OSIRIS-REx – Scienceandsf -A Blog Published by Robert A. Lawler

Space News for October 2020.

There’s quite a wide variety of news items happening that deal with space to talk about this month. Both manned and unmanned programs are involved. I think I’ll start with the news of Earth’s second Moon. You heard me right, Earth’s second Moon.

Our planet has only one large Moon which we have christened ‘The Moon’! (Credit: The Fayetteville Observer)

Over the last decade or so astronomers have been finding quite a few space rocks, very small asteroids orbiting the Sun in an orbit that brings them close to that of our Earth’s. These objects are collectively known as ‘Near Earth Objects’ or NEOs and some may actually pose a threat of striking the Earth in the coming decades.

In 2018 the small space rock 2018 VP1 came close to our Earth twice! 2018 VP1 is classified as a Near Earth Object or NEO. (Credit: Orlando Sentinel)

It’s also possible that on occasion one of these space rocks may get captured by the Earth’s gravitational field and become a ‘mini-Moon’, at least for a few months or years. This happened back in 2006 and 2007 when the NEO named 2006 RH120 was briefly captured and again from 2018 to 2020 with 2020 CD3.

Now it looks as if Earth is about to gain another mini-Moon for a while as the object 2020 SO is on an incoming trajectory. Between now and next March 2020 SO will make two loops around the Earth before heading back out into interplanetary space. Click on the link following to be taken to YouTube video of 2020 SO’s orbit. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sxPYh1s8KB4

And 2020 SO appears to be an oddball for yet another reason. You see 2020 SO’s orbit around the Sun is the closest match to Earth’s of any object yet discovered and that made astronomers suspicious. Checking the object’s orbit backward in time they think they’ve figured out just what 2020 SO really is.

It seems that 2020 SO is probably man made! NASA now believes that 2020 SO is actually the Centaur stage of the rocket that sent the Lunar lander Surveyor 2 to the Moon back in September 1966. If true that would mean that 2020 SO has been just floating around out there for more than 50 years.

An upper stage Centaur booster about to be loaded onto an Atlas rocket. The Centaur is a commonly used booster for sending space probes beyond Earth Orbit. (Credit: Spaceflight Now)

The Surveyor 3 space probe on the Moon’s surface as photographed by the crew of Apollo 12. Surveyor 2 crash landed on the Moon but it’s Centaur booster went past the Moon into interplanetary space. (Credit: NASA)

It makes sense if you think about it. By now humanity has sent close to a hundred space vehicles beyond Earth orbit into interplanetary space. Every one of those vehicles had to be accelerated to escape velocity by means of a booster rocket and those boosters didn’t just vanish after they had completed their task. They’re all still on an orbit around the Sun that occasionally intersects that of Earth’s.

The largest of these boosters would be the nine S-IVB stages that sent the Apollo astronauts to the Moon. They’re all still out there and now it seems that one of them is coming home for a brief stopover. As astronomers get better at keeping track of NEOs I daresay that we’ll be seeing a lot more visits from our long lost offspring.

The S-VIB stage of Apollo 8 photographed by Apollo 8 between the Earth and Moon. There are 9 such rocket stages floating somewhere near our Earth! (Credit: CollectSpace)

In other news, aerospace giant Boeing has suffered another problem in its efforts to launch the corporation’s Starliner commercial crew vehicle. After last year’s Unmanned Test Flight (UTF) of Starliner that was plagued by numerous software problems Boeing has been working full blast to correct the issues so that a second UTF can been carried out before this year is over, something that looks ever more doubtful. Even if a successful UTF can be accomplished this year the first Crewed Test Flight (CTF) in NASA terminology of Starliner will come no earlier that the middle of 2021.

Boeing’s Starliner manned space capsule has yet to carry anyone. Maybe next year. (Credit: Wikipedia)

And now it’s been announced that that first manned mission will have to be with a new commander. Christopher Ferguson, the commander of the final flight of the space shuttle, had been assigned as CTF commander back in August of 2018. Now however the veteran astronaut is stepping down from the mission in order to spend more time with his family.

Veteran Astronaut was scheduled to be mission commander of the first manned flight of Starliner, technically the Crewed Test Flight (CTF). Now however he has stepped back from his assignment for personal reasons. (Credit: SoundCloud)

Starliner’s new commander will be NASA astronaut Barry Wilmore. Meanwhile Ferguson, who is an executive at Boeing, will remain involved with the program but such a major change in personnel is just one more complication for Starliner.

Meanwhile Boeing’s competitor Space X is also having a few difficulties of its own. An October 2nd unmanned launch of a Space X Falcon 9 rocket was halted just 2 seconds before liftoff because of what has been described as an anomalous rise in pressure in one of the nine Marlin engine’s turbomachinery gas generator.

Static test firing of a Space X Merlin rocket engine. A recent Space X launch was aborted two seconds before launch due to excessive pressure in an engine’s gas generator. (Credit: Wikipedia)

That scrubbed flight has prompted NASA to delay the next Space X manned mission to the ISS, previously scheduled for the 31st of October. That mission, officially designated as Crew-1 Mission because it is actually the first mission in Space X’s contract to deliver NASA astronauts to the ISS, has now been officially pushed back to early to mid November. The extra time is to allow Space X to carry out a through investigation into what happened in the Oct 2nd launch attempt.

The crew of Space X’s Crew Mission 1 flight training for their mission. (Credit: NASA Blogs)

Hopefully Space X will quickly identify the cause of the problem so that NASA’s commercial crew program can finally get unto some kind of a regular schedule. The whole idea of having two commercial carriers was so that if one had a small problem, like Space X’s engine issue, the other could take up the slack. Because of Boeing’s major and continuing difficulties however even small problems at Space X can become major headaches.

Finally, we do have one scheduled space event to look forward to during the rest of this month. On October 20th the Osiris-REX space probe, which has been in orbit around the asteroid Bennu for almost two years will descend down to the rocky surface in an attempt to collect a sample of the asteroid’s material.

Artists impression of Osiris-REX reaching out to grab a little piece of the asteroid Bennu. (Credit: FIS Technology)

This will be the first of potentially three touchdown sampling attempts, each landing lasting for no more than 5-10 seconds. During the few seconds of contact Osiris-REX’s robotic arm will reach out and suck in as much as 50-60 grams of dust and other material. The material collected will then be stored in a nitrogen bottle. Since Osiris-REX has three such bottles there can be a maximum of three collecting attempts.

The site chosen for Osiris-REX to make its first attempt is a small crater named Nightingale which was chosen because, based on observations over the last two years the material there is considered to be ‘fresh’, that is uncontaminated by the solar wind. At the same time there is a small area, only the size of two or three parking spots that is flat and boulder free for the landing.

A silhouette of Osiris-REX against its chosen landing area on Bennu. Not a lot of room to maneuver. (Credit: Kids News)

And Osiris-REX will have to carry out the landing all on its own because at a distance of about 330 million kilometers the time it takes a radio signal to go from the probe to ground control is about 18.5 minutes. That time delay means that any last minute adjustments to Osiris-REX’s course will have to be made by the probe itself.

Osiris-REX is scheduled to leave the asteroid Bennu next March to begin a return journey that will bring its collected samples back to Earth on September 24, 2023.

P.S. Since I wrote this post Osiris-REX has successfully carried out its first touch down and NASA’s scientists are now trying to evaluate how much material was gathered.

Space news for May 2020.

The big event in space this month will undoubtedly be the launch of the first manned mission for Space X’s Dragon capsule. This launch, to take place from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, will not only represent the first ever manned space mission to be conducted by a commercial company but will also mark the return of manned space operations to American soil. Ever since the last flight of the space shuttle Atlantis launched on 8 July 2011 American astronauts have been dependent on purchased tickets aboard the Russian Soyuz spacecraft in order to get to the International Space Station (ISS) at a cost of as much as $80 million per seat.

Landing of shuttle Atlantis marking the end of NASA’s Space Shuttle program in July of 2011. Since this mission American astronauts have been dependent on the Russian’s to get into space. (Credit: NASA)

That dependence is scheduled to end on May the 27th with lift off at 4:32 PM EDT, although weather or technical problems could certainly lead to a delay. The two-man crew for this first manned mission, officially referred to as Demo-2, consists of veteran space shuttle astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken. Once in orbit Hurley and Behnken will pilot their Dragon capsule toward a docking with the ISS approximately 24hrs after launch.

NASA Astronauts Doug Hurley (foreground) and Bob Behnken (background) in training on a Space X Dragon Capsule simulator. (Credit: Geekwire)

How long Hurley and Behnken will remain at the ISS has yet to be decided. The original mission plan was for a stay of only a week but NASA is anxious to phase out using the Russian Soyuz to man the ISS so Hurley and Behnken’s mission has now been extended to at least a month and could last as long as 110 days. NASA intends to decide just how long the mission will last once the crew is aboard the ISS.

The goal of Space X’s mission, and NASA’s Commercial Crew Program is to deliver astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS) (Credit: Wikipedia)

Presently the American section of the ISS is being manned solely by NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy so there is plenty of standard maintenance and upkeep work to keep Behnken and Hurley occupied. There’s one job in particular that Chris Cassidy cannot do alone because it requires a spacewalk and NASA insists for safety’s sake that all spacewalks be conduced by at least two astronauts. The job consists of swapping out the station’s batteries. Of the two Space X crewmen Bob Behnken is the one with EVA experience so he has spend the last few months getting in some extra training, learning his way around the outside of the station.

Like any home the ISS requires occasional outdoor maintenance. However an EVA requires a bit more planning and skill than mowing your lawn. (Credit: Spaceflight101)

This first mission in NASA’s commercial crew program has been a long time in coming. Space X and its competitor Boeing were initially funded back in 2014 with a goal of a first mission in 2017 but numerous difficulties and testing setbacks have led to several years of delay.

In fact Boeing’s Starliner capsule is still not ready for its first manned launch. The spacecraft underwent what was hoped to be its final unmanned test flight back in December of 2019 but a series of software problems occurred during the mission, the capsule was unable to reach the ISS and had to be brought back to Earth early. Boeing is still in the midst of debugging the Starliner’s software and hopes to conduct a second unmanned mission later this fall. If that test flight is successful the Starliner’s first manned flight could take place early next year.

The launch of Boeing’s Starliner capsule on its unmanned orbital test flight in December 2019. Although the capsule’s hardware all worked as required there were a number of problems with the spacecraft’s software. (Credit: Business Insider)

Of course everything that happens these days takes place in the shadow of Covid-19 and the launch of Space X’s Dragon capsule is no exception. NASA personnel at Cape Kennedy have worked very hard to keep all activities dealing with the ISS active and fully staffed. That means that the May27 launch has been given high priority and the space agency is determined to carry out the Dragon mission as soon as the equipment and weather are ready.

Some NASA programs, like the James Webb Space Telescope shown here, have been delayed because of the Covid-19 pandemic. However NASA is marshaling all its resources to lauch the Space X Dragon capsule on schedule. (Credit: Spacenews)

However, unlike every American manned space mission since Alan Shepard in 1961 the Space X launch will take place without a crowd of visitors and VIPs to watch. In order to prevent the spread of the virus only a few reporters will be permitted to attend the takeoff. Of course crowds may gather along the nearby public beaches but personally I’ll be quite happy just watching the show on my computer.

Former President Lyndon Johnson watches the launch of Apollo 11. There will be no such crowd gathered to watch the launch of Space X’s first manned mission. (Credit: National Geographic)

Surprisingly enough there is some other space news happening and part of it concerns the Russian Soyuz spacecraft and Covid-19. Because of the spread of the disease in Russia that country’s space agency Roscosmos has temporarily discontinued production of the Soyuz launch vehicles. Not to worry however as there are currently 52 Soyuz rockets in storage ready for use so there’s little chance in the near future of a mission being delayed or cancelled because of the lack of a launch vehicle.

Due to the Covid-19 outbreak Russia has temporarily halted manufacture of it’s Soyuz launch system. (Credit: Russia Space Web)

Finally, even while we here on Earth are struggling with Covid-19 our robotic space probes throughout the Solar system are still busy exploring distant worlds. That includes the OSIRIS-REx mission to the asteroid Bennu. OSIRIS-REx has been orbiting the asteroid since 2018 and is scheduled to swoop down to the asteroid’s surface in order to grab a sample of Bennu in August. On April 14th the spacecraft conducted a practice run, coming within 75 meters of the asteroid before returning to its normal orbital distance of 1 kilometer.

NASA is conducting the final practice runs of the OSIRIS-REx spaceprobe’s attemp to gather samples of the asteroid Bennu. (Credit: SpaceNews Magazine)

Once OSIRIS-REx has completed is sample acquisition procedure it will begin its 2.5 year journey back to Earth in March2021. That means that by September of 2023 NASA will have samples of yet another body in our Solar system.

Progress, even as we deal with a pandemic.

China’s Chang’e4 Probe becomes first spacecraft to land on the Far Side of the Moon.

Don’t call it the dark side! Just because the Moon keeps the same face towards the Earth doesn’t mean the other side is dark. In fact the side of the Moon we can’t see gets just as much sunlight as the side we can see. Still the Lunar Farside has always been a land of mystery.

We do have photographs of the farside, taken by the lunar orbiter series of space probes that made detailed images of the entire Moon’s surface in preparation for the Apollo landing, see image below. However, even during the heyday of Apollo NASA never considered landing a probe on the surface of farside let alone a manned landing. NASA’s reason for avoiding the farside is quite simple, if you go behind the Moon in order to visit the farside you’re not only out of sight, you’re out of radio contact, so an unmanned probe couldn’t get its data back to Earth anyway! Because of this the Moon’s farside remained untouched for almost 50 years after Apollo.

The Farside of the Moon as compiled from Lunar Orbiter Photos (Credit: NASA)

Now however China’s National Space Agency (CNSA) has succeeded in landing the Chang’e 4, a sophisticated robotic probe that even carries a small rover, onto the Moon’s farside. So how did the Chinese resolve the problem of communicating with the Chang’e 4 as it landed in Aitken Basin, the Moon’s largest and oldest impact crater. Well they did so by first putting a relay satellite named Queqiao into lunar orbit. In this way Chang’e 4 will remain in constant contact with its command center back on Earth. See image below.

The Queqiao Relay Satellite keeps the Chang’e 4 Lander in contact with Earth (CNSA)

The Chang’e 4 was launched aboard a Long March 3B carrier rocket back on December 7th and went into lunar orbit on December 12th, see image below. As is usually the case with Chinese space missions there was no public statement of exactly when the Chang’e 4 would land, the announcement came only after Chang’e 4 was safely on the ground.

Launch of the Chang’e 4 Lander (Credit: CNSA)

But Chang’e 4 did land safety and has already begun to send back close up images from the surface of farside, see image below. Then after about a day to check out all of the lander’s systems the Chinese ordered Chang’e 4 to deploy it’s 6-wheeled rover named Yutu. See images below of the Yutu rover descending from the Chang’e 4 main lander.

Ground level Image of the Farside of the Moon (Credit: CNSA)

The Yutu Rover at the bottom of its ramp (Credit: CNSA)

The Yutu Rover making the first Tracks on the Farside of the Moon (Credit: CNSA)

In addition to experiments dealing with lunar geology and interactions of the solar wind on the lunar surface the Chang’e 4 will be carrying out some simple low frequency radio astronomy observations. You see here on Earth all of the electronic devices that are a part of modern society interfere with all of the low frequency signals coming from outer space, and more and more the high frequency ones as well. But on the farside of the Moon Chang’e 4 will be shielded from all of mankind’s artificial signals allowing it to see those from astronomical sources only. Radio astronomers hope that one day the farside of the Moon will serve as a platform for huge radio telescopes with which they can see the Universe without worrying about artificial interference.

Chang’e 4 represents another major step forward in China’s space program. Having become only the third nation to launch humans into space China is currently developing its own, small space station and is moving forward with robotic lunar and interplanetary probes. Taking a slow but steady approach as opposed to NASA’s herky jerky bursts in different directions China hopes to put a man on the Moon sometime in the mid to late 2020s, the same time frame as NASA (see my post of 31Dec2018). In that case we are in another space race back to the Moon, if a quieter one. I wonder who will win this time!

Before I go; with all of the excitement of New Horizons exploring Ultima Thule and Chang’e 4 landing on the Moon’s farside it was easy to miss the news that the Osiris-REX spacecraft has gone into orbit around the asteroid Bennu, the smallest, least massive object which a space probe has ever orbited. Now Osiris-REX will take a few months to study Bennu in order to determine a suitable landing spot from which it will obtain a sample of the asteroid for return to Earth.

Close up view of the asteroid Bennu as seen by the Osiris-Rex space probe (Credit: Earth Sky)

Space News for December 2018.

A lot has been happening in space the last few weeks. I’ve got four different stories to talk about so let’s get to it!

I’d like to start with some really good news about the Russian Soyuz spacecraft. You may recall that back on October 11th a manned mission to the International Space Station (ISS) suffered a launch failure when the second stage of the Soyuz rocket failed to properly separate from the first stage. (See my post of 14Oct2018 for the full story) Fortunately the crew escaped without injury.

The Russian space agency Roscosmos quickly went to work and found the problem after only a few days. Just to be certain that the problem had been addressed two unmanned launches were conducted before attempting another manned launch. On December first, less than two months after the launch failure a Soyuz spacecraft carrying three astronauts successfully took off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan and less than a day later docked at the ISS.

Two Months after a launch failure the Russian Soyuz rockets back to the ISS (Credit: South China Morning Post)

This quick reversal in the fortunes of Soyuz is extremely important of the operation for the ISS because presently the Russian Soyuz is the only launch system capable of taking astronauts to man the ISS. Immediately after the October failure the very real possibility of abandoning the ISS had been seriously discussed. Fortunately the December first launch of Soyuz has made such severe measures unnecessary.

Speaking of the ISS you may have heard about the station’s newest, non-human resident. CIMON the robot (CIMON stands for Crew Interactive Mobile companioN) is an Artificial Intelligence (AI) enabled terminal that is equipped with maneuvering air fans so that it can roam around the ISS and turn so that its video screen face is towards whichever human crewperson it is interacting with. See image of CIMON below.

CIMON and astronaut Gerst aboard the ISS (Credit: CNET)

CIMON is the brainchild of the European Space Agency (ESA) and is currently programmed to act as a ‘companion’ to ESA astronaut Alexander Gerst. Problem is, so far CIMON hasn’t proven to be a very genial companion.

After being delivered to the ISS on 15 November Astronaut Gerst turned on CIMON by saying “Wake up CIMON” to which the robot answered, “What can I do for you?”. Things went downhill pretty quickly from there starting from when Gerst asked CIMON to play his favourite song, “The Man-Machine by the German group Kraftwerk. After CIMON plays the song several times Gerst orders it to stop which the robot refused to do. Instead CIMON responded with comments like “Let’s sing along with those favourite hits”, “I love music you can dance to” and perhaps most disturbingly “Be nice please” and “Don’t you like it here with me?”

After only a short period of testing astronaut Gerst shut down the experimental crewmember and remarked dryly. “CIMON is a little sensitive today.” The robot’s developers actually considered the test a success. After all they wanted CIMON to show some personality, although perhaps not such a contrary one. A second test however is not currently scheduled.

Meanwhile, back at Space X, it seems like I talk about Space X at least every month doesn’t it. Anyway, the California based commercial space corporation has continued its string of space achievements with the third launch and recovery of the first stage of one of its Falcon 9 rockets. In a launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base on the first of December Space X also succeeded in recovering the nose cone fairings, which are put around the rocket’s payload in order to protect it during launch. Those things cost $6 million dollars a set, 10% of the cost of the entire rocket so recovering and reusing those could reduce the price of putting cargo into space even further.

Third Launch of a Space X Falcon 9 first stage. Both the first stage and the Nose Cone Fairings were recovered to be used again (credit: Spaceflight Now)

In another small cost reduction Space X has decided to cease repainting their first stages after a launch. So from now on reused Falcon 9 rockets will look a little singed and snooty before their trips back into space.

Space X did have one disappointment this month. In a different launch from Kennedy Space Center on the US east coast another Falcon 9 rocket successfully sent a Dragon supply capsule to the ISS but controllers were unable to recover the rocket’s first stage. A problem with a fuel pump caused the first stage to land in the waters off Kennedy not far from its intended landing pad. This was the first recovery failure in 26 launches for Space X so in a queer way the failure almost seems like a measure of success.

First stage of a Falcon 9 lands in the water off Kennedy Space Center (Credit: News 13)

For my final story I’m going to go a good bit further out into the Solar System. NASA’s Osiris-Rex probe has been slowly approaching its target of the Asteroid Bennu until on December 4th the spacecraft could reach out with its robotic arm and literally touch the asteroid. You can’t really say that Osiris-Rex landed on Bennu, the gravity of the asteroid is too low.

In addition to studying Bennu over the next several months, Osiris-Rex will use is robotic arm to collect at least 60 grams of material from the asteroid which is scheduled to be returned to Earth in 2023.

And even as I was writing this post another item of space news happened with the successful launch of China’s Chang’e 4 (or Jade Rabbit in English) lunar probe. The Chang’e 4 is intended to become the first rover on the dark side of the Moon in just about three days. I guess I’ll just have to write a post about it then!

Space News for November 2018.

This month we’ll talk about four of NASA’s interplanetary probes. We’ll say goodbye to two of the probes as they run out of fuel and scientists here on Earth lose the ability to control them. Another two probes however, are just beginning their work of exploration and hopefully in the next few years we’ll be taking more about the discoveries they’ve made.

We’ll start with the Kepler space telescope, see image below and check out my post of 28April2018. Launched back in March of 2009 the mission of Kepler was to continuously observe hundreds of thousands of stars searching for small, rhythmic changes in their brightness that could be caused by planets passing in front of them.

The Kepler Space Telescope (Credit: NASA)

During its eleven years of service Kepler observed over half a million stars and is credited with the preliminary detection of 2,662 planets outside of our solar system. Kepler was only designed to detect such exo-planets as they’re called, larger, more precise Earth based telescopes would then carry on the work of learning about these alien worlds.

In order to avoid having the Earth interfere in its observations Kepler was placed into an orbit around the Sun known as an Earth trailing orbit some 130 million kilometers from Earth. Without fuel to maintain its proper orbit and orientation Kepler would be unable to perform its mission.

That fuel has now run out and on October 30 of 2018 NASA announced officially that communication with the Kepler space telescope has been lost and the mission has ended. Still, thanks to the Kepler space telescope astronomers now have 2,662 completely unknown worlds to study!

Another very important space probe has suffered the same fate. The Dawn mission to the two largest objects in the asteroid belt was both the first interplanetary vehicle to orbit two different bodies, not counting Earth, and the first probe to employ an ion rocket as its main propulsion.

The Dawn spacecraft first traveled to the asteroid Vesta, the second largest but heaviest asteroid. Astronomers believed that Vesta was composed primarily of iron and nickel and might have become of core of a planet had not the enormous gravity of the planet Jupiter kept that planet from ever forming. Vesta did indeed turn out to be a very heavy, metal rich asteroid proving the astronomers correct.

After orbiting Vesta for more than a year and completing its survey the Dawn probe then did something no other probe had ever done. It fired up its ion engines again, left obit around Vesta and traveled to the asteroid Ceres, the largest of the asteroids. The image below shows the Dawn Spacecraft with Vesta, upper right, and Ceres, lower middle.

Dawn with Vesta and Ceres (Credit: SoSialPolitik)

Now ion rockets don’t give you a lot of push, but they give a small push for a very long time. Whereas chemical rockets can use up all of their fuel within minutes an ion rocket can keep firing for years. Dawn was the first interplanetary probe to make full use of all the extra push possible from an ion rocket firing its engines for more than 50,000 hours.

So Dawn became the first probe to orbit and study two different bodies in our solar system orbiting Ceres and Vesta more than 3,000 times.

Like Kepler however even Dawn’s ion rockets eventually used up the last of their fuel and the Dawn spacecraft can no longer keep solar panels pointed toward the Sun, its antenna pointed toward Earth. According to NASA Dawn missed its regular radio check in on both 31October and 1Nov and the mission is presumed to have ended.

Once again however the Dawn probe has provided astronomers with a wealth of data to analyze. Dawn isn’t finished making discoveries.

The end of two of its premier missions however doesn’t mean that NASA is running out of space probes, far from it. Two probes launched over the past two years are approaching their targets and the data should soon start pouring in!

The OSIRIS-Rex probe has been traveling for the past two years toward a rendezvous with the small near Earth asteroid Bennu (See my post of 6January2018). OSIRIS-Rex should reach its destination within a month and recently took a high-resolution image of its target, see image below. Once at Bennu, which is too small to actually orbit, the OSIRIS-Rex will land and collect a sample of the asteroid’s surface to return to Earth. The sample is expected to arrive back here on Earth in 2023 but with all of the probe’s other instruments there’s no doubt that we’ll be learning a lot about Bennu much sooner than that!

Latest Image (3Nov) of Asteroid Bennu taken by OSIRIS-Rex (Credit: Astronomy Magazine)

Another NASA spacecraft that is well on its way to its target is the Parker Solar Probe which just this past week on 29October became the closest man made object to our Sun (See my posts of 7June2017, 6January2018 and 5September2018). At the distance of 42.73 million kilometers Parker broke the record previously held by the joint German-American Helios-2 probe.

The Parker probe is going to get much closer however. During its six year mission to study the Sun Parker is expected to come as close as 6.9 million kilometers. The Parker probe will study the Sun in an effort to learn more about how the energy the Sun produces by hydrogen fusion in its core moves upward to the Sun’s surface. Parker will also study how the Sun generates its powerful magnetic field. The image below shows the planned trajectory of the Parker probe. Presently the spacecraft is just past ‘First Perihelion’.

Planned Trajectory of Parker Solar Probe (Credit: JPL, NASA)

If you’d like to learn more about any of the four interplanetary probes we’ve talked about click on one of the links below to be taken to the official NASA site for that mission!

https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/kepler/main/index.html

https://dawn.jpl.nasa.gov/

https://www.nasa.gov/osiris-rex

https://www.nasa.gov/content/goddard/parker-solar-probe

The Coming Year in Space: New launch Vehicles, New Inter-Planetary Probes and maybe America’s return to Manned Spaceflight.

A new year always brings in with it the hope for a year full of new and exciting advances and in space the year 2018 could very well fulfill much of that promise. Not only do NASA and America’s commercial space companies have a long to-do list but also the European Space Agency (ESA), the Chinese, Japanese and India all plan ambitious space ventures.

Let’s begin with the possibility of manned space flight returning to American soil as the private companies Space X and Boeing are scheduled to make unmanned test launches of their new crew capable space capsules. Space X is currently scheduled to test launch their Dragon capsule around March while Boeing’s Starliner capsule is scheduled to launch around July. Depending on the success of these unmanned test flights, manned flights could begin before the end on the year. The images below show the Dragon and Starliner capsules.

Dragon (right) and Starliner Capsules (Credit: Robert Fisher, America Space)

Meanwhile Space X also intends to perform the first test launch of its new Falcon Heavy launch vehicle this very month. When successfully launched the Falcon Heavy will become the most powerful rocket in operation anywhere in the World. Also, since the Falcon Heavy is designed to be reusable like its little brother the Falcon 9 it will also help to bring down the cost of getting into space. The image below shows the Falcon Heavy on its launch pad being prepared for its test flight.

Falcon Heavy on the Launch Pad (Credit: Derrick Stamos)

As far as NASA itself is concerned its main emphasis in 2018 will be on inter-planetary probes like the InSight Mars lander (short for Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport), which will be launched in May and is expected to reveal many of the details of the interior structure of Mars. Another probe scheduled for a July launch will be the Parker Solar Probe which will come closer to the Sun than any previous spacecraft and actually become the first to enter and study the Sun’s atmosphere or Corona. Also in August of this year the OSIRIS-Rex space probe (which was launched on 8Sept2016) will reach its destination of the asteroid Bennu to begin a three-year mission that will include collecting a sample of the asteroid for return to Earth. The images below show the InSight, Parker Solar and OSIRIS-Rex space probes.

The space agencies of the rest of the World have an equally busy schedule with the ESA launching its BepiColombo spacecraft on a seven-year voyage to the planet Mercury, arriving in 2024, see image below. Meanwhile Japan’s JAXA space agency is anticipating the rendezvous of its Hayabusa 2 probe with the asteroid Ryugu in June. This mission also includes a sample return with the sample arriving on Earth in 2020.

Bepi-Colombo Mercury Probe (Credit: ESA, Airbus)

On the other hand China and India have both set their sights on exploring the Moon with China’s Chang’e 5 attempting the first ever landing on our satellite’s dark side. The Chang’e 5 is also a sample return mission so we may learn a great deal about that relatively little know side of our nearest neighbor.

India’s Chandrayaan 2 vehicle, scheduled for a March launch, is a combination of an orbiter and lander with a lander also carrying a small rover down to the lunar surface. Once on the surface the rover’s instruments will study the lunar soil.

Now remember, these are the scheduled space events. You never know, there could be important discoveries by the Juno spacecraft now orbiting Jupiter or the Kepler exo-planet hunting telescope. All in all 2018 looks to be an exciting year.