Media Today

[Rick Plant]

To the Moon and beyond: NASA's Artemis program



The Artemis program is NASA's plan to return humans to the Moon as a stepping stone for an eventual voyage to Mars.

Twelve men walked on the Moon between 1969 and 1972 and one of the goals of Artemis is to put the first woman and person of color on the lunar surface.

The first test flight of an uncrewed Artemis rocket is to take place on Monday.

The name Artemis was chosen to echo that of the Apollo program.

Artemis, in Greek mythology, was the twin sister of Apollo and a goddess associated with the Moon.

Here is an overview of the Artemis program:

Artemis 1: test flight

Artemis 1 is a test flight of the 322-foot (98-meter) Space Launch System rocket and the Orion crew capsule that sits on top.

Blastoff is scheduled for 8:33 am (1233 GMT) on Monday from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Mannequins equipped with sensors will take the place of crew members on the flight, recording vibration, acceleration and radiation levels.

Orion will orbit the Moon before splashing down in the Pacific Ocean.

Artemis 2: first crew

Planned for 2024, Artemis 2 will be a crewed flight that will orbit the Moon but not land on the surface, similar to what Apollo 8 did.

The four members of the crew will be named before the end of the year. A Canadian is expected to be among them.

Artemis 3: Moon landing

The third Artemis mission will be the first to put astronauts on the Moon since Apollo 17 in December 1972.

NASA, for the first time, will land a crewed spacecraft on the southern pole of the Moon, where water in the form of ice has been detected.

Previous Moon landings took place near the equator.

Artemis 3 is scheduled for 2025 but may not take place until 2026 at the earliest, according to an independent audit of the program.

Starting with Artemis 3, NASA plans to launch crewed missions about once a year.

SpaceX Moon lander

NASA has selected Elon Musk's SpaceX to build the Moon lander for Artemis 3.

SpaceX's Starship, which is still under development, will serve as a shuttle from the Orion crew capsule to the lunar surface and back.

Gateway space station

The Artemis program also calls for the construction of a space station called Gateway that will orbit the Moon.

The launch of the first two elements -- the living quarters module and power and propulsion system -- is planned for late 2024 at the earliest by a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket.

Orion crews would be responsible for assembly of Gateway.

Astronauts would spend between 30 to 60 days in Gateway and would eventually have access to a lander that would allow them to travel to the Moon and back.

Gateway would also serve as a stopping point for any future trip to Mars.

Destination Mars

The ultimate objective of the Artemis program is what NASA calls the "next giant leap -- human exploration of Mars."

NASA will use knowledge gained from Artemis about next generation spacesuits, vehicles, propulsion, resupply and other areas to prepare for a trip to Mars.

The goal is to learn how to maintain a human presence in deep space for a long period.

Creating a "base camp" on the Moon is part of the plan with astronauts staying on the lunar surface for up to two months.

While a trip to the Moon takes just a few days, a voyage to Mars would take a minimum of several months.

© Agence France-Presse

[Rick Plant]

NASA's mega-moon rocket ready for liftoff on eve of debut Artemis mission



CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (Reuters) -Launch teams at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida spent a final full day of preparations ahead of Monday's planned liftoff of NASA's giant next-generation rocket on its debut test flight, kicking off the agency's Artemis moon-to-Mars program 50 years after the end of the Apollo era.

NASA officials said on Sunday that all systems appeared "go" for liftoff, and weather forecasts called for an 80% chance of favorable conditions at the top of Monday's two-hour launch window, starting at 8:33 a.m. EDT (1233 GMT), diminishing to 60% toward the end of that period.

If the countdown clock is halted for any reason, NASA has set Sept. 2 and Sept. 5 as potential backup launch dates.

"Everything to date looks good from a vehicle perspective," said Jeff Spaulding, senior NASA test director for the landmark mission, called Artemis I. "We are excited, the vehicle is ready, it looks great."

Although lightning rods at the launch site were struck during a storm on Saturday, Spaulding said he has not "seen anything on the ground systems that give us any concerns." NASA said there was no damage to the spacecraft or launch facilities.

The Space Launch System (SLS) rocket is set to propel an uncrewed capsule named Orion around the moon and back on a six-week test flight designed to put both vehicles through their paces before flying astronauts in a subsequent mission targeted for 2024. The SLS-Orion combo, standing 322 feet (98 meters) tall, form the centerpiece of the U.S. space agency's successor to the Apollo moon program of the 1960s and 1970s.

Billed as the most powerful, complex rocket in the world, the SLS represents the biggest new vertical launch system NASA has built since the Saturn V flown for Apollo, which grew out of the U.S.-Soviet space race of the Cold War era.

If the first two Artemis missions succeed, NASA is aiming to land astronauts back on the moon, including the first woman to set foot on the lunar surface, as early as 2025, though many experts believe that time frame is likely to slip by a few years. The last humans to walk on the moon were the two-man descent team of Apollo 17 in 1972, following in the footsteps of 10 other astronauts during five earlier missions beginning with Apollo 11 in 1969.

The Artemis program seeks to eventually establish a long-term lunar base as a stepping stone to even more ambitious astronaut voyages to Mars, a goal that NASA officials have said will probably take until at least the late 2030s to achieve.

SLS has been under development for more than a decade, with years of delays and cost overruns. But the Artemis program also has generated tens of thousands of jobs and billions of dollars in commerce under the primary contractors Boeing Co for SLS and Lockheed Martin Corp for Orion.

One issue NASA officials were eyeing on Sunday before the maiden flight of SLS concerned a potential - but minor - helium leak in launch pad equipment, though Spaulding told reporters during a launch-eve news conference that he did not expect any technical show-stoppers to the countdown.

"This is a test flight, remember that," NASA chief Bill Nelson said in a Reuters interview that was interrupted by an unexpected phone call from U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris, who will be in Florida to see the rocket launch in person.

"She's excited!" Nelson said after the call.

© Reuters

[Rick Plant]

Today's Artemis I launch has been scrubbed after engine issue
https://www.cnn.com/2022/08/29/world/nasa-artemis-1-launch-scn/index.html


SCRUB: NASA Scrubs the Launch of Artemis I to the Moon Aboard SLS

Watch:

[Rick Plant]

Skeleton of huge dinosaur unearthed in Portugal



Paleontologists in Portugal have unearthed the fossilized skeleton of what could be the largest dinosaur ever found in Europe.

The remains are thought to be those of a sauropod, a herbivorous dinosaur 12 meters (39 feet) tall and 25 meters long that roamed the Earth around 150 million years ago.

"It's one of the biggest specimens discovered in Europe, perhaps in the world," paleontologist Elisabete Malafaia, from the Faculty of Sciences at Lisbon University, told AFP on Monday.

The bones were uncovered by Portuguese and Spanish scientists in the garden of a house near Pombal in central Portugal at the beginning of August.

Among the bones collected, they found the remains of a rib about three meters long, Malafaia said.

Fossil fragments were first noticed at the site in 2017, when the owner was digging up his garden to make way for an extension.

He contacted paleontologists, who unearthed part of the dinosaur skeleton earlier this month and have been examining it ever since.

Sauropods have characteristically long necks and tails and are among the largest animals to have ever lived.

The fossils discovered at the Monte Agudo site in Pombal are thought to be those of a brachiosaurid who lived during the Upper Jurassic period.

The fact that the vertebrae and ribs were found at the same location and in the position they would have been in the dinosaur's anatomy is "relatively rare", Malafaia said.

The team may conduct more digs in the coming months at the site and in the surrounding area.

© 2022 AFP

[Rick Plant]

Washington's Air and Space Museum to reopen with new exhibitions

As NASA's ambitions for lunar exploration are returning, Washington is regaining one of the continent's biggest landmarks for fans of space travel and aviation in general.

The US capitol is gearing up to reopen its National Air and Space Museum to visitors after a six-month closure for renovation work to add several new exhibitions.

Known for its collection of space travel artefacts from the fabled Mercury, Gemini and Apollo missions, the museum is home to exhibits from the history of aviation and space travel, distributed over eight exhibition worlds.

It's not only historic airplanes and space travel to which the museum pays homage. A major highlight for Star Wars fans is likely to be the sight of a full-size, real-life X-Wing star fighter, which is one of the newly added exhibits.

"This is one of the most exciting times in the National Air and Space Museum's history," said Chris Browne, director of the museum.

"When we open the first reimagined galleries, we hope all visitors are inspired by artefacts on display for the first time, favourite icons of aerospace presented in new ways and diverse storytelling."

The museum, located on Washington's National Mall, is set to be open again from October 14. Admission is free, but tickets must be reserved online in advance, which will be possible from one month before the reopening (September 14).

© Deutsche Presse-Agentur

[Rick Plant]

Melting of Greenland ice sheet poised to trigger almost a foot of sea-level rise: study



The fossil fuel-driven climate emergency has already locked in so much ice melt in Greenland that sea levels will surge by nearly a foot in the coming decades, peer-reviewed research published Monday warns, underscoring the need to rapidly transform virtually all aspects of the global political economy.

Even if the world stopped emitting greenhouse gases today, the Greenland ice sheet is set to lose at least 3.3% of its mass, or 110 trillion tons of ice, and that will cause almost a foot in global sea-level rise (SLR), says the study, published in Nature Climate Change. The authors don't specify a time frame for the melting and SLR, though they expect much of it to happen between now and 2100.

But rather than lead to despair, this projection of inevitable damage—made by scientists based at institutions in Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Norway, the Netherlands, Switzerland, and the United States—should catalyze immediate and robust climate action, experts stress. Without it, the life-threatening situation confronting humanity is destined to grow far deadlier.

Earlier this year, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration predicted that sea levels along the U.S. coastline would rise by an average of 10 to 12 inches by 2050, drastically increasing the threat of flooding in dozens of highly populated cities.

By mid-century, 150 million people worldwide could be displaced from their homes just by rising sea levels, according to some estimates. The consequences of a one-foot SLR would be especially catastrophic for developing island nations, where low elevation and high poverty combine to increase vulnerability.

These countries, which have done little to cause the climate crisis now roasting the Greenland ice sheet, lack the financial resources for adaptation and face the prospect of being wiped off the map.

"Every study has bigger numbers than the last," William Colgan, a scientist at the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland and co-author of the new paper, told The Washington Post. "It's always faster than forecast."

As lead author Jason Box, also from the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland, told the newspaper, the finding that 3.3% of Greenland's ice sheet will be gone in a matter of decades regardless of what is done to halt planet-heating pollution represents "a minimum, a lower bound."

Things are all but guaranteed to get worse if humanity continues to burn fossil fuels. Should the record-breaking ice loss that occurred in 2012 become the norm, for example, the world is likely to see around two-and-a-half feet of SLR from Greenland alone, the study says.

By the same token, each fraction of a degree of warming that is avoided makes a difference.

If Greenland's ice sheet were to disintegrate completely, sea levels would rise more than 22 feet—"enough to double the frequency of storm-surge flooding in many of the world's largest coastal cities" by the end of the century, scientists have warned, so the stakes for adequate climate action are still immense even if a certain amount of melting and SLR has been deemed irreversible.

Greenland is located in the Arctic, which has been heating up for over a century and is one of the fastest-warming regions in the world. Dangerous feedback loops are of particular concern. The replacement of reflective sea ice with dark ocean water leads to greater absorption of solar energy, and the thawing of permafrost portends the release of additional carbon dioxide and methane—both leading to accelerated temperature rise that triggers further melting, defrosting, and destabilization.

In December, researchers estimated that the Arctic has been heating up four times faster than the rest of the globe over the past three decades. Another recent study found that 2021 was the 25th consecutive year in which Greenland's ice sheet lost more mass during the melting season than it gained during the winter. Rainfall is now projected to become more common in the Arctic than snowfall decades sooner than previously expected.

This context has a direct bearing on the new paper, which contains more dire predictions than other reports relying on different assumptions.

The United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), for instance, has projected that Greenland will lose roughly 1.8% of its mass and contribute up to half a foot of SLR by 2100 if humans continue spewing large amounts of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.

"One reason that new research appears worse than other findings may just be that it is simpler," the Post explains. "It tries to calculate how much ice Greenland must lose as it recalibrates to a warmer climate."

"In the past, scientists have tried to determine what Greenland's ongoing melting means for the global sea level through complex computer simulations," the newspaper continues. "They model the ice itself, the ocean around it, and the future climate based on different trajectories of emissions." The result, in general, has been "less alarming predictions."

As the Post reports:

The new research "obtains numbers that are high compared to other studies," said Sophie Nowicki, an expert on Greenland at the University at Buffalo who contributed to the IPCC report. Nowicki observed, however, that one reason the number is so high is that the study considers only the last 20 years—which have seen strong warming—as the current climate to which the ice sheet is now adjusting. Taking a 40-year period would yield a lower result, Nowicki said.

Box, for his part, argues that the models upon which the IPCC report is based are "like a facsimile of reality," without enough detail to reflect how Greenland is really changing. Those computer models have sparked considerable controversy recently, with one research group charging they do not adequately track Greenland's current, high levels of ice loss.

For example, the processes causing ice loss from large glaciers in Greenland "often occur hundreds of meters below the sea surface in narrow fjords, where warm water can flick at the submerged ice in complex motions," the newspaper notes. "In some cases, these processes may simply be playing out at too small a scale for the models to capture."

Pennsylvania State University professor Richard Alley, an ice sheet expert who was not involved in the study, told the Post that "the problems are deeply challenging, will not be solved by wishful thinking, and have not yet been solved by business-as-usual."

One thing that's certain, Alley added, is that higher temperatures will lead to greater amounts of SLR.

"The rise can be a little less than usual projections, or a little more, or a lot more, but not a lot less," he said.

https://www.rawstory.com/melting-of-greenland-ice-sheet-poised-to-trigger-almost-a-foot-of-sea-level-rise-study/

[Rick Plant]

New launch attempt Saturday for NASA's Moon rocket



NASA will make a second attempt to launch its powerful new Moon rocket on Saturday, after scrubbing a test flight earlier in the week, an official said Tuesday.

The highly anticipated uncrewed mission -- dubbed Artemis 1 -- will bring the United States a step closer to returning astronauts to the Moon five decades after humans last walked on the lunar surface.

Mission manager Mike Sarafin, said the NASA team "agreed to move our launch date to Saturday, September the third."

Blastoff had been planned for Monday morning but was canceled because a test to get one of the rocket's four RS-25 engines to the proper temperature range for launch was not successful.

Sarafin announced the date for the new launch attempt during a media briefing on Tuesday, and NASA later tweeted that the two-hour launch window on Saturday would begin at 2:17 pm (1817 GMT).

Launch weather officer Mark Burger said there is a 60 percent chance of rain or thunderstorms on the day of the launch, but added that there is still a "pretty good opportunity weather-wise to launch on Saturday."

The goal of Artemis 1, named after the twin sister of Apollo, is to test the 322-foot (98-meter) Space Launch System rocket and Orion crew capsule that sits on top.

Mannequins equipped with sensors are standing in for astronauts on the mission and will record acceleration, vibration and radiation levels.

Tens of thousands of people -- including US Vice President Kamala Harris -- had gathered to watch the launch, 50 years after Apollo 17 astronauts last set foot on the Moon.

Ahead of the planned Monday launch, operations to fill the orange-and-white rocket with ultra-cold liquid hydrogen and oxygen were briefly delayed by a risk of lightning.

A potential leak was detected during the filling of the main stage with hydrogen, causing a pause. After tests, the flow resumed.

NASA engineers later detected the engine temperature problem and decided to scrub the launch.

"The way the sensor is behaving... doesn't line up with the physics of the situation," said John Honeycutt, manager of the Space Launch System program, adding that such issues with sensors were "not terribly unusual."

Sarafin said the team would reconvene on Thursday to assess the situation.

Orbiting the Moon

The Orion capsule is to orbit the Moon to see if the vessel is safe for people in the near future. At some point, Artemis aims to put a woman and a person of color on the Moon for the first time.

During the 42-day trip, Orion will follow an elliptical course around the Moon, coming within 60 miles (100 kilometers) at its closest approach and 40,000 miles at its farthest -- the deepest into space by a craft designed to carry humans.

One of the main objectives is to test the capsule's heat shield, which at 16 feet in diameter is the largest ever built.

On its return to Earth's atmosphere, the heat shield will have to withstand speeds of 25,000 miles per hour and a temperature of 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit (2,760 degrees Celsius) -- roughly half as hot as the Sun.

NASA is expected to spend $93 billion between 2012 and 2025 on the Artemis program, which is already years behind schedule, at a cost of $4.1 billion per launch.

The next mission, Artemis 2, will take astronauts into orbit around the Moon without landing on its surface.

The crew of Artemis 3 is to land on the Moon in 2025 at the earliest.

'And since humans have already visited the Moon, Artemis has its sights set on another lofty goal: a crewed mission to Mars.

The Artemis program aims to establish a lasting human presence on the Moon with an orbiting space station known as Gateway and a base on the surface.

Gateway would serve as a staging and refueling station for a voyage to the Red Planet that would take a minimum of several months.

© Agence France-Presse