Category Archives: Space Exploration

Sydney, November 6

Last month the Australian Space Agency announced plans to send an Australian-made rover to the Moon by as early as 2026, under a deal with NASA. The rover will collect lunar soil containing oxygen, which could eventually be used to support human life in space.

Although the deal with NASA made headlines, a separate mission conducted by private companies in Australia and Canada, in conjunction with the University of Technology Sydney, may see Australian technology hunting water on the Moon as soon as mid-2024.

If all goes according to plan, it will be the first rover with Australian-made components to make it to the Moon.

Roving in search of water

The ten-kilogram rover, measuring 60x60x50cm, will be launched on board the Hakuto lander made by ispace, a lunar robotic exploration company based in Japan.

The rover itself, also built by ispace, will have an integrated robotic arm created by the private companies Stardust Technologies (based in Canada) and Australia's EXPLOR Space Technology (of which I am one of the founders).

Using cameras and sensors, the arm will collect high-resolution visual and haptic data to be sent back to the mission control centre at the University of Technology Sydney.

It will also collect information on the physical and chemical composition of lunar dust, soil and rocks specifically with a goal of finding water. We know water is present within the Moon's soil, but we have yet to find a way to extract it for practical use.

The big push now is to identify regions on the Moon where water sources are more abundant, and which can deliver more usable water for human consumption, sample processing, mining operations and food growth.

This would also set the foundation for the establishment of a manned Moon base, which could serve as a transit station for further space exploration (including on Mars).

Moon-grade materials

Once the Hakuto lander takes off, the first challenge will be to ensure it lands successfully with the rover intact. The rover will have to survive an extreme environment on the lunar surface.

As the moon rotates relative to the Sun, it experiences day and night cycles, just like Earth. But one day on the Moon lasts 29.5 Earth days. And surface temperatures shift dramatically during this time, reaching up to 127 degree Celsius during the day and falling as low as -173 degree Celsius at night.

The rover and robotic arm will also need to withstand the effects of space radiation, vibrations during launch, shock from the launch and landing, and exposure to dust and water.

At the same time, the arm must be light enough to conduct advanced manoeuvres, such as grabbing and collecting moon rocks. Advanced space-grade aluminium developed in Australia will help protect it from damage.

The team behind the mission is currently in the process of testing different designs of the robotic arm, and figuring out the best way to integrate it with the rover. It will be tested together with the rover at a new lunar test bed, at the EXPLOR Space Technologies facility in New South Wales.

Like the one used by NASA, this test bed can mimic the physical and chemical conditions on the Moon. It will be critical to determining whether the rover can stay mobile and continue to function under different environmental stressors.

Step into your astronaut boots

The rover will also send back data that allows people on Earth to experience the Moon with virtual reality (VR) goggles and a sensor glove. Haptic data collected back by the robotic arm will essentially let us feel anything the arm touches on the lunar surface.

The Conversation (By Joshua Chou, Senior lecturer, University of Technology Sydney )

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Australia is putting a rover on the Moon in 2024 to search for water - The Tribune

Every weekday evening, our editors guide you through the biggest stories of the day, help you discover new ideas, and surprise you with moments of delight. Subscribe to get this delivered to your inbox.

Anyone whos ever woken up disoriented or mourned an early winter sunset knows the scourge that is daylight saving time. The changing of the clocks, particularly in the spring, has been linked to an uptick in heart attacks and millions of dollars worth of lost productivity. In recent years, the countrys seen pushes at the national and state levels to end the practice for good, but until then, were stuck. (Unless, of course, you want to be radical like this family and just choose to live on it year round.)

But the good news is this weekend, youve got an extra hour. Below, we offer seven suggestions for how to make use of those extra 60 minutes come Sunday morning.

1. Check in on the state of American democracy. Donald Trump could very much be back on the ballot in 2024, David Frum warns, campaigning on nostalgia for the strong pre-pandemic economy, plus resentment over the outcome of the vote in 2020.

2. Stream something excellent. Introducing, Selma Blair, available on Discovery+, is an unconventional and poignant celebrity documentary about the Cruel Intentions actors experience with multiple sclerosis, our culture writer Shirley Li tells me. Or, ahead of Thanksgiving, indulge in Padma Lakshmis Taste the Nation, an unsparing excavation of Americas culinary heritage that just debuted a holiday edition. The show streams on Hulu.

3. Get that flu shot youve been putting off. Its not too late: Although the CDC suggests everyone get the job done by October, shots are better late than never, given that flu season doesnt typically peak until February. Flu viruses, which all but disappeared last year, could return stronger than before, my colleague Katherine J. Wu warns.

4. Read our latest magazine cover story. McKay Coppins goes inside Alden Global Capital, a secretive hedge fund that is snapping up local newsrooms across the country, wringing them for cash, and leaving them to die.

5. Go on a walk. A stroll can be good for your mental health. To help set the pace, try this upbeat walking playlist, deejayed by our culture writer Spencer Kornhaber. You can also stream it on our Spotify page.

6. Preview the next decade of space exploration. Astronomers recently decided that NASA should build a new space telescope to search for other Earths, around their own suns, our space reporter Marina Koren notes. If that vision crystallizes into reality, it could change human knowledge as profoundly as the moment Copernicus realized that Earth wasnt the center of the universe.

7. Sleep. Dont overthink it.

Explore the week that was. Our senior editor Alan Taylor rounds up photographs from around the world.

Read. In this weeks Books Briefing, my colleague Kate Cray rounds up books that offer a new way to look at nature.

Watch. The new Princess Diana film, Spencer, functions less as a precise biopic and more as a an effective emotional portrait that is surprisingly arch and funny, our critic David Sims writes. Meanwhile, The Souvenir Part II proves that sequels arent just for blockbusters.

Get caught up on the latest episode of HBOs Succession before the next one airs on Sunday.

Listen. Struggling to find purpose in your profession? On How to Build a Happy Life, Arthur C. Brooks discusses the secret to squeezing meaning from work. On The Review, our critics revisit the 2002 horror movie The Ring to see if it holds up. (It does.)

Every weekday evening, our editors guide you through the biggest stories of the day, help you discover new ideas, and surprise you with moments of delight. Subscribe to get this delivered to your inbox.

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7 Ways to Spend Your Extra End-of-Daylight-Saving Hour - The Atlantic

iRocket is a New York startup building 100% fully reusable rockets since 2018 to cargo micro, nano, cube, and constellations to LEO orbit on its Shockwave launch vehicle. The company develops cost-effective launch vehicles that can support rapid launching within 24 hrs. for 400kg and 1500 kg payloads for satellite constellation providers for National security satellites, 5G internet constellations, the Internet of Things (IoT), Biotech Research, and Space exploration. In addition, there reusable upper stage will target space junk removal in LEO orbit. iRocket is currently funded by the U.S. Space Force Space Systems Command, The M&J Engineering Group, & Village Global a venture capital firm backed by Bill Gates, Eric Schmidt, Jeffrey Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg, and Abby Johnson.

Said Turion Space CEO Ryan Westerdahl, "Turion Space looks forward to a strong partnership with iRocket for access to space and for providing us with a pipeline of future customers that will utilize the final orbit delivery services our Droid spacecraft can provide."

Turion Space is building spacecraft to remove orbital-debris and provide orbit-modification and domain-awareness services to existing space assets.Solving space debris is a crucial problem that must be solved to ensure a sustainable LEO economy and is the first technological step towards mining Asteroids. Turion Space plans to launch their D-1 satellite in October 2022. Solving this problem is crucial to ensure a sustainable space economy and is the first step towards our longer-term vision of mining Asteroids. Turion Space is funded by Y Combinator, Soma Capital, Forward VC, Pi Campus, FoundersX Ventures, Harvard Management Company, Imagination VC, among several others.

The two companies also hinted at possible future collaborations on in-orbit servicing. Westerdahl suggested that Turion could work with iRocket to perform final in-orbit deliveries for a fraction of the launch company's payload, combined with space junk removal.

CONTACT: iRocket, [emailprotected]

SOURCE iRocket

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iRocket And Turion Space Ink Agreement For 10 Launches To Low Earth Orbit - PRNewswire

Competition will send a North Country K-12 student research project into space

Thanks to a lead donation from Corning Incorporated and the Corning Incorporated Foundation, Clarkson Universitys Clarkson Discovery Challenge-Space (CDC-Space) has been accepted as a participating community in the Student Spaceflight Experiments Program (SSEP) Mission 16 to the International Space Station (ISS).

This exciting STEM project builds upon the strong partnership and rich history of K-12 outreach between Clarkson University and regional school districts. Around 200 students will learn about microgravity experiment design and proposal writing as part of the SSEP. It is expected that 40 to 70 flight experiment proposals will be submitted by Clarksons student teams. From those proposals, one of the experiments will be sent into space to be performed on the International Space Station.

Students will work in groups of 4-5 to develop and propose experiments for the International Space Station through the fall. The experiment chosen by SSEP is expected to launch to the ISS in late spring 2022.

The idea of having a connection with NASA and space exploration has provided our students a highly motivating, engaging, and meaningful opportunity to participate in the process of scientific inquiry. This program has generated extraordinary enthusiasm and inspired boundless creativity; we couldn't have replicated this level of student engagement without the inspiration of SSEP, said Canton teacher Megan Smith.

Were excited to have the opportunity to judge these students experiments as well as coach them along the way through our support of Clarksons Student Spaceflight Experiments Program, said Patrick Gilley, Corning Canton plant manager. The Canton plant has worked on many projects that enable space exploration, including manufacturing the Destiny window on the International Space Station and the optics for the Hubble Telescope, and this project allows us to share our passion with the next generation of scientists and engineers.

This project is awesome! Students develop their own investigation about microgravity and write a research proposal to compete against each other to send their experiment into space aboard the International Space Station, America's National Laboratory! We are working with science teachers and middle and high school students from several school districts that include Harrisville, Canton, Brasher Falls, Parishville-Hopkinton and Norwood-Norfolk. Clarkson faculty and students will provide support to the students as experts in STEM. Weve had some excellent Clarkson Honors students who are a great help said Dr. Seema Rivera, Associate Director of the Institute for STEM Education at Clarkson University.

Thanks to this opportunity, Clarkson University, Corning, and local North Country students and teachers are actually participants in the American Space Program. It is an incredible honor and I cannot wait to see what the students propose," said Dr. Katie Kavanagh, Director of the Institute for STEM Education at Clarkson University.

The Student Spaceflight Experiments Program [or SSEP] is a program of the National Center for Earth and Space Science Education (NCESSE) in the U.S. and the Arthur C. Clarke Institute for Space Education internationally. It is enabled through a strategic partnership with Nanoracks LLC, which is working with NASA under a Space Act Agreement as part of the utilization of the International Space Station as a National Laboratory.

Learn more about the SSEP: http://ssep.ncesse.org

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Clarkson University's Institute for STEM Education to Participate in the Student Spaceflight Experiments Program - Clarkson University News

NASA has selected a research team at Southern Illinois University Carbondale to work on a machine that would use microbial processes and recycled carbon to provide tasty, nutritious food to astronauts on future deep space voyages. The team, from left to right, includes, Poopalasingam Sivakumar, Gayan L. Aruma Baduge, Ken Anderson, Matt McCarroll, Lahiru Jayakody and Scott D. Hamilton-Brehm. (Photo by Russell Bailey)

November 02, 2021

by Tim Crosby

CARBONDALE, Ill. Science fiction fans have will no doubt remember scenes from their favorite shows in which characters press a few buttons before their favorite gourmet meal pops out of a machine, looking like it came from the kitchen of a four-star restaurant. It may not work quite like that, but a research team at Southern Illinois University Carbondale is working on a machine to provide tasty, nutritious food to astronauts on future deep space voyages, using microbial processes and recycled carbon.

NASA recently selected the SIU teams Bites (pronounced micro-bites) design as one of 18 nationwide showing promise. The SIU team, led by Lahiru Jayakody, assistant professor of microbiology, will receive $25,000 to pursue its phase two design for NASAs Deep Space Food Challenge. The contest, which saw teams conceive novel food technologies to solve the problems of feeding astronauts on long voyages, began in January.

The contest focused researchers on the challenges of deep space exploration, with its need to create nourishing, safe and palate-pleasing food with minimal resources and minimal waste. But Jayakody sees ready application for such technology on the spaceship known as Earth.

We have to reinvent the food production system to ensure food security, Jayakody said. It is an urgent need for future humanity, and ideally, we need a system that can produce food in extreme environments using untapped carbon in disaster-affected areas and resource-scarce regions. There is no doubt that microbial-based food production is one of the best solutions.

NASA Television, along with the NASA app and the agencys website, plans a show on the Deep Space Food Challenge set for 10 a.m. Nov. 9.

Lets eat

Theres an old joke about the sausage factory, but in this case, well go ahead and take peak at how Bites would work if it someday rides with astronauts to faraway locations like Mars or beyond. Because it is a loop of sorts, we join the artificial intelligence-controlled process in progress

You start with only finest biomass and/or waste plastic such as the single-use plastic containers that become the resource to make the food. After grinding these ingredients into a uniform slurry, it is then sent into a reactor using oxidative hydrothermal dissolution (OHD) technology, a process pioneered by SIU professor Ken Anderson that uses water, heat, pressure and oxygen to break down and transform biomass into different types of precursors or in this case, liquid carbon. This step makes it accessible to the hungry microbes, like yeast, that will perform the next step.

The liquid carbon is then pumped into a bioreactor bag, where it meets with engineered microbes that further process the slurry and create food ingredients. As much water as possible is reclaimed for future processing while the slurry moves to the next step: final preparation into the desired consistency, ranging from semi solid to liquid. It is further mixed with dried spices or supplements to achieve the final, highly customizable result.

Push-button food

Thats where the sci-fi, push-button food machine comes into play. A 3-D food printer at this point will shape and print the final food product into an aesthetically pleasing item before serving it up to the hungry star voyager.

Our design was created to feed four crew members during a three-year mission to Mars, Jayakody said. The system uses less energy and water to generate delicious and nutritious food at a fast rate.

Grabbing his interest

Jayakody has always had an interest in the potential of microbial food processes, especially the handy little bug known as yeast. SIU being home to the Fermentation Science Institute (FSI) is one of the main reasons he wanted to work for the university.

Since my undergraduate research work in Sri Lanka, I have been working with yeast, and I really love the organism, Jayakody said. I realized the FSI is a great place for my yeast adventure.

After attending a conference on food in space in 2019, Jayakodys interest grew, and he realized the multidiscipline, synergistic nature of SIU research could play a major role in NASAs plans.

It was obvious that we needed a multidisciplinary team to earn this highly competitive grant, Jayakody said. I am blessed to collaborate with extremely creative and smart researchers. We make a cohesive crew. We are very honored to be one of the winning teams.

Along with Jayakody, FSI director Matt McCarroll and Advanced Coal Energy Research Center Director Ken Anderson also are signed on as co-investigators on the Bites project. Scott D. Hamilton-Brehm, assistant professor of microbiology, and Poopalasingam Sivakumar, assistant professor of physics, and Gayan L. Aruma Baduge, associate professor the School of Electrical, Computer and Biomedical Engineering, round out the SIU members of the team, which also includes researchers from other institutions, including Rina Tannenbaum of Stony Brook University, Iwona Jasiuk of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, and Kaustav Majumder of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

In it to win it

Jayakody and the rest of the team will continue working to perfect and prove the design throughout the next three to four years. Many problems remain to be solved, including engineering the hardware to be light, simple to operate and easy to maintain and repair, as well as developing the correct strains of microbes. Several graduate students will also be involved in the work.

Jayakody remains hopeful the team will win the overall design contest, not just for the future of space travel.

The developed system is portable and can be adapted to produce food on Earth, where resources are limited, he said. And of course, definitely on Mars when we have colonies there sometime in the future.

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SIU research team aims to move food replication from science fiction to reality - SIU News

Research aimed at helping astronauts deal with isolation and confinement could also have an impact on those back on Earth suffering from COVID-related loneliness. Researchers in Simon Fraser Universitys iSpace Lab have created a virtual reality experiencecalled Earthgazingwhich will be tested as part of SIRIUS 2021, a study launching Nov. 4 in Moscow.

The SFU experiment is one of 70 to be undertaken as a crew of six people spend the next eight months in a facility modeling a spacecraft heading to Mars.

The virtual Earthgazing experience draws on phenomena that elicit feeling of awe and connection, taking viewers on a meditative journey that invites them to reflect on their connection to Earth and humanity through meditation and inspirational views of nature and space.

The SFU lab is collaborating with researchers in Germany to investigate how virtual reality (VR) impacts the effects of isolation on crew members and their ability to cope amid isolation and sensory deprivation.

It further uses VR technology as a means of supporting mental wellbeing of the crew and countering space travels potentially negative psychological effects.

SFU PhD student Katerina Stepanova travelled to Moscow last month to set up the experiment and brief participants. She will return in July to meet the crew as they exit the mission to collect post-experimental data and learn about their Earthgazing VR experience.

Dealing with loneliness and isolation during the COVID-19 pandemic has often been a very difficult experience, so this research is relevant not only for space exploration but the general public as well, says Stepanova, who is part of a team led by professor Bernhard Riecke of SFUs School of Interactive Arts and Technology.

The research grew from earlier work aiming to immerse people in the world of space travel without having to send them to space, providingthe psychological benefits of the profound experience ofwitnessingthe Earth from space.

It also builds on the concept of whats known as the overview effect, an extreme, awe-inspiring experience shared by many astronauts characterized by a cognitive shift in perspective.

When witnessing the overwhelming beauty of Earth, astronauts also come to realize the fragility of our home planet and the interconnectedness of all life, explains Stepanova. They return to Earth with a renewed sense of connection and responsibility for our environment.

SFUs virtual Earthgazing experience was recently exhibited at Vancouvers V-Unframed Festival.

German colleagues include those from Dr. Alexander Stahns lab at the Charit Universittsmedizin Berlin. The project is funded by European Space Agency (ESA) and German Space Agency (DLR).

SIRIUS (Scientific International Research in Unique Terrestrial Station) is a series of on-land isolation experiments modelling long-term spaceflight to assess the psycho-physiological effects of isolation on crew and prepare for long-duration spaceflights. The first was undertaken in 2019. The experiments are intended to focus on behavioral health and performance under difficult conditions.

Excerpt from:

Earthgazing VR experience to help astronauts cope with loneliness - SFU News - Simon Fraser University News

3D simulations based on fundamental physics principles model the production of energetic ions and electrons. Courtesy LANL

LANL NEWS RELEASE

A team of researchers used 3D particle simulations to model the acceleration of ions and electrons in a physical process called magnetic reconnection. The results could contribute to the understanding and forecasting of energetic particles released during magnetic reconnection, which could help protect space assets and advance space exploration.

For the first time ever, we can use 3D simulations from fundamental physics principles to model the production of energetic ions and electrons in those magnetic explosions in space, said paper author Qile Zhang, of the Nuclear and Particle Physics, Astrophysics and Cosmology group at Los Alamos National Laboratory.

The research was published inPhysical Review Letters.

Magnetic reconnection can cause magnetic explosions, which result in events such as solar flares and geomagnetic storms near Earth; these explosions produce energetic-particle radiation that is harmful to spacecraft and humans. The research team discovered the underlying mechanisms controlling particle acceleration enabled by the 3D kink motions of plasmas the collection of charged particles and magnetic fields.

They also revealed the processes governing the key properties of the energetic-particle energy distributions. The teams predicted distributions agreed with observations from solar flares and Earths magnetic fields.

Funding:This work was funded by the Department of Energys Office of Science, Office of Fusion Energy Sciences.

AboutLos Alamos National Laboratory

Los Alamos National Laboratory, a multidisciplinary research institution engaged in strategic science on behalf of national security, is managed by Triad, a public service oriented, national security science organization equally owned by its three founding members: Battelle Memorial Institute (Battelle), the Texas A&M University System (TAMUS), and the Regents of the University of California (UC) for the Department of Energys National Nuclear Security Administration.

Los Alamos enhances national security by ensuring the safety and reliability of the U.S. nuclear stockpile, developing technologies to reduce threats from weapons of mass destruction, and solving problems related to energy, environment, infrastructure, health, and global security concerns.

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LANL: 3D Simulations Improve Understanding Of Energetic-Particle Radiation, Help Protect Space Assets - Los Alamos Reporter

There's competition among roughly a dozen private companies to launch new space stations.

As astronauts blast off to the International Space Station this weekend on a SpaceX rocket, the company is also showing off a massive ship it says will one day take travelers far, far away.

Newly released video shows the 'Starship' lifting into an aerial ballet of flips and turns before landing again. SpaceX hopes the ship will reach orbit for the first time next month and maybe, one day, make founder Elon Musk's mission-to-Mars dreams a reality.

"He says, 'I want to die on Mars, just not on impact,'" editor for Spaceref.com Keith Cowing said. "I've known Elon forever, for like 20 years. I met him when he was actually a kid and I was a lot younger with less gray hair. So, for him to do this doesn't surprise me. He's always just been as awed by this stuff as anybody else, which I think is kind of important when you're trying to do audacious things."

Hyping test footage on social media and even rocket 'blooper reels,' like the one Musk once posted, is a part of the modern space race, which is a lot different from the way NASA used to do it.

"Well, you know, there's two different approaches here, and quite frankly, the SpaceX one is the one that produces cool videos that make you just want to watch it again and again. NASA's don't," Cowing said.

There's also competition among roughly a dozen private companies to launch new space stations, like the just-announced "Orbital Reef" from Sierra Space and Blue Origin, owned by Jeff Bezos.

"The current space station, I worked on it when I was kid, and it's getting old and like anything, you got to replace it. And NASA is, sort of, not really wanting to go through that whole $100 billion thing again, but the need for something like that is there," Cowing said. "So, just like they've started to use commercial carriers for cargo to the space station and crew, they're looking at hopefully spurring an industry where one or more private space stations are in space that can do the things that NASA wants but do it in a way that they can then do stuff that the private sector wants."

Which is why space industry experts say, do not count NASA out.

"So now, here we are the 21st century do you need NASA? Yeah, you do," Cowing said. "Because there's always a cutting-edge thing that the private sector is gonna say, 'I can't make money off of this.' But NASA says, 'Well, maybe in 20 years, you will. We're going to invest dollars in this because it could be a breakthrough technology,' or they just go and explore the solar system for the sheer benefit of science."

Besides money, space enthusiasts say NASA with its six-decade history still has a special ability to do something priceless: inspire a new generation of explorers.

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How Commercial Companies Are Advancing Space Exploration - Newsy

Vangelis Juno to Jupiter(Decca)

VANGELISscareer is one of constant drive and a striving for meaning. Not content with the limitations and politics of film production, he has progressed on to a spiritual fascination with space exploration.

For him, his musical voice and journey found as Nasa took up the baton for a very personal journey, commissioning many works from him. Each resulting in a deep interstellar music.

His latest release is inspired by the agencys ground-breaking mission by the Juno space probe and its ongoing exploration of Jupiter.

Launched in 2011 from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Juno arrived at Jupiter on July 42016, some 365 million miles away from the Earth at its closest point.

Due to its importance the mission that initially was scheduled to be completed by this July 31, it has been extended and Juno will continue exploring the full Jovian system Jupiter and its moons until September 2025.

Vangelis meets Nasas ambition with his own. His formula has broadly remained in situ since his trail blazing scores for Blade Runner and Chariots of Fire which won him an Oscar for best score and a Grammy for record of the year in 1982.

The heavenly ethereal lush sounds remain, his characteristic use of synths, bold brass riffs and expansive strings backed by his cosmos inspired long reverb, a unique sound.

The new album includes sounds from the Juno launch event on Earth, from the probe and its surroundings and Junos subsequent journey that have been sent back to Earth from the probe.

Voices featured on the album, courtesy of Nasa, include scientists Randall Faelan, Chris Leeds, Jennifer Delavan and Matt Johnson.

The opener AtlasPush sets the tone. Pulsing basslines over voices from Nasa mission control describing the probes jettison from its Atlas rocket.

Distant tribal drum machines taking on the workload give way to melodic clarinet and synth bursts. Junos Power is a driving percussive work.

Inside Our Perspectives ups the tempo with further futuristic drum loops and washes of driving synth leads.

In the Magic of the Cosmos slows the tempo but never lets up on atmospheric drive.

Romanian singer Angela Gheorghius stunning soprano vocals make a welcome appearance on three of the tracks.

Junos Tender Call the highlight of the album. Gheorghius soaring vocal dynamics acting like a guiding beacon, over lush strings and piano.

In Serenitatem closes the album choirs slowly winding around chiming bells and layers of harmonised reverb, looking ever to the heavens, as the track conjures up the probes extraordinary mission into deep space.A unique album from a pioneering sonic explorer. Vangelisstextures and unique world of sound challenges remain a thing of wonder.

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Album Review Immersive and evocative interpretation of space exploration - Morning Star Online

The space located around Earth is exponentially filling up with junk from rocket parts and broken satellites, and if the issue isn't solved, the polluted space may result in a hindrance to humanity's space exploration.

In 1979 NASA scientist Donald J. Kessler proposed what was dubbed the "Kessler syndrome", which is a scenario that could unfold when the number of objects within low Earth orbit becomes so dense that the likelihood that it increases the the the point where it's more likely further collisions will occur, causing a cascade effect of debris collisions throughout low Earth orbit. Researchers are proposing new ideas to clean up low Earth orbit to prevent this tragic domino effect from happening. One suggestion may be to use magnets that can manipulate the debris.

A new study published in the journal Nature by researchers at the University of Utah details the use of spinning magnets equipped by robots. These robots would be able to push space debris down into Earth's atmosphere, where they would then burn up upon re-entry, removing the need for the robot to collect them physically. The team of researchers was able to demonstrate with the technology that they were able to manipulate debris in six degrees of movement, including rotation.

Jake J. Abbott, the lead author of the study, said, "You have to take this crazy object floating in space, and you have to get it into a position where it can be manipulated by a robot arm. But if it's spinning out of control, you could break the robot arm doing that, which would just create more debris."

"What we wanted to do was to manipulate the thing, not just shove it but actually manipulate it like you do on Earth", said, Abbott. "That form of dexterous manipulation has never been done before."

Abbott also said, "NASA is tracking thousands of space debris the same way that air traffic controllers track aircraft. You have to know where they are because you could accidentally crash into them. The U.S. government and the governments of the world know of this problem because there is more and more of this stuff accumulating with each passing day."

For more information on this story, check out this link here.

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Magnets may be the solution to the ever-growing problem of space junk - TweakTown