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Mysterious Mars Crater Deposits | NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter
This false-color image taken by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) spacecraft’s High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) instrument on Oct. 23, 2022, of the northern plains of Arabia Terra shows craters that contain curious deposits with mysterious shapes and distribution. For instance, the deposits are located on the south sides of the craters, but not usually in the north, and are found only in craters larger than 600 meters in diameter. Scientists suspect that these features formed by sublimation of ice-rich material.
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, Calif., manages the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, Washington. The HiRISE camera was built by Ball Aerospace and Technology Corporation and is operated by the University of Arizona.
Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona
Was 2022 a Good Year for Chinese Space? | Dongfang Hour
Dongfang Hour Host: Jean Deville
"2022 has been a (very) eventful year for Chinese space. Let's review the main highlights, discussing launch, progress on reusability, constellations, the completion of the Chinese Space Station, and more."
"As this is the last video of 2022, Happy New Year! See you in 2023!"
If you would like to support me (Jean) to make more content, please consider signing up to our small Patreon community at: https://patreon.com/dongfanghour
We also have some very cool space merch available at:
Credits for various visuals: Deep Blue Aerospace, iSpace, Landspace, Linkspace, Space Pioneer, Space Transportation, Galactic Energy, CASC, CASIC, CMSA, CNSA, SpaceX, CGSTL, Geespace, CAS Space, China Rocket, Expace.
Panning across a Galactic Cherry Blossom: Galaxy NGC 1156
The galaxy NGC 1156 resembles a delicate cherry blossom tree flowering in springtime in this Hubble image. The many bright "blooms" within the galaxy are in fact stellar nurseries—regions where new stars are springing to life. Energetic light emitted by newborn stars in these regions streams outwards and encounters nearby pockets of hydrogen gas, causing it to glow with a characteristic pink hue.
NGC 1156 is located in the constellation of Aries (The Ram) around 25 million light-years from Earth. It is classified as a dwarf irregular galaxy, meaning that it lacks a clear spiral or rounded shape, as other galaxies have, and is on the smaller side, albeit with a relatively large central region that is more densely packed with stars.
Some pockets of gas within NGC 1156 rotate in the opposite direction to the rest of the galaxy, suggesting that there has been a close encounter with another galaxy in NGC 1156's past. The gravity of this other galaxy—and the turbulent chaos of such an interaction—could have scrambled the likely more orderly rotation of material within NGC 1156, producing the odd behavior we see today.
Credit: European Space Agency (ESA)/Hubble, NASA, R. Jansen
This scintillating image showcases the globular cluster NGC 6540 in the constellation Sagittarius. It was captured by the NASA/European Space Agency Hubble Space Telescope’s Wide Field Camera 3 and Advanced Camera for Surveys. These two instruments have slightly different fields of view—which determines how large an area of sky each instrument captures. This composite image shows the star-studded area of sky that was captured in both instruments’ field of view.
NGC 6540 is a globular cluster, a stable, tightly bound multitude of stars. The populations of these clusters can range from tens of thousands to millions of stars, all of which are trapped in a closely-packed group by their mutual gravitational attraction.
Distance: about 17,000 light years
The brightest stars in this image are adorned with prominent cross-shaped patterns of light known as diffraction spikes. These astronomical embellishments are a type of imaging artefact, meaning that they are caused by the structure of Hubble rather than the stars themselves. The path taken by the starlight as it enters the telescope is slightly disturbed by its internal structure, causing bright objects to be surrounded by spikes of light.
Hubble peered into the heart of NGC 6540 to help astronomers measure the ages, shapes, and structures of globular clusters towards the center of the Milky Way. The gas and dust shrouding the center of our galaxy block some of the light from these clusters, as well as subtly changing the colors of their stars. Globular clusters contain insights into the earliest history of the Milky Way, and so studying them can help astronomers understand how our galaxy has evolved.
Credit: European Space Agency (ESA)/Hubble & NASA, R. Cohen
The scattered stars of the globular cluster NGC 6355 are strewn across this image from the NASA/European Space Agency Hubble Space Telescope. This globular cluster lies less than 50,000 light-years from Earth in the Ophiuchus constellation. NGC 6355 is a galactic globular cluster that resides in our Milky Way galaxy's inner regions.
Image Description: "A dense collection of stars covers the view. Towards the center the stars become even more dense in a circular region, and also more blue. Around the edges there are some redder foreground stars, and many small stars in the background."
Globular clusters are stable, tightly bound clusters of tens of thousands to millions of stars, and can be found in all types of galaxy. Their dense populations of stars and mutual gravitational attraction give these clusters a roughly spherical shape, with a bright concentration of stars surrounded by an increasingly sparse sprinkling of stars. The dense, bright core of NGC 6355 was picked out in crystal-clear detail by Hubble in this image, and is the crowded area of stars towards the center of this image.
With its vantage point above the distortions of the atmosphere, Hubble has revolutionized the study of globular clusters. It is almost impossible to distinguish the stars in globular clusters from one another with ground-based telescopes, but astronomers have been able to use Hubble to study the constituent stars of globular clusters in detail. This Hubble image of NGC 6355 contains data from both the Advanced Camera for Surveys and Wide Field Camera 3.
Credit: European Space Agency (ESA)/Hubble & NASA, E. Noyola, R. Cohen
NASA's Artemis I Orion Moon Mission Spacecraft Returns to Kennedy Space Center
After its 1.4-million-mile mission beyond the Moon and back, the Orion spacecraft for the Artemis I mission arrived back at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Dec. 30, 2022. The capsule splashed down in the Pacific Ocean on Dec. 11, 2022, and was transported by truck across the country from Naval Base San Diego in California to Kennedy’s Multi Payload Processing Facility in Florida.
Now that Orion is back at Kennedy, technicians will remove payloads from the capsule as part of de-servicing operations, including Commander Moonikin Campos, zero-gravity indicator Snoopy, and the official flight kit. Orion’s heat shield and other elements will be removed for extensive analysis, and remaining hazards will be offloaded.
Artemis I was a major step forward as part of NASA’s lunar exploration efforts and sets the stage for the next mission of the Space Launch System rocket and Orion to fly crew around the Moon on Artemis II.
After launching atop the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket on Nov. 16, 2022, from the agency’s Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida, Orion spent 25.5 days in space before returning to Earth, completing the Artemis I mission.
The Artemis I mission is the first integrated test of NASA’s deep space exploration systems: the Orion spacecraft, the SLS rocket, and Kennedy Space Center's Exploration Ground Systems.
This will provide the foundation to send humans to the lunar surface, develop a long-term presence on and around the Moon, and pave the way for humanity to set foot on Mars.
NASA's Parker Solar Probe Completes 14th Close Encounter with The Sun
On Dec. 6, 2022, NASA’s Parker Solar Probe began the 14th of 24 planned close approaches to the Sun. The closest approach—called perihelion— occurred on Dec. 11, 2022, at 8:16 a.m. EST, during which the spacecraft traveled at 364,639 miles per hour—fast enough to fly from New York to Tokyo in just over a minute.
During the encounter, which ends Dec. 16, 2022, the European Space Agency’s Solar Orbiter, NASA’s Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory-A (STEREO-A), and radar telescopes on Earth will view the Sun from the same angle as Parker at the beginning of the encounter. They will slowly progress to an approximately 90-degree angle from Parker on the inbound side of the encounter.
The European Space Agency’s BepiColombo mission will start out viewing the Sun from the same angle as Parker and progress to observing the Sun from an approximately 90-degree angle from Parker on the outbound side of the encounter. This orientation could provide an opportunity to observe a solar event from all sides.
Parker Solar Probe is humanity’s first mission to the sun. After launch, it will orbit directly through the solar atmosphere–the corona–closer to the surface than any human-made object has ever gone. While facing brutal heat and radiation, the mission will reveal fundamental science behind what drives the solar wind, the constant outpouring of material from the sun that shapes planetary atmospheres and affects space weather near Earth.
Parker Solar Probe is part of NASA’s Living With a Star Program to explore aspects of the connected sun-Earth system that directly affect life and society.
Video Credit: Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Lab (APL)
2022’s planetary defense efforts were truly one for the history books! Not only did NASA's DART Mission change the motion of an asteroid in space but the astronomical community discovered a slew of near-Earth objects. Spoiler alert: none of them pose a threat to Earth!
DART was the first-ever mission dedicated to investigating and demonstrating one method of asteroid deflection by changing an asteroid’s motion in space through kinetic impact.
Josh & Frank's Spacewalk Day | International Space Station
Expedition 68 Flight Engineer and NASA spacewalker Josh Cassada prepares a roll-out solar array for its deployment on the International Space Station
Expedition 68 Flight Engineer Nicole Mann (center) of NASA poses with NASA spacewalkers Josh Cassada (left) and Frank Rubio (right) who were suited up and ready to begin a spacewalk to install a roll-out solar array on the International Space Station's Port-4 truss segment
Nicole Mann (center left) of NASA and Koichi Wakata (center right) of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) pose with NASA spacewalkers Frank Rubio (far left) and Josh Cassada (far right) who were suited up and ready to begin a spacewalk
Koichi Wakata (center) of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) poses with NASA spacewalkers Josh Cassada (left) and Frank Rubio (right)
Koichi Wakata of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and Nicole Mann of NASA pose with a pair of Extravehicular Mobility Units (EMUs), or spacesuits, that NASA astronauts Frank Rubio and Josh Cassada (both out of frame)
Expedition 68 Flight Engineers Josh Cassada and Frank Rubio of NASA concluded their spacewalk at 3:27 p.m. EST on Nov. 22, 2022, after 7 hours and 8 minutes.
Cassada and Rubio completed their major objectives to install an International Space Station Roll-Out Solar Array (iROSA) on the 4A power channel on the port truss. The iROSAs will increase power generation capability by up to 30%, increasing the station’s total available power from 160 kilowatts to up to 215 kilowatts.
It was the 257th spacewalk in support of space station assembly, upgrades, and maintenance, and was the third spacewalk for both astronauts.
Cassada and Rubio are in the midst of a planned six-month science mission living and working aboard the microgravity laboratory to advance scientific knowledge and demonstrate new technologies for future human and robotic exploration missions, including lunar missions through NASA’s Artemis program.
Expedition 68 Crew
Station Commander Sergey Prokopyev of Roscosmos (Russia)
Roscosmos (Russia): Flight Engineers Anna Kikina & Dmitri Petelin
NASA: Flight Engineers Nicole Mann, Frank Rubio & Josh Cassada
JAXA (Japan): Flight Engineer Koichi Wakata
An international partnership of space agencies provides and operates the elements of the International Space Station (ISS). The principals are the space agencies of the United States, Russia, Europe, Japan, and Canada. The ISS has been the most politically complex space exploration program ever undertaken.
Looking back on a historic year for NASA, there were great accomplishments, such as the first images from the James Webb Space Telescope and the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission success. However, the high point has to be the launch and return to Earth of the Artemis I mission. Here is an image of NASA’s Space Launch System rocket carrying the Orion spacecraft into space on the Artemis I flight test, Wednesday, Nov. 16, 2022, from Launch Complex 39B at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
This high-definition visualization shows the Moon's phase and libration at hourly intervals throughout 2023, as viewed from the Southern Hemisphere. Each frame represents one hour. In addition, this visualization shows the Moon's orbit position, sub-Earth and subsolar points, and distance from the Earth at true scale. Craters near the terminator are labeled, as are Apollo landing sites, maria, and other albedo features in sunlight.
Video Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC)
Data Visualization: Ernie Wright of Universities Space Research Association (USRA)
Producer & Editor: David Ladd of Advocates in Manpower Management, Inc. (AIMM)
In 2022, we made history. In 2023, we are preparing for our future by exploring the secrets of the universe. All for the benefit of humanity.
In 2022, we launched our mega Moon rocket for the first time—sending the uncrewed Orion spacecraft around the Moon, we kicked off a new era in astronomy with record-breaking new imagery from the Webb Space Telescope, we moved an asteroid in humanity’s first ever planetary defense demonstration and much more.
Credit: National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
This high-definition visualization shows the Moon's phase and libration at hourly intervals throughout 2023, as viewed from the Northern Hemisphere. Each frame represents one hour. In addition, this visualization shows the Moon's orbit position, sub-Earth and subsolar points, and distance from the Earth at true scale. Craters near the terminator are labeled, as are Apollo landing sites, maria, and other albedo features in sunlight.
Video Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC)
Data Visualization: Ernie Wright (USRA)
Producer & Editor: David Ladd of Advocates in Manpower Management, Inc. (AIMM)
SpaceX Falcon 9 EROS-C Mission Launch | Vandenberg Space Force Base
SpaceX capped off the busiest year in its two-decade history Dec. 30, 2022, with a Falcon 9 launch of a commercial Israeli imaging satellite.
A Falcon 9 rocket lifted off at 2:38 a.m. Eastern from Space Launch Complex 4 East at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. The rocket’s first stage, flying its 11th mission, landed back at the launch site eight minutes after liftoff.
The Falcon 9 upper stage deployed its payload, the EROS C3 imaging satellite, nearly 15 minutes after liftoff. The satellite was released at an altitude of nearly 500 kilometers in an unusual mid-inclination retrograde orbit, rather than the sun-synchronous orbit commonly used for optical imaging spacecraft.
EROS C3 was built by Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) for ImageSat International, a Tel Aviv-based commercial imaging company. The 400-kilogram satellite, based on IAI’s OPTSAT-3000 bus, is designed to take images at a resolution of 30 centimeters.
The launch of EROS C3 completed the most active year to date for SpaceX. The company performed 61 launches, all successful, in 2022. All but one, a Falcon Heavy launch for the U.S. Space Force, were of the company’s Falcon 9 vehicle, which has become a workhorse for the global space industry.
SpaceX nearly doubled its launch rate from 2021, when the company performed a then-record 31 Falcon 9 launches. That launch activity was driven by the company’s Starlink constellation, which accounted for 34 of the 61 launches in 2022.
The 61 launches SpaceX performed in 2022 exceeded a goal of 60 set by Elon Musk, founder and chief executive of SpaceX, in a tweet in March. Musk has not publicly stated how many launches he expects SpaceX to conduct in 2023, but SpaceX’s first launch of the new year, the Transporter-6 dedicated rideshare mission, is scheduled for no earlier than Jan. 2 on a Falcon 9 from Cape Canaveral’s Space Launch Complex 40.
Reads full SpaceNews article at: https://spacenews.com/spacex-completes-record-year-with-israeli-imaging-satellite-launch/
NASA Astronaut Frank Rubio Talks with Telemundo | International Space Station
[Interview in Spanish/Español] Aboard the International Space Station, Expedition 68 Flight Engineer Frank Rubio of NASA discussed in Spanish, life and work aboard the orbital outpost during an in-flight event December 30, 2022, with Telemundo 51/NBC6 Miami and W Radio in Miami.
Rubio is in the midst of a science mission aboard the microgravity laboratory. The goal of his mission is to advance scientific knowledge and demonstrate new technologies for future human and robotic exploration missions as part of NASA’s Moon and Mars exploration approach, including lunar missions through NASA’s Artemis program.
An international partnership of space agencies provides and operates the elements of the International Space Station (ISS). The principals are the space agencies of the United States, Russia, Europe, Japan, and Canada. The ISS has been the most politically complex space exploration program ever undertaken.
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