Toggle light / dark theme

NASA Begins New Deployable Solar Array Tech Demo on Pathfinder Spacecraft

NASA recently evaluated initial flight data and imagery from Pathfinder Technology Demonstrator-4 (PTD-4), confirming proper checkout of the spacecraft’s systems including its on-board electronics as well as the payload’s support systems such as the small onboard camera. Shown above is a test image of Earth taken by the payload camera, shortly after PTD-4 reached orbit. This camera will continue photographing the technology demonstration during the mission.

Payload operations are now underway for the primary objective of the PTD-4 mission – the demonstration of a new power and communications technology for future spacecraft. The payload, a deployable solar array with an integrated antenna called the Lightweight Integrated Solar Array and anTenna, or LISA-T, has initiated deployment of its central boom structure. The boom supports four solar power and communication arrays, also called petals. Releasing the central boom pushes the still-stowed petals nearly three feet (one meter) away from the spacecraft bus. The mission team currently is working through an initial challenge to get LISA-T’s central boom to fully extend before unfolding the petals and beginning its power generation and communication operations.

Small spacecraft on deep space missions require more electrical power than what is currently offered by existing technology. The four-petal solar array of LISA-T is a thin-film solar array that offers lower mass, lower stowed volume, and three times more power per mass and volume allocation than current solar arrays. The in-orbit technology demonstration includes deployment, operation, and environmental survivability of the thin-film solar array.

‘Halloween Comet’ Tonight: How To Find It On Friday While You Still Can

Comet’s distance from the sun: 75 million miles (121 million kilometers)

Comet’s distance from Earth: 71 million miles (115 million kilometers)

So far, the guiding lights to find the comet have been the bright planet Venus and the bright red star Arcturus. However, as October draws to a close, both are so close to the horizon an hour after sunset that they’re unlikely to be visible. So, instead, use the stars of the Summer Triangle to find the comet. Vega in the constellation Lyra should be easy enough to find above due west and, above it, Deneb in Cygnus.

Webb Telescope Detects Unusual Gas Jets from Centaur 29P

Inspired by the half-human, half-horse creatures that are part of Ancient Greek mythology, the field of astronomy has its own kind of centaurs: distant objects orbiting the sun between Jupiter and Neptune. NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has mapped the gases spewing from one of these objects, suggesting a varied composition and providing new insights into the formation and evolution of the solar system.

Centaurs are former trans-Neptunian objects that have been moved inside Neptune’s orbit by subtle gravitational influences of the planets in the last few million years, and may eventually become short-period comets. They are “hybrid” in the sense that they are in a transitional stage of their orbital evolution: Many share characteristics with both trans-Neptunian objects (from the cold Kuiper Belt reservoir), and short-period comets, which are objects highly altered by repeated close passages around the sun.

Since these small icy bodies are in an orbital transitional phase, they have been the subject of various studies as scientists seek to understand their composition, the reasons behind their outgassing activity—the loss of their ices that lie underneath the surface—and how they serve as a link between primordial icy bodies in the outer solar system and evolved comets.

A mysterious wave-like structure that sheds 9,000 light-years in length on our Milky Way

The Radcliffe Wave, a 9,000 light-year-long structure, is oscillating through the Milky Way.

The Milky Way galaxy is far from static. One striking example of its dynamic nature is the discovery of the Radcliffe Wave, a massive, 9,000 light-year-long structure made of star-forming gas. Located just 500 light-years from the Solar System at its nearest point, the Radcliffe Wave was first identified in 2018 using data from the Gaia spacecraft, with findings published in 2020. But recent research has unveiled something even more intriguing: this enormous structure is not just moving in its orbit around the galactic center, it’s also oscillating like a wave.

Posthuman Pathways: Strange And Awesome Destinations On Humanity’s Future Journeys

Soon humanity may reach out to the galaxy and spread ourselves to every world in it, but in the billions and billions of years to come on those billions and billions of worlds, humanity shall surely diverge down many roads and posthuman pathways.

Watch my exclusive video Caretaker AI \& Genus Loci: https://nebula.tv/videos/isaacarthur–… Get Nebula using my link for 40% off an annual subscription: https://go.nebula.tv/isaacarthur.
Get a Lifetime Membership to Nebula for only $300: https://go.nebula.tv/lifetime?ref=isa… Use the link gift.nebula.tv/isaacarthur to give a year of Nebula to a friend for just $30.

Visit our Website: http://www.isaacarthur.net.
Join Nebula: https://go.nebula.tv/isaacarthur.
Support us on Patreon: / isaacarthur.
Support us on Subscribestar: https://www.subscribestar.com/isaac-a
Facebook Group: / 1583992725237264
Reddit: / isaacarthur.
Twitter: / isaac_a_arthur on Twitter and RT our future content.
SFIA Discord Server: / discord.

Credits:
Posthuman Pathways.
Episode 470; October 24, 2024
Editor: Tim Lusko.
Produced, Narrated \& Written: Isaac Arthur.
Graphics:
Jeremy Jozwik.
Ken York YD Visual.
Udo Schroeter.
Select imagery/video supplied by Getty Images.
Music Courtesy of Epidemic Sound http://epidemicsound.com/creator

Scientists Discover Planet Orbiting Closest Single Star to our Sun

Using the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope (ESO’s VLT), astronomers have discovered an exoplanet orbiting Barnard’s star, the closest single star to our sun. On this newly discovered exoplanet, which has at least half the mass of Venus, a year lasts just over three Earth days. The team’s observations also hint at the existence of three more exoplanet candidates, in various orbits around the star.

Located just six light-years away, Barnard’s star is the second-closest stellar system—after Alpha Centauri’s three-star group—and the closest individual star to us. Owing to its proximity, it is a primary target in the search for Earth-like exoplanets. Despite a promising detection back in 2018, no planet orbiting Barnard’s star had been confirmed until now.

The discovery of this new exoplanet—announced in a paper published today in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics—is the result of observations made over the last five years with ESO’s VLT, located at Paranal Observatory in Chile. “Even if it took a long time, we were always confident that we could find something,” says Jonay González Hernández, a researcher at the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias in Spain, and lead author of the paper.

Space Articles

The magnitude of the SpaceX Starship prototype.

Video Credit: Nik Cooper.

#starship #engineering #technology #space #rockets.

Stay ahead of the curve!

Follow more cutting-edge space technology content, including research, reports and articles on Wevolver: https://


Simulations at Caltech model a new way for autonomous spacecraft to avoid collisions. This technology holds promise for autonomous vehicles on Earth as well as in space.

‘Halloween comet’ could be visible during daytime this week — here’s the best time to see it

Talk about a Halloween treat.

A recently discovered comet will be blazing by the Earth in broad daylight just in time for Halloween, astronomers say.

Comet C/2024 S1, first found at the end of September, will pass around the Earth on Oct. 24, according to planetary astronomer James Wray of the Georgia Institute of Technology, who advises to “look low in the eastern sky just before sunrise.”