A Martian Winter Wonderland
Soyuz drama leaks into the new year, why Jupiter is just like Los Angeles, and NASA’s Juno Probe to exit “safe mode.”
Hello Continuum readers and Celestial Citizens,
And happy new year! It’s hard to believe that 2023 could possibly be more exciting of a space year than 2022 - but we’re sure going to give it our best shot. And apparently our birthday buddy (yes, I’m pleased to say that Celestial Citizen and Space Force both celebrated anniversaries of our founding on December 20th - although we’re a bit younger) is stepping into the New Year with a swanky new website. And with catchy, if not mildly inaccurate, phrases like “Earth is only half the battle” and “the future is where history is made,” you just might want to give this website remodel a test drive.
Of course, Space Force’s digital flex wasn’t the only thing suggesting themes of war and destruction in this next trip around the Sun. A new web app, called Asteroid Launcher, will now let you visualize and curate your own asteroid impact event – annihilating entire cities from the comfort of your own desk chair. Or maybe you are looking to take care of that Christmas tree that is rapidly decaying in your living room on (ahem…::checks phone::..January 6th) then perhaps you can turn it into a rocket. Or as YouTuber Joe Barnard aptly stated, “really put the missile in mistletoe.”
Why are we humans like this? I really couldn’t say, but for me, I prefer to kick the new year off with cozy images of a Martian “winter wonderland,” listening to parodied holiday classics about Mark Watney harvesting potatoes (see audio below), and syncing my calendar to the New York Times list of everything to look forward to in space for 2023.
Alright, first Continuum newsletter of 2023 – here we go!
Top Headlines
Soyuz Leak – The return trip for the cosmonauts “stranded” on the ISS due to a coolant leak from a docked Soyuz is still up in the air. As a refresher - the leak, whose origin is still unknown, caused the cancellation of a spacewalk, but did not harm the ISS or the astronauts onboard. While it’s still undetermined whether the spacecraft can safely return to Earth, it seems NASA has reached out to SpaceX “about its capability to return additional crew members aboard Dragon if needed in an emergency.” Hopefully we will have a decision on how these cosmonauts will return home by the end of this month!
Recovering Memory – NASA’s Juno probe completed its flyby of Jupiter and its moon Io on December 14, but when trying to download the data, the operations team found that they were no longer able to access the spacecraft's memory. But not to fret – after a successful reboot of Juno’s computer and placing the spacecraft in “safe mode” on December 17, the team is now in the process of downloading the data again. It takes 53 Earth days for Juno to orbit Jupiter so hopefully that’s another 53 days of data collected! Juno’s next flyby is scheduled to start January 22, exiting “safe mode” this week.
Jupiter is just like Los Angeles – In other Jupiter news, after looking at forty years worth of measurements of Jupiter’s atmosphere, astronomers believe that Jupiter doesn’t have seasons! Earth’s seasons are caused by the 23.5 degree tilt of its axis as it orbits around the Sun. Jupiter’s roughly 3 degree tilt means the planet gets the same amount of Sun all year around. So while it's still uncertain how the planet experiences hot and cold periods, you can read the full article from Space.com about why researchers believe that it's caused by a phenomenon called teleconnection.
Second Chances – The LunaH-Map cubesat may have a second window to complete its mission! After initial concerns of battery drain were quelled post launch, the cubesat’s propulsion system unfortunately missed its window to get the cubesat back into lunar orbit. LunaH-Map’s mission is to look for water ice deposits by the Lunar South Pole, and it's already collected data from its first flight around the Moon. If engineers can fix the propulsion system remotely, the cubesat can get back to doing its job… next year!
New Year New Budget – Christmas came early for the Space Force - on December 23, when Congress approved a $1.7 trillion government funding bill for the Defense Department. From that budget, Space Force received $26.3 billion, which is almost $1.7 billion more than the Pentagon requested. NASA also received $3.2 billion for planetary science, which is $40 million more than they requested. However, this increase may not be enough to sway the budgetary concerns raised by director of NASA’s planetary science division Lori Glaze, who stated that the division’s budget was under “significant stress” last month.
Walt Cunningham – Astronaut Walter Cunningham passed away this past Tuesday at the age of 90. Cunningham was part of the crew for Apollo 7, the first crewed space flight in the Apollo program. As pilot of the lunar module, he tested maneuvers for “docking and lunar orbit rendezvous” over the 11 day flight. Also during this flight, Cunningham and fellow astronauts Wally Schirra and Donn Eisele, hosted the “Wally, Walt, and Donn Show” – the first live television broadcast from space. The success of Apollo 7 was crucial to resuming the Apollo program and we are grateful for his contributions and distinguished service to NASA.
The JWST Download
JWST was named the greatest science breakthrough of last year by the journal Science!
Missed a JWST image or want to relive the highlights in their full glory? Check out Space.com’s compilation here.
JWST turns its instruments to TRAPPIST-1.
Catching a merger of galaxies.
Will China’s EAST telescope be their earth-bound JWST?
How close is JWST to finding life? Al Jazeera’s “The Take” podcast dives in.
A Global Space
ESA - Need a job for the new year? ESA might be hiring soon! Following their budget increase, ESA is looking to hire 400 people in the upcoming year - these job postings will not only fill vacancies currently at the organization, but also to support new or growing programs. With no specifics released yet, keep an eye out in the coming months, and maybe you too can be “[insert your name here] in Paris.”
United Kingdom – Despite being delayed last year, Spaceport Cornwall has finally been given a launch license by the UK Civil Aviation Authority for its upcoming Virgin Orbit launch. Originally scheduled for last month, this will be the UK’s first rocket launch. This bodes well for the UK’s future in space, with publication UK Tech News predicting big things for the country this year.
South Korea – After reports of a UFO sighting just before New Year’s Eve, South Korea confirmed that it was not a UFO but in fact a successful test flight of their solid propellant rocket. You can see footage of the launch here! And the country’s Danuri lunar orbiter has sent back some stunning images of the Moon and Earth.
Ukraine – As Russia’s invasion of Ukraine continues, just under a month shy of a year, several publications reported about how space has played a part in shaping the new front of war and vice versa. SpaceNews put together a list of five ways space has been impacted. The article is worth reading in full, but satellites have become a major factor - whether Starlink, getting restricted from launch, or utilization of satellite imagery.
China – Closing out the year, it seems that China has set a new launch record for themselves, the GlobalTimes reporting over 50 launches with a 100% success rate – despite a handful of uncontrolled reentry events. And even though the new year has just started, China has its sights set on 2025. They have announced the experiments that will fly on their Chang’e 6 sample return mission to the far side of the Moon, currently slated to launch in two years. The experiments are an international collaboration, including experiments from France, Italy, Sweden and Pakistan. And China’s lofty space goals have not gone unnoticed, with NASA administrator Bill Nelson reminding us that we are in a space race.
Japan – The privately operated HAKUTO-R lunar lander from Japan remains on track to land on the Moon this April after successfully performing its “second major deep-space maneuver.” Having already sent back some initial images after separating from the Falcon 9 rocket, will Japan be the next country to make its mark on the lunar surface?
Scotland – Could Scotland be an up and coming player in the space industry? With two launch sites months away from completion – SaxaVord Spaceport and Space Hub Sutherland – as well as the formation of the Scotland International Space Advisory Committee it may seem so! The committee is made up of all volunteers who aim to “provide advice and identify opportunities to achieve a £4 billion share of the global space market and 20,000 jobs in the sector over the next seven years.”
MOONSHOT
If we’re going to get to space, we’re going to need a lot of help. In our Moonshot section, we’ll share highlights from some of the commercial companies that are taking us there:
Voyager Space will be partnering with European company Airbus Defence and Space on Starlab, Voyager’s commercial space station project. This collaboration may make it easier for European governments to access the station, as one of several commercial stations that are in development following the ISS’s eventual retirement.
SpaceX targets 100 launches in 2023! Their 61st and last launch of 2022, was on December 29, carrying a satellite for “defense and intelligence organizations to conduct operations under complete confidentiality and data protection” for Israel based ImageSat International. Their first launch of 2023 took place this past Tuesday, carrying 114 payloads into orbit for customers around the globe, including hardware to test out the beginnings of space-based solar power from Caltech.. With a $137 billion evaluation, perhaps this year they’ll finally be able to test Starship!
Will this be the year of in-orbit manufacturing? Thales Alenia Space has signed a contract with Luxembourg based venture REV, to develop the REV1, a “reusable and pressurized ‘space factory’.” The vehicle will be owned and operated by Space Cargo Unlimited, also based out of Luxembourg.
Impulse Space is eyeing the fourth quarter of 2023 for the first launch of their first orbital transfer vehicle. Currently named Mira, the spacecraft is currently slated to launch on SpaceX’s Transporter-9 mission.
Canadian company NorthStar has raised $35 million to support its plans for space debris tracking satellites. They plan to launch the first three this year, tracking objects of varying sizes in varying orbits - from as small as a centimeter in low Earth orbit (LEO), to objects between 40 and 50 centimeters in geostationary orbit (GEO).
Raytheon will be using a Lockheed Martin satellite bus to build a missile tracking satellite for the Space Force in medium Earth orbit (MEO). The satellite bus, Lockheed Martin’s LM400, will support Raytheon’s intended goal of detecting and tracking ballistic and hypersonic missiles by seeing closer to Earth and tracking a wider area than satellites in low Earth orbit.
Looking for advice on how to navigate the regulations in the space industry? Take a trip to Albuquerque for the first Space Regulatory Bootcamp, backed by the US Air Force Research Laboratory and SpaceWERX. With a variety of topics being covered, the three day meeting will take place February 21-23, and currently tickets are going for $900.
Space Tweet of the Week
Space Reads!
Can’t get enough stellar content? Here are some pieces of space-adjacent news we’ve been reading:
TechCrunch’s Aria Alamalhodaei made some predictions for the space industry for the new year. Check it out and let us know what you think – who will be the next major international players? And how many more private astronauts will we get? Sound off in the subscriber chat!
Can’t get enough JWST? Check out NPR’s overview of how the telescope changed astronomy last year.
“If You Must Cry Over a Space Robot, Make It This One” - we’re huge fans of The Atlantic, and especially their space reporting. Check out their wonderfully titled send off to Insight, written by Marina Koren.
Storage in space? This Forbes piece suggests that we might be seeing the first data center in space someday sooner than you think.
Kepler’s first planet will soon be destroyed, depending on your definition of soon…
Space and marine scientists team up to decipher the hidden potential of ocean worlds in our solar system that may be harboring life.
A big thank you to Evan Yee for writing this edition with me and helping to stay on top of all the latest space happenings! Also, thank you to Graham Clark for his parodied, red planet take on Let it Snow. We hope you enjoyed reading Continuum this week and will share it with your friends. And if you really, really like us, then consider becoming a paid subscriber or gifting a subscription to someone who you’d bring with you on a one-way trip to Mars. Until next time…
Keep it celestial people,
Britt
CEO of Celestial Citizen & Creator of Continuum