¶China selects two, twice. China’s human spaceflight program (CMSEO) made two selection announcements this past week, choosing two lunar rover concepts and two space station cargo spacecraft. The cargo spacecraft will shuttle up to 1,800 kg of cargo to the CSS, ostensibly for ~$17,000 per kg (Falcon Heavy can theoretically get as low as $1,500/kg to LEO, but in reality, NASA pays ~$90,000/kg for Dragon and ~$130,000/kg for Cygnus for actual cargo delivery to the ISS). It’s unclear if CMSEO’s required price is just for the cargo itself, or if it includes vehicle and launch cost—if included, these prices strike us as “aggressive”. CMSEO’s first selection was the China Academy of Science (CAS) cargo spacecraft Qingzhou, which will launch on the upcoming “commercial” Lijian-2/Kinetica-2 rocket from CAS Space (a spinout from CAS itself). The second selection was Haolong, a cargo shuttle (similar in design to Sierra Space’s Dream Chaser) from the Aviation Industry Corporation, an uncommon participant in the Chinese space ecosystem. Meanwhile, on the lunar front, CMSEO also selected two rover designs for continued funding and development. Few details were released on these two, but the request for the Chinese lunar rover was originally spec’d at 200 kg mass, with a range of 10 km while carrying two taikonauts. These capabilities closely mirror those of the LRV developed for later Apollo missions. The accepted rover concepts were from the China Academy of Space Technology (CAST) and Shanghai Academy of Spaceflight Technology (SAST) which are both groups within the larger China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC) organization. |
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 | CAST and SAST’s lunar rover concepts, one of which may fly alongside the country's first crewed Moon landing. |
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¶Papers- Intermediate-mass black holes (IMBHs) are ones with masses between 100 times that of our Sun (smaller than this are considered stellar-mass black holes) and hundreds of thousands of Suns (over which are supermassive black holes, which can weigh up to billions of Suns). IMBHs have never been conclusively detected, and only a few candidates exist. Now, using multiple decades of Hubble imagery, one has likely been found via the motion of fast-moving stars in the Omega Centauri globular cluster 17,000 light-years away (paper).
- An intriguing paper suggests that Earth might have had a planetary ring, like Saturn or Uranus, for tens of millions of years about 460 million years ago, created by a large asteroid that broke up during a close encounter and ended up in orbit. As evidence, the researchers point to 21 known impact craters from that epoch, an unusual number during a short window geologically speaking, all of which, based on plate tectonics simulations, would have been close to the equator at the time. They even wonder if shading from the rings could have caused the Hirnantian Ice Age, 445 million years ago. Oh, what a time to be alive! (Ed: we’re a bit skeptical, but looking forward to follow-on studies.)
- Meanwhile, our solar system itself may also have a previously unknown ring structure: observations of the outer solar system with the Subaru telescope found 11 objects beyond the established Kuiper Belt. These objects are clustered beyond an apparent gap, indicating an extended Kuiper belt or a potential new class of objects in a separate ring-like structure, as seen in other planetary systems during formation.
- A small, rocky exoplanet was found orbiting close to Barnard's Star (paper), the second closest stellar system to Earth (after the three stars in the Alpha Centauri system). It orbits every 3.15 Earth days and has an average surface temperature of ~125 °C.
- Spider-shaped geologic formations on Mars (~1 km scale features) known as araneiform terrain seem to be created by cracks from carbon dioxide sublimation. Experiments at JPL at Mars temperatures and pressures successfully recreated the phenomenon (paper).
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 | Mars araneiform terrain seen in the southern hemisphere in 2009 by MRO. |
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| ¶News in brief. Voyager 1 is communicating again via its backup transmitter after on-board fault protection unintentionally turned off the primary transmitter ● Apple is allocating $1.5B to Globalstar to expand their direct-to-cell satellite connectivity options (Apple currently uses 85% of Globalstar’s network capacity) and includes it taking a 20% equity stake ● Relativity Space, once valued at $4.2B, is reportedly running out of cash while they seek funding to finish developing and launch Terran R ● Matter Intelligence, a California-based startup, raised a $12M seed to develop sub-meter hyperspectral and thermal satellite capabilities ● NASA’s Advanced Composite Solar Sail spacecraft is still in a slow tumble, with attitude control engaged, as engineers assess the deployment of the sail (there is a slight bend in one of the four extended booms but this shouldn’t impact the sailing conops) ● Japan launched a military communications satellite aboard an H3 rocket ● Lockheed Martin finally completed their $450M acquisition of smallsat manufacturer Terran Orbital ● NASA awarded $15.6M to 15 projects supporting the maintenance of open-source tools, frameworks, and libraries used by the NASA science community and beyond ● China launched the Shenzhou-19 crew with three taikonauts (including their first female space engineer) that will spend 6 months aboard the Tiangong space station ● And, the Shenzhou-18 crew successfully returned to Earth, including Commander Ye Guangfu who became the first taikonaut to spend a total of over a year in space (putting him at #47 on the list for longest time spent in space) ● Russia launched the first pair of Ionosfera-M space weather monitoring spacecraft aboard a Soyuz along with 53 secondary payloads (including 43 cubesats!) ● Blue Origin rolled the first stage of their first New Glenn rocket to its launch site, where it will undergoa wet dress rehearsal and hot-fire test ahead of its much anticipated debut launch. |
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 | New Glenn’s first stage being transported to its launch site in Cape Canaveral aboard Blue Origin’s "Giant Enormous Rocket Truck” aka GERT |
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¶Etc.- “SpaceX has caught a massive rocket. So what’s next?” Next steps include in-flight Raptor re-light, an HLS prop-transfer demo, re-flying a Super Heavy first stage, a long-duration flight test in lunar orbit, an uncrewed lunar landing, and eventually a crewed landing (Ars suggests late 2028 is possible, barely).
- Meanwhile, China’s updated plans for the Long March 9 looks a whole lot like Starship, with a fully reusable first stage powered by 30 full-flow staged combustion engines.
- Using ancient Chinese (and Babylonian, and Arabian) texts to figure out the timing of eclipses over 4,000 years to calculate how the Earth’s rate of spin has changed.
- November’s stargazing calendar and NASA’s skywatching tips.
- Tim Urban talks about taking his 19-month-old toddler to see the Starship Flight 5 catch.
- NASA updated its graphic novel about astrobiology to include Europa Clipper, now on its way to the Jovian moon.
- Watch the Orion constellation evolve over the next 450,000 years.
- ESA’s student internship program is now accepting applications.
- A look back at Astronauts celebrating Halloween on the ISS. 🎃
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Members of Expedition 61, NASA astronaut Christina H. Koch, top left, ESA astronaut Luca S. Parmitano, NASA astronaut Andrew R. “Drew” Morgan, and NASA astronaut Jessica U. Meir, show off their Halloween spirit in 2019. Credit: NASA |  |
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