Content about space

NASA made some significant advancements in the search for extraterrestrial life this week. First, SpaceX launched NASA's Europa Clipper, which will eventually make about 50 flybys of Europa, the moon of Jupiter that scientists believe has ice-covered oceans that are twice the volume of Earth's. Second, NASA scientists published a paper in Nature describing computer modeling that predicts the presence of “radiatively habitable zones within exposed mid-latitude ice on Mars.” If there's water in those ‘radiatively habitable zones’, “mid-latitude ice exposures could represent the most easily accessible locations to search for extant life on Mars.”

I'm 54. I'm beginning to think it's entirely possible, that in my lifetime, we'll have evidence of extraterrestrial microbial life.

What a time to be alive.

tags: science space mars europa

postposted by matt in Saturday, October 19, 2024

Nasa postpones plans to send humans to moon (theguardian.com)

We choose to go to the Moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard; because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one we intend to win, and the others, too. — United States President John F. Kennedy (Rice University, September 12, 1962).

Space is still hard.

tags: space

posted by matt in Wednesday, January 10, 2024

An Old Abstract Field of Math Is Unlocking the Deep Complexity of Spacecraft Orbits (wired.com)

In 2021, Koh came across a paper that discussed how to grapple with chaotic orbits from the perspective of symplectic geometry, an abstract field of math that is generally far removed from messy real-world details. She started to suspect that symplectic geometry might have the tools she needed to better understand orbits, and she got in touch with Agustin Moreno, the author of the paper. Moreno, then a postdoctoral fellow at Uppsala University in Sweden, was surprised and pleased to hear that someone at NASA was interested in his work. “It was unexpected, but it was also quite interesting and sort of motivating at the same time,” he said.

This is the beauty of pure academic research – someone makes an unforeseen connection and our collective knowledge grows. You never know how people will apply your work later. Pretty neat and compelling example of the value of basic research.

tags: research math science space

posted by matt in Sunday, May 5, 2024

China Launches Mission to Return First Samples From Moon's Elusive Far Side (gizmodo.com)

I forget where, but I read something that characterized this new phase of the space race as the "base race," meaning countries (presumably the United States and China) are racing to be the first to establish a base on the moon. I wonder when that will be possible - ten years? Twenty? How long until the billionaires of the day are hitching rides back and forth?

tags: space

posted by matt in Friday, May 3, 2024

There's a library on the moon now. It might last billions of years. (mashable.com)

Humankind now has an off-earth backup of our collective knowledge, culture, and works. This feels weirdly important.

We can now say for the first time in history that civilization will not be lost.

tags: space

posted by matt in Saturday, April 13, 2024

Space Force Is Planning a Military Exercise in Orbit (wired.com)

Maybe Space Force is not a joke after all. And the state of things sort of reminds me of the situation with self-driving cars. It's not really about the technology - that's, strangely enough, the easy part. The mindset and the culture are the things. And those are hard to change.

Tactically responsive space is not about the hardware," Guetlein said. “It's not about the satellite; it's not about the sensor; it's not about the rocket. It's about the mindset. It's about the culture.

tags: space

posted by matt in Saturday, April 13, 2024

Loaf-size mission to improve hurricane forecasting is ready to launch | CNN (cnn.com)

Each CubeSat will orbit at about 340 miles (550 kilometers) above Earth’s surface and capture hourly observations of the precipitation, temperature and humidity of tropical storms. Current satellites take similar data, but only about every six hours, which makes it more difficult to measure the intensity of storms.

More frequent data can help scientists understand the rapid changes that can occur within a storm, impacting its structure and stability, and help meteorologists improve their prediction and forecasting models.

Looks like hurricane data will grow six-fold this season. Hopefully that finds its way into weather apps for phones and tablets, which, I think, is where most people track storms (true for me).

tags: weather tech space

posted by matt in Sunday, May 7, 2023

If the Webb telescope sunshield doesn't open, here’s what NASA will do (mashable.com)

"Like working on a jammed desk drawer, the ground crew could push or pull harder on devices to try to unstick them. Or imagine gently shaking that drawer to loosen the clutter lodged in it. The crew could also initiate a low-level vibration — a “shimmy” — by firing its rockets in different sequences."

So the ground crew can built in the "push harder" and "shimmy and shake" options, but what if it needs a good, swift kick to get things moving?

tags: tech space

posted by matt in Tuesday, December 28, 2021

Engineers Have Proposed The First Model For a Physically Possible Warp Drive (sciencealert.com)

Turns out we don't need to break the speed of light barrier to become an interstellar species. We just need enormously powerful gravitational fields, like those provided by planets, to bend space time inside a warp drive.

Thinking about riding a warp drive around a planet makes me think of the song #Spacegrass# by Clutch:

Lay low, watch the universe expand.
Skyway, permanent Saturday.
Oh, by the way, Saturn is my rotary.

tags: physics space science

posted by matt in Thursday, March 4, 2021