How to Lose Sight of Earth in 45 Days
and other innovative hacks to spice up your off-world life
Hello Continuum readers and Celestial Citizens,
We have officially made it to the second half of January, our email inboxes are jam-packed once again, and the space conference calendar is filling up. Yes, it’s time to leave the loose-ends of 2022 behind and NASA is here to tell us “there is a lot more coming” in 2023.
Like NASA’s Bill Nelson, the team here at Continuum also has some exciting news to share. We are bringing back Continuum podcast in a new format that we hope you’ll enjoy. If you are a paid subscriber (thank you by the way!) then you will be able to listen to the latest episode with this week’s co-host, AJ Link, Director of Communications for AstroAccess and previous Celestial Citizen podcast guest. If you are not yet a paid subscriber, you should know that for $6/month, you can gain access to our biweekly space show that isn’t afraid to discuss geopolitics, ChatGPT, and intergalactic unicorns in the same breath.
Now, onto that gravity-defying space beat you came here for…
Top Headlines
Next Big Thing – With JWST almost a year into functioning service, and new tools already being tested for the Nancy Grace Roman Telescope, NASA continues to look ahead, announcing the Habitable Worlds Observatory telescope. And its mission is what its name suggests - to search for habitable planets (and life) in the vast reaches of space. The early 2040’s can’t come fast enough!
“Is This Real?” – Speaking of habitable worlds, scientists have found an exoplanet that’s similar to Earth in size and may be able to retain liquid. Dubbed TOI 700 e, this is especially exciting because it is the second planet of this kind orbiting the same star, with the former planet being dubbed TOI 700 d. Both of these incredibly named exoplanets were found by TESS - NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite. With the system being just over 100 light years away from Earth, does anyone else get Interstellar vibes from this discovery?
Experimental – This year’s NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts program awardees have been announced, and there are some “out of this world” 😉 ideas in the mix. Take Titanair, a futuristic looking seaplane that would explore Saturn’s moon Titan with its ability to transition from sailing on its lakes to soaring through the atmosphere. Or the Bimodal Nuclear Thermal Rocket that could get you to Mars in 45 days! You can see the full list of awardees and their inventive ideas here.
Alexa, Play “Aliens Exist” by Blink-182 – The 2022 Annual Report on Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAP) from the Pentagon has finally been declassified. Examining 510 reports of UAPs - the report was able to identify 336 – 26 being uncrewed air systems or drones, and 163 balloons, “balloon-like entities” or “clutter” like birds or shopping bags. This leaves 171 unidentified UAPs that “have demonstrated unusual flight characteristics or performance capabilities, and require further analysis.” We are eagerly awaiting a formal response to the report from Blink-182 singer and UAP researcher Tom DeLonge.
Falling to Earth – The Earth Radiation Budget Satellite (ERBS) fell back to Earth on Sunday January 8th, entering the atmosphere above the Bering sea. Most of the craft burned up during re-entry, however NASA expected that some of its components would withstand the burn, stating that they would only pose a 1 in 9,400 chance that someone would be hit by the debris. ERBS was launched in 1984, studying how the Sun’s energy was “absorbed and radiated by the Earth.” It exceeded its 2 year service life, operating until 2005.
Look Up – Get your stargazing friends and equipment ready, a green comet will be traveling by Earth between February 1st and 2nd! This particular comet comes around every 50,000 years so safe to say this will be a once in a lifetime experience, unless you’re Scott Bakula. If you are going to check it out, make sure you’re in an area with little light pollution, although that doesn’t change the fact you might have bright satellites to contend with.
A New Milestone – NASA Astronaut Nicole Mann is not only the first Native American woman in space but has now also become the first Native American woman to perform a spacewalk! She is a member of the Wailacki of the Round Valley Indian Tribes in Northern California. Here’s hoping we see Nicole on the Moon next!
The JWST Download
JWST’s first exoplanet!
What can these Milky Way mimics captured by JWST tell us about our own galaxy?
Looking at galaxies as they were 11 billion years ago.
Even galactic shockwaves can’t evade JWST’s gaze!
A closer examination of what we’ve learned from JWST’s earliest photos.
Hubble catches a fading star cluster.
A Global Space
The ISS – Rescue plans have been solidified and NASA wants to make sure you know the right verbiage! Last week Joel Montalbano, NASA's space station program manager, made sure people knew that a “replacement Soyuz,” not a “rescue Soyuz” would be launched on February 20 to replace the Soyuz that leaked last month. The craft will return two cosmonauts and NASA astronaut Frank Rubio back to Earth. As backup, Crew-5’s Dragon capsule Endurance is being outfitted to carry Rubio in case the leaky Soyuz needs to be pressed into service sooner, deeming it safer to return two passengers instead of three.
United Kingdom – The first orbital rocket launch from Spaceport Cornwall took place last Tuesday, but was ultimately unsuccessful. Following delays and an incredibly exciting lead up, Virgin Orbit’s Cosmic Girl 747 successfully deployed the Launcher One System, but an anomaly during the firing of the second stage engine caused it to fail to reach orbit and the nine satellites onboard were lost. Time will tell when the next launch will be out of Cornwall, but sentiment remains hopeful.
Sweden – Just around the proverbial corner Sweden’s Spaceport Esrange, Europe’s first mainland spaceport, is now open! In opening remarks, the Swedish Prime Minister stressed the importance of this launch site, citing the importance of the EU to have access to launch, especially with Russia’s continued invasion of Ukraine.
Djibouti – Who had a Djibouti and Hong Kong collaboration on their space bingo boards for 2023? The East African country has signed an agreement with Hong Kong Aerospace Technology Group, allowing them to build a spaceport in the northern Obock region of the country. As of now, construction is due to be completed in five years.
Japan – Space Force successfully launched the first of two MIT designed payloads to work in conjunction with Japan’s Quasi-Zenith Satellite System. The QZSS constellation is “designed to complement and enhance GPS signals in Japan” - and the new payloads will enhance its abilities, this first payload designed to keep tabs on spacecrafts and orbital debris in geosynchronous orbit. Also this week, Japan and the US signed an agreement to encourage more cooperation in space between the two countries. While not announcing any new initiatives, more agreements like this may abate concerns about coordinating international collaborations for Artemis critics.
China – Chinese rocket startup Galactic Energy successfully launched five satellites last week, the fifth launch of its Ceres-1 rocket. Per CNN business, the successful launch boosts “the private company’s ambition to become the Chinese rival to SpaceX.” With continued concerns from the US of being outmatched by China, and with more than 70 launches planned, tense relations are likely to continue in this geopolitical space race.
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:
Satellite manufacturer Capella Space has raised $60 million via the US Innovative Technology Fund. Their satellites utilize synthetic aperture radar that penetrate all types of weather to capture clear imagery, day or night.
In case you forgot, Virgin Galactic is still being sued by its investors.
Raytheon has won a “four-year, $8.7 million contract” to develop software for the U.S Air Force’s rocket cargo program – developing a tool that will allow the Air Force to study the possible use of “commercial space launch vehicles to transport humanitarian aid and other cargo payloads around the world.”
As we know, first launches are always rough, and ABL Systems may have figured out what went wrong with theirs. The first launch of their RS-1 rocket from Alaska’s Pacific Spaceport Complex on January 10 came crashing back to Earth in a blaze - and a fire in their avionics system may be to blame.
Just halfway through January and we have our first Falcon Heavy launch – the rocket successfully deployed a payload for Space Force on Saturday. With the Caltech solar power in space prototype successfully delivered, a Starship launch looming in the horizon, and another successful landing on “Of Course I Still Love You,” it seems like SpaceX is starting the year off on a good note!
Space Reads!
Can’t get enough stellar content? Here are some pieces of space-adjacent news we’ve been reading:
With the upcoming lunar landing attempt from Japan, check out how this historic occasion could pave the way for Japan in the space industry.
Rick Tumlinson looks at the Artemis launch last year, the years ahead, and how history is created and documented as we enter the “NewSpace” age.
Long time NASA partner Boeing finally saw success with the Artemis 1 launch last year, but has the road getting there set it too far behind other companies? Check out Jeremy Bogaisky’s article for Forbes.
Was honestly pretty disappointed in this “unofficial” list of the most influential sci-fi works…weigh in with your thoughts in our Celestial Citizen substack chat!
Want to learn more about “Puffy Face Bird Leg Phenomenon”? Check out this Washington Post interactive article that explores the not-so-pleasant changes that occur to the human body in space.
A big thank you to Evan Yee for writing this edition with me, AJ Link for co-hosting Continuum podcast, and Victor Figueroa for his podcast editing magic! We hope you enjoyed reading & listening to 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 take on a spacewalk with you. Until next time…
Keep it celestial people,
Britt
CEO of Celestial Citizen & Creator of Continuum
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