{"id":3873,"date":"2020-10-21T08:28:14","date_gmt":"2020-10-21T13:28:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/scienceandsf.com\/?p=3873"},"modified":"2020-10-21T08:28:16","modified_gmt":"2020-10-21T13:28:16","slug":"space-news-for-october-2020","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/scienceandsf.com\/index.php\/2020\/10\/21\/space-news-for-october-2020\/","title":{"rendered":"Space News for October 2020."},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Our planet has only one large Moon which we have christened ‘The Moon’! (Credit: The Fayetteville Observer)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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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) <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

It’s\nalso possible that on occasion one of these space rocks may get captured by the\nEarth’s gravitational field and become a ‘mini-Moon’, at least for a few months\nor years. This happened back in 2006 and 2007 when the NEO named 2006 RH120 was\nbriefly captured and again from 2018 to 2020 with 2020 CD3.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

And\n2020 SO appears to be an oddball for yet another reason. You see 2020 SO’s\norbit around the Sun is the closest match to Earth’s of any object yet\ndiscovered and that made astronomers suspicious. Checking the object’s orbit\nbackward in time they think they’ve figured out just what 2020 SO really is.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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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)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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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)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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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)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Boeing’s Starliner manned space capsule has yet to carry anyone. Maybe next year. (Credit: Wikipedia)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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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)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Starliner’s\nnew commander will be NASA astronaut Barry Wilmore. Meanwhile Ferguson, who is\nan executive at Boeing, will remain involved with the program but such a major\nchange in personnel is just one more complication for Starliner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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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)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The crew of Space X’s Crew Mission 1 flight training for their mission. (Credit: NASA Blogs)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Hopefully\nSpace X will quickly identify the cause of the problem so that NASA’s\ncommercial crew program can finally get unto some kind of a regular schedule.\nThe whole idea of having two commercial carriers was so that if one had a small\nproblem, like Space X’s engine issue, the other could take up the slack.\nBecause of Boeing’s major and continuing difficulties however even small\nproblems at Space X can become major headaches.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Artists impression of Osiris-REX reaching out to grab a little piece of the asteroid Bennu. (Credit: FIS Technology)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

This\nwill be the first of potentially three touchdown sampling attempts, each\nlanding lasting for no more than 5-10 seconds. During the few seconds of\ncontact Osiris-REX’s robotic arm will reach out and suck in as much as 50-60\ngrams of dust and other material. The material collected will then be stored in\na nitrogen bottle. Since Osiris-REX has three such bottles there can be a\nmaximum of three collecting attempts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A silhouette of Osiris-REX against its chosen landing area on Bennu. Not a lot of room to maneuver. (Credit: Kids News) <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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>\n\n\n\n

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. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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. Over the last decade or so astronomers have been finding quite a … Continue reading “Space News for October 2020.”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[427,1257,339,1253,885],"class_list":["post-3873","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-science","tag-boeing-starliner-capsule","tag-mini-moon","tag-osiris-rex","tag-space-news-october-2020","tag-space-x-crew-dragon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/scienceandsf.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3873","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/scienceandsf.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/scienceandsf.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scienceandsf.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scienceandsf.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3873"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/scienceandsf.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3873\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3886,"href":"https:\/\/scienceandsf.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3873\/revisions\/3886"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/scienceandsf.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3873"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scienceandsf.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3873"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scienceandsf.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3873"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}