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International Efforts
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26 Apr

International Efforts

Space technologyBy abhishek levelupias0 Comments
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1)  International Space Station (ISS)
  • The International Space Station (ISS) is a modular space station (habitable artificial satellite) in LEO.
  • Its main construction was completed between 1988 and 2011, although the station continuously evolves to include new mission and experiments. It has been continuously occupied since Nov 2, 2000.
  • It is a multinational collaboration with contribution from 15 nations.
    1. NASA, ESA, ROSCOSMOS are the major partners of the space station and contribute most of the funding.
    2. JAXA, and Canadian Space Agency are other partners.
    3. Through a private company called Axiom Space, private astronauts are starting to work on the orbiting complex, from time to time.
    4. The ownership and use of the space station is established by intergovernmental treaties and agreement.
  • Details:
    1. ISS is 109 meters from end to end with a weight of more than 4 lakh kg without visiting vehicles.
    2. Orbits at an average height of 400 kms. It circles earth every 90 minutes at a speed of about 28,000 km/h.
  • Space Vehicles to reach ISS:
    1. Currently, astronauts travel to ISS via SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule. Russian astronauts travel to the space station using Soyuz capsule.
    2. Note: After retirement of NASA’s Space Shuttle Program in 2011, Soyuz was the only spacecraft which could take humans to ISS. Later, in 2020, SpaceX’s Crew Dragon also became available.
  • Purpose:
    1. It provides a platform for multi-gravity and space environment research laboratory.
  • Future:
    1. Current Plan calls for the space station to be operated through at least 2024 with the partners discussing a possible extension.
    2. NASA has approved extension till 2030.
    3. Russia has announced its withdrawal after 2024 to focus on building its own space station around 2028.
    4. After 2030, plans for ISS are not clearly known. It could be deorbited or recycled for future commercial space stations in orbit.
2)  Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT)
  • What is thirty-meter telescope?
    • Thirty-meter telescope is a new class of extremely large telescopes that will allow us to see deeper into space and observe cosmic objects with unprecedented sensitivity.
    • With its 30 m prime mirror diameter, TMT will be three times as wide, with nine time more area, than the largest currently existing visible light telescope in the world. The images of TMT will be 12 times sharper than Hubble Space Telescope.
    • The TMT will observe wavelengths ranging from the ultraviolet to the mid-infrared.
    • Who is building TMT?
      • It is being built by TMT International Observatory LLC (TIO).
    • The TIO is a non-profit international partnership between the California Institute of Technology, the University of California, the National Institute of Natural Science of Japan, the National Astronomical Observatory of Chinese Academy of Sciences, the DST India and the National Research Council, Canada.
3)  SKAO (Square Kilometer Array Observatory)
  • The Square Kilometer Array (SKA) is an inter-governmental radio telescope project under construction. Once completed it will be the world’s largest and most powerful radio telescope.
  • It will be built in two phases – with the core arrays located in:
    • Australia: Focusing on low frequency observation.
    • South Africa: Focusing on mid-frequency observation.
  • How will it function?
    • The SKA will combine signals from thousands of smaller antennas spread across vast distances to function as a single giant telescope with exceptional sensitivity and angular resolution. This is achieved through a technique called aperture synthesis.
    • Some sub-arrays will also have very broad field view, allowing for surveying huge areas of the sky simultaneously.
  • The headquarters and combining infrastructure, called the Square Kilometer Array Observatory (SKAO), are located at the Jodrell Bank Observatory in the UK.
  • The incredible sensitivity of SKA will help understand the universe in a better way.
  • How will the SKA Observatory work?

The 197 dishes in South Africa are collectively referred to as SKA-Mid and will observe at radiofrequencies between 350 MHz and 15.4 GHz. They have combined effective collecting area of 33,000 sq m.
SKA-Mid’s resolution will be 4-times that of JVLA (the current best similar instrument in the world)

In Australia, the 131,072 low frequency antennas are known as SKA-Low and have combined collecting area of 419,000 sqm.
Compared to LOFAR (Low Frequency Array) in the Netherlands, this will be 8x more sensitive.
  • The collecting area is a crucial component that makes the SKAO so powerful. It makes the telescope detect even the fainter objects.
  • Progress:
    • The construction of the project began in 2018, with the first light (the start of the scientific observations) expected in 2027

A) India Moves towards becoming full member of SKAO (Jan 2024)

  • In Jan 2024, GOI has approved India’s participation in SKA, with a financial sanction of Rs 1,250 crores. This is the first step towards ratification of SKAO Convention. Countries have to sign and ratify this convention to formally become members.
    • India, through the Pune-based National Centre for Radio Astrophysics (NCRA) and some other institutions, has been involved in the development of SKA since its inception in the 1990s. India contributed heavily to the design and development of the SKA telescope over time, particularly in software domain, having been involved in SKA project since its earliest days.
    • Full membership was long anticipated. The Indian government was a party to the negotiation of the SKAO Convention and participated in the preparatory activities that led to the creation of the observatory in early 2021.
  • The approval covers the funding support for the construction phase of the international SKA Observatory (SKAO) spread over the next 7 years.
  • The project will be jointly funded by DAE and DST, with DAE being the lead agency.
  • This participation is nationwide including project led consortium of more than 20 academic and research institutes (with NCRA-TIFR as the nodal institute)
4)  Space Based Internet
  • Space X Plan
    • The Starlink Network of SpaceX eventually plans to install 42,000 satellites to ensure non-stop internet services throughout the earth at a cost-effective rate. These satellites will be connected with their neighboring satellites using lasers.
  • China’s “Guowang” (GW) constellation has also been announced which is meant to meet satellite-based internet services.
    • It will also be a LEO based system with satellites operating at different heights (500-1145 km), inclinations (30-85 degrees) and frequency bands.
  • Other such projects: Several other companies including Amazon, OneWeb and O3B have also planned large constellation of satellites in LEO and MEO – but these projects are very small compared to Starlink.
  • Comparing Geostationary vs LEO satellites for providing internet services [Advantages of LEO – Low latency-> allows real time communication; Disadvantage -> need more satellites for coverage as they cover small part of earth]
  • Significance
    • Reliable and uninterrupted internet services universally to everyone on earth.
    • Services during emergency: For e.g. During Russia Ukraine war in 2022, the Starlink played an important role in strengthening the Ukrainian military might after the European SATCOM system was cyber attacked.
    • IOT services
    • Better e-governance
  • Concerns:
    • Increased Space debris
    • Increased chances of collision of satellites
    • Difficulty in Space Observation -> Light Pollution
    • Increased crowding in LEO and signal interference in space may emerge as another problem
5) NASA Initiatives
1)  Great Observatory Program
  • NASA’s series of Great Observatories satellite are four large, powerful space-based telescope The four missions were designed to examine a specific region of the electromagnetic spectrum using very different technologies. The program was developed in 1994.
  • Great Observatories
A) The Hubble Space Telescope (HST)
  • The Hubble Space Telescope was deployed on April 25, 1990 from the space shuttle Discovery.
  • It primarily observes visible light and near-ultraviolet. A servicing mission in 1999 added capability in near infrared range and one last mission in 2009 was to fix and extend the life of Hubble which resulted in some of the best results to date.
  • Hubble is one of the largest and most versatile, and is well known as both vital research tool and a public relation boon for astronom
B)  The Comptom Gamma Ray Observatory (CGRO) (not operating currently)
  • Primarily observed gamma rays, though it extended into hard x rays as well. It was launched in 1991 aboard Atlantis and was deorbited in 2000 after failure of a gyroscope.
C)  The Chandra X-ray observatory (CXO)
  • It is primarily observing soft x-rays. It was launched in 1999 aboard Columbia and was initially named advanced X-ray Astronomical Facility (AXAF).
  • Because X-Rays are absorbed by Earth’s atmosphere, Chandra must orbit above it and therefore is a space-based telescope.
D) The Spitzer Space Telescope (SST)
  • It observes the infrared spectrum. It was launched in 2003 aboard a Delta II rocket and was called the Space Infrared Telescope Facility (SITF) before launch.
2)  James Web Space Telescope
  • It is the largest, most powerful, and complex space telescope ever built and launched into space. It is an infrared telescope with a 5-meter primary mirror.
  • International Collaboration: JWST is an international collaboration between NASA, European Space Agency (ESA), and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA).
  • Some innovative technologies
    • Primary Mirror made of 18 separate hexagonal segments that unfolded and adjusted to the shape after launch. The mirrors are made of ultra-lightweight beryllium and are gold coated. A single large mirror would have been too large for existing rockets to carry.
    • Biggest feature is a tennis court sized five-layer sunshield that attenuates heat from the Sun more than a million times. This sunshield is constructed from Kapton E, a commercially available polyimide film with membranes especially coated with aluminium on both sides and a layer of doped silicon on the sun facing side of the two hottest layers to reflect the sun’s heat back into space.
  • Two basic reasons for it being more powerful than Hubble:
    • It has the biggest telescope mirror to fly in space.
    • 7 times light will be caught than collecting area of Hubble
  • It is designed to collect infrared light, which Hubble is not very sensitive
    • Why infrared observation?
      • High redshift (very old and distant) objects have their visible emissions shifted into the infrared, and therefore their light can only be observed today via infrared astronomy.
      • Colder objects and planets emit strongly in the infrared.
      • Infrared rays can better pierce cosmic dusts and thus would be able to give details about the earliest and furthest galaxies. (Infrared wavelength can penetrate gas and dust)
    • Why from L2 and what is the purpose of sunshield?
      • Earth’s atmosphere glows in the infrared, so measurement can’t be made from the ground.
      • Hubble emits its own heat, which could obscure infrared readings.
      • JWST will run close to absolute zero (around 50K or -232.2 degree C) in temperature otherwise, infrared radiation from the telescope itself would overwhelm its instruments. For this, it would rest at a point in space called the Lagrange Point 2, which is directly behind earth from the sun’s perspective. Further, the five-layer sunshield would attenuate heat from sun more than a million times.
  • It was launched in 2021, and it reached its final orbit at a distance of around 1.5 million km from the Earth in early 2022 and it took the engineers and scientists another six months to ready the instruments before it could be used.
3)  NASA’s Artemis Accord
  • Why in news?
    • India signs US-led Artemis Accord. With this India has become 27th signatory to the accord (June 2023)
  • What is Artemis Accord?
    • Artemis accord was announced by NASA in Oct 2020 with an initial group of eight signatories (USA, Canada, UK, Luxemburg, Italy, UAE, Japan, and Australia). Later, more countries joined the accord. India became 27th country to sign the accord in June 2023.
      • Note: China and Russia are not part of the accord.
    • It is a set of 13 principles which seek to promote peaceful and cooperative exploration of space. Signatory countries agree to abide by these principles which are mostly a reiteration of established international law on space exploration (for e.g. the OST of 1967).
    • The parties who sign this would be able to participate in NASA’s Artemis Program of crewed Lunar Exploration.
    • The accord serves as preamble to bilateral, government-to-government agreements that participating nations will sign with the USA.
    • Key Provisions:
      • Peaceful purposes: Conduct all space activities peacefully and in accordance with international law.
      • Heritage Protection: Help protect space heritage, such as Apollo landing sites.
      • Transparency: Publicly release scientific data in a timely manner
      • Emergency Assistance: Render aid to astronaut who need it.
      • Interoperability: Make their (signatory countries) hardware and other systems “interoperable” to maximize cooperative system.
      • Registration of Space Objects: The Artemis accord reinforces the critical nature of registration and urges any partner which isn’t already a member of the Registration Convention to join ASAP.
      • Space Resource: Space resource extraction and utilization can and will be conducted under the auspices of the Outer Space Treaty, with specific emphasis on Article II, VI, and XI.
      • Deconfliction of Activities: NASA and partner nations will provide public information regarding the location and general nature of operations which will inform the scale and scope of ‘Safety Zones’.
  • Analysis:
    • Why the project is collaborative?
      • Huge costs involved in these projects -> so countries like USA are keen to take forward a collaborative agenda.
      • Geopolitical dimension: China and Russia are also planning a research station on Moon (surface or orbit), and they are also seeking partners.
    • India’s joining:
      • India’s joining of Artemis accord doesn’t mean automatic participation in the Artemis program, but it does open up possibilities of much closer cooperation between the space agencies of the two countries. In fact, the text of the accord clearly mentions that its purpose is to establish a common vision and enhance the governance of civil exploration of outer space “with the intention of advancing the Artemis Program”.
4)  NASA’s Artemis Lunar Program
  • This is NASA’s program for Crewed Lunar Exploration. Under this NASA aims to land two astronauts (including 1 women) near the Lunar south pole in 2024 and establish a sustainable human presence on and around the moon by the end of the decade.
  • Perhaps the most ambitious of the Artemis mission’s objectives involve using the moon as a stepping stone for a mission to Mars. Robots have done all the detective work on Mars so far, but NASA aims to send astronauts there by 2030s.
  • NASA is collaborating with other countries and Private sector for this project.
  • Rockets and Spacecrafts:
    • At the center of the Artemis Program are NASA’s new megarocket, the Space Launch Rocket (SLS) and the Orion Spacecraft.
    • The SLS is a 322 foot tall (98 meters) rocket consisting of a core stage, upper stage, and twin five segment solid rocket boosters to launch payload into space. This rocket will launch the Orion Spacecraft to the moon.
    • Orion is a space capsule larger than the Apollo command modules that are designed to carry four astronauts on missions to the moon.

a) Artemis-1 mission

  • Artemis-1 is the first integrated test of NASA’s deep space exploration systems: the Orion spacecraft, Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and the ground system at Kennedy Space Centre in Cape Canaveral, Florida. It was launched in Nov 2022 from NASA’s Kennedy Space Centre in Florida.
  • It tests the safety of the SLS rocket, and the Orion capsule’s ability to reach moon, perform in lunar orbit and return to Earth for an ocean splashdown.
  • It is an uncrewed flight test that will provide foundation for human deep space exploration and demonstrate NASA’s commitment and capability to extend human existence to the Moon and beyond. It will pave the way for many moon missions including ones that will land the first woman and the first person of color on the Moon.

Orion Surpasses Apollo 13 Record DIstance from Earth (Nov 2022)

  • On day 11 of the Artemis 1 mission, Orion continued its journey beyond Moon after entering a distance retrograde orbit. Orion remained in this orbit for six days before exiting lunar orbit to put the spacecraft on a trajectory back to earth.
  • Orion surpassed the distance record for a mission with a spacecraft designed to carry humans to deep space and back to Earth, on Nov 26, 2020.

B)  Artemis-2: 2024

  • Carrying the first four Artemis astronauts, the Orion Capsule will take the crew farther from earth than humans have ever travelled before.
  • Over the approximately 10-day mission, the crew will complete a lunar flyby and return to Earth, evaluating the spacecraft’s systems while carrying humans.

c)  Artemis-3: 2025

  • It will see the next man and first woman step onto the lunar surface. Astronauts will land on the South pole of the moon using lunar lander. They will remain on the moon for around a week.

d) NASA’s Gateway Lunar Orbit Outpost

  • Details
    • Gateway Lunar Orbit Outpost is basically a spaceship that will orbit the Moon. It will act as an airport, where spacecraft bound for lunar surface or surface of Mars can refuel or replace parts and resupply things like food, oxygen. It will also act as a temporary office and living quarters and lab for astronauts around 2,50,000 kms away from earth.
5)  NASA’S MARS 2020 MISSION – PERSEVERANCE ROVER
  • Details
    • Perseverance (six-wheeled robot) is NASA’s Martian rover. In Feb 2021, it touched down on the Martial soil when it successfully landed in Mar’s Jezero Crater.
    • It’s design is similar to its predecessor rover- curiosity, from which it was moderately upgraded. It carries seven primary payload instruments, 19 cameras, and two microphones. It also carries a mini-helicopter Ingenuity, which in April 2021 made the first ever powered flight on another planet.
    • The rover has four science objectives that support the Mars Exploration Program’s Science goals:
      • Looking for habitability
      • Astrobiology: Seeking biosignatures –of possible past microbial life in those habitable environments, particularly in specific rock types known to preserve signs overtime.
      • Caching samples – Collect core rocks and soil samples and store them on Martian surface which can be extracted by future programs.
      • Preparing for crewed missions – Test oxygen production form the Martian atmosphere.
    • The two microphones would listen to Martian sounds like the wind or the rover moving on the Martian soil.
    • Why Jajero Crater:
      • Jajero crater preserves the evidence that it was once a lake with an inflow channel and an outflow channel. There are good chances that if life existed on Mars in the past, the microorganisms could have lived here and preserved in the form of fossil here.
      • In Aug 2022, NASA’s perseverance found surprising volcanic rocks in Mars’ Jezero Crater. The discovery was a complete surprise as the researchers initially expected to find sedimentary rocks formed by mud and detritus laid down by the ancient lake. These water altered rocks indicate the presence of water, which is an essential ingredient for a habitable environment.
    • In April 2021, NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter became the first aircraft in history to make a powered, controlled flight on another planet.
      • It is a solar powered helicopter.
      • Why flying on Mars is a challenge?
        • Atmosphere density is only 1% of Earth’s atmosphere.
        • To sustain flight, helicopter blades have to rotate at 2400 rpm (rotation per minute). For a helicopter to fly few meters from the ground on Mars, is equivalent for a helicopter to fly 2-3 times the height of Mt Everest.
6) Parker Solar Probe
  • Introduction
    • The parker solar probe was launched in Aug 2018. It is designed to swoop through the sun’s super-hot outer atmosphere and help scientists understand the way our star shapes the solar system.
      • Using Venus’ Gravity: The parker probe has used Venus’ gravity during seven flybys over nearly seven years to gradually bring its orbit closer to sun. It is done to slowdown the spacecraft to reduce gravitational pull of the Sun.
        • In June 2020, the probe reached as close as 832 kms above the planet’s surface.
      • Launch Site: NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, Florida
      • Launch Vehicle: Delta IV – Heavy with upper stage.

  • It is designed to go closer to the sun (3.8 million miles from the solar surface), seven times closer than any other spacecraft before, facing brutal heat and radiation conditions – and ultimately provide humanity with the closest ever observation of the star. In 2021 it has entered into the outermost part of sun’s atmosphere, known as the Corona. It is using in situ measurements and imaging to revolutionize our understanding of the Corona. It is a monumental moment for solar science and a truly remarkable feat.
  • The first passage through Corona – and the promise of more flybys to come – will continue to provide data on phenomena that are impossible to study from afar.
7)  Lucy Mission
  • NASA has launched the LUCY spacecraft in Oct 2021, on a 12-year cruise to the Jupiter Trojan asteroids. It will fly by eight asteroids – 7 trojans and one main belt asteroid – over the next 12 years. It is NASA’s first single aircraft mission which will explore so many asteroids at one go.
  • LUCY will run on solar power out to 850 million kms away from sun. This makes it the farthest-flung solar powered spacecraft ever.
  • Significance: It will look back into the origins and evolution of the solar system formed over 4 billion years ago through these celestial bodies.
  • Why named Lucy?
    • Lucy is the name given to a hominin that lived 3.2 million years ago. She is known to be one of the most famous pre-human fossil in history.
    • Nearly, 40% of the fossilized skeleton of this hominin was discovered in 1974 by a team of Paleoanthropologists led by Donald Johanson. The name was inspired from the famous Beatles song “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds”, which Johanson’s team listened to at camp the night of their discovery.
8)  Dart Mission
  • Introduction
    • DART is a planetary defense-driven test of technologies for preventing an impact of Earth by a hazardous asteroid.
    • Under this NASA launched a mission in Nov 2021, aboard Space X Falcon 9 rocket. It sent a space capsule of the size of a fridge towards an asteroid to shoot it off course. The target asteroids were 11 million kms away from Earth and DART mission reached here after 11 months of journey.
    • Target Asteroid:
      • DART’s test target was an asteroid (Diomorphos/Didymos B) that passed the earth in 2022 and will come back two years later.
      • It’s primary body (Didymos A) is 780 meters across, its secondary body (or “moonlet”) – Didymos B is about 160 meter in size, which is more typical of the size of asteroids that could pose the most likely significant threat to Earth.
      • NOTE: DART’s target asteroid was NOT a threat to earth, and it is only a test mission.
    • In Sep 2022, this space capsule was crashed into Dimorphous/Didymos-B.
    • It used autonomous targeting, using images of the asteroids it acquires as it approaches. DART needed to recognize the asteroid itself, automatically lock onto Dimorphous, and adjust its trajectory to hit it. This is while it was moving at a speed of 24,000 km per hour.
    • Technology: Kinetic Impact Technique:
  • Why Didymos system was chosen: Easy to measure impact (binary pair); No risk to humans.
  • How observations were made:
    • Measurements from telescopes on Earth.
    • LICIACube: It is an Italian Space Agency CubeSat (a small type of satellite) that was deployed from a spring-loaded box aboard the craft on 11th Sep. LICIACube followed along and photographed the collision and its aftermath.
  • Outcome:
    • For the first time, human has changed the orbit of a planetary body. The impact shortened Dimorphos’ orbit time by 32 minutes.
    • Proof: The test was a proof of concept for many technologies, that NASA has invested over the last few years.
    • DART has also given some fascinating data about both asteroid properties and the effectiveness of a kinetic impactor as a planetary defence technology.
9)  Voyager-2
  • Why in news?
    • NASA’s Voyager 2 spacecraft, which is now travelling in interstellar space, has gotten a new lease of life after mission engineers developed a new plan to keep its instruments running for longer (April 2023)
  • About Voyager 2
    • Voyager 2 is a space probe launched by NASA in 1977 to study the outer planets.
    • Its primary mission ended with the exploration of the Neptunian system in 1989. It had visited Jupiter, Saturn and Uranus earlier.
    • It is second spacecraft to enter interstellar space. On 10th Dec 2018, the spacecraft joined its twin – Voyager 1 – as the only human-made objects to enter the space between the stars.
  • Power: The spacecraft is equipped with 3 Multi-hundred-Watt radioisotope thermoelectric generators (MHW RTG).
  • April 2023 Updates:
    • The ageing voyager 2 spacecraft has begun using a small reservoir of backup power to keep its instruments working despite a reduced power supply. This backup power was set aside as part of an onboard safety mechanism. The spacecraft was scheduled to shut down its science instruments in 2023, but with this move, it can continue operating them until 2026.
  • Achievements
    • It is the only spacecraft to study all four of the solar system’s giant planets at close range.
    • The craft is now travelling more than 11.6 billion miles from earth. It is beyond heliopause, or boundary region, where the sun’s influence end and the interstellar medium begins.
    • Note: Although both the voyager probes – Voyager-1, launched on Sep 5, 1977, and Voyager 2, launched 16 days before its twin – have left the heliosphere, neither spacecraft has yet left the solar system, and won’t be leaving anytime soon. The boundary of the solar system is considered to be beyond the outer edge of the Oort Cloud, a collection of small objects that are still under the influence of sun’s gravity.

 

The width of the Oort Cloud is not known precisely, but it is estimated to begin at about 1,000 astronomical units from the sun and to extend to about 100,000 AU (1 AU is the distance from the sun to Earth). It will take about 300 years for Voyager 2 to reach the inner edge of the Oort Cloud and possibly 30,000 years to fly beyond it.
6.  Peregrine Mission-1: First US Spacecraft due to land on Moon since the Apollo Missions in the 1970s Lifts Off

Why in news?

Peregrine Mission-1- is the first US attempt to land on Moon in more than half a century (since Apollo 17 in 1972). It lifted off in space as planned (Jan 2024)

Soft Landing on Moon So Far:


As of Jan 2024, Soft landing on moon has been achieved by only four national space agencies:
Soviet Union was first in 1966. It was followed by USA’s NASA which still remains the only space agency to put humans on Moon. In the last decade, China soft landed on moon thrice in its Change’ e-3, Chang’e-4, and Chang’e-5 missions. India achieved soft landing in 2023 in its Chandrayaan-3 mission.
Failures:
Private Missions by Israel and Japan, as well as an attempt by the Russian Space Agency – have all ended in failures.
Why limited successes? Controlled touchdown on moon is a challenging task due to absence of atmosphere and treacherous terrain.

Details Of Peregrine Mission-1

Rocket Used: Vulcan Centaur: It’s a brand-new rocket of United Launch Alliance. Peregrine Mission-1 is its maiden launch.

    • The rocket has reusable first stage booster engines which is expected to reduce cost of launches.
    • Note: ULA is a joint venture between Lockheed Martin and Boeing.

Peregrine Lander: It has been developed by a US company Astrobotic, which has been selected for NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) programme.

Launch site: Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida.

Touchdown: Peregrine is schedule to touch on a mid-latitude region of the Moon called Sinus Viscositatis.

NASA has contracted private players under Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) programme.

Payload Carried:

A suite of scientific instruments by NASA to probe radiation and surface composition – helping to pave the way for return of the astronauts.

Some Unique Cargos: A shoebox-sized rover built by Carnegie Mellon University (CMU), a physical bitcoin, and cremated remains and DNA including those of Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry, legendary sci-fi author, scientist Arthur C. Clarke, and a dog.

Note: The Navajo Nation, the USA’s largest indigenous tribe, had opposed it as sending these to the moon desecrates a body they consider sacred to their culture.

Significance:

  • Stimulate Broader Lunar Economy: USA has turned to commercial sector to stimulate broader lunar economy.
  • Cost Reduction: NASA has paid the startup just $180 million for five scientific instruments to be carried to the moon – a fraction of cost of launching its own mission.

Future Commercial Launches:

Another US company, which NASA has contracted, Houston-based Intuitive Machines, is looking to launch in Feb 2024 and land near the south pole.

7. China

1)  China’s Space Station: TIangong 

  • Details
    • Background:
      • China’s crewed space program is officially three decades old. It truly got underway, when in 2003, China became only third country in the world, after USA and Russia, to put a human into space using its own resources.
      • Work on the space station programme began a decade ago with the launch of a space lab Tiangong-1 in 2011, and later, Tiangong-2 in 2016.
    • Details of the Space Station – Tiangong: It is a T-Shaped space station which will be able to accommodate 25 lab cabinets, each a micro lab that can be used to conduct experiments. The space station will weigh 66 tonnes – a fraction of ISS which weighs 465 tonnes.
      • It will have three modules
        • Tianhe Module (launched in April 2021) on Long March-5B.
        • Wentian Module (launched in July 2022) will be equipped to support life science research. It will also have airlock cabins for extravehicular trips, as well as short-term living quarters for astronauts during crew rotation.
        • Mengtian Module (launched in Oct 2022) will focus on microgravity experiment. It is the third and final module which docked with the station in Nov 2022.
      • The space station is designed for a lifespan of at least a decade.
      • It has facilities for long term accommodation of just three astronauts (compared to 7 of ISS). Still China has invited foreign astronauts in an effort to internationalize the space station.
      • Scope of expansion in future: The Three module T Shaped station could be expanded into a four-module cross shaped configuration in future.

2)  Chang’E-5

  • Details
    • The Chang’e-5 probe, comprising an orbiter, a lander, an ascender, and a returner was launched on Nov 24, 2020, and its lander-ascender combination touched down on the north of the Mons Rumker in Oceanus Procellarum, also known as the ocean of Storms, on the near side of the Moon on 1st Dec 2020.
    • It was the third Chinese mission to land on the moon.
    • The Chang’e-5 probe returned to earth in Dec 2020 and it brought along with it about 1,731 grams of samples. Scientists will carry out the storage, analysis, and research of the country’s first samples collected from the extra-terrestrial object.

The Chang’e-5 mission marks a successful conclusion of China’s current three-step lunar exploration programme of orbiting and landing and bringing back samples which began in 2004.

8. Space Tourism
  • Why in news?
    • ISRO is planning space tourism by 2030
  • What is suborbital Flight?
    • Suborbital flights don’t have enough speed to escape into orbit. Any orbit without enough energy to reach orbit will instead follow a parabolic trajectory, looping up and then back down again. This will be a suborbital space mission or suborbital flight.
    • Such flights are short, but passengers can experience mind-blowing view of Earth and will also experience several minutes of weightlessness. This thus can attract space tourists.
    • Why weightlessness?
      • During downward path, a section of the flight is a free fall.
    • Other Significances:
      • Microgravity experiments can also be carried out on these flights. This would be much cheaper than doing these experiments in International Space Stations.
      • It could also be a cheaper way of testing space flight technologies or experiments before they are sent on more expensive orbital or deep space missions.
  • Space Tourism
    • Space Tourism is the segment of space travel which provides non-astronauts the ability to go to space for recreational, leisure or business purposes. The idea is to make space more accessible for anyone who can afford it.
    • In the past, NASA and Russian Space Agency used to take tourists for space travel. For e.g. Dennis Tito was the first commercial spaceflight passenger before which only astronauts used to go to space. He went to space on Russian Soyuz TMA Launch Vehicle in April 2001. After him, between 2001-2009, few other space tourists went to space, aboard a Russian Soyuz space to ISS, brokered by Space Adventures (an American Space Tourist company) in conjunction with Roscosmos.
  • Recent tourism space flights:
    • Virgin Galactic is a company which was established by British Entrepreneur Richard Branson in 2004.
      • In July 2021, Richard Branson and five others undertook a brief trip to the edge of the space, taking off on a VSS unity spaceship.

  • Blue Origin was established by Jeff Bezos in 2000. It’s reusable rocket New Shepherd successfully completed first human flight to space recently (20th July 2021) with four private citizens onboard. The flight went about 107 km high.
  • SpaceX’s Inspiration4 – debut of SpaceX’s tourism business (Sep 2021)
    • Falcon 9 rocket took a crew Dragon spacecraft with 4 civilians (first all civilian space flight) into space. They travelled to an altitude of 575 km, even higher than HST and ISS.
    • Isaacman, the founder and CEO of Shift4 payments, is largely responsible for the mission’s planning from birth to launch.
  • Other than these three, companies such as Virgin Atlantic, XCOR Aerospace, Armadillo Aerospace are working on providing space tourism services to people.
  • Concerns
    • Climate change may be aggravated by Space Tourism.
    • Available only for highly rich people
9. RUSSIA:

1)  LUNA-25

  • Why in news?
    • Russia’s LUNA-25 failed to land on Moon and crashed onto Moon’s surface (Aug 2023)
  • Details
    • Why the failure?
      • An anomalous engine burn-> Instead of a planned propulsive nudge of 84 seconds, the engine operated for 127 seconds, more than the “required value” in readying the probe for its descent burn. This added impulse caused Luna-25 to smash into the moon.
    • More about Luna-25:
      1. It was modern Russia’s first Moon mission. It was heralded as the first domestically produced moon probe in Modern Russia history. Luna-25’s flight was important in both political and scientific terms. The implication of its failure is likely to be considerable.
      2. The final soviet moon mission, Luna-24, successfully hauled home to Earth about 170 grams of lunar samples in 1976.
10. GENERAL SPACE ISSUES

1)  Space Debris

  • Introduction
    • The term “space debris” refers to defunct human made objects which are moving in orbit around earth. It includes big and small things like discarded boosters, retired satellites, leftover bits and pieces from spacecrafts, screwdrivers, tools, nuts, bolts, lost gloves, flecks of paints etc.
    • There are more than 20,000 pieces of debris that are larger than 5-10 cms and can be tracked and catalogued. There are hundreds of millions that we cannot because of their small size. They are all dangerous as thy are moving at very high speeds.
  • How are Space Debris created?
    • Breakup of older spacecrafts: For e.g., breakup of US’ spacecraft called USA 109 in 2015, created 100 debris pieces and 50,000 shards larger than 1 mm.
    • Accidently left-over objects
    • Testing of Space Weapons
      • For e.g., China’s testing of A-SAT missile in 2007 created more than 34,000 debris.
    • Further breakup of space debris: More debris increase the chance of collision – a cascade effect known as the Kessler Syndrome. The fear is that the space could eventually become inoperable.
    • Mega constellations (e.g., Starlink satellite internet constellation) would launch thousands of satellites in coming years and would make space more vulnerable to collision and debris creation.
  • Key Concerns Raised by Space Debris
    • Endanger the prospects for Space Missions (Civilian, Commercial or military)
    • Sometimes crash land on earth harming life and livelihood of people
      • Recently parts of Zenit rocket debris are reported to have ended up crash-landing in Peru.

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