ISS

ISS
The final frontier.

Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Mars Science Laboratory

Earlier today I had the incredible fortune of attending a seminar at Caltech, where I listened to the lead scientist for the Mars Science Laboratory, Dr. John Grotzinger, give a lecture on the upcoming mission to Mars.  For those of you unfamiliar with the mission, the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) is the latest in a series of rovers that NASA has sent to the Red Planet.  MSL promises to be the most ambitious mission yet planned, with the rover, nicknamed 'Curiosity', roughly sharing the dimensions of a Mini Cooper, and tipping the scales at over 900 kg.

Artist's conception of Mars Science Laboratory (NASA/JPL-Caltech)


While the landing site of MSL has been narrowed down to two, the final choice has yet to be made.  Either Gale Crater, with its bulging shield volcano and fascinating sulfate deposits, or Eberswalde Crater, with its river delta and clay sediments, will be where MSL touches down.  Those two sites were whittled down from thousands of potential landing places, and both promise to reveal much about the ancient past on Mars, and whether or not it was ever a planet that supported life.

Wherever MSL lands, it will have a host of scientific equipment to carry out its mission.  The cameras aboard its mast will, for the first time, send back high definition color pictures and videos from the Martian surface.  The rover is equipped with a ChemCam, that will vaporize rocks with a laser, then analyze the vapor with a spectrometer to identify chemical composition.  And, like the Viking mission in the 1970s, MSL will have an onboard oven, where soil samples can be cooked and checked for possible organic signatures.  All told, MSL will touchdown with 11 high-tech instruments - that's 84 kg of scientific equipment!

The launch window for the Mars Science Laboratory opens Thanksgiving day, this November.  If all goes according to plan, MSL will land on the Martian surface in the summer of 2012, and will operate for a full Martian year.  That's 687 Earth days.  And if NASA's past rovers are any indication, hopefully it will be cruising around on Mars for even longer.

My thanks go out to Dr. Grotzinger for his illuminating lecture, and best of luck to the upcoming mission!

Read more about MSL here.

Sunday, June 12, 2011

3 Points On Space Exploration

I have a lot of opinions regarding space exploration.  Most importantly, I believe that we need a permanent human presence in space.  That means not only people continuously inhabiting Earth orbiting stations like the ISS, but people on the Moon and Mars, as well.  It promises to be a long and bumpy road, but I am confident humanity is up for the challenge.  Here are my thoughts on three pressing issues regarding our forays into space...


1.  NASA is headed in the right direction.  After a few years of discombobulation, NASA finally has its head on straight with regards to manned space flight.  The Bush administration's Constellation program, which planned to send humans back to the Moon, was doomed from the beginning.  More of a political distraction than anything else, Constellation was never funded properly, and there was no way it was ever going to get off the ground.  People are still lamenting its demise, which is ridiculous, considering it was the space bridge to nowhere.  On the other hand, the Obama administration’s plan to send humans to an asteroid by 2025, and eventually to Mars in the 2030’s, seems so far to be funded more realistically.  As long as Congress doesn’t cut NASA’s budget too drastically in the coming decades, I don’t see any reason why the current plan should not succeed. 

SpaceX's 'Dragon' capsule

2.  Privatize, privatize, privatize!  NASA’s ability to allocate funds to deep space exploration stems largely from policies that have freed them from the responsibility of ferrying astronauts to the International Space Station.  After the retirement of the Space Shuttle later this year, the Russians will initially bear the burden of keeping the ISS manned.  However, plans are in motion for private, American firms like SpaceX and Blue Origin to develop and operate crew capsules for low-Earth orbit missions, including trips to the ISS.  This makes perfect sense.  Why constrict NASA’s already tight budget by forcing them to do Taxi service?  Politicians are always hailing American private enterprise as the most innovative in the world.  So let them innovate!  As long as it is done safely, private enterprise should take over trips to the ISS, so NASA can spend its money on science missions and deep space exploration.

Space Shuttle Atlantis docked to Russian space station Mir, 1995

3.  International cooperation is key.  When the Soviet Union fell in 1991, space was, for the first time, truly international.  In 1998, only seven years later, the U.S. and Russia began construction on the International Space Station.  This was a monumental example of how political realities on the ground can hinder or help our ascension into space.  Since then, international cooperation has grown by leaps and bounds.  Not only are the United States and Russia strong allies in space, but the European Space Agency, Japan, South Korea, India, Canada, and others have all worked together on manned and robotic space missions.  The big unknown now is China.  In 2003, China put its first man into Orbit, securing their place as a major player in space exploration.  Since then they have been ramping up their manned space program vigorously.  While China and other international partners have cooperated in some space science missions, China’s manned space program remains secretive and under military control.  This backward and stifled view of space exploration helps no one, least of all China itself.  The only way to move forward in space is through cooperation and scientific transparency.

Read those links!

Wednesday, June 8, 2011

Apollo Missions Still Unlocking The Moon’s Secrets

Earlier this year, NASA scientists took another look at seismic data collected by seismometers placed by the Apollo astronauts in the late 1960’s and 70’s.  Using techniques that were not available in the mid seventies, NASA was able to analyze the data in new ways, and came to some interesting conclusions.

It seems that the Moon’s interior is much more complex than previously thought.  By analyzing how seismic waves travel through the Moon’s crust, mantle, and core, scientists were able to determine where the lunar interior changes from solid, to plastic, to liquid.  The new data suggests that beneath the mantle is a zone of plastic, partial melt, followed by a liquid outer core, and finally a solid inner core.  This is much more like the interior of the Earth than previously thought.

(NASA/MSFC/Renee Weber)


While this new information is revealing and exciting, the Moon still has many secrets to divulge.  NASA, with a multi-national cooperative including Japan, Europe, and India, has recently launched the International Lunar Network (ILN).  The ILN is a plan to incorporate geophysical sensing stations on future lunar missions of all types.  That means that if, say, Japan puts a lander on the Moon that’s primary mission is to analyze the chemistry of the lunar regolith, the probe will also include seismometers and other geophysical data collectors.  By creating a network of seismic detectors across the lunar surface, the exact nature of the lunar interior, including its chemical composition, can finally be revealed.

The ILN is an amazing step in piercing into the unknown of the lunar interior.  By incorporating many nations, not only is the immense cost of placing multiple seismic stations on the Moon diffused, but it opens the science up to the entire world.  When these other nations are prepared to launch missions to Mars, or other planets, similar programs should be implemented.


Read more here, here, and finally, here

Friday, June 3, 2011

Why I Support Mining the Moon

Why climb a mountain?  Because it is there.  Why go to Mars?  Because it is there.  That’s enough of a reason for me.  For the explorer in each and every human being, that is enough of a reason.  There is an innate human quality that demands we known the unknown, that we test the untested, and that we go where no one has yet gone.  This is, indeed, the motivating force behind the quest for all knowledge.  Science is driven, at its heart, by men and women who desire to unlock the mysteries of Nature and The Cosmos.

Luckily, the US Space Policy that the Obama administration has laid out does indeed plan for humans to explore Mars by the 2030s, and before that land people on an asteroid.  This is a great and necessary step for humanity’s further reach into the unknown.  Unfortunately, this will come at the cost of government funded trips to the lunar surface.  In choosing to send people to near-Earth asteroids, and eventually to Mars, NASA’s sights will no longer be trained on a return to the Moon anytime soon.  And while I understand that not every space project can get the funding it needs, I believe that it is essential for humans to not only return to the Moon, but to establish a permanent presence on the lunar surface.

While both the Chinese and Russian governments have expressed an interest in manned lunar exploration, it appears that if Americans are going to get back to the Moon, it will have to be accomplished by private entities.  And why would private corporations or other non-governmental organizations choose to go to the Moon?  There can be only one answer.  Money.

While exploration for exploration's sake is a wonderful thing, money can be a great motivator.  The promise of riches has long been the impetus for great missions into the unknown.  After all, it was the notion of boat loads of gold and a quick route to the spices of China that led Queen Isabella to fund Columbus’s expeditions to the new world.  So it may be with future trips to our Moon.

While space tourism is about to ramp up in the form of suborbital flights, and we’ve seen a few low-Earth orbital trips on the ISS, tourism will not generate the funds needed to send the first return visitors to the Moon.  The only feasible draw in the near-term, that promises some degree of profit, is mining.  Specifically, mining for rare Earth elements and possibly Helium-3, both of which are to known to exist in moderate quantities on the Moon.

Rare Earth elements like lanthanum, scandium, and promethium are used heavily in new technologies like hydrogen storage, super-light alloys, and nuclear batteries.  Recently, China has cornered the market on rare Earth elements by purchasing many of the commercial deposits here on Earth.  Going to the Moon to mine for these elements might not only prove to be profitable, but could be a matter of national security for America.

Another element that is in short supply on Earth, but is much more plentiful in lunar regolith, is Helium-3.  He-3, a rare isotope of helium, can be used in fusion reactors.  While fusion reactors, for the time being, are experimental and unreliable, research into this field is ongoing and extensive.  Should fusion reaction become a commercially viable way to produce electricity here on Earth, demand for He-3 will become so great that it may be quite profitable to mine it on the Moon.

While letting a corporation set up shop on the Moon and mine away its resources is not, I’ll admit, the most desirable scenario, it may prove to be the only viable one.  It is clear the US government, for lack of money or lack of interest, isn’t going to fund more manned lunar missions.  If we want a permanent human presence on the Moon, we may have to prepare ourselves for the inevitability of American companies mining the lunar surface for profit.

Humanity’s quest for knowledge will not be stopped.  Our insatiable desire to push further into The Cosmos must be cultivated whenever and wherever possible.  If we must allow the commercial exploitation of the Moon for a time, so be it.  In the long run, science, and indeed all of mankind, will benefit from our permanent presence on the Moon.
 
Read these interesting articles - here and here.

Thursday, June 2, 2011

Chinese Space Science

In China, space exploration is rarely done in the name of science.  China’s space program is run almost entirely by the military, and missions of national security and national pride are given precedence over science missions.  In fact, of the more than 100 satellites that China has put into orbit over the years, exactly ONE has had a primary science mission.

All that could be changing, however.  Control over China’s space science has recently been transferred from the do-nothing, no-budget China National Space Administration, to the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS).  The civilian run CAS will be given $554 million to use over the next five years, and use it they shall.  They have an impressive five scientific missions planned for launch between 2014 and 2016, the first of which is a sophisticated space telescope called the Hard X-Ray Modulation Telescope (HXMT).  This will be China’s first space telescope, and should be able to catalog stellar objects like supermassive black holes and x-ray binary stars.  Other planned missions include a study of radiation on biological systems, a search for dark matter, and an experiment in quantum mechanics.

While China’s much lauded manned space program still remains completely under the command of the Chinese military, freeing up science missions is an important step.  Science can’t be done in a (figurative) vacuum, and removing the shackles of the secretive military may open up future science missions to international cooperation.  Indeed, one of CAS’s planned missions, to be launched in 2015, is a joint Canadian-Sino project that will measure solar winds.  It’s collaborations such as this that will prove to be the most beneficial in easing international fears of China’s space ambitions, not to mention the potential scientific gains.

The handing over of scientific space missions to a competent civilian agency is certainly a positive sign for China.  If there is ever to be any real cooperation between NASA, the European Space Agency, and the Chinese in space, it can only be done with the disentanglement of the military from science missions.

Source:

Xin H. Chinese Academy Takes Space Under Its Wing. Science 20 May 2011: 332 (6032), 904.