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Perth: (The Conversation) Last week, three tiny Australian satellites from Curtin University's <keyword id="23932163" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Binar-Space-Program" source="keywords" meta.keywordsubtype="org" meta.entityname="Binar Space Program" meta.hostid="261" meta.entityid="Binar Space Program">Binar Space Program</keyword> burned up in Earth's atmosphere. That was always going to happen. In fact, Binar means "fireball" in the Noongar language of the First Nations people of Perth. When a satellite is in low Earth orbit (2,000km or less), it experiences orbital decay as it drags closer and closer to the surface, eventually burning up. But these cube satellites (<keyword id="21533654" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="CubeSats" source="keywords">CubeSats</keyword>), known as Binar-2, 3 and 4, entered the atmosphere much sooner than originally planned. They only lasted for two months - a third of what was expected. This significantly reduced valuable time for science and testing new systems. The reason for their untimely demise? Our Sun has kicked into high gear, and the Binar satellites are far from the only casualty. Recent high <keyword id="20792842" type="General" weightage="100" keywordseo="Solar-activity" source="keywords">solar activity</keyword> has been causing an unexpected headache for satellite operators in the last few years, and it's only increasing. <h2>Why is the Sun so active? </h2> Solar activity includes phenomena such as sunspots, solar flares and solar wind - the stream of charged particles that flows toward Earth. This activity is a product of the Sun's ever-changing magnetic field, and approximately every 11 years, it completely flips. At the midpoint of this cycle, solar activity is at its highest. While this cycle is known, specific solar activity is challenging to predict - the dynamics are complex and solar forecasting is in its infancy. In the last few months, indicators of solar activity were more than one and a half times higher than predictions for this point in the current cycle, labelled <keyword id="22712826" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="solar-cycle-25" source="keywords">solar cycle 25</keyword>. <h2>The impact of <keyword id="20087207" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="space-weather" source="keywords">space weather</keyword> </h2> Space weather refers to the environmental effects that originate from outside our atmosphere (mostly the Sun). It affects us on Earth in a variety of noticeable and unnoticeable ways. The most obvious is the presence of auroras. In the past few months, auroras have been visible far more intensely and closer to the equator than in the last two decades. This is a direct result of the increased solar activity. Space weather, and solar activity in particular, also creates additional challenges for satellites and satellite operators. Higher solar activity means more solar flares and stronger solar wind - resulting in a higher flux of charged particles that can damage or disrupt electrical components on satellites. It also means an increase in ionising radiation, resulting in a higher dose for astronauts and pilots, and potential disruptions to long-distance radio communications. But for satellites in low Earth orbit, the most consistent effect of solar activity is that the extra energy gets absorbed into the outer atmosphere, causing it to balloon outward. As a result, all satellites less than 1,000km from Earth experience a significant increase in <keyword id="23473319" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="atmospheric-drag" source="keywords">atmospheric drag</keyword>. This is a force that disrupts their orbit and causes them to fall towards the planet's surface. Notable satellites in this region include the International Space Station and the Starlink constellation. These satellites have thrusters to counteract this effect, but these corrections can be expensive. Low Earth orbit also contains many university satellites, such as the Binar CubeSats. Cube satellites are rarely equipped with tools that can adjust their altitude, so they're entirely at the mercy of space weather. <h2>What happened to Binar? </h2> The Binar Space Program is a satellite research program operating out of Curtin University. It aims to advance our understanding of the Solar System and lower the barrier for operating in space. The program began operations with its first satellite, Binar-1, in September 2021. This was less than a year into solar cycle 25 when solar activity was relatively low. In these conditions, the ten-centimetre cube satellite started at an altitude of 420km and survived a full 364 days in orbit. The program's follow-up mission - Binar-2, 3, and 4 - were three equally sized CubeSats. However, they were expected to last approximately six months owing to the extra surface area from new deployable solar arrays and a forecast increase in solar activity. Instead, they only made it to two months before burning up. While cube satellite missions are relatively cheap, the premature ending of a mission will always be costly. This is even more true for commercial satellites, highlighting the need for more accurate space weather forecasting. The good news is the Sun will calm down again. Despite the current unexpectedly high solar activity, it will likely slow down by 2026, and is expected to return to a solar minimum in 2030. While this was not an explicit goal of the mission, the Binar Space Program has now poignantly demonstrated the dramatic effects of solar activity on space operations. While the untimely loss of Binar-2, 3 and 4 was unfortunate, work has already begun on future missions. They are expected to launch into far more forgiving space weather. (The Conversation).

Right now, the Sun is far more active than predicted - and small satellites are paying the price

Centre University of Jammu (CUJ) on Wednesday announced that its <keyword id="21857333" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Radio-Sonde" source="keywords">Radio-Sonde</keyword>, a crucial tool for <keyword id="21857334" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="atmospheric-data-collection" source="keywords">atmospheric data collection</keyword>, was launched successfully from its <keyword id="19915124" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="ISRO" source="keywords" meta.keywordsubtype="org" meta.entityname="ISRO" meta.hostid="261" meta.entityid="ISRO">ISRO</keyword> centre in <keyword id="19918866" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Samba" source="keywords">Samba</keyword> district of Jammu and Kashmir. The launch, a part of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the <keyword id="20058612" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="National-Remote-Sensing-Centre" source="keywords">National Remote Sensing Centre</keyword> (NRSC), ISRO and CUJ, aims to enhance the understanding of atmospheric conditions and climate change, contributing valuable data to both national and global meteorological research, a varsity spokesperson said. Using hydrogen-filled balloons, the scientists record atmospheric pressure, temperature, wind direction, and speed from 12 kilometres above earth's surface and the data is transmitted to the ground via radio signals. The spokesperson said this is only the third testing facility of its kind established by ISRO at CUJ. CUJ vice chancellor Prof Sanjeev Jain said the milestone event marks a significant achievement in the university's ongoing commitment to advancing space science research and technology. "Today's successful launch of the Radio-Sonde exemplifies our commitment to enhancing innovation and research in space sciences. This entire Radio-Sonde system is fully developed indigenously by ISRO under the 'Make in India' vision of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. "This initiative not only strengthens our research capabilities but also positions our institution at the forefront of atmospheric studies," Jain said. The centre launched the weather balloon in the afternoon, convenor of the centre Prof Vinay Kumar said. It will provide a unique set of data as the convection layer is fully developed by this time, he said. Other centres and institutions are collecting data only in the morning and evening hours, Kumar said, adding that the balloon will ascend upwards at a rate of five metres per second up to a maximum height of 40 km. The Satish Dhawan Centre for Space Sciences, a premier facility within the university, has been instrumental in providing the state-of-the-art infrastructure and resources for such pioneering projects, the spokesperson said. He said the launch of Radio-Sonde is expected to pave the way for future research endeavours and collaborations in the field of space and atmospheric sciences. "The data collected from Radio-Sonde will be analysed and utilised for various research projects, ultimately contributing to the broader field of space sciences," he said.

Atmospheric data collection tool Radio-Sonde launched from ISRO centre at Samba

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Baiju Bhatt, the cofounder of trading app Robinhood, has a new space startup.</li><li>Aetherflux aims to launch a constellation of satellites to transmit solar power to Earth using infrared lasers.</li></ul>When Baiju Bhatt co-founded the stock trading app <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/robinhood-collapse-what-happened-retail-investing-meme-stocks-future-finance-2022-2">Robinhood</a> in 2013 with his college best friend, Vlad Tenev, the aim was to "democratize finance for all."Robinhood's no-fee, gamified approach to investing made capital markets more accessible than ever before, leading to an IPO in 2021.After over a decade at the company, Bhatt stood down as Robinhood's chief creative officer in March to pursue what was described at the time as "other entrepreneurial interests."In October, Bhatt announced he was launching Aetherflux, a Silicon Valley-based space startup.Aetherflux aims to create a constellation of satellites in low Earth orbit (LEO) that will collect solar power and beam it down to receptors on Earth using infrared lasers.Just as <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/inside-starlink-spacex-satellite-internet-business-constellation-fleet-elon-musk-mars">Elon Musk's Starlink</a> constellation has transformed communications, Bhatt hopes Aetherflux will revolutionize energy, he told Business Insider in an interview.The receptors will be just 10 meters in diameter, Bhatt said, meaning they can be placed virtually anywhere and theoretically provide power to remote locations that would otherwise be too expensive or dangerous to reach."If we succeed, we unlock a renewable energy source for humanity that can be delivered virtually anywhere," he wrote in a <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/allow-me-re-introduce-myself-baiju-bhatt-nu1ic/?trackingId=xecx1MNjQxGa6fapJvT2fA%3D%3D">LinkedIn post</a> announcing Aetherflux.If it works, far more solar power can be captured in orbit than through the atmosphere at ground level, and there would be no nighttime or weather disruptions to the power source. It would also free up land used for solar farms on Earth.Aetherflux plans to start by powering military operations in remote locations or remote mining operations, Bhatt said.<div type="image" title="A profile of Baiju Bhatt smiling in a black t-shirt in front of a beige background." height="3553" width="5324" msid="114432481" hostid="261" sizebytes="611312"></div>Bhatt hopes that a single receptor will one day be able to capture enough power for a small neighborhood of homes. He added that they'd need around 100 satellites to provide continuous power to one location.The idea of space-based solar power has existed for decades, but theories have generally rested on large constructions being sent into orbit and using microwaves to transmit energy.In January 2023, the California Institute of Technology launched a solar space-power demonstrator satellite into orbit for a yearlong mission to test out a range of potential approaches.Caltech's president, Thomas F. Rosenbaum, <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.caltech.edu/about/news/space-solar-power-project-ends-first-in-space-mission-with-successes-and-lessons">said the project</a> had shown them that solar power beamed from space "is still a future prospect" but that it "should be an achievable future."Aetherflux wants to do things differently by using infrared lasers and a modular approach.The science has already been demonstrated; it's just going to be an engineering and economic feat to prove it can be done from space, Bhatt said.To begin with, Aetherflux plans to send a single satellite into orbit by the first quarter of 2026 to demonstrate that solar energy transmission is possible.<h2 id="f76e6857-d783-49d8-94bf-ab950b9759df">The right time to be in space</h2>Though the career jump from finance to the space industry may seem unusual, Bhatt said space has been his "lifelong calling."NASA was a part of Bhatt's childhood. His father moved to the US from India to pursue physics and got a job at NASA's Langley Research Center in the 1990s studying atmospheric sciences.With a bachelor's in physics and a master's in mathematics, both from Stanford, Bhatt thought he'd be a physicist too. So, Robinhood was a "bit of a detour," he told BI.He is still a board member but has stepped back from day-to-day operations.One lesson Bhatt said he learned from running the trading app was how powerful capitalism could be in accelerating innovation."If you can take a problem that's been stagnating and you can create a capitalist system around it where people can make money doing something, you'll see the rate of progress really speed up," he said.<div type="image" title="Baiju Bhatt (right) and Vlad Tenev, founders of the online brokerage Robinhood." height="4160" width="6240" msid="114432476" hostid="261" sizebytes="601100"></div>After meeting with people working on power for DARPA at the beginning of this year and seeing the <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/why-spacex-starship-launch-five-huge-deal-space-travel-2024-10">timeline Starship is on</a>, Bhatt decided that the best opportunities were now in space.Since 2009, the sum of private investments in space startups has soared from essentially nothing to $327.3 billion, according to the latest "<a target="_blank" href="https://spacecapital.docsend.com/view/9d69zpfz4ddms3ry">Space Investment Quarterly</a>" report published by venture capital and angel-investment firm Space Angels.The industry's value is expected to continue booming. <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/aerospace-and-defense/our-insights/space-the-1-point-8-trillion-dollar-opportunity-for-global-economic-growth">McKinsey</a> estimates that the global space economy will be worth $1.8 trillion by 2035, accounting for inflation, up from $630 billion in 2023."It's hard to find something more exciting and impactful than space," said Matthew Weinzierl, a professor of the economics of space at Harvard Business School and coauthor of the upcoming book "Space to Grow.""This really is a new frontier, one where technological innovation can create new markets and solve real problems, often in ways we haven't thought of before," he said.Weinzierl said that in the past two decades, the US government has created pathways for commercial players, enabling market forces to take hold."Prices to orbit have dropped, launch availability has soared, and a wave of entrepreneurs are finding new ways to create value," he said.<div type="image" title="SpaceX's Super Heavy booster as it returned to its launch site, with the sun rising in the background." height="1031" width="1920" msid="114432482" hostid="261" sizebytes="52022"></div>With so many more commercially available products, space has <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/starship-launch-success-elon-musk-vision-cheap-space-travel-closer-2024-3#:~:text=%22With%20Starship%2C%20SpaceX%20is%20poised,in%20an%20email%20on%20Thursday.">never been cheaper</a>.Aetherflux is an example of how companies are using off-the-shelf solutions to speed up development. Its satellites are purchased readymade from satellite bus provider <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/palmer-luckey-anduril-apex-defense-tech-space-satellite-surveillance-2024-10">Apex</a>, the high-powered lasers it plans to use are commercially available, and it'll be using <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/spacex-launch">SpaceX</a> as a launch partner for its 2026 mission."The part that we're building is the actual optical design, the control systems, and the power transmission link, as well as the ground station," said Bhatt.<h2 id="5dda5318-030a-431a-91ff-f205b537a068">The future of Aetherflux</h2>When he spoke with BI, Bhatt had just moved into a lab facility in the Bay Area. With a team of 10 employees, he will begin iterating ground tests, developing the system design, and working with regulators.He's self-funding the project "completely," he told BI. As one of Robinhood's cofounders, Bhatt's net worth spiked after its IPO in 2021. He is worth around $1.7 billion, <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/baiju-bhatt/">Forbes reports.</a>Although access to space has become more routine and affordable, Weinzierl said there is still a lot of uncertainty around the industry. Some of the ideas and businesses being developed today won't survive, but they'll be "the foundation that tomorrow's entrepreneurs will learn from and build on," he said.A self-proclaimed science nerd, Bhatt named his startup after a 19th-century theory about a pervasive medium called the aether, which physicists believed light traveled through."Einstein came along in 1905 and was basically like, nah, that stuff's all wrong. Light is the same in every reference frame," said Bhatt.So Aetherflux is named after a disproven scientific theory? Yes, Bhatt agreed with amusement. But he's "laser-focused" on the first mission and adamant that Aetherflux won't fall into the same bracket as its namesake."Space is hard," he admitted, "but we're committed to demonstrating this and making it happen."

Robinhood's cofounder has joined the rapidly growing commercial space race, and wants to beam solar power from satellites to earth

<ul class="summary-list"><li>SpaceX rockets are ripping brightly colored holes in the Earth's ionosphere.</li><li>These phenomena have been studied for over 40 years. </li></ul>SpaceX rocket launches are punching holes in part of Earth's atmosphere, called the ionosphere, and it's a beautiful sight to behold.The holes appear as bright red blobs in the sky. Some are spherical while others appear like a bright smudge across the sky.Recently, these spherical red blobs have been popping up over MacDonald Observatory in Texas, which has astronomers slightly worried for the future.The first blob over the observatory was detected in February, but in the following months, sightings have grown, Stephen Hummel, an astronomer at McDonald Observatory, told Spaceweather.com."We are seeing 2 to 5 of them each month," Hummel told Spaceweather.com.One such case of these atmospheric phenomena was observed in July after <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/spacex-launch-hole-ionosphere-earth-atmosphere-physicist-2023-7">SpaceX launched its Falcon 9 rocket</a> from a base in California. Previous instances have been recorded in 2017 and 2018.<h2>SpaceX isn't the first to punch a harmless hole in the atmosphere</h2>While a hole in the atmosphere sounds dramatic, this phenomenon is temporary and harmless to life on Earth, Jeffrey Baumgardner, a senior research scientist at the Center for Space Physics at Boston University, told Business Insider.He explained that scientists have been studying ionospheric holes for decades."During the beginning of the space age when they started launching rockets, through the Earth's atmosphere into space, it was observed that they made a disturbance in the atmosphere," Baumgardner said.In fact, the holes a rocket burns into the ionosphere are basically just a concentrated version of what naturally happens across the entire globe, every night, Baumgardner explained.In May 1973, researchers recorded a "large-scale hole" in the ionosphere caused by NASA's launch of the Saturn V Rocket from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, according to a study published in <a target="_blank" href="https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.187.4174.343">Science Magazine</a>. The impacts were seen 1,000 km or about 620 miles from the "burning engines" of the rocket.<h2>The ionosphere is constantly in flux</h2>Each day, the ionosphere is created when the sun's rays hit a part of our atmosphere about 185 miles above Earth, exciting mostly oxygen and nitrogen atoms, Baumgardner said.Then, each night, when the sun's rays are absent, those excited atoms recombine with molecules in the ionosphere. As a result, the ionosphere naturally decays away. This recombination creates a faint emission of light — an effect called airglow — Baumgardner said.Similarly, when a rocket enters the ionosphere, the chemicals in its exhaust, like carbon dioxide and water vapor, recombine with those excited oxygen and nitrogen atoms more rapidly, and that recombination can show up as red blobs in the sky, Baumgardner said.While just about any rocket may have this effect on the ionosphere, SpaceX rockets' impact is two-fold: First, when the rocket flies to space and then, again, when the rocket descends toward Earth.For example, the bright spherical balls that astronomers at McDonald Observatory are witnessing are from Falcon 9 boosters firing their engines to return to Earth, per Spaceweather.com.<h2>How ionospheric holes could disrupt astronomical observations</h2>These bright red blobs don't last long. Some of the recent ones that have appeared over Texas last for one to two minutes, Baumgardner said.However, if an astronomer just so happens to aim a telescope at the same part of the sky where one of these blobs appears, it could mean a very bad day for an astronomer."It could ruin somebody's time on a telescope," Baumgardner said. "They sometimes wait a year to get two or three nights on telescopes. So that would be a bad outcome for them if that actually happened."SpaceX announced earlier this year that the company plans to launch a record 144 rockets to ramp up its <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/spacex-plans-record-rocket-launches-starlink-cell-service-elon-musk-2023-10">Starlink satellite internet service</a>. This may cause an issue for ground-based astronomers if SpaceX utilizes its reusable <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-spacex-goal-60-falcon-rocket-launches-this-year-2022-3">Falcon 9 rocket</a>, which could tear holes in the atmosphere not only on the way to space but when it returns to Earth.SpaceX did not respond to Business Insider's request for comment.

SpaceX rockets are burning bright red holes in Earth's atmosphere and they're becoming too common for astronomers' comfort

<ul class="summary-list"><li>NASA approved the $19.5 million Landolt Space Mission to send an artificial star into Earth's orbit.</li><li>It will be the first astronomical tool of its kind that could revolutionize the way we study space.</li></ul>Astronomers typically deal with the very, very large — <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/blueprints-giant-telescopes-moon-nasa-astronomers-2024-2">big telescopes</a>, giant galaxies, and <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/rare-cosmic-explosion-visible-naked-eye-nasa-space-2024-3">massive exploding stars</a>.But one of the more <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-james-webb-space-telescope-best-images-from-first-year-2022-12">revolutionary astronomy tools</a> of the decade is a mini satellite about the size of a bread box. The satellite will act as an artificial star for <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/astronomers-discover-fastest-runaway-stars-in-milky-way-galaxy-2023-6">astronomers to observe from the ground,</a> allowing them to more accurately measure a space object's brightness and better understand some of the biggest mysteries in our universe, like dark energy.NASA recently approved the $19.5 million Landolt Space Mission to launch the mini satellite into Earth's orbit."This is some really awesome science that NASA is supporting," Tyler Richey-Yowell, a postdoctoral researcher at Lowell Observatory who studies stellar astronomy and exoplanets, told Business Insider. "It's something that's going to help out all astronomers."<h2 id="850dab02-cefa-4f6a-b198-ab2890924c14">A revolutionary new tool for astronomers</h2><div type="image" title="illustration of Landalt satellite firing lasers at an observatory on Earth" height="1030" width="2048" msid="111091999" hostid="261"></div>The mini satellite, called <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/planet-mars-image-nasa-marco-cubesat-2018-10">CubeSat</a>, is designed to orbit Earth from 22,236 miles away. At that distance, its speed will match Earth's spin so the satellite will appear fixed in the night sky and be an easy target for telescopes to track.You won't be able to see it with the naked eye. But to telescopes, it'll look like a star. The mission is scheduled to launch in 2029. It will be the first tool of its kind."This is really new for us to have some sort of artificial star, quote, unquote, up there that we can go and rely on and use," Richey-Yowell told BI.What makes this "<a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/china-fusion-artificial-star-hotter-sun-2016-2">artificial star</a>" better than a real one is that astronomers will know exactly how much light it's emitting.The CubeSat, named Landolt for the late astronomer Arlo Landolt, will <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-laser-beam-message-10-million-miles-away-streaming-mars-2023-11">fire lasers</a> with a specific number of light particles, or photons, which astronomers can use to calibrate their telescopes for measuring light.This can help eliminate a lot of the guesswork that astronomers do now when using real stars to calibrate their instruments.The problem is that there's no way of knowing exactly how much light real stars emit, because we can't send a probe to one to accurately measure its brightness, Richey-Yowell said. Moreover, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/stratosphere-shrinking-greenhouse-gas-emissions-climate-change-2021-5">Earth's atmosphere</a> absorbs a lot of light from space, which can also affect astronomers' calibrations."That's why this Landolt mission is so important," Richey-Yowell said, adding that "if we send up a mission like this one where we know exactly how many photons, how much light per second, is coming from this CubeSat," then it could be used to compare and more precisely measure the light from other objects, like real stars.<a target="_blank" href="https://www.livescience.com/space/astronomy/nasa-will-put-a-new-star-in-the-sky-by-the-end-of-the-decade-in-1st-of-its-kind-mission">Live Science reported</a> that the mission is expected to help astronomers measure the light emitted from stars with 10 times the accuracy of current estimates.It's like if you were given a 1,000-piece puzzle with only half the pieces and then someone gifted you a few hundred more pieces. Landolt can help astronomers catch minute details they've otherwise been missing in the data.<h2 id="497f43a9-311c-42dd-b3e3-da5a0877850f">How Landolt could revolutionize astronomy</h2><div type="image" title="Illustration of an exoplanet floating in space surrounded by clouds of white and blue cosmic gas and dust" height="1322" width="2266" msid="111091996" hostid="261"></div>"All of our astronomy is <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/flare-billion-times-sun-baffles-scientists-2023-11">based on light</a>, and so we really need to know how much light we are actually receiving," Richey-Yowell said.You can learn a lot from a ray of light: a star's temperature, its mass, the types of exoplanets orbiting it and whether they could harbor life.For example, knowing how hot a host star is can tell you how far an exoplanet must be in order to sustain liquid water on its surface, Richey-Yowell said. Water is a main ingredient of life as we know it and a key feature astrobiologists search for when scoping out potential planets that could harbor life.Finding more <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/astronomers-find-earth-like-planet-sun-like-star-2020-6">Earth-like planets</a> is just the beginning. Astronomers can also use Landolt to measure light from distant exploding stars, called supernovae, that can help calculate the expansion rate of the universe.Right now, cosmologists studying the universe's expansion face a <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/cosmic-glitch-makes-scientists-rethink-einstein-greatest-theory-2024-5">huge challenge</a>: They can't settle on a single value for the expansion rate. Some methods lead to one value, while others lead to a slightly different one. This conundrum could be key to figuring out some of the biggest mysteries of the universe, like understanding the invisible force ripping our universe apart that we call <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/largest-cosmic-map-new-understanding-dark-energy-universe-expansion-einstein-2024-4">dark energy</a>."So really anything from small, tiny planets to the whole scale of the universe relies on our understanding of stars and how bright they are and what kind of light they're emitting," Richey-Yowell said. "I really do think it will be revolutionary for astronomy."

NASA is putting an 'artificial star' in orbit around Earth

<ul class="summary-list"><li>SpaceX's Polaris Dawn crew has returned to Earth.</li><li><a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-plan-colonize-mars-plan-unrealistic-scientists-explain-2023-10">Elon Musk's dreams of building a city on Mars</a> got a major boost from the Polaris Dawn mission.</li></ul><a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/polaris-dawn-crew-spacex-commercial-astronauts-first-private-spacewalk-2024-9">SpaceX's Polaris Dawn crew</a> successfully returned to Earth on Sunday, bringing Elon Musk one step closer to his dream of settling Mars.The five-day mission saw the four commercial astronauts complete a list of historic firsts: They traveled further than anyone has gone in <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/moon-missions-why-astronauts-have-not-returned-2018-7">more than 50 years, since the last Apollo missions</a>. The two female crew members, in particular, set the record for the farthest any woman has traveled in space.They donned new SpaceX spacesuits that had never been tested in orbit, opened their ship to the vacuum of space, and conducted the <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/polaris-dawn-spacewalk-watch-live-spacex-crew-dragon-commercial-astronauts-2024-9">first-ever commercial spacewalk</a>.On top of that, they exposed themselves to high levels of space radiation, much higher than what astronauts aboard the <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/photo-international-space-station-hidden-passing-sun-2023-4">International Space Station</a> undergo in the same time period. And they endured a fiery plummet back to Earth.It was all in the name of <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-invest-mars-pulsed-plasma-rocket-shorten-space-time-travel-2024-7">paving the way to Mars</a>.<div type="image" title="Polaris Dawn landing." height="1604" width="2852" msid="113365917" hostid="261" sizebytes="221754"></div>If you ask <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/jared-isaacman-net-worth-career-spacex-polaris-dawn-2024-8">Jared Isaacman</a>, the billionaire who funded and commanded the mission, it was also in the name of raising funds for childhood-cancer research at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.As he previously told Business Insider, before his <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/spacex-inspiration4-first-space-tourists-return-to-earth-2021-9">first flight with SpaceX</a> in 2021, he wanted to "take care of some of the problems that we have here on Earth, so we earn the right to go and explore among the stars."<div type="image" title="jared isaacman spacex crew dragon" height="2560" width="3840" msid="113365923" hostid="261" sizebytes="991006"></div>But the technical aspects of the mission — the spacewalk, the spacesuits, the laser Starlink communication, flying through a radiation belt — were critical tests of technologies SpaceX will need in order to <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/why-havent-we-been-to-mars-yet-2024-5">fly humans to the red planet</a>.Isaacman's future plans fit the Mars bill, too. He's planning two more Polaris missions and says the third one will ditch Crew Dragon for <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/spacex-starship-flight-four-ocean-splashdown-elon-musk-plans-2024-6">Starship</a>. That's the Statue-of-Liberty-sized mega-rocket SpaceX is developing in South Texas for the express purpose of colonizing Mars.<h2 id="1637b34d-1546-42ca-a615-916aa98a2919">Mars trailblazers return home</h2>As the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/spacex-discovers-urine-leak-on-crew-dragon-spaceships-2021-10">Crew Dragon</a> hurtled back toward Earth, plowing through the atmosphere, superheated plasma roared at the edges of its protective heat shield.Isaacman had done this before, but it was the first spaceflight for the three other crew members: a former US Air Force pilot named Scott Poteet and two <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/working-for-elon-musk-spacex-workplace-culture-twitter-jim-cantrell-2022-11">SpaceX engineers</a>, Anna Menon and Sarah Gillis.They felt a jerk as the spaceship deployed parachutes to drift down into the Gulf of Mexico near Florida's Dry Tortugas. It bobbed in the waves, looking like a toasted marshmallow, until a ship hauled it on board and SpaceX workers helped the crew off.<div type="image" title="Screenshot of the crew and spacecraft." height="1800" width="2880" msid="113365930" hostid="261" sizebytes="100324"></div>Five days after launch, they had officially completed the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/spacex-launch-risky-polaris-dawn-mission-first-commercial-spacewalk-radiation-2024-8">most daring crewed commercial spaceflight yet</a>.<h2 id="de02c9b0-79f8-43b9-aa69-40373e49bcd1">Spacewalks and spacesuits for Mars</h2>The main event of the mission was its spacewalk.<div type="image" title="astronaut in white suit and helmet standing at the open hatch of a spaceship in space holding onto a railing looking out over earth" height="540" width="960" msid="113365926" hostid="261" sizebytes="13622"></div>The crew spent 48 hours slowly depressurizing their spacecraft so that they could open the hatch to the vacuum of space, sending Isaacman and Gillis out to gaze over Earth and conduct a few mobility exercises.They were testing SpaceX's new extravehicular <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/spacesuit-design-history-timeline-changes-nasa-2018-3">spacesuits</a>, designed for the purpose of leaving a spacecraft to conduct maintenance or repairs — an ability that future Mars-bound people will need, since the journey takes months."It might be 10 iterations from now and a bunch of evolutions of the suit," but someday someone may even wear a version of these spacesuits "<a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-made-oxygen-out-of-thin-air-on-mars-2023-9">walking on Mars</a>," Isaacman said in a prelaunch briefing in August.<div type="image" title="four people in spacesuits with their visors up smiling and pointing at a black spacex logo on a spaceship behind them" height="1500" width="2270" msid="113365919" hostid="261" sizebytes="208520"></div>"There's going to be an armada of Starships arriving on Mars at some point in the future," he added. "Those people are going to have to be able to get out of it and walk around and do important things."<h2 id="175335c0-7c23-487c-a845-a51ae47e64b7">Radiation on the way to Mars</h2>Polaris Dawn also tackled another big challenge for crewed Mars missions: extreme radiation exposure. People traveling to Mars would be exposed to immense amounts of space radiation for months.So the Crew Dragon spacecraft flew through two donuts of intense radiation surrounding Earth, called the Van Allen belts. The crew conducted tests and measurements to see how it affected their bodies.<div type="image" title="spaceship mouth with railings in the foreground with the huge round curvature of Earth dominating the background from a distance beneath the blackness of space" height="713" width="1273" msid="113365933" hostid="261" sizebytes="31010"></div>"If we get to Mars someday, we'd love to be able to come back and be healthy enough to tell people about it," Isaacman said in August.Other medical experiments on the mission checked their eyes, veins, and airways, to help SpaceX better understand the impacts of long-distance spaceflight.<h2 id="2a23b528-e8d9-4a1e-aa8a-c67599b035ad">Communications for Mars</h2>Polaris Dawn also tested <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-laser-beam-message-10-million-miles-away-streaming-mars-2023-11">laser-based communications</a> using Starlink, the network of internet satellites that SpaceX has built throughout Earth's orbit.The commercial astronauts posted on X mid-mission, saying they'd uploaded their photos there using Starlink internet.Those space lasers lay the groundwork for future communications with deep-space missions — that is, as the Polaris website says, "for missions to the moon, Mars and beyond."Isaacman seems to be vested in making that happen."I'd certainly like my kids to see humans walking on the moon and Mars and venturing out and exploring our solar system," he said ahead of the launch.

SpaceX's Polaris Dawn crew returns to Earth victorious, making huge gains in Elon Musk's plans to send humans to Mars

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Scientists have discovered evidence of various pollutant metals in Earth's stratosphere.</li><li>They traced the metals back to rockets and satellites launched into space.</li></ul>Earth's <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/climate-change-alter-human-life-un-ipcc-report-2022-2">atmosphere is changing</a> — potentially for the worse.A team of researchers has found pollutant metals in <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/stratosphere-shrinking-greenhouse-gas-emissions-climate-change-2021-5">Earth's stratosphere</a> — the second layer of our atmosphere — and traced them back to rockets and satellites."There are so many rockets <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/spacex-launches-falcon-9-rocket-booster-for-record-breaking-9th-time-2021-3">going up and coming back</a> and so many satellites <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/falling-space-junk-spacex-nasa-china-foreshadow-increasing-injury-risk-2022-8">falling back through the atmosphere</a> that it's starting to show up in the stratosphere as these aerosol particles," Dan Cziczo, one of the scientists behind a new study detailing the team's findings, said in a <a href="https://www.purdue.edu/newsroom/releases/2023/Q4/signatures-of-the-space-age-spacecraft-metals-left-in-the-wake-of-humanitys-path-to-the-stars.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">statement from Purdue University</a>.<h2>Why it could be a serious problem</h2>Changes to the stratosphere are concerning since it's home to our planet's <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/antarctic-ozone-hole-is-healing-2015-5">ozone layer</a>, which protects all life from deadly solar radiation. And humans have already <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/ozone-layer-climate-success-story-threatened-by-wildfires-2022-3">damaged the ozone once before</a>.So far, it's unclear how these metals are changing the stratosphere's chemistry. The researchers just know that they are. The team found evidence of aluminum, lithium, copper, and lead, which likely came from rockets and satellites re-entering Earth's atmosphere, the researchers report in their study published Monday in the <a href="https://www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.2313374120" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences</a>. When anything enters Earth's atmosphere, it's typically in a <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/photos-show-european-satellite-tumbling-to-fiery-doom-over-earth-2023-9">fiery blaze</a>. In the case of rockets and satellites, all that heat can strip metals off the spacecraft, which end up lingering in the stratosphere."What this research shows us is that the impact of human occupation and human spaceflight on the planet may be significant — perhaps more significant than we have yet imagined," Cziczo said in the statement.An estimated <a href="https://www.gao.gov/assets/gao-22-105166.pdf">58,000</a> more satellites may reach orbit in the next seven years — meaning that as much as 50% of the stratosphere could contain metals from reentry over the next few decades.

Humans have launched so much to space that it's actually polluting Earth's atmosphere, a new study found

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Boeing's spaceship problems have left NASA uncertain about how to return two astronauts to Earth.</li><li>The Boeing Starliner spaceship faced thruster problems and helium leaks, causing safety concerns.</li></ul><a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-astronauts-speak-out-boeing-starliner-spaceship-issues-space-station-2024-7">Boeing's spaceship problems</a> have put NASA in an extremely difficult position.Two astronauts, Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore, have been <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/boeing-nasa-starliner-astronauts-stuck-in-space-2024-6">stuck on the International Space Station</a> for more than two months because of issues with the Boeing vehicle they flew there.The Starliner spaceship had thruster issues and helium leakage as it approached the ISS. Since then, weeks of testing and troubleshooting haven't fully assuaged NASA's concerns, though assessment is still ongoing.<div type="image" title="boeing starliner spaceship gumdrop shaped white capsule with blue and black detailings docked to a wirey port high above blue earth with clouds" height="1500" width="2250" msid="112536857" hostid="261" sizebytes="215652"></div>Now, NASA officials aren't sure what to do. They have two options — either send Williams and Wilmore home on Starliner, or wait and send them back on a <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/spacex-discovers-urine-leak-on-crew-dragon-spaceships-2021-10">SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft</a>. Both options are risky.The NASA officials who must make this call — ideally by the end of the month — are thinking back to the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster. Because of damage to one of the vehicle's wings, that shuttle disintegrated as it reentered the atmosphere in 2003, killing all seven astronauts on board.That's why NASA's been assessing its options for Williams and Wilmore for weeks, running tests with a Boeing thruster on the ground, and is now convening multiple boards and decision-making bodies."We've got time, and it's a fairly major discussion," Ken Bowersox, the associate administrator of NASA's Space Operations Mission Directorate, said in a press briefing on Wednesday.After all, this could be the agency's biggest safety decision in decades with two astronaut lives on the line.<h2 id="b03978fc-da01-446a-9ff9-025634d4a4f1">The astronauts are at risk either way</h2>NASA could send Williams and Wilmore back to Earth aboard Starliner, as they originally planned before the technical issues. Boeing has expressed full confidence in the vehicle, but some NASA officials still worry they don't have enough certainty about how the thrusters would behave when it comes time for the spaceship to push itself into a fall back to Earth. <div type="image" title="astronauts suni williams butch wilmore inside gadget-lined walls of international space station with a large American flag on the wall behind them" height="1578" width="2880" msid="112536859" hostid="261" sizebytes="135092"></div>Alternatively, NASA could deploy the <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-admits-spacex-working-on-backup-plan-stuck-boeing-astronauts-2024-8">backup plan it's hatched with SpaceX</a>. Williams and Wilmore could hitch a ride home with SpaceX's next astronaut crew, aboard the company's Crew Dragon spaceship. They wouldn't come home until February, but at least they would be on a ship with a yearslong record of safe flights.There are risks to that plan, too. It would leave Williams and Wilmore without a reliable emergency evacuation plan for a few days.That's because Starliner would have to undock and plunge back to Earth empty, making way for the new Crew Dragon ship. In the days between Starliner's departure and the new Dragon's arrival, the astronauts on the ISS would be relying on the single spaceship remaining on the station — another Crew Dragon — to evacuate them in case of an emergency.Williams and Wilmore don't have spacesuits compatible with that ship. They won't have SpaceX spacesuits until the new Dragon arrives with them."There are some of our contingency situations that require suits, so we don't have full protection in those situations," Bowersox told BI during the press briefing. "Those are the types of things that raise the risk level and complicate our decision process."<h2 id="7ee056bc-2980-4a24-8469-c9195f394106">Why NASA hasn't made a decision yet</h2>So NASA is taking the time to run its data and options through three "technical authorities:" a chief engineer, a chief health and medical officer, and a chief of safety and mission assurance.The agency has also brought in "new propulsion system experts" to give feedback, Bowersox said.Once those various reviews are complete, the agency will complete a flight readiness review with representatives from across the agency and make its decision."I've been very hyper-focused lately on this concept of combating organizational silence. If you look at both, unfortunately, Challenger and Columbia, you can see cases where people had the right data or a valid position to put forward, but the environment just didn't allow it," Russ DeLoach, the chief of NASA's Office of Safety and Mission Assurance — the third technical authority — said in the briefing."I recognize that that may mean, at times, we don't move very fast," he added.Willams' and Wilmore's mission, which is Starliner's first crewed test flight, was supposed to last about eight days, though that was the minimum mission length. There was always a possibility it would take longer than that.

Why NASA is taking so long to get Boeing's 2 in-limbo astronauts back to Earth

<ul class="summary-list"><li>China's secret unmanned spacecraft returned to Earth after an eight-month mission.</li><li>The details surrounding the spacecraft, even its name, are unclear.</li></ul>China's secret unmanned <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/spacex-polaris-dawn-mission-launch-2024-8">spacecraft</a> returned to Earth, bringing no additional clarity on what it was up to.The "reusable experimental spacecraft" went into space on December 14 and returned eight months later, according to a brief issued by state news agency Xinhua on September 6, cited by <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://edition.cnn.com/2024/09/12/science/china-space-plane-intl-hnk/index.html">CNN</a> on Thursday.Xinhua said the mission was a "complete success" and that the spacecraft returned to an unnamed landing site, per CNN.The type of spacecraft China used is often called a space plane because it can operate like an airplane and fly in the Earth's atmosphere.Space planes aren't a new concept. As <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/x-37b-vs-china-shenlong-space-plane-2024-8">Business Insider</a> previously reported, this type of spacecraft can fly independently and orbit into space using a detachable rocket booster. They also have cargo bays for satellites and other objects.The US <a target="_blank" rel="" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/challenger-video-nasa-space-shuttle-program-2016-1">Space Shuttle</a> and the Soviet <a target="_blank" rel="" href="https://airandspace.si.edu/stories/editorial/soviet-buran-shuttle-one-flight-long-history">Buran</a> are perhaps the most well-known space planes. More recently, the US Space Force teamed up with Elon Musk's company to launch an <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-spacex-launch-space-force-secretive-plane-x-37b-2023-12">X-37B space plane</a>.<h2 id="9437486e-7e15-4e13-b350-b041aea95fd7">China's new space plane is a mystery</h2>The details surrounding the spacecraft – from its name to its purpose – are murky.CNN said some commentators believe the spacecraft is the Shenlong, a space plane that took around 20 years to construct.A <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://app.xinhuanet.com/news/article.html?articleId=b9141bb29a221c45ac2ad0d44dc87fc6">briefing</a> from Xinhua gave a vague description of its purpose, saying it would "carry out reusable technology verification and space science experiments as planned, providing technical support for the peaceful use of space."Commentators have compared the spacecraft to the US' X-37B, which launched two weeks later than China's space plane and is still in orbit at the time of writing."It's probably no coincidence that they're trying to match us in timing and sequence of this," General Chance Saltzman, Space Force's Chief of Space Operations, told reporters in December, per the <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-12868687/space-race-china-military-plane-spy-craft-space-force.html">Daily Mail</a>."It's no surprise that the Chinese are extremely interested in our spaceplane," he added. "And we're extremely interested in theirs."Space observers and experts have tracked multiple objects as being released from China's spacecraft since its launch, <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3277507/chinas-shenlong-space-plane-ends-third-flight-shows-maturing-performance-state-media">South Morning China Post</a> reported.Some experts detected the release of a possible "sub-satellite" and said the spacecraft made efforts to operate around it in May, CNN and <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/06/17/china-secret-space-plane-inspector-satellite-war-orbit/">The Telegraph</a> reported.Juliana Suess, a research fellow for space security at London-based defense think tank the Royal United Services Institute, told CNN that the capability to move close to another object in space could be used for inspections or "potentially the clearing of orbits of space debris.""But they could be used for nefarious purposes, including interception of signals or the physical damaging of other spacecraft," she added.Nonetheless, analysts told the outlet there's no evidence to support the theory that China's space plane is being used as a weapon.

You Searched For "Earth atmosphere" and got 9 results

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A secretive, experimental Chinese spacecraft returned to Earth after 8 months. It's still a mystery what it was up to.

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