more about the systems that influence our weather and climate.

Lidar concept

However, its greatest achievement is the fact that the quality of Aeolus’ data are so good that meteorological centres have been feeding the data into daily weather forecasting models since January 2020.

This has been particularly relevant during the Covid pandemic, which, in the spring of 2020, led to a drop in the number of commercial flights that normally provide unique measurements of wind, temperature and pressure along their flight paths. With fewer measurements being made available from aircraft for weather forecasts, Aeolus has been an important contributor in helping to fill the gap.

ESA’s Aeolus mission scientist, Anne Grete Straume, said, “Aeolus has been a great boost to helping us understand the complexities of Earth’s wind systems and how they influence the weather and the climate as described in a recent paper published in Geophysical Research Letters.

“The paper shows how Aeolus’ observations in the tropical upper troposphere and lower stratosphere have helped correct weather models to better represent the atmospheric flow by capturing wind shear caused by Kelvin waves.

Aeolus tightens up wind models

“Thanks to the quality and uniqueness of the data, four European weather centres have been using Aeolus’ data for their daily forecasts since 2020, and India’s National Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasting centre also started benefiting from Aeolus this year. This demonstrates that Aeolus has clearly achieved a key objective of being used for daily forecasts, but also demonstrates how the technology can be used for follow-on missions.”

The Aeolus mission was under development for several years before it was finally launched in 2018. The lidar technology was completely new and challenging to realise.

ESA’s Aeolus Payload Manager, Denny Wernham, noted, “Aeolus was extremely challenging to develop. It was designed as a demonstrator mission and astonishingly we still have it in good health and delivering valuable data for science and weather forecasting three years after going live in orbit. Thanks to Aeolus, we have gained valuable experience and knowledge for the development of possible future Doppler wind lidar satellites in space.”

While the mission has certainly demonstrated that this laser technology works in space, an observatory in Argentina that searches for cosmic rays has also discovered that spaceborne lidars could help cross-calibrate the energy scales of different cosmic-ray observatories.

Aladin revealed

Scientists from the Institute for Astroparticle Physics of the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology in Germany and the National Institute for Nuclear Physics in Italy who study cosmic rays from outer space using information from the Pierre Auger Observatory in Argentina, noticed an unexpected reoccurring signal in their data. Together with scientists from the Institute of Atmospheric Physics of the German Aerospace Center, they figured out that the observatory was detecting a signal emitted by Aeolus.

The observatory is used to study the origin of ultrahigh-energy cosmic rays. Wide-field optical telescopes detect fluorescence radiation emitted from nitrogen molecules excited as cosmic-ray-induced particle cascades. The strongest fluorescence lines are in the ultraviolet, close to the 355 nm frequency of the Aeolus laser. Aeolus’ laser signal sweeps across the observatory’s view every week.

Michael Unger, from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, explained, “We plan to use this laser beam from space for systematic studies of the density of aerosols above the observatory and for the calibration of our telescopes. Future satellite-based lidar missions could be designed to aid the cross-calibration of the energy scales of different cosmic-ray observatories.”

The observatory is also helping ESA to understand more about the complexities of spaceborne lasers.

Pierre Auger Observatory Fluorescence Detector

Toni Tolker-Nielsen, Acting Director for ESA’s Earth Observation Programmes, added, “The Pierre Auger Observatory’s work has also been extremely important in providing new insights and independent evidence that will help us in our further understand the technical complexities of using lasers in space. These results confirm that cosmic ray observatories can offer an independent and powerful method to measure the performance of Earth observation satellite lasers, paving the way to future collaboration with other missions.”

Related link:

Aeolus: https://www.esa.int/Applications/Observing_the_Earth/Aeolus

Images, Text, Credits. ESA/ATG medialab/ECMWF/M. Rennie/S. Saffi.

Greetings, Orbiter.ch

Week Kicks Off with Space Physics, Biology Before Visitors Depart

 

ISS - Expedition 66 Mission patch.

Dec 13, 2021

It was a busy Monday for the 10 individuals living aboard the International Space Station as they worked on human research and space physics. The Expedition 66 crew is also gearing up for next week’s departure of three lab visitors as well as a cargo delivery before Christmas.

NASA Flight Engineer Thomas Marshburn juggled a pair of life science studies throughout Monday. He first collected blood samples for the Vascular Aging experiment, then set up rodent research hardware for an upcoming visual function study. NASA astronaut Kayla Barron assisted Marshburn with the blood collection work. The duo also began packing station gear to be returned to Earth on the next SpaceX Cargo Dragon mission due to launch Dec. 21.

Image above: Expedition 66 Flight Engineer Matthias Maurer is pictured inside the seven-windowed cupola, the International Space Station’s “window to the world.” Image Credit: NASA.

Barron also partnered with fellow NASA Flight Engineer Raja Chari continuing cleanup activities in the U.S. Quest airlock following Barron’s spacewalk with Marshburn on Dec. 2. Chari also serviced radiation research hardware before auditing cargo packed in the Harmony module.

Working inside the Microgravity Science Glovebox, NASA Flight Engineer Mark Vande Hei studied ways to harness nanoparticles for a space manufacturing study. ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Matthias Maurer conducted blood pressure checks for the Vascular Aging study then spent the afternoon on maintenance work in the Columbus laboratory module.

International Space Station (ISS). Animation Credit: ESA

Station Commander Anton Shkaplerov from Roscosmos worked on cargo transfers from the docked ISS Progress resupply ship. Flight Engineer Pyotr Dubrov checked out Russian electronics and life support gear.

The orbiting lab’s three recent station visitors, cosmonaut Alexander Misurkin and Japanese spaceflight participants Yusaku Maezawa and Yozo Hirano, are due to return to Earth on Dec. 19. Three-time space visitor, Misurkin started gathering items to be packed inside the Soyuz MS-20 crew ship the trio will undock and land in. The other two space guests researched how microgravity affects the way blood flows from the limbs to the head.

Related links:

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

Vascular Aging: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Investigation.html?#id=7644

Visual function study: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Investigation.html?#id=7930

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

Harmony module: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/structure/elements/harmony

Microgravity Science Glovebox: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Facility.html?#id=341

Ways to harness nanoparticles: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Investigation.html?#id=7669

Columbus laboratory module: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/structure/elements/europe-columbus-laboratory

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

NASA Selects Second Private Astronaut Mission to Space Station

 

NASA - Commercial Crew Program patch.

Dec. 13, 2021

NASA has selected Axiom Space for the second private astronaut mission to the International Space Station. NASA will negotiate with Axiom on a mission order agreement for the Axiom Mission 2 (Ax-2) targeted to launch between fall 2022 and late spring 2023.

Image above: The International Space Station is pictured from the SpaceX Crew Dragon Endeavour during a fly around of the orbiting lab that took place following its undocking from the Harmony module’s space-facing port on Nov. 8, 2021. Image Credit: NASA.

Ax-2 will launch from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida for a mission of no more than 14 days docked to the space station. NASA and Axiom will negotiate in-orbit activities for the private astronauts to conduct in coordination with space station crew members and flight controllers on the ground. The Ax-2 mission concept includes scientific research and outreach activities.

NASA and its international partners will review private astronauts selections proposed by Axiom for the Ax-2 mission, as is standard for any space station crew. The proposed crew members would undergo NASA medical qualification testing to be approved for flight.

NASA evaluated the mission proposal based on Axiom’s ability to execute it successfully, NASA’s ability to support it, and its contribution to the agency’s mission and goal of low-Earth orbit commercialization. This mission is subject to NASA’s updated pricing policy for private astronaut missions, which reflects the full value of costs to the agency that are above space station baseline capabilities.

Progress continues toward NASA and Axiom’s first private astronaut mission to the space station, Axiom Mission 1 (Ax-1), which is scheduled to launch no earlier than Feb. 21, 2022. Axiom’s proposed crew members still are completing final evaluations by NASA and its international partners.

The agency did not make a selection for a third private astronaut mission from its June 2021 research announcement. NASA will gather lessons learned from the first private astronaut flight as well as other applicable station activities and announce a new flight opportunity in the future.

Find more information about NASA’s efforts to build a robust low-Earth orbit economy at:

https://www.nasa.gov/leo-economy

Related links:

Commercial Crew: https://www.nasa.gov/exploration/commercial/crew/index.html

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

Image (mentioned), Text, Credits: NASA/Josh Finch/JSC/Gary Jordan.

Greetings, Orbiter.ch

ROSCOSMOS - Proton-M launches Ekspress AMU3 and Ekspress AMU7

 

ROSCOSMOS logo.

Dec 13, 2021

Rocket "Proton-M" successfully launched from Baikonur

A Proton-M launch vehicle launched the Ekspress AMU3 and Ekspress AMU7 satellites from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, on 13 December 2021, at 12:07 UTC (17:07 local time, 15:07 MSK). The Ekspress AMU3 and Ekspress AMU7 spacecraft (Экспресс-АМУ3, Экспресс-АМУ7) are Russian telecommunications satellites.

Proton-M launches Ekspress AMU3 and Ekspress AMU7

582 seconds after the launch, the head unit (a bundle of the upper stage and two spacecraft) in the normal mode separated from the third stage of the carrier. For the flight of the "Proton-M" rocket, a typical route is used with highlighted areas of fall of detachable parts of a space rocket. This path provides an inclination of the reference orbit of 51.55 °.

Rocket "Proton-M" successfully launched from Baikonur 

 

Further launching of spacecraft into the target orbit with a minimum altitude of 18.7 thousand kilometers and a maximum of 52.8 thousand kilometers will be ensured by five starts of the main engine of the Breeze-M upper stage. The total duration of the launch from the launch of the launch vehicle to the separation of the first Express-AMU7 spacecraft will be 17 hours 50 minutes, for the second Express-AMU3 - 18 hours 7 minutes.

Ekspress AMU3 satellite

The Proton-M launch vehicle and the Briz-M upper stage have been developed and are serially manufactured by the State Research and Production Space Center named after M.V. Khrunichev (part of Roscosmos). Since 1965, 426 launches of various modifications of the Proton rocket have taken place. The use of the Breeze-M upper stage as part of the Proton-M rocket makes it possible to increase the payload mass delivered to the GSO up to 3.5 tons, and more than 6 tons into the transfer orbit. The first launch of the Proton-M - Breeze-M complex took place on April 7, 2001.

Ekspress AMU7 satellite

Spacecraft "Express-AMU3" and "Express-AMU7" are designed to provide a wide range of communication and broadcasting services in the territory of the Russian Federation, to provide fixed and mobile communications, to provide TV and radio broadcasting services, broadband high-speed access to information resources and other applications.

Related links:

ROSCOSMOS Press Release: https://www.roscosmos.ru/33605/

Khrunichev Center: https://www.roscosmos.ru/tag/centr-xrunicheva/

Express-AMU3: https://www.roscosmos.ru/tag/ehkspress-amu3/

Express-AMU7: https://www.roscosmos.ru/tag/ehkspress-amu7/

ROSCOSMOS: https://www.roscosmos.ru/

Images, Video, Text, Credits: Roscosmos/Khrunichev Center/Gunter's Space Page/SciNews/Orbiter.ch Aerospace/Roland Berga.

Best regards, Orbiter.ch

Scientists Probe How Long-Term Spaceflight Alters Immunity

 

ISS - International Space Station emblem.

Dec 13, 2021

On Earth, a human body with a properly functioning immune system will work to overcome an infection. But in space, that same immune system will have to work a bit harder to overcome the same infection. In the isolated environment of the International Space Station, many factors — physiological stress, disrupted circadian rhythms, radiation, microgravity, and other spaceflight factors — can alter an astronaut’s immune response.

Image above: NASA astronaut Serena Auñón-Chancellor provides a saliva sample on the International Space Station. Her sample will be used to measure stress hormones and other biomarkers of health that can reveal how her immune system changes in space. Image Credit: NASA.

As NASA prepares astronauts to head to the Moon and Mars, scientists tasked with ensuring astronaut safety want to know: How will long-duration spaceflight missions change immune responses, and will these changes be significant enough to influence crew health risks and mission success?

To learn more, NASA’s Human Research Program, or HRP, consults Dr. Brian Crucian, lead scientist for the agency’s immunology research. Building on previous studies, Crucian is now overseeing an investigation into the specific biological pathways through which the immune system reacts during spaceflight.

“The immune system isn’t immune to the changes astronauts undergo in space,” noted Crucian. “So we really want to know the clinical risks for exploration-class, deep-space missions. And once we know these risks, we can help develop strategies to lessen them.”

The immune system is a network of hormones, cells, and organs that protects our bodies from microbes and other pathogens that can make us ill. It also regulates and coordinates with many of the body’s other systems. Space, however, can throw this network off balance. For example, previous studies suggest that in some astronauts, white blood cells — the cells that fight off infection — aren’t always as efficient in protecting the body as they are on Earth. This can cause inactive viruses we carry in our bodies, such as the virus that causes shingles, to reawaken in astronauts. An astronaut experiencing a reactivation of a latent virus could become sick and potentially pass that live virus to other crew members.

“Generally, astronauts exhibit minor or no symptoms from latent virus reactivation,” Crucian added. “But we don’t know what could happen as missions stretch into deep space, where all the stressors increase, and our ability to provide care will be harder. We – the flight surgeons and biomedical scientists – want to be prepared.”

Consequently, Crucian and his team are examining blood, saliva, and urine samples provided by astronauts. Since 2016, they’ve scrutinized samples from 10 astronauts before, during, and after spaceflight. These astronauts were each on the space station for an average of six months.

“In the past, we only had access to post-flight blood samples,” Crucian said. “They showed us some interesting changes to the immune system, but we didn’t know if these changes were due to the stresses of landing and re-adaptation.” Now, however, researchers can receive room-temperature blood samples from the station within 37 hours.

Image above: NASA astronaut Joe Acaba stores a vial of saliva on the space station. His and other saliva samples are sent back to Earth, where scientists analyze them to track changes in the immune system of crews during spaceflight. Image Credit: NASA.

The sample-delivery process for blood works like this: Astronauts collect their blood samples right before the undocking of a returning cargo ship that transports supplies to and from the space station. The blood is transported in an insulated and cushioned package that protects it from the forces of landing. Once the cargo ship lands, blood samples are flown to Crucian and his team for analysis. Urine and saliva samples are also collected during flight and returned to Earth.

The researchers examine the samples for markers of immune system health. For example, blood samples contain a particular class of proteins called cytokines, which help regulate immune responses. Specific stress hormones found in urine reveal how hard the immune system is working at a given moment. Viruses, if reactivated, can be found in saliva and urine samples. The abundance of viruses, hormones, cytokines, and other indicators found in different samples can help the team piece together how the strength of the tested astronaut’s immune system varies through time.

To better understand how the immune system changes in space, the researchers also recruited a ground-based control group that had never been exposed to the stresses of spaceflight. While astronauts were in space, 10 civilians of the same age and gender as the astronauts provided blood, urine, and saliva samples for six months. These samples offer a baseline level for immune responses, which are now being compared with immune responses from the astronauts. The investigation is expected to finish by the end of 2021.

Results of the study will help determine whether certain countermeasures, such as immune boosters, will be needed on missions to the Moon and Mars. On Earth, techniques used in the study could help monitor immune responses in cancer patients and others with compromised immune systems.

NASA’s Human Research Program, or HRP, is dedicated to discovering the best methods and technologies to support safe, productive human space travel. HRP enables space exploration by reducing the risks to astronaut health and performance using ground research facilities, the International Space Station and analog environments. This leads to the development and delivery of an exploration biomedical program focused on several goals: informing human health, performance, and habitability standards; developing countermeasures and risk-mitigation solutions; and advancing habitability and medical-support technologies. HRP supports innovative, scientific human research by funding more than 300 research grants to respected universities, hospitals, and NASA centers to over 200 researchers in more than 30 states.

Related links:

NASA’s Human Research Program (HRP): https://www.nasa.gov/hrp

Humans in Space: https://www.nasa.gov/topics/humans-in-space

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/Kelli Mars/NASA Human Research Program Strategic Communications/Nathan Cranford/Jennifer L. Turner.

Greetings, Orbiter.ch

From rocket to orbital workshop

 

ROSCOSMOS logo.

Dec. 12, 2021

How to make space flights massive? The second publication in the series, devoted to the analysis of the prospects and possible directions for the development of the space industry, will focus on reusable space systems and how to reduce the cost of launching a payload into orbit.

In the early 1990s, the capabilities of space transport systems, created using technologies from previous decades, reached a ceiling due to the high cost of technology and infrastructure maintenance. Efforts to create fully reusable rockets were underway back in the 1960s, but the technology of the time did not allow the idea to be put into practice.

Introduced in 1981, the Space Shuttle was partially reusable. Later attempts to develop an economically attractive single-stage launch vehicle, such as McDonnell Douglas' Delta Clipper (Figure 1) or Lockheed Martin's X-33 / VentureStar, were canceled during the flight demonstrator phase due to technical difficulties and severe budget overruns.

Flight tests of the Delta Clipper rocket demonstrator

Only early 21st century technology has made a breakthrough in launch vehicles that reuse key components. Against the backdrop of the overwhelming cost of Boeing and Lockheed Martin's rockets, which has become too burdensome for the US budget, space carriers have emerged with a new philosophy. Among them, SpaceX stood out, which offered to go an unconventional way and showed the world the possibilities of using reusable rockets.

SpaceX's technical innovations not only showed the world a spectacular return of the first stage, but also pushed the market towards its radical restructuring. After taking a significant share of launches, SpaceX deprived many companies of income. This would not be so scary given the increase in the total number of launches. In this case, the growing market would load all companies with orders. But so far these hopes have not been justified, since even with a multiple reduction in cost, the number of launches does not change much.

Veterans are lagging behind

Huge companies and entire sectors of the economy cannot be quickly rebuilt. The United States understands this, and SpaceX's struggle with Boeing and Lockheed Martin, including for government orders, is a prime example of this. It is difficult for "veterans" to compete in the commercial market, but it is also impossible to transfer all government orders to SpaceX. The cost of launching Falcon9 on the market is 62 billion dollars (moreover, due to strong competition with Russia, the European Union and India, SpaceX introduces new niche offers (for example, Rideshare), and sometimes openly dumping, intercepting contracts).

Landing of the first stage of the Falcon 9R rocket

Missions for government organizations (to which SpaceX is admitted), carried out through government tenders, are carried out already for a price close to the cost of launching DeltaIV and AtlasV (150 billion dollars). The motive is clear: due to the high price of their products, Boeing and Lockheed Martin cannot participate in these tenders at a substantially lower cost.

Nevertheless, by creating a reversible stage, SpaceX has set the vector for the development of the space industry. And the US is giving its industry giants time to catch up with the troublemaker. But when they rebuild their business model (and possibly improve SpaceX's technology), the launch cost will, on average, drop to the Falcon9 price level or even lower. And this will lead to a new round of competition.

Summing up, a number of conclusions can be drawn:

It is possible to create missiles with a high degree of reuse of key elements with existing technologies. However, for the state, this creates a paradoxical situation: on one side of the scale there are enormous prospects, on the other - the optimization and restructuring of the industry (which, apparently, has begun in the United States).

It took SpaceX about ten years to make the reversible stage. It will probably take the aerospace giants about the same amount of time to repeat the results and rebuild their business model (perhaps a little faster, since the "path" has already been trodden).

How much is a kilogram?

For a better understanding of the evolutionary processes in rocket technology, it is advisable to introduce the concept of generations of space rockets (by analogy with military aviation). The gradation can be as follows:

- First generation - disposable rockets;

- Second generation - partially reusable rockets;

- Third generation - fully reusable rockets.

At the same time, modifications are possible for each generation ("+", "++", etc.). All existing disposable means of excretion can be safely attributed to the first generation.

Falcon9 (R; Reusable) can be attributed to the second generation. The economy of this rocket is mainly based on the fact that the use of reusable and reusable elements (first stage and nose fairing) can reduce the overall launch costs by 30-40%. At the same time, due to the need for hardening (and, as a consequence, weighting), the use of fuel for braking during a soft landing, etc. the mass of the payload delivered to orbit is reduced. This leads to the fact that the Falcon9R from a heavy-class rocket (in terms of launch weight) goes into a carrier of the "intermediate" and middle class.

Fig. 2. Comparison of the unit cost of launching the payload for launch vehicles of different generations.

If the above economic patterns persist, then the first modifications of fully reusable third-generation carriers should have a specific launch cost of about 1.5 thousand dollars per 1 kg of payload in low-earth orbit (Fig. 2).

If we compare the cost of launches in the heavy class with their number, the following trend can be traced: in the late 1990s, the commercial market for heavy launch vehicles was dominated by Ariane5 with a launch price of more than $ 150 billion. and "Zenith" (including the complex "Sea Launch") with a price of 1.5 times less. At the same time, the total number of world launches in the heavy class, if increased, is insignificant.

After 2015, a partially reusable Falcon9 rocket with a launch price of $ 45-62bn was put into operation, while the total number of launches also did not undergo significant changes (except for the launch of Starlink satellites of the same company SpaceX).

Thus, we can conclude that the specific launch cost of ~ 2900 USD / kg (Falcon9R when flying into low orbits) is still too expensive for mass space exploration (It is clear that while there are restrictions associated with loading of carriers, etc.). It is doubtful that even $ 1,500 / kg will drastically change the commercial demand for space. In this regard, we would not call the given cost estimates target - rather, these are estimates for the first modifications of reusable rockets.

Workshop in orbit

Presumably, a fundamental change in the demand for launches will not occur until the market forms a price offer that will open up new interesting opportunities for its participants. One of them may be the development of space logistics, when, instead of manufacturing and launching expensive spacecraft, it will be much cheaper to repair and refuel them in orbit, buy and restore used (or even failed) satellites right in space.

One of the variants of the American fully reusable light-class launch vehicle

By analogy with traditional transport, this can happen when the price of the carrier's services is no more than 10% of the cost of the transported cargo (as indicated in the previous article). The current figure is kept at the level of 50-100% of the cost of the satellite (if we compare the cost of a spacecraft and launch for the same countries.), Unless, of course, we consider expensive scientific spacecraft. That is, the launch cost should be reduced by about 10 times and, in parallel, an infrastructure for servicing satellites in orbits should be created, as well as a cheap and safe way to return them to Earth.

Direction of movement

Due to possible technical difficulties, it is difficult to create a completely reusable launch vehicle at once, and, most likely, you will have to move progressively. First, there will be partially reusable rockets with reusable elements in the middle or heavy classes — here the main technical solutions are already clear. Economically, it is more profitable than moving progressively from the light and ultralight class. But the first versions of fully reusable missiles are probably more correct to make in the light or ultralight class, starting from the current capabilities of the industry and gradually working out technical solutions.

Reusable launcher projects are actively developing in China

At the same time, it is desirable to simultaneously create both partially and completely reusable rockets. If we focus all our attention only on the first option, then the return stage will be closer to 2030. Even taking into account the inertia of the space industry, the United States by this time will not only restructure its entire industry, it will be able to go much further in development ...

At the same time, it is important to emphasize once again that the task of creating reusable launch vehicles must be solved together with reformatting industry approaches. For example, use the experience of civil engineering, when a significant part of the business is built not only around the production of new products, but also on the maintenance of previously produced ones. In addition, attention needs to be paid to improving the regulatory framework and restructuring the business model of manufacturers.

In the future, we will cover the following topics:

- The need to separate work on reusable systems into a separate program;

- Options for the optimal structure of the portfolio of investments in space transport systems for the most efficient achievement of the goal;

- Updated business model of device manufacturers;

- The role of interorbital tugs in the new business model of vehicles.

Source: Russian space.

Related links:

ROSCOSMOS Press Release: https://www.roscosmos.ru/33595/

Russian space: https://www.roscosmos.ru/tag/russkiy-kosmos/

ROSCOSMOS: https://www.roscosmos.ru/tag/roskosmos/

Images, Text, Credits: ROSCOSMOS/Russian space/Orbiter.ch Aerospace/Roland Berga.

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