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Category: space – Page 156

No American spacecraft has made a soft landing on the Moon since NASA’s Apollo 17 in 1972, but that could change soon as the Intuitive Machines’ Nova-C lander launched from the historic Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center at 1:05 am EST (10:05 pm PST) last night. With a currently scheduled landing date of February 22, Nova-C (also called IM-1 Odysseus) is slated to land in Malapert-A crater, which is approximately 190 miles (300 kilometers) from the Moon’s south pole. This landing will also mark the first time a private company will perform a soft landing on the Moon and holds the potential to test technologies that could be used on future human missions with NASA’s Artemis program.

“NASA scientific instruments are on their way to the Moon – a giant leap for humanity as we prepare to return to the lunar surface for the first time in more than half a century,” NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said in a statement. “These daring Moon deliveries will not only conduct new science at the Moon, but they are supporting a growing commercial space economy while showing the strength of American technology and innovation. We have so much to learn through CLPS flights that will help us shape the future of human exploration for the Artemis Generation.”

The science instruments that will be traveling with Nova-C include the Lunar Node 1 Navigation Demonstrator, Laser Retroreflector Array, Navigation Doppler Lidar for Precise Velocity and Range Sensing, Radio Frequency Mass Gauge, Radio-wave Observations at the Lunar Surface of the Photoelectron Sheath, and Stereo Cameras for Lunar Plume-Surface Studies. All these instruments are designed to investigate how spacecraft can both land and operate on the lunar surface, specifically near the south pole of the Moon.

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Considerable effort goes into the design of space suits and space agencies across the world are always working on improvements to enhance safety and mobility of the designs. NASA is now working with Collins Aerospace to develop their next generation spacesuit for the International Space Station. The new designs are tested extensively and recently, the new design was subjected to a ZeroG flight on board a diving aircraft.

Collins Aerospace are an American technology company based in Charlotte in North Carolina. They were selected to develop the new suit as a replacement to the existing garments used by NASA. The official name of the suits are extravehicular mobility units and they have been worn for over two decades.

Once a prototype for the new suit was developed the project entered its test phase with one of the key elements, the microgravity or ZeroG test. To simulate ZeroG aircraft are taken on a parabolic flight. The pilot takes the plane to an altitude of around 24,000 feet and then pulls up increasing the climb angle to 45 degrees. Reaching an altitude of about 32,000 feet the plane is then put into a dive where the plane and its occupants experience ZeroG. For those inside, they will float around for between 20 and 30 seconds.

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The sci-fi dream that gardens and parks would one day glow like Pandora, the alien moon in Avatar, is decades old. Early attempts to splice genes into plants to make them glow date back to the 1980s, but experiments emitted little light and required special food.

Then in 2020, scientists made a breakthrough. Adding genes from luminous mushrooms yielded brightly glowing specimens that needed no special care. The team has refined the approach—writing last month they’ve increased their plants’ luminescence as much as 100-fold—and spun out a startup called Light Bio to sell them.

Light Bio received USDA approval in September and this month announced the first continuously glowing plant, named the firefly petunia, is officially available for purchase in the US. The petunias look and grow like their ordinary cousins—green leaves, white flowers—but after sunset, they glow a gentle green. The company is selling the plants for $29 on its website and says a crop of 50,000 will ship in April.

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Asteroids are frequently associated with being large chucks of rocks and nothing else. However, a recent study published in The Planetary Science Journal could change that as a team of researchers led by the Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) have discovered water molecules on an asteroid’s surface, marking a first-of-its-kind discovery that could help scientists use asteroids to better understand the formation and evolution of the early solar system and other exoplanetary systems, as well. This is because dry asteroids typically form close to the Sun while icy asteroids form much farther out.

“Asteroids are leftovers from the planetary formation process, so their compositions vary depending on where they formed in the solar nebula,” said Dr. Anicia Arredondo, who is a SwRI Research Scientist and lead author of the study. “Of particular interest is the distribution of water on asteroids, because that can shed light on how water was delivered to Earth.”

For the study, the researchers used the FORCAST (Faint Object infraRed CAmera for the SOFIA Telescope) instrument onboard the SOFIA (Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy) aircraft to analyze four asteroids: Iris, (11) Parthenope, (18) Melpomene, and (20) Massalia. In the end, the team discovered levels of water molecules on Iris and Massalia that are consistent with levels of water molecules that have been previously identified on the sunlit portion of the Earth’s Moon using FORCAST and SOFIA, as well. The reason the team could not conclude that Parthenope and Melpomene contained water molecules was due to the unacceptable noise levels within the data.

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NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) continues to send back breathtaking images of the cosmos, to include planets in our solar system, exoplanets, and supernovae, using its powerful infrared instruments. However, the famous space agency is preparing to launch another powerful space telescope to explore the cosmos, but this time using ultraviolet light, and is appropriately called UVEX (UltraViolet Explorer), which was previously selected in 2022 for further evaluation as part of NASA’s Medium-Class Explorer program and is currently scheduled to launch no earlier than 2027.

Southern Ring Nebula taken in near-infrared light (left) and mid-infrared light (right) by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope. (Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI)

“NASA’s UVEX will help us better understand the nature of both nearby and distant galaxies, as well as follow up on dynamic events in our changing universe,” said Dr. Nicola Fox, who is the associate administrator for the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters. “This mission will bring key capabilities in near-and far-ultraviolet light to our fleet of space telescopes, delivering a wealth of survey data that will open new avenues in exploring the secrets of the cosmos.”

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Lee Smolin joins TOE to discuss his work in theoretical physics, the dynamic nature of the laws of physics and the concept of time.

TIMESTAMPS:
00:00:00 — Intro.
00:04:13 — Doubly Special Relativity and Violation of Lorentz Invariance.
00:09:15 — The Concept of Thick Time.
00:19:11 — Duality Between String Theory and Loop Quantum Gravity.
00:23:50 — Condensed Matter Theory.
00:28:35 — Approximating by a Continuum and Discrete Sets.
00:34:11 — Misapprehensions about Loop Quantum Gravity.
00:38:43 — Defining Complexity and the View of the Universe by One Observer.
00:43:52 — Causal Energetic: The Relationship Between Varieties and Kinetic Energy.
00:48:38 — Varying Parameters in the Universe.
00:53:35 — The Bomes Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics.
00:58:30 — Causality and Relativity.
01:03:15 — Different Styles in Mathematics and Chess.
01:07:55 — The Fundamental Questions in Biology.
01:12:49 — Marrying Outside Your Field.
01:18:04 — Discussion on Authors and Novels.
01:23:35 — Conversations with Fire Robin.
01:28:39 — Being Sincere and Ambitious.
01:33:39 — A Visit from BJ
01:38:34 — Outro.

NOTE: The perspectives expressed by guests don’t necessarily mirror my own. There’s a versicolored arrangement of people on TOE, each harboring distinct viewpoints, as part of my endeavor to understand the perspectives that exist.

THANK YOU: To Mike Duffey for your insight, help, and recommendations on this channel.

Continue reading “Time and Quantum Mechanics SOLVED? | Lee Smolin” | >

LISA, a collaborative mission between ESA and NASA, aims to detect gravitational waves from space, offering new insights into the cosmos through advanced technology and international cooperation.

The first space-based observatory designed to detect gravitational waves has passed a major review and will proceed to the construction of flight hardware. On January 25, ESA (European Space Agency), announced the formal adoption of LISA, the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna, to its mission lineup, with launch slated for the mid-2030s. ESA leads the mission, with NASA serving as a collaborative partner.

NASA’s Role and Mission Collaboration.

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Jupiter and its moon are a rarely considered prospect for colonization, but potentially the ripest opportunity for it in the solar system. In this episode of the Outward Bound series we will examine the options for colonizing each of Jupiter’s primary moons and even discuss ways to colonize the giant planet itself.

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Cover Art by Jakub Grygier: https://www.artstation.com/artist/jak…

Graphics Team:
Edward Nardella.
Jarred Eagley.
Justin Dixon.
Jeremy Jozwik.
Katie Byrne.
Kris Holland.
Misho Yordanov.
Murat Mamkegh.
Pierre Demet.
Sergio Botero.
Stefan Blandin.

Script Editing:

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