Daily Archives: August 29, 2022

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. The enormous Space Launch System (SLS), NASA's new moon rocket, is finally ready to fly.

SLS is scheduled to lift off this morning (Aug. 29) on Artemis 1, the first mission in NASA's Artemis program of moon exploration. If all goes according to plan, the 322-foot-tall (98 meters) rocket will lift off at 8:33 a.m. EDT (1233 GMT) from NASA's Kennedy Space Center (KSC) here on the Space Coast, sending an uncrewed Orion capsule on a six-week journey to lunar orbit and back.

Seeing SLS on the pad is surreal for space fans, who for years had to make do with renderings of the powerful launcher. And those digital illustrations and animations have changed over time, along with the envisioned purpose and destinations of the deep-space rocket.

Related: NASA's Artemis 1 moon mission: Live updates

More: NASA's Artemis 1 moon mission explained in photos

NASA began developing the SLS in 2011, just after the cancellation of its Constellation moon program, which would have used an Ares rocket to send Orion to the International Space Station (ISS), the moon and eventually Mars.

Back then, development of the giant rocket was budgeted at $10 billion, with an expected debut voyage in late 2016 (opens in new tab). But development costs, budget issues, design changes, political hurdles and other bumps in the road delayed the rocket's first launch to 2017, then 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021 and, finally, to 2022.

A lot has happened in space over the decade-plus of SLS development, including the emergence of commercial cargo and commercial crew missions to the ISS, the introduction of reusable rockets by SpaceX and an exponential buildup of new private space companies. So far in 2022, there have been 37 launches from KSC, the overwhelming majority of them conducted by SpaceX Falcon 9 rockets.

In 2016 the same year that SLS was originally supposed to launch for the first time SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk revealed the company's design for its next-generation deep-space transportation system, a huge rocket-spaceship combo known as Starship.

Starship will be the most powerful launch vehicle ever built when it comes online, Musk has said. Ultimately, he envisions hundreds of Starships landing a million people on Mars in the coming decades. So far, only a handful of the company's Starship prototypes have gotten off the ground, none of them on orbital test flights. But a full stack Starship orbital test flight is expected before the end of this year.

If that mission is successful, SpaceX will have taken its super heavy-lift vehicle from the drawing board and into space in far less time than it took NASA to do the same with the SLS. SpaceX's goal is to build an entire fleet of Starships and launch multiple vehicles on a daily basis, at an average launch cost of $1 million or thereabouts.

NASA sees considerable potential in Starship, last year tapping the vehicle as its lunar lander for Artemis 3, which aims to put astronauts down near the moon's south pole in 2025 or 2026.

Related: SpaceX fires up Starship Super Heavy booster again in long engine test

By contrast, the framework of the Artemis program, paired with construction timelines for a full SLS/Orion stack, puts the NASA rocket on a launch cadence of about once every two years. Also, SLS is not built for reuse. The entire vehicle, sans Orion, is based on space shuttle era technology. SLS' core stage boasts the familiar orange tint of the shuttle's main fuel tank, with a diameter to match, though the SLS tank is taller to accommodate higher volumes. SLS' two solid rocket boosters are also scaled-up versions of their shuttle counterparts. The rocket's main engines are leftover RS-25 engines made for and flown on previous space shuttle missions.

A report from NASA's Office of Inspector General released in November 2021 outlines just how much development costs increased for SLS between its first iteration and now, and revealed how expensive each SLS launch will be. According to the report (opens in new tab), NASA will end up spending a total of $93 billion on the Artemis program between 2012 and 2025, and each SLS/Orion launch will have a price tag of about $4.1 billion.

Where has all that money been going? And, if Starship is more powerful, more capable, costs less and launches more often, will SLS be rendered obsolete the moment Starship becomes operational?

The short answer is yes. The long answer is also yes, but with some important caveats.

For one thing, SLS development has engaged many different partners around the United States and the world. A map on NASA's website pinpoints contributing contractors in every U.S. state and over 20 partners across Europe. Part of the Artemis program's $93 billion price tag is distributed to those companies and their workers.

Keeping those aerospace industry jobs going became a yearly focus for many in the U.S. Congress hoping to boost their political standing with constituents and district aerospace companies. This helps give SLS and the Artemis program staying power.

In her recent book "Escaping Gravity" (Diversion Books, 2022), former NASA Deputy Administrator Lori Garver describes the symbiotic back scratching that takes place between Congress and the aerospace industry as "a self-licking ice cream cone," and it goes back to the space shuttle era and earlier. (This pattern isn't restricted to the space industry, of course; funneling jobs of all sorts to their constituents is a time-honored congressional practice.)

So, what's the answer? SLS isn't going away anytime soon. The launch vehicles for Artemis missions 2 through 4 are already being assembled, even with the next Artemis mission two years away (or more). But there is an argument to be made for the Artemis program as a whole.

If the purpose of NASA is to advance humanity's exploration of space, assuming that directive is supported by the general populace, it behooves a society to pool its resources for that endeavor into a publicly controlled agency rather relying fully upon a private company, or person, with the ability to shape that undertaking however they see fit even if that creates an imperfect process riddled with inefficiencies.

The coming-togetherness that occurs when so many have a stake in a program as large as Artemis should not be underestimated. Hundreds came out for the first SLS rollout to the launch pad in March of this year. Hundreds of thousands arrived to the Space Coast for the Artemis 1 launch, and they're not here just to see a big rocket.

People from every walk of life across the United States have poured their careers into making SLS a reality. The glory days of the Apollo moon missions are a distant memory for some and an awe-inspiring historical feat for most. Artemis is helping reignite that spark for exploration in a way that has allowed people to feel invested in the program's success.

People feel ownership over Artemis. When NASA says "We are going," the agency isn't talking about some in-group of elite astronauts. They're talking about us. We are launching people back into deep space. We are sending humans back to the moon. We are. All of us. And we're doing it together.

So is the cost of the SLS, and the Artemis program as a whole, worth it? Maybe. If Artemis accomplishes all that it has set out to accomplish over the next 10 years or more, that "maybe" could shift to a "probably." Once SpaceX's Starship is launching as often as the company hopes, it's possible we'll see a cancellation of Artemis similar to that of Apollo. But the difference, hopefully, would be the emergence of a bold and flourishing space industry to cement the obsolescence of SLS, letting a new age of human exploration blossom, rather than another 50 years of human spaceflight stagnation, in which people never venture beyond low Earth orbit.

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Is NASA's new SLS moon rocket worth the cost? - Space.com

An eight-year-old girl in Kent, England, recently used her father's amateur radio station, M0LMK, to contact the radio station aboard the International Space Station (ISS) on Aug. 2. Isabella Payne's call was answered by NASA astronaut Kjell Lindgren, commander of NASA SpaceX Crew-4, which launched on April 27 for a six-month mission. Read on to find out what she said and how this cosmic opportunity came about.

After contacting the ISS radio station by name and repeating her station's call sign, she introduced herself. "My name's Isabella. I'm eight years old," she said. "Isabella, it's so great to chat with you. Thank you for getting on the radio and saying hello," said Lindgren.

According to CNN, Isabella had just fallen asleep on Aug. 2 when her father, Matthew, woke her up and took her to the amateur radio, putting a microphone in front of her. "I was like, 'Why are you doing this to me? I need my beauty sleep,'" Isabella told the news outlet. Matthew Payne has held an amateur radio license for 22 years. He had learned that during breaks, ISS crew members make short, unscheduled calls to amateur radio stations on Earth.

"You have to get the right time when the space station is passing overhead, and it has to be the right time of day when the astronaut is using the equipment," Matthew Payne told the BBC. "They're only in the sky above us for 10 to 15 minutes and we want as many people as possible down here to have that kind of experience," he said. "I heard through the communities that I'm part of that he (Lindgren) was using the radio, so we listened for a couple of weeks and one evening I heard him call."ae0fcc31ae342fd3a1346ebb1f342fcb

Lindgren tweeted that he's talked to amateur radio operators all over the world, but "this may be my favorite contact so far." "Once he found out I was 8, his voice instantly turned from normal to joyful," Isabella Payne told the BBC. "You could hear his smile." "I was elated when I heard his voice," she added. "I thought it was a dream."

"Thank you so much @astro_kjell, you have changed her world," Matthew Payne tweeted. CNN reports that both Paynes are fans of radio and space. Matthew Payne said his daughter has been sitting on his knee since she was a toddler to watch "all the launches, all the space station events, all the spacewalks" with him. Isabella someday hopes to work for NASA. "I want to talk to the astronauts and say, for example: 'Good morning, Sam. Is everything still floating around up there like it's supposed to?'" she told the news network.

Listen to the recording here.

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Recording Shows An 8-Year-Old Girl Talking to Astronaut in Space Using Amateur Radio Station - Best Life

NASA's SpaceX Crew-4 members speak after successfully docking with ISS.

Boeing's first manned spaceflight with NASA astronauts to the International Space Station was delayed on Thursday to next year, the aerospace company announced on Thursday.

The Starliner spacecraft is now scheduled to carry astronauts Barry "Butch" Wilmore and Suni Williams to the ISS in February as Boeing works out problems with thrusters and a cooling loop anomaly that arose during an unmanned test flight in May.

A United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket with Boeing's CST-100 Starliner spacecraft launches from Space Launch Complex 41. (Joel Kowsky/NASA via AP / AP Newsroom)

Boeing's first test flight for Starliner launched in 2019, but software errors sent the spacecraft into the wrong orbit, and it was brought back to Earth early. The May launch was the spacecraft's second test flight.

JEFF BEZOS' BLUE ORIGIN EXPRESSES INTEREST IN NASA'S SECOND ARTEMIS LUNAR LANDER CONTRACT

Elon Musk's SpaceX has already launched five crewed flights for NASA to the International Space Station. The company also carried tourists to space for the first time ever last September.

The Boeing CST-100 Starliner spacecraft is seen at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida ahead of its second Orbital Flight Test (OFT-2) to the International Space Station for NASA's Commercial Crew Program. (NASA/Frank Michaux / Fox News)

Boeing originally planned to launch the first crewed flight by the end of this year but is now hoping to launch from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida next February.

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If that mission is successful, then NASA will start contracting with Boeing to regularly ferry astronauts back and forth from space.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Boeing's first manned spaceflight to International Space Station delayed to next year - Fox Business

NASA releases space telescope images of Jupiter

NASA releases new images from the James Webb Space Telescope showing Jupiter and its norther and southern lights. (Aug. 22)

AP

Is NASA campaigning to have the galaxy's best Instagram page? It sure seems that way with the latest images from the James Webb Space Telescope of Jupiter and last month's stunning shots of the Carina Nebula and Southern Ring Nebula.

And now, the space agency is sharinga remarkable image of the southern lights, or aurora australis, taken from the International Space Station.

The southern lights, which are similar to theaurora borealis, can be seen best from Tasmania, New Zealandand Antarctica, according to Smithsonian Magazine. Its "incredible atmospheric lightshow" is "just as captivating" as that of the aurora borealis,the magazine says.

In the image, which NASA posted on Instagram andon its own site Tuesday, a greenish glow arises above the curve of the Earth.The color changes to red as the light goes higher above the horizon. At the right, a section ofthe International Space Station can be seen.

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"The vibrant displays of light around Earths North and South Poles are caused by the interaction of solar particles, ejected by the Sun, and our planets protective magnetic field," NASA's Instagram post of the image describes.

During large solar storms, the post continues, "the Sun spews large bubbles of electrified gas which collide with our magnetic field at its North and South Poles and enter our atmosphere ...these energized solar particles collide with atmospheric gases resulting in beautiful displays of light."

When the particles collide with oxygen in the atmosphere, "they give off rich red and green hues as seen in this image. Conversely, if these same particles collide with nitrogen in our atmosphere they illuminate the sky in glows of blue and purple," NASA said.

Bob Hines, a pilot currently on the ISS, took the picture and several others he posted on Twitter last week, noting the "Absolutely SPECTACULAR aurora today!!"

On Twitter, Hines answeredsome questions about the images including one tweet that asked: "Are you tweeting from space?"

"Yup," Hines responded.

On Instagram, the image had nearly 1 million likes on Wednesday, including one from the rock band Garbage. Along with the images, NASA encouraged its followers to "Let your light shine."

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NASA's 'spectacular' space photo of southern light's aurora over Earth - USA TODAY

On Aug. 29, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) will launch an uncrewed spacecraft, named the Orion Spacecraft, to the moon.

This launch signifies the revisit of the moon since 1972 and is the first step of NASAs Artemis program whose goal is to land the first woman and first person of color on the moon. The success of Artemis will bring more scientific discovery, economic benefits, and inspiration for a new generation of explorers.

In preparing astronauts to grow some of their own food during human space exploration, NASA researchers have conducted plant experiments on the International Space Station (ISS) for decades. Having fresh vegetables in orbit has become more promising ever since the first vegetable, Red Romaine Lettuce, was consumed on board the ISS in August 2018. In the same month, a group of Midland Public School (MPS) students were inspired to learn space botany.

Two years later, they established two space farming clubs in the MPS District and contributed to the effort of selecting optimal space plants to grow in orbit and long-term space missions through their original space botany research.

On July 27, four Dow High Space Farmers Club representatives, Margaret E. Hitt, Jessica Chai, Nimai Patel, and Aaron Li, presented their latest space botany research and STEM projects at the Annual International Space Station Research and Development Conference in Washington, D.C., titled, "Harvesting STEM Seeds through Multiple Utilization of the Growing Beyond Earth Program." The conference brought international astronauts, engineers, researchers, scientists, and STEM educators together to review ISS research results in the past decade and to discuss the future of research in space and commercial endeavors.

Their research is supported by the Growing Beyond Earth (GBE) program: a NASA STEM Education initiative managed by Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden in Florida. GBE program provides students in grades 6-12 nationwide with simulated NASA growth chambers and workshops to do space botany research in their schools. Four vegetables have been studied on the ISS because of recommendations made by GBE participants, including Dragoon Lettuce, Extra Dwarf Pok Choy, Chilli Pepper, and Cherry Belle Radish plants.

The Dow High Space Farmers experimented with six different LED light treatments on growing radish plants in an ISS-simulated growing environment. They found that the quantity of light significantly impacted the plant biomass production whereas the quality of light determined the size of and nutrient values of the radish plants. They also discovered that the most energy- efficient treatment was, coincidentally, also the one that rendered the optimal space nutrients high concentrations of potassium, magnesium, and calcium, and low concentrations of iron.

It was a surprise to me that low iron makes a better (space) plant. I was always told to increase your iron level and we grow plants for that commented Phillippia Simmons, NASA Payload Operations Director.

Yeah, that surprised us too I wouldnt have contemplated light spectra having effects on plant nutrient content until conducting our GBE experiments. While iron is important for hemoglobin content in blood, too much of it in microgravity would accelerate astronauts bone (mass) loss explained Margaret Hitt in the Question-and-Answer portion of the presentation.

With their multi-year GBE participation, the Dow High Space Farmers helped test the viability of multiple crops and provided data to NASA life scientists. Learning about how plants responded to similar growing conditions on the ISS also positively influenced how the presenters took on their STEM learning journeys.

Hitt elaborated on how she developed a mathematical model to portray the patterns of light intensities in a simulated NASA growth chamber. This model was tested, and the average percent error was less than 5%; which, in turn, helped her team effectively determine target light combinations for their radish experiments. From this journey, she learned to never be afraid to make mistakes.

Everything is a learning opportunity, stressed Margaret.

Chai discussed the impact the GBE experience had on her experiment testing the efficacy of hand sanitizer, in which six different concentrations of ethanol and isopropanol were tested against the development of E. Coli bacteria. The experiment would not have been possible, let alone successful, without the influence of GBE practices such as Always make sure to make detailed observations!

Patel and Li emphasized the importance of testing one variable at a time. They shared their experience in writing a chemistry lab procedure for separating sand, salt, and iron from a mixture.

Based on the property of each substance, we tested one property at a time just like wed do in GBE (experiments): we started with magnetism, then filtration, and finally distillation Nimai explained.

During the Q&A session, encouraging words and laughter filled the room. There was no pause in asking questions from the audience; some stayed afterward for follow-up questions and to exchange business cards.

Plants are what allow us, humans, to be explorers, says Dr. Anna-Lisa Paul, horticultural sciences professor at the University of Florida and the 2022 ISS Award Recipient for Compelling Results in Plant Science, in her recent interview with the ISS Program Science Forum.

The Dow High Space Farmers began their exploration of the possibility of growing plants on Mars four summers ago, dove into the unknown (how space affects plant growth), and harvested STEM seeds at the conference.

To learn more about the Dow High Space Farmers, visit their website: dowhighspacefarmers.org

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Dow High Space Farmers present research in Washington D.C. - Midland Daily News

Aspen Space Station artist Chris Erickson stands beside his life-sized Fire Pod sculpture in which space station director Ajax Axe lounges leisurely. Ericksons installation, part of The Wild Future Outpost ongoing exhibition, is on view at the Red Brick Center for the Arts. He will be discussing his design and development process for the pod at tonights Choose Your Own Future interactive workshop at the Aspen Art Museum.

The summer 2022 Aspen Space Station artists are continuing their missions as part of the ongoing and experiential exhibition, The Wild Future Outpost.

The crew of local creatives has been busy this week, with back-to-back community events geared toward engaging people in futurist thinking.

Following Tuesdays Climate Collapse Happy Hour held at the Red Brick Center for the Arts, three space station artists will run an interactive workshop today at the Aspen Art Museum titled Choose Your Own Future.

The event from 5:30-7:30 p.m. is free and requires registration through the AAM website, with limited spots remaining as of Tuesday afternoon. Presented by artists Ajax Axe, Chris Erickson and Nori Pao, the three-part workshop is focused on visualizing and creating future artifacts and designs that may be necessary or beneficial for humans living in Aspens surrounding environment 200 years from now.

For Pao, getting people to think about the future means they first must pause in the present moment. During tonights event, Pao will be enacting her third and final Future Prophecy clay tablet project of the summer.

This project specifically is about giving people a chance to pause and really think about whats important to you right now that youd want to convey to your future selves, Pao said. And then by putting that into an archival material, theyre making it real.

To set up the immersive art activity, Pao starts by guiding people through a meditative storytelling experience. She then provides each participant with their own board, carving tool and a smooth piece of clay, on which they inscribe messages to their future selves whether it be words, drawings or a combination of both.

Clay is a magical recording device, it records any mark you make on it even the invisible marks, it records how you touch it, Pao said. And once its put through firing, its super archival.

Two clay tablets, one inscribed with the words Everything Works As One and the other with Never Give Up, are pictured prior to being fired. Community members inscribed these messages into the clay pieces as part of local artist Nori Paos Future Prophecy project. Pao will conduct her final iteration of the project at tonights workshop.

Following tonights final iteration of the project the first iteration was held in a tent on the back of Aspen Mountain, and the second was in conjunction with space station artist Clarity Fornells Future Ritual installation Pao will fire all of the clay pieces created by community members this summer. She said there will be a total of around 35 to 40 inscribed tablets all of which will be buried at a location on Aspen Mountain on Oct. 9.

The select location will be registered under the Aspen Historical Society with instructions to dig up the tablets in 200 years, Pao said.

Its like a time capsule, and in a way, its a very solid form of intention setting that I think ties into the Aspen Space Station project as a whole, Pao said. Were trying to call attention to really critical things that we need to be thinking about right now, and were doing so in an accessible way.

Axe who spearheads the space station projects through her organization called Earth Force Climate Command will kick off the workshop this evening by walking people through a visualization exercise to imagine Aspen and its environmental conditions 200 years in the past, then 200 years in the future.

Next, Erickson will share with the group his design ideas and development process behind the making of his Fire Pod sculpture, which has been on display at the Red Brick Center.

Erickson created the life-size, interactive structure for a narrative set in the year 2122, where with the influx of forest fires, chemical pollution and atmospheric radiation the air quality on Earth has become toxic and the effects of climate change have reached unlivable conditions. Ericksons isolation Fire Pod, a model for his larger American Safety Armor Pods initiative, provides filtered air and shelter for earthlings to survive.

Paos Future Prophecy project closes out the workshop. Pao explained how this type of innovative and futuristic Earth-focused thinking, made tangible through art projects and immersive experiences, pushes the participants as well as the artists leading these projects into a performative and collaborative space.

Ajax is giving us a place to expand and experiment as artists and to push our own boundaries while pushing our participants boundaries, Pao said.

The thought-provoking experience is a continuation of what Axe and her team have been cultivating through The Wild Future Outpost since launching the project in late July. The local environmental activists will continue their Aspen missions through October.

The Choose Your Own Future experiential workshop will take place tonight from 5:30-7:30 p.m. at the museum. The free event requires registration; details are available on the AAM website, aspenartmuseum.org. To register, email Teresa Booth Brown, AAM acting director of education and community programs, at tboothbrown@aspenartmuseum.org.

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