13/IV 2024 [53-56]53)
Review: Our Moonby Jeff Foust Monday, April 1, 2024
Our Moon: How Earth’s Celestial Companion Transformed the Planet, Guided Evolution, and Made Us Who We Are
by Rebecca Boyle
Random House, 2024
hardcover, 336 p., illus.
ISBN 978-0-593-12972-2
US$28.99
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0593129725/spaceviewsNext Monday, all eyes will turn skyward along a path stretching from Mazatlán, Mexico, to Gander, Newfoundland, including a stretch from Texas to Maine, to watch a total solar eclipse (or try to, weather permitting.) NASA, for example, has planned multiple events across the country for the eclipse, all part of a “Heliophysics Big Year” to promote the agency’s work studying the Sun. But, as the agency’s planetary scientists point out, you can’t have a solar eclipse without the Moon.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4766/154)
Strategic implications of China winning the space rescue race (part 1)by Benjamin J. Johnis and Peter Garretson Monday, April 1, 2024
A futuristic Space Guard rescue scenario. (credit: James Vaughan, used with permission)Several times in its history, the United States has proven unprepared for personnel recovery due to outdated policy that failed to anticipate novel personnel recovery challenges. Trend studies demonstrate the United States adjusts its personnel recovery policies after a major crisis or event occurs. The US government must break this reactive personnel recovery policy and investment cycle or America is at risk of losing its leadership role to China in cislunar space. Only a proactive national approach will ensure the United States remains the leader in space.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4767/155)
Touching spaceby Lisa Pettibone Monday, April 1, 2024
The piece “Fingertip Galaxy” was included on the Euclid spacecraft launched last July. (credit: ESA)In July 2023, I was eagerly awaiting the launch of European Space Agency’s Euclid Mission in Florida. Ten years in development, the Falcon 9 rocket would send a telescope, with one of the most powerful cameras in space and two sensitive instruments, to explore the nature of dark matter and dark energy. But the spacecraft was also dispatching another kind of invaluable instrument.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4768/156)
A space telescope’s cloudy futureby Jeff Foust Monday, April 1, 2024
Astronomers are concerned proposed budget cuts for the Chandra X-Ray Observatory could lead to its cancellation. (credit: NASA)NASA has a long-standing process for evaluating whether to continue science missions. About every three years, each of NASA’s science divisions conducts a “senior review” of missions that have reached the end of their prime mission but are still operating. The reviews are intended to examine the performance of the missions and the science they are conducting to determine if NASA should keep funding their operations and what changes may be needed, such as efficiencies that can reduce their costs.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4769/114/IV 2024 [57-60]57)
Review: The Music of Spaceby Jeff Foust Monday, April 8, 2024
The Music of Space: Scoring the Cosmos in Film and Television
by Chris Carberry
McFarland, 2024
paperback, 304 pp., illus.
ISBN 978-1-4766-8897-8
US$39.95
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1476688974/spaceviewsIn space, no one may hear you scream, but at least you’ll get a soundtrack. Science fiction movies and television shows, particularly those about space, are known for their distinctive soundtracks, from orchestral to electronic. They set the mood for the shows and can have an impact that goes far beyond the big or small screen, in some cases becoming instantly recognizable cultural artifacts in and of themselves.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4770/158)
Strategic implications of China winning the space rescue race (part 2)by Benjamin J. Johnis and Peter Garretson Monday, April 8, 2024
[Part 1 was published last week.]
A futuristic Space Guard rescue scenario. (credit: James Vaughan, used with permission)Relationships between personnel recovery and policyEvent history analysis of policy changesRecent conflicts between the United States and China regarding multi-domain strategies are trending towards a “Grey Rhino” event. Most have heard of a “Black Swan” event where high-impact incidents occur that are nearly impossible to predict.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4771/159)
A North Korean satellite starts showing signs of life (part 2)by Marco Langbroek Monday, April 8, 2024
Kim Jong Un with a globe, an image evoking Chaplin’s “The Great Dictator”. (credit: KCNA)In a previous article (see “A North Korean satellite starts showing signs of life”, The Space Review, March 4, 2024), I briefly presented evidence that the new North Korean military reconnaissance satellite Malligyong-1 (2023-179A) had performed a series of small orbit raising maneuvers in late February of 2024. In this follow-up analysis, I will be looking at the specific moments these maneuvers were initiated. They match passes over North Korea, it turns out.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4772/160)
GAMBIT vs KENNEN: The persistence of film reconnaissance in the digital ageby Dwayne A. Day Monday, April 8, 2024
The GAMBIT satellite program used film to take high resolution images. GAMBIT continued in service until 1984, even though the KENNEN digital imagery satellite entered service in late 1976. GAMBIT still had advantages over KENNEN in the short term. Here a GAMBIT satellite is launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base in 1968. (credit: Peter Hunter Collection)One of the mysteries of the American reconnaissance satellite program during the Cold War was why, after the KENNEN digital near-real-time reconnaissance satellite entered service in late 1976, the United States continued to operate film-return reconnaissance satellites well into the 1980s.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4773/115/IV 2024 [61-64]61)
Nukes in space: a bad idea in the 1960s and an even worse one nowby Michael Mulvihill Monday, April 15, 2024
Photograph taken from Honolulu of the aurora created by Starfish Prime. (credit: US government archive)The US and Japan are sponsoring a resolution for debate by the United Nations Security Council which, if passed, will reaffirm international commitments to the 1967 Outer Space Treaty (OST) forbidding the deployment and use of nuclear weapons in space.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4774/162)
Zero-gravity regulationsby David Gillette and Emma Rohrbach Monday, April 15, 2024
The commercial spaceflight industry has benefited from a limited regulatory regime that offers lessons for other industries. (credit: Virgin Galactic)Journalists have filled headlines about the “ultrarich” taking costly field trips to outer space. The issue of space tourism, seemingly frivolous to some, provides important insights into US regulations on innovation (see “The normalization of space tourism,” The Space Review, October 18, 2021.) For 20 years, the US government took a laissez-faire approach to regulating space tourism.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4775/163)
FARRAH, the superstar satelliteby Dwayne A. Day Monday, April 15, 2024
Half-sized model of the FARRAH signals intelligence satellite in the restoration hangar at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center near Dulles International Airport outside Washington, DC. The first FARRAH satellite was launched in 1982 and used to detect ground, and possibly sea-based radars. The way the satellite appears here is similar to how it would orbit the Earth, with the direction of flight for the rotating satellite to the left. The satellite spun at greater than 50 revolutions per minute, sweeping its antennas across the face of the Earth below. (credit: author’s photo)The Smithsonian’s Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center, located near Dulles International Airport outside of Washington, DC, has a large viewing gallery overlooking its restoration hangar. Whereas some museum artifacts spend years in the restoration hangar, many others cycle through quickly for a cleaning and minor repair work before returning to storage or display.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4776/164)
Lunar rover racingby Jeff Foust Monday, April 15, 2024
The Lunar Dawn rover, proposed by a team led by Lunar Outpost, is among the three selected by NASA for its Lunar Terrain Vehicle program. (credit: Lockheed Martin)When NASA returns astronauts to the Moon later this decade, they will be hoofing it. On the Artemis 3 and, perhaps, Artemis 4 missions, the astronauts will be limited like the early Apollo missions to terrain they can access on foot. That also means they will be limited in the equipment they can carry, and the samples they can gather, to what they can hold in their hands.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4777/116/IV 2024 [65-68]65)
Review: Still As Brightby Jeff Foust Monday, April 22, 2024
Still As Bright: An Illuminating History of the Moon, from Antiquity to Tomorrowby Christopher Cokinos
Pegasus Books, 2024
hardcover, 448 pp., illus.
ISBN 978-1-63936-569-2
US$35
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1639365699/spaceviewsEarly in his new book Still As Bright, Christopher Cokinos writes that, like so many boys in the early Space Age, he dreamed of becoming an astronaut after first becoming an Air Force pilot, even joining the Civil Air Patrol. “To this day, I remember Miss Hawk literally pulling me out of advanced algebra, though I don’t know why,” he writes, “and by the next class I was in remedial math, resigned, overnight, to never having wings pinned on a uniform.”
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4778/166)
Tintin, the first man in space and on the Moonby Anusuya Datta Monday, April 22, 2024
April 12 is a historic day for the space industry. On this day back in 1961, Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first human in space. Not to be left behind, the United States sent its first man into space in less than a month—Alan Shepard on May 5—thus sparking the famous space race between the two Cold War superpowers.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4779/167)
NASA’s strategy for space sustainabilityby Jeff Foust Monday, April 22, 2024
NASA’s TIMED spacecraft came within ten meters of a defunct Russian satellite in February, narrowly avoiding a collision that would have created thousands of pieces of debris in low Earth orbit. (credit: Johns Hopkins APL/Steve Gribben)At about 1:30 am EST on February 28, NASA’s Thermosphere Ionosphere Mesosphere Energetics and Dynamics Mission (TIMED) spacecraft passed close to a defunct Russian satellite, Cosmos 2221.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4780/168)
The ongoing triumph of Ingenuityby William Pomerantz Monday, April 22, 2024
The Ingenuity Mars helicopter performed 72 flights over nearly three years. (credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU)This is my love letter to Ingenuity.
I remember when I first heard about the concept of a small helicopter designed to catch a ride with a rover bound for the Martian surface. At the time, my wife worked as part of the “Mars Mafia” at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory: a wonderful job that meant she got to bring intriguing ideas and fascinating discoveries home from work regularly.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4781/117/IV 2024 [69-72]69)
Review: Who Owns the Moon?by Jeff Foust Monday, April 29, 2024
Who Owns the Moon?: In Defence of Humanity’s Common Interests in Spaceby A. C. Grayling
Oneworld Publications, 2024
hardcover, 224 pp.
ISBN 978-0-86154-725-8
US$26.95
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/086154725X/spaceviewsThe current unfortunate state of space diplomacy was on display last week during a session of the United Nations Security Council. Japan and the United States, with more than 60 nations as co-sponsors, put forward a resolution they billed as the first devoted to space security to be considered by the council.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4782/170)
China’s interest in the far side of the Moon: scientific, military, or economic?by Carlos Alatorre Monday, April 29, 2024
An illustration of Chang’e-6 on the surface of the lunar farside. (credit: CNSA)On January 3, 2019, China achieved the first successful landing on the far side of the Moon with the Chang’e-4 probe. Twelve hours after touching down in the Von Karman Crater near the Moon’s south pole, the accompanying Yutu-2 rover began an exploration of the crater, a region that neither the United States nor the Soviet Union had explored before. This achievement was announced, gaining much fanfare within China as the first nation to deliver a probe to the far side.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4783/171)
Lazy Cat on a mountaintopby Dwayne A. Day Monday, April 29, 2024
Cold War era artist impression of a Soviet high-powered laser. In the 1970s, the CIA became concerned that Soviet lasers could attack American satellites. (credit: Defense Intelligence Agency for Soviet Military Power)In the last days of the rule of the Shah of Iran, the CIA installed a new dome atop a mountain next to a field of equipment used to gather information from inside the Soviet Union. But before the intelligence service could put it into operation in 1978, the Shah fell and the CIA hastily abandoned the site.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4784/1Ciąg dalszy opowieści o perturbacjach związanych z misją MSR72)
NASA looks for an MSR lifelineby Jeff Foust Monday, April 29, 2024
A selfie taken by the Perseverance rover showing one of its sample tubes on the ground. NASA is still working to figure out how to get those samples back to Earth effectively. (credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS)For more than half a year, dark clouds have hovered over NASA’s Mars Sample Return (MSR) program. Last September, an independent panel concluded that the current approach to returning samples being collected by the Perseverance rover was behind schedule and far over budget, with cost estimates as high as $11 billion. That prompted an internal NASA reassessment of the MSR program that, coupled with uncertainty about spending levels for the program in 2024, led to slowing work on much of MSR and, in February, laying off 8% of the staff at JPL, the lead center for MSR (see “MSR at serious risk”, The Space Review, February 12, 2024). (...)
The main technical difference was the inclusion of a radioisotope thermoelectric generator (RTG) on the lander, which previously was solar powered, to make lander operations more robust. (Including the RTG, the report noted, made little change to its price but it meant there would be no room for helicopters based on Ingenuity; those were intended to fetch samples from a cache on the surface as a backup to getting them directly from Perseverance.)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4785/118/V 2024 [73-76]73)
Review: The Asteroid Hunterby Jeff Foust Monday, May 6, 2024
The Asteroid Hunter: A Scientist’s Journey to the Dawn of our Solar Systemby Dante S. Lauretta
Grand Central Publishing, 2024
hardcover, 336 pp., illus.
ISBN 978-1-5387-2294-7
US$30
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1538722941/spaceviewsMany people can identify a particular point where they found their purpose in life. It can be an event of some kind, either celebratory or traumatic; a chance encounter with someone; or maybe a book. For Dante Lauretta, it was an ad in a student newspaper.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4786/174)
The rising flood of space junk is a risk to us on Earthby Thomas Cheney Monday, May 6, 2024
The ISS was the source of a piece of debris that hit a Florida home in March. (credit: NASA)A piece of space junk recently crashed through the roof and floor of a man’s home in Florida. NASA later confirmed that the object had come from unwanted hardware released from the International Space Station.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4787/175)
Boeing’s Starliner, an important milestone for commercial spaceflightby Wendy N. Whitman Cobb Monday, May 6, 2024
Starliner is set to launch as soon as Monday night on its first crewed flight. (credit: NASA/Joel Kowsky)If all goes well late on May 6, NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams will blast off into space on Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft. Launching from the Kennedy Space Center, this last crucial test for Starliner will test out the new spacecraft and take the pair to the International Space Station for about a week.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4788/1