Daily Archives: July 27, 2022

Russias plan to leave the International Space Station (ISS) in the near future is just one step in the evolution of space exploration as it reaches a turning point, experts say.

Despite headlines generated by Tuesdays announcement by the new head of the Russian space agency, experts said they were not surprised. The agency has been saying it plans to leave for years, long before the recent invasion of Ukraine, those observers said though this time it seems Russian President Vladimir Putin is also on board, suggesting the announcement is more than a bluff.

In the words of Marcia Smith, a U.S. veteran policy analyst, all the ISS partners are going to leave after 2024, its just a matter of when.

But with NASA exploring privatizing space, China building its own space station, and Russia investing in space weapons, the Kremlins exit would be a small move at a time of transition in the future of space.

A home base for astronauts and cosmonauts in low-Earth orbit, the ISS is an initiative mostly between U.S. and Russia, with support from international partners. Russia runs one section of the football-field-sized station, with a second run by the U.S. and the other countries.

The outpost was built by launching pieces into space and attaching them in orbit starting in 1998. The first crew arrived on Nov. 2, 2000, according to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), and the ISS has been continuously occupied ever since.

The space station has long symbolized international collaboration. The U.S. plans to continue its mission in the ISS for the next eight years, but its future is unclear after that.

NASA is committed to the safe operation of the International Space Station through 2030, and is co-ordinating with our partners. NASA has not been made aware of decisions from any of the partners, though we are continuing to build future capabilities to assure our major presence in low-Earth orbit, said an email statement attributed to NASA administrator Bill Nelson.

(Russia has yet to give written notice as is required a year in advance of its intention to leave the ISS, said Victoria Samson, Washington office director for the Secure World Foundation, a U.S.-based non-profit group focused on space sustainability.)

Meanwhile, NASA is experimenting with commercial orbiting stations.

NASA has said after it ends this ISS program, it will not do another station and itll leave low-Earth orbit to the private sector So were at a transition point, said John Logsdon, founder and former director of the Space Policy Institute at George Washington University.

Depending on when Russia leaves, there could be challenges in keeping the ISS running. The remaining partners would have to get more familiar with operating the Russian-run section on their own, said Smith.

Jordan Bimm, a historian of science at the University of Chicago, told the Associated Press that its unclear what Russian technology that country will leave operational and what it might disable or remove. The most immediate problem might be how to boost the ISS periodically to maintain its orbit, he said right now, its Russian spacecraft that arrive with cargo and crew members to help align the station and raise its orbit.

In response to a request for interview, the Canadian Space Agency, one partner in the non-Russian section, sent an email statement saying its committed to the safe operation of the International Space Station (and) is aware of press reports but has not been made aware of decisions from any of the partners.

One possibility is that Russia could sell its services to the ISS, said Smith, noting the U.S. previously paid Russia tens of millions of dollars to move crews back and forth from the station.

For its part, Russia has said it plans to build its own station, something critics say is unlikely for lack of funding.

But Russia also has a fast-moving program for counter-space capabilities, Samson says in other words, space weapons. Last November, Russia deliberately shot a missile to destroy one of its own satellites in a test, creating more than 1,500 pieces of debris.

My concern is if Russia doesnt have a healthy outlet for its space interests theyre going to put all their eggs in the basket of counter-space, which I dont think would be good for anyone from a global security viewpoint.

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Russias exit from ISS shows that space exploration is reaching a turning point, experts say - Toronto Star

The Korea Pathfinder Lunar Orbiter (KPLO), officially named Danuri, is the Korea Aerospace Research Institute's (KARI) first exploratory space mission outside of Earth's orbit.

Danuri will launch on Aug. 2, 2022, atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida. The launch is scheduled for approximately 7:30 p.m. EDT (2330 GMT). You'll be able to enjoy all the launch action here on Space.com and details on how to watch the launch online will be released closer to the time.

The spacecraft is expected to reach the moon in mid-December. It will then orbit our rocky companion for about a year, taking measurements of the lunar surface and identifying potential landing sites for future missions, according to NASA (opens in new tab). Data collected from Danuri will also help support the planning of NASA's Artemis program.

Related: Where will NASA set up its moon base?

Danuri: Key facts

Launch date: August 2, 2022

Launch vehicle: Falcon 9

Launch site: Cape Canaveral, Florida

Mass: 1,495 lbs (678 kilograms)

Target: Moon

Funding agency: Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI)

Notable firsts: South Korea's first lunar mission

Danuri is a joint mission between KARI and NASA with KARI managing the manufacturing and operation of the orbiter while NASA supports the mission with the development of one of the scientific payloads as well as aiding spacecraft communications and navigation, according to an agreement signed in 2016.

"The KPLO Participating Scientist Program is an example of how international collaborations can leverage the talents of two space agencies, to achieve greater science and exploration success than individual missions," says Dr. Sang-Ryool Lee, the KPLO Project Manager, in a NASA statement (opens in new tab).

"It's fantastic that the Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI) lunar mission has NASA as a partner in space exploration we're excited to see the new knowledge and opportunities that will arise from the KPLO mission as well as from future joint KARINASA activities," Lee added.

The name Danuri is a combination of two Korean words "dal" which means moon and "nuri" which means enjoy, according to NASA Spaceflight (opens in new tab).

According to the NASA statement, the three main goals of the mission are:

The KPLO will carry six payloads: Five developed by Korean universities and research organizations and one from NASA. They are a Lunar Terrain Imager (LUTI), a Wide-Angle Polarimetric Camera (PolCam), a Magnetometer (KMAG) a Gamma-Ray Spectrometer (KGRS), the Disruption Tolerant Network Experiment Payload (DTNPL) and a highly sensitive camera developed by NASA called ShadowCam (opens in new tab).

NASA's ShadowCam will be used to map reflectance within permanently shadowed regions at the lunar poles to help shed light on the possible presence of frost or ice deposits on the moon's surface. ShadowCam is 800 times more sensitive than the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Narrow Angle Camera on which it's based.

Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom (opens in new tab) and Facebook (opens in new tab).

Explore the scientific experiments onboard Danuri with the NASA Space Science Coordinated Archive (opens in new tab). Read about the mission in more detail (opens in new tab) with the Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI).

If you fancy taking a moon-lit tour of our rocky companion for yourself, our ultimate guide to observing the moon will help you plan your next skywatching venture whether it be exploring the lunar seas, mountainous terrain, or the many craters that blanket the landscape. You can also see where astronauts, rovers and landers have ventured with our Apollo landing sites observing guide.

Kanayama, L. (2022, May 28). Kari names KPLO as it begins communication testing. NASASpaceFlight.com. Retrieved July 26, 2022, from http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2022/05/kplo-name-testing/

NASA. (n.d.). Korea Pathfinder Lunar Orbiter (KPLO). NASA. Retrieved July 26, 2022, from http://www.nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/nmc/spacecraft/display.action?id=KPLO

Opening of a New Chapter for Korea-US Space Cooperation Signing of Korea-US Lunar Probe Implementation Agreement (December 30). Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI). (2016, December 31). Retrieved July 26, 2022, from http://www.kari.re.kr/cop/bbs/BBSMSTR_000000000031/selectBoardArticle.do?nttId=5999&pageIndex=1&mno=sitemap_02&searchCnd=&searchWrd=

Talbert, T. (Ed.). (2021, March 31). NASA selects nine scientists to join Korea pathfinder Lunar Orbiter. NASA. Retrieved July 26, 2022, from http://www.nasa.gov/feature/nasa-selects-nine-scientists-to-join-korea-pathfinder-lunar-orbiter-mission

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Danuri: Facts about the Korea Pathfinder Lunar Orbiter (KPLO) - Space.com

The first breathtaking images from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) have been arriving this month and last week we got its inaugural scientific discovery a galaxy thats 13.5 billion years old. In these photos, we see the infant light of distant space. We are time traveling to the dawn of existence itself, seeing the universe as it was long before even the earliest life forms were here. Golden, blue, and iridescent hues contrast with an abyss of darkness; the pentagonal points of stars and the swirling spirals of nebulae show us the cosmos in technicolor. Each magnificent frame is brimming with celestial marvels any of these myriad dots may hold entire unknown civilizations, past, present, and future. There are infinite mysteries to explore.

As I eagerly awaited the first photos from the JWST, I thought about how different this endeavor feels from other technological achievements. We are unabashedly standing in wonder in a way we rarely get to do a collective human triumph that has been sorely missing from our experience.

The JWST is the largest telescope ever sent into space. A giant mirror that collects light from the cosmos, it was launched from French Guiana in December and unfurled itself like a massive golden honeycomb amid the stars. It traveled nearly a million miles before settling into position on the opposite side of the Earth from the sun. In its new home orbit, JWST is in constant communication with its joint international mission team of NASA, the Canadian Space Agency, and the European Space Agency.

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The JWST was made real by the work of more than 20,000 people over two decades, standing on the shoulders of many who came before. Its deployment had 344 single points of failure had any one of them failed, it could have ended the entire mission. This technological miracle has ushered in the next frontier of deep space exploration.

Not all of our inventions have lived up to their promise or served a greater humane purpose. Today, some of our technology is threatening to overwhelm us. Digital tools are leveraged by tyrants to expand unprecedented surveillance states. Social media is atomizing us, exacerbating polarization, amplifying the most extreme and vitriolic voices, and spreading hate and disinformation like wildfire as we scroll screens and feeds mired in context collapse. Autonomous weapons systems with the capacity to annihilate, like drone swarms, are on the market. Giant technology companies brandish untold power as quasi-kingdoms without adequate regulation or ethical guardrails.

However, the JWSTs manifestation of human brilliance was not built to be a tool of power, profit, or persuasion for the wealthiest and most powerful. It doesnt measure our esteem in follower counts. It cannot be utilized to track our movements, and it will not discriminate on the basis of race or sex. It will not skew elections, nor is it designed to sell us something.

The JWST is an international scientific mission with no overt motive other than the reward of wisdom. It only transports humans metaphorically; we are not central to its findings. Its purpose is to enlighten, to enhance our knowledge, to shine a spotlight on the deepest recesses and corners of solar systems, to allow us to study planets and the climates of galaxies unknown to us not to validate our own greatness, but rather to revel in what is beyond us. To convey to us the vastness of time and space, and, in turn, to impress upon humanity how very small our place is within it. To keep us humble, and in awe.

With a $10 billion price tag, years of delays, and a controversial namesake, the JWST did not come into being unencumbered by struggles or tumult. Its no panacea. But it still gives a glimpse as to what our technology could be at its finest, a faint outline of what we might be: co-inhabitants of our tiny, pale blue dot; floating through time and space; tethered together on our only home. Imperfect, limited, and flawed, but part of something bigger than ourselves.

Our estrangement from the natural world and each other is our most existential danger. Our planet is our temple our sacred and only home. To acknowledge the immensity of the universe around us is not just to admire a thing of beauty; this humility is also essential for our species granting us an understanding of our place and our responsibility to each other and the world around us. The JWST gives me hope that together we can imagine the possibilities and make good on a plan for securing a livable future. It shows me what we are capable of, however short we often fall.

This article was updated on July 27 to delete an incorrect reference to the size of the telescope.

Flynn Coleman is a human rights attorney who has had fellowships at Harvard and Yale and is the author of A Human Algorithm: How Artificial Intelligence is Redefining Who We Are. Follow her on Twitter @FlynnColeman.

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The James Webb Space Telescope is giving humanity what we need right now - The Boston Globe

Hyundai Motors robotics vision unveiled at 2022 CES in Jan. (Hyundai Motor)

Through this joint research, they will not only develop technologies needed to make mobility for moon surface exploration but also come up with specific strategies and methods to operate such mobility on the harsh environmental and geographical conditions of the moon, according to Hyundai Motor.

The moon has millions of large and small craters on its surface caused by collisions with meteorites, comets, and asteroids.

In addition, the moon is exposed to the radiation of the universe, which makes its weather more extreme. The moon has temperatures between 130 degrees Celcius and minus 170 degrees Celcius and is exposed to fine yet sharp dust.

The South Korean carmaker lined up its renowned robot-development team at Hyundai Robotics Lab, as well as those that have expertise in making equipment needed for space exploration.

Hyundai Motor and Kia hope to take the lead in securing mobility-related future technologies through this joint research and development and actualize their mobility vision.

At CES 2022, the carmaker unveiled its plans for next-generation robotics dedicated to expanding human reach beyond limitations.

This can be seen as our first step to achieving our robotics vision. By preemptively preparing for the future that will someday come to us, we will put effort into making Korea lead the technology of the space era, and further expand the realm of mobility experience to contribute to human progress, said an official from Hyundai Motor and Kia.

Hyundai Motor and Kia expect the joint research to kick off in August at the earliest.

The government-funded research institutes to take part in this joint research are Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute, Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute, Korea Institute of Civil Engineering and Building Technology, Korea Aerospace Research Institute, Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute and Korea Automotive Technology Institute.

By Hong Yoo (yoohong@heraldcorp.com)

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Hyundai Motor to join moon surface exploration - The Korea Herald

In October 2003 satellite controllers lost track of hundreds of spacecraft for days after a major solar storm hit Earth. Experts worry that with the increase in the number of satellites and debris orbiting the planet in the nearly twenty years since, the next big solar storm could throw the near-Earth space into chaos for weeks.

The U.S. Space Surveillance Network (SSN) currently tracks about 20,000 objects larger than 4 inches (10 centimeters) in low Earth orbit, the region of space at altitudes below 620 miles (1,000 kilometers). Some of these objects are operational satellites, but most are defunct spacecraft, spent rocket stages and debris fragments created in collisions. SSN experts use radar measurements to maintain a catalog that enables them to keep tabs on where these objects are in space and project their trajectories into the future. When two objects, for example a piece of space debris and a satellite, look set to get dangerously close to each other, the satellite operator receives a warning. In some cases, they conduct avoidance maneuvers to prevent a crash.

But there is a catch. The positions of those objects are not always accurate and this uncertainty increases during solar storms, sometimes to a point where accurate collision predictions are impossible.

"In the largest storms, the errors in the orbital trajectories become so large that, essentially, the catalog of orbital objects is invalidated," Tom Berger, a solar physicist and director of the Space Weather Technology Center at the University of Colorado, Boulder, told Space.com. "The objects can be tens of kilometers away from the positions last located by radar. They are essentially lost, and the only solution is to find them again with radar."

Related: Wild solar weather is causing satellites to plummet from orbit. It's only going to get worse.

This uncertainty is a result of changes in density of Earth's thermosphere, the upper layer of the atmosphere at altitudes of 60 to 370 miles (100 to 600 km). Thin gasses at those altitudes interact with particles emitted by the sun in coronal mass ejections (CMEs), large eruptions of magnetized plasma from the sun's upper atmosphere, the corona. These interactions heat up the thermosphere and make it swell. The denser gasses from lower altitudes move higher up where satellites suddenly experience stronger drag, which changes their speed and pulls them toward Earth.

Berger, who described his concerns in a paper called Flying Through Uncertainty, published in 2020 in the journal Space Weather, is not alone in having concerns about the effects of a major solar storm.

"When we get a very big event and we see an intense heating of the [upper] atmosphere, satellites are not going to be where they're supposed to be," Bill Murtagh, the program coordinator of the Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC) of the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), told Space.com.

"There's going to be some extraordinary drag on those spacecraft and it's not going to be uniform at a given location at a given height. It's going to vary over time with the extraordinary dynamics of [the solar storm]. It's certainly going to be a challenge during one of these big events."

Fortunately, such powerful solar storms don't happen that often. Since the so-called Halloween storms in October 2003, Earth has enjoyed a period of rather mild space weather. In 2012, however, our planet was just nine days away from being hit by a CME that would have sparked a solar storm of the century.

Still, the relatively low frequency of these events is no solace to space safety experts, who dread what would happen if we were to lose control of the orbital positions of satellites in today's increasingly busy space environment. When the Halloween storms of 2003 hit, Berger said, there were only about 5,000 tracked objects in low Earth orbit, and despite the loss of control over the situation, no collisions were reported. But the number of objects in this vulnerable region of space has increased four times since 2003, and with it the risk of orbital crashes.

"A typical satellite operator may now be spending 30 to 50% of their time dealing with collision alerts," said Berger. "Low Earth orbit satellite operators receive about one warning per day now. About one per week is serious enough to analyze in greater detail, and about every few weeks they have to maneuver to reduce the probability of the collision. It wasn't like that in the past."

With the enormous uncertainty about positions of satellites and debris objects in the aftermath of a major solar storm, spacecraft operators might just "throw up their hands," keep their fingers crossed and wait for the Space Surveillance Network to retrace the objects piece by piece, Berger said.

Most modern satellites are equipped with GPS receivers, which will enable the operators to maintain some knowledge of the satellites' positions (although solar storms can cause GPS blackouts and significant inaccuracies in the position readings). But debris objects dont have GPS and can only be located with radar. Even with the increased investment into new tracking radars and the emergence of commercial players in the field of debris monitoring in recent years, it might take weeks to fully restore today's much larger catalog, said Berger.

During those weeks, spacecraft operators are not likely to sleep well, and it's not just about the risk of damage to any single spacecraft. For several years now, the space safety community has been ringing the alarm bells about the growing amount of debris in low Earth orbit. This debris, together with the increase in the number of operational satellites over the past decade (a result of the advent of mega-constellations such as SpaceX's Starlink), threatens the sustainability of orbital operations.

Experts think that the early stages of the so-called Kessler syndrome, an unstoppable cascade of collisions that can render the orbital environment so unsafe that it would be unusable, are already underway.

A few unlucky strikes during a period of chaos in the wake of a powerful solar storm may easily tip the scale. And then? In the worst case, a scenario akin to the plot of the 2013 Oscar-winning movie Gravity could unfold while the world would watch on helplessly.

"Without significant improvements in [space traffic management] and space weather forecasting technology, there is a real risk that we will reach exponentially increasing levels of cascading collisions that could render the [low Earth orbit] domain unusable for decades or possibly centuries," Berger and his colleagues wrote in their 2020 paper, adding that such a situation would have "devastating consequences for weather forecasting, space-based intelligence, and space commerce.

A solar storm with the power to cause all that will certainly come. One day. Berger hopes that if we avoid one for at least the next five years, the space weather forecasting community will be able to improve their models of the upper atmosphere to account for the changes in drag caused by space weather events. Such models, in turn, would enable spacecraft operators (and the Space Surveillance Network), to keep track of things in space with a sufficient level of reliability even in the middle of the most powerful geomagnetic upheavals caused by solar storms.

Last year, NOAA introduced what they call the Whole Atmosphere Model, which extends the regular weather-forecasting model up to the altitude of about 370 miles (600 km). So far, the lack of measurements at these altitudes limits the accuracy and reliability of the model's output, Tzu-Wei Fang, a space weather scientist at NOAA, admitted to Space.com in an earlier interview.

In the meantime, as the sun wakes up after a lengthy sleepy period and produces more sunspots, solar flares and CMEs, spacecraft operators are already feeling the pinch. In February, SpaceX lost 40 brand new Starlink satellites after launching into what has been described as a rather mild geomagnetic storm. The European Space Agency reported earlier this year that its Swarm satellites, which measure Earth's magnetic field from the altitude of about 270 miles (430 km), have been sinking ten times faster since December 2021 than in all the previous years since their launch in 2013.

SpaceX, after the loss of its satellites, agreed to provide NOAA with data about the drag experienced by their satellites to help finetune the forecasting models. Such cooperation between satellite operators and agencies, according to Berger, may provide a useful way forward.

"The profusion of satellites with GPS, like Starlink, in this sense could be a benefit," said Berger, whose team cooperates with NOAA on the development of the models. "The GPS gives you precise orbital data, which we can use to infer the density of the upper atmosphere. These data points would help us to push our model into agreement with the actual conditions, just like it's done with normal weather models. If we make sure that the model continually tracks the actual conditions, we can hopefully extend the predictions out to six to 12 hours into the future with a decent level of accuracy."

Murtagh, however, warns that a powerful solar storm can come at any time and with little advance warning. The Halloween storm of 2003, during which tens of satellites got temporarily lost, arrived as the sun's 11-year cycle of activity was waning and heading toward a minimum.

"The sun was really unremarkable [prior to the storms]," Murtagh said. "We had no idea what was going to happen just one week later."

Although the sun has been pelting Earth with CMEs at regular intervals since the beginning of time, it's only been rather recently that humankind became dependent on technologies that are vulnerable to such outbursts.

The two most extreme solar storms in known history both happened before the era of space exploration started. The so-called Carrington Event of 1859 famously triggered auroras that were visible all the way to the Caribbean and knocked out telegraph networks all over Europe and America.

The so-called New York Railroad Storm in May 1921, set afire multiple telegraph hubs all over the world, including one at the Grand Central Terminal railway station in New York.

Both of these storms were up to an order of magnitude more powerful than the Halloween storm of 2003.

"If something like the 1921 storm occurred today, it could have a very serious impact on orbital operations for weeks, not just hours or days," said Berger. "And because we know that we're going to get hit by a major storm at some point, we need to be doing the research to improve the models and make sure they can forecast the changes that happen in these geomagnetic storms better than they can now."

Follow Tereza Pultarova on Twitter @TerezaPultarova. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.

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Satellites can get lost in major solar storms and it could take weeks to find them - Space.com