Daily Archives: February 5, 2022

A high-definition image of the Mars Australe lava plain on the Moon taken by Japans Kaguya lunar orbiter in November 2007. Credit: JAXA/NHK

The Moon is set to gain one more crater. A leftover SpaceX Falcon 9 upper stage will impact the lunar surface in early March, marking the first time that a human-made debris item unintentionally reaches our natural satellite.

In 2015 the Falcon 9 placed NOAAs DSCOVR climate observatory around the L1 Lagrange point, one of five such gravitationally-stable points between Earth and the Sun. Having reached L1, around 1.5 million km from Earth, the missions upper stage ended up pointed away from Earth into interplanetary space.

Artists impression of DSCOVR on the way to L1 on its Falcon 9 upper stage in 2015. Credit: SpaceX

This rendered a deorbit burn to dispose of it in our planets atmosphere impractical, while the upper stage also lacked sufficient velocity to escape the Earth-Moon system. Instead, it was left in a chaotic Sun-orbiting orbit near the two bodies.

Now credible public estimates forecast its impact with the Moon on March 4, 2022, at 12:25:39 UTC at a point on the lunar far side near the equator. Follow-up observations should sharpen the accuracy of the forecast, but the approximately 3 ton, 15 m long by 3 m wide upper stage is currently projected to hit at a speed about 2.58 km/s.

There are locations around a planets orbit where the gravitational forces and the orbital motion of the Sun and planet interact to create a stable location, from where a spacecraft can reside with little effort from the operators on the ground to keep it in place. These points are known as Lagrangian or L points, after the 18th century Italian astronomer and mathematician Joseph-Louis Lagrange (born Giuseppe Luigi Lagrancia). Credit: ESA

The European Ariane 5 that recently delivered the James Webb Space Telescope to its observing point flew a mirror trajectory to that of the Falcon 9 but the good news is that its upper stage has already evaded a comparable fate thanks to a specifically developed and qualified maneuver.

Europes Ariane 5 delivered the James Webb Space Telescope to L2, the second Sun-Earth Lagrange point behind instead of in front of our planet but after separating from Webb the upper stage used all its remaining fuel to escape the Earth-Moon system entirely, putting it into a stable heliocentric orbit.

Looking back to Earth from DSCOVRs Falcon 9 upper stage on the way to L1. Just before sunset at 6:03pm ET on February 11, 2015, Falcon 9 lifted off from SpaceXs Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida, carrying the Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR) satellite on SpaceXs first deep-space mission. Credit: SpaceX

Human-made objects have intentionally impacted the Moon before, starting as early as the 1950s, including Apollo upper stages used to induce moonquakes for surface seismometers.

In 2009 NASA crashed its LCROSS mission into the Moon, revealing water in the resulting debris plume, with the LADEE spacecraft doing the same on the lunar farside in 2013. ESAs Smart-1 spacecraft was crashed into the Moon in 2006, the subject of a worldwide observing campaign.

In 2009 NASAs LCROSS mission deployed a Centaur upper stage to intentionally impact the Moon before going on to crash into the lunar surface itself. The resulting debris plumes were observed from Earth, revealing water ice and other volatiles. Credit: NASA

This forthcoming Falcon 9 impact is a little beyond our usual area of interest, because we are mainly focused on the debris population in highly-trafficked low-Earth orbits, up to 2000 km altitude, as well as geosynchronous orbits around 35 000 km away, explains Tim Flohrer of ESAs Space Debris Office.

Our colleagues in the ESA Planetary Defence Office peer further into space, however. They use telescopes around the globe to track Near-Earth asteroids, and sometimes observe human-made objects as well. Extending our own remit into the cislunar space between Earth and the Moon has been discussed, due to the increasing use of the scientifically vital Sun-Earth Lagrange points in coming years.

This illustration shows ESAs SMART-1 spacecraft making scientific observations in orbit around the Moon. SMART-1 was launched in September 2003 and will conclude its mission through a small lunar impact on September 3, 2006. Credit: ESA C. Carreau

Detlef Koschny, heading ESAs Planetary Defence Office, adds: We use telescopic observations to pinpoint the orbits, mainly of natural objects in the space surrounding Earth. Occasionally, we also pick up man-made objects far away from the Earth, such as lunar exploration spacecraft remnants, and objects returning from Lagrange points.

Webb will orbit the second Lagrange point (L2), 1.5 million kilometers from Earth in the direction away from the Sun. There, its sunshield can always block light and heat from both the Sun and Earth from reaching its telescope and instruments. L2 is not a fixed point, but follows Earth around the Sun. Credit: ESA

For international spacefarers, no clear guidelines exist at the moment to regulate the disposal at end of life for spacecraft or spent upper stages sent to Lagrange points. Potentially crashing into the Moon or returning and burning up in Earths atmosphere have so far been the most straightforward default options.

The upcoming Falcon 9 lunar impact illustrates well the need for a comprehensive regulatory regime in space, not only for the economically crucial orbits around Earth but also applying to the Moon, says Holger Krag, Head of ESAs Space Safety Program.

Artists view of Ariane 6 and Vega-C. Credit: ESA D. Ducros

It would take international consensus to establish effective regulations, but Europe can certainly lead the way.

All the launchers developed by ESA during the last decade Vega, Ariane 6 and Vega C incorporate a built-in reignition capability, which ensures the safe return to Earth for atmospheric burn-up of their upper stages.

Since March 2017, the NELIOTA project has been monitoring the dark side of the Moon for flashes of light caused by tiny pieces of rock striking the Moons surface. This sequence of 12 consecutive frames shows a bright flash detected on 4 frames during observations on 1 March 2017. The red arrows point to the location of the impact flash, near the edge of the frame. Credit: NELIOTA project

Space rocks hit the Moon all the time. Researchers are interested in quantifying the frequency of these natural lunar impacts. Using a system developed through an ESA contract, the Greek NELIOTA project (Near-Earth object Lunar Impacts and Optical TrAnsients) detects flashes of light caused by small bodies striking the Moons surface, particularly across its shadowed face. NELIOTA can determine the temperature of these impact flashes as well as their brightness. From this, the impacting mass can be estimated.

The Kryoneri Observatory the worlds largest eye on the Moon. Credit: Theofanis Matsopoulos

ESAs Space Safety program is interested in this research as a way of assessing the number of incoming objects ranging in size from tens of centimeters to meters across. This is useful because the precise number of objects in this range is not known very well.

This research might also be valuable for future lunar colonists. One of the dangers they might face is small meteoroids doing damage to their infrastructure NELIOTA results are helping to quantify the danger. Without an atmosphere to burn up such bodies, it is likely that future permanent lunar structures will be underground, to provide shielding against impacts as well as space radiation.

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Incoming! SpaceX Falcon 9 Rocket on Collision Course With the Moon - SciTechDaily

The International Space Station (ISS) will retire at the end of this decade and replacement efforts for the same are well underway. However, there is a twist. This time around, instead of an intergovernmental space station, a potentially private one is likely to be sent into the low Earth orbit.

The US space agency NASA is encouraging private firms to make a strong foothold in the space industry. NASA veteran Michael Suffredinis company Axiom Space is at the forefront of the effort to make a privately-owned space station operational. And it plans on making this space station 97% cheaper than the ISS.

The ISS is almost three decades old and is about to retire. NASA believes that with upgrades, the station can go on to remain operational till 2028 or slightly longer than that. There are no plans for another intergovernmental successor to ISS as of yet.

Instead, NASA is encouraging commercial replacements, in a bid to create an ecosystem where the agency pays the firms behind these replacements for services such as hosting astronauts or conducting research in microgravity.

NASA calls the plan for this enterprise, the Commercial Low-Earth-Orbit Destinations (CLD) project.

In October last year, a consortium led by Lockheed Martin announced its plans to build a permanently crewed commercial space station named Starlab. They plan on launching it into orbit around Earth by 2027.

Soon, Jeff Bezos firm Blue Origin also unveiled plans for Orbital Reef, a joint venture with Boeing and some other firms. The Reef will host up to 10 people and is supposed to serve as a mixed-use business park. This orbiting industrial estate is expected to open by the end of the decade.

Although private-enterprise missions such as the ones offered by Elon Musks rocketry firm SpaceX have existed for several years, these projects are significant because they are planned on a much grander scale.

It is projected that sometime this decade, these efforts are likely to result in the first real colonization of outer space by private enterprise.

NASA awarded a $140 million contract to Houston-based Axiom Space, which has already started manufacturing parts of a station. In March, Axiom Space will send the first-ever private mission to ISS.

The mission comprising a team of researchers will conduct key studies and experiments. This first mission, named Axiom-1, has received permission from NASA and has secured a Dragon spacecraft from SpaceX.

However, the bigger plan is to send modules for a space station over a period of a couple of years to put the first private space station in Earths orbit.

The first module is slated to be launched in September 2024. The plan is to let it dock at one of the ISSs two ports. In the span of six months, it will be joined by a second module and then, the third one in another six months.

After a fourth and final module, to be equipped to generate extra solar power, arrive in 2027, Axiom Station will separate itself and become a free flyer with nearly double the usable volume of the ISS.

The Axiom Station will be significantly cheaper than the ISS, which cost $100 billion. Additionally, it costs NASA around $3.5 billion every year simply to maintain and operate the station.

This covers about three-fouth of the cost, with the rest being paid by Canada, Japan, Russia, and other participating European countries. In contrast, Axiom Spaces co-founder Michael Suffredini expects their space station the first four modules and a power tower to cost about $3 billion.

Axioms low cost is partly due to the scraping off of the waste that is found often in government spending. In addition to that, the firm is using lessons learned from the ISS to cut costs for things such as blocking radiation, recycling urine to recovering water from rubbish.

Another influencing factor is the fact that technology has evolved and much of the kit is cheaper and better now than in the 1990s when the ISS was designed. The Axiom station will be using lots of easily available components developed for smartphones and cars.

Axiom claims it has a distinct advantage over its competitors: it can rely upon the expertise of its employees with the ISS and its power source. However, it will face stricter security requirements compared to free-flying space stations because it will be attached to the ISS at least in the initial stages.

Its revenue model relies upon making money from offering space tourism. The company has also said that most of its revenues will eventually come from companies and industries that want to take advantage of a microgravity environment.

UK-based studio Space Entertainment Enterprise (SEE), which is producing Tom Cruises upcoming unnamed space movie, has already announced a deal with Axiom to build an in-orbit studio.

Suffredini also has bigger goals in mind. According to him, if the plan stays on track, then the goal for the second half of the century would be to have cities in orbit with schools, stores, ponds, and parks spinning around to create artificial gravity with centrifugal force.

For now, that is a couple of decades away and what one does have to look forward to is the flight in March which is being organized by Axiom Space and will be done using a SpaceX Dragon 2 a semi-reusable spacecraft. While it has experience with flying government astronauts for NASA, this will be the Dragons first time taking a private crew into space.

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Worlds First Private Space Station: As ISS Nears Retirement, Hi-Tech Corporates Vie To Build The Next Space Base - EurAsian Times

While governments continue to focus on building planned housing for the rich & the middle class and relocation of slum clusters, unauthorised colonies, which are somewhere in between, are left behind as missing piece of the mainstream housing discourse. Instead of focusing on regularisation of unauthorised colonies only during the election season, consistent efforts must be made for monitoring successful implementation of the scheme. This will provide relief to thousands of families in a time-bound manner, enabling them to tap into additional financial opportunities and welfare benefits.

The II and III-tier cities in India also need to focus on provisioning for low-income/affordable housing to avoid vast pockets of land within the city from becoming unauthorised colonies.

A sound regularisation programme with dedicated handholding support is the only way forward to enable upgradation of these colonies. This programme must be holistically planned with proper provisioning for basic infrastructure and social services by the local authorities in close consultation with residents.

This way, the government has a golden opportunity to recognise the inherent and organic way in which the city-makers, ie, the poor, have built the city over decades, which the post-colonial understanding of city planning in the Global South has historically ignored.

(Aditya Ajith and Ritu Kataria are co-founders of Corurban Foundation, a social impact organization based out of Delhi-NCR working on providing access to infrastructure in rural and urban low-income communities. This is an opinion article and the views expressed are the authors' own. The Quint neither endorses nor is responsible for them.)

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Delhis Unauthorised Colonies: An Issue Only for the Election Season? - The Quint