“Exploration Mission-1 (EM-1) will be the first integrated flight of NASA’s Space Launch System and Orion spacecraft and launch from the agencyâs modernized spaceport in Florida. The uncrewed mission will send Orion thousands of miles beyond the Moon and is a critical flight test for NASAâs human deep space exploration goals. EM-1 lays the foundation for the first crewed flight of SLS and Orion, as well as a regular cadence of missions thereafter near the Moon and beyond.”
“In October 2017, The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter celebrates 100 lunar days of being at the Moon. Part 1 of this video series helps explain what a “lunar day” is, and what it means for the spacecraft’s mission to have been at the Moon for this period of time.”
Music provided by Killer Tracks: “Time is Running” – Dirk Ehlert, Guillermo De La Barreda; “Buckaroo Instrumental” – Alan Gold & Fiona Hamilton.
“The BFR, which is variously said to stand for either Big Falcon Rocket or Big F@#$%^& Rocket, announced in September 2017, is SpaceX’s privately-funded launch vehicle, spacecraft and space and ground infrastructure system of spaceflight technologyâincluding reusable launch vehicles and spacecraft. The system includes Earth infrastructure for rapid launch and relaunch; low Earth orbit, and zero-gravity propellant transfer technology. The new vehicle, while much smaller than an earlier version of SpaceX composite material vehicle design, is much larger than the existing SpaceX operational vehicles which it is intended to replace.
The new launch vehicle is planned to replace both Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy launch vehicles and the Dragon spacecraft, in the operational SpaceX fleet in the early 2020s, initially aiming at the Earth-orbit market, but explicitly adding substantial capability to the spacecraft vehicles to support long-duration spaceflight in the cislunar and Mars mission environment as well. SpaceX intends this approach to bring significant cost savings which will help the company justify the development expense of designing and building the new launch vehicle design. BFR is a 9 meters (30 ft)-diameter launch vehicle.
An earlier larger design for the first non-Falcon launch vehicle from SpaceX was known as the ITS launch vehicle in 2016â2017. The design for all of the ITS vehicles were 12 meters (39 ft) diameter. While the earlier SpaceX designs had been aimed at Mars transit and other interplanetary uses, SpaceX pivoted in 2017 to a plan that would replace all SpaceX launch-service-provider capacityâEarth orbit, the Lunar-orbit region, and interplanetary space transportâwith a single 9 m (30 ft)-diameter class of launch vehicles and spacecraft.
Development work began on the Raptor rocket engines to be used for both stages of the BFR launch vehicle in 2012, and engine testing began in 2016. New rocket engine designs are typically considered one of the longest of the development subprocesses for new launch vehicles and spacecraft. Tooling for the main tanks has been ordered and a facility to build the vehicles is under construction; construction will start on the first ship in 2Q2018. The company publicly stated an aspirational goal for initial Mars-bound cargo flights of BFR launching as early as 2022, followed by the first BFR flight with passengers one synodic period later, in 2024.”
“Scientists using data from NASAâs Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, or LRO, have identified bright areas in craters near the moonâs south pole that are cold enough to have frost present on the surface. The new evidence comes from an analysis that combined surface temperatures with information about how much light is reflected off the moonâs surface.
âWe found that the coldest places near the moonâs south pole are also the brightest placesâbrighter than we would expect from soil aloneâand that might indicate the presence of surface frost,â said Elizabeth Fisher, the lead author of the study, published in Icarus. Fisher carried out the data analysis while doing research at the University of Hawaiâi at Manoa after earning her undergraduate degree. She is now a graduate student at Brown University.
The icy deposits appear to be patchy and thin, and itâs possible that they are mixed in with the surface layer of soil, dust and small rocks called the regolith. The researchers say they are not seeing expanses of ice similar to a frozen pond or skating rink. Instead, they are seeing signs of surface frost. The frost was found in cold traps close to the moonâs south pole. Cold traps are permanently dark areasâlocated either on the floor of a deep crater or along a section of crater wall that doesnât receive direct sunlightâwhere temperatures remain below minus 260 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 163 degrees Celsius). Under these conditions, water ice can persist for millions or billions of years.
More than a half-century ago, scientists suggested that lunar cold traps could store water ice, but confirming that hypothesis turned out to be challenging. Observations made by NASAâs Lunar Prospector orbiter in the late 1990s identified hydrogen-rich areas near the moonâs poles but could not determine whether that hydrogen was bound up in water or was present in some other form. Understanding the nature of these deposits has been one of the driving goals of LRO, which has been orbiting the moon since 2009.
Fisher and her colleagues found evidence of lunar frost by comparing temperature readings from LROâs Diviner instrument with brightness measurements from the spacecraftâs Lunar Orbiter Laser Altimeter, or LOLA. In these comparisons, the coldest areas near the south pole also were very bright, indicating the presence of ice or other highly reflective materials. The researchers looked at the peak surface temperatures, because water ice wonât last if the temperature creeps above the crucial threshold.”
“Astroboticâs Peregrine Lunar Lander will launch onboard a ULA launch vehicle in 2019, during the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11. This effort is a big step in realizing Astroboticâs goal of creating a Rust Belt based international gateway to the Moon. The Peregrine Lunar Lander will fly 35 kilograms of customer payloads on its first mission, with the option to upgrade to 265 kilograms on future missions.”
“Reiner Gamma (Îł) is a geographical feature of the Moon known as a lunar swirl. It is one of the most visible lunar swirls from Earth, visible from most telescopes. It was originally thought to be a lunar highland, but scientists eventually realized that it cast no shadow on the moon. Until recently, Reiner Gamma’s origin was a mystery. Historically, it was not associated with any particular irregularities in the surface. Recently, similar features were discovered in Mare Ingenii and Mare Marginis by orbiting spacecraft. The feature on Mare Ingenii is located at the lunar opposite point from the center of Mare Imbrium. Likewise the feature on Mare Marginis is opposite the midpoint of Mare Orientale. Thus scientists believe that the feature resulted from seismic energies generated by the impacts that created these maria. Unfortunately there is no such lunar mare formation on the opposite surface of the Moon (although the large crater Tsiolkovskiy lies within one crater diameter).
Reiner Gamma is located on the Oceanus Procellarum, west of the crater Reiner. Its center is located at selenographic coordinates 7.5°N 59.0°W. It has an overall dimension of about 70 kilometres. The feature has a higher albedo than the relatively dark mare surface, with a diffuse appearance and a distinctive swirling, concentric oval shape. Related albedo features continue across the surface to the east and southwest, forming loop-like patterns over the mare. The central feature of Reiner Gamma resembles the dipolar formation created by iron filings on a surface with a bar magnet on the underside. Low-orbiting spacecraft have observed a relatively strong magnetic field associated with each of these albedo markings. Some have speculated that this magnetic field and the patterns were created by cometary impacts. However the true cause remains uncertain.
Reiner Gamma’s magnetic field strength is approximately 15 nT, measured from an altitude of 28 km. This is one of the strongest localized magnetic anomalies on the Moon. The surface field strength of this feature is sufficient to form a mini-magnetosphere that spans 360 km at the surface, forming a 300 km thick region of enhanced plasma where the solar wind flows around the field. As the particles in the solar wind are known to darken the lunar surface, the magnetic field at this site may account for the survival of this albedo feature.
In early lunar maps by Francesco Maria Grimaldi, this feature was incorrectly identified as a crater. His colleague Giovanni Riccioli then named it Galilaeus, after Galileo Galilei. The name was later transferred northwest to the current crater Galilaei.”
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