Payload’s Post

Amazing ... new data says that in February, NASA - National Aeronautics and Space Administration's TIMED satellite and "space shrapnel from the defunct Russian Cosmos 2221 satellite" had a near miss on orbit with less than 10m separating the two. While the Russian satellite is not operational, the US satellite is in active use, but does not have the ability to change the orbit to escape such potential collisions. So the danger of #spacedebris is very real, and had the 2 collided, this would have created 1000s of new pieces of space debris, increasing the problem further. #earthandspaceexploration 21

NASA sent a cat video into deep space, 19 million miles away, to test a new way of communicating across vast distances. While we can already communicate with astronauts in space, like on the International Space Station, through video calls and data transmission, communicating with spacecraft in deep space, like those heading to Mars or beyond, is much more challenging. The problem is that as the distance increases, it becomes harder and takes longer to send and receive messages. In deep space, signals can take minutes or hours to travel, and they can be disrupted by planets or solar events. NASA's test with the cat video was to improve and ensure that we can still send and receive information, even over these huge distances. They used a system called Delay/Disruption Tolerant Networking (DTN), which can handle the long delays and disruptions in signals that happen in deep space. By successfully sending the cat video, NASA tested this system's ability to transmit large, data-intensive files through space, aiming to make communication in deep space as reliable as it is closer to Earth. This is important for future missions to faraway places in space, where good communication will be essential. Source: NASA Source URL: https://www.nasa.gov/ #NASA #catvideo #viral #spacekitty #internetfame #NASAcat #spacevideo #spaceexploration #outerspace #NASAfun #catsofNASA

🚀 Exploring New Frontiers: NASA - National Aeronautics and Space Administration's 2024 NIAC Awardees Announced... NASA has just unveiled the 13 groundbreaking researchers selected for the 2024 NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) program. Each awardee is set to receive up to $175,000 in grants, fueling their journey to potentially revolutionize future space missions. Key Highlights: 🌐 A diverse array of concepts: From fixed-wing flight on Mars to interstellar probe swarms. 💡 Funding innovative ideas: A combined maximum of $175,000 to each researcher. 🛰️ Pushing boundaries: Aiming to turn bold concepts into space exploration realities. NASA Associate Administrator Jim Free highlights the importance of NIAC in inspiring many of NASA's daring missions for the benefit of humanity. The proposals include a first-of-its-kind electric vertical takeoff and landing craft on Mars and a swarm of tiny spacecraft traveling to Proxima Centauri. These early-stage ideas aim to expand the realm of possibilities in space exploration. Find the full list of awardees and their visionary projects in NASA's report. What do you think could be the most impactful outcome of these innovative concepts? Share your thoughts! https://lnkd.in/essuZZ29 #NASA #SpaceExploration #Innovation #NIAC2024 #FutureTech

This weekend, we celebrate #InternationalMoonDay, which commemorates Neil Armstrong’s walk on the moon on July 20, 1969. In 2022, Blue Canyon provided avionics on 8 of the 10 CubeSats that were secondary payloads to the NASA - National Aeronautics and Space Administration #Artemis I mission. After the conclusion of the #Apollo program more than 50 years ago, we’re proud to have been part of the return to #lunar exploration. In this photo, courtesy of NASA, the team at Kennedy Space Center installs BioSentinel, the final CubeSat to be loaded onto the Space Launch System rocket’s Orion stage adaptor. Utilizing Blue Canyon Technologies’ industry-trusted avionics assemblies, BioSentinel is more than 13 million miles from Earth, in orbit around the Sun, carrying a miniature biotechnology laboratory designed to measure how living yeast cells respond to long-timer exposure to space radiation. Last year, NASA decided to extend BioSentinel’s mission by 18 additional months, relying on our XACT attitude control system, sun sensors and reaction wheels to collect this valuable deep space radiation data in the unique, high-radiation environment beyond low Earth orbit. #smallsatellites #cubesats #spacetechnology #spaceexploration #spacedomain #moonday

Serving up a little slice of Pi. How many kilometers ahead along Earth’s orbit did the team need to aim the laser? In December 2023, NASA transmitted the first ultra-high-definition video from deep space using new technology known as Deep Space Optical Communications, or DSOC. DSOC uses an infrared laser to transmit data at a much higher rate than current radio transmitters. The 15-second video, featuring a cat chasing a laser, was beamed to Earth from the Psyche spacecraft at a rate faster than many terrestrial internet connections. DSOC’s transmission had to travel 30,199,000 km to reach Earth. Even traveling at the speed of light, that takes a long time! And all that time, Earth was still moving along its orbit. That meant that the team needed to aim the laser transmission at where Earth would be when the signal arrived. Given this, how many kilometers ahead along Earth’s orbit did the team need to aim the laser?

NASA - National Aeronautics and Space Administration recently completed the analysis of a recovered space object that survived re-entry into Earth's atmosphere. 🌌🔬 In March 2021, NASA ground controllers used the International Space Station's robotic arm to release a cargo pallet containing aging nickel hydride batteries, totaling about 5,800 pounds. This was done following the delivery and installation of new lithium-ion batteries as part of power upgrades on the space station. While it was expected that the hardware would fully burn up during re-entry on March 8, 2024, a piece of hardware actually survived and impacted a home in Naples, Florida. NASA worked with the homeowner to collect the item and then analyzed it at the agency's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. For more details on this fascinating story, check out the link below! 👇 https://lnkd.in/ewYQnwSb #NASA #SpaceExploration #SpaceObject #Science #Innovation #Research #NASAUpdates

SpaceX to launch NASA gamma-ray space telescope in 2027 SpaceX has been selected by NASA - National Aeronautics and Space Administration to launch the COSI observatory, a gamma-ray space telescope, in August 2027. The mission aims to study high-energy phenomena in the universe, including matter-antimatter interactions and stellar life cycles. The fixed-price launch contract is valued at $69 million, with COSI's total mission cost excluding launch being $145 million. This mission marks another addition to Falcon 9's busy launch schedule, which has already seen significant activity in 2024, including missions for SpaceX's Starlink constellation. https://lnkd.in/dm385Kwx

Clearly, NASA wants to terminate ISS program for one reason only: shift budget to Gateway and Artemis. What are the other choices for ISS? 1. Keep it going for two more decades under private contract. 2.Move it to higher parking orbit, safe it, and mothball it as Space Museum 3. Bring it back in pieces to be reassembled for display in the Smithsonian. Good to know SpaceX has been awarded the contract. Hope all involved rethink the decision to destroy ISS. Hint: StarShip can do wonders!

NASA has taken a major leap forward in space communication by successfully beaming messages via laser across nearly 10 million miles. Utilizing near-infrared light, this achievement marks the first time optical communications have spanned such a vast distance and promises a future of high-speed, high-definition data transfer between Earth and distant spacecraft. This test was conducted as part of NASA's Deep Space Optical Communications (DSOC) experiment, using the Psyche spacecraft to connect with the Hale Telescope. This innovation could be the key to sending clear, high-quality video messages from Mars and beyond.

There is now a LOT of talk about boosting the International Space Station to a MEO (or higher) orbit and saving it as an artifact of human genius and and a testament to global cooperation. I have been advocating that since a 2016 conversation at NASA HQ. See this article in The London Times. I have spoken to too HEOMD and ISS leaders at NASA in detail and read the analysis on options. Yes, I understand it takes more propellant. The cost of launching propellant is dropping and will continue to do so. Various electric prop options are also available if we want to move it really far out (plenty of power there already). MEO is vastly larger (200x) the volume of LEO and has very few operational satellites (like 100 vs 10,000 in LEO). Yes, I understand the orbital environment is complex and NASA has released an estimate suggesting that ISS might suffer an impact every few decades. That most likely an irrelevant spec hitting a panel, but it is a real concern. Although it is very unlikely, NASA’s analysis also shows that a “miss” on the deorbit target or failure to manage it (see Skylab) could catostrophic. Dozens of objects the size of toasters and refridgerators plus a couple of car to bus sized chunks. Finally, we don’t know what this does to the atmosphere and some folks worry about that (I don’t but agree we don’t understand it). What impact it do in the deep ocean environment (we have virtually no idea)? Boosting ISS to a graveyard orbit above LEO traffic cool. It is safer for people and the planet. We just have to make it also safer for satellites and spacecraft. Humans are engineers, we can do this. We built ISS! Terry Virts Michelle L.D. Hanlon Rick Tumlinson Michael Griffin Brett Mecum Zaheer Ali https://lnkd.in/gdecAAQ3