Universe Today

November 12, 2024November 12, 2024 by Andy Tomaswick

Scaling Propellant Production on Mars is Hard

Putting humans on Mars has been one of NASA’s driving missions for years, but they are still in the early stages of deciding what exactly that mission architecture will look like. One major factor is where to get the propellant to send the astronauts back to Earth. Advocates of space exploration often suggest harvesting the necessary propellant from Mars itself – some materials can be used to create liquid oxygen and methane, two commonly used propellants. To support this effort, a group from NASA’s COMPASS team detailed several scenarios of the infrastructure and technologies it would take to make an in-situ resource utilization (ISRU) system that could provide enough propellant to get astronauts back to a Mars orbit where they could meet up with an Earth return vehicle. However, there are significant challenges to implementing such a system, and they must be addressed before the 8-9-year process of getting the system up and running can begin.

November 12, 2024November 13, 2024 by David Dickinson

Is an ‘Off-Year’ Leonid Outburst in the Cards For November?

The 1999 Leonids seen from NASA's airborne Leonid MAC campaign. Credit: NASA/Ames Research/ISAS/Shinsuke Abe/Hajime Yuno.

There are good reasons to keep an eye on the Leonid meteors this year.

It’s still one of the coolest things I ever saw. I was in the U.S. Air Force in the 90s, and November 1998 saw me deployed to the dark skies of Kuwait. That trip provided an unexpected treat, as the Leonid meteors hit dramatic storm levels on the morning of the 17^th. Meteor came fast and furious towards local sunrise, often lighting up the desert floor like celestial photoflashes in the sky.

Once every 33 years or so, the ‘lion roars,’ as Leonid meteors seem to rain down from the Sickle asterism of the constellation Leo. And while the last outbreak was centered around the years surrounding 1999, there’s some interesting discussion about possible encounters with past Leonid streams in 2024.

November 12, 2024November 12, 2024 by Mark Thompson

Reaction Engines Goes Into Bankruptcy, Taking the Hypersonic SABRE Engine With it

Scale model. Skylon is a British design for an unmanned Single Stage to Orbit (SSTO) spaceplane designed to reach Earth orbit where it would deploy and retrieve satellites. It was intended to be completely reusable, with the objective of cutting the cost of launches dramatically. It was envisaged that some 30 Skylon vehicles would be built, and operated by commercial companies, and it was planned that Skylon could be adapted for carrying passengers, or ‘space tourists’. At the heart of the Skylon concept were its two innovatory Synergestic Air Breathing and Rocket Engines (SABREs) which were designed to draw oxygen directly from the atmosphere. Skylon is one example of several SSTO launcher concepts considered worldwide in the 1990s.

Rarely does something get developed which is a real game changer in space exploration. One example is the Skylon reusable single-stage-to-orbit spaceplane. Powered by the hypersonic SABRE engine it operates like a jet engine at low altitude and more like a conventional rocket at high altitude. Sadly, ‘Reaction Engines’ the company that designs the engines has filed for bankruptcy.

November 11, 2024November 12, 2024 by Matt Williams

Project Hyperion is Seeking Ideas for Building Humanity’s First Generation Ship

Project Hyperion is the first design competition for a generation ship. Credit: Maciej Rebisz/Michel Lamontagne

The dream of traversing the depths of space and planting the seed of human civilization on another planet has existed for generations. For long as we’ve known that most stars in the Universe are likely to have their own system of planets, there have been those who advocated that we explore them (and even settle on them). With the dawn of the Space Age, this idea was no longer just the stuff of science fiction and became a matter of scientific study. Unfortunately, the challenges of venturing beyond Earth and reaching another star system are myriad.

When it comes down to it, there are only two ways to send crewed missions to exoplanets. The first is to develop advanced propulsion systems that can achieve relativistic speeds (a fraction of the speed of light). The second involves building spacecraft that can sustain crews for generations – aka. a Generation Ship (or Worldship). On November 1st, 2024, Project Hyperion launched a design competition for crewed interstellar travel via generation ships that would rely on current and near-future technologies. The competition is open to the public and will award a total of $10,000 (USD) for innovative concepts.

November 11, 2024November 11, 2024 by Evan Gough

How Did Supermassive Black Holes Get So Big, So Early? They Might Have Had a Head Start

An artist's illustration of a supermassive black hole (SMBH.) The JWST has revealed SMBHs in the early Universe that are much more massive than our scientific models can explain. Could primordial black holes have acted as "seeds" for these massive SMBHs? Image Credit: ESA

Supermassive Black Holes (SMBHs) can have billions of solar masses, and observational evidence suggests that all large galaxies have one at their centres. However, the JWST has revealed a foundational cosmic mystery. The powerful space telescope, with its ability to observe ancient galaxies in the first billion years after the Big Bang, has shown us that SMBHs were extremely massive even then. This contradicts our scientific models explaining how these behemoths became so huge.

How did they get so massive so early?

November 11, 2024November 11, 2024 by Andy Tomaswick

A Mission to Triton and Neptune Would Unlock Their Mysteries

Global color mosaic of Neptune's largest moon, Triton, taken by NASA's Voyager 2 in 1989. (Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/USGS)

A town in the Austrian Alps might not seem like the most conducive place to come up with daring space missions. But, for the last 40 years, students and professors have been gathering to do just that in Alpbach, just north of the Lichtenstein/Austrian border. One outcome of the Alpbach Summer School this year was an idea for a combined Neptune / Triton explorer mission to take advantage of existing technology developed for the JUICE missions. Before we get into the technical details of the mission, though, let’s dive into why scientists should care about the Neptunian system in the first place.

November 11, 2024November 11, 2024 by Mark Thompson

Good News, the Ozone Layer Hole is Continuing to Shrink

The area of depleted ozone over the Antarctic ranked the seventh smallest since recovery began in 1992.

Climate change is a huge topic and often debated across the world. We continue to burn fossil fuels and ignore our charge toward human driven climate change but while our behaviour never seems to improve, something else does! For the last few decades we have been pumping chlorofluorocarbons into the atmosphere causing a hole in the ozone layer to form. Thanks largely to worldwide regulation changes and a reduction in the use of these chemicals, the hole it seems is finally starting to get smaller.

November 10, 2024November 10, 2024 by Brian Koberlein

How Webb Stays in Focus

A focused NIRCam image compared to intentionally de-focused ones. Credit: NASA/JWST

One of the most difficult challenges when assembling a telescope is aligning it to optical precision. If you don’t do it correctly, all your images will be fuzzy. This is particularly challenging when you assemble your telescope in space, as the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) demonstrates.

November 9, 2024November 9, 2024 by Nancy Atkinson

A Trash Compactor is Going to the Space Station

A prototype trash compactor to be tested aboard the International Space Station, planned for 2026. Credit: Sierra Space.

Astronauts on the International Space Station generate their share of garbage, filling up cargo ships that then deorbit and burn up in the atmosphere. Now Sierra Space has won a contract to build a trash compactor for the space station. The device will compact space trash by 75% in volume and allow water and other gases to be extracted for reclamation. The resulting garbage blocks are easily stored and could even be used as radiation shielding on long missions.

November 9, 2024November 9, 2024 by Brian Koberlein

Using Light Echoes to Find Black Holes

Light near a black hole can travel different paths to create echoes of a single flash. Credit: Wong, et al

The most amazing thing about light is that it takes time to travel through space. Because of that one simple fact, when we look up at the Universe we see not a snapshot but a history. The photons we capture with our telescopes tell us about their journey. This is particularly true when gravity comes into play, since gravity bends and distorts the path of light. In a recent study, a team shows us how we might use this fact to better study black holes.