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Space News Update — November 12, 2019 —

Contents

In the News

Story 1:

Hyper-Fast Star Ejected by Supermassive Black Hole

Story 2:

NASA’s Coating Technology Could Help Resolve Lunar Dust Challenge

Story 3:

Ancient Gas Cloud Reveals that the Universe’s First Stars Formed Quickly

Departments

The Night Sky

ISS Sighting Opportunities

NASA-TV Highlights

Space Calendar

Food for Thought

Space Image of the Week

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1. Hyper-Fast Star Ejected by Supermassive Black Hole

An artist’s impression of S5-HVS1’s ejection by Sagittarius A*, the black hole at the center of the Galaxy. The black hole

and the captured binary partner to S5-HVS1 are seen far away in the left corner of the picture, while S5-HVS1 is in the

foreground, speeding away from them. Credit: James Josephides (Swinburne Astronomy Productions)

Astronomers have spotted an ultrafast star, travelling at a blistering 6 million km/h, ejected by the

supermassive black hole at the heart at the Milky Way five million years ago. The discovery is described in a

new paper in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.

The discovery of the star, known as S5-HVS1, was made by Sergey Koposov from Carnegie Mellon University

as part of the Southern Stellar Stream Spectroscopic Survey (S5). Located in the constellation of Grus – the

Crane – S5-HVS1 was found to be moving ten times faster than most stars in the Milky Way.

“The velocity of the discovered star is so high that it will inevitably leave the Galaxy and never return”, said

Douglas Boubert from the University of Oxford, a co-author on the study.

Astronomers have wondered about high velocity stars since their discovery only two decades ago. S5-HVS1 is

unprecedented due to its high speed and close passage to the Earth, “only” 29 thousand light years away.

With this information, astronomers could track its journey back into the center of the Milky Way, where a 4

million solar mass black hole, known as Sagittarius A*, lurks.

“This is super exciting, as we have long suspected that black holes can eject stars with very high velocities.

However, we never before had a clear association of such a fast star with the Galactic Centre,” said Sergey

Koposov, the lead author of this work. “We think the black hole ejected the star with a speed of thousands of

kilometers per second about five million years ago. This ejection happened at the time when humanity’s

ancestors were just learning to walk on two feet."

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The location of the star on the sky and the direction of its motion. The star is flying away from the Galactic centre, from

which it was ejected 5 million years ago. Credit: Sergey Koposov

Superfast stars can be ejected by black holes via the Hills Mechanism, proposed by astronomer Jack Hills thirty

years ago. Originally, S5-HSV1 lived with a companion in a binary system, but they strayed too close to

Sagittarius A*. In the gravitational tussle, the companion star was captured by the black hole, while S5-HVS1

was thrown out at extremely high speed.

“This is the first clear demonstration of the Hills Mechanism in action,” said Ting Li from Carnegie

Observatories and Princeton University, and leader of the S5 Collaboration. “Seeing this star is really amazing

as we know it must have formed in the Galactic Center, a place very different to our local environment. It is a

visitor from a strange land.”

The discovery of S5-HVS1 was made with the 3.9-metre Anglo-Australian Telescope (AAT) near

Coonabarabran, NSW, Australia, coupled with superb observations from the European Space Agency’s Gaia

satellite that allowed the astronomers to reveal the full speed of the star and its journey from the centre of the

Milky Way.

“The observations would not be possible without the unique capabilities of the 2dF instrument on the AAT,”

said Daniel Zucker, an astronomer at Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia, and a member of the S5

Executive Committee. “It’s been conducting cutting-edge research for over two decades and still is the best

facility in the world for our project.”

"I am so excited this fast-moving star was discovered by S5,” says Kyler Kuehn, at Lowell Observatory and a

member of the S5 Executive Committee. “While the main science goal of S5 is to probe the stellar streams —

disrupting dwarf galaxies and globular clusters — we dedicated spare resources of the instrument to searching

for interesting targets in the Milky Way, and voila, we found something amazing for ‘free.’ With our future

observations, hopefully we will find even more!”

Source: Royal Astronomical Society Return to Contents

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2. NASA’s Coating Technology Could Help Resolve Lunar Dust Challenge

Left: Apollo-era astronauts attracted a lot of Moon dust as they worked on the lunar surface. Goddard

technologists are experimenting with different techniques to prevent the attraction when NASA returns to the

Moon next decade.

Right: A team of Goddard technologists are experimenting with coated pigments to solve one of NASA’s thorniest

challenges: how to keep the orb’s irregularly shaped, razor-sharp dust grains from adhering to virtually everything

they touch, including astronauts’ spacesuits. The uncoated pigment on the left looks smooth, while the coated

pigment includes distinct features. Credits: NASA

An advanced coating now being tested aboard the International Space Station for use on satellite components

could also help NASA solve one of its thorniest challenges: how to keep the Moon’s irregularly shaped, razor-

sharp dust grains from adhering to virtually everything they touch, including astronauts’ spacesuits.

Although the coating wasn’t originally conceived for lunar dust busting, “it’s compelling for this application,”

said Bill Farrell, a scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, who heads a NASA-

sponsored research organization, Dynamic Response of the Environments at Asteroids, the Moon, and moons

of Mars, or DREAM2, which studies the lunar and Martian environments. The agency considers lunar dust to be

among the top challenges to mitigate as it aims to establish sustainable exploration of the Moon by 2028

under its Artemis Program.

Mitigating Electrical Build-Up

Goddard technologists Vivek Dwivedi and Mark Hasegawa originally created the coating for an equally

important job: they wanted to create a coating that would help “bleed off” the build-up of electrical charges

that can destroy spacecraft electronics. These potentially mission-ending build-ups occur when spacecraft fly

through plasma found within Earth’s magnetosphere. Plasma contains trapped charged particles that conduct

electricity, contributing to the build-up.

Hasegawa’s idea was to use an advanced technology called atomic layer deposition to apply super-thin films of

indium tin oxide — an effective compound for dissipating electrical charges — onto dry pigments of paint.

Once mixed, the paint could then be coated on radiators and other spacecraft components to help mitigate the

build-up of electrical charges.

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Used ubiquitously by industry, atomic layer deposition involves placing a substrate or sample inside a reactor

chamber, which is like an oven, and pulsing different types of gases to create an ultra-thin film whose layers

are literally no thicker than a single atom. The beauty of this technique is the fact that it can be applied on

virtually anything, including three-dimensional objects.

To test the effectiveness of the pigment-treated paint, Dwivedi and his team then prepared a handful of

coated coupons or wafers, which are now being exposed to plasma from an experiment pallet aboard the

International Space Station. Hasegawa and Dwivedi expect to get their samples later this year for analysis.

“Dust is going to be the environmental problem for future missions, both inside and outside habitats.”

— Harrison “Jack” Schmitt, geologist and Apollo 17 astronaut

Same Plasma, Same Trouble

As it turns out, the plasma that can damage electronics as spacecraft fly through Earth’s magnetosphere is

also the source of the Moon’s dust problem.

The Moon’s dust is made up of ultra-tiny grains — formed by millions of years of meteorite impacts that

repeatedly crushed and melted rocks, creating tiny shards of glass and mineral fragments. Not only can they

travel at hurricane-like speeds, but they also cling to all types of surfaces, not only because of their jagged

edges, but also because of their electrostatic charge.

On the day side of the Moon, harsh, unshielded ultraviolet radiation from the Sun kicks electrons off the dust

particles in the upper layers of the lunar regolith or soil, giving the surface of each dust particle a net positive

charge. On the dark side as well as in the polar regions, the situation is a little different. Plasma flowing out

from the Sun also charges the lunar surface, but, in this case, it deposits electrons and creates a net negative

charge. It gets more complex at the terminator where the two sides meet and even stronger electric fields

develop—all of which could affect humans or technology that land on the Moon.

For astronauts, the situation will be made worse because they carry their own charge and, as the Apollo

missions proved, will attract dust as they rove about the Moon. Because NASA has eyed the Moon’s southern

pole for possible human habitation, it’s especially important that NASA develop efficient ways to dissipate

these charges, Dwivedi said.

That got Dwivedi thinking. Why not apply the coating to Moon rovers and even habitats, or use atomic layer

deposition to treat the fibers in spacesuit material?

“We have conducted a number of studies investigating lunar dust. A key finding is to make the outer skin of

the spacesuits and other human systems conductive or dissipative,” Farrell said. “We, in fact, have strict

conductivity requirements on spacecraft due to plasma. The same ideas apply to spacesuits. A future goal is

for the technology to produce conductive skin materials, and this is currently being developed.”

More Research Underway

Working in collaboration with Farrell, Dwivedi and his team, including University of Maryland researcher

Raymond Adomaitis, now plan to further enhance their atomic layer deposition capabilities. The team plans to

construct a larger reactor, or oven, to increase the yield of the charge-mitigating pigment, which they would

then apply to coupons and spacesuit material for testing.

“Constructing a large-volume atomic layer deposition system to create kits that can coat large surface areas,

such as rover surfaces, for testing can further benefit technologies for lunar exploration,” Farrell said.

Source: NASA Return to Contents

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3. Ancient Gas Cloud Reveals that the Universe’s First Stars Formed

Quickly

Astronomers found a pristine gas cloud in the proximity of one of the most distant quasars known, seen just 850 million

after the Big Bang (1/14th of the universe's current age). The gas cloud absorbs some of the light from the background

quasar, leaving signatures that allow astronomers to study its chemical composition. This is the most distant gas cloud

for which astronomers have been able to measure a metallicity to date. This system has one of the smallest amount of

metals ever identified in a gas cloud but the ratio of its chemical elements are still similar to what observed in more

evolved systems.© graphics department

Astronomers led by Eduardo Bañados of the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy have discovered a gas cloud that

contains information about an early phase of galaxy and star formation, merely 850 million years after the Big Bang.

The cloud was found serendipitously during observations of a distant quasar, and it has the properties that

astronomers expect from the precursors of modern-day dwarf galaxies. When it comes to relative abundances, the

cloud's chemistry is surprisingly modern, showing that the first stars in the universe must have formed very quickly

after the Big Bang. The results have been published in the Astrophysical Journal.

When astronomers look at distant objects, they necessarily look back in time. The gas cloud discovered by Bañados

et al. is so distant that its light has taken nearly 13 billion years to reach us; conversely, the light reaching us now

tells us how the gas cloud looked nearly 13 billion years ago, no more than about 850 million years after the Big

Bang. For astronomers, this is an extremely interesting epoch. Within the first several hundred million years after

the Big Bang, the first stars and galaxies formed, but the details of that complex evolution are still largely unknown.

This very distant gas cloud was a fortuitous discovery. Bañados, then at the Carnegie Institution for Science, and

his colleagues were following up on several quasars from a survey of 15 of the most distant quasars known (z³6.5),

which had been prepared by Chiara Mazzucchelli as part of her PhD research at the Max Planck Institute for

Astronomy. At first, the researchers just noted that the quasar P183+05 had a rather unusual spectrum. But when

Bañados analyzed a more detailed spectrum, obtained with the Magellan Telescopes at Las Campanas Observatory

in Chile, he recognized that there was something else going on: The weird spectral features were the traces of a

gas cloud that was very close to the distant quasar – one of the most distant gas clouds astronomers have yet been

able to identify.

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Lit up by a distant quasar

Quasars are the extremely bright active nuclei of distant galaxies. The driving force behind their luminosity is the

galaxy’s central supermassive black hole. Matter swirling around that black hole (before falling in) heats up to

temperatures reaching hundreds of thousands of degrees, giving off enormous amounts of radiation. This allows

astronomers to use quasars as background sources to detect hydrogen and other chemical elements in absorption:

If a gas cloud is directly between the observer and a distant quasar, some of the quasar’s light will be absorbed.

Astronomers can detect this absorption by studying the quasar’s spectrum, that is, the rainbow-like decomposition

of the quasar’s light into the different wavelength regions. The absorption pattern contains information about the

gas cloud’s chemical composition, temperature, density and even about the cloud’s distance from us (and from the

quasar). Behind this is the fact that each chemical element has a “fingerprint” of spectral lines – narrow

wavelengths region in which that element’s atoms can emit or absorb light particularly well. The presence of a

characteristic fingerprint reveals the presence and abundance of a specific chemical element.

Not quite the cloud they were looking for

From the spectrum of the gas cloud, the researchers could immediately tell the distance of the cloud, and that they

were looking back into the first billion years of cosmic history. They also found traces of several chemical elements

including carbon, oxygen, iron, and magnesium. However, the amount of these elements was tiny, about 1/800

times the abundance in the atmosphere of our sun. Astronomers summarily call all elements heavier than helium

“metals;” this measurement makes the gas cloud one of the most metal-poor (and distant) systems known in the

universe. Michael Rauch from the Carnegie Institution of Science, who is co-author of the new study, says: "After

we were convinced that were looking at such pristine gas only 850 million years after the Big Bang we started

wondering whether this system could still retain chemical signatures produced by the very first generation of

stars."

Finding these first generation, so-called “population III” stars is one of the most important goals in reconstructing

the history of the universe. In the later universe, chemical elements heavier than hydrogen play an important role in

letting gas clouds collapse to form stars. But those chemical elements, notably carbon, are themselves produced in

stars, and flung into space in supernova explosions. For the first stars, those chemical facilitators would simply not

have been there, since directly after the Big Bang phase, there were only hydrogen and helium atoms. That is what

makes the first stars fundamentally different from all later stars.

The analysis showed that the cloud’s chemical make-up was not chemically primitive, but instead the relative

abundances were surprisingly similar to the chemical abundances observed in today’s intergalactic gas clouds. The

ratios of the abundances of heavier elements were very close to the ratios in the modern universe. The fact that

this gas cloud in the very early universe already contains metals with modern relative chemical abundances poses

key challenges for the formation of the first generation of stars.

So many stars, so little time

This study implies that the formation of the first stars in this system must have begun much earlier: the chemical

yields expected from the first stars had already been erased by the explosions of at least one more generation of

stars. A particular time constraint comes from supernovae of type Ia, cosmic explosions that would be required to

produce metals with the observed relative abundances. Such supernovae typically need about 1 billion years to

happen, which puts a serious constraint on any scenarios of how the first stars formed.

Now that the astronomers have found this very early cloud, they are systematically looking for additional examples.

Eduardo Bañados says: “It is exciting that we can measure metallicity and chemical abundances so early in the

history of the universe, but if we want to identify the signatures of the first stars we need to probe even earlier in

cosmic history. I am optimistic that we will find even more distant gas clouds, which could help us understand how

the first stars were born.”

Source: Max Planck Society Return to Contents

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The Night Sky

Friday, Nov. 15

• The waning gibbous Moon is high by late evening. It's in Gemini, in the dim feet of the Castor stick-figure as

shown here. Much easier to spot are Castor and Pollux, far to the Moon's lower left.

• Vega is the brightest star in the west early on November evenings. Its little constellation Lyra extends to its left,

pointing in the direction of Altair, the brightest star in the southwest.

Three of Lyra's leading stars, after Vega, are interesting doubles. Barely above Vega is 4th-magnitude Epsilon

Lyrae, the famous Double-Double. Epsilon forms one corner of a roughly equilateral triangle with Vega and Zeta

Lyrae. The triangle is less than 2° on a side, hardly the width of your thumb at arm's length.

Binoculars easily resolve Epsilon. And a 4-inch telescope at 100× or more should resolve each of Epsilon's wide

components into a tight pair.

Zeta Lyrae is also a double star for binoculars; much tougher, but plainly resolved in any telescope.

Delta Lyrae, upper left of Zeta, is a much wider and easier pair.

Saturday, Nov. 16

• The waning gibbous Moon rises by 8 or 9 p.m. Once it's well up you'll see that it's in Gemini, with Pollux to its left

and Castor above Pollux.

Source: Sky and Telescope Return to Contents

Tuesday, Nov. 12

• Full Moon tonight and tomorrow night (because it's

exactly full at 8:34 a.m. Wednesday morning EST).

This evening the Moon shines in the east with the

Pleiades to its upper left; binoculars will extract them

from the moonlight if necessary. Orange Aldebaran

hangs to the Moon's lower left. Way down below,

Orion comes over the horizon.

Wednesday, Nov. 13

• Now the evening Moon shines close to orange

Aldebaran. Above them are the Pleiades. Far down

below is Aldebaran-colored Betelgeuse.

Thursday, Nov. 14

• Vega is the brightest star high in the west. Almost

as high in the southwest (depending on your

latitude) is Altair, not quite as bright.

Just right or upper right of Altair, by a finger-width at

arm's length, is orange Tarazed. It looks like Altair's

little sidekick but it's actually a much bigger and

brighter star far in the background. Tarazed is about

360 light-years away, and it's 100 times as luminous!

• Algol is at minimum light for about two hours

centered on 8:35 p.m. EST.

The waning gibbous Moon crossing Gemini, up in late evening.

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ISS Sighting Opportunities (from Denver)

Date Visible Max Height Appears Disappears

Wed Nov 13, 4:00 AM < 1 min 12° 12° above ESE 12° above ESE

Wed Nov 13, 5:33 AM 3 min 20° 18° above WSW 10° above S

Thu Nov 14, 4:47 AM 1 min 19° 19° above SSE 11° above SSE

Sighting information for other cities can be found at NASA’s Satellite Sighting Information

NASA-TV Highlights (all times Eastern Time Zone)

November 12, Tuesday

2 p.m. – Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer Overview Briefing (All Channels)

3 p.m. – International Space Station Expedition 61 Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer spacewalk repair preview

briefing (All Channels)

7 p.m. – Replay of the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer Overview Briefing (All Channels)

8 p.m. – Replay of the International Space Station Expedition 61 Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer spacewalk

repair preview briefing (All Channels)

November 14, Thursday

11 a.m. – Apollo 12 50th Anniversary: Launch coverage of Apollo 12, the second manned mission to the

Moon (All Channels)

1:25 p.m. – International Space Station Expedition 61 in-flight interviews with the Kelly Clarkson Show and

Elle Magazine’s Digital News Platform with NASA astronauts Christina Koch and Jessica Meir (All Channels)

8 p.m. – (Premiere) Apollo 12 50th Anniversary Special, including highlights from the Apollo 12 mission,

prelaunch activities, crew news conferences and President Nixon’s Address (All Channels)

10 p.m. – Apollo 12 50th Anniversary Documentary: Apollo 12 - Pinpoint For Science (All Channels)

November 15, Friday

5:30 a.m. – Coverage of International Space Station Expedition 61 U.S. Spacewalk # 59 to Begin Repairs

on the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (1st of 4 spacewalks; Parmitano and Morgan; expected to last at least

6 ½ hours) (All Channels)

Watch NASA TV online by going to the NASA website. Return to Contents

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Space Calendar

Nov 12 - Apollo Asteroid 2019 UB14 Near-Earth Flyby (0.013 AU)

Nov 12 -Apollo Asteroid 2019 VK3 Near-Earth Flyby (0.027 AU)

Nov 12 - Apollo Asteroid 2019 VW1 Near-Earth Flyby (0.039 AU)

Nov 12 - Apollo Asteroid 2019 VN2 Near-Earth Flyby (0.041 AU)

Nov 12 - Apollo Asteroid 2010 JG Near-Earth Flyby (0.050 AU)

Nov 12 - Asteroid 1198 Atlantis Closest Approach To Earth (0.894 AU)

Nov 12 - Lecture: Ice Cores and Climate on an Alien World, Tucson, Arizona

Nov 12 - Lecture: Gravitational Wave Astronomy Reveals Fatal End of a Wild Cosmic Dance, Milton Keynes, United Kingdom

Nov 12 - Lecture: Evidence of Differential Rotation Inside Saturn from Waves, Ithaca, New York

Nov 12 - Colloquium: Planetary Geomorphology and Other Surface Science in the New Astronomy and Planetary Science Department at Northern Arizona University, Tucson, Arizona

Nov 12 - 5th Anniversary (2014), Rosetta (Philae), Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko Landing

Nov 12-14 - 7th Reinventing Space Conference, Belfast, Northern Ireland

Nov 12-14 - NASA Carbon Monitoring System Science Team Meeting and Applications Workshop, La Jolla, California

Nov 12-15 - IAU Symposium 358: Astronomy for Equity, Diversity and Inclusion, Tokyo, Japan

Nov 12-15 - Nordic Winter School in Theoretical Physics, Odense, Denmark

Nov 13 - Starlink 3 (60) Falcon 9 Launch

Nov 13 - Apollo Asteroid 2019 UN12 Near-Earth Flyby (0.010 AU)

Nov 13 - Apollo Asteroid 2019 VX Near-Earth Flyby (0.010 AU)

Nov 13 - Apollo Asteroid 2019 UH1 Near-Earth Flyby (0.024 AU)

Nov 13 - Amor Asteroid 481984 Cernunnos Closest Approach To Earth (0.846 AU)

Nov 13 - 7th Virtual Meeting of the Mars Exploration Program Analysis Group (MEPAG)

Nov 13 - Lecture: Meet the Neighbors - Planetary Systems Orbiting Nearby Stars, Los Altos, California

Nov 13 - Colloquium: Exploring the Earth, Solar System and Beyond, Sydney, Australia

Nov 13-14 - Space Settlement Summit, Pasadena, California

Nov 13-14 - New Space Europe Conference, Luxembourg

Nov 13-15 - Workshop: Cross Sections for Cosmic Rays @ CERN (XSCRC 2019), Geneva, Switzerland

Nov 14 - Comet 114P/Wiseman-Skiff At Opposition (0.760 AU)

Nov 14 - Event: Moonglow - Project Apollo and U.S. Foreign Relations, Framingham, Massachusetts

Nov 14 - Lecture: Looking Home - OCO-3 and Science From the International Space Station, Pasadena, California

Nov 14 - Colloquium: The Magnetic Interstellar Medium in Three Dimensions, Ithaca, New York

Nov 15 - Apollo Asteroid 2019 UE8 Near-Earth Flyby (0.020 AU)

Nov 15 - Apollo Asteroid 2018 BP Near-Earth Flyby (0.062 AU)

Nov 15 - Lecture: Looking Home - OCO-3 and Science From the International Space Station, Pasadena, California

Source: JPL Space Calendar Return to Contents

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Food for Thought

Stingray-Inspired Spacecraft Aims to Explore Dark Side of Venus

The spacecraft would circumnavigate Venus every four to six days, with solar panels charging every two to three days on

the side of planet illuminated by the sun. Credit: University at Buffalo

Venus is Earth's neighbor, yet scientists' understanding of the planet is relatively limited, especially on the so-

called "dark side."

That knowledge gap may eventually be filled because University at Buffalo researchers are designing a unique

spacecraft for NASA that might explore the planet like no previous probe.

The Bio-inspired Ray for Extreme Environments and Zonal Explorations (BREEZE) project is one of 12

revolutionary concepts selected by NASA for its Innovative Advanced Concepts (NAIC) program, which funds

early-stage technologies that could change what's possible in space. (Six other projects chosen in previous

years received additional funding.)

Proposed by the university's Crashworthiness for Aerospace Structures and Hybrids (CRASH) Laboratory,

researchers envision a morphing spacecraft with wings that flap like a stingray's pectoral fins. The design

could make efficient use of high winds in the planet's upper atmosphere while providing scientists unparalleled

control of the vehicle.

BREEZE would circumnavigate Venus every four to six days. Solar panels—charging every two to three days on

the side of planet illuminated by the sun—would power instruments that take atmospheric samples, track

weather patterns, monitor volcanic activity and gather other data.

"By taking our cues from nature, specifically sea rays, we're looking to maximize flight efficiency. The design

will allow for a so-far unattained degree of control for such a spacecraft that would be subject to severe zonal

and meridional winds on the planet," says the project's lead investigator, Javid Bayandor, Ph.D., associate

professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering in UB's School of Engineering and Applied Sciences.

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Bayandor, director of CRASH Lab, says the spacecraft's distinct versatility would allow it to collect data on the

mysterious dark side of Venus.

This part of the planet has puzzled scientists for years because of its sustained periods of darkness. For

example, it takes Venus longer to rotate on its axis (243 days) than it does to orbit the sun (225 days)—

making a day longer than a year. That means large portions of the planet are shrouded in darkness and

considerably different than the sunny side.

BREEZE's stingray-like morphing wings would result from an internal tensioning system that would provide the

ability to achieve thrust, control, stability, additional lift and mechanical compression required for active

buoyancy control.

These are important features, Bayandor says, because of the planet's inhospitable conditions, which include

surface temperatures nearing 900 degrees Fahrenheit and thick clouds of sulfuric acid.

The technology behind the spacecraft could potentially be used to explore other parts of the solar system such

as Titan, a moon of Saturn, as well as underwater environments on Earth, he says.

This is the second award Bayandor and his CRASH lab have received from the NIAC program. The team in

2016 received an award to develop a deployable heat shield and tensegrity robotic module for high-risk

landings of spacecraft and subsequent exploration in extreme environments.

"Becoming a NIAC Fellow isn't easy, and Javid has won two NIAC Phase I awards. His Bio-inspired Ray for

Extreme Environments and Zonal Exploration study is the first NIAC award to a State University of New York

institution. Javid is a creative, innovative researcher leading a group of talented students, and I'm excited to

see the developments of this study," says NIAC Program Executive Jason Derleth.

Source: University of Buffalo/Phys.org Return to Contents

This hemispheric view of Venus was created using more than a decade of radar investigations

culminating in the 1990-1994 Magellan mission, and is centered on the planet's North Pole. The

Magellan spacecraft imaged more than 98 percent of the planet Venus and a mosaic of the Magellan

images (most with illumination from the west) forms the image base. Gaps in the Magellan

coverage were filled with images from the Earth-based Arecibo radar in a region centered roughly on 0 degree latitude and longitude, and with a

neutral tone elsewhere (primarily near the south pole). This composite image was processed to

improve contrast and to emphasize small features, and was color-coded to represent elevation. Gaps

in the elevation data from the Magellan radar altimeter were filled with altimetry from the Venera spacecraft and the Pioneer Venus

missions.

Image Credit: NASA/JPL/USGS

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Space Image of the Week

All Four Engines Are Attached to the SLS Core Stage for Artemis I Mission

Image Credit: NASA/Eric Bordelon

Explanation: All four RS-25 engines were structurally mated to the core stage for NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket for Artemis I, the first mission of SLS and NASA’s Orion spacecraft. To complete assembly of the rocket stage, engineers and technicians are now integrating the propulsion and electrical systems within the structure. The completed core stage with all four RS-25 engines attached is the largest rocket stage NASA has built since the Saturn V stages for the Apollo Program that first sent Americans to the Moon. The stage, which includes two huge propellant tanks, provides more than 2 million pounds of thrust to send Artemis I to the Moon. Engineers and technicians at NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans attached the fourth RS-25 engine to the rocket stage Nov. 6 just one day after structurally mating the third engine. The first two RS-25 engines were structurally mated to the stage in October. After assembly is complete, crews will conduct an integrated functional test of flight computers, avionics and electrical systems that run throughout the 212-foot-tall core stage in preparation for its completion later this year. This testing is the first time all the flight avionics systems will be tested together to ensure the systems communicate with each other and will perform properly to control the rocket’s flight. Integration of the RS-25 engines to the massive core stage is a collaborative, multistep process for NASA and its partners Boeing, the core stage lead contractor, and Aerojet Rocketdyne, the RS-25 engines lead contractor.

Source: NASA Return to Contents