¶Artemis 1 scrubbed again. After Aug 29th’s scrub (due to a liquid hydrogen umbilical leak and faulty engine thermal sensor), a second attempt on Saturday was scrubbed as well, this time because of an even worse hydrogen leak on the core stage. A launch this month is now looking unlikely. NASA engineers will first replace the leaky quick disconnect seal while at the pad so that they can test the fix with cryogenic liquids only available there. However, after that, they may still have to roll SLS back to the VAB—the Eastern Range requires that the flight termination system batteries be reset and recertified before the next launch attempt (although a waiver might be possible). The next available launch period runs from September 19 – October 4 with the following (and probably more likely) window being October 17 - 31. We’re hoping the onboard smallsats’ batteries can survive the wait. |
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¶RIP Frank Drake, father of SETI. Renowned radio astronomer and SETI pioneer Frank Drake passed away at 92. Drake devised his eponymous equation to estimate the number of intelligent civilizations in our galaxy—the equation’s results vary widely, with optimistic variable selection yielding estimates as high as 60 million civilizations in our galaxy, while the bear case can suggest an average of less than one. Drake, an original trustee of the SETI Institute, designed the Pioneer plaque with Carl and Linda Sagan and in 1974 wrote the Arecibo message, the first purposeful message transmitted into space for other civilizations to receive. His daughter Nadia Drake is a science journalist (who often writes about space) and penned a touching eulogy including messages from his family—Ad Astra, Frank. |
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 | The Drake equation (top of image) along with a more recently developed successor (bottom) created by Aaron Frank and Woodruff Sullivan. (The latter addresses a slightly different question: what is the number of advanced civilizations likely to have developed over the history of the observable universe?) |
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¶(Short) Papers- Hubble imagery suggests that when Betelgeuse famously dimmed (but didn’t explode) in 2019 it likely suffered a Surface Mass Ejection (SME) that blew several Moon-masses worth of material into space (400 billion times as much mass as a typical solar Coronal Mass Ejection), forming a dust cloud which obscured the giant red star (paper). We’ve covered Betelgeuse’s dimming before, but this is some of the best data yet, and we’ve never seen a star do this before.
- Lunar meteorite samples contain the noble gases helium and neon with isotopic signatures matching the Earth’s core (paper). This is more evidence that the Moon was formed from material ejected when Earth was impacted by a massive planetoid (Theia).
- Relatedly, evidence that the Earth’s original continents formed in the impact basins left by massive meteor strikes comes from isotopic analysis of oxygen trapped in zircon crystals from the Pilbara Craton in Western Australia, Earth’s best-preserved remnant of ancient crust (paper). “Studying the composition of oxygen isotopes in these zircon crystals revealed a ‘top-down’ process starting with the melting of rocks near the surface and progressing deeper, consistent with the geological effect of giant meteorite impacts.”
- Mars InSight seismographic data shows much more cementing (and so likely much less water) in the 300 m of material below the lander than was expected (paper). Martian astronauts will probably have to land at mid-to-high latitudes.
- Due to a revised measurement of the heat conductivity of bridgmanite (mindat), the most common mineral on Earth (but primarily present at the core/mantle boundary), Earth’s core is cooling 1.5 times faster than previously thought (paper). Time to send in Hilary Swank.
- An HR diagram based on Gaia data for 4 million stars within 5,000 light-years of Earth foretells our Sun’s future, placing it precisely within the sequence of stars with similar ages and compositions: the Sun will reach its maximum temperature at an age of 8 billion years (3.4 billion years from now), enter its red giant phase, and end its life at 11 billion years old (paper). Life on Earth won’t make it nearly that long, though.
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 | | This HR diagram shows the stellar sequence of stars similar to the Sun. Credit: ESA/Gaia/DPAC. |
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| ¶News in brief. Satellite images captured the devastating floods in Pakistan—estimates put flooding at having inundated ⅓ of the country since the spring ● Outpost Technologies raised a $7M seed round to develop satellites that can autonomously return to Earth for in-space manufacturing and microgravity experimentation ● China launched another Yaogan Earth observation (and maybe spy) satellite ● OQ Technology closed $13M in funding to build out its satellite-based IoT network—their first commercial satellite will launch on Vega-C in Dec. or Jan., followed by 6 more in their initial constellation ● South Korea’s KARI is seeking $459M for an ambitious year-long lunar lander mission (which suggests it can survive the frigid lunar night) ● Yet another Starlink launch (YASL) and then YASL, this time with a Spaceflight Sherpa-LTC craft as a rideshare—this brings SpaceX to 40 launches this year, a record for the company, in just 35 weeks ● Microchip won a $50M contract to develop a next generation 12-core RISC-V space-rated processor for NASA ● NASA also awarded Astrobotic, Honeybee Robotics, and Lockheed Martin $19.4M in total to develop deployable solar arrays for use on the Moon ● ABL Space Systems announced that the first orbital launch attempt of their RS1 rocket will happen later this month ● NASA bought five more crewed ISS missions from SpaceX for $1.4B ● The US is lobbying for countries to join an anti-satellite weapons test (ASAT) ban agreement at the UN ● Skyroot Aerospace closed a $51m Series B for their Vikram series of small launch vehicles ● A Chinese megawatt-class nuclear reactor for use in space has passed initial evaluation ● SpaceX static fired multiple engines on the Super Heavy Booster 7 for the first time (2 engines, apparently… a potential 33-engine test would be something to behold, although it seem unlikely the orbital launch mount could hold it down). |
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 | | Booster 7’s 2-engine static fire. Credit: LabPadre |
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¶Etc.- Could rogue planets, thrown from their home solar systems and drifting alone in the void, support life? Perhaps. A hydrogen-rich atmosphere could trap enough radioactive heat to enable liquid surface water, and a moon could provide some energy through tidal heating.
- Spotting toxic algae blooms from space.
- JWST directly imaged its first exoplanet, HIP 65426 b, a hot, massive, gas giant planet 7x the size of Jupiter (paper). While the planet had been previously imaged, JWST’s improved resolution helped nail down the planet’s mass and promises many more exoplanet sightings to come.
- Applications are open for the Brooke Owens Fellowship, offering paid internships and mentorship for undergraduate women and gender-minority students in aerospace.
- Rocket Lab recently hot fired a recovered Rutherford engine from the mission “There and Back Again” (video), preparing them for rocket reuse.
- ‘To Prevent a Martian Plague, NASA Needs to Build a Very Special Lab’
- Using a decade of LRO images and a deep learning-driven denoising model, researchers peered inside permanently shadowed craters on the Moon with reflected light (paper). No surface ice was visible (although we know water is present in some form), but the resulting maps of deep crater terrain will be useful for future missions.
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