Issue No. 157

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The Orbital Index Issue No. 157 | Feb 23, 2022 🚀 🎂 🛰

¶The First Rocket from Mars. Two weeks ago, Lockheed Martin won a $194M contract to build the Mars Ascent Vehicle (MAV) for the upcoming joint NASA-ESA Mars sample return campaign. The cost-plus contract covers the development and manufacture of 10 test and flight-ready MAVs over the next six years culminating in what will likely be, barring other unforeseen entrants, the first rocket launched on another planet (as opposed to a moon, comet, or asteroid). Lockheed will be supported by Northrop Grumman, who will build the MAV’s solid propulsion motors—updated STAR 15 & 20 solid rocket motors, originally developed in the early 70s, which will need to survive a multi-year cold soak along with their propellant. To keep propellant grains above -40° C, the 2.8-meter long MAV will be housed in “the igloo,” an insulated dome blanketed with CO2, which will be heated by solar-powered electric heaters in 16 separately-instrumented heating zones (paper). The igloo will have to open for samples to be loaded into the MAV, but must also stay above minimum temperature levels, so loading may take multiple operations by the mission’s Sample Retrieval Rover. Along with the thirty-odd Martian sample tubes collected by (and optionally delivered by) Percy, the canister will include 5 pre-sealed blanks to help scientists determine which molecules are from Mars and which are originally from Earth. Once loaded, the MAV—with a total weight of around 400 kg—will carry 16 kg of payload, including ~470 grams of actual samples, into Martian orbit for the ESA-led hybrid chemical/solar-electric Earth Return Orbiter to snag and carry home. In order to survive the MAV’s ignition, the Sample Retrieval Lander will yeet the rocket into the air with a spring just before it ignites. (Due to the lower Martian gravity, the MAV will get significantly more hang time than it would on Earth.) All this is scheduled to kick off with the lander/rover/MAV combo launching NET 2026. Sample retrieval and launch to Martian orbit could take around 13 months after arrival, but samples won’t actually make it back to Earth until sometime in the first half of the 30s. The two-stage, solid-fueled MAV. The Orbital Index is made possible through generous sponsorship by:   ¶(Short) Papers. A team using ESO’s VLT telescope in Chile found supportive evidence for yet another planet orbiting Proxima Centauri, our nearest stellar neighbor. Proxima d, with a zippy 5-day orbit, is now the third, and smallest, planet detected likely orbiting the faint red dwarf star. At just a quarter of Earth’s mass, the planet is also one of the lightest exoplanets ever found. (We’ve discussed this star system a number of times before… here’s a rehash.) Much of the water on Earth may have been created directly by the early solar wind as its protons struck dust grains (paper) on their way towards Earth. This theory is supported by “meticulous atom-by-atom analysis of miniscule [sic] fragments of an S-type near-Earth asteroid known as Itokawa, samples of which were collected by the Japanese space probe Hayabusa and returned to Earth in 2010” and by experimental confirmation that proton irradiation of silicate minerals produces water molecules. Hubble spotted direct evidence of a magnetosphere around an exoplanet, a first. The Neptune-sized exoplanet is 123 light-years from Earth (paper). Saturn’s icy moon Mimas (known as the ‘Death Star’ moon due to a well-placed impact crater) may be yet another moon to hide a liquid subsurface ocean (paper). Want to visit Sedna? 2029 would be the perfect year to launch a spacecraft to this trans-Neptunian object, catching it a bit ahead of its 2076 perihelion at a mere 76 AU (paper). Either that or wait another 11,390 years for the next opportunity. ¶A year on Mars. Ever since their stunning skycrane landing (which you should watch again), Perseverance and Ingenuity have spent a year on Mars, traversing record distances, flying nineteen times, generating oxygen from CO2, collecting samples for the aforementioned future sample return mission, confirming that Jezero crater was once a lake, and returning over 200,000 images. Nature has a summary: A year on Mars: How NASA's Perseverance hit a geological jackpot. XKCD #2517 ¶News in brief. NASA selected two new Sun & space environment science missions for development: the Multi-slit Solar Explorer (MUSE) to study the Sun’s corona, and HelioSwarm, a constellation of nine spacecraft that will work together to measure magnetic and inertial fluctuations in the solar wind ● The EU is planning their own €6 billion internet satellite mega-constellation ● ESA is also investigating starting their own human space exploration program ● Vaya Space, a company developing a 1,000 kg-to-LEO rocket powered by a hybrid engine that utilizes recycled-thermoplastic in its 3D-printed solid propellant, successfully conducted their first suborbital test flight (video)—they’re targeting an orbital launch in 2023 ● A Northrop Grumman Cygnus resupply vehicle headed to the ISS on an Antares rocket ● SpaceX launched a batch of Starlink satellites into a higher orbit than their last one (which lost most of its batch due to anomalous space-weather-induced atmospheric drag).   ¶Etc. About Isaacman’s upcoming Polaris space program of tests for SpaceX, Tim Fernholz wrote, “But don’t call it the privatization of space (no public goods are being put in private hands) or democratization (this isn’t a mass moment.) Instead, it’s the commodification of space: You couldn’t really pay to go to space five years ago. Now you can.” NASA, NOAA, USGS, and other agencies came together to model sea level rise over the next 100 years, concluding that “sea level along U.S. coastlines will rise between 10 to 12 inches (25 to 30 centimeters) on average above today’s levels by 2050,” and in many places over a meter by 2100. They have a tool to visualize the projections. To survive frigid temperatures, spacecraft often use radioisotope heaters. Masten Space’s under-development NITE system is an alternative that uses the exothermic oxidation of metals with excess propellant to produce power and heat. They claim it saves ~$50 million over nuclear solutions and ~$10 million in reduced launch mass when compared to batteries. The project is partially funded through a 2020 NASA Tipping Point award. ESA is soliciting ideas and use cases for their proposed commercial lunar communication and navigation satellite network, which promises to allow for cheaper missions by providing shared infrastructure. Before/after interactive satellite imagery of the La Palma volcanic eruption, which subsided in late December. The eruption ejected ​​200 million cubic meters of lava and ash over 85 days, including lava boulders the size of houses. This was the longest recorded eruption on La Palma. 🌋 Also volcanos: Ash from the Hunga Tonga eruption reached 58 km, into the mesosphere, and over halfway to space. Data from GOES and Himawari were combined to generate a parallax analysis.

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