Tag: SPACE SCIENCE

How NASA’s MOXIE successfully generated oxygen on Mars

It has been generating oxygen abroad the Perseverance rover since its landing in 2021

MOXIE (Mars Oxygen In-situ Resource Utilization Experiment) is lowered into the chassis of NASA’s Perseverance in 2019 | Twitter

American space agency NASA on Thursday announced that its oxygen-generating experiment that accompanied Perseverance rover has successfully generated oxygen on the Mars. MOXIE (Mars Oxygen In-Situ Resource Utilisation Experiment), developed by Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), has generated oxygen for the 16th and final time abroad, NASA said in its blog.

NASA Deputy Administrator Pam Melroy said that MOXIE’s performance shows that oxygen can be generated from Mars’ atmosphere. “MOXIE’s impressive performance shows that it is feasible to extract oxygen from Mars’ atmosphere – oxygen that could help supply breathable air or rocket propellant to future astronauts,” said Melroy.

“Developing technologies that let us use resources on the Moon and Mars is critical to build a long-term lunar presence, create a robust lunar economy, and allow us to support an initial human exploration campaign to Mars,” she added.

How MOXIE produced oxygen

MOXIE has been generating oxygen abroad the Perseverance rover since its landing in 2021.

Oxygen is produced through an electrochemical process that separates one oxygen atom from each molecule of carbon dioxide pumped in from Mars’s thin atmosphere. They are analysed to check the purity and quantity of the oxygen produced once these gases flow through the system.

According to NASA, a total of 122 grams of oxygen was generated by MOXIE, which is twice as much as NASA’s original goals for the instrument. It also added that the oxygen produced is of 98 per cent purity, making it suitable for breathing and fuel.

After its success, the next step would be to create a full-scale system that includes an oxygen generator like MOXIE and a way to liquefy and store that oxygen.

Director of technology demonstrations, Space Technology Mission Directorate (STMD), Trudy Kortes said that they were proud to have supported the breakthrough.

“We’re proud to have supported a breakthrough technology like MOXIE that could turn local resources into useful products for future exploration missions,” said Kortes. STMD funds the MOXIE demonstration.

“By proving this technology in real-world conditions, we’ve come one step closer to a future in which astronauts ‘live off the land’ on the Red Planet,” she said.

Source: https://www.theweek.in/news/sci-tech/2023/09/08/how-nasas-moxie-successfully-generated-oxygen-on-mars.html

India’s lunar lander finds 1st evidence of a moonquake in decades

The possible moonquake was detected by India’s Chandrayaan-3 mission on its third day on the lunar surface.

Chandrayaan-3 lunar rover on the surface of the moon on August 30, 2023. (Image credit: IRSRO)

India’s moon rover may have just detected the first evidence of a “moonquake” since the 1970s.

The Instrument for Lunar Seismic Activity (ILSA) attached to the Vikram lander detected the seismic activity on the surface of the moon Aug. 26. Vikram landed on the moon’s south pole Aug. 23 as part of the Chandrayaan-3 mission — India’s first mission to the lunar surface.

If it’s confirmed, the moonquake — which the mission detected alongside other activity including the movements of India’s Pragyan rover — could give scientists a rare insight into the mysterious churning innards of Earth’s lunar companion.

The lander “has recorded an event, appearing to be a natural one, on August 26, 2023,” The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) wrote on X, formerly Twitter. “The source of this event is under investigation.”

The Apollo lunar missions between 1969 and 1977 first detected seismic activity on the moon, which proved that the moon had a complex geological structure hidden deep within, rather than being uniformly rocky like the Martian moons Phobos and Deimos.

In recent years, advanced analysis tools and computer models have enabled scientists to sift through the data gathered by Apollo and other missions and build a clearer picture of the moon’s mysterious interior. A 2011 NASA study revealed that the moon’s core, much like Earth’s, was likely made up of fluid iron surrounding a dense, solid iron ball.

In May 2023, researchers used gravitational field data to confirm this iron core hypothesis, while also suggesting that blobs of the moon’s molten mantle could be separated from the rest, floating to the surface as clumps of iron and generating quakes as they went.

But these findings are just the beginning of the moon’s secrets. Magnetic fields are produced inside planetary bodies by the churning movement of material in planets’ electrically conductive molten cores.

Today the interior of the non-magnetic moon is quite different from Earth’s magnetized innards — it’s dense and mostly frozen, containing only a small outer core region that is fluid and molten. Scientists believe that the moon’s insides cooled fairly quickly and evenly after it formed around 4.5 billion years ago, meaning it doesn’t have a strong magnetic field — and many scientists believe it never did.

Source: https://www.livescience.com/space/the-moon/indias-lunar-lander-finds-1st-evidence-of-a-moonquake-in-decades

Aditya L1, India’s 1st Mission to Sun, Finishes Second Earth-bound Move; Now in 282 km x 40,225 km Orbit

Aditya-L1: The next manoeuvre is scheduled for September 10, 2023, around 02:30 Hrs. IST, ISRO said.

Aditya L1, the first space-based Indian mission to study the Sun, underwent the second earth-bound manoeuvre successfully, early on Tuesday, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) said. The agency’s Telemetry, Tracking and Command Network (ISTRAC) carried out the operation.

“The second Earth-bound manoeuvre (EBN#2) is performed successfully from ISTRAC, Bengaluru. ISTRAC/ISRO’s ground stations at Mauritius, Bengaluru and Port Blair tracked the satellite during this operation. The new orbit attained is 282 km x 40225 km,” ISRO said in a post on X (formerly Twitter).

The next manoeuvre (EBN#3) is scheduled for September 10, 2023, around 02:30 Hrs. IST, it said.

Aditya-L1 is the first Indian space based observatory to study the Sun from a halo orbit around first sun-earth Lagrangian point (L1), which is located roughly 1.5 million km from earth. The first earth-bound manoeuvre was successfully performed on September 3.

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The spacecraft will undergo two more earth-bound orbital manoeuvres before placing in the transfer orbit towards the Lagrange point L1. Aditya-L1 is expected to arrive at the intended orbit at the L1 point after about 127 days.

ISRO’s Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-C57) on September 2 had successfully launched the Aditya-L1 spacecraft, from the Second Launch Pad of Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC), Sriharikota.

After a flight duration of 63 minutes and 20 seconds, Aditya-L1 spacecraft was successfully injected into an elliptical orbit of 235×19500 km around the earth.

According to ISRO, a satellite placed in the halo orbit around the L1 point has the major advantage of continuously viewing the Sun without any occultation /eclipses. This will provide a greater advantage of observing the solar activities and its effect on space weather in real time.

Aditya-L1 carries seven scientific payloads indigenously developed by ISRO and national research laboratories including Indian Institute of Astrophysics (IIA), Bengaluru, and Inter University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics (IUCAA), Pune.

The payloads are to observe the photosphere, chromosphere and the outermost layers of the Sun (the corona) using electromagnetic and particle and magnetic field detectors.

Source: https://www.news18.com/india/aditya-l1-1st-indian-mission-to-study-sun-successfully-undergoes-2nd-earth-bound-manoeuvre-8564203.html

ISRO Scientist N Valarmathi, Voice Behind Chandrayaan-3 Countdown, Passes Away

Indian Space and Research Organisation (ISRO) scientist N Valarmathi, who lent her voice on the national space agency’s rocket countdown launches, passed away on Sunday.

ISRO Scientist N Valarmathi, Voice Behind Chandrayaan-3 Countdown, Passes Away (File Photo)
Indian Space and Research Organisation (ISRO) scientist N Valarmathi, who lent her voice on the national space agency’s rocket countdown launches, passed away on Sunday. Her last countdown was during the launch of Chandrayaan-3, the country’s third lunar mission.
Condoling her demise, Dr. PV Venkitakrishnan, a former director at ISRO, said on X (formerly Twitter): “The voice of Valarmathi Madam will not be there for the countdowns of future missions of ISRO from Sriharikota. Chandrayaan-3 was her final countdown announcement. An unexpected demise. Feel so sad. Pranams!”
Who Was Valarmathi?
She was the project director of RISAT-1 – India’s first indigenously-developed Radar Imaging Satellite Valarmathi and is the first person to receive Abdul Kalam Award, instituted by Government of Tamil Nadu in honour of the former president Abdul Kalam in 2015.

She joined ISRO in 1984 and has been involved in many missions including Insat 2A, IRS IC, IRS ID, TES. She is the second woman scientist of ISRO to head a prestigious project after TK Anuradha, project director of the GSAT-12 mission in 2011.

Source: https://www.timesnownews.com/india/isro-scientist-n-valarmathi-death-news-voice-behind-chandrayaan-3-countdown-passes-away-article-103336403

After Moon and Sun, ISRO readies XPoSat mission to enhance understanding in Astronomy

X-ray Polarimeter satellite (XPoSat) in deployed configuration

In a groundbreaking move aimed at advancing scientific comprehension in the field of astronomy, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has announced its latest venture, XPoSat (X-ray Polarimeter Satellite). Following the successful launches of the Chandrayaan-3 Moon lander and Aditya-L1 missions, ISRO is now turning its focus towards unlocking the mysteries of bright astronomical X-ray sources under extreme conditions.

XPoSat marks India’s inaugural dedicated polarimetry mission, with the mission’s core objective being the study of various dynamics within bright astronomical X-ray sources. Positioned in low Earth orbit, the spacecraft will carry two essential scientific payloads designed to collect invaluable data.

The primary payload, known as POLIX (Polarimeter Instrument in X-rays), is tailored to measure the polarimetry parameters, encompassing the degree and angle of polarisation. It will specifically target the medium X-ray energy range of 8-30 keV photons of astronomical origin. Alongside POLIX, the XSPECT (X-ray Spectroscopy and Timing) payload will play a crucial role by offering spectroscopic information in the energy range of 0.8-15 keV.

ISRO emphasises that the emission mechanisms observed in various astronomical sources, including black holes, neutron stars, active galactic nuclei, and pulsar wind nebulae, stem from complex physical processes that challenge our understanding. While spectroscopic and timing data collected from space-based observatories provide significant insights, the precise nature of these emissions remains enigmatic, as acknowledged by ISRO officials.

Source: https://www.businesstoday.in/technology/news/story/after-moon-and-sun-isro-readies-xposat-mission-to-enhance-understanding-in-astronomy-396622-2023-09-02

Chandrayaan-3 Rover Put To Sleep On Moon, Will Wake Up When…

“Hoping for a successful awakening for another set of assignments. Else, it will forever stay there as India’s lunar ambassador,” ISRO said

Chandrayaan-3’s rover Pragyan will be safely parked and put to sleep mode

New Delhi: The Chandrayaan-3 mission’s rover Pragyan has completed its assignments, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) said today. The rover has been safely parked and put into sleep mode, ISRO said in a post on X, formerly Twitter.
“Currently, the battery is fully charged. The solar panel is oriented to receive light at the next sunrise expected on September 22, 2023. The receiver is kept on,” ISRO said.

“Hoping for a successful awakening for another set of assignments. Else, it will forever stay there as India’s lunar ambassador,” the space agency said.

The 26-kg, six-wheeled, solar-powered rover Pragyan is equipped to use its scientific instruments to record what the lunar soil and rocks are made of in the south polar region where Chandrayaan-3’s lander Vikram touched down.

ISRO said APXS and LIBS payloads have been turned off and data from these payloads is transmitted to Earth via lander Vikram.

Source: https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/chandrayaan-3s-rover-pragyan-completes-assignments-safely-parked-put-to-sleep-4354443

Aditya L1 launch: ISRO to perform first Earth-bound firing today. Top updates

Aditya-L1 mission: Aditya-L1 will stay Earth-bound orbits for 16 days, during which it will undergo five manoeuvres to gain necessary velocity for its journey.

A combo of photos shows the launch of India’s first solar mission ‘Aditya-L1’ at Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota on Saturday, (PTI)

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) said the first Earth-bound firing to raise Aditya-L1’s orbit is scheduled at around 11:45 am on Sunday, a day after the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle or PSLV-C57.1 rocket carrying the orbiter lifted off successfully from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Andhra Pradesh’s Sriharikota.

The successful launch of ISRO’s first solar mission came a week after its historic lunar landing mission — Chandrayaan-3.

Top updates on Aditya-L1 solar mission
1. “Aditya-L1 started generating the power. The solar panels are deployed. The first Earth-Bound firing to raise the orbit is scheduled for September 3 around 11:45 hours,” the ISRO said on Saturday.

2. The Earth-bound manoeuvres will involve the rockets firing and some adjustments to angles, as required. How this will work can perhaps be understood by taking the example of when a person is on a swing — to make the swing go higher, a pressure (by shifting body weight) is applied when in the phase when the swing is coming down towards the ground. In Aditya-L1’s case, once it gains enough velocity, it will slingshot around to its intended path towards L1.

3. The PSLV has placed the Aditya-L1 satellite precisely into its intended orbit, the agency said.

4. Aditya-L1 will stay Earth-bound orbits for 16 days, during which it will undergo five maneuvres to gain the necessary velocity for its journey, the ISRO said.

5. Subsequently, Aditya-L1 will undergo a trans-Lagrangian1 insertion manoeuvre, marking the beginning of its 110-day trajectory to the destination around the L1 Lagrange Point, it said.

6. Once arrived at the L1 point, another manoeuvre will bind Aditya-L1 to an orbit around L1, a balanced gravitational location between the Earth and the Sun. The satellite will spend its whole mission life orbiting around L1 in an irregularly shaped orbit in a plane roughly perpendicular to the line joining the Earth and the Sun.

7. According to the agency, the Aditya-L1 mission is expected to reach the observation point in four months. It will be placed in a halo orbit around Lagrangian Point 1 (or L1), which is 1.5 million km away from the Earth in the direction of the Sun.

Source: https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/aditya-l1-mission-isro-to-perform-first-earth-bound-firing-today-top-updates-101693705798940.html

India’s first solar observatory mission Aditya-L1 to be launched at 11.50 a.m. on September 2

Aditya-L1 mission payloads to help uderstand the problem of coronal heating, coronal mass ejection, pre-flare and flare activities, the dynamics of space weather, and the propagation of particles and fields

Aditya L1 onboard the PSLV-C57 the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota on September 1, 2023 on the eve of its launch. Photo: X/@ISRO via PTI

India’s first solar observatory mission, named Aditya-L1, will be launched onboard the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota at 11.50 am on Saturday.

On Friday, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) commenced the 23-hour 40-minute countdown for the launch of the Aditya-L1 mission.

Source: https://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/science/indias-first-solar-observatory-mission-aditya-l1-to-be-launched-at-1150-am-on-september-2-2023/article67258934.ece

LIFE OUT THERE? Nasa scientist admits she’s ‘absolutely certain there is alien life’ and reveals best place to find it nearby

A NASA scientist has revealed that she’s absolutely certain there’s alien life out there.

The expert told The U.S. Sun about her alien theory and where she thinks life is hiding.

Dr. Michelle Thaller spoke with The U.S. Sun about alien life in the Solar SystemCredit: The U.S. Sun
The expert spoke at the Beyond the Light experience at Artechouse in New York CityCredit: ARTECHOUSE

Dr. Michelle Thaller works as a scientist at Nasa’s Goddard Space Flight Center and has decades of experience.

She told us: “I definitely think we’ll find life on another planet.

“I think that in our own Solar System, we’re quite close to it but once again we don’t have that 100 percent thing.

“On Mars, we see chemistry that on Earth if it were here we would say is due to life.

“But the question is, how well do we understand Mars and are we being fooled by something?”

Dr. Thaller spoke to The U.S. Sun at Beyond the Light, an exhibition at Artechouse in New York that aims to immerse the public in a deep space exploration experience.

The exhibit was created in collaboration with Nasa, and features newly analyzed galactical data from the James Webb Space Telescope.

Artechouse and Nasa collaborated extensively to present this data as an artistic expression of the US space agency’s breathtaking discoveries.

The JWST is a $10billion device that could help humans find habitable planets in distant galaxies.

However, Dr. Thaller thinks life could be much closer to home than that.

She continued: “We see possible signs of life in the atmosphere of Venus.

“Possibly underneath the ice in the icy moons of Jupiter and Saturn.

“The Solar System may be teaming with simple life, microbial life.

“We just have to get that 100 percent certainty to say that we found it and we don’t have that yet.”

Of all those options, Dr. Thaller is excited about Venus’ potential to harbor life.

The hostile and dry planet would kill a human who landed there instantly, and yet several studies suggest microbial life could live in its clouds.

Dr. Thaller said: “I never expected Venus. Venus is now one where we see something in the atmosphere that looks very much like it could be produced by bacteria.”

The expert is certain we will find life and thinks it’s just a matter of when.

Speaking to an audience at the event, she said: “I think it’s only a matter of time until we have proof that it’s in the Solar System.

Source: https://www.the-sun.com/tech/8909027/nasa-scientist-admits-alien-life-location/?utm_campaign=native_share&utm_source=sharebar_native&utm_medium=sharebar_native

‘This Has Been A Matter Of My Life’: Russian Scientist Who Worked On Failed Luna-25 Moon Mission Hospitalised

A scientist who worked on Vladimir Putin’s failed Russian moon mission, Luna-25, has been rushed to hospital after the lander crashed on the moon.

Luna-25 had crashed on moon’s surface while attempting to land on south pole. ( Image Source : X (@SerbianRambler) )

A scientist who served as a key consultant in Russian President Vladimir Putin’s failed moon mission was hospitalised after Moscow’s first lunar expedition in 47 years, Luna-25, failed, reported the Independent. 90-year-old Mikhail Marov was rushed to a hospital following a “sharp deterioration” in his health after the Luna-25 spacecraft went out of control and crashed into the moon, the report added. Sharing pain over the development, he said that the project has been a matter of his life and how can he not worry about it.

“This was perhaps the last hope for me to see a revival of our lunar programme,” he said, according to Reuters, reported Independent.

He added, “It is so sad that it was not possible to land the apparatus,” after the failure of Luna-25.

Notably, Russia launched Luna-25, its first moon mission after 1976 aiming to land on the lunar south pole, where India’s Chandrayaan-3 is also heading. As per the plan, Luna-25 was planned to land before Chandrayaan-3 making Russia the first country to make a soft-landing on the moon’s south pole.

However, Russia’s state space corporation Roskosmos said it lost contact with the craft at 11.57am (GMT) on Saturday after a problem as the craft was shunted into pre-landing orbit. A soft landing had been planned for Monday.

“The apparatus moved into an unpredictable orbit and ceased to exist as a result of a collision with the surface of the Moon,” Roskosmos said in a statement, quoted Independent.

The space agency added that a special inter-departmental commission had been formed to investigate the reasons behind the loss of the Luna-25 craft.

Talking to Moskovsky Komsomolets newspaper, Marov said that he hoped the reasons behind the crash would be discussed and examined rigorously, as per Independent.

“There was a mistake in the algorithms for launching into near-lunar orbit,” he was quoted as saying by the Daily Mail, as quoted by the Independent.

Source: https://news.abplive.com/science/russian-scientist-who-worked-on-failed-luna-25-moon-mission-hospitalised-this-has-been-a-matter-of-my-life-1624565

Russia’s first lunar mission in 47 years smashes into the moon in failure

Russia’s first moon mission in 47 years failed when its Luna-25 space craft spun out of control and crashed into the moon after a problem preparing for pre-landing orbit, underscoring the post-Soviet decline of a once mighty space programme.

Russia’s state space corporation, Roskosmos, said it had lost contact with the craft at 11:57 GMT on Saturday after a problem as the craft was shunted into pre-landing orbit. A soft landing had been planned for Monday.

“The apparatus moved into an unpredictable orbit and ceased to exist as a result of a collision with the surface of the Moon,” Roskosmos said in a statement.

It said a special inter-departmental commission had been formed to investigate the reasons behind the loss of the Luna-25 craft, whose mission had raised hopes in Moscow that Russia was returning to the big power moon race.

The failure underscored the decline of Russia’s space power since the glory days of Cold War competition when Moscow was the first to launch a satellite to orbit the Earth – Sputnik 1, in 1957 – and Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first man to travel into space in 1961.

It also comes as Russia’s $2 trillion economy faces its biggest external challenge for decades: the pressure of both Western sanctions and fighting the biggest land war in Europe since World War Two.

Though moon missions are fiendishly difficult, and many U.S. and Soviet attempts have failed, Russia had not attempted a moon mission since Luna-24 in 1976, when Communist leader Leonid Brezhnev ruled the Kremlin.

Russian state television put news of the loss of Luna-25 at number 8 in its line up at noon and gave it just 26 seconds of coverage, after a news about fires on Tenerife and a 4 minute item about a professional holiday for Russian pilots and crews.

FAILED MOONSHOT
Russia has been racing against India, whose Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft is scheduled to land on the moon’s south pole this week, and more broadly against China and the United States which both have advanced lunar ambitions.

FILE PHOTO: A picture taken from the camera of the lunar landing spacecraft Luna-25 shows the Zeeman crater located on the far side of the moon, August 17, 2023. Roscosmos/Handout via REUTERS ATTENTION EDITORS – THIS IMAGE HAS BEEN SUPPLIED BY A THIRD PARTY. MANDATORY CREDIT./File Photo Acquire Licensing Rights

As news of the Luna-25 failure broke, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) posted on X, formerly Twitter, that Chandrayaan-3 was set to land on Aug. 23.

Russian officials had hoped that the Luna-25 mission would show Russia can compete with the superpowers in space despite its post-Soviet decline and the vast cost of the Ukraine war.

“The flight control system was a vulnerable area, which had to go through many fixes,” said Anatoly Zak, the creator and publisher of www.RussianSpaceWeb.com which tracks Russian space programmes.

Zak said Russia had also gone for the much more ambitious moon landing before undertaking a simpler orbital mission – the usual practice for the Soviet Union, the United States, China and India.

While Luna-25 went beyond the earth’s orbit – unlike the failed 2011 Fobos-Grunt mission to one of the moons of Mars – the crash could impact Russia’s moon programme, which envisages several more missions over coming years including a possible joint effort with China.

Source: https://www.reuters.com/business/aerospace-defense/russias-moon-mission-falters-after-problem-entering-pre-landing-orbit-2023-08-20/

Russia reports ‘abnormal situation’ at Luna-25 spacecraft

Russia is racing against India to make an ambitious landing on the moon’s south pole, with its rival having launched its own lunar lander Chandrayaan-3 last month. Space agencies like NASA have detected frozen water in the area’s craters before, but no country has ever ventured there.

Russia launches Moon mission

Russia has reported an “abnormal situation” at its moon-bound spacecraft which launched earlier this month.

Luna-25 is an unmanned robot lander and the country’s first mission to the lunar surface in almost 50 years.

It’s targeting a historic touchdown at the moon’s south pole on Monday, but appears to have run into unspecified trouble while preparing for a pre-landing orbit.

Russia’s space agency, Roscosmos, said its specialists were analysing the situation.

No further details have been provided.

It comes a week after the craft’s data-collecting equipment was switched on following its launch from Russia’s Vostochny cosmodrome in the country’s far eastern Amur region.

The size of a small car, it blasted off on a Soyuz rocket and entered the moon’s orbit on Wednesday. It’s since sent back photos of the Zeeman crater, the third deepest in the lunar surface’s southern hemisphere.

Russia hopes when Luna-25 lands, it will spend a year collecting samples of rock and dust to get a sense of whether the moon could support a permanent base for humans.

This snap taken by Luna-25 shows the Zeeman crater on the far side of the moon

Historic trip to find water ice

The region where it’s aiming to land is known for its rough terrain, but is also thought to hold pockets of water ice.

If it does, it could be used for fuel, oxygen, and drinking water, potentially allowing for longer human trips.

Russia is racing against India to make the ambitious landing, with its rival having launched its own lunar lander Chandrayaan-3 last month.

Roscosmos has been keen to prove itself as a “space superpower” since the invasion of Ukraine saw its experts lose access to Western technology.

Source: https://news.sky.com/story/russia-reports-abnormal-situation-at-luna-25-spacecraft-12943243

 

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