OF SPECIAL INTEREST
Attention K-12 Students! NASA is running its “Power to Explore Student Essay Challenge for 2025,” and you can compete. NASA spacecraft in the outer Solar System are too far from the Sun to be operated on solar power. Instead, NASA uses a “radioisotope thermal generator” for spacecraft power (find out more about RTGs here). Your task is to select any moon in the Solar System, and make a case for its exploration, justifying the use of a Radioisotope Power System. The deadline for applications is January 31, 2025. For more information on the contest, go to: https://www.nasa.gov/power-to-explore!
MethaneSAT: NASA Earth-observing satellites produce mountains of data useful for understanding the nature and status of the environment in which we live. However, they are not the only organization involved! Methane is a dangerously powerful greenhouse gas. Monitoring its release is difficult, especially from small but numerous sources, but the Environmental Defense Fund found a solution. They partnered with BAE Systems, Harvard Science Partners, Blue Canyon Technologies, SAO Science Partners, Google, and the New Zealand Space Agency to design, build, and launch MethaneSAT, a small satellite capable of monitoring small and mid-sized methane emissions that otherwise might be missed. The satellite is operated jointly by the EDF and the NZSA. It’s New Zealand’s first space science mission. Much of the EDF’s funding for the project was underwritten by the Bezos Earth Fund. For more information, see: https://www.methanesat.org.
Europa Clipper Graphic Novel: NASA is producing Astrobiology: The Story of our Search for Life, a set of graphic novels showcasing some part of the search of extraterrestrial life. The fourth issue of the series, Missions to the Outer Solar System, just came out. Even though there is little sunlight that far from the Sun, some of the moons there might be abodes for life. One of those moons is Jupiter’s Europa, and the recently-launched Europa Clipper, plays a prominent role in the story. Find out more about the series here: https://astrobiology.nasa.gov/resources/graphic-histories; find out more about the fourth issue, see: https://science.nasa.gov/science-research/planetary-science/astrobiology/nasas-new-edition-of-graphic-novel-features-europa-clipper.
FROM AVIATION WEEK
NASA Administrator Bill Nelson on NASA’s Future: Nelson sat with Aviation Week editors and discussed a variety of issues facing the Agency.He was asked about the future of the post-ISS termination in 2030, the outsourcing of launch services, Starliner, Artemis, sustainable aviation, China competition, and much more. Check it out at: https://aviationweek.com/space/budget-policy-regulation/nasa-administrator-bill-nelson-agencys-future!
Aviation Week also has an article on how Western Space Agencies are gearing up for a new era of lunar exploration; see: https://aviationweek.com/space/space-exploration/western-space-agencies-gear-new-era-lunar-exploration. See more in the News: Humans in Space section.
And more, Aviation Week has posted the transcript of a podcast entitled, “Understanding UAP as an Aerospace Safety Concern.” That’s right, “UAP” as in UFO! The podcast’s guest is Ryan Graves, the “executive director for Americans for Safe Aerospace, the first military pilot-led nonprofit dedicated to unidentified anomalous phenomena as a matter of national security, aerospace safety and science.” He is also the “first chair of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena Integration and Outreach Committee whose goal is to serve as a neutral, scientifically focused group, which to enable safer commercial and military air and space operations and critically, to destigmatize the topic.” Docents and Solar System Ambassadors, you might get questions about this, so check out what Graves has to say at: https://aviationweek.com/podcasts/check-6/podcast-understanding-uap-aerospace-safety-concern!
Celebrate the Heliophysics Big Year: NASA’s Science Mission Directorate comprises four divisions: Astrophysics, Heliophysics, Planetary Science, and Earth Science. From time to time, a division will institute a year or so long outreach effort. When I was at HQ, the emphasis was on the “Year of the Solar System.” Now, we are in the middle of an 18-month “Heliophysics Big Year.” The 2024 total Solar eclipse was one of the big events of the Big Year, and the ongoing data from the Parker Solar Probe, the Solar Dynamics Observatory, and other assets make for good engagement material. Free Heliophysics and Math Webinars are available, too; find out more at: https://science.nasa.gov/learning-resources/science-activation/celebrate-the-heliophysics-big-year-with-free-heliophysics-and-math-webinars-from-nasa-heat. [Didja know that there are 27 spacecraft in 20 missions in Space right now observing the Sun? Not all of them are NASA’s, but that’s still a lot!]
For Those of You in the Colorado Springs Area: The Space Foundation Discovery Center on Garden of the Gods Avenue has been undergoing a significant expansion and updating, and has reopened as of June 1. Find out more about it at: https://discoverspace.org and more about the Space Foundation at: https://www.spacefoundation.org. In addition, the Planetarium at the U.S. Air Force Academy offers a variety of public programs; for more information, see: https://www.usafa.edu/facilities/planetarium. The Academy also has great STEM outreach programming for students and teachers, see: https://www.usafa.edu/research/stem-outreach.
Jack Cross: I have met an interesting fellow on-line via one of NASM’s wonderful Docents. His name is Jack Cross, and he proudly served in the U.S. Navy from 1950 to 1954 as a Bosun’s Mate. He was on a series of warships at first, then he moved over to the USS Yellowstone, a tender that served the Navy’s Sixth Fleet. He joined the Navy and saw the world!
Now retired, Jack has put together a series of picture-rich PowerPoint presentations. He kindly gave me permission to post three of them already, one about D-Day, one about “A Day of Mercy in the Sky,” and one about his Navy career, which gives a real interesting look at what Navy life was like at the start of the Cold War. Check all three out on the Archive: Other Stuff page of the website! Thank you, Jack!
NEW FEATURE OF SPECIAL INTEREST: IN THE NATIONAL AIR AND SPACE MUSEUM
I recently had the privilege of visiting the National Air and Space Museum, both the original building on the National Mall, now undergoing renovation, and the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy building at Dulles Airport, where a number of planes and other artifacts normally downtown are now on display. A number of Docents and museum staff get A+StW, and I thought I could expand the Of Special Interest section to include info relating to NASM programming, collection, and research. I hope the new material makes you want to made the trip to see NASM in person!
This week’s example of info from NASM isn’t an artifact, but rather a story about “Galactic Archaeology,” how we are finding out about how the Milky Way formed and evolved, based in large part on data from the Gaia spacecraft, featured in this week’s Astronomy: News section below. See the story at: https://airandspace.si.edu/air-and-space-quarterly/winter-2022/galactic-archaeology.
DOCENTS (and all others interested in Solar System exploration history): If you don’t have an on-line copy of Fordham University’s Asif A. Siddiqi’s fabulous book, Beyond Earth: A Chronicle of Deep Space Exploration, you should. You can find it at: https://www.nasa.gov/connect/ebooks/beyond_earth_detail.html.
IMPORTANT ANNIVERSARIES the next two weeks have been the subject of previous Items of the Week. CHECK THEM OUT (AGAIN) HERE.
Monday, November 18, is the 79th anniversary of the arrival in the U.S. of the “Operation Paperclip” captured German rocket scientists; for more about them, see here.
Monday, November 18, is also the 35th anniversary of the launch of the Cosmic Background Explorer satellite. For more about it, see this week’s “Item of the Week!”
Tuesday, November 19, is the 55th anniversary of the landing on the Moon of Intrepid, the Apollo 12 lunar module. Astronauts Conrad and Bean visited and brought back pieces of, the Surveyor 3 spacecraft, which had landed there almost two years ago.
Wednesday, November 20, is the 72nd anniversary of test pilot Scott Crossfield to be the first to fly Mach 2, in a Douglas D-588-2 Skyrocket. Crossfield then flew the first test flight (unpowered) of the X-15, then flew it fourteen times operationally, surviving a crash landing and an engine explosion along the way. Find out more about Crossfield here.
Thursday, November 21, is the 241st anniversary of the first untethered ballon flight. Pilatre de Rozier and the Marquis d’Arlandes ascended over Paris and floated 9 km away. The King was a witness, and so was Ben Franklin. For more about the earliest days of ballooning, see here.
Saturday, November 23, is the 64th anniversary of the launch of Tiros 2, an early weather satellite. Meteorology is not the only example of our growing utilization of Earth orbit; for more, see here.