This week marked a busy one for astronauts and taikonauts across the two giant space stations currently in orbit. Today we will talk about the important space walks that took place, as well as discuss complaints that the astronomy community has against satellite manufacturers. Spoiler alert, they may be ruining the sky. But what can we do about it. All this today on the Undiscovered Country.
Hello and welcome citizens, to the “Undiscovered Country”. I am your host Bryant A.M. Baker. Today, I will present the top 5 most important things happening in the world of space. Let’s get started.
1.
European aerospace giant Airbus recently demonstrated how solar power could be beamed from space in a new experiment.
The demonstration, which took place at Airbus' X-Works Innovation Factory in Germany in September, saw electrical power transmitted from a photovoltaic panel in the form of microwaves to a receiver some 118 feet away. The beamed energy lit up a model city and powered a hydrogen generator and a fridge containing alcohol-free beer that the audience later enjoyed.
Even though it might seem to be a long way to go from 118 feet to Earth's orbit, Airbus engineers believe that "the first operating Power Beaming prototypes could be in use" by the early 2030s.
Yoann Thueux, the Airbus research project leader, said in a statement that "Now that we have successfully tested the key bricks of a future space-based solar power system on a small scale for the first time, we are now ready to take power beaming to the next level.”.
Airbus will likely first attempt to beam solar power from an aerial platform before aiming for space. Ultimately, solar power harvested in space and beamed to aircraft could revolutionize aviation, the company thinks. Flying aircraft could also serve as mobile nodes transmitting the power wherever else it might be needed on Earth.
Jean-Dominique Coste, a senior manager at Airbus' Blue Sky department, which develops innovative technologies, said in the statement, "This could in fact be a game changer for aircraft, with the potential to extend the range, reduce the weight, but also to relay power to other places, managing energy like data.”
"Power beaming technologies would enable the creation of new energy networks in the sky and could help solve the energy problem. . . . They would enable countries to fully control and distribute their energy where needed, independently."
"There is no need for complex and costly ground infrastructure, power plants, pipelines or cables, for example, to distribute the electricity on Earth. . . That, too, is done by power beaming."
According to Airbus, the system would not be more expensive than conventional ground-based power generation infrastructure, such as nuclear power plants or large-scale solar or wind farms.
But what do you think? Is the estimate of a decade away a viable time-scale? Personally, I see this possibility as one of the most compelling reasons for space investment available! And while putting the volume of solar arrays in space would be incredibly difficult and expensive from Earth, I hope to soon see a time in which that is possible from the Moon. But what do you think? Shoot me a response.
2.
The National Reconnaissance Office continues to borrow pages from the space industry’s playbook as it seeks to accelerate deployments of spy satellites.
The agency’s director Chris Scolese told a large audience of executives at an Intelligence and National Security Alliance dinner event on November 15th that “We are taking seriously the need to move faster in all the things that we do.”
The NRO designs, builds and operates the nation’s spy satellites. And while Scolese said the NRO today can take satellites from the drawing board to the launch pad in less than three years, the next innovation the agency has set its sights on is the use of artificial intelligence and machine learning to orchestrate the operation of imaging satellites and to analyze data in orbit.
The ability to process information aboard satellites instead of having to send it back to Earth is an emerging capability in the geospatial imaging industry that Scolese said could be a game changer and wants the NRO to incorporate in its satellite architecture.
The NRO also is looking at the use of machine learning to command satellites and respond rapidly to mission requests, a technology that is being pursued by the U.S. Air Force and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.
In-space analytics would allow the NRO to deliver critical intelligence to users on the ground faster “by reducing the amount of data that comes down to just what’s needed,” he said. “And of course, figuring out just what’s needed is a challenge that requires [the NRO] to work with . . .partners to figure that out as you move that into space.”
3.
In just under 30 hours, China launched two rockets with six satellites to their respective orbits. The first launch was a Chang Zheng 4C (CZ-4C) with the Yaogan 34-03 (Yaogan-34C) government remote sensing satellite on Nov. 15 at 01:38 UTC from Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center (JSLC) at Site 43/94.
It was followed by the Ceres-1 with five Jilin-1 Gaefen-03D remote sensing satellites from JSLC at Site 95 on Nov. 16 at 06:20 UTC, dubbed the “Young For You” mission. These two launches by CZ-4C and Ceres-1 mark the 46th and fourth launches by each respective launch vehicle since their introductions.
CZ-4C is a three-stage liquid-fueled launch vehicle owned and operated by China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC). As the rocket has no side boosters, CZ-4C is a smaller rocket capable of lifting 4,200 kg to low Earth orbit (LEO) or 2,800 kg to Sun-synchronous orbit (SSO).
For this mission, inside the payload fairing was the Yaogan-34C remote sensing satellite. Yaogan-34C is a part of the Yaogan family, a series of Chinese government Earth-observation satellites used for surveillance. The satellite family allows China to survey land and crops, disasters, and environmental monitoring.
Ceres-1 is a four-stage launch vehicle owned and operated by Galactic Energy. The rocket’s first three stages use solid fuel, with the fourth using hydrazine. All four stages can lift 700 kg to LEO or ~270 kg to SSO, making the vehicle a small-satellite launcher. Since its introduction in November 2020, Ceres-1 has completed four missions with a 100% success record. The rocket gets its name from the dwarf planet Ceres, located in the Asteroid belt.
This mission was the first time Ceres-1 launched using a Transporter Erector Launcher (TEL). A TEL allows a launcher to be raised vertically and launch right on the TEL.
Jilin-1 is a series of Earth observation satellites operated by Chang Guang Satellites Technologies Corporation. Since its first launch in 2015, Jilin has launched on multiple rockets, including CZ-6, Hyperbola-1, CZ-2D, CZ-11, CZ-8, Kuaizhou 1A, and more.
4.
The BlueWalker 3 satellite, which launched in September on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, is now one of the brightest objects in the night sky.
Since launching in September, the communications satellite BlueWalker 3 has orbited Earth, curled up as if in a cocoon. But now it has hatched, unfurling an antenna array as big as a highway billboard. And astronomers say the satellite’s brightness has spiked by a factor of 40, rivaling the brightest stars in the sky.
Astronomer Meredith Rawls of the University of Washington, Seattle, who helps run the International Astronomical Union’s Centre for the Protection of the Dark and Quiet Sky from Satellite Constellation Interference stated that “It’s like exactly what astronomers don’t want. . . It’ll show up as a superbright streak in images and potentially saturate camera detectors at observatories.”
Thousands of commercial satellites already litter low-Earth orbit. The 64-square-meter BlueWalker 3 is the largest one yet, considerably brighter than any of the Starlink satellites deployed by SpaceX. And on top of the light pollution, BlueWalker 3 is testing a transmission technology that threatens to trespass into the frequencies used by radio observatories on Earth.
AST SpaceMobile hopes the satellite will pave the way for the first space-based cellular broadband network, improving coverage by transmitting radio waves directly between satellites and mobile phones rather than relaying signals through cell towers.
BlueWalker 3 is a prototype for a constellation of 168 even larger satellites called BlueBirds. AST SpaceMobile CEO Abel Avellan has argued his fleet, which would pale in comparison with the tens of thousands of planned Starlink crafts, won’t interfere with optical astronomy. But astronomer John Barentine of Dark Sky Consulting says even a small crew of these larger, flashier orbiters will obstruct ground-based telescopes’ ability to detect space objects—including potentially hazardous asteroids.
There are even brighter objects in the sky with a history of photobombing telescopes. For example, the International Space Station (ISS) is typically about 40 times brighter than recent observations of BlueWalker 3. But astronomers have real-time access to the precise location of the ISS, allowing them to reorient their cameras or close the shutters when it passes by. AST SpaceMobile has yet to respond to astronomers’ requests to clue them into its satellite’s whereabouts.
Astronomers are pinning their hopes on extending environmental protections to space. The National Environmental Policy Act requires U.S. agencies to consider environmental impacts before approving projects, but satellite licenses have been exempted because space wasn’t considered part of Earth’s environment. That assumption is now being challenged. On 2 November, the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) urged FCC to re-examine how the act applies to satellite constellations. The day after the GAO report, FCC announced the creation of its new Space Bureau and Office of International Affairs. Barentine hopes it’s a signal of “the beginning of a shift in the oversight of U.S. commercial activities in space.”
What do you think, citizens? Is there a way to protect the work of earth-bound astronomers without hampering the advancement of the capabilities that space technology could give us? In my estimation, moving the bulk of astronomical work to off-world is the only permanent answer. But I would love to hear your thoughts.
https://www.science.org/content/article/giant-satellite-outshines-stars-sparking-fresh-concerns-astronomers
5.
In low Earth orbit (LEO) this week, NASA, Roscosmos, and the China National Space Administration (CNSA) performed spacewalks outside humankind’s two permanently-crewed space stations.
NASA conducted its Extravehicular Activity, or EVA (colloquially referred to as a spacewalk), on Tuesday, Nov. 15 on the International Space Station (ISS), with China following on Nov. 17 outside their Tiangong Space Station (TSS). Roscosmos rounded out the hat trick later on Nov. 17 back at the ISS.
NASA astronauts Josh Cassada and Frank Rubio conducted the first of a series of planned NASA spacewalks on Nov. 15 to prepare the ISS for another iROSA (ISS Roll Out Solar Array).
The EVA was the first spacewalk to occur during Expedition 68 and lasted seven hours and 11 minutes.
This was the first spacewalk from the US Orbital Segment (USOS) of the ISS since March 23. During US EVA 80 in March, water was found in the helmet of ESA astronaut Matthias Maurer, and NASA postponed all future spacewalks until the issue was understood and resolved.
Cassada and Rubio completed most of the assigned objectives to assemble a mounting bracket on the starboard truss segment of the ISS. This mounting bracket is where the next iROSA will be installed.
The iROSAs will increase the power capacity by 30%, increasing the total available power from 160 to 215 kilowatts and restoring the original power capacity of the station when the original arrays were launched between November 2000 and March 2009. A total of six iROSAs are planned. So far, two have been installed. The next two planned US spacewalks will install the third and fourth iROSAs.
On the Tiangong Space Station, two taikonauts exited the Wentian module’s airlock at 03:16 UTC on Nov, 17 to begin a spacewalk to install handrails and exterior mobility aids around the three modules of the TSS.
Shenzhou-14 crewmembers Chen Dong and Cai Xuzhe performed the spacewalk from the Wentian module’s airlock, with Liu Yang serving as the IVA (Intravehicular Activity) officer, coordinating movements and commands between the ground and two spacewalking taikonauts.
After exiting the airlock, Dong and Xuzhe worked to install connection bridges between the three modules – Tianhe, Wentian, and Mengtian. These bridges and handheld rails will assist future taikonauts as they maneuver outside the TSS.
The bridges also serve as stabilizers for the station’s T-shaped structure, with the bridge connecting Tianhe and Mengtian measuring 2.6 meters long and massing approximately 15 kg. The bridge between Tianhe and Wentian is 3.2 meters long and approximately 16 kg in mass.
Closing out the busy spacewalking week, Russian ISS EVA 55 began at 14:39 UTC on Nov. 17, less than six hours after the conclusion of the Chinese spacewalk outside Tiangong.
For this EVA, Sergey Prokopyev served as EV1, wearing the Orlan suit with the red stripes, and Dmitry Petelin served as EV2 wearing the Orlan suit with the blue stripes.
The first task after exiting the MRM-2 Poisk airlock was to translate along the Strela-2 boom, which was previously extended to create a bridge between Poisk and the forward end of the Zarya module.
The duo translated to the MRM-1 Rassvet module, where an airlock (ShK) and radiator (RTOd) for the MLM Nauka module are stored. Over the next series of Russian spacewalks, this airlock and the radiator for Nauka will be relocated to and installed on the new module.
https://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2022/11/three-spacewalks/
Thank you for joining me. Links to all the stories are in the description. The world of Space law, policy and business is changing every day. If you missed what happened yesterday, be sure to check out the video I did covering it. I would love to hear your thoughts on everything I talked about here today? I’ll see you again next time.
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