Distance from Brightest Stars Is Key to Preserving Primordial Discs

The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope was used to conduct a three-year study of the crowded, massive and young star cluster Westerlund 2. The research found that the material encircling stars near the cluster's centre is mysteriously devoid of the large, dense clouds of dust that would be expected to become planets in a few million years. Their absence is caused by the cluster's most massive and brightest stars that erode and disperse the discs of gas and dust of neighbouring stars. This is the first time that astronomers have analysed an extremely dense star cluster to study which environments are favourable to planet formation. This time-domain study from 2016 to 2019 sought to investigate the properties of stars during their early evolutionary phases and to trace the evolution of their circumstellar environments. Such studies had previously been confined to the nearest, low-density, star-forming regions. Astronomers have now used the Hubble Space Telescope to extend this research to the centre of one of the few young massive clusters in the Milky Way, Westerlund 2, for the first time. Astronomers have now found that planets have a tough time forming in this central region of the cluster. The observations also reveal that stars on the cluster's periphery do have immense planet-forming dust clouds embedded in their discs. To explain why some stars in Westerlund 2 have a difficult time forming planets while others do not, researchers suggest this is largely due to location.

The most massive and brightest stars in the cluster congregate in the core. Westerlund 2 contains at least 37 extremely massive stars, some weighing up to 100 solar masses. Their blistering ultraviolet radiation and hurricane-like stellar winds act like blowtorches and erode the discs around neighbouring stars, dispersing the giant dust clouds.

"Basically, if you have monster stars, their energy is going to alter the properties of the discs," explained lead researcher Elena Sabbi, of the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, USA.

"You may still have a disc, but the stars change the composition of the dust in the discs, so it's harder to create stable structures that will eventually lead to planets. We think the dust either evaporates away in 1 million years, or it changes in composition and size so dramatically that planets don't have the building blocks to form."

Westerlund 2 is a unique laboratory in which to study stellar evolutionary processes because it's relatively nearby, is quite young, and contains a rich stellar population. The cluster resides in a stellar breeding ground known as Gum 29, located roughly 14,000 light-years away in the constellation of Carina (The Ship's Keel).

The stellar nursery is difficult to observe because it is surrounded by dust, but Hubble's Wide Field Camera 3 can peer through the dusty veil in near-infrared light, giving astronomers a clear view of the cluster. Hubble's sharp vision was used to resolve and study the dense concentration of stars in the central cluster.

"With an age of less than about two million years, Westerlund 2 harbours some of the most massive, and hottest, young stars in the Milky Way," said team member Danny Lennon of the Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias and the Universidad de La Laguna.

"The ambient environment of this cluster is therefore constantly bombarded by strong stellar winds and ultraviolet radiation from these giants that have masses of up to 100 times that of the Sun."

Sabbi and her team found that of the nearly 5,000 stars in Westerlund 2 with masses between 0.1 and 5 times the Sun's mass, 1,500 of them show dramatic fluctuations in their luminosity, which is commonly accepted as being due to the presence of large dusty structures and planetesimals.

Orbiting material would temporarily block some of the starlight, causing fluctuations in brightness. However, Hubble only detected the signature of dust particles around stars outside the central region. They did not detect these dips in brightness in stars residing within four light-years of the centre.

"We think they are planetesimals or structures in formation," Sabbi explained. "These could be the seeds that eventually lead to planets in more evolved systems. These are the systems we don't see close to very massive stars. We see them only in systems outside the centre."

Thanks to Hubble, astronomers can now see how stars are accreting in environments that are like the early universe, where clusters were dominated by monster stars. So far, the best known nearby stellar environment that contains massive stars is the starbirth region in the Orion Nebula. However, Westerlund 2 is a richer target because of its larger stellar population.

"Westerlund 2 gives us much better statistics on how mass affects the evolution of stars, how rapidly they evolve, and we see the evolution of stellar discs and the importance of stellar feedback in modifying the properties of these systems," said Sabbi. "We can use all of this information to inform models of planet formation and stellar evolution."

This cluster will also be an excellent target for follow-up observations with the upcoming NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope, an infrared observatory. Hubble has helped astronomers identify the stars that have possible planetary structures. With the Webb telescope, researchers will be able to study which discs around stars are not accreting material and which discs still have material that could build up into planets. Webb will also study the chemistry of the discs in different evolutionary phases and watch how they change, to help astronomers determine what role the environment plays in their evolution.

"A major conclusion of this work is that the powerful ultraviolet radiation of massive stars alters the discs around neighbouring stars," said Lennon. "If this is confirmed with measurements by the James Webb Space Telescope, this result may also explain why planetary systems are rare in old massive globular clusters."

Cignal TV selects Hughes JUPITER for satellite internet service in Philippines

Hughes Network Systems has announced that Cignal TV Inc., the Philippines premier direct-to-home (DTH) satellite provider, has selected the Hughes JUPITER System to enable satellite broadband service to its two million subscribers. Under the agreement, Hughes will provide Cignal TV with user terminals and a network management system using the same technology that Hughes employs to power HughesNet, its flagship satellite Internet service with more than 1.5 million subscribers. "To launch satellite Internet, we need a platform that we know will deliver a high-quality experience for our two million customers - this is why we chose the Hughes JUPITER System," said Jane Jimenez Basas, president and chief executive officer of Cignal TV. "In addition to its proven ability to support home Internet, the JUPITER platform gives us the flexibility to consider other satellite services, such as cellular backhaul, community Wi-Fi and enterprise applications." "We look forward to working together with Cignal TV to bring their customers all the benefits of satellite Internet, like social connection, education, healthcare, and access to civil services," said Vaibhav Magow, assistant vice president, Hughes. "This agreement underscores the value of the JUPITER System as the de-facto standard for satellite broadband implementation with leading operators around the world - like Cignal TV - leveraging the performance and capabilities of the platform to achieve their business needs."

The JUPITER System is the next-generation Very Small Aperture Terminal (VSAT) platform from Hughes for broadband services over both high-throughput and conventional satellites.

Employing the DVB-S2X standard for highly efficient use of satellite bandwidth, the JUPITER System powers services on more than 40 satellites around the world, and is the foundation for HughesNet, the satellite Internet service from Hughes available in countries throughout the Americas.

The JUPITER System supports applications such as community Wi-Fi hotspots, cellular backhaul, enterprise networks and in-flight connectivity services, in addition to broadband Internet access.

NASA awards $3M to develop Lunar LASVEGAS

NASA has awarded Southwest Research Institute $3 million to develop a lunar version of its Laser Absorption Spectrometer for Volatiles and Evolved Gas (LASVEGAS) instrument. This spectrometer can precisely measure the volatile compounds present in planetary atmospheres and surfaces - critical information for space science and exploration. "LASVEGAS is about half the size of a paper towel roll. It's extremely compact, low mass, low volume and low power - all important characteristics for spaceflight," said SwRI's Dr. Scot Rafkin, principal investigator of the instrument. "It can be deployed on the smallest of rovers or landers as well as carried in a single hand by an astronaut sauntering across the lunar surface in search of water ice, methane and other useful resources." The instrument measures gases from planetary atmospheres such as Mars to understand their composition. It can also heat a sample of a planetary surface such as the icy surface of Jupiter's moon Europa or from lunar soil to determine the composition of released gases. NASA's Maturation of Instruments for Solar System Exploration (MatISSE) program provided $3M in 2019 to develop the LASVEGAS instrument for application to Europa and similar icy worlds. In 2020, SwRI received an additional $3 million from the agency's Development and Advancement of Lunar Instrumentation (DALI) program to adapt the design to operate on the Moon's surface. "Spectrometry is one of the key analytical tools used in space exploration," Rafkin said. "LASVEGAS heats a thimble-sized sample from a planetary surface to release water and other volatile gases like methane."

The gas flows into a small, cylindrical chamber where laser light of different wavelengths is bounced back and forth between mirrors on each end. As the light passes repeatedly through the gas in the sample, the different molecular species in the gas absorb the light differently depending on the wavelength.

Then the laser light is directed onto a detector that measures its intensity to determine the abundance of the volatile compounds. Each molecular species in the gas has a distinct "fingerprint" of absorption, revealing its overall abundance.

"The instrument is yet to be selected for flight on a mission, but the work funded under the MatISSE and DALI programs will allow the instrument to be credibly proposed for a variety of future opportunities, especially those related to the return of humans to the surface of the Moon," Rafkin said.

The LASVEGAS development team also includes Ball Aerospace, Southwest Sciences Inc. and Princeton University.

Airbus wins ESA contract to construct third European Service Module for NASA's Orion spacecraft

The European Space Agency (ESA) has signed a contract with Airbus for the construction of the third European Service Module (ESM) for Orion, the American crewed spacecraft. The contract is worth around euro 250 million. By ordering this additional service module, ESA ensures the necessary continuity in NASA's Artemis programme. The third European Service Module (Artemis III Mission) will be used to fly astronauts to Earth's neighbour in space in 2024 - the first to land on the Moon since Apollo 17 following a hiatus of more than 50 years. "Our know-how and expertise will enable us to continue to facilitate future Moon missions through international partnerships," said Andreas Hammer, Head of Space Exloration at Airbus. "By working together with our customers ESA and NASA as well as our industrial partner Lockheed Martin, we now have a reliable planning basis for the first three lunar missions. This contract is an endorsement of the joint approach combining the best of European and American space technologies." David Parker, ESA Director of Human and Robotic Exploration, said: "By entering into this agreement, we are again demonstrating that Europe is a strong and reliable partner in Artemis. The European Service Module represents a crucial contribution to this, allowing scientific research, development of key technologies and international cooperation - inspiring missions that expand humankind's presence beyond Low Earth Orbit."

The first non-crewed Orion test flight with a European Service Module (Artemis I) will fly in 2021. It is as part of the following mission, Artemis II, that the first astronauts will then fly around the Moon and back to Earth.

The ESM will provide propulsion, power, air and water for the astronauts, as well as thermal control of NASA's new spacecraft.

More than 20,000 parts and components are used in each ESM, from electrical equipment to engines, solar panels, fuel tanks and life support supplies for the astronauts, as well as approximately 12 kilometres of cables.

The first service module was delivered to NASA in November 2018 and has already been mated with the Crew Module. The fully integrated spacecraft already finished the thermal-vacuum testing at NASA's facility in Ohio, USA, and returned to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, USA, while the second service module is now being integrated and tested by Airbus in Bremen, with delivery set for the first half of 2021.

During the development and construction of the ESM, Airbus has drawn on its experience as prime contractor for ESA's Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV), which provided the crew on board the International Space Station with regular deliveries of test equipment, spare parts, food, air, water and fuel.

The ESM is cylindrical in shape and about four metres in diameter and height. It has four solar arrays (19 metres across when unfurled) that generate enough energy to power two households. The service module's 8.6 tonnes of fuel can power one main engine and 32 smaller thrusters.

The ESM weighs a total of just over 13 tonnes. In addition to its function as the main propulsion system for the Orion spacecraft, the ESM will be responsible for orbital manoeuvring and position control. It also provides the crew with the central elements of life support such as water and oxygen, and regulates thermal control while docked to the crew module.

Weather threatens U.S. astronauts' SpaceX launch from Florida

Weather has become a major concern for the planned launch of two American astronauts Wednesday from Kennedy Space Center in Florida in the first crewed mission from U.S. soil in nine years. The projected liftoff has a 60 percent of violating weather constraints because of a thick cloud cover and the likelihood that their SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket would fly through rain, Air Force meteorologists at nearly Patrick Air Force Base said Sunday. "On launch day, remnant moisture" from a tropical wave will remain in the area, according to the Launch Mission Execution Forecast. "The primary launch weather concerns remain flight through precipitation, the thick cloud layer rule and the cumulus cloud rule associated with the remnant tropical moisture and proximity of [a] developing low." A launch cannot occur if precipitation is occurring at the launch pad or within the flight path. Similarly a launch generally cannot occur if any part of the planned flight path is through a layer of clouds within 5 nautical miles and is 4,500 feet thick or thicker. Other parameters have to be met, as well. If the launch is scrubbed, NASA has said, the next attempt to send the Crew Dragon capsule to the International Space Station would come Saturday. Both President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence have announced they would attend the launch Wednesday, and it was not clear whether a postponement would change those plans to attend. Despite the dire weather forecast, astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken -- and the mission team -- participated in a "dry dress' rehearsal Saturday in which they donned their black and white spacesuits and made a 20-minute drive in a Tesla Model X to Launch Complex 39A.

Elon Musk, who operates SpaceX, also is the chief executive officer of Tesla.

Hurley and Behnken then took a service tower elevator to the spacecraft access arm gantry and climbed into the capsule. They checked out communication systems, and the hatch was closed. They then went through a run-through with all launch personnel.

According to the space agency, "the rehearsal concluded with the go/no-go poll for Falcon 9 propellant loading, which normally occurs 45 minutes before launch."

A day before the rehearsal, engineers successfully fired the rocket's nine Merlin first-stage engines for seven seconds in what NASA describes as a "critical but routine test."

The liftoff, should it occur Wednesday, is planned for 4:33 p.m. EDT. The Dragon capsule would dock with the International Space Station on Thursday at 11:29 a.m. EDT.

China space program targets July launch for Mars mission

China is targeting a July launch for its ambitious plans for a Mars mission which will include landing a remote-controlled robot on the surface of the red planet, the company in charge of the project has said. Beijing has invested billions of dollars in its space programme in an effort to catch up with its rival the United States and affirm its status as a major world power. The Mars mission is among a number of new space projects China is pursuing, including putting Chinese astronauts on the moon and having a space station by 2022. Beijing had been planning the Mars mission for sometime this year, but China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC) has confirmed it could come as early as July. "This big project is progressing as planned and we are targeting a launch in July," CASC said in a statement issued on Sunday. CASC is the main contractor for China's space programme. Called "Tianwen", the Chinese mission will put a probe into orbit around Mars and land the robotic rover to explore and analyse the surface. It will take several months to cover the roughly 55 million kilometres (31 million miles) distance between Earth and Mars, which is ever-changing due to their planetary orbits. China has already carried out a similar mission to the Moon, and in January 2019 landed a small rover on the dark side of the lunar surface, becoming the first nation to do so.

The US, which has already sent four exploratory vehicles to Mars, intends to launch a fifth this summer. It should arrive around February 2021.

The United Arab Emirates plans to launch the first Arab probe to the Red Planet on July 15 from Japan.

China's low-orbit broadband communication satellite bears fruitful results

China's first technology experiment satellite for low-orbit broadband communication has completed more than 180 communication tests and generated fruitful results, according to its developer Friday. As the first satellite of the Hongyun Project, a low-orbit broadband communication satellite system developed by the China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation (CASIC), it has worked stably for more than 8,800 hours, carried out more than 5,000 instructions and conducted more than 20 in-orbit observation tests on a spectral thermometer. It has obtained more than 70 GB of image data and verified the technology of low-orbit satellite Internet since it was launched on Dec. 22, 2018, according to the CASIC. Ma Jie, an official from the CASIC, said they have tested the low-orbit broadband communication satellite system under different weather conditions and for different business scenarios, laying a good foundation for the construction of China's satellite Internet.

SpaceX rocket prepared for Demo-2 Mission

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket with the company's Crew Dragon spacecraft onboard is seen as it is raised into a vertical position on the launch pad at Launch Complex 39A as preparations continue for the Demo-2 mission, Thursday, May 21, 2020, at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. NASA's SpaceX Demo-2 mission is the first launch with astronauts of the SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft and Falcon 9 rocket to the International Space Station as part of the agency's Commercial Crew Program. The flight test will serve as an end-to-end demonstration of SpaceX's crew transportation system. Behnken and Hurley are scheduled to launch at 4:33 p.m. EDT on Wednesday, May 27, from Launch Complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center. A new era of human spaceflight is set to begin as American astronauts once again launch on an American rocket from American soil to low-Earth orbit for the first time since the conclusion of the Space Shuttle Program in 2011.

The UK's first complete ground rocket test in 50 years takes place in Scotland

The UK's Space race heats up as Skyrora effectively made the UK ready for launching rockets into space after a team successfully built a mobile launch complex and completed a full static fire test with the Skylark-L rocket on it - in only five days. Skyrora's combined achievement also signifies the first vertical static fire test of this magnitude in the UK since the Black Arrow Programme, 50 years ago. The Skylark L rocket could be ready to launch from a British spaceport as early as spring 2021 and the inaugural launch of the low Earth orbital (LEO) Skyrora XL rocket by 2023. The ground test at the mobile launch complex at Kildemorie Estate in North Scotland earlier this month, saw Skyrora's launch vehicle, Skylark-L perform all actions of a launch while restrained to the ground and prevented from taking off. Skylark-L is a bi-liquid propellent launch vehicle. It is Skyrora's first sub-orbital flight vehicle, ready to reach a height of approximately 100km, just on the Karman line, and carry a payload of up to 60kg. Skylark-L uses a propellent combination of Hydrogen Peroxide and Kerosene which are pressure fed into a Skyrora 30kN engine. Building up to the static fire test, the rocket engine itself has gone through three hot fire tests before integration into the vehicle. When commercial, the company plans to use their own Ecosene, an equivalent Kerosene fuel made from un-recyclable plastic waste. In Skyrora's rocket suite, its aim is to start with launching sub-orbital rockets and move to orbital by 2023.

The full static firing test, fully checked out the design and in-house manufacture, making sure the vehicle itself is ready for launch. It was also successful in the feed system validation tests leading up to the full static fire test. During the test, Skylark-L was supported by Skyrora's transporter-erector that was fixed to a trailer.

In order to complete this test, the Skyrora team accomplished the build of a mobile launch complex in record time right in the heart of the Scottish Highlands. The mobile complex was made up of several modules including, a command centre, oxidiser and fuel handing containers and a compressed gas container. During the test, the Bells and Two Tones Fire and Rescue team were onsite ready to perform any necessary procedures if anything was to go wrong.

Leading the operations of Skylark-L's static fire testing, Dr Jack-James Marlow said: "It is very hard to oversell what we have achieved here with this test; the whole team has pulled through again to deliver another UK first. We have successfully static tested a fully integrated, sub-orbital Skylark L launch vehicle in flight configuration. This means we performed all actions of a launch but did not release the vehicle. The rocket engine successfully burned, with all vehicle systems showing nominal operation.

"The test did not only validate the vehicle, it also tested our mobile launch complex's ground equipment and performed many cold flow and fuel/defuel tests. In all, there were over one hundred unique operations and the team has gained vital experience. This collection of tests, combined with the 25 other engine tests this year, allow us to take another step along our technology roadmap to orbital launch.

"This is the first time a launch vehicle of this magnitude has been tested in the UK for many years and I am very proud of my team for achieving this. The vehicle is now ready for flight and we are one step closer to putting the UK back into space."

Skyrora's chief executive officer, Volodymyr Levykin said: "As the launch aspect of the UK's new Space industry starts to emerge, there will be many events that have never happened here previously and this is one of them. This was a mammoth effort in very trying circumstances, so it is quite an achievement to be proud of.

"The operation was carried out while having to adhere to very strict social distancing measures, and in an extremely remote location, providing additional challenges, all of which were handled expertly by all the team.

"We see this as being the first significant step towards reaching space from our own soil and are very proud to have taken that step as part of the UK's Space ambitions. We are now in a full state of readiness for launch. It is this milestone that is the start of the UK's new space revolution, a fantastic example of the potential of what the UK Space holds for future.

"With the expertise in place and all the necessary hardware at the ready, we are poised to take the next steps in making the UK a serious leader in the Space business once again".

NASA's Curiosity Rover Finds Clues to Chilly Ancient Mars Buried in Rocks

By studying the chemical elements on Mars today - including carbon and oxygen - scientists can work backwards to piece together the history of a planet that once had the conditions necessary to support life. Weaving this story, element by element, from roughly 140 million miles (225 million kilometers) away is a painstaking process. But scientists aren't the type to be easily deterred. Orbiters and rovers at Mars have confirmed that the planet once had liquid water, thanks to clues that include dry riverbeds, ancient shorelines, and salty surface chemistry. Using NASA's Curiosity Rover, scientists have found evidence for long-lived lakes. They've also dug up organic compounds, or life's chemical building blocks. The combination of liquid water and organic compounds compels scientists to keep searching Mars for signs of past - or present - life. Despite the tantalizing evidence found so far, scientists' understanding of Martian history is still unfolding, with several major questions open for debate. For one, was the ancient Martian atmosphere thick enough to keep the planet warm, and thus wet, for the amount of time necessary to sprout and nurture life? And the organic compounds: are they signs of life - or of chemistry that happens when Martian rocks interact with water and sunlight? In a recent Nature Astronomy report on a multi-year experiment conducted in the chemistry lab inside Curiosity's belly, called Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM), a team of scientists offers some insights to help answer these questions. The team found that certain minerals in rocks at Gale Crater may have formed in an ice-covered lake. These minerals may have formed during a cold stage sandwiched between warmer periods, or after Mars lost most of its atmosphere and began to turn permanently cold.

Gale is a crater the size of Connecticut and Rhode Island combined. It was selected as Curiosity's 2012 landing site because it had signs of past water, including clay minerals that might help trap and preserve ancient organic molecules. Indeed, while exploring the base of a mountain in the center of the crater, called Mount Sharp, Curiosity found a layer of sediments 1,000 feet (304 meters) thick that was deposited as mud in ancient lakes.

To form that much sediment an incredible amount of water would have flowed down into those lakes for millions to tens of millions of warm and humid years, some scientists say. But some geological features in the crater also hint at a past that included cold, icy conditions.

"At some point, Mars' surface environment must have experienced a transition from being warm and humid to being cold and dry, as it is now, but exactly when and how that occurred is still a mystery," says Heather Franz, a NASA geochemist based at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.

Franz, who led the SAM study, notes that factors such as changes in Mars' obliquity and the amount of volcanic activity could have caused the Martian climate to alternate between warm and cold over time. This idea is supported by chemical and mineralogical changes in Martian rocks showing that some layers formed in colder environments and others formed in warmer ones.

In any case, says Franz, the array of data collected by Curiosity so far suggests that the team is seeing evidence for Martian climate change recorded in rocks.

Carbon and oxygen star in the Martian climate story
Franz's team found evidence for a cold ancient environment after the SAM lab extracted the gases carbon dioxide, or CO2, and oxygen from 13 dust and rock samples. Curiosity collected these samples over the course of five Earth years (Earth years vs. Mars years).

CO2 is a molecule of one carbon atom bonded with two oxygen atoms, with carbon serving as a key witness in the case of the mysterious Martian climate. In fact, this simple yet versatile element is as critical as water in the search for life elsewhere. On Earth, carbon flows continuously through the air, water, and surface in a well-understood cycle that hinges on life.

For example, plants absorb carbon from the atmosphere in the form of CO2. In return, they produce oxygen, which humans and most other life forms use for respiration in a process that ends with the release of carbon back into the air, again via CO2, or into the Earth's crust as life forms die and are buried.

Scientists are finding there's also a carbon cycle on Mars and they're working to understand it. With little water or abundant surface life on the Red Planet for at least the past 3 billion years, the carbon cycle is much different than Earth's.

"Nevertheless, the carbon cycling is still happening and is still important because it's not only helping reveal information about Mars' ancient climate," says Paul Mahaffy, principal investigator on SAM and director of the Solar System Exploration Division at NASA Goddard. "It's also showing us that Mars is a dynamic planet that's circulating elements that are the buildings blocks of life as we know it."

The gases build a case for a chilly period
After Curiosity fed rock and dust samples into SAM, the lab heated each one to nearly 1,650 degrees Fahrenheit (900 degrees Celsius) to liberate the gases inside. By looking at the oven temperatures that released the CO2 and oxygen, scientists could tell what kind of minerals the gases were coming from. This type of information helps them understand how carbon is cycling on Mars.

Various studies have suggested that Mars' ancient atmosphere, containing mostly CO2, may have been thicker than Earth's is today. Most of it has been lost to space, but some may be stored in rocks at the planet's surface, particularly in the form of carbonates, which are minerals made of carbon and oxygen.

On Earth, carbonates are produced when CO2 from the air is absorbed in the oceans and other bodies of water and then mineralized into rocks. Scientists think the same process happened on Mars and that it could help explain what happened to some of the Martian atmosphere.

Yet, missions to Mars haven't found enough carbonates in the surface to support a thick atmosphere.

Nonetheless, the few carbonates that SAM did detect revealed something interesting about the Martian climate through the isotopes of carbon and oxygen stored in them. Isotopes are versions of each element that have different masses.

Because different chemical processes, from rock formation to biological activity, use these isotopes in different proportions, the ratios of heavy to light isotopes in a rock provide scientists with clues to how the rock formed.

In some of the carbonates SAM found, scientists noticed that the oxygen isotopes were lighter than those in the Martian atmosphere. This suggests that the carbonates did not form long ago simply from atmospheric CO2 absorbed into a lake. If they had, the oxygen isotopes in the rocks would have been slightly heavier than the ones in the air.

While it's possible that the carbonates formed very early in Mars' history, when the atmospheric composition was a bit different than it is today, Franz and her colleagues suggest that the carbonates more likely formed in a freezing lake.

In this scenario, the ice could have sucked up heavy oxygen isotopes and left the lightest ones to form carbonates later. Other Curiosity scientists have also presented evidence suggesting that ice-covered lakes could have existed in Gale Crater.

So where is all the carbon?
The low abundance of carbonates on Mars is puzzling, scientists say. If there aren't many of these minerals at Gale Crater, perhaps the early atmosphere was thinner than predicted. Or maybe something else is storing the missing atmospheric carbon.

Based on their analysis, Franz and her colleagues suggest that some carbon could be sequestered in other minerals, such as oxalates, which store carbon and oxygen in a different structure than carbonates. Their hypothesis is based on the temperatures at which CO2 was released from some samples inside SAM - too low for carbonates, but just right for oxalates - and on the different carbon and oxygen isotope ratios than the scientists saw in the carbonates.

Oxalates are the most common type of organic mineral produced by plants on Earth. But oxalates also can be produced without biology. One way is through the interaction of atmospheric CO2 with surface minerals, water, and sunlight, in a process known as abiotic photosynthesis. This type of chemistry is hard to find on Earth because there's abundant life here, but Franz's team hopes to create abiotic photosynthesis in the lab to figure out if it actually could be responsible for the carbon chemistry they're seeing in Gale Crater.

On Earth, abiotic photosynthesis may have paved the way for photosynthesis among some of the first microscopic life forms, which is why finding it on other planets interests astrobiologists.

Even if it turns out that abiotic photosynthesis locked some carbon from the atmosphere into rocks at Gale Crater, Franz and her colleagues would like to study soil and dust from different parts of Mars to understand if their results from Gale Crater reflect a global picture. They may one day get a chance to do so. NASA's Perseverance Mars rover, due to launch to Mars between July and August 2020, plans to pack up samples in Jezero Crater for possible return to labs on Earth.

The horst and graben landscape of Ascuris Planum

These images show a landscape deformed by strong tectonic activity in the area north of Labeatis Fossae in the Tempe Terra region of Mars. They were acquired by the High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC), operated by the German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum fur Luft- und Raumfahrt; DLR), on board ESA's Mars Express spacecraft. Here, the results of the enormous forces that once affected the Martian crust as large magma pockets rose from below can be seen. These pockets lifted the crust upwards and triggered volcanic and tectonic activity. HRSC has been mapping the Red Planet since 2004, as part of ESA's Mars Express mission. It was developed and is operated by DLR. The area depicted is located northeast of the large volcanic region of Tharsis, where there are many other similar geological structures. The Tharsis region has a diameter of several thousand kilometres, making it almost as large as Europe. Tharsis is a magmatic bulge, approximately five kilometres tall, and was formed over the course of several billion years. During the gradual upwelling and stressing of the lithosphere by volcanic and plutonic rocks, enormous tensile stresses occurred in the Martian crust, transforming large regions into 'horst and graben' landscapes. Tempe Terra is the northernmost highland region on Mars. The landscape is characterised by numerous tectonic expansion structures, shield volcanoes and solidified lava flows. The fracture structures shown here are in the south-western foothills of the Tempe Fossae troughs, which are over 1000 kilometres long and whose characteristics can be compared to that of the Kenya Rift on Earth, which is a part of the East African Rift.

How do horst and graben structures develop?
The region shown in these HRSC images is a textbook example of horst and graben tectonics. If a rigid, brittle rock crust is stretched, for example when the ground below it is raised, the surface experiences tension. If the tensile stress rises above the tolerable limit for the rock, the crust breaks up along somewhat steeply sloping fracture surfaces and a 'fault zone' is created.

If the crust continues to expand, large blocks of rock slide down along the fracture surfaces for hundreds of metres, and even up to 1000 or 2000 metres in places. Over many millions of years, tectonic grabens develop. The regions left standing on both sides now tower above the landscape and form the corresponding horsts. The word pair 'horst and graben' have their origins in early medieval miners' German and were incorporated into many languages following geology's establishment as an 'Earth science'.

A change in the stress regime
Tempe Terra is a part of the Martian crust that must have experienced high tectonic stress over a very long period of Martian history. The grabens run mostly parallel from northeast to southwest. However, there are also grabens that cut across this primary direction. This indicates a change in the orientation of the stress field. Particularly in the south (to the left of Image 1), some fractures run almost perpendicular to the prevailing direction of the faults.

Varied landscape
In the north (to the right of image 1), the landscape has a much smoother profile. The grabens are partly filled by debris-covered glaciers, which are characteristic of all steeper slopes at these latitudes. What are referred to as 'wrinkle ridges' can be seen at the top of the image. These were formed in the Tempe Terra region by compressive stress and form a concentric ring around the entirety of Tharsis.

Erosion processes have also shaped this northern part of the region. The ejected material of a small crater (on the right of Image 1 and the upper right of the perspective view) rises like a platform above the surrounding landscape. These types of crater are formed whenever the ejecta are significantly more resistant to erosion processes than the surface rock. They form an erosion-resistant layer which, after the surrounding material has been removed, creates a plateau around the crater.

Image processing
The images were acquired by the High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) on 30 September 2019 during Mars Express orbit 19,913. The image resolution is approximately 15 metres per pixel. The image centre is located at 279 degrees east and 36 degrees north. The perpendicular colour view was generated from the data acquired by the HRSC nadir channel, which is directed perpendicular to the Martian surface, and the colour channels.

The oblique perspective view was computed using a Digital Terrain Model (DTM) and data from the nadir and colour channels of HRSC. The anaglyph image, which gives a three-dimensional impression of the landscape when viewed with red-blue or red-green glasses, was derived from data acquired by the nadir channel and the stereo channels. The colour-coded image map is based on a DTM of the region, from which the topography of the landscape can be derived. The reference body for the HRSC DTM is an equipotential surface of Mars (areoid).

HRSC was developed and is operated by the German Aerospace Center (DLR). The systematic processing of the camera data was performed at the DLR Institute of Planetary Research in Berlin-Adlershof. Personnel at the Department of Planetary Sciences and Remote Sensing at Freie Universitat Berlin used these data to create the image products shown here.

The HRSC experiment on Mars Express
The High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) was developed by the German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum fur Luft- und Raumfahrt; DLR) and built in collaboration with partners in industry (EADS Astrium, Lewicki Microelectronic GmbH and Jena-Optronik GmbH). The science team, which is headed by Principal Investigator (PI) Ralf Jaumann, consists of 50 co-investigators from 35 institutions in 11 countries. The camera is operated by the DLR Institute of Planetary Research in Berlin-Adlershof.

Mysterious delta Scuti stars start to surrender secrets

The key to unlocking the secrets of a large group of pulsating stars has been discovered by an international team of astrophysicists. Pulsations are a common feature of stars. They are natural resonances, formed by trapped waves like those in musical instrument, and provide a unique way to look inside stars. Studies that use pulsations - the field of asteroseismology - allow us to test models of stellar evolution, and have been extremely successful on a range of different classes of stars. In one class of stars, however, scientists have been frustrated in their attempts to use astroseismology. The so-called delta (d) Scuti stars present seemingly random spectra of pulsation overtones, making it very hard to interpret the pulsations to glean clues about their internal structures. In a new study, by a team including researchers at the University of Birmingham, UK, and the University of Sydney, Australia, a subset of this class has been found that shows much simpler, ordered and understandable pulsation spectra. The discovery was made using data from the NASA Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), and the NASA Kepler Mission. The ordered spectra offer the potential to unlock a treasure trove of information on this important group of stars. The study is published in Nature. "Asteroseismology is the method we use to reveal the usually hidden interiors of stars," explains co-author Dr Tanda Li of the School of Physics and Astronomy at Birmingham. "Asteroseismology has yielded a wealth of fascinating insights on many types of stars, including the Sun, but until now the random spectra of delta-Scutis has limited our ability to use pulsations to tell us about these stars."

The new subset of stars tend to be younger than their seemingly random cousins. Birmingham co-author Dr Warrick Ball says: "This fits the picture in which we know pulsation spectra tend to get more complicated as stars age. The youngest stars therefore give us our best shot at finding ordered spectra".

Professor Bill Chaplin, who leads the research group working on asteroseismology at Birmingham, added: "We are now in a position to start to probe these stars, and to use them as benchmarks to help us interpret the huge numbers of other stars in the group that present more complicated pulsation spectra."

Laser-powered rover to explore Moon's dark shadows

A laser light shone through the dark could power robotic exploration of the most tantalising locations in our Solar System: the permanently-shadowed craters around the Moon's poles, believed to be rich in water ice and other valuable materials. ESA's Discovery and Preparation programme funded the design of a laser system to keep a rover supplied with power from up to 15 km away while it explores some of these dark craters. At the highest lunar latitudes, the Sun stays low on the horizon all year round, casting long shadows that keep sunken craters mired in permanent shadow, potentially on a timescale of billions of years. Data from NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, India's Chandrayaan-1 and ESA's SMART-1 orbiters show these 'permanently shadowed regions' are rich in hydrogen, strongly suggesting water ice can be found there. As well as having scientific interest, this ice would be valuable to lunar colonists, as a source of drinking water, oxygen for breathing, as well as a source of hydrogen rocket fuel. But to know for certain requires going into these darkened craters and drilling. Any rover prospecting the shadowed regions would have to do without solar power, while contending with temperatures comparable to the surface of Pluto, down to -240 C, just 30 degrees above absolute zero. "The standard suggestion for such a situation is to fit the rover with nuclear-based radioisotope thermoelectric generators," comments ESA robotics engineer Michel Van Winnendael. "But this presents problems of complexity, cost and thermal management - the rover could warm up so much that prospecting and analysing ice samples actually becomes impractical.

"As an alternative, this study looked at harnessing a laser-based power system, inspired by terrestrial laser experiments to keep drones powered and flying for hours on end."

The 10-month PHILIP, 'Powering rovers by High Intensity Laser Induction on Planets', contract was undertaken for ESA by Italy's Leonardo company and Romania's National Institute of Research and Development for Optoelectronics, coming up with a complete laser-powered exploration mission design.

This included selecting a location for the mission lander, in a near-permanently sunlit region between the South Pole's de Gerlache and Shackleton craters. This lander would host a solar-powered 500-watt infrared laser, which it would keep trained on a 250 kg rover as it entered the shadowed regions.

The rover would convert this laser light into electrical power using a modified version of a standard solar panel, with photodiodes on the sides of the panel keeping it locked onto the laser down to centimetre-scale accuracy.

The study identified routes that would take the rover downward at a relatively gentle 10 degrees of slope while keeping it in the lander's direct line of sight. The laser beam could be used as a two-way communications link, with a modulating retro-reflector mounted on the second of the rover's solar panels, sending signal pulses in light reflected back to the lander.

Guiding the project requirements, ESA has previously performed field tests at night in Moon-like Tenerife to simulate rover operations in permanent shadow.

Michel adds: "With the PHILIP project completed, we are one step closer to powering rovers with lasers to explore the dark parts of the Moon. We're at the stage where prototyping and testing could begin, undertaken by follow-up ESA technology programmes."

Pryer Aerospace signs long-term agreement with Blue Origin to support New Glenn Heavy-Lift Launch Vehicle

Pryer Aerospace has signed a multi-year contract with Blue Origin. Under this contract, Pryer will provide large complex machined parts and leading edge structures for New Glenn, Blue Origin's massive heavy-lift orbital launch vehicle, designed to support national security space launch and commercial space missions for years to come. "With this contract Pryer Aerospace solidifies a role for Oklahoma and our company in the Space industry. Our relationship with Blue Origin and this contract expands and diversifies our business, creates job opportunities, and puts Pryer Aerospace in a position to be a premier Tier 1 supplier in a technically challenging market. "We are proud to be a part of the Blue Origin Team and look forward to contributing to Blue Origin's mission of building a road to space so our children can build the future," said Jeff Landreth, CEO of Pryer Aerospace. "We are proud to work with Pryer Aerospace, a world-class supplier, on a long-term agreement with our New Glenn vehicle to support national security space launch and commercial space missions," said Bob Smith, CEO, Blue Origin. "During these unprecedented times, we are pleased to be looking at long-term opportunities with small business suppliers across the nation, and are pleased to have found a fantastic partner in Pryer. Together, we are ensuring a robust supply base in Oklahoma for many years to come."

Founded in 1965, Pryer Aerospace is a leading provider of structural components, assemblies, and kits to the aerospace industry. Specializing in the fabrication and assembly of complex sheet metal and machined components.

JAXA HTV-9 spacecraft carries science, technology to ISS

A Japanese cargo spacecraft loaded with experiment hardware, supplies and spare parts is scheduled to launch from the Tanegashima Space Center in southern Japan to the International Space Station at 1:30 p.m. EDT Wednesday, May 20 (2:30 a.m. May 21 in Japan). The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) unpiloted H-II Transport Vehicle-9 (HTV-9) carries investigations testing a new livestreaming educational tool, microscope and telescope. Here are details about some of the scientific investigations and facilities heading to the orbiting lab on HTV-9. Coming to you live and interactive from space. A broadcasting studio is opening up in the Japanese Experiment Module (JEM), also known as Kibo. The JAXA-sponsored education-focused experiment known as THE SPACE FRONTIER STUDIO - KIBO enables new livestreaming capabilities on station. Terminals set up next to a window overlooking Earth in the JEM module are to be used for communication. The first round of demonstrations of the technology are set to occur this summer, testing out two-way livestreaming that allows people on the ground to communicate with the astronauts. Looking back at Earth. Rather than looking out at the stars, this telescope points at our planet. The integrated Standard Imager for Microsatellites (iSIM), a very high-resolution optical binocular telescope developed by Spanish company SATLANTIS MICROSATS S.L., takes images of Earth at less than one meter of resolution. A combination of technologies including optics, mechanics, electronics and artificial intelligence algorithms achieves a high spatial resolution at significantly lower cost compared with traditional imaging systems of similar performance.

This experiment demonstrates the technology and its functionality in the low-Earth orbit environment. The prototype is mounted to the JAXA External Facility platform on the space station, which provides sample environment and operational conditions for testing the device.

A clearer picture of biology in microgravity
The Confocal Space Microscope (Confocal Microscope) is a JAXA facility launching on HTV-9 that enables fluorescence live imaging of biological samples aboard the station. Confocal microscopy eliminates out-of-focus light or glare in specimens whose thickness is greater than the immediate plane of focus.

The microscope can produce data on the fundamental nature of cellular and tissue structure and functions in real-time. When combined with the heating chamber system, the microscope enables long term 3D observation of living cells. While biological experiments are the first area of concentration, the microscope could be used for chemical studies as well.

Other investigations aboard the space station also have been exploring new types of microscopy in microgravity, including FLUMIAS-DEA, which observed samples of fixed cells and live cells using a miniaturized fluorescence microscope.

For daily updates, follow @ISS_Research, Space Station Research and Technology News or our Facebook. Follow the ISS National Lab for information on its sponsored investigations. For opportunities to see the space station pass over your town, check out Spot the Station.

Marshall team prepares for upcoming Commercial Crew Launch

A new era of human spaceflight is set to begin as American astronauts Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley once again launch on an American rocket from American soil to the International Space Station as part of NASA's Commercial Crew Program - the first time since the end of the Space Shuttle Program in 2011.? The Commercial Crew Program was formed to facilitate the development of a U.S. commercial crew space transportation capability with the goal of achieving safe, reliable and cost-effective access to and from the International Space Station and low-Earth orbit. The mission, known as Demo-2, is currently targeted for May 27 at 4:32 p.m. EDT from Launch Complex 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center. Behnken and Hurley will launch atop a Falcon 9 rocket, en route to an extended stay on the station. "The Commercial Crew Program has challenged the traditional way of developing human spaceflight launch vehicles by shifting the way we think," said Bobby Watkins, manager of the Human Exploration Development and Operations Office at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center. "This is a huge moment for NASA and its partners, and we are proud at Marshall to be a small part of this monumental mission." The Human Exploration Development and Operations Office at Marshall supports the Commercial Crew Program with engineers that have helped review critical design and development documentation. The team also helps provide oversight to safety standards for the spacecraft and verifies data. For the launch, members of the team will be present in the Huntsville Operations Support Center (HOSC) at Marshall and will work closely with teams at SpaceX in Hawthorne, California, Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida and Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas to monitor launch conditions.

The team has already conducted several simulations in the HOSC, and will continue to do so in preparation for launch. During the simulations, participants use headsets and voice loops to communicate with flight control teams at Kennedy and Johnson Space Center as well as SpaceX. Marshall team members help analyze data for the simulations in real time,

"Using the HOSC for the simulations protected our employees by not having to travel during the COVID-19 pandemic," said Steve Gaddis, launch vehicle deputy manager for the Commercial Crew Program. "This recent sim makes the excitement all the more tangible - especially for the team here at Marshall."

For almost 20 years, humans have continuously lived and worked aboard the International Space Station, advancing scientific knowledge and demonstrating new technologies that enable us to prepare for human exploration to the Moon and Mars.

The station's design requires humans living aboard to maintain it, operate it, and upgrade it; thus, International Space Station operations, including commercial resupply and commercial crew, are essential to the mission. Marshall also supports the station by operating the Payload Operations Integration Center, which operates, plans and coordinates the science experiments onboard 365 days a year, 24 hours a day.

China's new ocean-monitoring satellite passes factory tests

China's new ocean-monitoring satellite HY-1D has passed factory tests, paving way for its launch at a suitable time, the Ministry of National Resources said Saturday. It is the country's fourth satellite for monitoring ocean color and an operational satellite for China's civil space infrastructure system, according to the National Satellite Ocean Application Center under the ministry. Satellite HY-1C, launched in 2019, and HY-1D will form China's first civil-use satellite constellation for ocean monitoring to increase its global observation coverage, said a source of the center. Once in orbit, it will provide data on ocean color and water temperature for the resource and environment surveys in China's offshore waters, islands and coastal areas. The data may also be used to facilitate marine disaster prevention and mitigation, sustainable utilization of marine resources, marine ecological early warning and environmental protection, the center source said.

Three types of rockets to shoulder construction of China's space station

China's new large carrier rocket Long March-5B made its maiden flight on Tuesday, sending the trial version of China's new-generation manned spaceship and a cargo return capsule for test into space. The successful flight inaugurated the "third step" of China's manned space program, which is to construct a space station, said the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA). After a successful maiden flight, China's Long March-5B carrier rocket joins the Long March-2F and Long March-7 to shoulder the construction of China's space station. Long March-2F: China's Safest Rocket - with a total length of about 58 meters, the Long March-2F has two core stages and four boosters. An escape tower will be installed on top if the rocket is used to launch manned spacecraft. It has a takeoff mass of about 480 tonnes, and is capable of sending payloads of 8.6 tonnes to low-Earth orbit. It is designed to be China's safest and most reliable carrier rocket, according to the rocket's chief designer Zhang Zhi, of the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology under the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation. It made its maiden flight on Nov. 20, 1999, launching China's first manned spacecraft Shenzhou-1 with no crew. It sent China's first astronaut Yang Liwei into space on Oct. 15, 2003, making China the third country capable of sending astronauts into space. Over the past 20 years, the Long March-2F has completed 13 flights with a success rate of 100 percent, sending 11 spacecraft and two space labs into space, said Jing Muchun, general director of the rocket development team.

Long March-7: Special Cargo Vehicle
With a total length of 53 meters, the Long March-7 rocket has two 3.35-meter-diameter core stages and four 2.25-meter-diameter boosters.

It uses environment-friendly fuel, including liquid oxygen and kerosene. It has a takeoff mass of about 597 tonnes, and a payload capacity of about 13.5 tonnes to low-Earth orbit and about 5.5 tonnes to 700-km Sun-synchronous orbit.

It is specially developed to launch the cargo spacecraft for China's manned space program. After a successful maiden flight in 2016, it sent China's first cargo spacecraft Tianzhou-1 to dock with the Tiangong-2 space lab in 2017.

It will be mainly used to transport materials to China's space station, including living materials for astronauts such as drinking water, food and extravehicular spacesuits, as well as operation and maintenance materials such as solar panels and spare parts, said Meng Gang, general director of the Long March-7 research team.

The rocket can also send cargo spacecraft to conduct in-orbit refueling for the space station, Meng said.

As China's first rocket designed with digital technology and the first launched at the Wenchang Space Launch Center on the coast of south China's island province of Hainan, the Long March-7 has achieved a series of technological innovations, said its chief designer Fan Ruixiang.

Long March-5B: Backbone Of Space Station Construction
With a total length of about 53.66 meters, the Long March-5B rocket has a 5-meter-diameter core stage and four 3.35-meter-diameter boosters. It has a takeoff mass of about 849 tonnes, a takeoff thrust of about 1,078 tonnes and a payload capacity of at least 22 tonnes to low-Earth orbit.

It has currently the largest fairing of China's carrier rockets, which is 20.5 meters long and 5.2 meters in diameter, as tall as a six-floor building.

Specially designed to launch the core module and the experiment capsules of China's space station, it will be the backbone of the station construction, said Wang Jue, general director of the rocket research team.

The research team has achieved a series of technological breakthroughs, such as separation of the large fairing from the payloads safely in space and controlling the launch time error within one second, said its chief designer Li Dong.

NASA's Perseverance Rover Spacecraft Put in Launch Configuration

Engineers working on NASA's Perseverance rover mission at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida have begun the process of placing the Mars-bound rover and other spacecraft components into the configuration they'll be in as they ride on top of the United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket. The launch period for the mission opens on July 17 - just 70 days from now. Called "vehicle stacking," the process began on April 23 with the integration of the rover and its rocket-powered descent stage. One of the first steps in the daylong operation was to lift the descent stage onto Perseverance so that engineers could connect the two with flight-separation bolts. When it's time for the rover to touch down on Mars, these three bolts will be released by small pyrotechnic charges, and the spacecraft will execute the sky crane maneuver: Nylon cords spool out through what are called bridle exit guides to lower the rover 25 feet (7.6 meters) below the descent stage. Once Perseverance senses it's on the surface, pyrotechnically-fired blades will sever the cords, and the descent stage flies off. The sky crane maneuver ensures Perseverance will land on the Martian surface free of any other spacecraft components, eliminating the need for a complex deployment procedure. "Attaching the rover to the descent stage is a major milestone for the team because these are the first spacecraft components to come together for launch, and they will be the last to separate when we reach Mars," said David Gruel, the Perseverance rover assembly, test, and launch operations manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, which manages rover operations. "These two assemblies will remain firmly nestled together until they are about 65 feet [20 meters] over the surface of Mars."

On April 29, the rover and descent stage were attached to the cone-shaped back shell, which contains the parachute and, along with the mission's heat shield, provides protection for the rover and descent stage during Martian atmospheric entry.

Whether they are working on final assembly of the vehicle at Kennedy Space Center, testing software and subsystems at JPL or (as the majority of the team is doing) teleworking due to coronavirus safety precautions, the Perseverance team remains on track to meet the opening of the rover's launch period. No matter what day Perseverance launches, it will land at Mars' Jezero Crater on Feb. 18, 2021.

Russia to launch first satellite for monitoring Arctic climate this year

Russia will launch its first Arktika-M satellite for monitoring the Arctic climate and environment at the end of the year, General Director of the Lavochkin aerospace company Vladimir Kolmykov said. "As of now, the number one Arktika-M spacecraft has been developed and is undergoing radio-electronic testing ... the launch is planned for the end of 2020", Kolmykov said, adding that the second Arktika-M satellite is still under development and will be launched in 2023. In February, a space industry source said that the launch of the first Arktika-M satellite from the Baikonur space centre was planned for 9 December 2020. According to the source, the satellite will be launched using a Soyuz-2.1b carrier rocket with the Fregat booster. The launch of the second Russian satellite for weather forecasting and monitoring climate and the environment in the Arctic region, Arktika-M, has been postponed to 2023 from 2021, according to documents of Russia space corporation Roscosmos published on the public procurement website. Russia's Arktika-M remote-sensing and emergency communications satellites will gather meteorological data in the polar regions of the Earth, which will allow to improve weather forecasts and will enable scientists to better study climate change.

China's space test hits snag with capsule 'anomaly'

A cargo capsule that was part of a key test in China's space programme experienced an "anomaly" Wednesday during its return trip, the space authority said. The cargo capsule was launched Tuesday aboard a new type of carrier rocket along with a prototype spacecraft, and the latter is expected to return to Earth on Friday. The launch is a major test of China's ambitions to operate a permanent space station and send astronauts to the Moon. But "an anomaly occurred today during the return" of the cargo capsule, the China Manned Space Agency said in a statement. "Experts are currently analysing the data," it said without offering details. The cargo capsule was not designed to transport astronauts, only equipment. The device, developed by China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation, is an experimental prototype. The capsule was fitted with an "inflatable" heat shield. This type of structure, also being tested by the American and European space agencies, aims to eventually replace the classic metal heat shields that are heavier and thereby reduces the amount of cargo that can be carried into space. Tuesday's launch was also the maiden flight of the Long March 5B rocket, considered the most powerful rocket made in China to date. State media said the launch was a "success". It comes after two previous failures when the Long March 7A malfunctioned in March and the Long March 3B failed to take off in early April.

Beijing has invested heavily in its space programme in recent years as it plays catchup to the United States, the only country to have sent a man to the Moon.

Assembly of the Chinese Tiangong space station, whose name means Heavenly Palace, is expected to begin this year and finish in 2022.

China also became the first nation to land on the far side of the Moon in January 2019, deploying a lunar rover that has driven some 450 metres so far.

Exoplanets: How we'll search for signs of life

Whether there is life elsewhere in the universe is a question people have pondered for millennia; and within the last few decades, great strides have been made in our search for signs of life outside of our solar system. NASA missions like the space telescope Kepler have helped us document thousands of exoplanets - planets that orbit around other stars. And current NASA missions like Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) are expected to vastly increase the current number of known exoplanets. It is expected that dozens will be Earth-sized rocky planets orbiting in their stars' habitable zones, at distances where water could exist as a liquid on their surfaces. These are promising places to look for life. This will be accomplished by missions like the soon-to-be-launched James Webb Space Telescope, which will complement and extend the discoveries of the Hubble Space Telescope by observing at infrared wavelengths. It is expected to launch in 2021, and will allow scientists to determine if rocky exoplanets have oxygen in their atmospheres. Oxygen in Earth's atmosphere is due to photosynthesis by microbes and plants. To the extent that exoplanets resemble Earth, oxygen in their atmospheres may also be a sign of life. Not all exoplanets will be Earth-like, though. Some will be, but others will differ from Earth enough that oxygen doesn't necessarily come from life. So with all of these current and future exoplanets to study, how do scientists narrow down the field to those for which oxygen is most indicative of life?

To answer this question, an interdisciplinary team of researchers, led by Arizona State University (ASU), has provided a framework, called a "detectability index" which may help prioritize exoplanets that require additional study. The details of this index have recently been published in the Astrophysical Journal of the American Astronomical Society.

"The goal of the index is to provide scientists with a tool to select the very best targets for observation and to maximize the chances of detecting life," says lead author Donald Glaser of ASU's School of Molecular Sciences.

The oxygen detectability index for a planet like Earth is high, meaning that oxygen in Earth's atmosphere is definitely due to life and nothing else. Seeing oxygen means life. A surprising finding by the team is that the detectability index plummets for exoplanets not-too-different from Earth.

Although Earth's surface is largely covered in water, Earth's oceans are only a small percentage (0.025%) of Earth's mass. By comparison, moons in the outer solar system are typically close to 50% water ice.

"It's easy to imagine that in another solar system like ours, an Earth-like planet could be just 0.2% water," says co-author Steven Desch of ASU's School of Earth and Space Exploration. "And that would be enough to change the detectability index. Oxygen would not be indicative of life on such planets, even if it were observed. That's because an Earth-like planet that was 0.2% water--about eight times what Earth has--would have no exposed continents or land."

Without land, rain would not weather rock and release important nutrients like phosphorus. Photosynthetic life could not produce oxygen at rates comparable to other non-biological sources.

"The detectability index tells us it's not enough to observe oxygen in an exoplanet's atmosphere. We must also observe oceans and land," says Desch. "That changes how we approach the search for life on exoplanets. It helps us interpret observations we've made of exoplanets. It helps us pick the best target exoplanets to look for life on. And it helps us design the next generation of space telescopes so that we get all the information we need to make a positive identification of life."

Scientists from diverse fields were brought together to create this index. The formation of the team was facilitated by NASA's Nexus for Exoplanetary System Science (NExSS) program, which funds interdisciplinary research to develop strategies for looking for life on exoplanets. Their disciplines include theoretical and observational astrophysics, geophysics, geochemistry, astrobiology, oceanography, and ecology.

"This kind of research needs diverse teams, we can't do it as individual scientists" says co-author Hilairy Hartnett who holds joint appointments at ASU's School of Earth and Space Exploration and School of Molecular Sciences.

In addition to lead author Glaser and co-authors Harnett and Desch, the team includes co-authors Cayman Unterborn, Ariel Anbar, Steffen Buessecker, Theresa Fisher, Steven Glaser, Susanne Neuer, Camerian Millsaps, Joseph O'Rourke, Sara Imari Walker, and Mikhail Zolotov who collectively represent ASU's School of Molecular Sciences, School of Earth and Space Exploration, and School of Life Sciences. Additional scientists on the team include researchers from the University of California Riverside, Johns Hopkins University and the University of Porto (Portugal).

It is the hope of this team that this detectability index framework will be employed in the search for life. "The detection of life on a planet outside our solar system would change our entire understanding of our place in the universe," says Glaser. "NASA is deeply invested in searching for life, and it is our hope that this work will be used to maximize the chance of detecting life when we look for it."

US Air Force's X-37B preparing for next space flight

The US Air Force's strange little space plane, the experimental X-37B, is preparing for its sixth mission. Dubbed the Orbital Test Vehicle (OTV), little is known about its mission, apart from that the Pentagon claims it exists to test new technology. According to a rocket launch schedule, one of the Air Force's two remotely piloted X-37Bs will blast off on its next mission atop an Atlas V rocket on May 16 from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on Florida's Atlantic coast. As for the details about its mission, your guess is as good as ours. The last flight, launched in September 2017, lifted the Advanced Structurally Embedded Thermal Spreader II, an experimental heat pipe used for managing temperature flows, for testing. When the last OTV touched down in October 2019, it had been in orbit for 779 days. The box truck-sized space plane operates at altitudes ranging from 110 to 500 miles up. However, part of the X-37B's mission is simply development of reusable space plane technology, according to the Air Force. The tech is being pursued by a variety of nations as well as private firms like Virgin Galactic. "Technologies being tested in the program include advanced guidance, navigation and control, thermal protection systems, avionics, high temperature structures and seals, conformal reusable insulation, lightweight electromechanical flight systems, advanced propulsion systems, advanced materials and autonomous orbital flight, reentry and landing," the Air Force adds.

The US space agency NASA once operated the Space Shuttle, which the X-37B somewhat resembles and to which it operates similarly, but those craft have all been retired. The X-37 was originally developed by NASA in the late 1990s, but the program was handed over to the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), a Pentagon tech lab, in 2004, at which point it became classified, according to Space.com. Its first flight was in 2010.

UCF researchers develop groundbreaking new rocket-propulsion system

A University of Central Florida researcher and his team have developed an advanced new rocket-propulsion system once thought to be impossible. The system, known as a rotating detonation rocket engine, will allow upper stage rockets for space missions to become lighter, travel farther, and burn more cleanly. The result were published this month in the journal Combustion and Flame. "The study presents, for the first time, experimental evidence of a safe and functioning hydrogen and oxygen propellant detonation in a rotating detonation rocket engine," said Kareem Ahmed, an assistant professor in UCF's Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering who led the research. The rotating detonations are continuous, Mach 5 explosions that rotate around the inside of a rocket engine, and the explosions are sustained by feeding hydrogen and oxygen propellant into the system at just the right amounts. This system improves rocket-engine efficiency so that more power is generated while using less fuel than traditional rocket energies, thus lightening the rocket's load and reducing its costs and emissions. Mach 5 explosions create bursts of energy that travel 4,500 to 5,600 miles per hour, which is more than five times the speed of sound. They are contained within a durable engine body constructed of copper and brass. The technology has been studied since the 1960s but had not been successful due to the chemical propellants used or the ways they were mixed. Ahmed's group made it work by carefully balancing the rate of the propellants, hydrogen and oxygen, released into the engine.

"We have to tune the sizes of the jets releasing the propellants to enhance the mixing for a local hydrogen-oxygen mixture," Ahmed said. "So, when the rotating explosion comes by for this fresh mixture, it's still sustained. Because if you have your composition mixture slightly off, it will tend to deflagrate, or burn slowly instead of detonating."

Ahmed's team also had to capture evidence of their finding. They did this by injecting a tracer in the hydrogen fuel flow and quantifying the detonation waves using a high-speed camera.

"You need the tracer to actually see that explosion that is happening inside and track its motion," he said. "Developing this method to characterize the detonation wave dynamics is another contribution of this article."

William Hargus, lead of the Air Force Research Laboratory's Rotating Detonation Rocket Engine Program, is a co-author of the study and began working with Ahmed on the project last summer.

"As an advanced propulsion spectroscopist, I recognized some of the unique challenges in the observation of hydrogen-detonation structures," Hargus said. "After consulting with Professor Ahmed, we were able to formulate a slightly modified experimental apparatus that significantly increased the relevant signal strength."

"These research results already are having repercussions across the international research community," Hargus said. "Several projects are now re-examining hydrogen detonation combustion within rotating detonation rocket engines because of these results. I am very proud to be associated with this high-quality research."

Sun is less active than similar stars

The extent to which solar activity (and thus the number of sunspots and the solar brightness) varies can be reconstructed using various methods - at least for a certain period of time. Since 1610, for example, there have been reliable records of sunspots covering the Sun; the distribution of radioactive varieties of carbon and beryllium in tree rings and ice cores allows us to draw conclusions about the level of solar activity over the past 9000 years. For this period of time, scientists find regularly recurring fluctuations of comparable strength as during recent decades. "However, compared to the entire lifespan of the Sun, 9000 years is like the blink of an eye", says MPS scientist Dr. Timo Reinhold, first author of the new study. After all, our star is almost 4.6 billion years old. "It is conceivable that the Sun has been going through a quiet phase for thousands of years and that we therefore have a distorted picture of our star," he adds. Since there is no way of finding out how active the Sun was in primeval times, scientists can only resort to the stars: Together with colleagues from the University of New South Wales in Australia and the School of Space Research in South Korea, the MPS researchers investigated, whether the Sun behaves "normally" in comparison to other stars. This may help to classify its current activity. To this end, the researchers selected candidate stars that resemble the Sun in decisive properties. In addition to the surface temperature, the age, and the proportion of elements heavier than hydrogen and helium, the researchers looked above all at the rotation period. "The speed at which a star rotates around its own axis is a crucial variable", explains Prof. Dr. Sami Solanki, director at MPS and co-author of the new publication.

A star's rotation contributes to the creation of its magnetic field in a dynamo process in its interior. "The magnetic field is the driving force responsible for all fluctuations in activity," says Solanki.

The state of the magnetic field determines how often the Sun emits energetic radiation and hurls particles at high speeds into space in violent eruptions, how numerous dark sunspots and bright regions on its surface are - and thus also how brightly the Sun shines.

A comprehensive catalogue containing the rotation periods of thousands of stars has been available only for the last few years. It is based on measurement data from NASA's Kepler Space Telescope, which recorded the brightness fluctuations of approximately 150000 main sequence stars (i.e. those that are in the middle of their lifetimes) from 2009 to 2013.

The researchers scoured this huge sample and selected those stars that rotate once around their own axis within 20 to 30 days. The Sun needs about 24.5 days for this. The researchers were able to further narrow down this sample by using data from the European Gaia Space Telescope. In the end, 369 stars remained, which also resemble the Sun in other fundamental properties.

The exact analysis of the brightness variations of these stars from 2009 to 2013 reveals a clear picture. While between active and inactive phases solar irradiance fluctuated on average by just 0.07 percent, the other stars showed much larger variation. Their fluctuations were typically about five times as strong.

"We were very surprised that most of the Sun-like stars are so much more active than the Sun," says Dr. Alexander Shapiro of MPS, who heads the research group "Connecting Solar and Stellar Variabilities".

However, it is not possible to determine the rotation period of all the stars observed by the Kepler telescope. To do this, scientists have to find certain periodically re-appearing dips in the star's lightcurve. These dips can be traced back to starspots that darken the stellar surface, rotate out of the telescope's field of view and then reappear after a fixed period of time.

"For many stars, such periodic darkenings cannot be detected; they are lost in the noise of the measured data and in overlying brightness fluctuations," explains Reinhold. Viewed through the Kepler telescope, even the Sun would not reveal its rotation period.

The researchers therefore also studied more than 2500 Sun-like stars with unknown rotation periods. Their brightness fluctuated much less than that of the other group.

These results allow two interpretations. There could be a still unexplained fundamental difference between stars with known and unknown rotation period. "It is just as conceivable that stars with known and Sun-like rotation periods show us the fundamental fluctuations in activity the Sun is capable of," says Shapiro. This would mean that our star has been unusually feeble over the past 9000 years and that on very large time scales phases with much greater fluctuations are also possible.

There is, however, no cause for concern. For the foreseeable future, there is no indication of such solar "hyperactivity". On the contrary: For the last decade, the Sun has been showing itself to be rather weakly active, even by its own low standards. Predictions of activity for the next eleven years indicate that this will not change soon.