Andy Tomaswick, Author at Universe Today

September 15, 2024September 15, 2024 by Andy Tomaswick

Can a Greenhouse with a Robotic Arm Feed the Next Lunar Astronauts?

Continuous human habitation of the Moon is the state aim of many major space-faring nations in the coming decades. Reaching that aim requires many tasks, but one of the most fundamental is feeding those humans. Shipping food consistently from Earth will likely be prohibitively expensive shortly, so DLR, Germany’s space agency, is working on an alternative. This semi-autonomous greenhouse can be used to at least partially feed the astronauts in residence on the Moon. To support that goal, a team of researchers from DLR released a paper about EVE, a robotic arm intended to help automate the operations of the first lunar greenhouse, at the IEEE Aerospace conference in March.

September 13, 2024September 13, 2024 by Andy Tomaswick

Polaris Dawn is Away, Sending Another Crew Into Orbit to Perform the First Private Spacewalk

We’ve officially entered a new era of private spaceflight. Yesterday, the crew of Polaris Dawn, a privately funded mission managed by SpaceX, officially performed the first private extra-vehicular activity, commonly known as a spacewalk. The spacewalk was a success, along with the rest of the mission so far. But it’s attracted detractors as well as supporters. Let’s take a look at the mission objectives and why some pundits are opposed to it.

September 11, 2024September 11, 2024 by Andy Tomaswick

Space Stations Get Pretty Moldy. How Can We Prevent it?

Ask any property inspector, and they’ll tell you one of the maxims of their profession – where there’s moisture, there’s mold. That relationship also holds true for the International Space Station. The interior climate on the ISS is carefully controlled, but if thrown out of whack, potentially dangerous mold could sprout overnight. A new paper by researchers at The Ohio State University explains why – and provides some insights into how we might prevent it if it does happen.

September 10, 2024September 10, 2024 by Andy Tomaswick

What Did We Learn From Manufacturing the ACS3 Solar Sail Mission?

We recently reported on the successful deployment of the solar sail of the Advanced Composite Solar Sail System (ACS3) technology demonstration mission. That huge achievement advances one of the most important technologies available to CubeSats – a different form of propulsion. But getting there wasn’t easy, and back in May, a team of engineers from NASA’s Langley Research Center who worked on ACS3 published a paper detailing the trials and tribulations they went through to prepare the mission for prime time. Let’s take a look at what they learned.

September 9, 2024September 9, 2024 by Andy Tomaswick

Using A Space Elevator To Get Resources Off the Queen of the Asteroid Belt

Artistic view of a possible space elevator. Credit: NASA

Here at UT, we’ve had several stories that describe the concept of a space elevator. They are designed to make it easier to get objects off Earth and into space. That, so far, has proven technically or economically infeasible, as no material is strong enough to support the structure passively, and it’s too energy-intensive to support it actively. However, it could be more viable on other worlds, such as the Moon. But what about worlds farther afield? A student team from the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs looked at the use case of a space elevator on Ceres and found that it could be done with existing technology.

August 29, 2024August 29, 2024 by Andy Tomaswick

What Type of Excavator Is Most Suitable for Asteroids?

Digging in the ground is so commonplace on Earth that we hardly ever think of it as hard. But doing so in space is an entirely different proposition. On some larger worlds, like the Moon or Mars, it would be broadly similar to how digging is done on Earth. But their “milligravity” would make the digging experience quite different on the millions of asteroids in our solar system. Given the potential economic impact of asteroid mining, there have been plenty of suggested methods on how to dig on an asteroid, and a team from the University of Arizona recently published the latest in a series of papers about using a customized bucket wheel to do so.

August 27, 2024August 27, 2024 by Andy Tomaswick

How Can Biofilms Help or Hinder Spaceflight?

As humans spread into the cosmos, we will take a plethora of initially Earth-bound life with us for the ride. Some might be more beneficial or potentially harmful than others. And there is no lifeform more prevalent on Earth than bacteria. These tiny creatures and fungi, their long-lost cousins on the evolutionary tree, have a habit of clumping together to form a type of structure known as a biofilm. Biofilms are ubiquitous in Earth-bound environments and have been noticed on space missions for decades. But what potential dangers do they pose? More interestingly, what possible problems can they solve? A paper from a group of scientists focused on life support systems in the journal Biofilm provides a high-level overview of the state of the science of understanding how biofilms work in space and where it might need to go for us to establish a permanent human presence off-world.

August 26, 2024August 26, 2024 by Andy Tomaswick

NASA Announces the 2025 Human Lander Challenge

One of NASA’s core mission objectives, though not explicitly stated in its charter, is to educate Americans about space exploration, especially students. As part of that mission, NASA hosts a number of challenges every year where teams of students compete to come up with innovative ideas to solve problems. The agency recently announced the next round of one of its standard yearly challenges—the Human Lander Challenge.

August 21, 2024August 21, 2024 by Andy Tomaswick

The NASA Break the Ice Challenge Awards $1.5M to Two Start-Ups

We might be a little late on reporting for this one – the space exploration community is large, and sometimes, it’s hard to keep track of everything happening. But whenever there is a success, it’s worth pointing out. Back in June, two teams successfully completed the latest stage of the Break the Ice Challenge to mine water from the Moon.

August 20, 2024August 20, 2024 by Andy Tomaswick

A Europan Lander Could Return an Ice Core For A Fraction of the Cost of Europa Clipper

Cost is a major driving factor in the development of space exploration missions. Any new technology or trick that could lower the cost of a mission makes it much more appealing for mission planners. Therefore, much of NASA’s research goes into those technologies that enable cheaper missions. For example, a few years ago, NASA’s Institute for Advanced Concepts (NIAC) supported a project by Michael VanWoerkom of ExoTerra Resource to develop a lander mission that could support a sample return from Europa. Let’s examine what made that mission different from other Europa mission architectures.