Category Archives: Space Exploration

Space communications and navigation engineers at NASA are evaluating the navigation needs for the Artemis program, including identifying the precision navigation capabilities needed to establish the first sustained presence on the lunar surface.

Artemis engages us to apply creative navigation solutions, choosing the right combination of capabilities for each mission, said Cheryl Gramling, associate chief for technology in the Mission Engineering and Systems Analysis Division at Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. NASA has a multitude of navigation tools at its disposal, and Goddard has a half-century of experience navigating space exploration missions in lunar orbit.

Alongside proven navigation capabilities, NASA will use innovative navigation technologies during the upcoming Artemis missions.

Lunar missions provide the opportunity to test and refine novel space navigation techniques, said Ben Ashman, a navigation engineer at Goddard. The Moon is a fascinating place to explore and can serve as a proving ground that expands our navigation toolkit for more distant destinations like Mars.

Illustration of NASAs lunar-orbiting Gateway and a human landing system in orbit around the Moon. (Image: NASA)

Ultimately, exploration missions need a robust combination of capabilities to provide the availability, resiliency, and integrity required from an in-situ navigation system. Some of the navigation techniques being analyzed for Artemis include the following.

Radiometrics, optimetrics, and laser altimetry measure distances and velocity using the properties of electromagnetic transmissions. Engineers measure the time it takes for a transmission to reach a spacecraft and divide by the transmissions rate of travel the speed of light.

These accurate measurements have been the foundation of space navigation since the launch of the first satellite, giving an accurate and reliable measurement of the distance between the transmitter and spacecrafts receiver. Simultaneously, the rate of change in the spacecrafts velocity between the transmitter and spacecraft can be observed due to the Doppler effect.

Radiometrics and optimetrics measure the distances and velocity between a spacecraft and ground antennas or other spacecraft using their radio links and infrared optical communications links, respectively. In laser altimetry and space laser ranging, a spacecraft or ground telescope reflects lasers off the surface of a celestial body or a specially designated reflector to judge distances.

The Lunar Orbiter Laser Altimeter (LOLA) aboard the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) sends laser pulses down to the surface of the Moon from the orbiting spacecraft. These pulses bounce off of the Moon and return to LRO, providing scientists with measurements of the distance from the spacecraft to the lunar surface. As LRO orbits the Moon, LOLA measures the shape of the lunar surface, which includes information about the Moons surface elevations and slopes. This image shows the slopes found near the South Pole of the Moon. (Image: NASA/LRO)

Optical navigation techniques rely on images from cameras on a spacecraft. There are three main branches of optical navigation.

NASA will use data gathered from LuGRE to refine operational lunar GNSS systems for future missions.

NASA is developing capabilities that will allow missions at the Moon to leverage signals from GNSS constellations. These signals already used on many Earth-orbiting spacecraft will improve timing, enhance positioning accuracy, and assist autonomous navigation systems in cislunar and lunar space.

In 2023, the Lunar GNSS Receiver Experiment (LuGRE), developed in partnership with the Italian Space Agency, will demonstrate and refine this capability on the Moons Mare Crisium basin. LuGRE will fly on a Commercial Lunar Payload Services mission delivered by Firefly Aerospace of Cedar Park, Texas. NASA will use data gathered from LuGRE to refine operational lunar GNSS systems for future missions.

Illustration of Firefly Aerospaces Blue Ghost lander on the lunar surface. The lander will carry a suite of 10 science investigations and technology demonstrations to the Moon in 2023 as part of NASAs Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative.

Autonomous navigation software leverages measurements like radiometrics, celestial navigation, altimetry, terrain-relative navigation, and GNSS to perform navigation onboard without contact with operators or assets on Earth, enabling spacecraft to maneuver independently of terrestrial mission controllers. This level of autonomy enables responsiveness to the dynamic space environment.

Autonomous navigation can be particularly useful for deep space exploration, where the communications delay can hamper in-situ navigation. For example, missions at Mars must wait eight to 48 minutes for round trip communications with Earth depending on orbital dynamics. During critical maneuvers, spacecraft need the immediate decision-making that autonomous software can provide.

LunaNet is a unique communications and navigation architecture developed by NASAs Space Communications and Navigation (SCaN) program. LunaNets common standards, protocols, and interface requirements will extend internetworking to the Moon, offering unprecedented flexibility and access to data.

For navigation, the LunaNet approach offers operational independence and increased precision by combining many of the methods above into a seamless architecture. LunaNet will provide missions with access to key measurements for precision navigation in lunar space.

Artists conceptualization of Artemis astronauts using LunaNet services on the Moon. a unique approach to lunar communications and navigation. The LunaNet communications and navigation architecture will enable the precision navigation required for crewed missions to the Moon and place our astronauts closer to scientifically significant lunar sites, enhancing the our missions scientific output. (Image: NASA/Resse Patillo)

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NASA analyzes navigation needs of Artemis Moon missions - GPS World magazine

Its hard to believe that two years ago there was basically no way for an investor to gain exposure to interstellar exploration. Now, thanks to the explosion of space SPACs (special purpose acquisition companies), there is a wealth of options.

Virgin Galactic (NYSE:SPCE) began the trend. In 2019, it announced that it was merging with Social Capital Hedosophia. Back then, SPACs were a still-unpopular route to the public markets, and one with a checkered history. SPCE stock in fact dropped below $8 not long after the merger close.

But as demand for, and supply of, SPACs exploded after the novel coronavirus pandemic arrived last year, space exploration companies jumped on board. Investors can pick and choose across various slices of the exploration market.

The big risk is whether the boom in space SPACs necessarily is a good thing. Increasingly, the SPAC trend as a whole looks a bit bubbly, and many pre- and post-merger stocks have pulled back sharply in recent weeks.

Its worth remembering, too, that one of the few space SPACs done so far was the merger of Row 44 and Global Eagle Acquisition in 2013. Global Eagle went bankrupt last year, and shareholders were wiped out.

Given the risks involved in space exploration, theres little doubt that at least one of the current space SPACs eventually will meet the same fate. For those investors willing to take on the risks, however, here are four space SPACs to consider:

Source: Andrzej Puchta / Shutterstock.com

At the moment, GNPK stock manages to be both compelling and yet full of question marks.

The case for the stock seems almost airtight. Genesis Park is merging with Redwire, a self-described space infrastructure company. Redwire provides robotics, antennas, sensors, camera systems, and even full satellites to commercial and government customers.

Redwires history spans decades. Its been built of late by aerospace-focused private-equity fund AE Industrial Partners precisely to be a company that serves the entire space market. Redwire estimates that market at $420 billion already, with growth to more than $2 trillion by 2040. As the company put it in its merger presentation this month, when space wins, Redwire wins.

And unlike so many other space SPACs indeed many other SPACs across multiple sectors Redwire already has an established business. The company estimates 2020 revenue at $119 million, with adjusted EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) of $13 million.

Both figures should grow nicely. Redwire expects 2025 revenue of $1.4 billion, with adjusted EBITDA of $250 million. With GNPK stock barely above the $10 merger price, its trading at less than 3x that latter figure.

This looks like huge growth in a huge market at a bargain price.

Of course, that itself raises a number of questions. With this kind of potential, why exactly is P-E fund AE giving up 43% ownership at this valuation? Redwire itself says it doesnt need the SPACs cash to fund its growth.

Is five-year revenue growth of over 10x really worth just 3x 2025 EBITDA? Or is the multiple a sign that the growth targets are hugely optimistic? Going back further, why did the myriad businesses acquired by AE sell so cheap?

To some extent, GNPK stock almost seems too good to be true. Add to that the common concerns about SPAC projections, and some skepticism might be warranted. Of course, with GNPK below $11, a good deal of skepticism remains priced in.

Source: OleksandrShnuryk / Shutterstock.com

The shorthand case for VACQ stock was laid out by Barrons in early March, after Vector Acquisition announced its merger with Rocket Lab. Rocket Lab Is a Mini-SpaceX That Investors Can Buy Today, the headline blared.

SpaceX, of course, was founded by Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) chief executive officer Elon Musk. And the two companies do look like direct competitors. Both are building out proprietary satellite fleets. Both offer launch services to third parties.

One notable difference is valuation. SpaceX reportedly raised capital in February at a $74 billion valuation. With VACQ stock below $12, Rocket Lab has a pro forma market capitalization of about $5.6 billion.

SpaceX is bigger, operates bigger vehicles, and likely benefits from the Musk halo. But given the massive discrepancy in valuations, VACQ stock looks like it might be worth a flyer itself.

Source: vchal / Shutterstock.com

Osprey Technology is merging with BlackSky, a provider of real-time geospatial intelligence. A fleet of satellites which should grow from a current nine to 30 monitors activity worldwide. BlackSky then layers on artificial intelligence and machine learning capabilities plus data analytics to provide customers with the highest-quality intelligence.

Its an intriguing story. SFTW stock certainly looks cheap enough, at about 8x projected 2025 free cash flow.

Of course, like so many space SPACs, its those projections that raise some eyebrows. BlackSky is projecting exponential growth similar to that of Redwire, with revenue growing from $22 million in 2020 to $546 million in 2025.

The argument against SFTW is that the multiple to estimated cash flow in 2025 is not a sign of a cheap stock, but rather evidence that the market doesnt trust that estimate. With competitor Spire raising its own capital via a SPAC merger with NavSight (NYSE:NSH), BlackSky wont have the market to itself.

Again, all of the space SPACs are high risk and high reward. SFTW stock doesnt look any different.

Source: muratart / Shutterstock.com

Holicity is merging with another rocket launch company, Astra. Astra was the third private company to reach space, following SpaceX and Rocket Lab. Its ambitions go much, much further.

By 2025, Astra aims to be launching rockets almost daily. Between a worldwide network of dedicated launchpads along with a portable launch system, the company can serve multiple customers in multiple markets.

Theres an obvious risk of failure. Astras niche alone has over 100 startups, according to industry estimates. Astra aims to get to near-daily launches by 2025, a timeline that leaves little or no room for error or delays.

But there are obviously huge rewards too, while a pro forma valuation under $2 billion suggests big upside if Astra hits its goals or comes close. Like so many space SPACs, HOL stock is a go big or go home play.

On the date of publication, Vince Martin did not have (either directly or indirectly) any positions in the securities mentioned in this article.

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4 Space SPACs With Exciting Futures and Big Risks - InvestorPlace

BEIJING As their respective spacecrafts headed to Mars, China and the U.S. held consultations earlier this year in a somewhat unusual series of exchanges between the rivals.

Chinas National Space Agency confirmed Wednesday that it had working-level meetings and communications with NASA from January to March to ensure the flight safety of their crafts.

U.S. law bans almost all contacts between NASA and China over concerns about technology theft and the secretive, military-backed nature of Chinas space program.

However, exceptions can be made when NASA can certify to Congress that it has protections in place to safeguard information, acting NASA Administrator Steve Jurczyk said during a video meeting last week.

Jurczyk said the most recent exchange was about China providing orbital and other data for its Mars mission so they could analyze the risk of collision. We do have targeted engagement with them, he said.

His remarks were first reported by the SpaceNews website.

Jurczyk added that it will be up to the Biden administration and Congress to determine if and how the U.S. engages with China on non-military space activities as part of the nations overall China strategy.

As the administration and Congress sets those policies, we look forward to how we can contribute in respect to civil space dialogue and collaboration with China, he said.

The area around Mars has become a bit more crowded this year with the arrival of spacecraft from the U.S., China and the U.A.E.

NASAs Perseverance rover landed on Mars in February and has begun exploration. Chinas Tianwen-1 is orbiting Mars in preparation for a landing in May or June. The U.A.E. craft is only orbiting and will not attempt to land.

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US, China consulted on safety as their crafts headed to Mars - The Republic

Human space missions to Mars are the next great leap in space exploration, with Nasa targeting the 2030s as a reasonable time frame for taking the first humans there. But boarding on a journey to Mars is not like catching a flight to New York. Space is an extremely hostile environment for human life from the lack of gravity and harmful radiation to isolation and the absence of night and day.

Deep space missions to Mars will be much more physically and mentally demanding than the journeys weve made so far during 60 years of human space exploration. A flight to Mars and back will last approximately 14 months, while the actual exploration mission will last at least three years. Sustained high levels of cognitive performance and effective teamwork are prerequisites for the safe and success outcome of these missions.

But a new study, published in Frontiers of Physiology, has discovered that the lack of gravity on such missions could have a negative impact on astronauts cognitive skills and emotional understanding.

Since the first space missions, it has been clear that exposure to microgravity (weightlessness) leads to dramatic changes in the human body. This includes alterations in the cardiovascular, musculoskeletal and neural systems. On Earth, we detect gravity with the help of our vision and various organs, including those inside the inner ear. When our head is upright, small stones in the ears the vestibular otoliths are balanced perfectly on a viscous fluid. But when we move the head, gravity makes the fluid move and this triggers a signal to the brain that our head has changed position. In spaceflight, this process no longer works.

Spaceflight can even adversely alter the anatomy of astronauts brains. Structural brain changes have been observed in astronauts after returning from the International Space Station (ISS). These include the brain physically moving upwards inside the skull and a reduced connectivity between areas on the layer of the brain, the cortex, and those inside.

How these changes affect behaviour is not yet fully understood, but scientists are making progress. We know that astronauts can suffer from disorientation, perceptual illusions, balance disorders and motion sickness. But such findings are often based on small samples.

The new Nasa-supported study investigated the effects of microgravity on cognitive performance. But rather than sending their 24 study participants to space, they sent them to bed. Thats because the impact of a certain type of bed rest is analogous to the effects of microgravity we use it a lot in research. When we are upright, our body and vestibular otoliths are in the same direction as gravity, while when we are lying down they are orthogonal (at right angles).

The participants in the study therefore had to lay on their backs at an inclination of 6 angle, with the head lower than the body, for nearly two months without changing position. They were asked to regularly perform a series of cognitive tasks designed for astronauts and relevant to spaceflight in order to evaluate their spatial orientation, memory, risk-taking behaviour and emotional understanding of others.

Results showed a small but reliable slowing of cognitive speed in tasks involving sensory and motor skills. This seems to be coherent with reported changes in brain tissue density over the sensorimotor cortices, the primary sensory and motor areas of the brain which help process sensory inputs and movements, observed after spaceflight. Participants also had difficulty in reading emotions when looking at peoples faces.

Adjusting to changes in gravity requires time and effort. While the performance on most cognitive tasks initially declined, after about 60 days they then remained unchanged over the course of the experiment. But the ability to recognise emotions continued to worsen. In fact, participants became biased towards negative emotions they were more likely to identify other peoples facial expressions as angry and less likely to interpret them as happy or neutral.

This is an important finding. The ability of astronauts to be sharp and quick thinkers is crucial to a space mission. So is the capability to correctly read each others emotional expressions, given they have to spend a lot of time cooped up together in a small space. Space agencies should therefore consider adequate pre-flight psychological training as well as in-flight psychological support in order to minimise this risk.

Recent advancements and investment in rocket technology are ushering in a new and exciting age of space exploration. Microgravity can be profoundly unsettling and can compromise performance levels in many ways. With an eye towards deep-space human missions to Mars, it is a pressing research goal to get a better insight into how microgravity influences cognitive performance and emotional health, as well as develop appropriate medical and psychological support for spaceflight.

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Astronauts on Mars missions could suffer cognitive and emotional problems new research - The Conversation UK

Companies listed under this NAICS classification are defined as being primarily engaged in the administration and operations of space flights, space research, and space exploration. Included in this industry are government establishments operating space flight centers. BizVibe's detailed company profile insights help users to discover, track, evaluate, and connect with space research and technology institutes from all over the world.

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Space Research and Technology Industry | BizVibe Adds New Space Research Companies Which Can Be Discovered and Tracked - PRNewswire

On theSpace to Growpodcast,AstroscalesChris BlackerbyandCharity Weedenbring their compelling experience and expertise to map out the technology, international policy, and scalability that will define the next generation of space exploration.

What do space and archaeology have in common? One is the future, while the other is the study of the past. However, space has a past, too. Hosts Chris Blackerby and Charity Weeden spoke with space archaeologistAlice Gorman on this exciting new field.

It is surprising to have space and archaeology in the same sentence. It came together for me one looking at the night sky noticing the stars but also the space junk put into orbit by humans, Gorman explained.

Before that night, she was a traditional archaeologist, but shed also had a fascination with space since childhood. Now her two passions were one.

This revelation came 20 years ago, and she wondered if there were others with the same questions. Soon, she met two others, John Campbell and Beth Laura OLeary. At first, the subject was thought to be irrelevant but grew to be a field with impact.

Theres so much activity in space now, and were talking more about sustainability and human interaction with the environment, Gorman said.With the growth of the sector came the term orbital heritage. Gorman explained its meaning. There is space debris in orbit from rocket bodies. Some are useless and come with the risk of fragmentation or collision. Some should be removed, but others may have historical value.

Keeping some pieces in orbit is akin to the archaeological motto leave something behind for future studies. Gorman noted that choosing less risky pieces helps future generations learn how humans first made it to space. It could track the evolution of change of human technology. Retrieving certain rocket pieces also provides the capacity to look at the space environment on materials.

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What Do Space and Archaeology Have in Common? - MarketScale

The Soviet Unions launch of the first artificial satellite into orbit on Oct. 4, 1957, set off a full-blown Sputnik crisis in the U.S.

The prospect of Russian nuclear bombs circling above Americas cities had schoolchildren scrambling under desks and politicians scrambling for answers. Was there a missile gap? Were we losing the Cold War?

Eleven days later, President Dwight D. Eisenhower received an official report detailing what should be done to meet the Soviet technological challenge, as Barrons wrote, and thus was born the space race. But our editors werent dazzled by dreams of moon landings or of boldly going where no man has gone before. They had something more prosaic in mind.

Meeting the Russian threat, Barrons wrote, would greatly spur sales of microscopes, test tubes, Bunsen burners, and all the gadgetssome of them incredibly expensiveneeded in todays scientific laboratories. Companies like Owens-Illinois (now O-I Glass ), Corning Glass Works (now Corning ), and Texas Instruments were among those in line to profit, we wrote.

The early space race, to Barrons, was a clear business opportunity. Space exploration, indeed, would benefit many industries and find its way into myriad consumer uses, underpinning the postwar economic boom that powered a prosperous America into the 1960s and beyond.

But, first and foremost, the race for space was a military pursuit, and that is how it began.

Nazi Germany hoped to turn World War II with the V-2 Rocket, the first long-range guided ballistic missile. Launched in September 1944, V-2s rained down terror from Northern England to Lorraine, Barrons wrote in January 1945, when, despite a final German offensive, the European conflicts end was in sight.

When the Allies poured into Germany that spring, American and Russian forces secured as many V-2 rockets, scientists, and technological secrets as possible. The Cold War was on.

The U.S.S.R. held the early lead in space, sending the first dog into orbit in Sputnik 2, then the first man into space in 1961 and the first woman in 1963.

The U.S., painfully slow in getting off the ground, as Barrons put it in 1960, would soon be shooting for the moon. But even before then, American industry was meeting the challenge. The Space Age suddenly is hatching so many golden eggs, we wrote in 1959, the real problem is to determine which, and how many, to brood.

There was Tiros-I, the first weather satellite, promising to reveal such deadly atmospheric disturbances as tornadoes, according to Barrons. It presaged the modern weather forecasting that we all depend on.

AT&Ts plan to launch its own artificial moons in 1962 resulted in Telstar 1, the first active communications satellite. Today, Earths sky is crowded with thousands of satellites (many, like Telstar 1, no longer working but still circling).

Microwave technology, too, was growing by leaps and bounds, according to Barrons in 1958, led by companies like AT&T, General Electric, and Westinghouse.

Theres the integrated circuit, for which NASA was the largest consumer in the 1960s. By 1973, though, Barrons was writing about chips used in Ataris new electronic game Pong, already found in better bars across the country. Today, integrated circuits are essential to computers, mobile phones, and the entire structure of modern civilization.

By the end of the 60s, NASA was working at a frenetic pace, launching five Apollo missions between October 1968 and July 1969. The last one, Apollo 11, landed humans on the moon for the first time.

Yet for all the excitement surrounding that landmark event, Americans were starting to question the vast outlays being poured into the space program. Barrons wondered in 1969 whether men on the moon could accomplish more than robots, and if NASAs $6 billion budget is the wisest use of public funds.

The space shuttle, NASAs next big-ticket item, proved too costly to become the workhorse envisioned, Barrons wrote in a 1999 editorial. Instead of another government project, we argued, the next space race should be conducted for profit. Theres no shortage of capital and capitalists willing to take big risks for big rewards, we wrote.

Houston to Elon Musk: The world is watching.

Email: editors@barrons.com

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The Space Race Has Long Led to Business Opportunities - Barron's

In a gray camouflage tee and blue denim jeans, Masaki Fujimoto is dressed all too casually for a man about to make history. Queen's Don't Stop Me Now has been playing on repeat, in his head, for weeks. One line is particularly prophetic for the 56-year-old astrophysicist.

"I'm burning through the sky"

In less than 48 hours, a 16-inch-wide steel capsule will do just that, rocketing through the atmosphere before unfurling a parachute and gently landing in a sparsely populated area of the Australian outback. Locked inside is ancient cargo -- pieces of a 4.6 billion-year-old near-Earth asteroid collected by Hayabusa2, the star spacecraft in the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency fleet.

Over the past six years, Hayabusa2 has achieved an extraordinary engineering triumph, filled with exhilarating firsts. It visited the dark, enigmatic Ryugu, an asteroid orbiting between Earth and Mars, and landed hopping robots on its surface. It imaged the exterior of the asteroid in exquisite detail and blasted a hole in its side with a copper cannonball. But the mission's masterstroke was sampling material from that wound it created in Ryugu's side -- the first time a spacecraft has snatched rock from beneath an asteroid's surface.

The spacecraft's achievements are some of the most valuable in the history of deep space exploration, akin to NASA's feats of landing rovers on Mars or exploring Pluto and its moons up close. On a smaller budget than NASA's, with a much smaller team, Japan wrote its way into space history. Yet for the mission to be considered a complete success, the team must land Hayabusa2's sample capsule safely back on solid ground.

Fujimoto, the deputy director general of JAXA's Institute of Space and Aeronautical Science, is responsible for bringing the spacecraft and its samples home. Trained as a theoretical physicist, he's leading the sample capsule recovery from the ground in Australia, overseeing nearly 80 scientists and engineers who have descended on the tumbledown outback town of Woomera.

Flat, ochre plains stretch for miles. The closest town is two hours away. Few places are as desolate, and yet as accessible, as Woomera.

The perfect place to drop an asteroid sample.

Hayabusa2's journey has been near flawless to date, but JAXA's runsheet never included "global pandemic." Travel restrictions forced Fujimoto to rewrite sample retrieval plans in April 2020, cutting the recovery team in half and mandating a quarantine period of 21 days for team members traveling to Woomera.

"It's been a very intense eight months," he says.

On Dec. 4, 2020, just over a day before the sample's scheduled return, Fujimoto fronts a press conference in Woomera, discussing the mission. Over the past three weeks, he's hardly slept, but the only hint he's tired is a cappuccino he cradles in his hand. He takes a sip. "I don't think you can sleep in my position," he tells me.

Despite his scientific sensibilities, Fujimoto believes fate is guiding the asteroid sample back to Earth. Strange coincidences throughout the vehicle's six-year journey, he says, demonstrate this theory. Signs the mission is destined for success.

The strangest of them all? On the night Hayabusa2's sample capsule comes careening back to Earth, the Woomera Theatre, which has 500 seats and only one screen, is scheduled to show Queen biopic Bohemian Rhapsody.

The Woomera Theatre was set to play the Rami Malek-led Queen biopic, Bohemian Rhapsody, just hours before the sample capsule's return.

Hayabusa2's journey began 18 years ago with its predecessor, Hayabusa.

The original 2003 mission put JAXA on the world stage, highlighting its engineering prowess. The first asteroid sample-return mission ever attempted, Hayabusa was designed to travel to an irregular, slug-shaped body known as 4660 Nereus, briefly touch down on its surface, steal away pieces of rock and ferry them back to Earth.

The thinking back then, Fujimoto says, was to perform a feat of cosmic exploration NASA "would never dare" attempt, but the mission was plagued by problems almost as soon as it launched.

"Hayabusa was a very challenging mission," says Saiki Takanao, a mission engineer with JAXA. Its initial launch was delayed, forcing it to change targets to a bean-shaped asteroid named Itokawa. Then, during its cruise phase, it was hit by a massive solar flare -- during a year of hellacious sun activity -- disrupting its solar cells and decreasing the efficiency of its engines. It arrived at Itokawa three months behind schedule, and an attempted landing proved disastrous when a leak in the spacecraft's thrusters reduced its ability to manage its orientation. It spun out of control. Communication was lost.

The team tried everything to locate the spacecraft. Junichiro Kawaguchi, the JAXA scientist who led the mission, even remembers visiting a small shrine, about five minutes walk from mission control, to ask for divine intervention. "Parents used to go to that shrine and pray their kid will come back," Fujimoto says.

Within weeks, the spacecraft pinged home.

Hayabusa cheated death, but two of its engines were busted. Data showed the spacecraft only glanced the surface of the asteroid and likely contained mere flecks of dust within the sample capsule. Clever engineering workarounds allowed the team to set course for Earth, but Hayabusa was headed for more misery. A third engine blew out on the way back.

It limped home three years late, ejected its sample capsule and slammed into the atmosphere. In its final moments, the spacecraft showered the skies over Woomera with thousands of fireballs. As the final sparks winked out, Hayabusa's mission came to a close. JAXA was not deterred by the original mission's problems, and plans for a sequel were already in motion. It would use Hayabusa as a starting point and visit an entirely new asteroid.

But if it was to succeed, the team would have to improve its futuristic propulsion system in just three years, half the time it had to build Hayabusa.

Ion engines appear to function as if by magic.

The complex wizardry that makes them work is officially known as "electric propulsion" and involves a mix of magnetic and electric fields, gas and plasma. But boil it down, and ion engines are essentially particle pinball machines strapped to the back of a spacecraft. Inside them, electrons collide with atoms to produce charged ions. These ions are pushed out of the engine at speed by a sustained electric field at the rear, delivering a very small amount of thrust.

Unlike typical chemical engines, which use extreme amounts of fuel rapidly and deliver huge amounts of thrust in one big, violent burst, ion engines are designed to be used for tens of thousands of hours. They require a comparatively tiny amount of fuel. "If you need to do it fast, you use a chemical rocket," says Nathan Brown, an aerospace engineer at the Georgia Institute of Technology. "If you want to do it cheaply and efficiently, you use electric propulsion."

JAXA's only option with the Hayabusa missions was cheap and efficient. The agency operates on a budget roughly 5% of NASA's, with a team about one-tenth the size. The budget for Hayabusa2 is about one-third of NASA's for Osiris-Rex, an asteroid sample return mission the US agency launched in 2016.

We were behind schedule a lot of the time.

JAXA engineer Ryudo Tsukizaki

Though troubled, Hayabusa's ion engines, designed and built in house by now-ISAS director general Hitoshi Kuninaka and his team, provided a solid foundation for Hayabusa2. But the team was constantly under pressure. "We were behind schedule a lot of the time," says Ryudo Tsukizaki, a JAXA engineer.

Hayabusa2's engines would need to help carry the spacecraft 1.75 billion miles to reach its destination. Kazutaka Nishiyama, a JAXA engineer who led the ion engine team, says it was critical to increase the lifespan of the engines. Three of Hayabusa's engines failed at around 10,000 hours -- 14 months -- due to a critical component of the engine known as a "neutralizer." Tinkering with the neutralizer provided the necessary improvements to the lifespan.

At the ISAS laboratory in Japan, an Earth-bound twin of the Hayabusa2's ion engine system is still being tested in a vacuum chamber today. When I talked to Nishiyama in October 2020, it had been switched on for 67,000 hours (seven and a half years). The early results of the test imbued the team with renewed conviction.

Hayabusa2 launched on Dec. 3, 2014, from Tanegashima Space Center in Japan. By the time launch day rolled around, the stress and pressure of ion engine development had all but faded. "We were very confident," says JAXA engineer Tsukizaki. For large parts of the mission, it cruised through the dark, lit by the aqua glow of its ion thrusters and dim light from the sun. Unlike its predecessor, it had a faultless sojourn, marked only by an occasional wave of X-rays washing over the spacecraft and periodically stopping the engines.

But when Hayabusa2 left Earth, it was headed to an asteroid without an official name. Its provisional designation, 1999 JU3, merely referred to the date and time of its discovery. The rock was a mystery.

"The asteroid is a new world," says Yuichi Tsuda, the project manager of Hayabusa2. "Before getting there, we do not know anything about it."

In 2015, the team at JAXA put out a call to the Japanese public to name the rock. From 7,336 entries, the selection committee settled on one.

Ryugu.

According to an ancient Japanese folktale, some 1,500 years ago, the fisherman Urashima Taro pushed his boat out into the Sea of Japan, under a soft blue sky. Taro drifted on the waves for hours, waiting to hook a red bream or bonito. The other villagers thought of him as kindhearted but most believed him lazy and luckless. He often returned to shore empty-handed as the summer sun sank beneath the horizon.

But on this summer morning, Taro's fortunes reversed. His rod stirred, clattering against the boat. A catch! Excitedly, Taro drew the line, but as he reeled in the prize, he realized it wasn't a fish he had hooked. It was a turtle.

Taro delicately removed the line from the creature's mouth and returned it to the sea with a gentle prayer. He placed his hands behind his head and lay down, dozing off, the sun's heat prickling his skin.

As he slept, a beautiful woman rose out of the sea. She moved as if carried by the wind, her long, black hair caught in a zephyr, crimson and blue robes trailing her in waves. Gliding toward the boat, she woke Taro with a soft touch, whispering to him.

"Don't be afraid," she said. "I am Princess Otohime. Today you showed me great kindness when you set me free from your hook. My father, the Dragon King of the Sea, sent me to you. He wishes for you to attend his palace beneath the waves. There, you may take me as your wife if you wish and we will live happily forever."

Urashima Taro agreed to go with the Princess to the Dragon Palace, Ryugu, an ornate castle made of coral and sand. There he met the Dragon King and married Otohime. In the enchanted land, he lived in an endless summer for three years.

By the fourth year, he grew restless. He'd fallen in love with Otohime, but began to worry about his elderly parents, alone at home. When he informed Otohime of his desire to return to them, she was crestfallen. She attempted to dissuade Taro from leaving but ultimately agreed to let him go, offering him a small treasure box, a tamatebako, tied with a silk string.

"If you wish to see me again, you must never open this," she told him. Taro nodded, agreeing he would never so much as loosen the string. At this, he was whisked from the castle under the sea back to his boat, bobbing in the Sea of Japan. The sun was descending. He glided back into shore.

As he disembarked and stood upon the beach, his heart filled with doubt.

The village had changed. The Shinto temple he visited as a boy had been rebuilt with a new facade. The mountainside had been cleared of its trees. There were more houses than he remembered. The fisherfolk glanced skeptically at Taro as he bounced between houses, hoping to find his home. But he could not. Finally, an old man with a walking stick came by, and Taro asked where he might find the home of the Urashima family.

The old man laughed. "Do you not know the story of Urashima Taro?" he started. "The fisherman disappeared 400 years ago. Everybody says he drowned. His family is buried in the old graveyard."

Taro rushed to the graveyard. The tombstones of his family appeared decrepit and eaten by moss. A monument to his own death stood, crumbling, by their side. His parent's names were barely legible. At this, he believed himself to be the victim of some cruel illusion and returned to the beach, tamatebako in hand.

In desperation, he tore the silk string off the box and opened it.

Immediately, he was engulfed by a white fog as cold as the ocean. He cried out, knowing he would never see the Princess Otohime or the Dragon Palace ever again. The ghastly mist soared out to sea. Taro, on the shore, watched it fade into the tender blue sky, disappearing against the clouds.

Then, the burden of 400 years set upon his body all at once. His hair grayed, then fell out. His face drooped, his spine curled, his teeth dropped into the sand.

Asteroid Ryugu is nothing like its namesake.

Photos snapped by Hayabusa2 as it approached the rock showed a featureless gray diamond against the dark; a milky splotch on a black curtain. But when the spacecraft arrived on June 27, 2018, and moved within 12 miles of Ryugu's surface, its cameras captured every dip, bend and curve of its face. The team was shocked.

An image of Ryugu, taken by Hayabusa2's ONC-W1 camera on June 13, 2018, as the spacecraft began its approach.

It was no palace. It was a wasteland. Strewn with mammoth boulders and pockmarked by craters, Ryugu was immediately deemed "unfriendly" by members of the science team. "It was beyond our imagination," says Tsuda, project manager on the mission. "It's a really hopeless terrain."

Ryugu is what's known as a "rubble pile," a clotted mass of rock bound together by gravity. It likely formed when two large bodies collided in the earliest epoch of the solar system, some 4.5 billion years ago. The explosive impact would have showered space with debris. Over time, gravity pulled the wreckage together, forming Ryugu. It's been wandering in the orbit between Mars and Earth ever since.

Asteroids aren't considered sexy. They're dull, bumpy boulders traveling through an abyss. They're often maligned; we only really care for them when we think they might collide with the Earth. This is unfair. Asteroids are some of the most valuable resources in our solar system.

"Missions like Hayabusa and Hayabusa2, and Osiris-Rex, are a first step towards deflecting asteroids, and also mining them," says Jonti Horner, an astrophysicist at the University of Southern Queensland. Asteroid mining is too expensive to be feasible today, but demonstrating that samples can be gathered and returned from distant space rocks could lead to a greener, near-unlimited resource of Earth metals like copper, nickel and platinum. A similar process, Horner says, might help change the trajectory of an asteroid on a collision course with the Earth.

"One of the ways we could deflect it would be to send spacecraft there, land on the surface, and start digging bits off and firing those bits into space -- in a carefully calculated direction," he says.

Ryugu, the Dragon Palace, captured by Hayabusa2's ONC-W1 camera on June 30, 2018.

But asteroids aren't just destinations to visit, mine or move. They are also records of truly ancient history.

Rocks like Ryugu could hold clues to the evolution of the solar system and even the evolution of life on Earth. Observing Ryugu for over a decade, scientists learned it was a "C-type" asteroid rich in carbon, containing some of the oldest and most pristine material we know of, from a time when planets were only just beginning to form. They are believed to harbor water ice and organic compounds, making them "potentially important for supplying the basic ingredients for life on Earth and other planets," says Simon Turner, a geochemist at Macquarie University in Australia.

JAXA would be the first agency to visit a C-type asteroid and sample rock from its surface. But the team quickly realized just how problematic that surface would be.

If you want to tango with an asteroid, you have to have a really big dance floor.

"We needed a 100-meter-diameter flat area," says Tsuda, "but there's no such space on the surface of Ryugu." He was acutely aware of how things could go wrong, having worked on the first Hayabusa mission.

Hayabusa2 performed a touchdown rehearsal in September 2018, a month before the first landing operation was scheduled to occur. It approached Ryugu slowly, scanning the surface with a laser that gauges altitude. At a height of 600 meters, it stopped descending. The spacecraft had a memory lapse, losing track of the distance to the surface. To save itself, it autonomously backed away. After reviewing the issue, the team decided on postponing the first touchdown. They needed to find a good landing spot.

Scientists scoured images of Ryugu's surface, measuring the size of shadows cast by boulders and pebbles to estimate height. Tsuda thinks the science team counted 10,000 or more rocks to estimate the "bumpiness" of the terrain. After a week, the team located a safe area, dubbed L08-B, that was free from debris -- but it was one-fifth the size they required.

Tsuda reasoned that the team would have to rethink its strategy altogether. They would now perform a "pinpoint touchdown" method and, Takanao says, had to "study very, very hard" to pull it off.

JAXA members Hirotaka Sawada (left) and Satoru Nakazawa (right) in the Sagamihara control room during touchdown rehearsal on Sept. 11, 2018.

Originally, Hayabusa2 planned to drop a softball-sized, reflective marker to the surface during the touchdown operation and then follow it to the surface. But the team reasoned that if it dropped the marker a few months prior to touchdown, that would provide Hayabusa2 with a beacon it could use as a guide, like a lighthouse shepherding a ship to shore.

Fortunately, Hayabusa2 had already proved itself a master marksman. It had deployed two hopping rovers, Hibou and Owl, to Ryugu's surface, along with a third robotic scout, Mascot, developed by the German Aerospace Center and France's National Centre for Space Studies. The box-shaped hoppers were the first spacecraft to image an asteroid from the surface and measure properties never considered before. When it came time to land the target marker, the operation proceeded without fault.

Although the successes were mounting, the reason for visiting Ryugu was to sample it. "Without a successful touchdown, we could not go beyond Hayabusa," says Tsuda. Touchdown was all he could think about. He wasn't getting much sleep, he says. In late October 2018, the team dropped the target marker without issue. Two more touchdown rehearsals occurred in the new year, and the pinpoint method worked flawlessly. Finally, the team was ready.

With the sun rising over mission control in Sagamihara on Feb. 21, 2019, Tsuda donned his off-white Hayabusa2 mission jacket, and the team began its operation. The control room was calm. Expectant. But as they performed final checks on Hayabusa2 before descent, the mission was thrown into chaos.

Hayabusa2 was not where it was supposed to be.

The distance between Earth and Hayabusa2, floating above Ryugu, is about 210 million miles. Orders, uploaded from Japan, take about 20 minutes to reach the spacecraft. It's programmed to perform operations autonomously and, if something goes wrong, there's no opportunity to correct on the fly.

When JAXA found Hayabusa2 was not in position to start its descent, the touchdown plan had to be reworked once again. "We had to delay the start of the descent by five hours," says Tsuda. The slight delay might not seem significant, but in that time the team essentially reprogrammed Hayabusa2's guidance systems for the operation.

The "last hardship," as Tsuda calls it, changed the atmosphere in the room, but only slightly. The team quickly discovered a timing error had caused the mishap. They'd trained hard for these exact scenarios, running simulations hundreds of times on the ground. Tsuda's confidence and anxiety coalesced in the frenzied five-hour pause.

Finally, just after midday on Feb. 21, the touchdown operation was declared a "go." The new commands had been uploaded. The fate of Hayabusa2 rested solely in the spacecraft's hands. It descended.

Dozens of members crowded around a wall-size projection, in the control room, providing a readout of data streaming back from Hayabusa2. There was no live video, so the team followed the spacecraft's Doppler data: Against a gray table, drawn like a graph in Excel, they waited for a red line to appear -- a sign the spacecraft had survived its encounter with Ryugu and was moving away from the surface.

Takanao Saiki (front) and Yuichi Tsuda embrace.

The pressure was huge, Takanao, the engineer, says. As the team waited, Sakanao interlaced his fingers, as if in prayer, staring at the screen. Almost 25 hours after JAXA began the operation, the thin, red line blinked into existence on the screen. They'd done it. Hayabusa2 was not equipped with cameras inside the sample capsule, but data streaming back from the spacecraft showed it had fired its projectile and picked up a bucketful of material, storing it away for the return journey.

Applause broke out. Tsuda and Takanao high-fived. Team members embraced. The muted celebrations might have seemed strange to those used to watching broadcasts from NASA control rooms; energetic displays of relief and joy overwhelming team members. That wasn't the JAXA way. Tsuda recalled the feeling as one of "pure pleasure" and surprise. "We actually did that?" he asked himself, as other scientists wrapped him in fleeting hugs.

Hayabusa2 had done what Hayabusa could not. It had retrieved innumerable treasures from the ancient space rock. The team nicknamed the touchdown site tamatebako.

With its treasure box tucked safely away, the spacecraft could have waited the year out, analyzing Ryugu from orbit until it was time to return home. JAXA wanted to go one better.

One of Hayabusa2's major upgrades was the addition of a bomb.

Strapped to the underside of the spacecraft was an explosive known as the Small Carry-on Impactor that JAXA scientists, including Takanao, had designed for Hayabusa2 to drop on Ryugu to create an artificial crater and allow the team to sample material from beneath the asteroid's surface. But the team agonized over one key decision: Should they use it?

A second touchdown was a risky operation. Would JAXA take a chance on losing the ancient cargo it'd already captured to perform another risky touchdown and nab this pristine material? There was great uncertainty within the team.

Fujimoto says there were many "interesting" conversations leading up to the operation, describing heated debates about whether it was worth the risk. Tsuda notes that the first touchdown was "mandatory" for the mission's success, but the second touchdown was "the first time we purely pursued the scientific value."

It wasn't necessary to extract the first subsurface sample from an asteroid, but the team's scientists wanted to try. The material could unravel some of the secrets of C-type asteroids. For Fujimoto, not trying to collect the subsurface sample was akin to revealing the team wasn't confident in itself. He didn't want to risk "getting that reputation," he says. Eventually, a consensus was reached: They would go for it.

On April 5, 2019, a five-pound copper disc was volleyed from the SCI at a speed of 2 kilometers per second. It collided with Ryugu's side and sprayed rock across its body, leaving a scar on the surface about 32 feet wide and six feet deep. "This exposed subsurface material around the artificial crater," Tsuda says.

The SCI departing Hayabusa2 en route to bombing Ryugu.

Scientists could pick practically anywhere safe on the surface for Hayabusa2's first landing. But for the second, there were no options. "To collect subsurface materials, we must land near the artificial crater," says Shota Kikuchi, a JAXA engineer who helped plot the second landing. But the team did get "really lucky," according to Yuri Shimaki, a post-doctoral engineer at ISAS, because the SCI hit at such an angle that Hayabusa2 could retrieve an abundance of ejected material. Not before a lot more training, though.

The engineering and science teams simulated touchdown operations from the mission control room on Earth, running through hundreds of scenarios. One team member would be assigned the role of "God," tasked with simulating the entire second touchdown from start to finish.

During one simulation, "God" was in on a conspiracy to derail the simulation. The member had tasked one of the engineers to complain of stomach problems, right as the spacecraft in the sim began its descent to the surface. The engineer played along, crying out in pain, rushing to the toilet and disappearing. But the simulated mission carried on in that engineer's absence.

"Make the most of your chances!" The Ryugu-no-tsukai in JAXA mission control.

Tsuda says the team pulled together and, ultimately, the simulation was a success.

On July 10, 2019, the second touchdown operation began. It was a carbon copy of the first, but this time a plush Japanese oarfish (a "Ryugu-no-tsukai") hung in the room with a message: "Make the most of your chances! That is the principle of space research!"

Team members huddled around the Doppler data on the wall for a second time. At 10:51 a.m. on July 11, Tsuda declared the mission a success. The celebrations, too, were a carbon copy, but this one meant a little more. JAXA had taken the risk and succeeded. Looking back, Fujimoto calls the second touchdown "one of the defining moments" of his career.

With two bags of ancient rock now stowed safely within its sample capsule, it was time for JAXA to bring Hayabusa2 home.

See the article here:

Inside Japan's daring 10-year mission to visit ancient asteroid Ryugu - CNET

The US company LeoLabs Inc. will inaugurate the most advanced special radar on the planet in Costa Rica this April, as published by the Costa Rican astronaut Franklin Chang, on March 10th, through his social networks.

Chang the Costa Rican project manager through his company Ad Astra assured that the radar, located in Guanacaste, will catapult the country to the front and center of the space age with unimaginable opportunities for our young people and for future generations, in new industries. and skills of immense value to our economy.

LeoLabs provides information on the state of the space orbit, so that satellites or other debris present in it can be mapped. With the Costa Rican radar it will be possible to identify and project the location of artifacts of up to 2 square centimeters, in low Earth orbit (between 200 and 2,000 kilometers above the earths surface).

The American company was founded in 2016 and has similar radars in Alaska, Texas and New Zealand. Its executive and co-founder, Edward Lu, was a former NASA astronaut, where he met the Costa Rican Franklin Chang, with whom he coordinated this project. Locating artifacts in low orbit is essential for public and commercial companies around the globe, increasingly venturing into space exploration and launching through guided objects.

In July of last year, during the official launch of the project, the astronaut Lu that his company chose Costa Rica for its national and strategic commitment with the space industry. He also stressed that accessing a mapping from Costa Rican territory will allow increasing the safety of space travel and preserving critical ecosystems, among other tasks.

For his part, the founder and Chief of Technology, Mike Nicolls, highlighted the value of locating a radar in the equatorial zone of the planet, with the aim of closing an important gap in the tracking of satellites and space debris.

In addition to the low orbit, there are artifacts and junk in the medium and high orbit; however, radars cannot reach those distances. For example, GPS radars can be located up to 15,000 miles away.

The rest is here:

Costa Rica Will Host the Most Advanced Space Radar on the Planet - The Costa Rica News

The chairperson of Russia's Federal Space Agency Roscosmos, Dmitriy Rogozin, said Wednesday that Turkey has all the necessary political and economic leverage to carry out its National Space Program and that Moscow is ready and willing to evaluate all opportunities to participate in initiatives regarding the program.

Rogozin was speaking on Turkey's National Space Program and the potential cooperation in the space and defense industry in an interview with Anadolu Agency (AA).

The experience we have gained in meetings with Turkish colleagues, Rogozin said, confirms that the two countries have important long-term common interests in the field of space activities.

Explaining that a draft document is being prepared to make these contacts more systematic and comprehensive, Rogozin said that this will be the legal framework of the peaceful space activities cooperation between Ankara and Moscow.

Pointing out that a strong political will and competent management are required for the realization of space programs, Rogozin said, "Provided that the support of experienced partners is also required, a young space power can easily prepare and implement a full-fledged interplanetary mission in a very short time."

Turkey is among the countries that can carry out its own space program, Rogozin underlined, adding that Turkey has shown time and again that it has the necessary numbers of qualified experts in the aviation industry.

Evaluating the Turkish authorities' statements that Russian-made Soyuz rockets could be used to reach the International Space Station (ISS), Rogozin said: Soyuz is one of the most reliable launch vehicles not only in Russia but worldwide. In total, more than 1,100 Soyuz of various modifications has been launched into space to date.

Roscosmos has experience in training foreign cosmonauts, Rogozin said, informing that Russian experts are ready to kick off consultations regarding the training of Turkish astronauts and preparing a manned space project that would benefit Turkey.

We are waiting for suitable offers from our Turkish colleagues, he added.

Rogozin also reiterated that President Recep Tayyip Erdoan and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin attended the MAKS-2019 fair held in Moscow in 2019, saying that Moscow had offered to send a Turkish astronaut to space during that fair, and this gesture was greatly welcomed.

Underlining that manned space exploration is a complex and extremely resource-intensive space activity, Rogozin said: There are several options for the realizing of the mission, its duration, flight patterns, and scientific and applied tasks assigned to the crew are important. Consulting with our foreign partners all the nuances of a manned mission is always a very long and painstaking job. We are ready and willing to consult with our Turkish colleagues on all these issues.

Also commenting on Turkeys holistic unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) development program that caught the worlds attention recently, Rogozin said that they had a chance to see and evaluate Turkeys rapid development in the field as the participants of leading international aviation fairs.

Of course, it is not possible that Turkish engineers' work in this field will not be respected, the Russian official said.

Read the rest here:

Moscow ready to join Turkeys space initiatives: Roscosmos head | Daily Sabah - Daily Sabah