[Spacetalk] https://www.nasa.gov/index.html https://spaceflightnow.com

Sun Jan 26 23:56:49 CST 2020

Hi all,

  I am on a plane from Norway to Orlando, at a 3 hour stop in Iceland…then the last 8 hour leg…we have been on the plane over 1 1/2 hours waiting for some sort of issue with the cargo, should have left an hour ago …thankfully, there is no connecting flight but it is pretty cold, as are most planes to me…I had an awesome time visiting schools in Norway…this was a special trip as I also planned a short, 3 day, “vacation” to see the Northern Lights…I went with a group of friends to Northern Norway, Kirkenes…unfortunately still have not seen the lights but did see the temperature drop to -34 Celsius (-30  Fahrenheit)…it was super cold but very beautiful…

2  days before I left Norway, my best buddy in Norway, Aage, where I have been visiting for 7 years was killed in private plane crash..healthy and fit, a zest for life…a teacher who loved kids and sharing his love of flight…I shared his home on every visit... he organized all the school visits, took me to every one, stayed with me, he heard the presentation hundreds of times, yet he always smiled and enjoyed them…I am so thankful to have him in my life….without him there would never have been 14 trips to Norway, 5 trips to Denmark, Sweden...the tens of thousands of kids…on this particular trip, I felt I needed an extra day at his house so we could hang out…I spent the extra day with him…helping him with a car he wanted to buy in the US, planning his visit to Orland in April, my next trip to Norway…I will forever be thankful for this day….a reminder to us all, to be thankful for those we care about most and let them know….

I will try to send out more updates on the the space program…there are many fun and interesting things ahead…Feb 7, 2020…solar orbiter mission…11:15 PM, Eastern time…it will be replayed on the NASA site...https://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/index.html#public <https://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/index.html#public> I hope you can share it with the kids...we have to remember to do our best, enjoy everything we do, believe in ourselves, and let those we care about most know (I always say this, we all need to take it to heart)…hugs & smiles…:-) :-) love ya, Gabe

NASA's next Mars rover will get one of these 9 names
 schools in Norway…I misunderstood, I thought you could write a paragraph to select the name but it seems you can only vote…I encourage you do do so…for the teachers, maybe you have the kids pick one of the nine, write a paragraph why they picked it…it would be a fun English lesson…

This illustration depicts NASA's next Mars rover, which launches in 2020.
Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech
The nine finalists (submission name, grade level, student name and state) are:
Endurance, K-4, Oliver Jacobs of Virginia
Tenacity, K-4, Eamon Reilly of Pennsylvania
Promise, K-4, Amira Shanshiry of Massachusetts
Perseverance, 5-8, Alexander Mather of Virginia 
Vision, 5-8, Hadley Green of Mississippi
Clarity, 5-8, Nora Benitez of California
Ingenuity, 9-12, Vaneeza Rupani of Alabama
Fortitude, 9-12, Anthony Yoon of Oklahoma
Courage, 9-12, Tori Gray of Louisiana

Members of the public have an opportunity to vote for their favorite name for NASA's next Mars rover. The nine candidate names were made possible by the "Name the Rover" essay contest, which invited students in kindergarten through 12th grade from across the United States to come up with a fitting name for NASA's Mars 2020 rover and write a short essay about it. More than 28,000 essays were submitted after the contest began on Aug. 28 last year. A diverse panel of nearly 4,700 judge volunteers, composed of educators, professionals and space enthusiasts from all around the country, narrowed the pool down to 155 deserving semifinalists from every state and territory in the country. "Thousands of students have shared their ideas for a name that will do our rover and the team proud," said Lori Glaze, director of NASA's Planetary Science Division in Washington. "Thousands more volunteered time to be part of the judging process. Now it is the public's opportunity to become involved and express their excitement for their favorites of the final nine.The poll opens online today and will remain open through Jan. 27 until 9 p.m. PST (midnight EST). The results of the poll will be a consideration in the final naming selection. For the poll, visit: Go.nasa.gov/name2020 <http://go.nasa.gov/name2020>. After the poll closes, the nine student finalists will discuss their rover names with a panel including Glaze, NASA astronaut Jessica Watkins, NASA-JPL rover driver Nick Wiltsie and Clara Ma, who earned the honor of naming the Mars rover Curiosity as a sixth-grade student in 2009. The contest will conclude in early March, when the rover's new name — and the student behind it — are announced. The grand prize winner will also receive an invitation to see the spacecraft launch in July 2020 from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. The currently unnamed rover is a robotic scientist weighing more than 2,300 pounds (1,000 kilograms). It will search for signs of past microbial life, characterize the planet's climate and geology, collect samples for future return to Earth and pave the way for human exploration of the Red Planet. Scheduled to launch in July or August 2020, the rover will land in Jezero Crater on Feb. 18, 2021. The naming contest partnership is part of a Space Act Agreement in educational and public outreach efforts between NASA, Battelle of Columbus, Ohio, and Future Engineers of Burbank, California. For complete contest and prize details, including a full listing of the 155 state/territory semifinalists, visit: https://www.futureengineers.org/nametherover <https://www.futureengineers.org/nametherover> For information on NASA's Mars 2020 mission, visit: https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/ <https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/> JPL built and will manage operations of the Mars 2020 rover for NASA's Science Mission Directorate. NASA's Launch Services Program, based at the agency's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, is responsible for launch management.

A burst of gravitational waves hit our planet. Astronomers have no clue where it's from.

(Image: © Shutterstock)
A mysterious cosmic event might have ever-so-slightly stretched and squeezed our planet last week. On Jan. 14, astronomers detected a split-second burst of gravitational waves <https://www.livescience.com/60586-nobel-in-physics-for-gravitational-waves.html>, distortions in space-time … but researchers don't know where this burst came from. The gravitational wave signal, picked up by the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) and the Virgo interferometer, lasted only 14 milliseconds, and astronomers haven't yet been able to pinpoint the burst's cause or determine whether it was just a blip in the detectors. Gravitational waves can be caused by the collision of massive objects, such as two black holes or two neutron stars <https://www.livescience.com/neutron-star.html>. Astronomers detected such gravitational waves from a neutron star collision in 2017 and from one in April of 2019, according to new findings <https://news.psu.edu/story/604660/2020/01/20/research/ligo-virgo-network-catches-another-neutron-star-collision> that were presented at the meeting of the American Astronomical Society on Jan. 6.

Fancy a ride on a space plane? Maybe AstroClipper will be what you're looking for

An artist's depiction of the Exodus Space Corp.'s AstroClipper space plane separating after launch.
(Image: © Exodus Space)
 Startup Exodus Space Corp. plans to build a space plane to ferry cargo around Earth <https://www.space.com/54-earth-history-composition-and-atmosphere.html>. Eventually, that cargo could include people, if the spacecraft is deemed safe enough.The spaceship — called AstroClipper — will take off from a runaway, make a flight into space and then land again, plane-style <https://www.space.com/dream-chaser-space-plane-crew-missions.html>. A heft booster at the space plane's back end will help it get into orbit by giving AstroClipper the speed it requires to break out of Earth's atmosphere. Exodus is new and still raising money, but its team includes deep experience across the space industry <https://www.space.com/virgin-galactic-third-spaceshiptwo-space-plane-progress.html>. Principals at the company have worked at SpaceX, Lockheed Martin and NASA, among others. The company's first step is a technology demonstrator in 2022 that would remain within Earth's atmosphere but eventually lead to suborbital and orbital spacecraft. The eventual dream, in the 2030s, would be carrying passengers if Exodus can get the necessary human-rating regulations achieved. "This has been a very private project that was in the works for the last 10 years," Exodus CEO Miguel Alaya told Space.com. "It was not all full-time, but just an ongoing process. Since last year, we have put together a strong leadership team to commercialize this intellectual property.” He added that the focus on human passengers will come only after Exodus feels confident it can launch reliably and regularly. "Once our concept is well understood and we have a strong track record of success, we will start focusing on human-related applications," he said. Exodus has filed for patents and the company is now asking for an undisclosed amount of money. The first test vehicle, called AstroClipper Pico, will launch a drone-size craft to 6 miles (10 kilometers) in altitude to make sure the technology works. If all the funding and development goes to plan, Pico should fly in about 2022.

An artist's depiction of the Exodus Space Corp.'s AstroClipper space plane.  (Image credit: Exodus Space)
After that vehicle, Exodus may raise more funds to get ready for its first suborbital flights <https://www.space.com/32373-spaceplane.html>, which the company hopes to achieve in 2024. It will do so using a Cessna-size spacecraft, called AstroClipper Nano, that will be designed to launch up to 220 pounds (100 kilograms) of cargo to roughly 60 miles (100 km) in altitude. "With that suborbital vehicle, we are targeting at least three markets," Alaya said. Exodus is looking at suborbital research and development, hypersonic research (relating to vehicles moving five times the speed of sound or faster, a field of research that is popular with the U.S. government) and also faster point-to-point transport for the government and for commercial clients. Exodus plans to follow Nano with two more models of AstroClipper that could eventually carry about 2,650 pounds (1,200 kg) of cargo into space by 2030. The company's current final target is dubbed AstroClipper Max and would fly up to 20 passengers sometime in the 2030s, should the vehicle be approved to carry humans. Alaya acknowledged that the AstroClipper series of vehicles are in an early stage of development right now, but maintained that the company's leadership has the expertise to help see the work through. "Looking at the market for the last 10 years, we have a strong understanding of what things we can work or not, and in addition we are not new to the space or the aerospace industry," he said. "We've worked on vehicles, spacecraft and aircraft. We're a very experienced leadership team. We also have an extended team of around 40 people that helps us with different aspects of our technology … [so] we do have a big team we're going to draw from. Once we get funded, we have the people in line to start getting to the work."

 XS-1: A US Military Space Plane in Pictures (Gallery) <https://www.space.com/26530-xs1-experimental-military-space-plane-pictures.html> 
 Ex-Space Plane: Inside the Hangar at Bankrupt XCOR Aerospace (Photos) <https://www.space.com/40349-xcor-aerospace-bankruptcy-lynx-space-plane-gallery.html> 
 In Photos: Virgin Galactic's VSS Unity Aces 2nd Powered Test Flight <https://www.space.com/40748-virgin-galactic-spaceshiptwo-unity-2nd-powered-test-flight-photos.html> 

It's time to say goodbye to NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope. Here's why. <https://futureplc.slgnt.eu/optiext/optiextension.dll?ID=QijQmkIzzCVyo%2B2amK0zKwYycpoPo4QVpdphEqCPno%2BqEZiAZfwmVLByeJK0X4Ctz2KdqUTJEmLYp%2BxY0CCtE_l_FOEVv6Z8rthE2VfOWTONjwkvgk>

An artist's depiction of the Spitzer Space Telescope at work observing our galaxy in infrared.
(Image: © NASA/JPL-Caltech)
How does NASA know it's time to end a mission? For the Spitzer Space Telescope <https://www.space.com/33909-spitzer-space-telescope.html>, the agency can blame it on the spacecraft's juice. Specifically, Spitzer's struggle comes from trying to balance charging its battery, communicating with Earth and keeping its instruments cool. When it launched in 2003, those tasks didn't interfere much with each other, but the longer the mission continued, the bigger a challenge it became. And so, on Jan. 30, more than 16 years after its launch, NASA will send the spacecraft its final commands <https://www.space.com/nasa-celebrates-spitzer-telescope-legacy.html>. "There is a natural end to the mission and we are reaching it," Luisa Rebull, an astronomer at the  NASA Infrared Science Archive at the California Institute of Technology, which hosts Spitzer's data, told Space.com.

Solar Orbiter, a new mission to the sun by Europe and NASA, to launch next month

Artist's impression of the European-led Solar Orbiter mission circling close to the sun.
(Image: © ESA)
A new sun-studying spacecraft is set to get off the ground soon.

Solar Orbiter <https://www.space.com/35865-solar-orbiter-facts.html>, a mission led by the European Space Agency (ESA) with NASA participation, is scheduled to launch atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket on Feb. 5 from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. The liftoff will come just 18 months after NASA's Parker Solar Probe <https://www.space.com/40437-parker-solar-probe.html> (PSP) took to the skies, kicking off its historic sun-kissing mission <https://www.space.com/parker-solar-probe-first-sun-science-results.html>. PSP has set the all-time spacecraft speed record and gotten nearer to our star — about 15 million miles (24 million kilometers) — than any other mission in history. Related: NASA's Parker Solar Probe Mission to the Sun in Pictures <https://www.space.com/37037-nasa-parker-solar-probe-mission-pictures.html>
Identity-Switching Neutrinos Could Reveal Why We Exist At All. But Can We Find Them?

(Image: © Shutterstock)
For years now, an international team of researchers has hidden themselves deep beneath a mountain in central Italy, tirelessly collecting the most sensitive measurements from the coldest cubic meter in the known universe. The scientists are searching for evidence that ghostly particles called neutrinos <https://www.livescience.com/64827-neutrinos.html> are indistinguishable from their own antimatter counterparts. If proved, the discovery could resolve a cosmic conundrum that has plagued physicists for decades: Why does matter exist at all? They've long known that matter has an evil twin dubbed antimatter <https://www.space.com/antimatter.html>. For every fundamental particle <https://www.livescience.com/65427-fundamental-elementary-particles.html> in the universe, there exists an antiparticle that's nearly identical to its sibling, with the same mass but opposite charge. When a particle and antiparticle meet face-to-face, they annihilate each other, creating pure energy.  "We have this apparent complete symmetry of accounting between matter and antimatter," Thomas O'Donnell, a professor of physics at Virginia Tech University, told Live Science. "Every time you make a piece of matter, you also make a balancing piece of antimatter, and every time you destroy a piece of matter, you must destroy a piece of antimatter. If this is true, you can never have more of one type than the other.” 

Related: From Big Bang to Present: Snapshots of Our Universe Through Time <https://www.livescience.com/65471-photo-timeline-big-bang.html>