STARGAZERS - THE ASTRONOMY CLUB OF IIM AHMEDABAD
OCT 2020 | ISSUE 01
OBSERVE MARS AND ITS MOONS
Phobos and Deimos visible through telescopes
THE MODERN
SPACE RACE
THE LUNAR GOLD RUSH PAGE 07
ARUN VIJAY CYGNUS WALL
A PHOTOGRAPH BY ARUN VIJAY & ANAS ALBOUNNI Mount: CEM 60 OTA: TS Optics 80mm F6 reduced to F4.7 Camera: ASI1600mm mono pro Filters: ZWO 7nm Ha and OIII filters Autoguider: Guided with Lacerta MGEN 2 Data captured in 2020 from multiple locations within UAE
160x180s Ha 120x240s OIII Synthetic S (70%Ha+30%OIII) 40 darks each 40 flats each 100 bias
Dear readers
ON BEHALF OF STARGAZERS - Nihal S Amin Editor - Nikhil S Coordinator
We at Stargazers humbly present to you the first edition of our monthly space & astronomy magazine Voyager. Space has always been an intriguing topic. In the Space sector, new discoveries happen almost everyday, established agencies find solutions to problems on earth by venturing into space, and young startups try to enter this extremely risky industry with low entry barriers. International magazines on Space lean more towards the science aspect of Space. With Voyager, we want to publish a balanced mix of articles on science, business, and art so that you not only get to know the Space events happening around you, but also make you put on your MBA lenses to see Space in a new light. And what better place to begin this journey than in the abode of Dr. Vikram Sarabhai. NOMADIC
We hope you enjoy reading this issue.
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CONTENTS ARTICLES
05 ISRO SEED
By Shreyasee Sarkar, PGP1
09 REUSABLE SPACECRAFTS By Abhinav Panwar, PGP1
13 THE COMPETIMATE STRATEGY By Mohammad Bilal, PGP2
15 THE MISSING BARYONIC PROBLEM By Ayush Prajapati, PGP1
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18 SPACE RADIATION By Akshay Khatri, PGP1
THE MODERN SPACE RACE
23 HUBBLE & BEYOND By Ashutosh Yadav, PGP2
By Nihal S Amin, PGP2 REGULARS
01 FRONT COVER FEATURE By Arun Vijay, UAE
14 FEATURED ASTROPHOTO By Shivam Bansal, Agra
20 CROSSWORD
By N Hariprasad, PGP2
07
11
THE LUNAR GOLD RUSH
THE DUNES AURORA
By Anirudh Banerjee, PGP1
By Kavita Yadav, FABM2
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25 SPACE EVENTS LINEUP FTM By Shishir Asthana, PGP1, and Vijay Kumar Rikhari, FABM1
27 CROSSWORD SOLUTION By N Hariprasad, PGP2
28 BACK COVER FEATURE By Akash Anandh, Singapore
Space Entreprenurship & Enterprise Development ISRO supporting MSMEs in space sector via SEED program The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has declared that it is collaborating with the Department of Space (DoS) on a new program called SEED (Space Enterprise Encouragement and Development). SEED is a formal system that supports start-ups and micro, small and medium industries (MSMEs) in research, innovation, prod. development.
The Government has recently opened up India's space sector to private players. Despite ISRO's reluctance in the past, the space agency is now doubling down on startups and MSMEs to develop space technology for the future. The decision comes after ISRO announced three challenges under the Atal Innovation Mission's (AIM) ARISE program on 9th September 2020: 1. Propulsion: Green propellants, electric propulsion, advanced air-breathing. 2. Geospatial information: Geospatial information using machine learning or artificial intelligence is highly beneficial in crop monitoring, weather forecasting and program evaluations. 3. Robotics or Augmented Reality or Virtual Reality: Application of robotics, augmented reality or virtual reality techniques to support space exploration OCTOBER 2020 ¡ VOYAGER ¡ 05
The Atal Innovation Mission (AIM) is a flagship initiative set up by the NITI Aayog to promote entrepreneurship and innovation across the length and breadth of the country, based on a detailed study and deliberations on innovation and entrepreneurial needs of India in the years ahead. The Aatmanirbhar Bharat ARISE - Atal New India Challenges (ANIC) programme will support deserving applied research-based innovations by providing funding assistance of up to INR 50 lakhs for 9 to 12 months for start-ups to come up with a minimum usable prototype. Ever since the announcement, about 200 'good proposals' for the challenges have been submitted; and a team of experts has started reviewing them. "Similar announcements of opportunities will be made for our future programs," said Dr. K Sivan,
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calling the private sector a 'cotraveller' in space endeavours, indicating that more challenges are on the horizon. Followed by the ANIC-ARISE launch on 9th, DoS and AIM, Niti Aayog jointly organized a workshop on 10th September 2020 exclusively for start-ups and MSMEs in the space domain. The theme was based on "Empowering India's Startups to transform Space Sector with ISRO and AIM"; where the SEED (Space Enterprise Encouragement & Development) program was introduced. "SEED is envisaged as a competitive early stage encouragement program for innovative small businesses or start-ups interested in products or services in-focus areas of space technology" described Dr. K Sivan. He opined that the workshop
should bring more synergy for the SEED programme and also help to address many real-time issues that start-ups and MSMEs might face while working in the space sector. Important personalities from various industries like CISCO and SAP, T-Hub, GE, NumaAccelerators, and Curefit spoke about their experiences and guided the new start-ups. About 50 start-ups were a part of the webinar and 590 were present off-line. Along with furthering their incubation programs, the DoS (Department of Space) also plans to look at products and services that will have the inherent potential to benefit the space technology. Dr. K Sivan also announced that DoS had initiated the process for technical mentorship.
On September 10th, NASA officially established the first-ever market for moon dirt. As a part of its Artemis project, the space agency has put out a call to companies with the aim of buying moon dirt samples. If the companies can provide sufficient proof, NASA will offer up to $15,000-$25,000 for 50-500 gm samples. Given the current space situation, it is fascinating to look at the rationale and potential ramifications behind such an announcement. OCTOBER 2020 ¡ VOYAGER ¡ 07
MINUTE MAGAZINE | PAGE 2
For something as expensive as going into space, the financial incentive of $25,000 is insultingly low. However, it is interesting to note, the main point of this exchange is not the financial aspect. The aim is to take the first step in establishing a lunar marketplace. This will set both an economic and legal precedent, normalising trade of goods not belonging to Earth. From a strategic point of view, NASA has long-term plans to put their “policies into practice to fuel a new era of exploration and discovery that will benefit all of humanity”. They plan to allow their astronauts on the moon to “live off the land” creating a long-term presence on the moon. This will help propel future missions to the moon and beyond. Geological surveys show that the moon might be a treasure trove of rare resources. The moon’s surface has significant amounts of Rare Earth Metals (REMs) and Helium-3. As the name would suggest, REMs are a rare and limited commodity on Earth. According to usage estimates, the Chinese REM reserve (which accounts for 90% of the world’s supply) will run out within 20 years. With REMs being useful in medical equipment, supercomputers
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and smartphones, mining the moon as soon as possible might delay the need to find an alternative. One of the most significant issues with respect to such an undertaking is the legality of moon mining. Despite the moon being littered with American and Russian flags, as per the United Nations Outer Space Treaty of 1967, no country may lay sovereign claim to celestial bodies. As of now, mining of the moon is considered under similar jurisdiction to that of extraction of materials from oceans. However, if mining the moon does become economically feasible, it will add fuel to the decades-long debate regarding space property rights. After this announcement, it is very likely that space companies might annex excavating infrastructure to their landers. If not aiming for economic benefit, they would have the distinction of being the first in history to claim materials not indigenous to Earth. With SpaceX and other private companies trying to reduce the problem of launch costs using reusable rockets, in a few decades, we might live in a world where the moon is industrially mined.
REUSABLE SPACECRAFTS It's not new information that most of the spacecrafts launched by space research organizations worldwide are generally expendable, i.e., they are crafted for onetime use. This often leads to huge costs of the launch every time a new space mission is initiated. Wouldn't it be better if spacecrafts could be used over and over? It would significantly reduce the costs associated with spacecraft launches. The one-stop solution to address this is Reusable Spacecrafts. WHAT ARE REUSABLE SPACECRAFTS? While traditional spacecrafts are mostly fabricated for one-time usage, on the contrary, reusable spacecrafts are the ones that are designed for "multiple launches, orbit, re-orbit, and atmosphere re-entry in mind." Of course, that would require a more significant one-time investment as reusable spacecrafts will be highly prone to wear and tear owing to the atmospheric drag and subsequent aerodynamic heating caused by repeated passages through the earth's atmosphere. Consequently, they are engineered to withstand these repetitive extremes that they would subsequently be subjected to.
ARE THEY EVEN WORTH IT? Although the initial costs associated with the fabrication of such spacecrafts are massive compared to an equivalent traditional spacecraft, the return on investment can be quite remarkable. For instance, there is no need to start the spacecraft manufacturing from scratch with the ideation of new space missions. This will not only save time but will also enable the space research organizations worldwide to increase the frequency of their annual space projects. Meanwhile, one can agree that the maintenance costs for a reusable spacecraft would be significantly lower than the costs associated with constructing a full-fledged expendable spacecraft. Therefore, reusable spacecrafts present a plethora of opportunities. THE PRESENT SCENARIO The first reusable spacecraft was the Space Shuttle, which was launched by NASA in 1981. Its design and fabrication were intended to provide a viable substitute to the traditional expendable spacecrafts that were for one-time usage. However, to date, only a few reusable spacecrafts have been manufactured so far, and most of them are American. China has been working on producing one of these for the last decade and recently made headlines with its mysterious reusable spacecraft launch.
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IN THE NEWS – CHINA'S MYSTERIOUS SPACECRAFT LAUNCH China landed its reusable spacecraft called CSSHQ (Chongfu Shiyong Shiyan Hangtian Qi), which was launched on September 4, using the Long March-2F rocket from Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center. Xinhua, the Chinese state news website, claimed the project to be a breakthrough in China's space program and that it "offered cost-effective and convenient roundtrip transport." If this is true, it is quite a remarkable feat and would be China's first reusable spacecraft. However, this entire launch was quite mysterious. The spacecraft was in orbit for two days, and no one knows what it was doing up there for that duration. In addition to this, China didn't disclose the exact launch and land time of the spacecraft. Even its landing site was not revealed. Some are assuming it to be a secretive Chinese military program; however, there is no surety when it comes to this launch's primary purpose. FINAL THOUGHTS The latest launch of its spacecraft by China, albeit shrouded in mystery, has brought reusable spacecrafts into focus. Most space organizations globally often make use of traditional spacecrafts that are for one-time use. The main issue with this approach is the necessity of starting the entire construction process from scratch for every new project. To alleviate this problem, reusable spacecrafts offer a viable option by providing a higher return on investment. In addition to this, they can also result in significant time and resource savings.
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NEW AURORA FROM FINLAND
THE DUNES OCTOBER 2020 · VOYAGER · 11
The icy, dancing greenish-blue skies of Norway top the bucket list of many travellers. Dazzling skywatchers since centuries and capturing the interest of even non-travellers, the scintillating Aurora Borealis, also known as Northern Lights visible in Scandinavian countries is a pure masterpiece of nature. Beautiful snapshots of this radiant phenomenon in various shades and forms have been captured all over the world, but no two light displays are the same, the patterns and colours always differ! A unique light show every time, available all the time, but visible only in the best sky conditions, one wonders, what makes the sky painted in a myriad of colours? These natural colourful displays are created when a stream of charged particles emanating from the Sun, called Solar Winds collide with Earth’s magnetic field. They collide with gas atoms in the atmosphere and ionosphere (oxygen, nitrogen, hydrogen) and the magnetic field captures the charged particles from Solar winds, drawing them to the poles at very high speeds. These interactions create such mesmerizing unpredictable rippling colorful curtain-like movements, which are at times scarcely discernible, then suddenly becoming a vivid light show - Aurora borealis, a unique and aesthetic natural spectacle! With a Greek origin, Aurora Borealis stands for sunrise and winds, indicating Aurora to be a sister of Sun (Helios) and Moon (Seline), who alerted her siblings to a new dawn by racing in her multi-colored chariot. ‘Aurora’ in Roman mythology refers to the figure of Aurora to be the goddess of the dawn! Myths and legends glorify the Auroras since centuries, calling it ancestral spirits playing a game with a walrus skull utilized as a ball or a mystical firefox sprinting in the North, emanating sparks in the sky as its tail touches the mountains.
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Today, even the International Space Station is stationed at the same altitude as the Northern Lights, which means that astronauts can experience the lights from the side. Recently, a new type of aurora, nicknamed as ‘the Dunes’ have surfaced and have been captured by amateur citizen photographers in Finland. Appearing like thin ribbons of green light, they resemble a stripped veil of clouds or dunes on a sandy beach, hanging down from the sky. Dunes appear to be arranged horizontally, like fingers reaching toward the horizon. Researchers of the University of Helsinki are excited with this never before done discovery as they suspect these dunes are formed from atmospheric waves caused by air undulations at about 60 miles in altitude of Earth’s upper atmosphere. This will help to study this notoriously difficult & mysterious region of upper atmosphere having a high density of molecular oxygen, which is very high for balloons and planes to reach, and excessively low to discern directly with rockets and satellites. Citizen scientists too will play a pivotal role by catching new features that scientists didn't notice before Painting the sky in shiny green & blue colours, description of this beauty in words doesn’t do justice to its sheer magnificence, for the feeling of watching it live is soulstirring, surreal and indescribable! Envision, having the option to observe an infinite green serpent slither across skies of what has all the earmarks of being the Universe! Or then again awe-inspiring experience blasts of green, occasional yellows, vibrant pinks, and deep oranges light up the sky, exhilarate your senses. Behold an adventure to be etched in your memory for a lifetime! Time to see the Auroras yourself? Append it in your bucket list!
“COMPETIMATE” THE BUSINESS PHILOSOPHY OF US SPACE BUSINESSES:
Nowadays, the first thing that comes to mind when we hear the word Rocket is the company SpaceX. There is no doubt that SpaceX and its founder Elon Musk have captured everyone’s imagination with their strong social media game. But there is a lot more going on in the Space market than what can be observed superficially. The Space marketplace is divided into two large segments, one of them is the market for Commercial spacecraft builders and operators who do geo-stationary satellite launches for applications in DTH & Broadband Internet. The other segment is the Niche market of Space Exploration. The companies in this market cater to the needs of organizations like NASA. One of the most important factors for companies to decide on what segment to compete in is the stability of the segment. Commercial markets tend to be volatile compared to the niche markets which are much more stable. United Launch Alliance (ULA) and Blue Origin are two big competitors in the US Niche Space market. ULA has used its competitor Blue origin’s BE-4 engine in its latest rocket, ‘VULCAN’ . As surprising as it may seem, this is one of the many unique business strategies that exist in the Space industry. The interesting thing about the the industry is that it has very few players, hence it is not unusual for businesses to have a Competimate who is not only a competitor but also a supply chain partner or sometimes even a customer.
Developing an engine from scratch is a huge investment and it takes a lot of time to build. In the case of Blue Origin and ULA, Blue Origin had been working on the BE-4 engine for several years even before the Vulcan Rocket was conceptualized. But collaborations like these have their own perils, as both companies have decided to compete in two different classes of the rockets having the same engine. This strategy looks even more amazing when we delve deeper and understand that the companies ULA and Blue Origin are actually trying to optimize production rates to make the Rocket engine affordable. These companies have to incur the costs of the engines on a recurring basis and this makes scaling engine volumes absolutely necessary to keep the prices affordable. This would be impossible without the tie-up between the two companies. Another Competimate that ULA collaborates with is Northrop Grumman which supplies Solid Rocket Boosters for ULA Rockets. They compete with each other in Space cargo and National Security Space services. The next big thing that has kept the Niche market companies busy are the contracts from the US Space Force. Each and every company in this segment is adding new rockets to its portfolio and only time will tell whether this niche industry will ever become big enough to let go of the Competimate business strategy for something even better.
OCTOBER 2020 · VOYAGER · 13
FEATURED ASTROPHOTO
PAGE 1 | BACKPACK
© SHIVAM BANSAL
Here is Mars with its two small asteroid moons Phobos and Deimos! I’m really surprised I was able to capture these extremely tiny and faint moons. To produce this image, I first captured an overexposed photograph of Mars in order to detect the moons near it. I then correlated my observations with the positions shown in the SkyGuide app to confirm if I identified them correctly. Once that was certain, I blended a properly exposed Mars in between the moons.
Technical card: GSO 8” CC | CEM-40 | Neximage 5 | Canon EOS R Best 5% of 22k frames 1:53am 23rd September 2020 at Agra 14 · VOYAGER · OCTOBER 2020
The Missing Baryonic Problem
OCTOBER 2020 · VOYAGER · 15
When we look at the popularly accepted model of the Universe, we find that the universe exists the following 3 forms: 1. Dark Energy – 72% 2. Dark Matter – 23% 3. Ordinary/Normal Matter – 5% We all are made up of this 5% normal matter, all the stars, all planets, black holes, neutron stars, anything you can think of as “stuff” is part of the 5%. Also, almost everything of this 5% is made up of protons and neutrons, which are made up of composite subatomic particles called The Baryons. But when the scientists conducted a census of all the baryons in the universe, the result came out to be quite lower than expected. The expected amount was around 5%, while the census showed a little less than half of it. So, the question arises, where is half of the universe? THE 5% A question also arises that how do the scientists know the relative abundance of Baryons is 5%? And as always, we get back to the Big Bang for the solution. As the universe was cooling down after the Big Bang, the available deuterium in free space was fusing together to form Helium. After around 20 minutes of Big Bang, the universe was cool enough that Deuterium could not further fuse into Helium. Deuterium being the “bad boy” of universe has no observable decay and cannot be formed in large quantities in normal conditions in the universe. In other words, there has been no change in the population of Deuterium and almost every atom of it is as old as the Big Bang. It is when we take this Deuterium abundance and some non-trivial science into account, we come to the 5% figure.
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WHAT’S THE MATTER WITH HALF OF THE UNIVERSE?
The shy part of universe is a little different than the other half; it is ionized. When scientists performed the census of all the baryonic matter, they could only find the neutral, non-ionized Hydrogen atoms, which were used to calculate the abundance of Baryon. But the Baryons also existed in the form of ionized atoms in the cosmos, and we had no idea how to take account of them. But then, the universe helped us. There was a Fast Radio Burst (FRB) directed towards us which was observed by astronomers in 2007. These FRBs are like a pulse of energy, powerful far beyond our comprehension, but lasts for a very short duration. Interestingly, these FRB and ionized baryon is analogous to a light and prism setting. As the Prism disperses a ray of light into its spectrum often visible to us as rainbow colors, the ionized baryons acted as a prism
and dispersed the FRB into its spectrum. The dispersion pattern gives away the relative abundance of ionized baryons (The prism), and thus scientists were able to complete the census of 5% normal matter. CONCLUSION The problem posed a simple issue. 1. If we were right, where’s half of the universe? 2. If universe only had only 2.5% normal matter, where did our model go wrong? Thankfully, the decades old model of universe turned out to be the correct approximation of our universe, and therefore all scientists who have worked on this should be congratulated. We also found that the hidden half of our normal matter in the universe is just around us, not in shapes of stars or planets, but just floating in vast lengths of the cosmos.
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SPACE RADIATION Radiation is a wave of energetic particles in the electromagnetic spectrum. Space radiation may be due to a steady outflux of particles from the sun, occasional solar flares (with gamma rays, protons, and electrons), or galactic cosmic rays (coming from outside our solar system). Earth has a protective bubble due to its magnetosphere, which prevents a large amount of radiation from seeping in. Beyond Earth’s Magnetic field, harsh radiation could be disastrous. When radiation is incident on a material, the energetic particles can disturb its sub-atomic structure and lead to a generation of a more significant number of such particles(including neutrons). This secondary activity leads to catastrophic levels of radiation. The high energy particles in ionizing radiation can pass through the human body. The cells are energized and possibly disturbed. High dissipation of energy leads to modification in cell structure to the extent of DNA damage. This invariably leads to the development of cancerous cells in the long run and could lead to acute sickness if the total radiated dosage is high enough. The knowledge and work-around of radiation’s impact on hardware and humans are crucial for any human space mission. Extra planetary missions carry a high risk because the earth’s bubble would not protect the astronauts. And these missions typically last longer (minimum one year not including the stay). As per data from NASA’s Curiosity rover, a round trip to Mars would lead to exposure to at least 660±120 milliSieverts (a measure of radiation dosage). On average, NASA Astronaut’s exposure to radiation over the course of their career is limited to 1000 milliSieverts; however, in the long run, it can cause fatal cancer in 5 out of 100 people exposed to that level of radiation.
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The missions to International Space Station (ISS) are less risky because it is in low earth orbit. Nevertheless, the radiation levels in and around ISS are continuously monitored. Each astronaut’s radiation dosage and health are monitored through dosimeters. Some materials used for radiation shielding are Lead, Tin, Antimony, Tantalum, Tungsten, etc. Tantalum sheets are widely used in shielding of space hardware. But these shielding techniques lead to a massive increase in weight and put a considerable penalty on fuel and launch requirements. These technologies can be implemented on hardware but not in a spacesuit. The radiation attenuation is insufficient for the protection of humans. Extensive research has been carried out by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to find better techniques for radiation shielding. The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is also performing some experiments for its Gaganyaan mission in “Radiation Hazards Characterisation and Mitigation Techniques.” CNES, the French space agency, is assisting ISRO by training astronauts in space medicine, health monitoring, radiation protection, life support, and hygiene systems.
Various Polymeric compounds have been explored. Boron Nitride Nanotubes(BNNT) is a material that shields low energy neutrons effectively. It has exceptional mechanical strength, toughness, and high thermal stability. High-quality BNNT fibres were produced in NASA’s Langley Research Centre in 2016. This breakthrough could go a long way in paving the path for humans’ extraplanetary voyages. Habitats, Space Suits, and Lightweight vehicle components could be designed using BNNT. Hydrogenated Boron Nitride Nanotubes(HBNNT), another potential candidate, is being widely studied and simulated. Still, the material and its resilience to radiation have not yet been demonstrated for its efficacy in prolonged missions. It has been reported that food with higher level of antioxidants, Copper, Magnesium, and Zinc help enhance the body’s resistance to lower dosages by slowing down free radicals. Scientists and medical practitioners are researching preventive medication, which could reduce the impact of radiation on the human body. These materials and technologies will play a key role in space transportation. And we could see some results in the very next decade which would be instrumental in carrying out space transportation services in the future.
OCTOBER 2020 · VOYAGER · 19
aCROSS THE UNIVERSE
Down: 1. The most abundant element in the universe 2. Planet with longest day in the solar system 5. Speculated that universe is expanding 6. Space shuttle tyres are filled with this gas 7. Mission control of NASA is located in 10. India’s first satellite 11. Galaxy type of Milky way 12. Nearest large galaxy to Milky way 13. Largest asteroid in solar system 15. Space shuttle that carried Hubble to orbit 18. Aerospace company founded by Elon Musk 19. Quality that determines whether a star will become black hole when it dies 20. Asteroid belt is between this planet and Mars 22. Interstellar dust cloud that can give birth to stars 20 · VOYAGER · OCTOBER 2020
Across: 3. Densest planet in the solar system 4. Densest type of star 8. Brightest star in the night sky 9. Any planet that orbits a star outside of our solar system 14. Largest moon in our solar system 16. Element that makes Mars appear red 17. Large explosion that takes place at the end of a star's life cycle 18. First satellite sent into space 21. Day on which the Sun’s direct rays cross the celestial equator 23. Rapidly spinning neutron star
SPACE OCTOBER 2020 · VOYAGER · 21
About 55 km above the lava spewing terrain of Venus lies a zone of atmosphere that fits the description of a typical place here on Earth. With the exception that instead of breathable Oxygen, there are Sulphuric acid clouds. It is in this region, earlier in September, researchers from MIT & Royal Astronomical Society announced the existence of a gaseous molecule called Phosphine. As far as scientists know, there are only 2 ways of producing this molecule: either artificially in labs or through anaerobic microorganisms. After running multiple scenarios, they ruled out most known abiotic processes that could have produced this gas ergo placing the onus on space faring agencies to figure out if life really exists on Venus. There is a possibility that we could see a surge of new missions headed to Venus in the near future, and these next generation explorers may need to take extra precautions than the Venusian explorers of the past in order to avoid cross contamination. The first in line to Venus is India’s very own Shukrayaan-1 orbiter which is in the pre production stage since 2017. ISRO hopes to launch it as early as 2023. The broad areas of research initially proposed for this mission include: 1. Surface and subsurface features 2. Atmospheric chemistry, dynamics and compositional variations 3. Atmospheric interaction with solar radiation and solar wind The discovery of Phosphine has opened up more avenues for ISRO to seek international
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collaborations for payloads. The second most promising mission isn’t coming from the likes of NASA or ESA. A private spaceflight company based in California called Rocket Lab is aiming to go to Venus in 2023 for a robotic astrobiology mission. The plan is to send their spacecraft Photon for a flyby of Venus while deploying a probe into its atmosphere. NASA has two prospective missions. DAVINCI+, a probe that would plunge into the atmosphere and study its chemical composition using spectrometers over the course of a 63-minute descent. And VERITAS, an orbiter that would use a combination of radar and near-infrared spectroscopy to peer beyond the clouds and understand the surface geology and topography. These two missions are yet to receive a green light from NASA and when they do, their launch can be expected from 2026 onwards. Even if some of the aforementioned missions do make it to Venus, they may not be enough to truly determine where the Phosphine is coming from. Concepts like the Venus Flagship Mission has been proposed which consists of 3 orbiters, a lander and a balloon to float in the upper atmosphere. The race is on. In a few years while Elon Musk gets the first human on Mars, we also hope to see space agencies find conclusive evidence for life on Venus. Only time will tell which of them gets to be the biggest event of the decade.
HUBBLE & BEYOND
When people think of Hubble, most picture stunning images of the Milky Way, nebulae and colorful galaxies. Hubble’s contribution extends far beyond the realm of science, into everyday lives of people around the world. Anyone with an internet connection has probably seen at least a few of Hubble's amazing photos, which bring the beauty and mystery of the universe down to Earth like no instrument ever had before. The iconic space observatory deployed by NASA space shuttle Discovery thirty years ago has fundamentally changed our understanding of the universe. Beyond our solar system, Hubble has opened a new window into worlds that we never dreamed of: the birth of stars, black holes and exoplanets to name a few. Perched 570km above Earth’s obscuring atmosphere, Hubble collects visible, UV and infrared radiation allowing it to see beyond any ground-based telescope. Hubble, along with its counterparts Spitzer, Chandra and Compton is capable of collecting and transmitting different frequencies of electromagnetic radiation. Together they have shown the enormity, complexity and beauty of the universe to unimaginable limits. However, they have started showing signs of their advanced age. Compton observatory has already been decommissioned with Nasa announcing earlier this year to shutdown Spitzer due to high service costs. In the face of uncertain future and questions on the health of Hubble and Chandra, it is natural to look at the new generation of space telescopes.
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James Webb Space Telescope, a successor to HST has been designed to see beyond what Hubble can: the first stars, black holes, young galaxies spread throughout the universe. Its design consists of 18 hexagonal mirrors covered with a thin layer of gold coverings making it the largest telescope ever built. The large primary mirror (6.4m wide) would allow JWST to study galaxies that formed closer to the Big Bang some 13.82 billion years into the past. It would be deployed at the Lagrange point 2 - about 1.5 million kms from the Earth, orbiting the Sun. The WFIRST (Wide-Field Infrared Survey Telescope) is another pioneering telescope proposed by NASA and scheduled to be launched in 2025 to study dark energy, exoplanets and infrared astrophysics. The telescope would be designed to conduct large surveys of the infrared universe to study everything from stars, galaxies to the edge of the observable universe. Giant Magellan Telescope (GMT) would be the next generation of ground-based telescopes designed to revolutionize our understanding of the universe. The monolithic telescope would have 10 times the resolving power of HST enabling it to see distant galaxies, birth of stars and composition of exoplanet atmospheres in search for extraterrestrial life. Among others, Nasa is also working on potential telescopes with advanced technologies such as ‘orbiting telescopes’ which would use millions of tiny particles to reflect light. Other candidates for next generation telescopes include HabEx, LUVOIR, Lynx, Origins. In a nutshell, the future of astrophotography looks bright and with ground breaking technologies coming up, we would be able to explore new edges of our mighty universe.
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OCTOBER 2020 LINEUP
29+30 Oct. Peak of Southern Taurids Meteor Shower (5-10 meteors/hour but the sky will also have a nearly full moon)
1 Oct. Full Moon 7 Oct. Peak of Draconids Meteor Shower (minor meteor shower with 10 meteors/hour)
31 Oct. Blue Moon (second Full Moon in a month that too on Halloween) 31 Oct. Uranus at Opposition (closest to Earth and brighter than any other time in the year)
13 Oct. Mars at Opposition (closest to Earth and brighter than any other time in the year + in October Mars will be the third brightest object in the sky after the Moon and Venus) 16 Oct. New Moon (best day to observe the night sky) 16+17 Oct. Eris at Opposition (the dwarf planet will be closest to Earth and brighter than ever) 21+22 Oct. Peak of Orionids Meteor Shower (average meteor shower with 20 meteors/hour)
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63/64 SPACE EXPEDITION NASA in collaboration with Russian space agency Roscosmos, is set to launch Soyuz MS-17 spacecraft on October 14 from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.The crew compromises of NASA astronaut Kate Rubins and Russian cosmonauts Sergey Ryzhikov & Sergey Kud-Sverchkov. The mission will stretch for 6 months in the International Space Station and Kate Rubins will be the flight engineer. The main experiments NASA wants to conduct are 1. Study the use of laser-cooled atoms for quantum sensors by using Cold Atom Lab 2. Effects of microgravity on stem cellderived heart cells. Launch Date: 14th October 2020 Launch Site: Baikonur Cosmodrome Kazakhstan
SPACEX CREW-1 COMMERCIAL FLIGHT Nasa's SpaceX crew-1 flight mission is set to get launched on 23rd oct, 2020 from Launch complex 39A, Kennedy Space Centre, Florida. The mission team comprises of Victor Glover, Shannon Walker, and Michael Hopkins of NASA and Soichi Noguchi of JAXA. The crew will join the 63/64 Expedition crew which will already be onboard ISS by then. The mission is a test run to check the feasibility of future commercial flights and further the collaboration between NASA & SpaceX. Launch Date: 23rd October 2020 Launch Site: Kennedy Space Centre, Florida
OSIRIS-REX Launched on 8th sept, 2016 the ambitious OSIRIS-REx spacecraft's mission is to travel to near-earth asteroid called Bennu (formerly known as 1999 RQ36) & collect 2.1 ounce of sample from the asteroid on 20th October,2020. The spacecraft will return with the sample to earth in 2023. According to NASA the mission will help understand formation of planets and how life began. 26 ¡ VOYAGER ¡ OCTOBER 2020
Solutions to
aCROSS THE UNIVERSE
Down: 1. The most abundant element in the universe 2. Planet with longest day in the solar system 5. Speculated that universe is expanding 6. Space shuttle tyres are filled with this gas 7. Mission control of NASA is located in 10. India’s first satellite 11. Galaxy type of Milky way 12. Nearest large galaxy to Milky way 13. Largest asteroid in solar system 15. Space shuttle that carried Hubble to orbit 18. Aerospace company founded by Elon Musk 19. Quality that determines whether a star will become black hole when it dies 20. Asteroid belt is between this planet and Mars 22. Interstellar dust cloud that can give birth to stars
Across: 3. Densest planet in the solar system 4. Densest type of star 8. Brightest star in the night sky 9. Any planet that orbits a star outside of our solar system 14. Largest moon in our solar system 16. Element that makes Mars appear red 17. Large explosion that takes place at the end of a star's life cycle 18. First satellite sent into space 21. Day on which the Sun’s direct rays cross the celestial equator 23. Rapidly spinning neutron star
OCTOBER 2020 · VOYAGER · 27
A PHOTOGRAPH BY AKASH ANANDH 4.1% ILLUMINATED WAXING CRESCENT 22 JULY 2020 TAKAHASHI FS-60Q 60MM REFRACTOR F/10 SKY-WATCHER STAR ADVENTURER CANON EOS R ISO 100 22X0.5 SEC ASI2, REGISTAX, LR & PS
STARGAZERS THE ASTRONOMY CLUB OF IIM AHMEDABAD VOYAGER | OCTOBER 2020