Tag: Real Science

Geeking Science: R is for Reef and Real Estate Race

Erin Penn 4 Comments

Artist’s illustration of Orbital Reef, a private space station project involving Blue Origin, Sierra Space, and a number of other partners. (Image credit: Sierra Space/Blue Origin)

The International Space Station (ISS) first launched component settled in orbit in 1998 with residents moving in November 2000. “The station has been continuously occupied for 22 years … having surpassed the previous record of 9 years and 357 days held by the Mir space station.” (Wikipedia, International Space Station). The International part of the title has proven well-used with the support of five space agencies: NASA (United States), Roscosmos (Russia), JAXA (Japan), ESA (Europe) and CSA (Canada).

The original plan for decommission was a mere 15 years (2015), but it has been extended several times. Even so, the extensions can’t continue forever. The wear and tear of long-term use, the leaks and holes, are adding up. (Inverse) Also in the mix in the Russia’s shenanigans in Ukraine, and the world hitting them with sanctions. The aggressor might pull out their funding early, previously planned to continue to 2024, in protest of getting called on the carpet for their actions.

2031 is becoming the hard-fast de-orbit date, with 2030 being when the shop will close up for the safety of all involved and the lights will be turned off.

The ISS will join all the Salyut stations (seven from 1971-1991 USSR), Skylab (1973-1979 USA), Mir (1986-2001 Russia), and the two Tiangong (2011-2019 China) in retirement. Once the station lands in Point Nemo, only Tiangong 3 will remain in orbit (2021-present, China).

Unless something changes. And boy-o-boy, are changes in the plans.

Several countries are thinking of creating their own stations.

But the first in line to deliver might be Amazon.

Well, Blue Origin (wholly owned by Jeff Brazos) (Cuofano 2022).

Blue Origin and Sierra Nevada Corporation plan to create a space station for commercial space activities and space tourism. The news brief for the plans released in October 2021, and the plans have been continuing apace, including approval by NASA.

The title for the planned station is Orbital Reef.

Some of the conversations on building Orbital Reef include using the ISS as a jumping point. Basically a port to work from.

Russia has been lifting new modules up for a Russian Orbital Service Station (ROSS) – official launch date of 2025. America and the international community of the ISS (without Russia), likewise, are working on Axiom Station and Lunar Gateway for science activities and as part of the Artemis program for lunar landings and human missions to Mars. All these government space stations, as well as several commercial ventures, are hoped to be online before 2030. The Orbital Reef is the most ambitious with a crew size of 10; most of the others are aiming for 4.

NASA’s Commercial Low-Earth Orbit Development (CLDP) program aims at getting AT LEAST one commercial outpost up and running before the ISS lights go out. Orbital Reef, Starlab (by NanoRacks) and an unnamed concept (by Northrop Grumman) all have received grants after the initial plans have been reviewed and approved by NASA. (Wall)

I’m highly entertained by Orbital Reef being referred to a “turn-key” location, where a (space) business park can be scaled to serve markets. Like one can just go to a relator and state your needs, and they hand you the key to a building.

The large crew of ten for Orbital Reef is aimed at supporting the renters, including a possible space hotel. “We sell only the utilities and services you need to sustain your business: power, cooling, high-bandwidth communication, information and physical security, robotic services, technician attention, stowage, and logistics.” More can be found on this sci-fi, soon to be science fact, location at https://www.orbitalreef.com/.

Planning on filming a commercial that needs microgravity? They got you covered. Need microgravity to create the next microchip? Think Orbital Reef.

Key to the dream of the Orbital Reef is Dream Chaser, a pint-sized reusable space plane. Sierra Space hopes to demonstrate viability in a February 2023 launch aboard the ULA Vulcan Centaur booster rocket.

Tons of prep-work and moving parts are in play for 2023 with 2024 being the year of heavy lifting into orbit as things get off the production line. Be interesting to see who wins the low-Earth orbit real estate race.

Bibliography

Clark, Stephen. “Blue Origin and Sierra Space team up for commercial space station.” Spaceflight Now. October 25, 2021. – last viewed 12/21/2022.

Foust, Jeff. “Orbital Reef passes NASA review.” SpaceNews. August 22, 2022. https://spacenews.com/orbital-reef-passes-nasa-review/ – last viewed 12/21/2022.

Cuofano, Gennaro. “Who owns Blue Origin?” FourWeekMBA. September 30, 2022. https://fourweekmba.com/who-owns-blue-origin/ – last viewed 12/21/2022.

Inverse. “NASA Plans to Obliterate the International Space Station – Here’s How.” (undated). https://www.inverse.com/science/nasa-kill-iss – last viewed 12/21/2022.

Kirk, Benny. “Space Shuttle vs Dream Chaser: Can This Pint Sized Space Plane Really Replace an Icon?” autoevolution. October 21, 2022. – last viewed 12/21/2022.

Orbital Reef. (website, undated). https://www.orbitalreef.com/ – last viewed 12/21/2022.

The Planetary Society. “Missing Briefings: Blue Origin wants to build its own space station.” The Downlink. October 29, 2021. (email newsletter)

Shields, Ken (of Sierra Space Corp). “Orbital Reef: A Space Station for a New Economy of Space.” IEEE-CNSV Consultants’ Network of Silicon Valley. March 8, 2022. – last viewed 12/21/2022.

Wall, Mike. “Blue Origin’s private Orbital Reef space station passes key design review.” Space.com. August 24, 2022. https://www.space.com/blue-origin-orbital-reef-system-definition-review – last viewed 12/21/2022.

Wikipedia. “International Space Station.” (undated) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Space_Station – last viewed 12/21/2022.

Wikipedia. “List of space stations.” (undated). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_space_stations – last viewed 12/21/2022.

Wikipedia. “Orbital Reef.” (undated) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orbital_Reef – last viewed 12/21/2022.

Geeking Science: Percussive Defense

Erin Penn

This imagery from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope from Oct. 8, 2022, shows the debris blasted from the surface of Dimorphos 285 hours after the asteroid was intentionally impacted by NASA’s DART spacecraft on Sept. 26. The shape of that tail has changed over time. Scientists are continuing to study this material and how it moves in space, in order to better understand the asteroid. Credits: NASA/ESA/STScI/Hubble

You can take humans off world, but you can’t take the world out of the humans. Or should this just be “humans will be humans”?
I’ve previous mentioned NASA solution of fixing the Martian Lander by having it hit itself with a shovel. (Percussive Maintenance; January 21, 2021)
Now they, our biggest scientific brains, are exploring asteroid defense of planet Earth so we don’t go by the way of the dinosaur, by …. hitting an asteroid with a solid object, in this case a DART.
Double Asteroid Redirection Test exceeded the minimum goal of changing the orbit an asteroid by 73 second by a bit … like 33 minutes … with a planned collision. (NASA. October 2022; Paoletta, 2022)
When in doubt, bang it, see what happens.
Of course they use words like “kinetic”, “impact”, “intentional”, “defense technology”. But really, we figuring out how to swing a stick in space so the bad space rocks won’t hurt us.
Ain’t science grand?
Of course scientists being scientists, they are still sorting the data what happened beyond the Percussive Defense incident. Further study indicates that the change in orbit around the second asteroid was a combination of initial impact and the ejecta tossed out from the impact. (NASA, December 2022)
DART’S LAST COMPLETE LOOK AT DIMORPHOS In a thrilling moment, DART captured this view of Dimorphos just as it was about to crash into the asteroid moon. Seconds later, the transmission ended. Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins APL
Bibliography
NASA. “Early Results from NASA’s DART Mission.” December 14, 2022. https://www.nasa.gov/feature/early-results-from-nasa-s-dart-mission – last viewed 12/16/2022.
NASA. “NASA Confirms DART Mission Impact Changed Asteroid’s Motion in Space.” October 11, 20222. https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-confirms-dart-mission-impact-changed-asteroid-s-motion-in-space – last viewed 12/16/2022.
Paoletta, Rae. “NASA says DART’s asteroid impact was a huge success”. The Planetary Society. October 11, 2022. https://www.planetary.org/articles/nasa-says-dart-impact-successful – last viewed 12/16/2022.

Geeking Science: Solar Sailing Technology Continues to Mature

Erin Penn

After over three years, the one-year mission of the LightSail is complete. November 17 ends the experiment to prove Solar Sailing is a viable technology for space exploration. It’s not sexy-fast, but the ability to explore is now within the pocket book of communities and not just governments trying to one-up each other.

I and 50,000 people like me made this happen. We crowdfunded both the original LightSail (which didn’t make it to space) and the second LightSail.

Even better, another Solar Sail project launched into space before our lovely lightsail deorbited. The Near Earth Asteroid (NEA) Scout is now piggybacking the Artemis I launch for a moon deployment. Now that the concept of Solar Sailing is a PROVEN technology, NASA is using it to test affordability. Space exploration has been limited by the pocketbook; Solar Sailing is providing a blue-light special.

NEA Scout will demonstrate the ability to hitch a ride to one destination and then use a solar sail to fly somewhere else. The small spacecraft will initially ride to the Moon before using a solar sail to leave for a near-Earth asteroid. (NEA Scout, 2022)

 

Sadly, the NEA Scout did not respond to initial communications. (Bartels, 2022) Blue-light specials mean a cut-back on the redundancy, and a higher chance of failure. It’s a tradeoff – the “do-it-cheaper” concept is cut the price by to a twentieth, knowing the failures will triple – with the hope of still a savings at nearly by having seven times the missions being successful.

In the case of Artemis I, seven of the ten CubeStats deployed without issue. The NEA Scout is one of three with a problem status. (Messier, 2022)
Seven out of ten isn’t bad. I wish the solar sail made the random statistical cut. Another time.

This is now, This is our future. We can reach the stars.

Bibliography

Betts, Bruce. “LightSail 2 is about to burn up”. The Planetary Society. November 14, 2022. https://www.planetary.org/articles/lightsail-2-is-about-to-burn-up – Last viewed 12/5/2022.

Bartels, Meghan. “NASA’s Artemis 1 launched a solar sail cubesat to an asteroid. It may be in trouble.” Space.com. November 2022. https://www.space.com/artemis-1-cubesat-nea-scout-asteroid-silent – Last viewed 12/5/2022.

Davis, Jason. “LightSail 2 completes mission with atmospheric reentry.” The Planetary Society. November 17, 2022. https://www.planetary.org/articles/lightsail-2-completes-mission – Last viewed 12/5/2022.

Messier, Doug. “Status Report on Artemis I Secondary CubeStat Payloads.” Parabolic Arc. November 17, 2022. – Last viewed 12/5/2022 (link no longer works 4/26/2024).

“NEA Scout”. NASA. – Last viewed – 12/5/2022. (link no longer works 10/16/2023)

“NEA Scout, NASA’s solar sail mission to an asteroid”. The Planetary Society. https://www.planetary.org/space-missions/nea-scout – Last viewed 12/5/2022.

The Planetary Society. “#ThankYouLightSail”. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NfSRAmUll_Y&t=73s – Last viewed 12/5/2022. (see above video)

Geeking Science: Gardening the Black

Erin Penn

Photo by Neslihan Gunaydin on Unsplash

Going into the dark, the vastness of space, is a challenge. Earth is our womb, our soil and roots, our air, our home, our food, the water of our blood. When we leave home, we will need to take our basic needs with us – air, water, the ability to grow food, the tools to make shelter – or figure out a way to do so out there in the dark.

Scientists are working on that as we speak. And one of the biggest helpers we might take with us is the all-time best grow-in-the-shadows food: mushrooms. To build soil and build houses.

Our food system depends on our top soil, and we will need a lot of it in space. One of the major producers of soil is fungus. Scientists are thinking they can jump start soil production with some carefully chosen and trained mushrooms.

And also build houses. I know, right? Fungus houses!

This fascinating subject is laid out in “Fungi Could Make Soil from Asteroids and Homes on Mars” by Madeleine Gregory. (April 8, 2022, on discovermagazine.com – https://www.discovermagazine.com/the-sciences/fungi-could-make-soil-from-asteroids-and-homes-on-mars – last viewed 10/14/2022)

Another part of the investigation is actually attempting to grow plants in lunar soil brought back by the Apollo missions. The too long-didn’t watch the whole 5 minutes of the video breakdown is (1) they did add nutrient rich water to grow the plants in the soil (what the other scientists mentioned above are trying to by-pass with the fungi because carting nutrients and water into space is EXPENSIVE) and (2) the plants still didn’t grow as well on the space soil as they did in similar soil found on Earth – and the scientists are excited about this because it means there is a difference between their simulation and the actual soil, now they just need to figure out what that is. As I mentioned before in Geeking Science posts, scientists love it when they have more questions than answers. (University of Florida scientists grow plants in soil from the moon – May 13, 2022 – youtube)

Geeking Science: Tree Talk

Erin Penn

Photo by Sebastian Unrau on Unsplash

Scientists have discover trees gossip, after a fashion.

Through a fungal network, they share information about insect attacks, can request nutrients, and even nurture their young. So much happening right under our feet!

Within a multi-layer, diverse-culture forest, mother trees can make sure her seedlings get the food they need even under the shade of her branches. But here is a twist on that sharing nutrient network, trees do it with other trees outside their family line and even species. Initially, this might seem counter intutive to the Darwinian “survival of the fittest” concept of every creature and lifeform is out for themselves. When ecology professor Suzanne Simard ran a test, she discovered Birch and Fir trees talk to each other.

When the fir was shaded by the birch in summer, the birch sent more carbon to it. When the birch was leafless in the winter, the fir sent more carbon to it. (Burrows, 2018)

By working together, the two trees had a steady supply of “food” year round.

Cooperation for the win.

This interaction within the forest gives some concerns to clear-cutting and replacing with mono-culture tree species. Even removing the “largest” trees might not be the best option for a healthy forest, as the mother trees are teaching other trees how to share resources. This massive interaction is something loggers need to study to maximize production of good wood products.

<Simard> says, “<Trees> live longest and reproduce most often in a healthy stable forest. That’s why they’ve evolved to help their neighbors.” (Grant, 2018)

As a writer interested in science fiction, all this geeks me out. The interconnectedness of forests brings so much to the conceptual plate of Terraforming. Making oxygen and water won’t bring a planet paradise into existence. We must understand soil, trees sharing water and nutrients, fungi taking 30% of the sugar to provide a communication network and replaying the sugar with nutrients they gather to the tree roots. All these interactions will need to be brought into play on New-Earth, both fictional and in real life.

Bibliography

BBC News. “How trees secretly talk to each other” YouTube. June 29, 2018. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yWOqeyPIVRo – last viewed 12/18/2022.

Burrows, Sue. “Trees Talk to Each Other in a Language We Can Learn, Ecologist Claims”. ReturnToNow.net. February 28, 2018. https://returntonow.net/2018/02/28/trees-talk/ – last viewed 12/18/2022 (Note 4/26/2024: website cancelled).

Grant, Richard. “Do Trees Talk to Each Other?”. Smithsonian Magazine. March 2018. – Last viewed 12/18/2022.

McClenaghan, Beverly. “STEM in Context – Talking Trees: How Do Trees Communicate?” Let’s Talk Science. July 23, 2019. – last viewed 12/18/2022 (Note from 9/20/2023 – looks like it is now behind a paywall).