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US to test nuclear thermal engine for future Mars missions

NASA and DARPA will partner on the Demonstration Rocket for Agile Cislunar Operations (DRACO) programme..reports Asian Lite News

NASA and the US Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) have announced a collaboration to demonstrate a nuclear thermal rocket engine in space, the key steps for sending the first crewed missions to Mars.

NASA and DARPA will partner on the Demonstration Rocket for Agile Cislunar Operations (DRACO) programme, Xinhua news agency reported.

Using a nuclear thermal rocket allows for faster transit time, reducing risk for astronauts, according to NASA. Reducing transit time is a key component for human missions to Mars, as longer trips require more supplies and more robust systems.

“NASA will work with our long-term partner, DARPA, to develop and demonstrate advanced nuclear thermal propulsion technology as soon as 2027. With the help of this new technology, astronauts could journey to and from deep space faster than ever – a major capability to prepare for crewed missions to Mars,” said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson.

A nuclear thermal rocket engine presents advantages over existing propulsion technologies, such as sending cargo to a new lunar base, humans to Mars, and robotic missions even farther.

NTR propulsion offers a high thrust-to-weight ratio around 10,000x greater than electric propulsion and with two-to-five times greater efficiency than in-space chemical propulsion.

“DARPA and NASA have a long history of fruitful collaboration in advancing technologies for our respective goals, from the Saturn V rocket that took humans to the Moon for the first time to robotic servicing and refueling of satellites,” said Dr. Stefanie Tompkins, director, DARPA.

“The space domain is critical to modern commerce, scientific discovery, and national security. The ability to accomplish leap-ahead advances in space technology through the DRACO nuclear thermal rocket program will be essential for more efficiently and quickly transporting material to the Moon and eventually, people to Mars.”

The U.S. Space Force has signaled its support for DRACO with the intent to provide the launch for the demonstration mission.

“We will conduct several experiments with the reactor at various power levels while in space, sending results back to operators on Earth, before executing the full-power rocket engine test remotely,” said Dr. Tabitha Dodson, DARPA program manager for DRACO. “These tests will inform the approach for future operation of NTR engines in space.”

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NASA spots 2nd Earth-size world within ‘habitable zone’

Planet d also orbits in the habitable zone, but the scientists needed an additional year of TESS observations to discover TOI 700 e….reports Asian Lite News

NASA mission has discovered a second Earth-sized, rocky planet within the habitable zone of its star — the range of distances where liquid water could occur on a planet’s surface.

Using data from NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), the astronomers found “TOI 700 e” which is one of only a few systems with multiple, small, habitable-zone planets that we know of.

Astronomers previously discovered three planets in this system, called TOI 700 b, c, and d.

Planet d also orbits in the habitable zone, but the scientists needed an additional year of TESS observations to discover TOI 700 e.

“That makes the TOI 700 system an exciting prospect for additional follow up. Planet e is about 10 per cent smaller than planet d, so the system also shows how additional TESS observations help us find smaller and smaller worlds,” said Emily Gilbert, a postdoctoral fellow at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California who led the work.

TOI 700 is a small, cool M dwarf star located around 100 light-years away in the southern constellation Dorado.

In 2020, Gilbert and others announced the discovery of the Earth-size, habitable-zone planet d, which is on a 37-day orbit, along with two other worlds.

The innermost planet, TOI 700 b, is about 90 per cent Earth’s size and orbits the star every 10 days.

TOI 700 c is over 2.5 times bigger than Earth and completes an orbit every 16 days.

“The planets are probably tidally locked, which means they spin only once per orbit such that one side always faces the star, just as one side of the Moon is always turned toward Earth,” the US space agency said in a statement late on Tuesday.

TOI 700 e, which may also be tidally locked, takes 28 days to orbit its star, placing planet e between planets c and d in the so-called optimistic habitable zone.

Scientists define the optimistic habitable zone as the range of distances from a star where liquid surface water could be present at some point in a planet’s history.

This area extends to either side of the conservative habitable zone, the range where researchers hypothesize liquid water could exist over most of the planet’s lifetime. TOI 700 d orbits in this region.

“Finding other systems with Earth-size worlds in this region helps planetary scientists learn more about the history of our own solar system,” said scientists.

Gilbert presented the result on behalf of her team at the 241st meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Seattle, the US.

A paper about the newly discovered planet was accepted by The Astrophysical Journal Letters.

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Hubble finds ghost light among galaxies stretches far back in time

NASA's Webb reveals molecular, chemical profile of distant world's skies.(photo:nasa.gov)

The survey included 10 galaxy clusters as far away as nearly 10 billion light-years…reports Asian Lite News

In giant clusters of hundreds or thousands of galaxies, innumerable stars wander like lost souls, emitting a ghostly haze of light. These stars are not gravitationally tied to any one galaxy in a cluster.

The nagging question for astronomers has been: how did the stars get so scattered throughout the cluster in the first place? Several competing theories include the possibility that the stars were stripped out of a cluster’s galaxies, or they were tossed around after mergers of galaxies, or they were present early in a cluster’s formative years many billions of years ago. A recent infrared survey from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, which looked for this so-called ‘intracluster light’, sheds new light on the mystery. The new Hubble observations suggest that these stars have been wandering around for billions of years, and are not a product of more recent dynamical activity inside a galaxy cluster that would strip them out of normal galaxies.

The survey included 10 galaxy clusters as far away as nearly 10 billion light-years. These measurements must be made from space because the faint intracluster light is 10,000 times dimmer than the night sky as seen from the ground.

The survey reveals that the fraction of the intracluster light relative to the total light in the cluster remains constant, looking over billions of years back into time. “This means that these stars were already homeless in the early stages of the cluster’s formation,” said James Jee of Yonsei University in Seoul, South Korea. His results are being published in the January 5 issue of Nature magazine.

Stars can be scattered outside of their galactic birthplace when a galaxy moves through gaseous material in the space between galaxies, as it orbits the center of the cluster. In the process, drag pushes gas and dust out of the galaxy. However, based on the new Hubble survey, Jee rules out this mechanism as the primary cause for the intracluster star production. That’s because the intracluster light fraction would increase over time to the present if stripping is the main player. But that is not the case in the new Hubble data, which show a constant fraction over billions of years.

“We don’t exactly know what made them homeless. Current theories cannot explain our results, but somehow they were produced in large quantities in the early universe,” said Jee, adding, “In their early formative years, galaxies might have been pretty small and they bled stars pretty easily because of a weaker gravitational grasp.”

“If we figure out the origin of intracluster stars, it will help us understand the assembly history of an entire galaxy cluster, and they can serve as visible tracers of dark matter enveloping the cluster,” said Hyungjin Joo of Yonsei University, the first author of the paper. Dark matter is the invisible scaffolding of the universe, which holds galaxies, and clusters of galaxies, together. (ANI)

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Mars InSight lander posts its last image  

NASA's Mars InSight lander posts its last image on Twitter

“We’re starting to really tease out the details. Now it’s not just this enigma; it’s actually a living, breathing planet.”…reports Asian Lite News

NASA’s Mars InSight lander on Tuesday posted its last image on Twitter as it prepares to fall silent anytime, ending its history-making mission to reveal secrets of the Red Planet’s interior.

The spacecraft’s power generation continues to decline as windblown dust on its solar panels thickens. The end is expected to come anytime.

“My power’s really low, so this may be the last image I can send. Don’t worry about me though: my time here has been both productive and serene. If I can keep talking to my mission team, I will – but I’ll be signing off here soon. Thanks for staying with me,” posted the InSight lander team.

The 30-member odd operations team – a small group compared to other Mars missions – continues to squeeze the most they can out of InSight (short for Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport).

The most important of the final steps with the InSight mission is storing its trove of data and making it accessible to researchers around the world.

The lander data has yielded details about Mars’ interior layers, its liquid core, the surprisingly variable remnants beneath the surface of its mostly extinct magnetic field, weather on this part of Mars, and lots of quake activity, according to NASA.

InSight’s seismometer has detected more than 1,300 marsquakes since the lander touched down in November 2018, the largest measuring a magnitude 5. It even recorded quakes from meteoroid impacts.

“Finally, we can see Mars as a planet with layers, with different thicknesses, compositions,” said Bruce Banerdt of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, the mission’s principal investigator.

“We’re starting to really tease out the details. Now it’s not just this enigma; it’s actually a living, breathing planet.”

The seismometer readings will join the only other sets of extraterrestrial seismic data, from the Apollo lunar missions and the Viking Mars missions, in NASA’s Planetary Data System.

They will also go into an international archive run by the Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology, which houses “all the terrestrial seismic network data locations”, said JPL’s Sue Smrekar, InSight’s deputy principal investigator. “Now, we also have one on Mars.”

Smrekar said the data is expected to continue yielding discoveries for decades. There will be no heroic measures to re-establish contact with InSight. While a mission-saving event – a strong gust of wind, say, that cleans the panels off – isn’t out of the question, it is considered unlikely.

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Orion spacecraft on course to return to Earth on Dec 11

As soon as Orion splashes down, a team of divers, engineers, and technicians will depart the ship on small boats and arrive at the capsule…reports Asian Lite News

After a historic flyby just 128 km from the surface of the Moon, NASA’s Orion spacecraft is on course for its return to Earth on December 11.

The spacecraft made its second and final close approach to the Moon, just before its return powered flyby burn, passing about 128 kms above the lunar surface on Monday.

“Orion is heading home! Today the team achieved another momentous accomplishment, flying Orion just 128 kms from the surface of the Moon. The lunar flyby enabled the spacecraft to harness the Moon’s gravity and slingshot it back toward Earth for splashdown,” said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson.

“When Orion re-enters Earth’s atmosphere in just a few days, it will come back hotter and faster than ever before — the ultimate test before we put astronauts on board. Next up, re-entry,” he added.

As soon as Orion splashes down, a team of divers, engineers, and technicians will depart the ship on small boats and arrive at the capsule.

Once there, they will secure it and prepare to tow it into the back of the ship, known as the well deck.

The divers will attach a cable to pull the spacecraft into the ship, called the winch line, and up to four additional tending lines to attach points on the spacecraft. The winch will pull Orion into a specially designed cradle inside the ship’s well deck and the other lines will control the motion of the spacecraft.

“Last week, we completed our final rehearsal with the USS Portland, which will be our recovery ship for Artemis I,” said Melissa Jones, landing and recovery director, NASA’s Kennedy Space Center.

The uncrewed Orion spacecraft also surpassed the record set in 1970 by the crew on Apollo 13’s aborted mission to land on the Moon.

The spacecraft reached the farthest distance from Earth during the Artemis I mission — 268,563 miles (432,210 km) from our home planet.

The earlier record was set during the Apollo 13 mission at 248,655 miles (400,171 km) from Earth.

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UAE President meets heads of international space agencies

Sheikh Mohamed also received the founders of emerging Emirati companies in the space and advanced technology sector…reports Asian Lite News

President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan affirmed that the UAE is continuing to consolidate its position in the space sector, adding that the UAE national cadres are capable of reaching the highest possible level in this sector, which, he said, is one of the vital spheres for securing sustainable development, due to the significant economic and scientific opportunities it creates.

The UAE president made the statements as he received at Qasr Al-Bahr Palace yesterday – in the presence of Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai – the leaders of the international space agencies participating in the Abu Dhabi Space Dialogue, which concluded today.

Sheikh Mohamed added, “The UAE will continue to support the space sector and groom national cadres at the highest levels to enhance the state’s competitiveness in this sector, in collaboration with its partners from various parts of the world, for the common good of humanity at large.”

“We have confidence in the UAE people, and our bet on them is successful. They possess the will and ambition in the field of space exploration to constructively contribute with the peoples of the world to ensuring a better future for generations to come,” Sheikh Mohamed added.

Those he received included Christian Hauglie-Hanssen, the Director General at the Norwegian Space Agency (NOSA); Ricardo Conde, President of the Portuguese Space Agency; Dr. Hiroshi Yamakawe, President of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA); Serdar Hüseyin Yildirim, President of Turkish Space Agency (TUA); Dr. Robin Jess, Director of the United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research; Dr. Sang-Ryool Lee, President of Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI); and Hervé Dery, President and CEO of Thales Elena Space.

Sheikh Mohamed also received the founders of emerging Emirati companies in the space and advanced technology sector, whom His Highness urged to make more efforts to develop the UAE space sector and forge ahead on the path of success that has been achieved in a record time, in order to enhance the position of the UAE and its international presence in this vital field.

Present at the meeting were Sheikh Hazza bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Deputy Chairman of Abu Dhabi Executive Council; Lt. General Sheikh Saif bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of the Interior; Sheikh Tahnoun bin Zayed Al Nahyan, National Security Adviser; as well as a number of Sheikhs and senior officials.

In attendance also were Sarah Al Amiri, Minister of State for Advanced Technology and Chairperson of UAE Space Agency; Omran Sharaf, Assistant Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation for Advanced Science and Technology and Chairman of the Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (COPUOS);Salem Al Qubaisi, Director General of the UAE Space Agency etc.

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Hubble captures unusual galaxy merger in ancient universe

Hubble captures unusual galaxy merger in ancient universe (twitter)

The two galaxies were distorted by gravity and twisted into a colossal ring, leaving their cores nestled side by side, said NASA…reports Asian Lite News

The NASA Hubble Space Telescope has captured an unusual galaxy merger in the ancient universe.

The Arp-Madore catalog is a collection of particularly peculiar galaxies spread throughout the southern sky, and includes a collection of subtly interacting galaxies as well as more spectacular colliding galaxies.

“Arp-Madore 417-391”, which lies around 670 million light-years away in the constellation Eridanus in the southern celestial hemisphere, is one such galactic collision.

The two galaxies were distorted by gravity and twisted into a colossal ring, leaving their cores nestled side by side, said NASA.

Hubble used its Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) to capture this scene the instrument is optimised to hunt for galaxies and galaxy clusters in the ancient universe.

“Hubble’s ACS has been contributing to scientific discovery for 20 years, and throughout its lifetime it has been involved in everything from mapping the distribution of dark matter to studying the evolution of galaxy clusters,” NASA added.

This image comes from a selection of Hubble observations designed to create a list of intriguing targets for follow-up observations with the James Webb Space Telescope, as well as other ground-based telescopes.

Astronomers chose a list of previously unobserved galaxies for Hubble to inspect between other scheduled observations.

Over time, this lets astronomers build up a menagerie of interesting galaxies while using Hubble’s limited observing time as efficiently as possible, said NASA.

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ISRO conducts its 200th consecutive successful launch  

ISRO is launching this satellite to provide continuity to the services of Oceansat-2 spacecraft with enhanced payload specifications as well as in application areas…reports Asian Lite News

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on Wednesday completed the 200th consecutive successful launch of the versatile RH200 sounding rocket from Thumba in Thiruvananthapuram. ISRO termed it a “historic moment”. It was witnessed by former President Ram Nath Kovind and ISRO chairman S Somanath, among others.

The successful flight of RH200 took off from the Thumba Equatorial Rocket Launching Station (TERLS). “Indian sounding rockets are used as privileged tools for the scientific community for carrying out experiments on meteorology, astronomy and similar branches of space physics,” an ISRO statement said.

Campaigns such as Equatorial ElectroJet (EEJ), Leonid Meteor Shower (LMS), Indian Middle Atmosphere Programme (IMAP), Monsoon Experiment (MONEX), Middle Atmosphere Dynamics (MIDAS), and Sooryagrahan-2010 have been conducted using the sounding rocket platform for scientific exploration of the Earth’s atmosphere, it said.

The Rohini Sounding Rocket (RSR) series have been the forerunners for ISRO’s heavier and more complex launch vehicles, with a continued usage even today for atmospheric and meteorological studies, the national space agency headquartered here said. “The 200th consecutive successful flight stands testimony to the commitment of Indian rocket scientists towards unmatched reliability demonstrated over the years,” it was stated.

ISRO to launch Oceansat-3, 8 nano satellites tomorrow

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) will launch Earth Observation Satellite – 06 (EOS-06) and eight nano satellites on November 26.

According to the space agency, the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-C54) will launch the satellites at 11.56 a.m. from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota. The EOS-6 is a third-generation satellite in the Oceansat series of satellites.

ISRO is launching this satellite to provide continuity to the services of Oceansat-2 spacecraft with enhanced payload specifications as well as in application areas.

The eight nano satellites include: ISRO Nano Satellite-2 for Bhutan (INS-2B), Anand, Astrocast (four satellites), and two Thybolt satellites. The INS-2B spacecraft will have two payloads namely NanoMx and APRS-Digipeater.

While the NanoMx is a multi-spectral optical imaging payload developed by Space Applications Centre, Ahmedabad, the APRS-Digipeater payload has been jointly developed by the Department of Information Technology and Telecom-Bhutan and the UR Rao Satellite Centre, Bengaluru.

The Anand nano satellite developed by Bengaluru-based space start-up, Pixxel, is a technology demonstrator to demonstrate the capabilities and commercial applications of miniaturised Earth-observation cameras for Earth observation using a microsatellite in Low Earth Orbit.

Astrocast, developed by Hyderabad-based Dhruva Space, is a 3U spacecraft. It is a technology demonstrator satellite for the Internet of Things (IoT).

The US-based Spaceflight has developed Thybolt which is a 0.5U spacecraft bus that includes a communication payload to enable rapid technology demonstration and constellation development for multiple users.

ISRO said that the PSLV-C54 will launch EOS-06 and the eight nano satellites into two different Sun-synchronous polar orbits .

“The primary satellite (EOS-06) will be separated in Orbit-1. Subsequently, a orbit change has been planned by using two orbit change thrusters introduced in the propulsion bay ring of the PSLV-C54. The passenger payloads will be separated in Orbit-2,” ISRO said.

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India test fires intermediate-range ballistic missile Agni-3

ballistic missile, Agni-3. (Credit : @RAFIndia_/twitter)

The launch was carried out for a predetermined range and validated all operational parameters of the system, the official added…reports Asian Lite News

India on Wednesday carried out a successful training launch of an intermediate-range ballistic missile, Agni-3, from the APJ Abdul Kalam Island off the coast of Odisha.

A Defence Ministry official said that the successful test was part of routine user training launches carried out under the aegis of the Strategic Forces Command. The launch was carried out for a predetermined range and validated all operational parameters of the system, the official added.

In another move, DRDO’s compendium on low intensity conflict (LIC) products was released jointly on Wednesday by Union Home Secretary Ajay Kumar Bhalla and Secretary DDR&D and Chairman DRDO, Samir V Kamat.

DRDO officials said that in line with the Aatmanirbhar Bharat campaign of the Government of India, the compendium consists of more than 100 technologies, systems and products developed by DRDO for LIC operations. It is a valuable repository of information for the central security forces.

The collaboration, institutionalised to develop technologies and systems for LIC operations, has helped DRDO develop many products and systems required for the central security forces during LIC operations. The collaboration has also helped in identifying futuristic requirements for LIC operations and defining the roadmap for their development, DRDO said.

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ISRO all set to launch first-ever private rocket

It will carry a total of three payloads in space, including one from the foreign customers…reports Asian Lite News

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is all set to make history on Friday when it will launch the first-ever private rocket on Friday, setting a new milestone in the 75 years journey of independent India.

Union Science & Technology Minister Jitendra Singh said that this will be a major milestone in the journey of ISRO, after Prime Minister Narendra Modi had unlocked the space sector in India two years ago for private participation.

He said that the non-government entity, startup Skyroot Aerospace Pvt Ltd (SAPL) has developed the Vikram-suborbital (VKS) rocket, which is a single stage spin stabilised solid propellant rocket with mass of approx 550 kg. He said, the rocket goes to the max altitude of 101 km and splashes into the sea and the overall duration of launch is 300 seconds only.

Skyroot was the first startup to sign a MoU with ISRO for launching its rockets. Apart from being the nation’s first private launch, it will also be the maiden mission of Skyroot Aerospace, named “Prarambh”. It will carry a total of three payloads in space, including one from the foreign customers.

The Minister said this it will provide a level playing field for cost-efficient satellite launch services by disrupting the entry barriers and will also help the startups to make spaceflights affordable and reliable.

Space reforms have unleashed innovative potentials of startups and within a short span of time, from a couple of space startups three-four years back, today the country has 102 star-ups working in cutting-edge areas of space debris management, nano-satellite, launch vehicle, ground systems, research etc, he said, adding that with the integration of R&D, academia and industry, it is safe to say that a ‘Space Revolution’ led by the ISRO along with the private sector and startups is on the horizon.

‘ISRO’s rocket launch and tracking fee is nominal’

The fee charged by the Indian space agency for the rocket launch and tracking services is nominal, said a top official of private rocket startup Skyroot Aerospace.

“The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) provides integration facility, launchpad, range communications and tracking support before and during our rocket launch,” Pawan Kumar Chandana, CEO and Co-Founder said.

“The fee is reasonable. However, we won’t be able to share contractual details as we are bound by a non-disclosure agreement with ISRO and IN-SPACe (Indian National Space Promotion and Authorisation Centre — the regulator for private sector space industry),” Chandana added.

Skyroot Aerospace’s rocket Vikram-S with three small satellites is scheduled for launch on November 18 at 11.30 a.m.

“Launch is likely on 18th as the weather is predicted to be ideal. Due to inclement weather, we got an updated launch window of November 15-19, 2022,” Chandana said.

According to him, the Vikram-S rocket is a scaled down version of Vikram-1 rocket. The former is a single stage rocket whereas the latter is a multi-stage vehicle.

“Almost all our systems flying in Vikram-S were designed in-house, except for few sensors which were imported,” Chandana said.

The rocket will be powered by a single stage to help test and validate the majority of the technologies in the Vikram series of rockets.

The company plans to have three rocket variants: Vikram I – payload or carrying capacity 480 kg to 500 km low inclination orbit (LIO); 290 kg to 500 km sun synchronous and polar orbit (SSPO); Vikram II – 595 kg to 500 km LIO, 400 kg to 500 km SSPO and Vikram III – 815 kg to 500 km LIO, 560 kg to 500 km SSPO.

Skyroot Aerospace’s rockets are named ‘Vikram’ as a tribute to the founder of the Indian Space programme and renowned scientist Dr Vikram Sarabhai.

Chandana said Vikram-1 is expected to fly during the third quarter of calendar year 2023.

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