The next seven days are gone, and even during them a lot of interesting things happened in cosmonautics! A regular summary of the most interesting things that happened in space in the past week, the main topic will focus on interesting missions aimed at researching the Sun. NASA has launched four low-cost projects, which have a very interesting focus, in the preparation of conceptual studies. In other topics, we will look, for example, at the end of the Chandrayaan-3 mission or at the static ignition of the Falcon Heavy, which should launch the Psyche probe. You won’t lose the traditional sections either. I wish you good reading and a nice Sunday.
NASA has selected 4 CubeSat missions to study the Sun
The fleet is a mission that is focused on researching the Sun and the interaction of the Sun with the Earth
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The American NASA has presented four missions for which it will conduct conceptual studies. These are small missions made up of CubeSats, which as a concept once again show that even large scientific questions can be solved by a relatively cheap single-purpose satellite. These four selected proposals aim to verify some as yet incompletely explored questions regarding the Sun and space weather. At the same time, the selection took place in such a way that the new projects suitably complement the current large space missions that are already exploring the Sun and focus on those research points that these missions cannot fully explore.
All of the missions will join the current fleet of heliophysics missions and provide deeper insight into the mechanics of our universe, but will also offer important information to help protect astronauts, satellites and space communications. “These four mission concept studies were chosen because they address interesting scientific questions and could significantly impact the field of heliophysics,” said Nicky Fox, deputy administrator for science at NASA Headquarters in Washington. Let’s now imagine these projects. There is also one constellation among them.
CINEMA (Cross-scale Investigation of Earth’s Magnetotail and Aurora)
Design of the interior layout of CubeSat CINEMA
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Perhaps the most interesting and ambitious project of the selection. The mission will try to understand the structure and evolution of the Earth magnetic tail – vast structures of denser cosmic plasma in magnetic fields flowing behind Earth, also known as magnetotail. This area should be explored by CINEMA using a constellation of nine CubeSats placed in sun-synchronous orbit. So the main goal is to study the effects and functioning of the Earth’s magnetic tail, as well as how the Earth’s magnetic fields transfer energy and heat, and how they change over time at different distances. CINEMA will complement current heliophysics missions such as THEMIS (Time History of Events and Macroscale Interactions during Substorms), MMS (Magnetospheric Multiscale) and the planned mission Geospace Dynamics Constellation. The principal investigator of the CINEMA mission concept study is Robyn Millan of Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire. However, this is an international project, where the involvement of high school and university students also plays a relatively large role. It is also represented in Europe (Imperial College London) and in South Korea. CINEMA has the ambition to provide critical measurements of space weather, including unique high-sensitivity mapping energetically neutral atoms (ENA) and spatial video recordings (captured from multiple positions of the aforementioned constellation) of the ENA ring stream from low Earth orbit. By selecting its sensors, the mission will pave the way for proposed magnetospheric constellations with many satellites performing multipoint observations.
CMEx (Chromospheric Magnetism Explorer)
The goal of this mission is to understand the magnetic nature of solar flares and identify the magnetic sources of the solar wind. A fundamental manifestation of cosmic weather, whose principle of origin and functioning still eludes us for the most part. CMEx proposes to obtain the first continuous observation of the Sun’s magnetic field in the chromosphere – the layer of the Sun’s atmosphere directly above photosphere (the visible surface of the Sun). These observations would improve our understanding of how the magnetic field on the Sun’s surface is related to interplanetary magnetic field, which is the Sun’s magnetic field carried by the solar wind between the planets of the Solar System. The principal investigator for this mission concept study is Holly Gilbert of the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado.
EUV CME and the Extreme Ultraviolet Coronal Mass Ejection and Coronal Connectivity Observatory (ECCCO)
The ECCCO observatory consists of one CubeSat type satellite that will carry two instruments. On the one hand, a wide-angle camera shooting in the ultraviolet spectrum, where the goal is to capture energetic ultraviolet radiation from the Sun and a unique EUV spectrograph. ECCCO observations should contribute to the understanding of the functioning of the central corona region, the dynamics of the emergence of eruptive events leaving the Sun and the conditions that create the solar wind, which then flows from these places into outer space. The mission is to address fundamental questions such as where the flow of matter (solar wind) and energy connecting the Sun to the outer corona and heliosphere comes from. The principal investigator of the ECCCO concept study is Katharine Reeves of the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
DON’T (Magnetospheric Auroral Asymmetry Explorer)
The main goal of this fourth mission would be to improve our understanding of how the electrodynamic coupling between the Earth’s magnetosphere and ionosphere regulates the flow of energies that allow the aurora to form. The mission would use two identically equipped CubeSats equipped with dual-wavelength ultraviolet cameras to provide global views of Earth’s northern and southern auroras. The principal investigator of the MAAX concept study is Michael Liemohn from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.
“The selection of these concept studies holds great promise for ongoing heliophysics research,” said Peg Luce, acting director of the Heliophysics Division at NASA Headquarters. “The potential to gain new knowledge and answer long-standing questions in the field while building on the research and technology of our current and older missions is very large.Funding and oversight of the management of these mission concept studies is provided by the program Heliophysics Explorerswho directs the Explorers Program Office at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.
Cosmic overview of the week:
We will follow up the research on the Sun with another novelty. SpaceX has been selected by NASA to launch a pair of solar research satellites known as TRACERS using their Falcon 9 rocket. These satellites will be another important addition to NASA’s fleet of heliophysics satellites and aim to answer long-standing questions that are fundamental to understanding how the interactions between the Earth and the Sun work. The satellites will study how the solar wind interacts with the region around Earth dominated by our planet’s magnetic field. This interaction, or magnetic reconnection, can create the intense energy transfer that can occur when two magnetic fields meet. During this event, malfunctions of satellites or threats to manned missions may occur. Knowing the regularities of this process is important for future planning of orbital missions.
Let’s look at the moon. You may be wondering how India’s Chandrayaan-3 mission is doing, namely the Vikram lander and the Pragyan rover. Since September 22, the Indian space agency ISRO has been trying to establish contact with both devices. Their survival of the lunar night was uncertain. Very low temperatures could, of course, damage the batteries and on-board electronics – and apparently they did. Both machines were set so that they would reach Earth if the batteries were sufficiently charged, but this has not happened so far. ISRO had earlier said that if they do not hear back by September 30, it will consider the mission over. However, Chandrayaan-3 fulfilled all the given tasks and it is a great success. Possible survival of the lunar night, for which the devices were not designed, would be rather an unexpected addition.
SpaceX confirmed Saturday’s successful static ignition of the Falcon Heavy rocket, which is preparing for the expected launch of the Psyche probe, which will focus on researching the metallic planet of the same name. The start itself is scheduled for October 12 at 16:16 CEST.
Falcon Heavy static ignition for the Psyche mission
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Falcon Heavy ready for the Psyche mission
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Overview from Kosmoanutix:
In this place you will find an overview of all the articles and therefore also the topics that we have covered in the form of articles in the past week. We publish at least two articles about cosmonautics a day, let’s remind them now. We started the week with a live and Czech-commented broadcast of the launch of the Falcon 9 rocket, which was carrying more Starlinks. Right after that, we went into detail about why JUICE is taking so long to get to Jupiter. Meanwhile, the American probe Psyche is slowly approaching its expected launch. The most important event of the past week was the successful return of samples from the asteroid Bennu, which were delivered as part of the OSIRIS-REx mission. In the article, we have recapitulated all the important events. You could watch live the return of the record trio from the International Space Station. In Soyuz MS-23, the crew was returning, having spent an unexpected 370 days on the station. Then our attention turned to Mars and the Perseverance rover, which uses autonomous navigation. The first piloted expedition of the Artemis program is also closer to launch. The SLS center stage received all 4 of its RS-25 engines. The series devoted to the X-Planes project also continued, this time following the X-24A project. After the successful collection and subsequent transport of the Bennu asteroid samples to Texas came the moment of opening the case itself. Thus, we saw for the first time a dusty sampling head hiding the expected samples. After a two-day delay, we broadcast another Live and Czech-commented broadcast from the launch of the Falcon 9 rocket, which was carrying another batch of satellites of the Starlink constellation. The expected news came for the Czech Republic when space missions were selected as part of the ambitious missions project. A pair of satellites named AMBIC and QUVIK was selected. The last Friday of the month has traditionally brought a Chat with Cosmonautix, where you ask questions related to cosmonautics and we answer them live. We spent Saturday morning observing the James Webb telescope, which recorded an extreme gamma ray burst. At the end of the week, we were pleased with the news that the IMAP probe is one step closer to implementation.
Picture of the week:
After seven years, the physical part of the OSIRIS-REx mission returned to Earth – the return case, with a very valuable cargo, which is a sample of material collected on the planet Bennu. The return pod was able to land successfully last Sunday. The mission team then took care of transporting it to the laboratory, where it will be opened and analyzed. Although we don’t know the mass of the sample that made it to Earth, it is quite certain that in terms of material from the asteroid (that did not pass through the scorching temperatures of the Earth’s atmosphere), it will be the largest sample yet available to mankind.
A case from the OSIRIS-REx mission that brought back samples from the asteroid Bennu
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Video of the week:
An incredible 370 days and 14 hours were spent aboard the International Space Station by a trio of men who launched in Soyuz MS-22 and returned in Soyuz MS-23. Sergey Prokopyev, Dmitry Petělin and Frank Rubio successfully landed on September 27 at 13:17 CEST. Their unplanned one-year stay was extended due to problems with the ship they launched into space. This inconvenience led to the creation of a new record for a continuous stay on the ISS (the overall record of Valery Polyakov from the Mir station was not surpassed). Watch the montage that captures their preparation for departure, departure from the station, landing and post-landing operations.
Sources of information:
https://www.nasa.gov/
https://www.nasa.gov/
Image Sources:
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2023-10-01 10:01:05
#Kosmotideník #September #October
