Boeing's Starliner makes progress ahead of flight test with astronauts

NASA and Boeing continue to make progress toward the company's second uncrewed flight test of the CST-100 Starliner spacecraft prior to flying astronauts to the International Space Station as part of NASA's Commercial Crew Program. The Commercial Crew Program currently is targeting no earlier than December 2020 for launch of the uncrewed Orbital Flight Test-2 (OFT-2) pending hardware readiness, flight software qualification, and launch vehicle and space station manifest priorities. Over the summer, Boeing's Starliner team focused on readying the next spacecraft for its upcoming flight tests as well as making improvements identified during various review processes throughout the beginning of the year. NASA also announced an additional crew assignment for its first operational mission, NASA's Boeing Starliner-1, with astronauts to the space station. Here's more on the recent progress: Teams from Boeing are well into final assembly of the crew and service modules that will fly OFT-2 to the space station inside of the company's Commercial Crew and Cargo Processing Facility (C3PF) at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. OFT-2 will fly a new, reusable Starliner crew module providing additional on-orbit experience for the operational teams prior to flying missions with astronauts. For Boeing's Commercial Crew missions, the Starliner spacecraft will launch atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket.

With the majority of assembly complete, recent progress is focused on the NASA docking system re-entry cover, which was added to the design for additional protection of the system. The team also has completed the installation of the Starliner propellant heater, thermal protection system tiles and the air bags that will be used when the spacecraft touches down for landing. As final production activities continue to progress, the crew module recently entered acceptance testing, which will prove out the systems on the spacecraft before it's mated with its service module.

In Houston, the software team is nearing the final stages of modifying and re-verifying the flight code after the first uncrewed flight test. As part of that effort, the team recently began a major milestone called Formal Qualification Testing, which is a comprehensive test of flight software and an important step in preparing for an end-to-end mission rehearsal test.

Boeing also remains focused on incorporating the recommendations from the joint NASA-Boeing Independent Review Team with almost 75% of the 80 proposed actions implemented. The independent team was formed to review anomalies experienced during OFT, which led to Starliner not reaching its planned orbit or docking to station as planned, and to provide recommendations to ensure a robust design for future missions. In addition to opting to re-fly its uncrewed flight test, Boeing elected to comprehensively implement all of the recommendations provided by the review team.

Following a successful OFT-2, Boeing will focus full attention on preparations for its final flight test with astronauts and is already completing work on the Crew Flight Test spacecraft in parallel. Teams continue refurbishing the crew module flown on Starliner's first uncrewed flight test for reuse with astronauts. After removing and conducting checkouts on various systems and flight hardware, Boeing is preparing to reassemble the vehicle for flight. Soon, outfitting of the crew module's interior will begin along with packing parachutes and airbags ahead of installation. The vehicle's NASA Docking System has been modified to accommodate the new cover, and outfitting of subsystem components continues on the spacecraft's brand new service module.

Crew Updates and Target Flight Schedules
In advance of the OFT-2 mission, flight control teams from NASA and Boeing completed an integrated launch-to-docking simulation in August with additional mission simulations on the horizon as the teams fine-tune flight rules and procedures.

After a successful OFT-2, Boeing and NASA will fly Starliner's first crewed mission, the Crew Flight Test, currently targeted for no earlier than June 2021, with the first post-certification mission, called Starliner-1, tentatively scheduled for no earlier than late December 2021.

The CFT crew members are Boeing astronaut Chris Ferguson and NASA astronauts Mike Fincke and Nicole Mann.

In addition to training for living and working on station, astronauts continue to work closely with Starliner test teams. Several crew members plan to participate in ongoing acceptance testing of the OFT-2 crew module inside the C3PF.

Recently, the CFT crew helped test software updates with real flight hardware in Boeing's Avionics and Software Integration Lab in Houston. They practiced performing manual separation events for several low likelihood contingencies, demonstrating the software improvements had no adverse effect on controls needed to stay safe in any situation. The crew also participated in procedural dry runs for future life support tests with the Starliner spacecraft in Florida. Later this year, the CFT crew will be suited inside the spacecraft with the vehicle providing all of their life support.

NASA astronauts Sunita Williams, Josh Cassada and Jeanette Epps are crew members of the Starliner-1 mission. Cassada and Williams were both selected for the mission in August 2018, and NASA announced Epps' assignment Aug. 25.

Astronauts for both CFT and Starliner-1 missions regularly participate in rehearsals of launch and mission operations in both normal and emergency scenarios. They also are continuing with on-going mission-specific training for life in orbit including the work they'll perform after joining their respective Expedition crews awaiting them on station.

The goal of NASA's Commercial Crew Program is safe, reliable and cost-effective transportation to and from the International Space Station. This could allow for additional research time and increase the opportunity for discovery aboard humanity's testbed for exploration, including helping us prepare for human exploration of the Moon and Mars.

SpaceX plans to launch Argentine satellite into polar orbit from Florida

SpaceX plans to launch an Earth observation satellite for Argentina's space agency Sunday evening as the first polar orbit mission from Florida in more than 50 years. A Falcon 9 rocket is scheduled to lift off with the SAOCOM 1B satellite at 7:19 p.m. EDT from Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. This rocket is to head south over the Atlantic Ocean, while most Florida launches go east. The spacecraft will pass over Cuba, and the first stage booster will fly back for recovery near the Air Force station, likely creating a sonic boom. In the past, launching over communist Cuba would have caused "consternation" due to the Cold War standoff and lingering tension after that, U.S. Space Force Brig. Gen. Douglas Schiess said this week. Since 1969, rockets launched from the United States have lifted off from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California or from Kodiak Island in Alaska. Both of those sites have clear shots to the south over open water. Any debris would not fall into populated areas. Concerns about polar launches from Florida date to 1960, when part of a Thor rocket fell on Cuba, reportedly killing a cow. That resulted in a moratorium and shifted all polar launches away from Florida. The U.S. Space Command announced in 2017 that it again had certified a polar launch trajectory from Florida, but only if the rocket had an automated launch termination capability. SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket has that. Schiess said the U.S. State Department "notified" Cuba of the pending launch, but he didn't know if Cuba responded. Calls and emails to the department for comment were not returned.

The rocket should be so high into the atmosphere as it crosses over the island nation that any potential debris from a failure would be small and dispersed by the time it reached Earth, the general said.

Argentina's satellite had been scheduled for launch in March, but was postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic, according to the Argentine agency, known as CONAE for the Comision Nacional de Actividades Espaciales (National Commission of Space Activities).

The delay "forced us to stay a long time in Cape Canaveral, away from our families," according to a statement from the agency's executive and technical director, Raul Kulichevsky.

The launch had been set for Friday night, but the delay of another launch - United Launch Alliance's rocket carrying a U.S. spy satellite - bumped the Argentine mission to Sunday.

The first of two SAOCOM satellites was launched in October 2018. According to the mission description for the program, a major focus for the spacecraft is to monitor weather and agriculture.

Data on soil moisture "will help producers know the best time for sowing, fertilizing and irrigation, in crops such as soybeans, corn, wheat and sunflower," the description said.

Lockheed Martin and USC build smart cubesats

Lockheed Martin is building mission payloads for a Space Engineering Research Center at University of Southern California (USC) Information Sciences Institute small satellite program called La Jument, which enhance Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) space technologies. For the program, four La Jument nanosatellites - the first launching later this year - will use Lockheed Martin's SmartSat software-defined satellite architecture on both their payload and bus. SmartSat lets satellite operators quickly change missions while in orbit with the simplicity of starting, stopping or uploading new applications. The system is powered by the NVIDIA Jetson platform built on the CUDA-X capable software stack and supported by the NVIDIA JetPack software development kit (SDK), delivering powerful AI at the edge computing capabilities to unlock advanced image and digital signal processing. SmartSat provides on-board cyber threat detection, while the software-defined payload houses advanced optical and infrared cameras utilized by Lockheed Martin's Advanced Technology Center (ATC) to further mature and space qualify Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) technologies. The La Jument payloads are the latest of more than 300 payloads Lockheed Martin has built for customers. "La Jument and SmartSat are pushing new boundaries of what is possible in space when you adopt an open software architecture that lets you change missions on the fly," said Adam Johnson, Director of SmartSat and La Jument at Lockheed Martin Space. "We are excited to release a SmartSat software development kit (SDK) to encourage developers to write their own third-party mission apps and offer an orbital test-bed."

Powering Artificial Intelligence at the Edge
La Jument satellites will enable AI/ML algorithms in orbit because of advanced multi-core processing and on-board graphics processing units (GPU). One app being tested in orbit will be SuperRes, an algorithm developed by Lockheed Martin that can automatically enhance the quality of an image, like some smartphone camera apps. SuperRes enables exploitation and detection of imagery produced by lower-cost, lower-quality image sensors.

"We were able to design, build and integrate the first payload for La Jument in five months," said Sonia Phares, Vice President of Engineering and Technology at Lockheed Martin Space. "Satellites like this demonstrate our approach to rapid development and innovation that lets us solve our customers' toughest challenges faster than ever."

Bringing Four Satellites Together
The first of the four La Jument nanosatellites is a student-designed and built 1.5U CubeSat that will be launched with a SmartSat payload to test the complete system from ground to space, including ground station communications links and commanding SmartSat infrastructure while in-orbit. The second is a 3U nanosat, the size of three small milk cartons stacked on top of each other, with optical payloads connected to SmartSat that will allow AI/ML in-orbit testing. Finally, two 6U CubeSats are being designed jointly with USC that will be launched mid-2022. The pair will launch together and incorporate future research from USC and Lockheed Martin, including new SmartSat apps, sensors and bus technologies.

Lockheed Martin has a long history of creating small satellites, having launched more than 150. More recent nanosat projects include Pony Express 1, Linus, NASA's Lun-IR, Janus and Grail. Additionally, Lockheed Martin will be the prime integrator for DARPA's Blackjack small sat constellation.

Arecibo Observatory data help lead to discovery of cosmic 'heartbeat'

An international team of researchers using data from Arecibo Observatory and the Fermi Space Telescope have discovered what they call a "gamma-ray heartbeat" coming from a cosmic gas cloud. The cloud is in the constellation Aquilla and "beats" in rhythm with a black hole 100 light years away in a microquasar system known as SS 433. The results were published in the journal Nature Astronomy. "This result challenges obvious interpretations and is unexpected from previously published theoretical models," says Jian Li, a Humboldt Fellow with the Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron in Zeuthen, Germany, and study co-author. "It provides us with a chance to unveil the particle transport from SS 433 and to probe the structure of the magnetic field in its vicinity." In the SS 433 system, a black hole orbits a giant star, 30 times the mass of Earth's sun. The black hole sucks matter from the giant star while orbiting it, forming a swirling accretion disc that drains into the black hole, like water into a bathtub drain. Some of the matter doesn't fall into the hole though, but rather jets out in high speed spirals from the disc's center in both directions, top and bottom, like pegs on a wheel. The researchers made the discovery by analyzing more than a decade of data from NASA's Fermi Large Area Space Telescope and from Galactic ALFA HI survey data collected with the Arecibo Observatory's 1,000-foot-wide radio telescope. The observatory was recently damaged and is currently offline, but scientists continue to have access to data previously collected. Engineers are assessing what caused a cable to break and plans for repairs.

The researchers found that the precession, or wobble, of the black hole's jets matched with a gamma-ray signal emitted from a gas cloud. The researchers have labeled the position in the gas cloud Fermi J1913+0515. The position was revealed using Arecibo Observatory's telescope, and Fermi provided data about the SS 433 system.

"The consistent periods indicate the gas cloud's emission is powered by the micro quasar," Li says.

Scientists still do not fully know how the jets overcome the black hole's pull and are emitted from the disc, and the current study presents a new question - How does the black hole power the gas cloud's heartbeat?

The study's researchers say further observations and theoretical work are needed, but one suggestion is that the cloud's gamma-ray emissions are caused by the injection of the nuclei of hydrogen atoms, known as fast protons, that are produced at the end of the jets, or near the black hole.

"SS 433 continues to amaze observers at all frequencies and theoreticians alike," Li says. "And it is certain to provide a testbed for our ideas on cosmic-ray production and propagation near microquasars for years to come."

The most sensitive instrument in the search for life in space comes from Bern

The question of whether life exists beyond the Earth is one of humanity's most fundamental questions. Future NASA missions, for example, aim to examine the ice moons of Jupiter and Saturn, which may potentially shelter life in the liquid oceans underneath the thick layer of ice, on the ground. Proving traces of life beyond the Earth is extremely challenging, however. Highly sensitive instruments which take measurements on the ground with the greatest possible degree of autonomy and with high precision - millions of kilometers from the Earth and thus without direct support from humankind - are required. An international group of researchers under the leadership of Andreas Riedo and Niels Ligterink at the University of Bern have now developed ORIGIN, a mass spectrometer which can detect and identify the smallest amounts of such traces of life. They describe the instrument in a recently published article in the specialist journal Nature Scientific Reports. Niels Ligterink from the Center for Space and Habitability (CSH) is the lead author of the international study, and co-author Andreas Riedo from the Physics Institute at the University of Bern developed the instrument in the laboratories of the space research and planetary sciences divison of the Physics Institute. Various international space agencies, particularly NASA, have already expressed interest in testing ORIGIN for future missions. Since the first Mars mission "Viking" in the 1970s, humanity has been searching for traces of life on Mars using highly specialized instruments which are installed on landing platforms and rovers. In its early years, Mars was Earth-like, had a dense atmosphere and even liquid water.

However, as Niels Ligterink explains, Mars lost its protective atmosphere over the course of time: "As a result of this, the surface of Mars is subjected to high solar and cosmic radiation which makes life on the surface impossible." NASA's "Curiosity" rover is currently examining Mars in detail but with no concrete indications of traces of life to date.

Since the discovery by the Cassini and Galileo missions of the global oceans beneath kilometers of ice layers on Jupiter's moon Europa and Saturn's moon Enceladus, these two bodies have increasingly become the focus of the search for extraterrestrial life for researchers.

According to current knowledge, the oceans have all of the properties which are not only needed for the occurrence of life, but also which provide environments in which life can exist in the long term. NASA therefore plans to land a mission on Jupiter's moon Europa around 2030 and take measurements on the ground.

The goal: Identification of life. Co-author Prof. Dr. Peter Wurz from the Physics Institute at the University of Bern says: "Concepts which were specially developed for Mars cannot be simply applied to other bodies in our solar systembecause they are very different. New instruments with higher sensitivity and simpler and more robust analysis systems must be designed and used".

Unprecedented measurement sensitivity for proof of life in space
ORIGIN is one such new instrument which outperforms previous space instruments many terms over in terms of its measurement sensitivty. Various international space agencies have expressed great interest in the instrument for future missions.

Andreas Riedo says: "NASA has invited us to particpaite and test our instrument in the Arctic. The Artic is the optimal test environment in the context of the EUROPA LANDER mission, which should start in 2025, which will allow us to demonstrate the performance of ORIGIN."

Amino acids are key components of life as we know it on Earth. Contemporaneous proof of certain amino acids on extraterrestrial surfaces, such as those of Europa, allow conclusions to be drawn about possible life.

The measurement principle developed by the Bern-based researchers is simple. Niels Ligterink explains: "Laser pulses are directed at the surface to be examined. In the process, small amounts of material are detached, the chemical composition of which is analyzed by ORIGIN in a second step".

Andreas Riedo adds: "The compelling aspect of our technology is that no complicated sample preparation techniques, which could potentially affect the result, are required. This was one of the biggest problems on Mars until now," says Riedo.

The amino acids which have been analyzed with ORIGIN to date have a specific chemical fingerprint which allows them to be directly identified. Niels Ligterink: "To be honest, we didn't expect that our first measurements would already be able to identify amino acids."

The discovery of traces of past or present life on bodies in our solar system beyond the Earth is of great importance for a better understanding of the existence of life in the universe and its genesis.

Andreas Riedo says: "Our new measurement technology is a real improvement on the instruments currently used on space missions. If we are taken along on a future mission, we may be able to answer one of humanity's most fundamental questions with ORIGIN: Is there life in space?".

NASA selects SwRI to participate in $6B Rapid Spacecraft Acquisition IV Contract

NASA has selected Southwest Research Institute to take part in the $6 billion indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity Rapid Spacecraft Acquisition IV contract. SwRI will be listed in the NASA spacecraft catalog used by the U.S. government to easily contract for proven spacecraft. The Rapid IV contracts serve as a fast and flexible means for the government to acquire spacecraft and related components, equipment and services in support of NASA missions and/or other federal government agencies. The spacecraft designs, related items and services may be tailored, as needed, to meet the unique needs of each mission. "Being selected for the Rapid Spacecraft Development Office (RSDO) IV catalog is a major milestone for the SwRI spacecraft development program," said Michael McLelland, executive director of SwRI's Space System Directorate. "Our strong heritage in all phases of science and technology development missions and our collaborative approach to working with our customers makes us an excellent choice as a spacecraft provider for the unique missions developed under RSDO." An evolution of SwRI's small satellite platform used for the Cyclone Global Navigation Satellite System (CYGNSS) mission is the specific asset listed. Under these multiple-award, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contracts, spacecraft and related services will be purchased via government-placed, firm-fixed price delivery orders. "To be considered for the catalog, an organization must demonstrate that it has developed two spacecraft with on-orbit success," said Randy Rose, a staff engineer in SwRI's Space Science and Engineering Division.

"CYGNSS includes a constellation of eight suitcase-sized satellites that has been operating in Earth orbit for more than three years, supporting research to better understand and predict how hurricanes intensify, monitor wetlands and more."

The platform is also being adapted for the SwRI-led Polarimeter to UNify the Corona and Heliosphere (PUNCH) NASA mission. PUNCH is a constellation of four separate satellites scheduled to launch in 2023 into a polar orbit formation to image how the solar corona infuses the solar wind with mass and energy.

"CYGNSS is one of the first small satellite platforms added to the catalog. It provides a solution for a class of spacecraft in the 30-75 kilogram mass range not previously available through the RSDO catalog," Rose said. "The Rapid IV contract is the fourth 'on-ramp' to periodically add new spacecraft and vendors to the catalog."

According to one industry forecast, as many as 11,600 small satellites - defined in this case as satellites with masses under 500 kilograms - will be placed in orbit between 2018 and 2030, an average of nearly 1,000 small satellites annually.

This contract makes SwRI eligible to receive "requests for proposal" or RFP delivery orders and potentially play a bigger role in this emerging area of space science.

NASA researchers track slowly splitting 'dent' in Earth's magnetic field

A small but evolving dent in Earth's magnetic field can cause big headaches for satellites. Earth's magnetic field acts like a protective shield around the planet, repelling and trapping charged particles from the Sun. But over South America and the southern Atlantic Ocean, an unusually weak spot in the field - called the South Atlantic Anomaly, or SAA - allows these particles to dip closer to the surface than normal. Particle radiation in this region can knock out onboard computers and interfere with the data collection of satellites that pass through it - a key reason why NASA scientists want to track and study the anomaly. The South Atlantic Anomaly is also of interest to NASA's Earth scientists who monitor the changes in magnetic field strength there, both for how such changes affect Earth's atmosphere and as an indicator of what's happening to Earth's magnetic fields, deep inside the globe. Currently, the SAA creates no visible impacts on daily life on the surface. However, recent observations and forecasts show that the region is expanding westward and continuing to weaken in intensity. It is also splitting - recent data shows the anomaly's valley, or region of minimum field strength, has split into two lobes, creating additional challenges for satellite missions. A host of NASA scientists in geomagnetic, geophysics, and heliophysics research groups observe and model the SAA, to monitor and predict future changes - and help prepare for future challenges to satellites and humans in space.

It's what's inside that counts
The South Atlantic Anomaly arises from two features of Earth's core: The tilt of its magnetic axis, and the flow of molten metals within its outer core.

Earth is a bit like a bar magnet, with north and south poles that represent opposing magnetic polarities and invisible magnetic field lines encircling the planet between them. But unlike a bar magnet, the core magnetic field is not perfectly aligned through the globe, nor is it perfectly stable. That's because the field originates from Earth's outer core: molten, iron-rich and in vigorous motion 1800 miles below the surface. These churning metals act like a massive generator, called the geodynamo, creating electric currents that produce the magnetic field.

As the core motion changes over time, due to complex geodynamic conditions within the core and at the boundary with the solid mantle up above, the magnetic field fluctuates in space and time too. These dynamical processes in the core ripple outward to the magnetic field surrounding the planet, generating the SAA and other features in the near-Earth environment - including the tilt and drift of the magnetic poles, which are moving over time. These evolutions in the field, which happen on a similar time scale to the convection of metals in the outer core, provide scientists with new clues to help them unravel the core dynamics that drive the geodynamo.

"The magnetic field is actually a superposition of fields from many current sources," said Terry Sabaka, a geophysicist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. Regions outside of the solid Earth also contribute to the observed magnetic field. However, he said, the bulk of the field comes from the core.

The forces in the core and the tilt of the magnetic axis together produce the anomaly, the area of weaker magnetism - allowing charged particles trapped in Earth's magnetic field to dip closer to the surface.

The Sun expels a constant outflow of particles and magnetic fields known as the solar wind and vast clouds of hot plasma and radiation called coronal mass ejections. When this solar material streams across space and strikes Earth's magnetosphere, the space occupied by Earth's magnetic field, it can become trapped and held in two donut-shaped belts around the planet called the Van Allen Belts. The belts restrain the particles to travel along Earth's magnetic field lines, continually bouncing back and forth from pole to pole. The innermost belt begins about 400 miles from the surface of Earth, which keeps its particle radiation a healthy distance from Earth and its orbiting satellites.

However, when a particularly strong storm of particles from the Sun reaches Earth, the Van Allen belts can become highly energized and the magnetic field can be deformed, allowing the charged particles to penetrate the atmosphere.

"The observed SAA can be also interpreted as a consequence of weakening dominance of the dipole field in the region," said Weijia Kuang, a geophysicist and mathematician in Goddard's Geodesy and Geophysics Laboratory. "More specifically, a localized field with reversed polarity grows strongly in the SAA region, thus making the field intensity very weak, weaker than that of the surrounding regions."

A pothole in space
Although the South Atlantic Anomaly arises from processes inside Earth, it has effects that reach far beyond Earth's surface. The region can be hazardous for low-Earth orbit satellites that travel through it. If a satellite is hit by a high-energy proton, it can short-circuit and cause an event called single event upset or SEU. This can cause the satellite's function to glitch temporarily or can cause permanent damage if a key component is hit. In order to avoid losing instruments or an entire satellite, operators commonly shut down non-essential components as they pass through the SAA. Indeed, NASA's Ionospheric Connection Explorer regularly travels through the region and so the mission keeps constant tabs on the SAA's position.

The International Space Station, which is in low-Earth orbit, also passes through the SAA. It is well protected, and astronauts are safe from harm while inside. However, the ISS has other passengers affected by the higher radiation levels: Instruments like the Global Ecosystem Dynamics Investigation mission, or GEDI, collect data from various positions on the outside of the ISS. The SAA causes "blips" on GEDI's detectors and resets the instrument's power boards about once a month, said Bryan Blair, the mission's deputy principal investigator and instrument scientist, and a lidar instrument scientist at Goddard.

"These events cause no harm to GEDI," Blair said. "The detector blips are rare compared to the number of laser shots - about one blip in a million shots - and the reset line event causes a couple of hours of lost data, but it only happens every month or so."

In addition to measuring the SAA's magnetic field strength, NASA scientists have also studied the particle radiation in the region with the Solar, Anomalous, and Magnetospheric Particle Explorer, or SAMPEX - the first of NASA's Small Explorer missions, launched in 1992 and providing observations until 2012. One study, led by NASA heliophysicist Ashley Greeley as part of her doctoral thesis, used two decades of data from SAMPEX to show that the SAA is slowly but steadily drifting in a northwesterly direction. The results helped confirm models created from geomagnetic measurements and showed how the SAA's location changes as the geomagnetic field evolves.

"These particles are intimately associated with the magnetic field, which guides their motions," said Shri Kanekal, a researcher in the Heliospheric Physics Laboratory at NASA Goddard. "Therefore, any knowledge of particles gives you information on the geomagnetic field as well."

Greeley's results, published in the journal Space Weather, were also able to provide a clear picture of the type and amount of particle radiation satellites receive when passing through the SAA, which emphasized the need for continuing monitoring in the region.

The information Greeley and her collaborators garnered from SAMPEX's in-situ measurements has also been useful for satellite design. Engineers for the Low-Earth Orbit, or LEO, satellite used the results to design systems that would prevent a latch-up event from causing failure or loss of the spacecraft.

Modeling a safer future for satellites
In order to understand how the SAA is changing and to prepare for future threats to satellites and instruments, Sabaka, Kuang and their colleagues use observations and physics to contribute to global models of Earth's magnetic field.

The team assesses the current state of the magnetic field using data from the European Space Agency's Swarm constellation, previous missions from agencies around the world, and ground measurements. Sabaka's team teases apart the observational data to separate out its source before passing it on to Kuang's team. They combine the sorted data from Sabaka's team with their core dynamics model to forecast geomagnetic secular variation (rapid changes in the magnetic field) into the future.

The geodynamo models are unique in their ability to use core physics to create near-future forecasts, said Andrew Tangborn, a mathematician in Goddard's Planetary Geodynamics Laboratory.

"This is similar to how weather forecasts are produced, but we are working with much longer time scales," he said. "This is the fundamental difference between what we do at Goddard and most other research groups modeling changes in Earth's magnetic field."

One such application that Sabaka and Kuang have contributed to is the International Geomagnetic Reference Field, or IGRF. Used for a variety of research from the core to the boundaries of the atmosphere, the IGRF is a collection of candidate models made by worldwide research teams that describe Earth's magnetic field and track how it changes in time.

"Even though the SAA is slow-moving, it is going through some change in morphology, so it's also important that we keep observing it by having continued missions," Sabaka said. "Because that's what helps us make models and predictions."

The changing SAA provides researchers new opportunities to understand Earth's core, and how its dynamics influence other aspects of the Earth system, said Kuang. By tracking this slowly evolving "dent" in the magnetic field, researchers can better understand the way our planet is changing and help prepare for a safer future for satellites.

NASA begins installing orion adapter for first Artemis lunar flight

Technicians at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida are working to install an adapter that will connect the Orion spacecraft to its rocket for the Artemis I mission around the Moon. This is one of the final major hardware operations for Orion inside the Neil Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building prior to integration with the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket. The spacecraft adapter cone (seen at the bottom of the stack pictured above) connects to the bottom of Orion's service module and will later join another adapter connected to the top of the rocket's interim cryogenic propulsion stage (ICPS). During the process to install the cone on Orion, the spacecraft is lifted out of the Final Assembly and Systems Testing, or FAST, cell and placed into the Super Station support fixture. During flight, the SLS rocket separates in multiple stages as it pushes Orion into deep space. After accelerating Orion towards the Moon, the spacecraft will separate from the ICPS and adapter cone using pyrotechnics and springs. Next up before stacking Orion on the rocket, technicians will install coverings to protect fluid lines and electrical components on the crew module adapter that connects Orion to the service module. Workers also will install the solar array wings that will provide Orion with power, spacecraft adapter jettison fairings that enclose the service module for launch, and the forward bay cover that protects the parachute system.

Orion will fly on the agency's Artemis I mission - the first in a series of increasingly complex missions to the Moon that will lead to human exploration of Mars. Through the Artemis program, NASA is working to land the first woman and the next man on the Moon by 2024.

Altius Space Machines to support on-orbit servicing for the Dynetics Human Landing System

Voyager Space Holdings, Inc. (Voyager), a global leader in integrated space services, has announced that its subsidiary, Altius Space Machines, Inc. (Altius), was selected as a subcontractor to Dynetics, a wholly owned subsidiary of Leidos, to support the development of a human landing system for NASA's Artemis program. With Altius support, Dynetics aims to enable the Artemis program that will land the first woman and next man on the Moon by 2024. Leveraging its deep expertise in space robotics, Altius develops on-orbit servicing technology, specializing in on-orbit assembly and manufacturing, orbital rendezvous and capture robotics, as well as in-space refueling. Altius will support development of the docking and refueling interfaces between the Dynetics lander and the modular propellant vehicle drop tanks, leveraging technologies the company has been developing for the satellite servicing and in-space refueling markets. "We are living during an incredible time for the space industry, and developing a human landing system is a vital step as we embark on a new era of space exploration," said Jonathan Goff, founder and CEO, Altius Space Machines. "Altius is excited to support Dynetics as it helps NASA achieve its Artemis mission." Altius' partnership with Dynetics continues a momentous inaugural year for Voyager, which includes the holding company's recent acquisition of Pioneer Astronautics. Pioneer Astronautics is currently focused on making sustainable life beyond Earth a reality, and was recently one of four businesses selected by NASA to help mature a range of lunar technologies for the sustainable exploration of the Moon, also under the Artemis program.

Both Altius and Pioneer Astronautics' successes demonstrate the tangible benefits of Voyager's model, with increased vertical integration and mission capability helping to enable humanity's most ambitious projects.

"Voyager and its subsidiaries continue to perform extremely well and we are excited to participate in the development of the next generation human landing system for the Artemis program," said Matthew Kuta, president and COO, Voyager. "We're proud to support Altius as it contributes to this historic mission."

BE-4 engine will support US Space Force space launch program

Blue Origin issued the following statement regarding the U.S. Space Force's National Security Space Launch (NSSL) Phase 2 Launch Services Procurement (LSP) announcement. Bob Smith, CEO, Blue Origin said, "We are disappointed in the decision that New Glenn was not selected for the National Security Space Launch (NSSL) Phase 2 Launch Services Procurement (LSP). We submitted an incredibly compelling offer for the national security community and the U.S. taxpayer. "Blue Origin's offer was based on New Glenn's heavy-lift performance, unprecedented private investment of more than $2.5 billion, and a very competitive single basic launch service price for any mission across the entire ordering period. "We are proceeding with New Glenn development to fulfill our current commercial contracts, pursue a large and growing commercial market, and enter into new civil space launch contracts. "We remain confident New Glenn will play a critical role for the national security community in the future due to the increasing realization that space is a contested domain and a robust, responsive, and resilient launch capability is ever more vital to U.S security. "Blue Origin is very proud that our BE-4 engine will power United Launch Alliance's Vulcan launch vehicle in support of the Space Force's NSSL program and end reliance on Russian-built engines.

"The BE-4 is the most powerful liquefied natural gas-fueled rocket engine ever developed and the first oxygen-rich staged combustion engine made in the U.S. We look forward to supporting ULA's long-standing role in launching national security payloads."

Dwarf planet Ceres is an ocean world: study

The dwarf planet Ceres -- long believed to be a barren space rock -- is an ocean world with reservoirs of sea water beneath its surface, the results of a major exploration mission showed Monday. Ceres is the largest object in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter and has its own gravity, enabling the NASA Dawn spacecraft to capture high-resolution images of its surface. Now a team of scientists from the United States and Europe have analysed images relayed from the orbiter, captured around 35 kilometres (22 miles) from the asteroid. They focused on the 20-million-year-old Occator crater and determined that there is an "extensive reservoir" of brine beneath its surface. Several studies published Monday in the journals Nature Astronomy, Nature Geoscience and Nature Communications also shed further light on the dwarf planet, which was discovered by Italian polymath Giuseppe Piazzi in 1801. Using infrared imaging, one team discovered the presence of the compound hydrohalite -- a material common in sea ice but which until now had never been observed off of Earth. Maria Cristina De Sanctis, from Rome's Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica said hydrohalite was a clear sign Ceres' used to have sea water. "We can now say that Ceres is a sort of ocean world, as are some of Saturn's and Jupiter's moons," she told AFP. The team said the salt deposits looked like they had built up within the last two million years -- the blink of an eye in space time. This suggests that the brine may still be ascending from the planet's interior, something De Sanctis said could have profound implications in future studies. "The material found on Ceres is extremely important in terms of astrobiology," she said.

"We know that these minerals are all essential for the emergence of life."

Writing in an accompanying comment article, Julie Castillo-Rogez, from the California Institute of Technology's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, said the discovery of hydrohalite was a "smoking gun" for ongoing water activity.

"That material is unstable on Ceres' surface, and hence must have been emplaced very recently," she said.

In a separate paper, US-based researchers analysed images of the Occator crater and found that its mounds and hills may have formed when water ejected by the impact of a meteor froze on the surface.

The authors said their findings showed that such water freezing processes "extend beyond Earth and Mars, and have been active on Ceres in the geologically recent past".

Astrophysicists Observe Long-Theorized Quantum Phenomena

At the heart of every white dwarf star - the dense stellar object that remains after a star has burned away its fuel reserve of gases as it nears the end of its life cycle - lies a quantum conundrum: as white dwarfs add mass, they shrink in size, until they become so small and tightly compacted that they cannot sustain themselves, collapsing into a neutron star. This puzzling relationship between a white dwarf's mass and size - called the mass-radius relation - was first theorized by Nobel Prize-winning astrophysicist Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar in the 1930s. Now, a team of Johns Hopkins astrophysicists has developed a method to observe the phenomenon itself using astronomical data collected by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey and a recent dataset released by the Gaia Space Observatory. The combined datasets provided more than 3,000 white dwarfs for the team to study. A report of their findings, led by Hopkins senior Vedant Chandra, is now in press in the Astrophysical Journal and available online on arXiv. "The mass-radius relation is a spectacular combination of quantum mechanics and gravity, but it's counterintuitive for us - we think that as an object gains mass, it should get bigger," says Nadia Zakamska, an associate professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy who supervised the student researchers. "The theory has existed for a long time, but what's notable is that the dataset we used is of unprecedented size and unprecedented accuracy. These measurement methods, which in some cases were developed years ago, all of a sudden work so much better and these old theories can finally be probed."

The team obtained their results using a combination of measurements, including primarily the gravitational redshift effect, which is the change of wavelengths of light from blue to red as light moves away from an object. It is a direct result of Einstein's general theory of relativity.

"To me, the beauty of this work is that we all learn these theories about how light will be affected by gravity in school and in textbooks, but now we actually see that relationship in the stars themselves," says fifth-year graduate student Hsiang-Chih Hwang, who proposed the study and first recognized the gravitational redshift effect in the data.

The team also had to account for how a star's movement through space might affect the perception of its gravitational redshift. Similar to how a fire engine siren changes pitch according to its movement in relation to the person listening, light frequencies also change depending on movement of the light-emitting object in relation to the observer. This is called the Doppler effect, and is essentially a distracting "noise" that complicates the measurement of the gravitational redshift effect, says study contributor Sihao Cheng, a fourth-year graduate student.

To account for the variations caused by the Doppler effect, the team classified white dwarfs in their sample set by radius. They then averaged the redshifts of stars of a similar size, effectively determining that no matter where a star itself is located or where it's moving in relation to Earth, it can be expected to have an intrinsic gravitational redshift of a certain value.

Think of it as taking an average measurement of all the pitches of all fire engines moving around in a given area at a given time - you can expect that any fire engine, no matter which direction it's moving, will have an intrinsic pitch of that average value.

These intrinsic gravitational redshift values can be used to study stars that are observed in future datasets. The researchers say that upcoming datasets that are larger and more accurate will allow for further fine-tuning of their measurements, and that this data may contribute to the future analysis of white dwarf chemical composition.

They also say their study represents an exciting advance from theory to observed phenomena.

"Because the star gets smaller as it gets more massive, the gravitational redshift effect also grows with mass," Zakamska says. "And this is a bit easier to comprehend - it's easier to get out of a less dense, bigger object than it is to get out of a more massive, more compact object. And that's exactly what we saw in the data."

The team is even finding captive audiences for their research at home - where they've conducted their work amid the coronavirus pandemic.

"The way I extolled it to my granddad is, you're basically seeing quantum mechanics and Einstein's theory of general relativity coming together to produce this result," Chandra says. "He was very excited when I put it that way."

Universe Is More Homogeneous Than Expected

New results from the Kilo-Degree Survey (KiDS) show that the universe is nearly 10 percent more homogeneous than the standard model of cosmology (Lambda-cold dark matter) predicts. The latest KiDS map was made with the OmegaCAM on ESO's VLT Survey Telescope at Cerro Paranal in Northern Chile. A group of astronomers led from institutes in the Netherlands, Scotland, England and Germany have described the KiDS-1000 result in five articles, the last three of which appeared online last week. They have been submitted for publication in the journal Astronomy and Astrophysics. The new KiDS map covers about 1,000 square degrees, which equates to 5% of the extragalactic sky. 31 million galaxies were used for the analysis. The galaxies are up to 10 billion light-years away, which means their light was emitted when our universe was less than half its present age. KiDS uses the galaxies to map the distribution of matter in the universe. This is done through weak gravitational lensing, where the light from distant galaxies is slightly deflected by the gravitational effect of large amounts of matter, such as galaxy clusters. That effect is used to determine the "clumpiness" of the distribution of the galaxies. This concerns all matter in the universe, of which more than 90 percent consists of invisible dark matter plus invisible tenuous gas.

Over time, the gravity of matter in the universe makes it less and less homogeneous; areas with a little more mass than average attract matter from their surroundings, so increasing the contrast. Meanwhile the expansion of the universe counteracts this growth. Both of these processes are gravity driven and are therefore of great importance for testing the standard model of cosmology, which fairly accurately predicts how density variations increase with the age of the universe.

However, the new KiDS results show a discrepancy: the universe is nearly 10 percent more homogeneous than the standard model predicts.

Dr. Marika Asgari, from the University of Edinburgh, who co-led the analysis, calls the result "intriguing." "The standard model of cosmology relies on rather mysterious physics that we call dark matter and dark energy. Scientists have to test this remarkable model in as many ways as possible, and that is exactly what we are doing."

The KiDS results may indicate small cracks in the standard model, just like another discrepancy in the expansion rate of the universe, the so-called Hubble constant. Dr. Tilman Troster (University of Edinburgh): "The question is whether these can be solved with a small adjustment, for example with a somewhat more complex behavior of dark matter than the simple hypothesis of totally inert 'cold dark matter.'"

Leiden professor and KiDS lead Koen Kuijken cannot say whether this will eventually lead to a fundamentally different theory, for example replacing Einstein's general theory of relativity with a new one. "For now, I consciously try to stay away from possible theoretical interpretations, and focus on the measurements and how to make them as accurate as possible."

Prof. Hendrik Hildebrandt (Ruhr University Bochum) adds: "As an observing cosmologist, you try to remain impartial and make the measurements as accurate as possible without theoretical prejudices. One thing is clear: we live in exciting times!"

The team will need more data to be absolutely sure about the results. "There is a 1 in a 1,000 chance that our findings could be caused by us just having looked at a particularly unusual part of the universe," says Dr. Benjamin Joachimi (University College London)."

In one to two years, the final 'legacy' KiDS map will be published, 30% larger than the current one. It will include all KiDS observations.

Two other projects, one American and one Japanese, are also working on similar analyses from other observatories. From 2022, the baton will be passed on to even more powerful telescopes: the Rubin telescope, which will be more than 60 times as powerful as the VST, and the Euclid satellite, which will take much sharper images from outside the atmosphere than is possible from the ground.

Edinburgh Professor Catherine Heymans, says: "With these two new facilities, we will chart the dark matter across the full sky and confront a wide range of different theoretical models to truly understand the mysterious dark side of our universe."

A European dream team for Mars

European scientists will help select rocks and soil from Mars in the search for life on our planetary neighbour. Five European researchers are part of NASA's Mars 2020 science team to select the most promising martian samples bound for Earth. The mission to Mars launched last week for its seven-month journey to the Red Planet. Once there, the team will guide the Perseverance rover as it hunts for evidence of ancient microbial life. The group is made up of researchers from Belgium, France, Sweden and the UK. "These top scientists from across Europe are experts on how to collect, analyse and read the history of the rocks under our feet. Now they will also have to anticipate the needs and challenges of working with martian samples returned to laboratories back on Earth," says ESA's Mars Sample Return acting programme scientist Gerhard Kminek. For the next three years, the team will be at the core of a wider NASA team. Mark Sephton, Professor of organic geochemistry at Imperial College London in the UK, sees it as "a fantastic opportunity to have some of the finest minds in the world come together to solve one of the biggest questions in the Solar System: was there life on Mars?" Sandra Siljestrom, from Sweden's research institute RISE, dreams of having the "Bring it to me now!" feeling while remotely analysing a rock spotted on Mars at the rover landing site - the Jezero crater. The area contains sediments of an ancient river delta, where evidence of past life could be preserved if it ever existed on the planet.

Once the Perseverance rover retrieves samples of rock and soil from Mars, it will seal them in canisters and drop them on the surface to be collected by a future retrieval mission.

"The Mars 2020 mission is the first step for the ultimate martian challenge: the Mars Sample Return campaign. NASA and ESA aim to deliver the material from the martian surface to Earth by 2031," adds Gerhard.

To bring Mars samples to Earth, three carefully timed missions are required.

NASA will deliver the ESA Sample Fetch Rover to the vicinity of the Mars 2020 landing site. This European rover will autonomously track down and collect up to 36 sample tubes deposited by Perseverance, and take them to NASA's Mars Ascent vehicle.

Better together
The team of European scientists believes the road to Mars and back to Earth is like a long-distance run that is best undertaken together.

"I hope that, as a group of scientists with diverse expertise, we will help maximise the quality, depth and breadth of research possible with the returned samples," says palaeontologist Keyron Hickman-Lewis, who has closely worked with ESA's ExoMars rover team.

No place like Mars
Mars is currently the only planetary body accessible to humans on which scientists expect to find relatively unspoilt geological records from the early history of the Solar System.

Finding traces of life "would represent an incredible discovery and a be a gamechanger for our views on how organisms emerge," says cosmochemist Frederic Moynier.

There is no place quite like Mars to find out whether the conditions for supporting life ever existed beyond Earth.

"The Red Planet is the perfect laboratory to check as the environment has dramatically changed over time," says Vinciane Debaille , geochemist at the Universite Libre de Bruxelles, in Belgium.

Sandra has little doubt, "there will be surprises when we land on Mars". She and her new team cannot wait to receive the first data.

Amazon to invest $10 bn in space-based internet system

Amazon says it will invest $10 billion for its planned space-based internet delivery system after winning US regulatory approval to deploy more than 3,000 low-orbit satellites. The US tech giant said on Thursday it is moving forward with its Project Kuiper, one of several systems planned to bring internet to customers without land-based connections. Project Kuiper aims to deliver satellite-based broadband services in the United States, and eventually around the world, and may offer connectively for wireless carriers and 5G networks. Amazon offer no timetable for the project but said it would begin deployment of its 3,236 satellites after the Federal Communications Commission approved the project. "We have heard so many stories lately about people who are unable to do their job or complete schoolwork because they don't have reliable internet at home," said Amazon senior vice president Dave Limp. "There are still too many places where broadband access is unreliable or where it doesn't exist at all. Kuiper will change that. Our $10 billion investment will create jobs and infrastructure around the United States that will help us close this gap." Project Kuiper seeks to deliver high-speed broadband service to places beyond the reach of traditional fiber or wireless networks, including disaster relief. It will be aimed at individual households, as well as schools, hospitals, businesses and other organizations.

An Amazon statement said the project also aims to "deliver an affordable customer terminal that will make fast, reliable broadband accessible to communities around the world."

Kuiper is one of several projects to deliver internet from space begun over the past decades.

Elon Musk's SpaceX and British-based OneWeb, which filed for bankruptcy earlier this year, are working on similar projects.

New Space satellite pinpoints industrial methane emissions

Methane may not be as abundant in the atmosphere as carbon dioxide, but with a global warming potential many times greater than carbon dioxide, monitoring and controlling industrial emissions of this potent gas is imperative to helping combat climate change. GHGSat is a New Space initiative that draws on Copernicus Sentinel-5P data for mapping methane hotspots - and its Claire satellite has now collected more than 60 000 methane measurements of industrial facilities around the world. Copernicus Sentinel-5P's role is to map a range of atmospheric gases around the globe every 24 hours. Its Tropomi spectrometer delivers data with a resolution as high as 7 km + 5.5 km for methane, but these data can't be used to pinpoint specific facilities responsible for emissions. However, GHGSat's demonstration satellite 'Claire' can, but it is helped with a bit of guidance from Sentinel-5P. Drawing on Sentinel-5P data, the GHGSat tasks Claire to home in on methane point sources. Using this approach, GHGSat has been able to attribute large methane leaks to specific industrial facilities. This is catching the attention of managers responsible for emissions from industries such as oil and gas, waste management, mining, agriculture and power generation. The Climate Investments arm of the Oil and Gas Climate Initiative (OGCI) has taken particular interest, including an investment in GHGSat. Managing Director of Ventures for OGCI Climate Investments, Rhea Hamilton, says, "GHGSat's methane monitoring product has achieved impressive results and is attractive to oil and gas operators.

"The company has identified significant methane leaks and supported operators in understanding the results, prompting corrective action. OGCI Climate Investments looks forward to watching GHGSat grow to serve more operators."

Following on from the Claire demonstrator, GHGSat plans to have a constellation of 10 satellites operating by 2022. The next satellite, Iris, which will be able to spot even smaller methane leaks, is one of the 53 satellites that will be launched on the Vega VV16 flight, scheduled for mid-August.

ESA's Director of Earth Observation Programmes, Josef Aschbacher, commented, "Copernicus Sentinel-5P and Claire working together is a prime example of institutional satellites working hand in hand with commercial satellites, a concept that is taking Earth observation into a new era.

"We are very much looking forward to seeing Iris launch as a next step towards better greenhouse gas monitoring."

Iris will offer a spatial resolution of 25 m compared to Claire's 50 m resolution, therefore allowing methane to be traced even more accurately.

Alongside augmented satellite performance coming from Iris, GHGSat is addressing a growing demand for analytics services and predictive models. For example, dedicated methane analytics and reporting is possible for asset managers and stakeholders responsible for environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors for understanding investment risk and growth opportunity.

GHGSat President and CEO, Stephane Germain, makes analytics a priority to answer specific market needs.

He comments, "GHGSat's analytics are of growing interest for industrial operators in all sectors, as they are accelerating their efforts to mitigate emissions. With this in mind, GHGSat is building on its expertise in Canada and has advanced plans for an international analytics centre delivering for ESG in the financial sector."

In anticipation of the data from Iris, ESA, the Canadian Space Agency and GHGSat have teamed up through an announcement of opportunity to make 5% of Iris data freely available for research purposes.