Welcome to the Undiscovered Country, the show where I countdown the top 5 most important things happening in the world of space today.
1.
If you are watching this, odds are that you already know that Artemis 1 successfully launched yesterday morning at 1:47 am EST. After multiple attempts, years of delay, two hurricanes, and millions of dollars, the most powerful rocket ever constructed took to the skies lighting up cape canaveral and the surrounding area.
But rather than rehash the details of what happened, today I want to talk about what it means, why it matters, and try to approach the question of what happens now.
The Planetary Society CEO and science advocate Bill Nye described the launch by saying that “Today’s launch is a historic achievement. . . The Artemis Program will help a new generation of explorers reach the Moon and beyond. It will inspire people around the world.”
Artemis I Launch Director Charlie Blackwell-Thompson told her team at Kennedy Space Center just after lift-off that “For once, I might be speechless. . . You have earned your place in history. You’re a part of a first. It doesn’t come along very often, once in a career maybe. But we are all part of something incredibly special.”
And while the launch was clearly a monumental, even game-changing one, the uncomfortable question becomes, is it really one that matters? Yes, this marks the first in a return to the moon. But with an enormous price tag, outdated technology even from first launch, and better options available from private companies, has SLS become obsolete even before it had the opportunity to get to the moon the first time?
In an interesting opinion piece on SpaceNews, Giulio Prisco opined that the answer is no. He argued that even if we conclude that SLS equates to wasted dollars, the wasted dollars are buying more than just rocket technology and launch capability. Those dollars are buying political support. They are buying realPolitik.
And it is this issue of the realpolitik which matters more than many of us are comfortable with. We may ask ourselves, is not the desire to explore and expand a self-evident truth of being a human being? I would like to think so. But we need not look any further than the success of the Apollo program during the cold war, followed by the dramatic and immediate drop in support which happened just after the US declared victory in the space race to see that the politics of the situation matters.
So for now, if the Artemis program is getting us to the moon, I agree, let’s figure out the better way as we go along. Let’s not sacrifice the way until we have the perfect way. And for now, regardless of your feelings on the best way to do it, I hope we can all celebrate the fact that the first step has been taken to settle our nearest neighbor, this time, I hope, for good.
https://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2022/11/artemis-i-launch-nov/
https://www.planetary.org/articles/nasa-artemis-i-successfully-launches
https://www.npr.org/2022/11/16/1137046007/nasa-artemis-moon-rocket-launch-success
https://spacenews.com/sls-launches-artemis-1-mission/
https://spacenews.com/op-ed-spacex-fans-should-stand-behind-nasa-and-support-artemis/
2.
Europe’s bid to deliver a return-to-Earth service for in-orbit transportation and research projects is rapidly taking shape. Teams there have been working on a Space Rider spacecraft gearing up for a series of drop tests in 2023. Drop tests with small-scale models will be followed by a full-scale test in anticipation of inaugural flight towards the end of 2024.
Engineering teams recently concluded the project’s critical design review and expect to consolidate the design early in 2023. Work is also underway to finalize selection of payloads that will fly on the first flight.
The Space Rider is planned to be about the size of two minivans. It is designed to land with 150m accuracy under a steerable parachute known as a parafoil, which will be the subject of some of the upcoming drop tests.
Dante Galli, ESA’s Space Rider Programme Manager, stated that the: “Space Rider is our very own uncrewed laboratory in space.”
After landing safely back on Earth, Space Rider will be refurbished for re-use, with each vehicle designed to make at least five re-flights of about two months’ duration. Up to 600 kg of payload can fit inside the environmentally controlled cargo bay. Space Rider’s cargo bay opens to offer views of Earth or deep space, and the spacecraft will feature fine pointing capability for observational missions.
ESA Director of Space Transportation Daniel Neuenschwander described the intent of the program this way: “Access to space also means returning to Earth. Space Rider will be a key pillar of Europe’s robust, independent capabilities in orbit, and its reusability will give us affordable access to frequent flights.”
“It’s what I like to call the three Rs of a sustainable space: Return, Reload, Relaunch”.
https://www.spacedaily.com/reports/To_orbit_and_back_with_Space_Rider_999.html
3.
NASA has awarded SpaceX a $1.15 billion contract to develop an upgraded version of its Starship lunar lander and fly a second crewed mission.
NASA announced Nov. 15 it completed a contract modification for what is formally known as Option B of its Human Landing System (HLS) contract with SpaceX. Option B covers upgrades to the Starship lander originally selected for HLS by NASA in April 2021 for $2.9 billion. The option also includes a second crewed demonstration landing mission.
“Continuing our collaborative efforts with SpaceX through Option B furthers our resilient plans for regular crewed transportation to the lunar surface and establishing a long-term human presence under Artemis,” Lisa Watson-Morgan, NASA HLS program manager, said in a statement. “This critical work will help us focus on the development of sustainable, service-based lunar landers anchored to NASA’s requirements for regularly recurring missions to the lunar surface.”
When NASA announced its intent to exercise Option B, it was not clear when that second mission would fly. However, agency officials said last month that the Option B mission would be Artemis 4, a mission that NASA previously planned to devote to work on the lunar Gateway and not include a landing.
SpaceX is continuing preparations for a first orbital launch attempt of Starship at its Boca Chica, Texas, test site. In a Nov. 14 static-fire test, SpaceX fired 14 of 33 Raptor engines in the vehicle’s Super Heavy booster, the most ignited in a single test. Elon Musk, chief executive of SpaceX, tweeted afterwards that the company would follow the test with a 20-second engine test, “possibly one more static fire, then orbital launch attempt.”
https://spacenews.com/nasa-awards-spacex-1-15-billion-contract-for-second-artemis-lander-mission/
4.
It is still a glimpse into the future but Astronauts could soon be put into artificial hibernation and in this state be better protected from cosmic radiation. An international research team led by the Biophysics Department of the GSI Helmholtzzentrum in Darmstadt now has found decisive indications of the possible benefits of artificial hibernation for radiation resistance.
Scientists call the state, which hibernating animals enter, torpor.
In the study on synthetic torpor (i.e. a kind of artificially produced hibernation) and protection from ionizing radiation, the scientists demonstrated biological effects suggesting that synthetic torpor increases resistance to radiation.
Space radiation is acknowledged as one of the main health risks for human space exploration. Harmful effects of space radiation are a major challenge, especially for future long-term missions. The majority of radiation dose absorbed by crews in crewed interplanetary missions is produced by galactic cosmic radiation (GCR), high-energy charged particles, including densely ionizing heavy ions, produced in distant galaxies.
Professor Marco Durante, Head of the GSI Biophysics Division explained that "The connections between torpor and radioresistance represent a highly innovative research approach. Our results indicate that synthetic torpor is a promising tool to enhance radioprotection in living organism during long-term space missions. It could thus be an effective strategy to protect humans as they explore the solar system.”
It is already known that naturally hibernating animals acquire radioresistance in this state. However, the recent study is so significant because it is the first time that a hibernation-like biological state was induced in a non-hibernating animal, in this case a rat, and radioresistance to high-energy heavy ions could be proved.
They showed that lower oxygen concentration in the tissues, known as hypoxia, and reduced metabolism at low temperature, or hypothermia, could be two important factors in the prevention of cell damage. The immunohistological analyses indicated that the synthetic torpor spares the tissue from energetic ion radiation. In addition, changes in metabolism at low temperatures could also affect DNA repair.
Currently it is not possible technically to hibernate a human in a safe and controlled way. However, research is progressing.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/11/221114111035.htm
5.
U.S. Space Command announced Nov. 15 it is adding a new component to its organization to help coordinate operations and speed up the delivery of satellite-based services to military forces in the field.
The new organization, called Combined Joint Task Force-Space Operations (CJTF-SO), marks another step in the evolution of the U.S. military’s space enterprise, officials said.
Gen. James Dickinson, head of U.S. Space Command explained that “To outpace our strategic competitor, the People’s Republic of China, I am rapidly building the command to compete and win in the space domain, deter aggression from extending to space, and, when necessary, prevail in conflict.”
The CJTF-SO will serve as a bridge between the command’s headquarters and its two large field organizations; the Combined Force Space Component Command (CFSCC) at Vandenberg Air Force Base, California; and the Joint Task Force Space Defense (JTF-SD) at Schriever Air Force Base, Colorado.
The CFSCC ensures space capabilities such as GPS navigation and satellite-based communications are available to U.S. commanders and allied nations. It also runs an operations center where U.S. and allied personnel track objects and activities in space.
The JTF-SD, a joint military and intelligence community unit, runs the classified National Space Defense Center, and tracks potential threats to satellites in orbit.
The former commander of the JTF-SD Maj. Gen. Thomas James said in a statement that “Moving forward, the establishment of CJTF-SO will ensure unity of effort among the functional components’ operations while USSPACECOM’s headquarters staff focuses on achieving national security objectives.”
Maj. Gen. Brook Leonard, CJTF-SO director of operations said that what has been missing is the “operational integration and warfighting focus that space needed, the layer between strategic and tactical. . . . We needed a dedicated organization to look at competition and conflict and lead those endeavors.”
The new task force will help create a culture where “it’s everybody’s job to protect and defend, and deliver those space capabilities.”
https://spacenews.com/u-s-space-command-creates-new-task-force-to-coordinate-space-operations/
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. You absolutely need to keep up with these important events and you can do that by checking out what I talked about last time. I would love to hear your thoughts on everything I talked about here today? If you feel like this information has been of value to you, I would love it if you would consider subscribing and following my channel. I’ll see you again next time.
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