SwRI scientists demonstrate speed, precision of in situ planetary dating device

Southwest Research Institute scientists have increased the speed and accuracy of a laboratory-scale instrument for determining the age of planetary specimens onsite. The team is progressively miniaturizing the Chemistry, Organics and Dating Experiment (CODEX) instrument to reach a size suitable for spaceflight and lander missions. "In situ aging is an important scientific goal identified by the National Research Council's Decadal Survey for Mars and the Moon as well as the Lunar and Mars Exploration Program Analysis Groups, entities responsible for providing the science input needed to plan and prioritize exploration activities," said SwRI Staff Scientist Dr. F. Scott Anderson, who is leading CODEX development. "Doing this onsite rather than trying to return samples back to Earth for evaluation can resolve major dilemmas in planetary science, offers tremendous cost savings and enhances the opportunities for eventual sample return." CODEX will be a little larger than a microwave and include seven lasers and a mass spectrometer. In situ measurements will address fundamental questions of solar system history, such as when Mars was potentially habitable. CODEX has a precision of ) +/-20-80 million years, significantly more accurate than dating methods currently in use on Mars, which have a precision of +/-350 million years. "CODEX uses an ablation laser to vaporize a series of tiny bits off of rock samples, such as those on the surface of the Moon or Mars," said Anderson, who is the lead author of a CODEX paper published in 2020.

"We recognize some elements directly from that vapor plume, so we know what a rock is made of. Then the other CODEX lasers selectively pick out and quantify the abundance of trace amounts of radioactive rubidium (Rb) and strontium (Sr). An isotope of Rb decays into Sr over known amounts of time, so by measuring both Rb and Sr, we can determine how much time has passed since the rock formed."

While radioactivity is a standard technique for dating samples on Earth, few other places in the solar system have been dated this way. Instead, scientists have largely constrained the chronology of the inner solar system by counting impact craters on planetary surfaces.

"The idea behind crater dating is simple; the more craters, the older the surface," says Dr. Jonathan Levine, a physicist at Colgate University, who is part of the SwRI-led team.

"It's a little like saying that a person gets wetter the longer they have been standing out in the rain. It's undoubtedly true. But as with the falling rain, we don't really know the rate at which meteorites have fallen from the sky. That's why radioisotope dating is so important. Radioactive decay is a clock that ticks at a known rate. These techniques accurately determine the ages of rocks and minerals, allowing scientists to date events such as crystallization, metamorphism and impacts."

The latest iteration of CODEX is five times more sensitive than its previous incarnation. This precision was largely accomplished by modifying the sample's distance from the instrument to improve the data quality. The instrument also includes an ultrafast pulsed laser and improved signal-to-noise ratios to better constrain the timing of events in solar system history.

"We are miniaturizing the CODEX components for field use on a lander mission to the Moon or Mars," Anderson said.

"Developing compact lasers with pulse energies comparable with what we currently require is a considerable challenge, though five out of the seven have been successfully miniaturized. These lasers have a repetition rate of 10 kHz, which will allow the instrument to acquire data 500 times faster than the current engineering design."

The CODEX mass spectrometer, power supplies and timing electronics are already small enough for spaceflight. Instrument components are being enhanced to improve ruggedness, thermal stability, radiation resistance and power efficiency to endure launch and extended autonomous operations in alien environments.

Targeting several future missions, SwRI is developing two versions of the instrument, CODEX, which is designed for Mars and can measure organics, and CDEX, which is designed for the Moon, and does not need to measure organics.

NASA's Planetary Instrument Concepts for the Advancement of Solar System Observations (PICASSO) and the Maturation of Instruments for Solar System Exploration (MatISSE) programs are funding the instrument development, with previous support for CODEX/CDEX from the Planetary Instrument Definition and Development Program (PIDDP).

A Beacon from the Early Universe

Often described as cosmic lighthouses, quasars are luminous beacons that can be observed at the outskirts of the universe, providing a rich topic of study for astronomers and cosmologists. Now scientists have announced the discovery of the second-most distant quasar ever found, at more than 13 billion light-years from Earth. UC Santa Barbara's Joe Hennawi, a professor in the Department of Physics, and former UCSB postdoctoral scholars Frederick Davies and Feige Wang, provided crucial modeling and data analysis tools that enabled this discovery. The results are currently in preprint on ArXiv and will appear in the Astrophysical Journal Letters. The researchers have named the object Poniua'ena, which means "unseen spinning source of creation, surrounded with brilliance" in the Hawaiian language. It is the first quasar to receive an indigenous Hawaiian name. Quasars are incredibly bright sources of radiation that lie at the centers of distant massive galaxies. Matter spiraling onto a supermassive black hole generates tremendous amounts of heat making it glow at ultraviolet and optical wavelengths. "They are the most luminous objects in the universe," Hennawi said, "outshining their host galaxies by factors of more than a hundred." Since the discovery of the first quasar, astronomers have been keen to determine when they first appeared in our cosmic history. By systematically searching for these rare objects in wide-area sky surveys, astronomers discovered the most distant quasar (named J1342+0928) in 2018 and now the second-most distant, Poniua'ena (or J1007+2115).

The team first detected Poniua'ena as a possible quasar after combing through large area surveys. In 2019, the researchers observed the object using the W. M. Keck Observatory and Gemini Observatory on Maunakea, in Hawaii, confirming its existence and identity.

Poniua'ena is only the second quasar yet detected at a distance calculated at a cosmological redshift greater than 7.5, or 13 billion light-years from Earth. It hosts a black hole twice as large as the other quasar known from the same era. The existence of these massive black holes at such early times challenges current theories of how supermassive black holes formed and grew in the young universe.

A Cosmological Puzzle
Spectroscopic observations from Gemini and Keck show the black hole powering Poniua'ena is 1.5 billion times more massive than our Sun. "Poniua'ena is the most distant object known in the universe hosting a black hole exceeding one billion solar masses," said lead author Jinyi Yang, a postdoctoral research associate at the University of Arizona.

Black holes grow by accreting matter. In the standard picture, supermassive black holes grow from a much smaller "seed" black hole, which could have been the remnant of a massive star that died. "So it is puzzling how such a massive black hole can exist so early in the universe's history because there does not appear to be enough time for them to grow given our current understanding," Davies explained.

For a black hole of this size to form this early in the universe, it would need to start as a 10,000-solar-mass seed black hole only 100 million years after the Big Bang - as opposed to growing from a much smaller black hole formed by the collapse of a single star.

"How can the universe produce such a massive black hole so early in its history?" said Xiaohui Fan, at the University of Arizona. "This discovery presents the biggest challenge yet for the theory of black hole formation and growth in the early universe." The discovery of a more exotic mechanism to form the seed black hole may be required to explain the mere existence of Poniua'ena.

The Epoch of Reionization
Current theory holds that the birth of stars and galaxies as we know them started during the Epoch of Reionization. Beginning about 400 million years after the Big Bang, the diffuse matter in between galaxies went from being neutral hydrogen to ionized hydrogen. The growth of the first giant black holes is thought to have occurred during this time.

The discovery of quasars like Poniua'ena, deep in the reionization epoch, is a big step towards understanding this process of reionization and the formation of early supermassive black holes and massive galaxies. Poniua'ena has placed new and important constraints on the evolution of the intergalactic medium in the reionization epoch.

"Poniua'ena acts like a cosmic lighthouse. As its light travels the long journey towards Earth, its spectrum is altered by diffuse gas in the intergalactic medium which allowed us to pinpoint when the Epoch of Reionization occurred," said Hennawi. The modeling and data analysis method used to infer information about the Epoch of Reionization from these distant quasar spectra was developed in his research group at UC Santa Barbara with Davies and Wang.

"Through University of California Observatories, we have privileged access to the Keck telescopes on the summit of Maunakea, which allowed us to obtain high quality data on this object shortly after it was discovered using the Gemini telescope," Hennawi said.

Finding these distant quasars is a needle in a haystack problem. Astronomers must mine digital images of billions of celestial objects in order to find quasar candidates. "Even after you identify the candidates, the current success rate of finding them is about 1%, and this involves spending lots of expensive telescope time observing contaminants," Wang explained.

Fortunately, Hennawi and his group are developing machine learning tools to analyze this big data and make the process of finding distant quasars more efficient. "In the coming years the European Space Agency's Euclid satellite and NASA's James Webb Space Telescope will enable us to find perhaps a hundred quasars at this distance, or farther," he said. "With a large statistical sample of these objects we will be able to construct a precise timeline of the reionization epoch as well as shed more light on the black hole growth puzzle."

SpaceX scrubs Starlink launch with two BlackSky satellites

SpaceX scrubbed Friday's plan to launch additional Starlink satellites in a mission that had another paying customer on board - what SpaceX calls its ride-share program. The change in plans was not weather-related. "Standing down from Friday's Starlink mission; team needed additional time for pre-launch checkouts, but Falcon 9 and the satellites are healthy. Will announce new target launch date once confirmed on the Range," SpaceX said in a tweet. A Falcon 9 rocket was set to lift off from Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy Space Center in Florida, carrying 57 Starlink communications satellites for Elon Musk's SpaceX, along with two small Earth observation satellites for Seattle-based BlackSky Global. SpaceX also postponed the launch Thursday, but didn't give a reason. Eventually, SpaceX aims to launch thousands of Starlink satellites. Launching Starlink regularly means SpaceX can take other paying customers, such as BlackSky, along for the ride - and for revenue. SpaceX launched three small imaging satellites for San Francisco-based Planet, formerly Planet Labs, earlier this month. Industry observers have said SpaceX's plan for more frequent, regularly scheduled ride-sharing launches will unleash new growth in the small-satellite industry, leading to easier and cheaper rollouts for new communication networks. There will be a lot of opportunities for government agencies, universities and provate enterprise to piggyback their satellites aboard a SpaceX rocket.

SpaceX has 30 rocket launches in 2020 and 2021 that can accommodate small satellites. Its customers can buy space on the missions for as low as $1 million - which would allow a launch up to 440 pounds - a previously unprecedented price to put a satellite into orbit.

Reserving an entire launch on the company's Falcon 9 rocket costs at least $50 million.

The small-satellite market is poised to generate $1 billion a year over the next decade, according to Northern Sky Research, which is based in Cambridge, Mass., and specializes in the satellite and space markets.

The SpaceX schedule for small satellites is in addition to its regular missions to the International Space Station or for large customers like the U.S. military.

SpaceX has noted that dedicated ride-share missions will not be delayed by trouble with another passenger's schedule.

"If you are ready to fly during the scheduled launch period, you will fly," the company said.

Customers who run into delays that prevent them from launching can book another launch with a 10 percent rebooking fee, SpaceX said.

BlackSky offers images and monitoring from space for industries that include defense, energy, construction and research. BlackSky obtained a $50 million investment in 2019 from Luxembourg-based Intelsat, a communications satellite service, to build a new constellation of Earth-imaging satellites.

A successful launch would boost BlackSky's space network to six satellites, with a short-term goal of 16 satellites in orbit. They weigh about 120 pounds each and are designed to last only a few years before they need replacement.

SpaceX also hopes to generate significant revenue from its fledgling Internet service.

SpaceX began sign-ups June 12 for users who want to try the Starlink Internet in what the tech community calls a beta test - a validation of new technology in a small sample of the targeted eventual user.

Starlink will be available to any individual or organization, the company said, but the cost of the service hasn't been announced.

"Private beta testing is expected to begin later this summer, followed by public beta testing, starting with higher latitudes," SpaceX said in an email sent to those who signed up.

Scientists develop new tool to design better fusion devices

One way that scientists seek to bring to Earth the fusion process that powers the sun and stars is trapping hot, charged plasma gas within a twisting magnetic coil device shaped like a breakfast cruller. But the device, called a stellarator, must be precisely engineered to prevent heat from escaping the plasma core where it stokes the fusion reactions. Now, researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) have demonstrated that an advanced computer code could help design stellarators that confine the essential heat more effectively. The code, called XGC-S, opens new doors in stellarator research. "The main result of our research is that we can use the code to simulate both the early, or linear, and turbulent plasma behavior in stellarators," said PPPL physicist Michael Cole, lead author of the paper reporting the results in Physics of Plasmas. "This means that we can start to determine which stellarator shape contains heat best and most efficiently maintains conditions for fusion." Fusion combines light elements in the form of plasma - the hot, charged state of matter composed of free electrons and atomic nuclei - and generates massive amounts of energy in the sun and stars. Scientists aim to replicate fusion in devices on Earth for a virtually inexhaustible supply of safe and clean power to generate electricity. The PPPL scientists simulated the behavior of plasma inside fusion machines that look like a donut but with pinches and deformations that make the device more efficient, a kind of shape known as quasi-axisymmetric.

The researchers used an updated version of XGC, a state-of-the-art code developed at PPPL for modeling turbulence in doughnut-shaped fusion facilities called tokamaks, which have a simpler geometry. The modifications by Cole and his colleagues allowed the new XGC-S code to also model plasmas in the geometrically more complicated stellarators.

The simulations showed that a type of disturbance limited to a small area can become complex and expand to fill a larger space within the plasma. The results showed that XGC-S could simulate this type of stellarator plasma more accurately than what was previously possible.

"I think this is the beginning of a really important development in the study of turbulence in stellarators," said David Gates, head of the Department of Advanced Projects at PPPL. "It opens up a big window for getting new results."

The findings demonstrate the successful modification of the XGC code to simulate turbulence in stellarators. The code can calculate the turbulence in stellarators all the way from the plasma core to the edge, providing a more complete picture of the plasma's behavior.

"Turbulence is one of the primary mechanisms causing heat to leak out of fusion plasmas," Cole said. "Because stellarators can be built in a greater variety of shapes than tokamaks, we might be able to find shapes that control turbulence better than tokamaks do. Searching for them by building lots of big experiments is too expensive, so we need big simulations to search for them virtually."

The researchers plan to modify XGC-S further to produce an even clearer view of how turbulence causes heat leakage. The more complete a picture, the closer scientists will be to simulating stellarator experiments in the virtual realm. "Once you have an accurate code and a powerful computer, changing the stellarator design you are simulating is easy," Cole said.

Thales Alenia Space will provide two key pressurized elements for Axiom commercial space station

Thales Alenia Space, Joint Venture between Thales (67 %) and Leonardo (33 %) announced the signature of an ATP (Authorization To Proceed) with Axiom Space of Houston, Texas to initiate the development of two key pressurized elements dedicated to the world's first commercial space station. In January, NASA selected Axiom's proposal to attach its space station modules to the International Space Station (ISS) starting from the second half of 2024, ultimately creating a new 'Axiom Segment' which will expand the usable and habitable volume of the ISS. When the ISS reaches its retirement date, the Axiom complex will detach and operate as a free-flying commercial space station. The Axiom Segment will be attached to the ISS Node 2 built by Thales Alenia Space. Axiom is offering professional and private astronaut flights to the ISS at a rate of up to two per year, with the first set to launch in October 2021, while it develops the new station elements. Based on its past successful experience building modules for the International Space Station, Thales Alenia Space will be responsible for the design, development, assembly and test of the primary structure and the Micrometeoroid and Debris Protection System for the Axiom Node One (AxN1) and Habitation Module (AxH), the first two Axiom station elements to fly. Axiom will receive these elements at their facility in Houston for integration and outfitting of core systems and certification of flight prior to shipping to the launch facility.

Thales Alenia Space has supplied a significant part of the pressurized elements of the International Space Station, including state-of-the-art components such as Node 2, Node 3, Columbus (pressurized part) - European Laboratory, Multi-Purpose Logistics Module (MPLM), the Permanent Logistic Module (PPM) and Cupola, as well as the ATV and Cygnus cargo modules.

ESA awards NanoAvionics contract to develop new satellite propulsion technologies

The European Space Agency (ESA) has granted 1 million euros to nanosatellite mission integrator NanoAvionics to develop key components for small satellite propulsion systems. The new propulsion technologies, with a thrust of up to 5N, aim to further reduce the cost of small satellite projects while making each satellite more reliable, propellant supply chains safer, and constellations more economical. Based on those components a new generation of propulsion systems for small satellites will be used in future ESA missions, and available to commercial satellite operators across the world. The first two R and D projects for NanoAvionics by ESA include the development of a miniature latch valve and a double-seat 1N valve for mono-propellant applications. They are a result of the Plan for European Cooperating States (PECS) in Lithuania. NanoAvionics CEO, Vytenis J. Buzas said: "Designing and developing propulsion components specifically for smallsats, instead of optimising systems based on larger spacecraft, signifies a new paradigm in satellite development. By putting mass efficiency and reliability of satellite components on centre stage it will help to reduce production cost and increase revenues." NanoAvionics will also participate, as a partner organisation, in two additional ESA funded satellite technology R and D projects. The first, led by Vilnius University, will develop a resistojet thruster for small satellites that uses water as a propellant. The main advantages of the proposed solution will be the reduction of manufacturing costs, increased efficiency compared to existing low power thrusters and the use of a very safe propellant. The Baltic Institute of Advanced Technologies leads the second project, which will develop an ultra-wideband software-defined radio for space communications. This technology will cover the vast majority of the space communication bands.

"At NanoAvionics we are proud to contribute to Lithuania's growing cooperation with the European Space Agency. As a leader in nanosatellite technologies, NanoAvionics is well-positioned to support ESA in finding a new and improved solution propulsion technologies for smallsats."

Funded under the 4th call for outline proposals of PECS, NanoAvionics will develop a miniature latch valve (MLV) to improve the safety and performance of mono-propellant thrusters. Designed to isolate the propellant tank from the thrusters, the MLV's sealed construction and normally-closed configuration will prevent unwanted leaks of propellant during the satellite's launch and orbital operations. Under the PECS grant, NanoAvionics will refine and test a prototype, demonstrating the MLV's utility for use in chemical or electric propulsion systems.

NanoAvionics also received funding under the 5th call for outline proposals of PECS to develop a double-seat 1N valve (DSV) for mono-propellant applications. Intended to reduce the mass and complexity relative to existing valves, the DSV will make propellant supply chains in small satellites safer and more reliable.

As a European Space Agency cooperating state since 2014, Lithuania has fostered closer ties between ESA, the Lithuanian space industry, and the Lithuanian academic community.

Virgin Galactic signs agreement with NASA

Virgin Galactic announced Monday an agreement with NASA allowing it to develop a private astronaut readiness program for trips to the International Space Station. NASA said it hopes the agreement will encourage more commercial participation in low Earth orbit. Under the agreement, Virgin Galactic will develop the program similar to one it has to prepare space tourists for its own flights. The company said it could buy seats on flights to the space station, were private citizens could travel to the space station along with assisting scientific research. Some 603 "space tourists" have made reservations to fly on Virgin Galactic from $200,000 to $250,000 per person. "We are excited to partner with NASA on this private orbital spaceflight program, which will not only allow us to use our spaceflight platform but also offer our space training infrastructure to NASA and other agencies," George Whitesides, chief executive officer of Virgin Galactic said in a statement. "Based on the unsurpassed levels of spaceflight customer commitments we have secured to date, we are proud to share that insight in helping to grow another market for the new space economy. We want to bring the planetary perspective to many thousands of people, Whitesides said. NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine suggested an agreement was close on Friday, saying on Twitter it would issue a request for information.

"NASA is developing the process to fly astronauts on commercial suborbital spacecraft," Bridenstine said. "Whether it's suborbital, orbital or deep space, NASA will utilize our nation's innovative commercial capabilities. RFI will be released next week."

Space Mission Launches that will Carry Experiment Aimed at Solving Antibiotic Resistance

Israel's Sheba Medical Center, Tel HaShomer will make history on June 18 as one of the world's first hospitals to launch a bio-medical experiment in space. To help solve the worsening global problem of bacterial resistance to antibiotics, on this space mission Sheba will test its theory that microgravity in space affects antibiotic resistance acquisition by bacteria. The success of this experiment will help to understand the risks of infectious diseases in humans traveling to space and has the potential to find new approaches to fight the growing threat of antimicrobial resistance infections, which are responsible for the death of 700,000 people annually worldwide. The imminent need for an effective solution was made clear in a 2019 United Nations report estimating that globally, 10 million people may lose their lives by 2050 due to infections resistant to antibiotics. Moreover, the reported overuse of antibiotics during the COVID-19 pandemic has further contributed to the mounting resistance to antibiotics on a global scale. This resistance is expected to pose a more daunting threat in the long-run than the coronavirus itself. The future of the pharmaceutical industry could also rest on the success of Sheba's space experiment. This multi-billion-dollar industry is not sustainable long-term if the antibiotics it generates are no longer effective. On June 18 at 9:51PM EST, Arianespace will launch the Flight VV16 mission with Vega launcher's "ride-share" configuration, the Small Spacecraft Mission Service (SSMS) from the Spaceport in French Guiana. The mission will include 53 micro- and nanosatellites for 21 customers spanning Earth observation, telecommunications, science, technology and education.

Sheba's experiment, which will follow after the acquisition of resistance by E. coli bacteria, is facilitated through SpacePharma's microsatellite lab in conjunction with the European Space Agency, Israel Space Agency and Italian Space Agency. Underwriting is provided by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Israel's Ministry of Science and Technology.

According to Prof. Ohad Gal-Mor, Head of the Infectious Diseases Research Laboratory at Sheba Medical Center, Tel HaShomer, data suggest that there is a significant overuse and misuse of antibiotics clinically, and even more so in agriculture. A major concern is the lack of regulation on veterinary and agricultural use of antibiotics. While the problem is more severe in developing countries, it also impacts developed countries.

It is precisely these problems that are the driving force behind Sheba Medical Center's innovative quest to outer space in search of innovative solutions.

"At Sheba Medical Center, we already have preliminary data suggesting that microgravity significantly affects antibiotic resistance acquisition from experiments we performed on the ground using a special device that mimics microgravity conditions to some extent," stated Prof. Gal-Mor.

"Now we are able to repeat these results under 'real' microgravity conditions and see how the conditions in space change this important and universal process. If we understand why microgravity inhibits conjugation, we hope to be able to develop new approaches to prevent this phenomenon in the hospital clinic and beyond."

"From our research, we understand that the most efficient mechanisms of antibiotic resistance acquisition in bacteria are horizontal gene transfer by means of conjugation, i.e. the transfer of resistance plasmids DNA between bacteria (also known as 'bacterial sex')," continued Prof. Gal-Mor.

"In our lab, we aim to understand and identify environmental, physiological and chemical signals controlling this process. In addition to the preliminary data showing that microgravity inhibits this process, we isolated a natural compound, found in the digestive system that also inhibits conjugation. Understanding how microgravity and other environmental conditions affect conjugation will go a long way toward helping us develop new treatments and approaches to reduce antibiotic resistance acquisition by bacteria."

The results of this experiment are not far off. Data will flow during the few weeks-long mission-analysis and conclusions are expected within one to two months. This project is done in collaboration with Prof. Raffaele Zarrilli and the graduate student Eliana Pia Esposito from the University "Federico II" of Napoli and Bar Piscon and Prof. Galia Rahav from the Sheba group.

Final Frontier Design awarded multiple NASA lunar xEMU Space Suit contracts

Final Frontier Design (FFD) is pleased to announce the award of multiple contracts for components of NASA's next generation xEMU Lunar space suit. The xEMU Lunar space suit will be used in the Artemis mission, the first US planetary space mission since Apollo. The development awards include the Lunar xEMU space suit boot, hip, and waist joints, and will culminate with hardware deliveries to NASA in 2020. Lower body motion for walking and thermal insulation in the extremely cold regions of the Lunar south pole will be critical performance elements in the Lunar xEMU space suit. The boots in particular will be subject to contact with extraordinarily cold, permanently shaded Lunar regolith in the south pole region. The boots are tasked with providing flexibility and ankle motion for walking, traction, insulation, and pressure containment. FFD is partnering with Vibram Corporation to develop a specialized boot outsole designed specifically for this cryogenic environment. This work is a direct outgrowth of our 2019 NASA SBIR award and delivery to Houston of a Lunar boot prototype. In addition to Lunar boots, FFD is working awards for the hip and waist joint pressure garment softgoods. These are also critical mobility elements for planetary Extra Vehicular Activity (EVA).

FFD's President, Ted Southern, noted "FFD is proud to be working with NASA to return U.S. boots to the moon. The challenge and ambition of the mission is inspiring."

Proposed NASA Mission Would Visit Neptune's Curious Moon Triton

When NASA's Voyager 2 spacecraft flew by Neptune's strange moon Triton three decades ago, it wrote a planetary science cliffhanger. Voyager 2 is the only spacecraft ever to have flown past Neptune, and it left a lot of unanswered questions. The views were as stunning as they were puzzling, revealing massive, dark plumes of icy material spraying out from Triton's surface. But how? Images showed that the icy landscape was young and had been resurfaced over and over with fresh material. But what material, and from where? How could an ancient moon six times farther from the Sun than Jupiter still be active? Is there something in its interior that is still warm enough to drive this activity? A new mission competing for selection under NASA's Discovery Program aims to untangle these mysteries. Called Trident, like the three-pronged spear carried by the ancient Roman sea god Neptune, the team is one of four that is developing concept studies for new missions. Up to two will be selected by summer 2021 to become a full-fledged mission and will launch later in the decade. Investigating how Triton has changed over time would give scientists a better understanding of how solar system bodies evolve and work. The oddities of Triton could fill an almanac: As Neptune rotates, Triton orbits in the opposite direction. No other large moon in the solar system does that. And Triton's orbit lies at an extreme tilt, offset from Neptune's equator by 23 degrees. About three-quarters the diameter of our own Moon, Triton isn't where it used to be, either. It likely migrated from the Kuiper Belt, a region beyond Neptune of icy bodies left over from the early solar system.

Triton has an unusual atmosphere, too: Filled with charged particles, a layer called the ionosphere is 10 times more active than that of any other moon in the solar system.

That last trait is especially strange, because ionospheres generally are charged by solar energy. But Triton and Neptune are far from the Sun - 30 times farther from the Sun than Earth, so some other energy source must be at work. (It takes 165 Earth years for Neptune to complete one orbit around the Sun.)

And Triton's climate is dynamic and changing, with a steady flow of organic material, likely nitrogen, snowing onto the surface.

"Triton has always been one of the most exciting and intriguing bodies in the solar system," said Louise Prockter, director of the Lunar and Planetary Institute/Universities Space Research Association in Houston. As principal investigator, she would lead the proposed Trident mission, and NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California would manage it. "I've always loved the Voyager 2 images and their tantalizing glimpses of this bizarre, crazy moon that no one understands," Prockter added.

A Three-Pronged Approach
Those mysterious plumes Voyager 2 spotted are especially intriguing. Plumes seen on Saturn's moon Enceladus, and possibly present on Jupiter's moon Europa, are thought to be caused by water from the interior being forced through thick, icy crusts.

If an ocean is the source of the plumes on Triton (which lies much farther out in the solar system than Europa and Enceladus), the discovery would give scientists new information about how interior oceans form. Unlike other known ocean worlds, Triton's potential ocean likely developed after it was captured by Neptune's gravity.

It would also expand scientists' understanding of where we might find water. Figuring out what factors lead to a solar system body having the necessary ingredients to be habitable, which include water, is one Trident's three major goals. The spacecraft would carry an instrument to probe the moon's magnetic field to determine if an ocean lies inside, while other instruments would investigate the intense ionosphere, organic-rich atmosphere and bizarre surface features.

A second goal is to explore vast, unseen lands. Triton offers the largest unexplored solid surface in the solar system this side of the Kuiper Belt. Most of what we know of the moon came from Voyager 2 data, but we've only seen 40% of the moon's surface. Trident would map most of the remainder.

And Trident would use its full-frame imaging camera to capture the same plume-rich area Voyager 2 imaged - in full "Neptune-shine," when the Sun's reflected light illuminates the dark side of Triton. That way scientists could observe changes since the last visit and learn more about just how active Triton is.

Trident's third major goal is to understand how that mysterious surface keeps renewing itself. The surface is remarkably young, geologically speaking (possibly only 10 million years old in a 4.6-billion-year-old solar system) and has almost no visible craters. There's also the question of why it looks so different from other icy moons, and features unusual landforms like dimpled "cantaloupe terrains" and protruding "walled plains." The answers could shed light on how landscapes develop on other icy bodies.

"Triton is weird, but yet relevantly weird, because of the science we can do there," said Karl Mitchell Trident project scientist at JPL. "We know the surface has all these features we've never seen before, which motivates us to want to know 'How does this world work?'

"As we said to NASA in our mission proposal, Triton isn't just a key to solar system science - it's a whole keyring: a captured Kuiper Belt object that evolved, a potential ocean world with active plumes, an energetic ionosphere and a young, unique surface."

The proposed launch date in October 2025 (with a backup in October 2026) would take advantage of a once-in-a-13-year window, when Earth is properly aligned with Jupiter. The spacecraft would use the gravitational pull of Jupiter as a slingshot straight to Triton for an extended 13-day encounter in 2038.

"The mission designers and navigators are so good at this," said JPL's William Frazier, project systems engineer of Trident. "After 13 years of flying through the solar system, we can confidently skim the upper edge of Triton's atmosphere - which is pretty mind-boggling."

And it may seem that time moves slowly in the outer reaches of the solar system, where Neptune's years are long. Ironically for Triton, the long timeline presents limitations. If Trident arrives before 2040, the team could perform its test of what's powering the plume activity. Any later, and the Sun moves too far north ... for the next hundred years.

Researchers design a system to reduce the noise of space rockets in the launch phase

The thesis is focused on the research of methods that reduce the noise level of space rockets during the first phases of launching (engine ignition and takeoff). According to Ivan Herrero, at those times, the levels of acoustic pressure experienced by the space vehicles are extremely high and could seriously affect the light structures onboard, such as solar panels and antennas, making it necessary to reduce the noise levels. "During the launch of space rockets, over 150 dB of sound pressure level are reached at certain frequencies. It is the highest level sound event produced by a human being, only behind some natural events like an earthquake," explains Ivan Herrero. In addition, the intense sound generated by the primary sources, engine and jet increases due to reflection at the bottom of the rocket launch site, which acts like a mirror from the acoustic point of view, and gives the energy released back to the rocket and the structures onboard, implying economic and safety consequences. The prototype designed by Ivan Herrero, under the supervision of his thesis directors, is based on an array of Helmholtz resonators, which maximizes the sound absorption and diffusion, to mitigate the sound pressure levels generated during these events in the space context. "The presence of Helmholtz resonators, as well as their specific distribution, produces a reduction of the speed of sound diffusion. This is due to the friction of acoustic waves with the resonator walls, which produces a deceleration. The design of this system was done by optimizing a specific frequency range, which they have been able to reduce by an average of 20 decibels," explains Ivan Herrero.

Despite of the importance of this problem, knowledge about the characteristics of the sources, the behavior of the ground installations regarding the sound diffusion and absorption, and the possible measures to mitigate the impact are still poor. The research work developed at the Gandia campus of UPV and the European Space Agency is in response to this need.

The Ivan Herrero's thesis was directed by Ruben Pico Vila, Victor Sanchez Morcillo and Lluis Garcia Raffi, from the Universitat Politecnica de Valenca, and by Vicente Romero Garcia, from the Laboratoire d'Acoustique de l'Universite du Maine (France).

NPI PROGRAM
Ivan Herrero has developed part of his research work in the technical center of the European Space Agency (ESA) in Holland, thanks to the agreement signed between UPV and ESA within the Networking / Partnering Initiative (NPI) program, in which several universities and research institutes in advanced technologies are participating with potential space applications.

During the thesis work, Ivan did two research stays in the European Space Research and Technology Centre (ESTEC) of ESA.

The Launch Is Approaching for NASA's Next Mars Rover, Perseverance

NASA's Perseverance Mars rover is just over a month from its July 20 targeted launch date. The rover's astrobiology mission will seek signs of past microscopic life on Mars, explore the geology of the Jezero Crater landing site, and demonstrate key technologies to help prepare for future robotic and human exploration. And the rover will do all that while collecting the first samples of Martian rock and regolith (broken rock and dust) for return to Earth by a set of future missions. "Fifty-one years ago today, NASA was deep into final preparations for the first Moon landing," said NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine. "Today we stand at the threshold of another monumental moment in exploration: sample collection at Mars. As we celebrate the heroes of Apollo 11 today, future generations may well recognize the women and men of Perseverance - not only for what they will achieve 100 million miles from home, but for what they were able to accomplish on this world on the road to launch." The Mars 2020 mission has been slated to liftoff this summer ever since the agency announced the project in December 2012. Owing to the relative positions of Earth and Mars to each other, launch opportunities come up only every 26 months. If Perseverance didn't head to Mars this summer, the project would have to wait until September 2022 to try again, seriously impacting the long-term objectives of NASA's Mars Exploration Program and increasing overall mission risk.

Significant challenges come with the territory when planning a Mars mission. In the case of Perseverance - the heaviest payload yet to go to the Red Planet - those included implementing an entire test project to confirm the soundness of their parachute design.

There was also an extensive effort to hone the performance of the rover's Sample Caching System, the most complex and the cleanest mechanism ever sent into space. But of all the hurdles faced by the men and women of Perseverance, the coronavirus pandemic provided the greatest challenge, with safety precautions requiring much work to be done remotely.

"The team never wavered in its pursuit of the launch pad," said Michael Watkins, director of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. "It was through their dedication and the help of other NASA facilities that we have made it this far."

Persevering
Amid the added strain of staying on schedule while incorporating additional precautions - and keeping friends, families and colleagues safe - the Mars 2020 mission team has been acutely aware of the dedication and hard work of people in the medical community around the world during the pandemic.

With them in mind, the mission installed a plate on the left side of the rover chassis, between the middle and rear wheels. The graphic on the 3-by-5-inch (8-by-13-centimeter) aluminum plate depicts Earth, supported by the medical community - represented by the ancient symbol of the serpent-entwined rod. A line depicting a spacecraft's trajectory rises from Central Florida toward Mars, represented as a small dot in the background.

"We wanted to demonstrate our appreciation for those who have put their personal well-being on the line for the good of others," said Matt Wallace, Perseverance deputy project manager at JPL. "It is our hope that when future generations travel to Mars and happen upon our rover, they will be reminded that back on Earth in the year 2020 there were such people."

All the major spacecraft components of the rover mission (from the aeroshell and descent stage to the cruise stage and rover) are now in the configuration they will be in on the launch pad at Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Later this week, they'll be enclosed in the payload fairing that will protect them during launch. Next week, the fairing and spacecraft will be transported to Space Launch Complex 41, where they'll be attached to the top of a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket.

"The mission has one launch, 314 million miles of interplanetary space and seven minutes of terror to get safely onto the surface of Mars," said Lori Glaze, director of NASA's Planetary Science Division. "When we see the landscape at Jezero Crater for the first time and we truly begin to realize the scientific bounty before us, the fun really begins."

CAPTION The Red Planet's surface has been visited by eight NASA spacecraft. The ninth will be the first that includes gathering Mars samples for future return to Earth.

China's IoT satellites complete phase-1 in-orbit tests

Two satellites for China's space-based Internet-of-Things (IoT) project have completed phase-1 tests in orbit, sources with the China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation said. The satellites, Xingyun-2 01 and 02, were launched by a Kuaizhou-1A carrier rocket on May 12 from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center. Engineers tested the satellite platforms, payloads, and key technologies such as inter-satellite links. The results were in line with expectations, the corporation said. Additional in-orbit tests will be continued for the completion of the Xingyun project, China's first self-developed, space-based IoT constellation. The project is anticipated to solve problems detected in the IoT businesses' communication blind-zone, as a result of deficient coverage of cellular wireless communication networks. By around 2023, the Xingyun project will have completed construction of the space-based IoT constellation with 80 low-orbit communication satellites. The Xingyun-2 01 and 02 satellites employ the technology of inter-satellite laser links, which enables the in-orbit satellites to communicate over long distances and hence upgrade the real-time performance of communication services.

Beidou satellite launch postponed over technical issues

The launch mission for the final satellite in the third-generation network of China's Beidou Navigation Satellite System has been postponed due to technical issues, according to the mission command. The command said in a statement on Tuesday morning that "technical problems on products" of the Long March 3B carrier rocket were spotted during pre-launch checks, leading to postponement. The new date for the launch has yet to be decided, it said, without elaborating. The mission was scheduled to take place at the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in southwestern China's Sichuan province on Tuesday morning, according to the China Satellite Navigation Office. The satellite to be lifted is the 59th in the Beidou family and 30th in the third-generation series. It will work with other Beidou satellites to allow users around the globe to access high-accuracy navigation, positioning and timing services. The launch will mark the completion of the Beidou network, China's largest space-based system and one of the four global navigation networks, along with the United States' GPS, Russia's GLONASS and the European Union's Galileo. Since 2000, when the first Beidou satellite entered orbit, 58 satellites, including the first four experimental ones, have been launched. Some have since been retired.

Beidou began providing positioning, navigation, timing and messaging services to civilian users in China and other parts of the Asia-Pacific region in December 2012. At the end of 2018, Beidou started to provide global services.

Currently, there are 29 third-generation Beidou satellites in three types of orbit - 24 in medium-Earth orbits, three in inclined geosynchronous satellite orbits and two in geostationary orbits.

There also are some second-generation Beidou satellites in operation, offering regional services.

Arianespace Vega mission to perform Small Spacecraft Mission Service Proof of Concept flight

With this mission, designated Flight VV16, Arianespace underscores its comprehensive range of innovative and competitive services to address the nano- and micro-satellite market sub-segment, serving both institutional and commercial needs. The creation of such a new service using the company's light-lift Vega led to the Small Spacecraft Mission Service (SSMS) project. The European Space Agency (ESA) funded the SSMS hardware development, and also contributed with the European Union to the funding of this "Proof of Concept" (PoC) flight. The combined European efforts will enhance Arianespace's response to the rideshare demand with solutions that are perfectly suited to the flourishing small satellite market. For its fifth mission in 2020, and the first Vega flight of the year, Arianespace will orbit 53 satellites on the Small Spacecraft Mission Service (SSMS) Proof of Concept (PoC) Flight. Flight VV16 will be performed from the Vega Launch Complex (SLV) in Kourou, French Guiana. VV16's mission, with 21 customers from 13 countries on board, will serve different types of applications: earth observation, telecommunications, science, technology/education, etc. By choosing Arianespace, all customers are entitled to the same level of quality and reliability. New customers such as laboratories, universities and start-ups are guaranteed the optimum conditions for the launch of their space projects. The SSMS rideshare concept is now integrated into Arianespace commercial offer, as a new service to address the small satellite market.

This Arianespace's concept - with multiple small satellites from 1 kg. to 500 kg. being flown together on Vega with the objective of sharing the launch cost - has been developed with the support of ESA and Avio. The satellite dispenser is an ESA product developed by Avio under ESA leadership and it is produced by the Czech company, SAB Aerospace s.r.o. (CZ). Satellite integration has been performed for the first time in Europe (Czech Republic).

The European Union contributed to the financing of this PoC flight.

For Flight VV16, the Vega launcher will carry seven microsatellites (from 15 kg. to 150 kg.) on the upper portion, along with 46 smaller CubeSats on the lower portion's Hexamodule.

With this new service, Arianespace will be able to respond to the constellation and small satellite market demand thanks to the dual strategy of shared launches on Vega / Vega C and Ariane 6.

The Launch Readiness Review (LRR) will take place on Wednesday, June 17, 2020 in Kourou to authorize the start of operations for the final countdown.

New Horizons conducts the first interstellar parallax experiment

For the first time, a spacecraft has sent back pictures of the sky from so far away that some stars appear to be in different positions than we'd see from Earth. More than four billion miles from home and speeding toward interstellar space, NASA's New Horizons has traveled so far that it now has a unique view of the nearest stars. "It's fair to say that New Horizons is looking at an alien sky, unlike what we see from Earth," said Alan Stern, New Horizons principal investigator from Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) in Boulder, Colorado. "And that has allowed us to do something that had never been accomplished before - to see the nearest stars visibly displaced on the sky from the positions we see them on Earth." On April 22-23, the spacecraft turned its long-range telescopic camera to a pair of the "closest" stars, Proxima Centauri and Wolf 359, showing just how they appear in different places than we see from Earth. Scientists have long used this "parallax effect" - how a star appears to shift against its background when seen from different locations - to measure distances to stars. An easy way to see parallax is to place one finger at arm's length and watch it jump back and forth when you view it successively with each eye. Similarly, as Earth makes it way around the Sun, the stars shift their positions. But because even the nearest stars are hundreds of thousands of times farther away than the diameter of Earth's orbit, the parallax shifts are tiny, and can only be measured with precise instrumentation.

"No human eye can detect these shifts," Stern said.

But when New Horizons images are paired with pictures of the same stars taken on the same dates by telescopes on Earth, the parallax shift is instantly visible. The combination yields a 3D view of the stars "floating" in front of their background star fields.

"The New Horizons experiment provides the largest parallax baseline ever made - over 4 billion miles - and is the first demonstration of an easily observable stellar parallax," said Tod Lauer, New Horizons science team member from the National Science Foundation's National Optical-Infrared Astronomy Research Laboratory who coordinated the parallax demonstration.

"The New Horizons spacecraft is truly a mission of firsts, and this demonstration of stellar parallax is no different" said Kenneth Hansen, New Horizons program scientist at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "The New Horizons spacecraft continues to speed away from Earth toward interstellar space and is continuing to return exciting new data for planetary science."

Working in Stereo
Lauer, New Horizons Deputy Project Scientist John Spencer, of SwRI, and science team collaborator, astrophysicist, Queen guitarist and stereo imaging enthusiast Brian May created the images that clearly show the effect of the vast distance between Earth and the two nearby stars.

"It could be argued that in astro-stereoscopy - 3D images of astronomical objects - NASA's New Horizons team already leads the field, having delivered astounding stereoscopic images of both Pluto and the remote Kuiper Belt object Arrokoth," May said. "But the latest New Horizons stereoscopic experiment breaks all records. These photographs of Proxima Centauri and Wolf 359 - stars that are well-known to amateur astronomers and science fiction aficionados alike - employ the largest distance between viewpoints ever achieved in 180 years of stereoscopy!"

The companion images of Proxima Centauri and Wolf 359 were provided by the Las Cumbres Observatory, operating a remote telescope at Siding Spring Observatory in Australia, and astronomers John Kielkopf, University of Louisville, and Karen Collins, Harvard and Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, operating a remote telescope at Mt. Lemmon Observatory in Arizona.

"The professional and amateur astronomy communities had been waiting to try this, and were very excited to make a little space exploration history," said Lauer. "The images collected on Earth when New Horizons was observing Proxima Centauri and Wolf 359 really exceeded my expectations."

Download the images (and learn more about creating and posting your own parallax perspectives) at http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/Learn/Parallax/Parallax-Images.php

An Interstellar Navigation First
Throughout history, navigators have used measurements of the stars to establish their position on Earth. Interstellar navigators can do the same to establish their position in the galaxy, using a technique that New Horizons has demonstrated for the first time. While radio tracking by NASA's Deep Space Network is far more accurate, its first use is a significant milestone in what may someday become human exploration of the galaxy.

At the time of the observations, New Horizons was more than 4.3 billion miles (about 7 billion kilometers) from Earth, where a radio signal, traveling at the speed of light, needed just under 6 hours and 30 minutes to reach home.

Launched in 2006, New Horizons is the first mission to Pluto and the Kuiper Belt. It explored Pluto and its moons in July 2015 - completing the space-age reconnaissance of the planets that started 50 years earlier - and continued on its unparalleled voyage of exploration with the close flyby of Kuiper Belt object Arrokoth in January 2019. New Horizons will eventually leave the solar system, joining the Voyagers and Pioneers on their paths to the stars.

First Arab mission to Mars designed to inspire youth

The first Arab space mission to Mars, armed with probes to study the Red Planet's atmosphere, is designed to inspire the region's youth and pave the way for scientific breakthroughs, officials said Tuesday. The unmanned probe Al-Amal -- Hope in Arabic -- is to blast off from a Japanese space centre on July 15, with preparations now in their final stages. The project is the next giant step for the United Arab Emirates, whose colossal skyscrapers and mega-projects have put it on the world map. The UAE sent its first astronaut into space last year and is also planning to build a "Science City" to replicate conditions on Mars, where it hopes to build a human settlement by 2117. Omran Sharaf, the mission's project manager, said that apart from the ambitious scientific goals, the mission was designed to hark back to the region's golden age of cultural and scientific achievements. "The UAE wanted to send a strong message to the Arab youth and to remind them of the past, that we used to be generators of knowledge," he told AFP. "People of different backgrounds and religion coexisted and shared a similar identity," he said of the Arab world, where many countries are today wracked by sectarian conflicts and economic crises. "Put your differences aside, focus on building the region, you have a rich history and you can do much more."

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Sarah al-Amiri, the mission's deputy project manager, said it was imperative that the project have a long-term scientific impact.

"It is not a short-lived mission, but rather one that continues throughout the years and produces valuable scientific findings -- be it by researchers in the UAE or globally," she told AFP.

She said that the probe will provide a comprehensive image of the weather dynamics in Mars' atmosphere with the use of three scientific instruments.

The first is an infrared spectrometer to measure the planet's lower atmosphere and analyse the temperature structure.

The second, a high-resolution imager that will provide information about the ozone; and a third, an ultraviolet spectrometer to measure oxygen and hydrogen levels from a distance of up to 43,000 kilometres from the surface.

The three tools will allow researchers to observe the Red Planet "at all times of the day and observe all of Mars during those different times", Amiri said.

"Something we want to better understand, and that's important for planetary dynamics overall, is the reasons for the loss of the atmosphere and if the weather system on Mars actually has an impact on loss of hydrogen and oxygen," she said, referring to the two components that make up water.

Sharaf said that fuelling of the probe is to begin next week.

It is scheduled to launch on July 15 from Japan's Tanegashima Space Centre and return to Earth in February 2021, depending on many variables including the weather.

"If we miss the launch opportunity, which is between mid-July and early August, then we'd have to wait for two years for another window," Sharaf said.

But hopes are high that the mission will take place as scheduled, and not be derailed by the coronavirus pandemic.

In a new sign of warming ties between Israel and Gulf Arab nations, the Jewish state Tuesday wished the UAE success with the mission.

We "hope this step will contribute towards deeper cooperation between all countries in the region," its foreign ministry's "Israel in the Gulf" Twitter account wrote in Arabic.

NASA to announce selection of company to fly VIPER rover to Moon

NASA will announce the commercial provider selected to deliver NASA's new water-hunting mobile robot, the Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover (VIPER), to the South Pole of the Moon during a media teleconference at 2:30 p.m. EDT Wednesday, June 10.As the first resource-mapping mission on the surface of another world, VIPER will help pave the way for a new era of human missions to the lunar surface and will bring NASA a step closer to developing a sustainable, long-term robotic and human presence on the Moon as part of the Artemis program. Members of the media may request to join the teleconference by emailing their name, affiliation, and phone number to Alison Hawkes at alison.hawkes@nasa.gov or Rachel Kraft at rachel.h.kraft@nasa.gov by 12:30 p.m. June 10. VIPER's delivery to the Moon is part of NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services initiative, an innovative, service-based, competitive acquisition approach that enables rapid, affordable, and frequent access to the lunar surface via a growing market of American commercial providers. The selected company will be responsible for end-to-end services for delivery of VIPER, including integration with its lander, launch from Earth, and landing in a polar region on the Moon in late 2023 VIPER's delivery to the Moon is part of NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services initiative, which will leverage the capabilities of commercial industry to send scientific instruments and technology demonstrations to the Moon quickly.

The selected company will be responsible for end-to-end services for delivery of VIPER, including integration with its lander, launch from Earth, and landing in a polar region on the Moon in late 2023.

The teleconference audio will stream live here

New experiments show complex astrochemistry on thin ice covering dust grains

Astronomers from the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy (MPIA) and the University of Jena have obtained a clearer view of nature's tiny deep-space laboratories: tiny dust grains covered with ice. Instead of regular shapes covered thickly in ice, such grains appear to be fluffy networks of dust, with thin ice layers. In particular, that means the dust grains have considerably larger surfaces, which is where most of the chemical reactions take place. Hence, the new structure has fundamental consequences for astronomers' view of organic chemistry in space - and thus for the genesis of prebiotic molecules that could have played an important role for the origin of life on Earth. Creating complex molecules in deep space is anything but easy. To the best of current knowledge, the natural laboratories in which the necessary reactions take place are interstellar dust grains with icy surfaces. Now, new experimental results by Alexey Potapov of the MPIA laboratory astrophysics group at Jena University and his colleagues demonstrate that, under realistic conditions, the ice layers may well be so thin that the surface structure of the dust grains themselves plays an important role. This opens up a new field of study: Those who are interested in the cosmic origins of the organic precursor molecules of life will need to take a closer look at the different properties of the surfaces of cosmic dust grains, their interactions with small amounts of ice, and at the role the resulting complex environments play in helping to synthesize complex organic molecules.

Cosmic precursors of life
When we think about how life, and how we ourselves, have come to be in this universe, there are several important steps, encompassing physics, chemistry, and biology. As far as we know, the earliest biology of our own origins story took place here on Earth, but the same is not true for either physics or chemistry: Most chemical elements, including carbon and nitrogen, have been created by nuclear fusion inside stars ("We are star stuff", as Carl Sagan famously said).

Molecules, including the organic molecules necessary to form amino acids, or our own DNA, can form in the interstellar medium. On the few occasions that probes have managed to analyze cosmic dust directly, namely the Stardust and Rosetta missions, the analysis found complex molecules, such as the simple amino acid glycine. Over the course of the evolution of a planetary system, organic molecules can be transported to planetary surfaces by meteorites and early comets.

How those molecules can form in the first place, in the nearly empty expanses between stars, is not a simple question at all. In outer space, most of the atoms and molecules are part of an ultrathin gas, with hardly any interaction - let alone the interactions needed to build up more complex organic molecules.

Icy dust grain laboratories
In the 1960s, astronomers interested in interstellar chemistry began to develop the idea that interstellar dust grains could serve as "interstellar laboratories," which would facilitate more complex chemical reactions. Such grains, whether carbon-based or silicate-based, typically form in the outer layers of cool stars or in the aftermath of supernova explosions.

In a cloud of gas and dust, different kinds of molecules would stick to the (cold) grain, molecules would accumulate, and eventually, interesting chemical reactions would take place. Specifically, it would take on the order of 100,000 years for a dust grain to accumulate a mantle of ice (mostly water ice, but also some other molecules like carbon monoxide). This icy layer would then serve as a tiny cosmic chemistry lab.

Astronomers interested in this topic soon realized that they needed experiments in order to interpret their observations of interstellar gas clouds. They would need to study ice-covered dust grains and their interaction with molecules in laboratories here on Earth.

To this end, they would use vacuum chambers, simulating the emptiness of space, as well as appropriate temperatures. Since the assumption at the time was that what counted was chemistry on the icy surface, it became common practice to use ice layers for such experiments, applied to an ordinary surface such as a potassium bromide (KBr) crystal plate or a metal surface. But that, the new results show, can only be part of the picture, at best.

Artificial dust grains and their ice
Planet formation, as well as the search for the origins of life, are key research goals for the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy (MPIA), and icy dust grains play an important role for both. That is why, since 2003, MPIA has maintained a Laboratory Astrophysics and Cluster Physics Group at the Institute of Solid State Physics of Friedrich Schiller University, Jena.

Part of the group's equipment are lasers that can be used to create artificial cosmic dust grains. To this end, a laser is pointed at a graphite specimen, eroding (ablating) minute particles from the surface, mere nanometers across (where one nanometer is one billionth of a meter). When Alexey Potapov of the Jena Laboratory Astrophysics group, the lead author of the new paper, and his colleagues studied such artificial dust grains, inducing different kinds of ice to form on their surfaces, they began to have doubts about the standard picture of chemistry on thick icy surfaces.

Cosmic laboratories are fluffy and dusty
Instead of grains completely covered with several layers solid ice (water ice, or carbon monoxide ice) like an onion, the dust grains they produced in the laboratory, staying as closely as possible to realistic deep-space conditions, were extended, many-tendrilled shapes - fluffy networks of dust and ice.

With this shape, their total surface area is much larger (a factor of a few hundred) than for simpler shapes, and this is a game-changer for calculations of how the detected amount of water in molecular clouds would cover some grains: From grains with low surface area, thus covered completely by the available water, we arrive instead at a more extended surface that will have thicker layers in some places, while in other places there is no more than a single layer of ice crystals - simply because there is not enough water to cover all of the hugely extended surface area with several layers of ice.

Changing the pathway to life in the universe
This different kind of structure has profound consequences for the role of icy dust grains as tiny cosmic laboratories. Chemical reactions depend on molecules that have "gotten stuck" on the surface, and on how those molecules can move around (dissipate), meet other molecules, react, become stuck, or unstuck again. Those environmental conditions are completely different in the new, fluffy, dusty version of the cosmic laboratories.

Potapov says: "Now we know dust grains matter, a new player has entered the astrochemical game. Knowing the new player is there gives us a better chance to understand the fundamental chemical reactions that, at a later stage, might have led to the emergence of life in the universe."

Also, if the grains are not hidden under thick ice layers, but can interact with the molecules adhering to the surface, they can act as catalysts, altering the rate of chemical reactions by their mere presence. Suddenly, certain reactions for the formation of organic molecules like formaldehyde, or certain ammonia compounds, should become much more common. Both are important precursors of prebiotic molecules - so this change in focus would have a direct effect on our explanations for the chemical prehistory of life on Earth.

Co-author and MPIA director Thomas Henning says: "These are exciting new directions in the search for the formation of complex molecules in space. To follow up, MPIA has just opened its new 'Origins of Life' laboratory, which is tailored to this new type of research."

More generally, the new results, together with a number of similar results obtained in previous experiments, constitute a wake-up call for the astrochemistry community: If you want to understand astrochemistry in the interstellar medium, and its consequences for the origins of life, move away from icy onions. Embrace the role of dust surfaces. Embrace the possible fluffiness of nature's tiny cosmic laboratories.

ULA on track to launch new Vulcan rocket in early 2021

United Launch Alliance, a leading launch provider to the U.S. government for 14 years, is on schedule to launch its next-generation rocket, the Vulcan Centaur, in early 2021, CEO Tony Bruno said. The new rocket is designed to provide a more efficient, more powerful launch vehicle than ULA's workhorse rockets, Atlas and Delta, with engines produced in the United States. The company previously bought Russian rocket engines, which Congress outlawed in a bill passed in 2014. The work on Vulcan proceeds amid a recession and workplace restrictions due to the COVID-19 pandemic. "We decided at the beginning of March we were going to jump on this coronavirus prevention," Bruno told UPI. "We are not actually missing any milestones." Bruno said the company, like many, transitioned to a high level of remote work where possible, with sanitation, masks and social distancing in manufacturing areas. The result, he said, was far fewer absences than in a normal flu season. "Unfortunately, you just can't build a rocket from your couch in your pajamas," he joked. ULA is locked into a four-way battle with Elon Musk's SpaceX, Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin and legacy defense firm Northrop Grumman to provide military launch services, without a Russian-made engine.

Last week, SpaceX became the first private company to send astronauts into orbit with the launch of its Crew Dragon from the United States to the International Space Station.

ULA has agreed to buy engines made by Blue Origin, the BE-4, which gives those two companies a partial alliance in the competition.

The Vulcan rocket being assembled in Decatur, Ala., would provide 1.1 million pounds of thrust using two BE-4 engines. That compares to SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket with 1.7 million pounds of thrust on liftoff.

As a private company developing new technology, the company doesn't reveal how much it is spending on Vulcan development.

"It generally takes several billion to develop a new rocket from scratch. This is mostly completely new," Bruno said.

The Air Force (now Space Force) Space and Missile Systems Center announced in 2019 that it would accept only two of the four rocket systems under development, at some point in 2020. Some members of Congress, though, have suggested funding a third company to maintain competition.

The government has committed $967 million to ULA through 2024 for the development of the rocket, but it may not ultimately be chosen for missions. ULA is funding three-quarters of the rocket development budget, Bruno said.

Analysts have postulated that SpaceX and ULA will win the competition, said Marco Cáceres, an analyst at the Virginia-based Teal Group.

"ULA is the legacy company that's provided launch service to the Air Force for so long," Cáceres said. "They have an incredible record for reliability, but they're still not going to be competitive with SpaceX on price."

SpaceX's big advantage is that it is flying the Falcon 9 rocket on many missions for the government, while its three competitors still work on new rocket models. SpaceX also says it lowered the cost of launch by making its rocket's largely reusable.

SpaceX recovers the first-stage booster and the fairing halves, or nose cone, for many launches and reuses those.

ULA has a plan to reuse the engines by catching them with helicopters and grappling hooks, midair, as they fall back to Earth. While that has been done with rocket parts in the past, ULA still needs to prove that can work, Cáceres said.

"They are trying to be more reusable, but they don't have that track record," he said. "It's hard to change corporate culture overnight, though."

ULA has two additional customers signed up for Vulcan launches, including California-based Sierra Nevada, which has developed the new Dreamchaser spaceplane to launch cargo to the ISS.

Analysts believe ULA would struggle to bring Vulcan to market without the major Space Force contracts, said Chris Quilty, founder of Quilty Analytics based in the Tampa, Fla., area.

ULA must bring Vulcan to market quickly and safely, either way, Quilty said.

"Imagine what happens the first time ULA blows up something. The program would shut down for two years," he said. "I don't think they have the culture or risk tolerance that would allow them to quickly pivot from a failure."

Northrop Grumman snags $187 million to design NASA's lunar Gateway habitat for astronauts

NASA has awarded Northrop Grumman $187 million to design the habitat module for the space agency's lunar Gateway, a planned moon-orbiting space station for astronauts. We learned last year that NASA had tapped Virginia-based Northrop Grumman to build Gateway's pressurized crew cabin, called the habitation and logistics outpost (HALO). The company will base HALO on its Cygnus spacecraft, which has been flying contracted robotic cargo missions to the International Space Station for NASA since 2014. On Friday (June 5), the space agency announced some terms of the deal: Northrop Grumman will receive $187 million to fund HALO's design through a key milestone called preliminary design review, which is expected to be complete by the end of this year. "This contract award is another significant milestone in our plan to build robust and sustainable lunar operations," NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said in a statement. "The Gateway is a key component of NASA’s long-term Artemis architecture, and the HALO capability furthers our plans for human exploration at the moon in preparation for future human missions to Mars." Artemis is NASA's program of crewed lunar exploration, which aims to land two astronauts near the moon's south pole in 2024 and establish a sustainable human presence on and around the cosmic body by 2028. As Bridenstine noted, the agency envisions such work paving the way for the next giant leap: getting astronauts to Mars, which NASA aims to do in the 2030s.

Gateway likely won't be involved in the 2024 landing, but NASA sees the mini space station as crucial to its longer-term lunar plans. The outpost will serve as a jumping-off point for sorties, both crewed and uncrewed, to the lunar surface.

The current plan calls for launching Gateway's first two elements — HALO and the power and propulsion element (PPE), which will be built by Maxar Technologies — together in 2023. NASA expects to award Northrop Grumman a second contract by the end of the year, to build HALO and integrate it with the PPE, agency officials said.

Also key to the Artemis vision are NASA's Orion crew capsule and Space Launch System (SLS) megarocket, which together will get astronauts off the ground and on their way to deep space.

Orion has one flight under its belt, an uncrewed test mission to Earth orbit that took place in December 2014. SLS has not launched yet; it's scheduled to debut late next year on the Artemis 1 mission, which will send an uncrewed Orion on a test flight around the moon.

Orion will provide life support for astronauts aboard the Gateway, along with HALO, which will provide about as much living space as a small studio apartment.


Gateway, and the Artemis program overall, will leverage considerable cooperation from partners in the international community and the private sector. For example, the European Space Agency will provide Orion's service module, and the landers that ferry NASA astronauts from the outpost to the lunar surface will be privately built.

ESA moves ahead on low-cost reusable rocket engine

ESA's Prometheus is the precursor of ultra-low-cost rocket propulsion that is flexible enough to fit a fleet of new launch vehicles for any mission and will be potentially reusable. At the Space19+ Council meeting in Seville, Spain last November, ESA received full funding to bring the current Prometheus engine design to a technical maturity suitable for industry. Developed by ArianeGroup, Prometheus is now seen as key in the effort to prepare competitive future European access to space. By applying a design-to-cost approach to manufacturing Prometheus, ESA aims to lower the cost of production by a factor of ten of the current main stage Ariane 5 Vulcain 2 engine. Features such as variable thrust, multiple ignitions, suitability for main and upper stage application, and minimised ground operations before and after flight also make Prometheus a highly flexible engine. This Prometheus precursor runs on liquid oxygen-methane which brings high efficiency, allows standardisation and operational simplicity. Methane propellant is also widely available and easy to handle. In the short term it is likely that operational engines will benefit from the application of Prometheus technologies. Upcoming tests overseen by ArianeGroup at the DLR German Aerospace Center's Lampoldshausen testing facility in Germany will validate the hardware components for the first Prometheus engine test model (M1).

In preparation, the P5 test bench will gain a 250 cubic metre capacity propellant tank for methane. This will allow engineers to efficiently switch test configurations between Prometheus and Ariane 6's Vulcain 2.1 main stage engine, also in development.

Main subsystems are being manufactured. The first elements built last year benefited from new methods such as additive layer manufacturing (ALM) which speeds up production, achieves fewer parts and greatly reduces costs.

ALM builds a structure layer by layer, which is much quicker and easier than the traditional process of cutting away bulk material. Complex, optimised parts, impossible to manufacture via classical methods, can be created using less material and energy, and in far fewer manufacturing steps.

Components manufactured and now ready to test include the turbo pump's turbine, pump inlet and gas generator valves. March will see the delivery of the chamber valves and on-board rocket engine computer for engine management and monitoring - the part that makes this a 'smart' engine and potentially reusable.

The first combustion chamber model is expected at the end of June while the combustion chamber for M1 will be delivered in December 2020.

Engineers will assemble the M1 full-scale demonstrator at the end of this year for testing on the ground in 2021.

Further Prometheus engines will be built for testing into the future.

Also within ESA's Future Launchers Preparatory Programme, Arianeworks is currently preparing an in-flight reusable vehicle demonstration called Themis, which will incorporate the Prometheus precursor engine.

Prometheus represents a breakthrough in terms of cost and manufacturing and its robust design is the baseline for future evolutions of Ariane to 2030.