This week in space: Sounds of Mars, private astronauts in space – Chron

"This Week In Space" brings you whats new and exciting in space exploration and astronomy once a week, every week. From supernovae to SpaceX or Mars missions to black holes, if its out of this world, its covered here:

China put the first piece of its planned space station into orbit, but marred the accomplishment by letting a rocket stage tumble back down to Earth in a totally uncontrolledand dangerousfashion. For several days, everyone from backyard astronomers to the US Space Force watched to see where the 23-ton, 17,000 mph projectile would crash and potentially wreak destruction. NASA and other space agencies condemned Chinas negligence, to which the Peoples Republic responded that it was being held to a double standard: when debris from the booster stage of a Falcon 9 rocket rained down over the Pacific Northwest last March, SpaceX drew much much less bad press. The key difference? SpaceX intended to deorbit its booster safely but was held back by a technical failure. China always planned to simply drop its rocket on the Earth like litter. Luckily for them, the booster broke apart over the Indian Ocean last Sunday, and no damage was done.

New map may show humanity's future in space

Travel space from your computer thanks to new mapping aided by data from the Gaia spacecraft.

In a monumental feat of cartography, a group of European astronomers have created a detailed and accurate 3D map of nearby space that you can fly through. Every known star and planet within 30 lightyears is included. These are the closest stellar systems to Earth, so there's a good chance that the first life we may ever discover on another planet outside the solar system would be around one of them. And if humanity were ever to leave the Sun for other systems, these stars would be the first destinations.

The map is a synthesis of decades of scientific results. It is polished with new data from the Gaia spacecraft, an ESA mission that aims to measure the precise locations of around 1 billion stars.

Rover captures sounds of Mars, space helicopter in flight

In a two-minute recording of audio and video from the Martian surface, the Perseverance rover watched Ingenuity, the first space helicopter, take flight and return from a nearly 900-foot round trip. Although this is Ingenuitys fourth flight, it is the first time a spacecraft has ever recorded the sound of another. Listen: underneath the steady, surreal throb of the rushing Martian wind, you can make out whirring from Ingenuitys blades as it passes close to the rover.

The goal of Ingenuity was always simply to find out what it's like to fly on Mars. Now that it has conducted test flights so successfully time and again, NASA has announced that the helicopter will soon transition to actually helping Perseverance by undertaking scouting missions.

NASA agrees to first private astronaut mission (without Tom Cruise, for now)

404095 05: Actor Tom Cruise (C), with film producer Toni Myers (3rd L) and astronauts from the International Stace Station mission Nancy Currie (L), Susan Helms (2nd L), Jim Voss (2nd R), and Russian Cosmonaut Yuri Usachev (R) flash a thumbs up as they attend the premiere of the movie "Space Station 3-D."

In a historic moment for the privatization of space, a corporation has officially bought four tickets to the International Space Station. In 2022 (at the earliest), Axiom Space will send three investors and an ex-NASA astronaut to dock a SpaceX Dragon capsule on the ISS and stay there for eight days. Although it is not exactly clear what the visitors will be up to, activities appear to include outreach for hospitals and research for the Candiian and Israeli space agencies.

The tickets are said to cost $55 million apiece. Axiom will foot the bill for their crews supplies and storage space on the station, while NASA has agreed to pay Axiom to bring low-temperature samples back to the Earth.

While it was initially thought that Tom Cruise and director Doug Liman (of "The Bourne Identity" fame) would join the mission as part of a movie they are making, this plan seems to be postponed for now. Axiom is aiming for their ISS visit to be the first of many, though. Mr. Cruise should have plenty of opportunities to become an astronaut.

Asa Stahl is an astrophysics PhD candidate at Rice University and the award-winning author of the pop science childrens book "The Big Bang Book." His research is aimed at discovering planets around other stars in order to answer some of our biggest questions, like "How special is the Earth?" and "How did we get here?" His recent book has been recognized as an Edward Jack Keats Award Honoree, an NSTA-CBC Outstanding Science Book, and a Sakura Medal Finalist.

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This week in space: Sounds of Mars, private astronauts in space - Chron