Aleks’ Journal
Bruno’s
Nov. 2021
Class Schedule Monday 1
Tuesday
Team Meeting 6am-7am
2
Class 8am-4pm
3
Training 5pm-7pm
Team Meeting 6am-7am
Wednesday Team Meeting 6am-7am
Class 8am-4pm
Training 5pm-7pm
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Study 6pm-7pm
5
Monitor 8pm-10pm
Monitor 8pm-10pm
Training 5pm-7pm
Thursday
Friday
Team Meeting 6am-7am Class 8am-4pm
Meet with Bruno!
Training 5pm-7pm
Monitor 8pm-10pm
Lucida Sans Typewriter for headings - Bradley Hand ITC in red for Bruno’s writing - Cavolini in black for Aleks’ writing
- Amasis MT Pro Light for body copy (12 or 14 size) - Pictures must be attached to page by tape or paper clips - Sticky notes and scraps of paper can also be used to bring out text
Training 5pm-7pm
Table of Contents Pg #
Title
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How to Leave Space and (Safely) Crash Back Down to Earth
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The Hunt for Exoplanets
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Astronaut Horror Stories
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Interview
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Shopping
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Photo Essay
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Meet the Mars Rovers
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The Layers of Mars
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Going Back to the Moon
Date
THERE ARE SEVERAL key things that every spaceship has to do if it wants to leave orbit and come back to Earth. The most obvious is changing its flight path to bend down toward the atmosphere, where the air drag will capture it and bring it relentlessly down to the surface. Next is withstanding the tremendous temperatures of reentry. Changing your flight path angle in an airplane is a relatively easy thing; you push forward on the stick and the air pressure on the elevator moves the nose of the airplane down and the trees get bigger. Pull back on the stick and the trees get smaller.
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However, in space we have Sir Isaac Newton to thank for a very useful trick that allows astronauts to come home. Orbital mechanics are what determine a spacecraft’s motion once in space, and to change your course to the left or right you need a tremendous amount of delta-v, or change in speed. Because of this, it’s very inefficient to change your inclination, or heading. Most human spacecraft carry only
enough rocket fuel to change their heading by a few tenths of a degree to the left or right. The good news is that we don’t have to move left or right to come back to Earth, we just need to go down. Here’s where the useful trick comes in handy—if you slow down, your orbit will descend. Conversely, speeding up makes your orbit climb. The amount of delta-v required for this trick is much less than for changing your inclination.
It was at EI that the shuttle and Soyuz experience diverged. Dramatically. The space shuttle was a magnificent flying machine, roughly the size of an airliner, and once it was back in the atmosphere it could bank and turn and maneuver like a normal plane. Except it was traveling at 17,500 mph and was surrounded by a cocoon of plasma that was as hot as the sun, created by the indescribable friction of the massive shuttle smashing into unsuspecting O2 and N2 molecules of the vanishingly thin upper atmosphere. The view from the pilot’s seat returning to Earth that night in February was spectacular. At first there was a gentle pink glow outside my window, then it began to radiate a brighter
orange and then red, accompanied by a flashing white light above the overhead window, reminding me of the scene in Alien when the strobe light was flashing while the ship was getting ready to self-destruct. This final phase of my mission took place in darkness, so I was able to see every nuance of the colorful plasma. It finally turned gray, and I raised the visor on my helmet and leaned over to the window. The plasma was slowly swirling around, like eddies and currents on a pond. I reached up, pulled my hand out of my glove, and felt the window, which surprisingly wasn’t at all hot. The most bizarre thing was a very distinct yet faint sound, like tapping your fingertips gently on a counter. I guess I
expected burning sounds or air rushing sounds.
How to Leave Space and (Safely) Crash Back Down to Earth 2
The Hunt for Exoplanets “There are infinite worlds both like and unlike this world of ours.” So said the ancient Greek philosopher and atomist Epicurus in the fourth century BCE. But just as Greek ideas of a heliocentric Solar System were lost in the turmoil of history, Epicurus’s notion of a boundless cosmos was swept aside by the dominant philosophy of Aristotle, who claimed that “there cannot be more worlds than one.” It was nearly 2000 years before the idea that Earth might not be alone was taken seriously again. In Italy in 1584, at the height of the Renaissance, the philosopher Giordano Bruno proposed that the Universe is infinite and that the stars are distant suns orbited by “innumerable worlds”. About 400 years later, in 1992, came the first confirmed detection of one of Bruno’s innumerable worlds, by radio astronomers Aleksander Wolszczan and Dale Frail Wolszczan and Frail had discovered a furiously fastspinning pulsar in the constellation of Virgo. Rotating more than 160 times a second, this tiny collapsed star emits powerful radio beams that sweep across Earth as rapid pulsations. An irregularity in the signal led the astronomers to conclude that “the pulsar is orbited by two or more planet-sized bodies”, which became the first known ‘exoplanets’ – planets external to our own Solar System. Three years later, another exoplanet was found by Michel Mayor and Didier Quelozw1, this time in orbit around a Sun-like star called 51 Pegasi. It was an extreme world – a ‘hot Jupiter’-
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type planet at least 150 times more massive than Earth and orbiting its sun even more closely than Mercury orbits ours. Astronomers realised it was possible to detect exoplanets, and the race to find more followed. Detection methods improved, and the discoveries piled up. We now know of more than
4000 exoplanets: most are near our Solar System, as their proximity makes them relatively easy to detect. This suggests that there may be as many as 11 billion Earth-sized and potentially habitable planets in our Milky Way galaxy alone.
The hunt for exoplanets has been far more successful than astronomers once dared hope. Alien planetary systems are ubiquitous and surprisingly diverse, with many bearing little resemblance to our Solar System. It now appears that most stars have planets, and small rocky planets are abundant, including Earth-like worlds that orbit their parent star in the ‘habitable zone’ where liquid water might exist on the planet’s surface – a condition
thought essential for life. Many massive, Jupiter-like exoplanets have also been found, and some have been imaged. We have detected clouds in their skies and, thanks to spectral analysis, we can even identify the elements in their atmospheres. However, the hunt for exoplanets faces considerable challenges. Planets are much fainter and smaller than the stars
they orbit, so we rely mostly on indirect methods to find them, rather than imaging them directly. There are several different approaches, each with its own advantages and disadvantages. In this article, we take a look at some of the most important methods of discovery.
If an exoplanet happens to pass in front of its parent star while we watch from Earth – a phenomenon known in astronomy as a ‘transit’ – the star’s brightness will briefly dip, if only by a tiny fraction, as was seen with the triple transit of the star TRAPPIST-1 in 2015 (figure 1). More than three-quarters of known exoplanets were detected this way. The transit method relies on an element of luck: because the inclinations of their orbits are randomly distributed, from our viewpoint most exoplanets are never seen transiting in front of their star. To get around this problem, space telescopes such as NASA’s Kepler telescope survey large numbers of stars over a long period. Stars may also show dips in brightness due to surface features such as star spots, so follow-up observations are needed to confirm a discovery.
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Astronaut Horror Stories In 2003, Yang Liwei became the first Chinese astronaut to jettison into space. He was aboard the Shenzhou 5, one of multiple Shenzhou voyages that would happen in years following. One silent, lonely night on October 16, he heard it — a strange banging sound outside. As he described it, “someone knocking the body of the spaceship just as
After four days shooting up to the great abyss, American astronauts Tom Stafford, Gene Cernan, and John Young were on the far side of the moon. It was 1969. While photographing craters and sipping grape juice, the three began to hear otherworldly, organized noise coming from their headsets. It happened for one full hour. “Boy, that sure is weird music,” Commander Cernan said. “We’re going to have to find out about that,” Pilot Young replied. “Nobody will believe us.”
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knocking an iron bucket with a wooden hammer…it neither came from outside nor inside the spaceship.” Given that space is a vacuum and sound needs a medium to pass through such as air or water, Liwei’s eerie claims could’ve been seen as dubious. Well, except for the fact that on subsequent Shenzhou 5 and 6 missions to space, two other Chinese astronauts heard the same knocking.
There were two minutes of radio silence after Armstrong set foot on the Moon. NASA claimed one of two television cameras overheated, disrupting the reception. (Right, NASA technology overheats at random just like my old, garbage laptop.) So what was that lost transmission to Houston?: “These babies were huge, sir! Enormous! Oh, God! You wouldn’t believe it! I’m telling you there are other spacecraft out here … lined up on the far side of the crater’s edge! They’re on the moon watching us!”
It only few straight, but then a kind of explosion happened, very beautiful to watch, of golden light. This was the first part. Then, one or two seconds later, a second explosion followed somewhere else and two spheres appeared, golden and very beautiful. After this explosion, I just saw white smoke, then a cloud-like sphere. Before we entered the darkness, we flew through the terminator, the twilight zone between day and night. We flew eastwards, and when we entered the darkness of the Earth shadow, I could not see them any longer. The two spheres never returned.”
“On two of my missions, and I still don’t have an answer, I have seen a snake out there. Six, seven, eight feel long. It is rubbery because it has internal waves in it, and it follows you for a rather long period of time. The more you fly in space the more you see an incredible amount of things out there, and that sort of thing brings to you, really, a certainty that other living creatures are out there.” “Living creatures far more developed as civilizations. They’ve been around for 100 million years, and we can’t even conceive how advanced they are and the kinds of things they’re doing. That’s why I make an effort to communicate, and might be considered eccentric because I do, because I know the probabilities are close to zero. But I do tell them to come down and get me.”
In September, writing for Space.com, American Astronaut Leroy Chiao noted that it would be the “height of arrogance to believe we are alone.” In 2005, he was commander of the International Space Station for six and a half months. While installing antennas 230 miles above the Earth, he witnessed something he has yet to understand. “I saw some lights that seemed to be in a line and it was almost like an upside-down check mark,” he told the Huffington post, “and I saw them fly by and thought it was awfully strange.” Some theorized those lights were simply those of a fishing boat hundreds of miles down, shooting upward.
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Interview with Astronaut Mike Hopkins I first was interested in the astronaut program back in high school. This was during the early days of the shuttle program. When there was a launch, they would show it for the whole school. Seeing those early shuttle astronauts up in space, launching satellites, going on space walks, performing science … that all really interested me. I thought that was something I'd like to do.
Q: How did you make this childhood interest come to reality as an adult?
The idea of being an astronaut fit very well with my other interests. I enjoyed math and science in school. I knew I wanted to get into engineering. And then I was also interested in flying and the military. So I was able to pursue those interests, all the while giving me the experience I needed to become an astronaut.
There are so many thing that are enjoyable about being in space. Floating never got old for the whole 166 days I was up there. On the other hand, I went on two space walks, and those were two events that I will absolutely never forget in my entire life.
Q: Do you think you'll get back up there ever?
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Q: What inspired you to become an astronaut?
Q: What's the most fun or interesting part about being on the International Space Station?
I would like to go, I'd certainly be interested. But we have a core of 40 astronauts, and we're only launching maybe four astronauts a years. So the opportunities to fly again are limited.
Q: Were you ever scared?
There are always items failing and things to replace. Space walks are a big part of the space station upkeep. That was one of the better things about doing the space walks—being able to get the space station up and running again after a problem. It's a major sense of accomplishment. We had a pump module that failed, a part of the external cooling system. We had to go out and replace it. That pump module weighs 800 pounds, about the size of a refrigerator, so it's not a small piece of equipment.
Q: What are some of the strangest things about coming back to Earth after being up on the International Space Station for so long?
I was never scared. I was nervous about things. One of the main things I was nervous about was messing up. The ISS is a very expensive national laboratory, and you'd hate to be the person to break it.
It's weightless, but it still has mass. My crew mate, Rick Mastracchio, does a very good job of describing microgravity. He says, “It makes the impossible possible.” One person can handle that 800pound, refrigerator-sized object, which you wouldn't be able to do on Earth. But the microgravity environment also makes simple things more difficult. For example, your tools. You can't just set them down because they'll float away.
Q: Would things ever break?
You always have to make sure that they're tethered to you or the station. You're double and triple checking everything to make sure it's tethered. The last thing you want is for a one-of-a-kind tool to go floating off. That would be a bad day. It's very stressful keeping track of that stuff. It's important to be focused when you're out there on a spacewalk.
The transition from microgravity back to Earth. The first two to three days are the strangest time. For example, your mind forgets how heavy things are when you get back to Earth. So a small book that weighs maybe a pound all of a sudden feels like it weighs 50 lbs. That's one of the strangest things.
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Wish List
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A Visual Exploration Of The Wondrous Universe
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Why are we so intrigued by the universe? Perhaps because it puts our conflicts on earth momentarily out of sight. A fascination with the potential of life beyond earth has gripped philosophers, scientists, and curious minds since the universe first came into our awareness. Yet, as our scientific knowledge expands, it can feel like the biggest mysteries surrounding the universe only continue to deepen. The year 2019 marks 50 years since the Apollo 11 Mission by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA); when humans first set foot on the moon.
To this day, our interest in the achievement is far from over. Half a century on, theories abound that the event was a hoax, secretly staged by NASA as an egotistical response to geopolitical tensions with the Soviet Union at the time. Yet, regardless of whether NASA’s most famous lunar experiment actually occurred, the event monumentally changed the way we understand our solar system—returning new information about everything from magnetic fields and lunar geology, to weather forecasting and GPS technologies. When we think of NASA, we think of aeronautical research, astronaut suits, and bobbing around in gravity-free chambers.
However, the contested government agency also acts as an academic source of information, and its database of images has been recently made available to the public for free. In NASA’s image library, one can search for ‘Saturn’ and the site will return over 4000 results—compelling images taken over the course of decades, from satellite observations and space photographers. It’s a captivating examination, one that takes the viewer on an artistic journey more akin to an abstract painting than astrological expedition. The curated images below are chosen from this same library, existing as a visual study of space exploration.
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Meet the Mars Rovers
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The Mars 2020 Perseverance Rover will search for signs of ancient microbial life, which will advance NASA's quest to explore the past habitability of Mars. The rover has a drill to collect core samples of Martian rock and soil, then store them in sealed tubes for pickup by a future mission that would ferry them back to Earth for detailed analysis. Perseverance will also test technologies to help pave the way for future human exploration of Mars. Curiosity set out to answer the question: Did Mars ever have the right environmental conditions to support small life forms called microbes? Early in its mission, Curiosity's scientific tools found chemical and mineral evidence of past habitable environments on Mars. It continues to explore the rock record from a time when Mars could have been home to microbial life. The Mars Helicopter, Ingenuity, is a technology demonstration to test powered, controlled flight on another world for the first time. It hitched a ride to Mars on the Perseverance rover. Once the rover reached a suitable "airfield" location, it released Ingenuity to the surface so it could perform a series of test flights over a 30Martian-day experimental window.
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The Layers of Mars The fate of almost everything on Earth’s surface is determined by infernal engines deep below. Mars is no different. Now, thanks to an intrepid robot parked on the Martian surface by NASA in November 2018, scientists have a map of our neighboring world’s geologic abysses, the first ever made of another planet. NASA’s InSight lander has been listening to marsquakes and tracking their seismic waves as they journey through the planet. A trio of papers published Thursday in the journal Science, using data InSight has collected, reveals the red planet to be something like a colossal candy treat imagined by a ravenous deity. Its crust is split into two or three layers of volcanic chocolate. The mantle below has a surprisingly sizable and rigid toffee-like filling. And the planet’s core is surprisingly
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light — less nougaty center, more syrupy heart. Paired with recent activities at the surface by new NASA and Chinese robotic rovers, these missions highlight stark differences between our blue world and the red one next door. This survey of the Martian insides has been a long time coming. Earth’s solidbut-squishy mantle was first glimpsed in 1889, when seismic waves from a quake in Japan dove in and out of the layer before emerging in Germany. Earth’s liquid outer core was discovered in 1914, and the solid inner core was revealed in 1936. Similar measurements of the moon were made when the Apollo astronauts left seismometers on its surface. Now the same basic and foundational measurements have been made on Mars.
But a handful emanate from deeper locales, ricocheting through the planet before reaching InSight. Seismic waves change speed and direction as they traverse different materials, so scientists could use these deep-seated quakes to see what’s going on inside Mars. It hasn’t been easy going. Working with a solitary seismometer means scientists get a decent look at just one region on Mars rather than the entire planet. And, to construct a detailed picture of the subsurface, plentiful powerful quakes that pass through much of the planet’s depths would be ideal. Unfortunately, Mars’s seemingly infrequent quakes are never more potent than a magnitude 4.0. “We just had to push forward and see what we could do with this data,” Earlier missions to Mars have provided rough estimates of the dimensions and properties of its innards. But InSight’s seismological surveys provide precision. Models used to simulate the evolution of Mars can now be built on the foundations of these ground truths. Revelations from the InSight mission will also be useful for studying other worlds by providing scientists with an example that differs from Earth. “If you’re a doctor, and you only practice on one patient, you’re not going to be a very good doctor,” said Mark Panning, a planetary seismologist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., and a co-author on all three papers. Mars is more like a cousin of our planet than a sibling.
Six times less voluminous, it is strangely small — and geochemical evidence suggests that “it’s this really ancient relic of the early solar system,” said Christine Houser, a seismologist at the Earth-Life Science Institute in Tokyo who was not involved with the research. Why is diminutive Mars so physically different from Earth and Venus, a planet thought of as Earth’s geologic twin? InSight’s forensic examination improves scientists’ chances at finding an answer — and, in the process, better understanding our planet’s place in the solar system. Over the past two years, the InSight lander has studied the red planet’s magnetism, its wobble as it orbits the Sun and the seismic waves created by its marsquakes. Most marsquakes occur at shallow depths.
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Going to the With Artemis missions, NASA will land the first woman and first person of color on the Moon, using innovative technologies to explore more of the lunar surface than ever before. We will collaborate with commercial and international partners and establish the first long-term presence on the Moon. Then, we will use what we learn on and around the Moon to take the next giant leap: sending the first astronauts to Mars.
In the half-century since people visited the Moon, NASA has continued to push the boundaries of knowledge to deliver on the promise of American ingenuity and leadership in space. And NASA will continue that work by 17
moving forward to the Moon with astronauts landing on the lunar South Pole by 2024. NASA is implementing the President’s Space Policy Directive-1 to “lead an innovative and sustainable program of exploration with commercial and
international partners to enable human expansion across the solar system.” NASA stands on the verge of commercializing lowEarth orbit. These experiences and partnerships will enable NASA to go back to the Moon in 2024 – this time to stay -- with the U.S.
Back Moon
leading a coalition of nations and industry: •NASA's ambitious Commercial Resupply enables American companies to resupply the International Space Station •NASA’s Commercial Crew Program will return spaceflight launches to U.S. soil,
•providing safe, reliable, and costeffective access to lowEarth orbit and the Space Station. •NASA’s backbone for deep space exploration is the biggest rocket ever built, the Space Launch System (SLS), the Orion spacecraft and the Gateway lunar command module.
With its partners, NASA will use the Gateway lunar command module orbiting the Moon as a staging point for missions that allow astronauts to explore more parts of the lunar surface than ever before. 18
