Space News and Discussions

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[raklian]

[raklian]

Immediately after the Psyche Falcon Heavy launch.

[raklian]

[Time_Traveller]

4. The Hubble and Chandra X-Ray Observatory are still active.

NASA's Hubble, Chandra space telescopes face possible budget cuts: report

published 4 days ago

NASA is mulling cutting back on two flagship space telescope programs to meet a budget shortfall in astrophysics, a report suggests.

A representative from senior NASA leadership said the agency is considering "unspecified" reductions to the Hubble Space Telescope and Chandra X-Ray Observatory, both high-profile space telescopes that have been uncovering fundamentals about the universe for decades.

During an Oct. 13 presentation to the U.S. National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine's committee on astronomy and astrophysics about fiscal year 2024 (FY24), Mark Clampin, director of NASA’s astrophysics division, said the cuts may be needed to keep funding for new programs at NASA.

"We're working with the expectation that FY24 budgets stay at the '23 levels," he said, according to a SpaceNews report about NASA's forthcoming budget, which was capped due to Congressional legislation limiting non-discretionary spending amid ongoing U.S. debt limit negotiations.

https://www.space.com/hubble-chandra-sp ... huwLyfhsdI

[Time_Traveller]

NASA Sends Software Patch 12 Billion Miles to Voyager 2

October 23, 2023

NASA has started the painstaking process of updating the software on two of its spacecraft. This would be a tricky operation no matter the mission, but it's all the more perilous with the Voyager probes. These spacecraft have been traveling for decades and are the only operational probes outside our solar system. The patch is intended to rectify an issue that garbled communication from Voyager 1 in 2022, but there are no do-overs if the patch breaks the irreplaceable probes.

The Voyager team at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) confirmed they have transmitted a software patch to Voyager 2 first. Since the spacecraft is more than 12 billion miles away, it took 18 hours for the data to reach it. There is some concern that initializing the software could overwrite or otherwise damage other parts of the probe's software. Given the age and distance, there's no way to know for sure it will work.

The communication issue in 2022 hit Voyager 1, which is even farther away from Earth, at a distance of 15 billion miles. JPL said at the time that Voyager 1 began sending corrupted telemetry data because the attitude articulation and control system (AACS) was passing data through the wrong onboard computer. The team eventually fixed it by telling the AACS system to switch to the correct computer. While Voyager 2 never experienced that problem, it is identical on a hardware and software level.

https://www.extremetech.com/science/nas ... gn=3713490

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SpaceX Will Launch Galileo Satellites for Europe That Contain Classified Systems
The Falcon 9 will bridge the gap between Europe's retired Ariane 5 and the upcoming Ariane 6 rocket.
By Ryan Whitwam October 24, 2023

For the last 20 years, the European Space Agency (ESA) didn't need to wonder how its satellites and spacecraft would get off of Earth—it had the Ariane 5 rocket. This stupendously reliable vehicle was retired this past summer, and its successor isn't ready yet. This has left the ESA with no choice but to look for alternatives, and it's settled on SpaceX. Elon Musk's rocket firm has signed a deal to launch as many as four Galileo communication satellites for the European Union.

The Ariane 5 had been operating since the late 90s, launching important missions like the Jules Verne transfer vehicle for the International Space Station, the Rosetta comet lander, and the James Webb Space Telescope. The latter launch in 2021 was so perfect that it potentially doubled the lifespan of the telescope. The Ariane 5 wrapped up its storied life in July 2023 with a simple telecom satellite launch.

https://www.extremetech.com/science/spa ... for-europe

[wjfox]

Plan to send all-UK astronaut mission into orbit

8 hours ago

Four UK astronauts could soon be heading into orbit on an all-British mission.

An American company that organises visits to the International Space Station (ISS) is developing the plan.

Houston-based Axiom has signed a memorandum of understanding with the UK Space Agency to try to make it happen.

The project would probably cost £200m or more, but the idea is that it would be funded commercially. There would be no contribution from UK taxpayers.

Axiom told the BBC that conversations with corporations and institutions interested in providing finance were already under way.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-67207375

[firestar464]

rule brittania brittania rule the space

[raklian]

rule brittania brittania rule the space

With a former colony's help.

[Powers]

rule brittania brittania rule the space

With a former colony's help.

..

[firestar464]

Astronomers carry out largest ever cosmological computer simulation

https://phys.org/news/2023-10-astronome ... ation.html

[firestar464]

In relation to that:
New research sheds light on early galaxy formation

https://phys.org/news/2023-10-early-gal ... ation.html

[weatheriscool]

NASA Prepares to Test 1.2 Gigabit Communication Laser on Space Station
This will be NASA's first two-way laser relay.
By Ryan Whitwam October 27, 2023
https://www.extremetech.com/science/nas ... ce-station

NASA is preparing for another SpaceX cargo mission to the International Space Station (ISS) to take place early next month. Among the equipment and experiments heading to the station is a new laser communication system that has NASA excited. The laser will work with a previously launched relay satellite to form the agency's first end-to-end laser communications system. NASA sees a future when lasers like this will beam terabytes of data to Earth from the moon or Mars, but first comes the ISS test.

The communication laser is known as the Integrated Laser Communications Relay Demonstration Low Earth Orbit User Modem and Amplifier Terminal, mercifully shortened to ILLUMA-T. The laser was recently delivered to SpaceX to be loaded into the Dragon spacecraft's cargo truck before the CRS-29 mission.

[caltrek]

The Cosmic Web, the Secret Infrastructure of the Universe
by Hillel Aron
October 27, 2023

Introduction:

(Courthouse News) — Outer space may seem dark and impossibly vast, a mostly empty place punctuated seemingly at random by enormous, bright galaxies.

But space isn't quite as dark or empty as one might imagine. Instead, there exists a sprawling infrastructure of gas that connects and feeds galaxies, like a massive network of twisting pipelines or a spider web. Astronomers call it the "cosmic web."

"It is the basic architecture of the universe, and the skeleton of the universe, that determines where all the matter is," Christopher Martin, a professor of physics at Caltech University, said in a Zoom interview last week. "The galaxies are all connected by these filaments, like pipelines bringing gas into galaxies, which can then be converted into stars."

While astronomers have theorized about the cosmic web for decades, Martin and his team of researchers recently managed for the first time to create an image of an actual filament — a strand of the cosmic web — from a relatively empty pocket of space.

The image, a short snippet of 3D animation, was first published last month in the journal Nature Astronomy.

Read more here: https://www.courthousenews.com/the-co ... niverse/

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[raklian]

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Gentle Runway Landings for a Seven Passenger Mini-Shuttle Spaceplane in 2024
November 1, 2023 by Brian Wang

The Sierra Space Tenacity spaceplane should have its first flight in 2024. It is compatible with a wide variety of launch vehicles (rockets) and will be launched in a stowed configuration inside a payload fairing. This makes Tenacity significantly more flexible and reduces ascent loads on the vehicle compared to the space shuttle. Dream Chaser is a mini shuttle. It will bring back the capability of returning experiments and equipment from the International Space Station (ISS) through Earth’s atmosphere for an eventual runway landing.

https://www.nextbigfuture.com/2023/11/g ... um=twitter

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Sierra Space's first spaceplane capable of visiting the ISS rolls out
By David Szondy
November 05, 2023

Sierra Space has rolled out its first Dream Chaser spaceplane, called "Tenacity," that will be used to ferry cargo to and from the International Space Station (ISS) after it is shipped to NASA’s Neil A. Armstrong Test Facility for environmental testing in the coming weeks.

Under development since 2004, Dream Chaser has gone through a complicated path from concept to flight. Originally, its Space Shuttle-like design was intended to not only carry cargo, but passengers to the International Space Station and then return to Earth to land like a conventional aircraft. However, it lost out in competition in both these roles to SpaceX, Boeing, and Northrop Grumman and was relegated to later cargo missions while the spaceplane's technology was improved.

Today, the first space-worthy craft, Tenacity, is at Sierra Space's facility in Louisville, Colorado and will ship to NASA in a few weeks. When it enters service it will be the only flying runway-capable spacecraft. Though it is currently funded under a NASA contract, the Dream Chaser will also be available to other domestic and international customers for trips to low Earth orbit.

https://newatlas.com/space/first-sierra ... e-station/