The Times, They Are A Chang’e-in
China advances its space program with a launch to the Moon’s far side, Russia vetoes a nuclear resolution, and all the other destabilizing space race news this week.
Come gather round Celestial Citizens wherever you roam,
Didn’t understand my mildly unhinged and aggressively reaching Taylor Swift introduction from a fortnight ago...? Don’t think twice, it’s alright. Instead, this kickoff to the newsletter will be inspired by Bob Dylan — and truly who better for the kind of geopolitical content that awaits you below? Yes, we’ll be talkin’ World War III blues and wondering whether us space enthusiasts are only a pawn in their game. Because, I don’t know about you, but I’ve had one too many mornings catching an alarming space headline to feel that all of this mounting tension isn’t going to result in the creation of some masters of war and the rest of us blowin’ in the wind. Yet, despite the circumstances, and while we wait for whatever the inevitable off-Earth path forward may be, I’ll just keep knockin’ on Heaven’s door and encourage you to do the same. So, remain steady creatives, builders, dreamers, and innovators in your pursuit of a space future worth having. Need more convincing of the seismic shifts that await and how the space sector is poised to move like a rolling stone? Just imagine when the ship comes in, and SpaceX enters a new era of super heavy lift capabilities. Yes, truly folks the times they are a-changin.’
We do love a musical reference. And now the space beat you actually came here for…
Top Headlines
Cold Space – Things are really heating up, or should we say cooling down in the space race this week, evoking Cold War era tensions around nuclear space warfare. In case anyone (looking at you, Putin) forgot about that whole 1967 Outer Space Treaty thing – and its nuclear provisions – well, the United Nations recently set out to reaffirm them. Specifically, Japan and the United States drafted a resolution highlighting the importance of the treaty’s Article 4, which lays out the prohibition of nuclear weapons in space. This action comes in the wake of U.S. intelligence around Russia’s development of anti-satellite devices, and fears of how their activation could affect the entirety of LEO. While the general global consensus was to continue to support the treaty, China abstained from voting and Russia outright vetoed the resolution. The U.S. found it hard not to interpret this as confirmation of Russia’s nuclear schemes, and their plans to go against the treaty they once agreed to. It’s important to note that China and Russia did offer an amendment to the resolution, which perhaps surprisingly calls to “prevent for all time the placement of weapons in outer space.” Ultimately, the amendment’s language portrayed too vague a scope, with unclear regulation on ground-based anti-satellite weapons, and did not pass. And to that we say, cool cool cool cool, no doubt no doubt.
Out Moon-euvered – Similarly stressing everyone out is China, who has been busy nipping at the heels of the U.S. in the global space race. Today, China launched Chang’e 6, a lunar probe mission that will – with the help of a relay satellite – endeavor to return a sample from the far side of the Moon. Should Chang’e 6 be successful, it will be the first time a spacecraft has collected material from that part of the Earth’s natural satellite. Furthermore, the mission’s success is part of a larger puzzle that is China’s grand lunar outpost plans. Chang’e 7 and Chang’e 8, which will follow in 2026 and 2028, respectively, will similarly rely on the relay satellite to navigate to the Moon’s south pole. These three missions, among others, will pave the way for China to put astronauts on the Moon for 2030. And it’s all uphill from there; according to a video released on the nation’s Space Day, China plans to set up their ILRS, a lunar research station on which Russia is a partner, by 2035, scaling facilities by 2045. In a surprise appearance, the 2045 moon city lunar base rendering featured a retired NASA shuttle, and though we don’t know much about the incident, we’re pretty sure some graphics intern got fired. To make space race tensions more fraught, one of the locations the nation is considering for this outpost is the Shackleton crater, which also attracts NASA for an Artemis station. Without agreements in place between the two countries – with China’s refusal to sign the U.S.-led Artemis Accords – a lunar land grab is not out of the question. And while China’s space program appears to grow each year at a compelling rate, NASA has faced reduced funding and delays in their flagship human spaceflight program. Sure, the U.S. space station still has the edge when it comes to their respective Artemis launch dates, but a snag or two could close the gap.
Fly Like a Eagle Dragon – What NASA does appear to be spending money on is their Dragonfly rotorcraft, which will fly on a mission to a Saturn moon in 2028. Following Dragonfly’s successful confirmation review on April 16th, the agency gave its approval for the spacecraft to move into full scale development. This approval comes despite the mission now totaling $3.35 billion – double the cost of its original estimate when it was selected five years ago. A portion of this budget will go to a heavy-lift vehicle that has the capability of delivering the spacecraft to Titan by 2034, even with its launch window slipping from 2027 to 2028. And if you’re wondering, hey, are we talking about the same planetary science budget that’s seen some serious slashing in the FY24 budget and FY25 budget request? Yes, yes it is. Dragonfly’s unique funding win comes at a cost, and that is a delay in the next New Frontiers mission, for which the agency will not accept proposals until 2026. In addition to Dragonfly, NASA’s New Frontiers line includes the likes of OSIRIS-REx, Juno and New Horizons. Maybe the agency can source some additional funding from Warner Bros by pitching Titan as the location for Dune 3.
Hubble Trouble – Everyone except the JWST (still fighting for all the telescope attention) waited with bated breath as the Hubble entered safe mode on April 23rd. This halt in operations stemmed from a faulty gyroscope, which generally helps control the orbiting observatory’s orientation. Fortunately, NASA announced the recovery of the gyro only seven days later, resuming the spacecraft’s operations on April 30th (cue JWST crying in the bathroom). While we look forward to Hubble’s continued observations, we’d also venture to guess the issue could resurface again, as April’s snafu occurred only a few months after a similar gyro issue in the fall. NASA has considered transitioning the 34 year-old spacecraft to an operational mode that requires only one of the three gyros, which could help it last “throughout this decade and possibly into the next,” according to NASA. Maybe only one gyro makes Hubble slightly less of a whippersnapper – but hey, at some point, we all have to accept the loss of invincibility we saw in our 20s.
Manga-nificent Minerals – Geochemists at the Los Alamos National Laboratory were excited to discover manganese oxide in the rocks of a dried Mars lakebed, a mineral very much involved in biological processes here on Earth. In other words, manganese deposits are closely tied with the existence of life. Identified by the NASA Curiosity rover’s ChemCam – developed at Los Alamos and CNES – these manganese-rich rocks within the Gale Crater are signs that oxidation once occurred on ancient Mars, such as in a oxygen-rich, lakeshore environment. On Earth, “these types of deposits happen all the time because of the high oxygen in our atmosphere produced by photosynthetic life,” according to Patrick Gasda, the lead author on the study. Geochemists are now tasked with answering: how did ancient Mars produce oxygen?
Honorable Mentions
Our final notable nuggets.
fAST – An advisory recommended that the FAA’s office overseeing commercial space – also known as AST – should be moved out of the agency to stand on its own two feet. Separating it, the advisory believes, will give the office the resources it requires to increase efficiency.
How Apro-Apophis – Proposals are in for a NASA-funded mission to the Apophis asteroid, including one from Blue Origin who has offered up its Blue Ring for the cause. The OSIRIS-REx spacecraft will also visit the asteroid during the space rock’s (close) Earth flyby in 2029.
Sail Away – A solar sail developed by NASA is now in orbit, thanks to a Rocket Lab Electron rocket. While this sail is meant as a technology demonstration, the eventual goal of the Advanced Composite Sail System is to harness sunlight to create propulsion.
Down in Mississippi – Bill Nelson named John Bailey as the new director of NASA’s Mississippi outpost, the Stennis Space Center. Bailey has been the acting director since January, having served at Stennis since 1999.
Flare Up – For anyone tracking the Sun’s feisty behavior as it approaches Solar Maximum, you should know there was a powerful solar flare on April 30th, categorized as nearly X-class, which resulted in radio blackouts across the Pacific.
We’re Living In a Simulation – Four more volunteers head into a Houston warehouse disguised as Mars for NASA’s next simulation. Similar to but shorter than CHAPEA, the Human Exploration Research Analog, or HERA, will span 45 days from May 10th to June 24th. Here’s hoping they succeed in their research – and not killing each other during a game of Catan.
VIPER – A new, vaguely human-like lunar rover got its neck and head installed this month, bringing it closer to readiness for its launch later this year. The Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover, or VIPER will investigate the presence of water and resources at the Moon’s south pole, in anticipation of placing humans there.
So Evolved – With all the anti-satellite talk as of late, it’s not surprising to see the U.S. Space Force throwing money at jam resistant systems. The Space Force will now accept bids for the Evolved Strategic Satcom (ESS) – a nuclear command system to replace an older constellation with less global reach – with aims to start production next year.
The JWST Download
Ah, how they grow up so fast. And by “they,” we mean some early galaxies recently studied by the James Webb Space Telescope. Webb discovered a shocking amount of “star bars,” or dense linear star centers of spiral galaxies, which represent maturity in celestial society. Pretty impressive that the JWST’s bar-hopping resulted in groundbreaking discoveries and not puking in a bush somewhere. Not that we would know.
The JWST just released a new image of the Horsehead Nebula, in which we really get to see sharp details of its “mane.” Sure, sure, the nebula is but a wispy cloud of gas, produced from a collapsing cloud of stellar material in the Orion constellation, but c’mon, get off your high horse!
Last Friday, Webb spent eight hours gazing at K2-18b, a potentially oceanic exoplanet previously flagged for signs of life. Scientists will study the new observations in hope of confirming the presence of "dimethyl sulfide" gas, or DMS, which on Earth is largely produced by phytoplankton.
Speaking of exoplanets, the JWST got to use its nifty phase curve spectroscopy to observe the weather on a dim, gaseous exoplanet that tightly orbits its mother star. The recently published results showed a temperature of 2,300 degrees Fahrenheit on its dayside, but a “significantly cooler” 1,100 degrees Fahrenheit on its nightside. Brrr.
For all its recent exoplanet findings, the JWST must compete with TESS, also known as NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite, who may have found her first rogue planet, free-floating in the depths of space without a star.
A Global Space
China – Oh, you thought we were done talking about China? Guess again. In addition to following their lunar dreams, the nation launched its second Yaogan-42 reconnaissance satellite on the weekend of April 20th. Translating to “remote sensing,” Yaogan satellites have been described to handle land surveying, weather forecasting and disaster prevention; however, the exact purpose of these last two Yaogan-42 satellites has not been shared by the Chinese media. With that said, it’s certainly no surprise that the U.S. is monitoring these spacecraft just to – you know, keep an eye on what they’re eyeing. In addition to the recent satellite launch, we saw a changing of the guard at Tiangong this past week, with Shenzhou 18 arriving in the afternoon of April 25th (Eastern). Then, Shenzhou 17 returned to Earth this past Tuesday, six months after first arriving at the station. The incoming crew is set to carry out over 90 experiments during their time on the station, in addition to a few extravehicular activities.
Slovenia – On April 19th, Slovenia became the 39th signer of the Artemis Accords. This follows the nation’s efforts to become a full member of the European Space Agency – elevating their current associate member status – for which they petitioned this past November. Clearly, Slovenia is carving out a position for itself in space exploration, as well as “revitaliz[ing] the Slovenian economy,” in the words of Matevž Frangež, Slovenia’s state secretary of the ministry of the economy, tourism and sport.
Nicaragua – Meanwhile, Nicaragua sided with the Artemis competitor, China’s International Lunar Research Station, or ILRS program, becoming its 10th state member. Notably not aligned with the Artemis Accords, China’s ILRS endeavors to establish a permanent lunar base in the 2030s. It remains somewhat unclear exactly how member states like Nicaragua or attached organizations will engage with the program – i.e. with engineering contributions, operation services, and so on – but the team is assembling nonetheless. The joining of Nicaragua follows Russia – who is a joint partner on the project with China – Venezuela, Pakistan, Azerbaijan, Belarus, South Africa, Egypt and Thailand.
Scotland – After receiving its spaceport license in December, Shetland’s SaxaVord Spaceport just received its “range” license from the country’s Civil Aviation Authority (CAA). Essentially, this license permits the spaceport to control marine, airspace and ground traffic during rocket launches, ensuring no, er– destructive surprises. Similar to the U.S. and FAA launch licenses, each launch provider will also need to obtain its own license from the CAA. Should Germany’s Rocket Factory Augsburg acquire its license in time, it could be the first SaxaVord launcher, as early as this summer.
ESA – Last week in Cologne Germany, the European Space Agency celebrated its class of 2022 astronaut candidates, including five European astronauts as well as the first astronaut from the Australian Space Agency. The five ESA graduates will now enter the European astronaut corps – available for flight missions as they arise. In addition to welcoming new talent into the space workforce, ESA welcomed a new target for its ClearSpace-1 debris cleanup mission. On April 23rd, the agency approved a plan that will involve the capture and reentry of the Proba-1 (Project for On-Board Autonomy-1) satellite, launched back in 1998. The previously planned target – a Vega payload adapter – proved too risky, due to additional debris nearby. Germany’s OHB SE and Switzerland’s ClearSpace will handle the launch and capture of the space debris, respectively. Managing space litter is a huge priority for ESA, with the agency going so far as to establish a “Zero Debris Charter.” Essentially, the charter commits satellite-makers to extracting their hardware from orbit after the end of its life. In a recent interview, agency director general Josef Aschbacher compares this to the ol’ hiker’s rule, pack-it-in, pack-it-out. He notes, “when you bring in your lunch box,” such as into a national park, “after you have eaten, take the lunch box and rubbish out of the national park to make sure that the park is kept clean.”
Japan – Also on a mission to rid the final frontier of space debris is Japan, who vis-à-vis its selection of the privately developed ADRAS-J satellite has been maneuvering its way to an orbiting piece of discarded rocket. This past week, the spacecraft snapped a glamor shot of a shrimp-esque upper stage of a Japanese H-2A rocket. The photo represented a mission milestone as well, with ADRAS-J getting within a few hundred meters of the debris target. The spacecraft will continue to carry out “various controlled close-approach operations," according to Astroscale, the company behind ADRAS-J. Never have we been so excited to see trash! Japan also appears to be prioritizing international collaboration and geographical diversity when it comes to space research. The nation has established a strong presence at the Institute of Space Physics in Kiruna, an international space exploration research hub in northern Sweden, and has even extended its reach to Chile, where the Tokyo Atacama Observatory just opened for business. The telescope, which stands proudly atop Cerro Chajnanto mountain, is now the world’s highest observatory, at 18,500 feet above sea level.
And that’s a wrap on this week in space news! A big thank you to Tess Ryan for writing this edition with me and for keeping up with the cosmos! We hope you enjoyed reading Continuum this week. And if you really, really like us, then consider making it official and becoming a paid subscriber or spreading the space gospel and gifting a subscription.
Keep it celestial people,
Britt
CEO of Celestial Citizen & Creator of Continuum