Miranda, I hardly know her! (like actually we have so little data on this Uranus moon)
Catching Rockets, Dream Chasers, and Living La Vida Lunar
Hello celestial citizens and Continuum readers, I hope everyone enjoyed Star Wars Day and spent time thinking about whether Anakin was correct in assuming that Obi-Wan harbored feelings for Padmé. Hey - it’s a fan theory but I’m just going to keep throwing it out there until it picks up steam. But this special Star Wars holiday was a bit dampened in spirit by the leaked news of a possible overturning of Roe v. Wade. So, to everyone with a period out there, just remember what Jyn Erso said best, “We have hope. Rebellions are built on hope.”
In this week’s newsletter, we’ll be pondering the future - both near and far. What will the first villages on the Moon need to survive? And how is the European Space Agency preparing for that? And while everybody is talking about Uranus, we’re getting familiar with Miranda - smallest and innermost moon of Uranus - and why planetary geologist Paul Byrne calls it “an absolute f***-up of an icy satellite.” And of course, we’ll cover the top space headlines from this week. Enjoy!
We’re Going to Uranus — But Its Satellites Might Be Just as Interesting
by Jackie Appel
A coalition of space scientists recently announced their intent to focus on Uranus over the next decade. Some people are just as excited about seeing the planet’s moons as the planet itself.
In 1977, NASA launched the Voyager 2 space probe out towards the farthest reaches of our Solar System. It’s mission: to visit the outer planets and see what they’re like up close. The probe flew by Jupiter in 1979, Saturn in 1981, Uranus in 1986, and Neptune in 1989. It sent back images of the planets and their satellites and continued out of the solar system.
It provided, and continues to provide decades later, a wealth of scientific information. It was also the last time we saw the ice giants up close.
Now, thanks to a swell of support from the astronomical community, it seems like we’re headed back. According to the Planetary Science and Astrobiology Decadal Survey — or just “the Decadal” — which is a report put together every 10 years by scientific delegates that helps guide funding in the field, it’s time to re-dedicate humanity to understanding our outermost planets and the rings and moons that orbit them.
Specifically, the Decadal announces that focus will be placed on Uranus and the system of satellites it sustains. And while the planet itself promises to be interesting, the orbiting satellites have also garnered a fair bit of excitement. Because of how long it has been since we had any kind of significant new data on Uranus, we know next to nothing about the system. And scientists are anxious to find out more.
According to the announcement reactions on Twitter, the most exciting target may be the smallest and innermost moon, Miranda — a moon that planetary geologist Paul Byrne referred to on Twitter as “an absolute f***-up of an icy satellite.”
ESA’s Approach to Lunar Infrastructure…Or How Not to Die on the Moon
By Rahul Rao
To that end, a number of ESA-backed projects — from both ESA labs and private companies the agency is collaborating with — are finding ways to give future Moon-dwellers the life support, habitats, and connectivity they need to have happy, healthy lunar lives.
Naturally, the first thing any would-be lunar citizen would need is the ability to not asphyxiate. It’s certainly possible to ship the oxygen necessary to breathe from Earth. But, over the long term, it might be far more efficient to just create the oxygen on-site, from a material that is thought to be more than 40% oxygen by weight: lunar regolith.
One method lies in a nondescript business park in Noordwijk, along the North Sea shore about 35 kilometers southwest of Amsterdam. There sits the laboratory of the European Space Research and Technology Centre. Inside its walls, researchers take bits of lunar regolith and place them in baskets of molten salt, heating the material to 950 degrees Celsius.
When scientists pass a current through the heated mixture, this moondust breaks apart. The regolith separates into oxygen gas — which researchers can collect — and the metals that form the rest of the regolith: silicon, iron, calcium, and aluminum.
“This is another useful line of research, to see what are the most useful alloys that could be produced from them, and what kind of applications could they be put to,” said ESA research fellow Alexandre Meurisse.
The oxygen-making process is now leaving the laboratory. In March, ESA announced that an undetermined lunar lander would bring the experiment right to lunar soil. It will be an important test of a technology that could keep humans alive.
Top Headlines
SpaceX’s Crew 3 made a safe return to Earth, with a splashdown early Friday morning. The crew consists of NASA Astronauts Raja Chari, Kayla Barron, Thomas Marshburn and ESA Astronaut Matthias Maurer. Before leaving, Thomas Marshburn, the then-commander of the ISS, handed the reins over to cosmonaut Oleg Artemyev. Both expressed the importance of cooperation and friendship. Crew 3 has been on the ISS since November 11th - so I’m sure it’s good to be home!
Speaking of the ISS - there was some miscommunication of Russia’s continued involvement with the orbiting lab. Last Saturday, headlines circulated stating that Russia would quit the ISS over the sanctions made against Russia due to its invasion of Ukraine. Roscosmos General Director Dimitry Rogozin stated that even though they weren’t able to talk about it publicly, that the decision had been made and would tell their partners about the end of their work on the ISS within a year’s notice. However on Tuesday, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson stated in a Senate hearing that Russia would not be withdrawing from its partnership with the ISS after all. Nelson said that Rogozin’s comments sparked misleading headlines, and that NASA has had no indication that Roscosmos would be leaving the ISS. Time will tell if this remains to be true.
Next up, another milestone in reusable rockets! On Monday, Rocket Lab launched 34 satellites into orbit, and on its way back down caught the first stage booster from their Electron rocket. How do you catch a rocket? The same way you catch a fish! The booster deployed two parachutes to slow its descent, at which point a helicopter with a long hook flew in to successfully catch it via its parachute line. So, I guess, not at all how you catch a fish. The chopper pilots ultimately dropped the booster into the ocean, as they weren’t satisfied with how they were flying with it in tow, but after several successful test catches and this most recent success - Rocket Lab is setting themselves up for more wins in the future!
Now how about some Black Widows… in space? Sorta. A rare type of system was discovered 3,000 light years away from Earth - a record breaking “black-widow” binary, which consists of a fast spinning pulsar that steals or “feeds” off matter from a nearby star. This new black-widow binary, ZTF J1406+1222, (a name that rolls right off the tongue!) is notable because of the distance between its two feeding stars - the two are locked in “an orbital dance” of just 62 minutes. However - black widow binaries usually produce some type of radiation, and so far the team of researchers at MIT haven’t detected any. We’ll find out if this is something new entirely as scientists continue their research
This week, Sierra Space unveiled new images of its first Dream Chaser Spaceplane. Named Tenacity, the plane will be for ISS cargo missions, however the company has visions beyond that usage. Ultimately hoping for crewed missions, and even a National Security variant - Sierra Space has big plans for its spaceplanes down the line. With structural testing complete, Tenacity will move on to final integration and testing before being shipped to NASA’s Neil Armstrong testing facility in Ohio in August.
Big announcement this week from NASA, that the agency has decided to extend the length of some of its current missions. The missions are the Mars Odyssey, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, MAVEN, Mars Science Laboratory (the Curiosity Rover), InSight lander, Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, OSIRIS-REx, and New Horizons. This decision was made by over 50 reviewers composed of independent experts from academia, industry, and NASA. The OSIRIS-REx extension was particularly notable. After the craft delivers a sample of Asteroid Bennu back to Earth in 2023, it will rebrand as Osiris-Apex and go out and study near-Earth asteroid Apophis. Apophis is notable due to its upcoming proximity to Earth - in 2029, people in Europe and Africa will be able to spot it with just the naked eye. That’s also when Osiris-APEX will make its approach. We’ll check back in in 2029 and let you know how it goes!
It seems like Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner capsule is still on track for launch on May 19. The capsule was supposed to lift off on an uncrewed mission last August, but during pre-flight checks, it was revealed that more than half of the oxidizer valves were stuck. Boeing and NASA have worked on the problem for the past year, and now, we’re looking forward to seeing how the launch will go later this month!
The Ingenuity Helicopter on Mars sent back some stunning photos of what was left behind when Perseverance landed last year. Showing the remains of the parachute and the back shell that it deployed out of, NASA hopes to glean more information from the wreckage. Ian Clark, a former JPL engineer, said that studying the pictures will “either reinforce that our systems worked as we think they worked” or at the very least provide even one dataset of engineering information they can use for Mars Sample Return planning.
Virgin Galactic announces that it will delay its commercial spaceflights until Q1 of 2023 due to supply chain issues and labor constraints. Upon the news, shares fell about 2% in extended trading.
And lastly, for James Webb news, the telescope is now fully focused and aligned! In the next few months, scientists will check that all the instruments on the JWST are properly calibrated. But having reached the end of the telescope alignment phase with no issues - we’re really excited to see what images James Webb will be sending back soon.
Space Tweet of the Week
Space Reads!
Can’t get enough stellar content? Here are the pieces of space-adjacent news we’ve been reading this week.
Still stuck on space sounds after our last newsletter? This piece from the Atlantic builds a case for listening in on a Martian soundtrack in the name of science.
Love Shakespeare and space? Look no further than this interesting, and cautionary tale-like, article from The Hill, "Macbeth is not a strategy for outer space.”
ESA scientists share their favorite Hubble space photos and what makes them special - it doesn’t get more heartwarming than that!
Continuum Podcast
Only have time for the highlights? Check out our companion podcast! Whether you’re a space enthusiast or just starting to look up at the stars, we’ll give you a quick rundown of all the biggest space news headlines every other week.
Things Found on the Internet…
And that’s our newsletter for the week. Have you told your friends about us yet? If not, what are you waiting for…time may be relative but the space industry is moving at the speed of light. We’ll help you keep up!
May the force be with you.
Britt
CEO of Celestial Citizen & Creator of Continuum