US VP Mike Pence announces another Race to the Moon

The United States’ policy has been directed toward further moon landings for some time, as a first step on the way to Mars. The original target was to achieve this before the end of the next decade. Now Vice President Mike Pence has tasked NASA with reaching the moon by 2024. It’s a direct challenge to the organisation too. In a speech given on Tuesday 26th March, he states that “If NASA is not currently capable of landing Americans on the moon in five years, we need to change the organization, not the mission”.

It will certainly be a tough timetable. The United States does not currently have a rocket powerful enough to achieve even lunar orbit, nor does it have a moon lander. There are no more operational Apollo era Saturn V’s lying around and NASA’s new rocket, the Space Launch System (SLS), continues to face delays. This means that it may need to rely on SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy, which is still in development. Meanwhile, a serviceable moon lander is also some way off being a reality.

But there is one major difference with this new Space Race: this time it’s between the United States and China. Pence drew attention to China’s success in landing a spacecraft on the far side of the moon and called on the US to maintain its leadership in space exploration.

The political background is also interesting. No new money has been announced, which may lead us to take this announcement with a pinch of salt. Maybe it’s all bluster? Well… Maybe. But 2024 is well within a possible Trump second term, and the man with the world’s biggest ego would surely love to sign off with a lunar landing.

SpaceX complete a successful test of their new Crew Dragon capsule

Elon Musk’s new crew capsule successfully completed an unmanned test mission to the International Space Station (ISS) earlier this month. The flight was intended to fully test all the technology and hardware on board to ensure it is safe for carrying astronauts on “real” missions. These are planned for later this year.

It launched from the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida on Saturday March 2nd, before successfully docking with the ISS the following day. Astronauts working in the space station were then able to enter and inspect the capsule. Footage of this and the actual docking were posted online. Instead of humans, the ship delivered around 200 kg of essential supplies and test equipment to the ISS.

A crash test dummy named Ripley accompanied the cargo. This was fitted with sensors to gather data measuring the forces involved in take-off and landing. The instruments even included a microphone to detect sound levels. Neither the real Sigourney Weaver, nor the Alien was on board.

The Dragon capsule then returned to Earth, splashing down in the Atlantic Ocean around six days after launch. The capsule is designed to be able to use its thrusters to land safely back on land, but old school parachutes and an ocean landing were preferred for this initial test.

All the data from the flight will now be analysed. If everything is found to be in order, Dragon is expected to carry its first astronauts into Earth orbit well before the end of 2019. Commercial flights, carrying paying passengers are planned to follow later.

NASA reveals future plans and announces some intriguing news from its fifty year old Apollo moon missions

It’s been a busy month for important announcements from the United States’ space agency NASA. A new mission has been flagged to send a probe to an unusual asteroid called 16 Psyche. Due to launch in 2023, the robotic spacecraft will visit the object, which is around the size of the UK Principality of Wales. It is of particular interest because it is thought to be made almost entirely of metal.

Although it has obvious theoretical mining potential, the cost of returning any material to Earth makes this completely impractical at present. The real reason this mission is being proposed is that the asteroid’s unusual construction means that we have good reason to suspect it represents the remnants of the core of a proto-planet: debris left over from the early days of the formation of the solar system.

Understanding its composition will help to confirm this. It may also reveal further information about the early development of our planetary system. It could display evidence of earlier geological processes, such as volcanic activity and a magnetic field.

The mission will also be ground-breaking in other respects. The spacecraft will test a new communications system which uses laser light instead of radio waves. Perhaps even more radical, it is planned to be powered by gas, rather than sold fuel. Propulsion will be achieved by energising these gases, using electric power from the on board solar panels. The weight saving properties of this revolutionary solar-electric propulsion (SEP) system will mean that more capacity is available for instruments. Plus the spacecraft will be light enough to enter into orbit around the asteroid.

Using this lower powered SEP system has one obvious disadvantage – it will take longer to get there. This issue is made worse because the spacecraft will take a very indirect route to make it to its target. Its low speed means that it must take advantage of additional gravity assisted fly-bys of both Earth and Mars on its journey. It is therefore not expected to reach the metallic asteroid until 2030.

Meanwhile, another ambitious future mission is also a step closer to getting started. NASA’s plans to construct a space station in lunar orbit have been joined by the Canadians, whose government will contribute US$1.4 billion. The station is slated for 2026, although the subsequent announcement by US Vice President Pence may mean that this is brought forward. It is intended to act as a staging post and base for astronauts travelling to and from the moon.

Finally from NASA, some unexpected news about some of the actual moon rocks brought back to Earth by the pioneering Apollo astronauts of the early 1970s. Nearly 400kg of dust and rock was brought back in total, and some of it has been kept sealed and unused ever since. Until now.

The plan had been to keep some lunar samples in reserve so that future scientists would be able to use hitherto undiscovered and undeveloped technologies to improve our knowledge of our closest celestial neighbour. Now, around the 50th anniversary of the Apollo moon landings, NASA has decided to release some of these samples for study at nine different American research establishments.

Originally returned to Earth by the final three Apollo missions (15, 16 and 17), these moon rocks have been kept in sterile storage ever since, and have never before been exposed to the earth’s atmosphere or even to light of any kind. Scientists and researchers will now be able to study this lunar material for the first time, using the very latest technology and instruments. This technology may be able to discover structures in the soil or maybe even trapped gases which would have been impossible to find when the rocks were first brought home.

UK space internet launches set for completion by 2021

UK based satellite company OneWeb have received a major boost in their plan to achieve worldwide broadband internet coverage. The company has secured close to £1 billion in additional funding, which means that the company is definitely on target to begin its worldwide broadband service by 2021.

Other companies, including SpaceX, have similar plans, but OneWeb are already well on the way. The first six satellites were launched via a Russian Soyuz rocket in February 2019. If these operate as planned, twenty more launches are planned every month, each carrying more than thirty satellites. A minimum of 848 satellites will be required to achieve truly worldwide coverage. Around 2,000 is the ultimate target, to ensure complete reliability and extra capacity in case of faults and breakdowns.

The new investment and regular launches mean that every corner of the globe should be covered by the company’s broadband service by end of 2021. This is not only a boon for people living in undeveloped or rural areas, but is likely to be of use to people everywhere who lack fibre networks or other superfast internet connections.