- 2971 - NASA - space projects in 2021? NASA has four small-scale astrophysics missions. Through small satellites and scientific balloons, these missions enable new platforms for exploring cosmic phenomena such as galaxy evolution, exoplanets, high-energy neutrinos, and neutron star mergers.
---------------------------------- 2971 - NASA - space projects in 2021?- How to do high-impact astrophysics experiments on a small budget. Each of the proposed experiments above would do something no other NASA telescope or mission can do, filling important gaps in our understanding of the universe as a whole.
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- “Aspera” is a SmallSat that will study galaxy evolution. Through observations in ultraviolet light, it will examine hot gas in the space between galaxies, called the intergalactic medium, and the inflow and outflow of gas from galaxies.
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- The intergalactic medium is a major component of the universe, but is poorly measured; Aspera would close this gap.
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- “Pandora” is another SmallSat that will study 20 stars and their 39 exoplanets in visible and infrared light. It is aimed at disentangling the signals from stars and planetary atmospheres. Understanding how changes in starlight affects measurements of exoplanets is an outstanding problem in the search for habitable planets beyond the solar system.
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- StarBurst is a third SmallSat that will detect high-energy gamma rays from events such as the mergers of dense stellar remnants called neutron stars. This would provide valuable insight into such events, which are also detected through gravitational waves by observatories on Earth.
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- These high energy events are where most of the heavy metals in the universe, such as gold and platinum, are formed. To date, only one such event has been observed simultaneously in gravitational waves and gamma-rays. StarBurst should find up to 10 per year.
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- “PUEO” is a balloon mission designed to launch from Antarctica that will detect signals from ultra-high energy neutrinos, particles that contain valuable clues about the highest energy astrophysical processes, including the creation of blackholes and neutron star mergers.
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- Neutrinos travel across the universe undisturbed because they are neutral charges, but carrying information about events billions of light years away. PUEO would be the most sensitive survey of cosmic ultra-high energy neutrinos ever conducted.
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- The principal astronomers must be creative in designing missions to keep expenses down, as the cost cap for a Pioneers mission is $20 million. This low price point is enabled in part by the flourishing industry of small satellites for Earth observing and internet access, allowing researchers to purchase off-the-shelf spacecraft.
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- Not all of NASA programs are low budget though as NASA prepares to send astronauts back to the Moon and on to Mars. The agency’s quest to seek answers about our solar system and beyond continues to inform those efforts and generate new discoveries. The missions “Juno” and “InSight” have each increased our understanding of our solar system, as well as spurred new sets of questions.
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- The Juno spacecraft and its mission team have made discoveries about Jupiter’s interior structure, magnetic field, and magnetosphere, and have found its atmospheric dynamics to be far more complex than scientists previously thought.
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- Extended through September 2025 the mission will not only continue key observations of Jupiter, but also will expand its investigations to the larger Jovian system including Jupiter’s rings and large moons, with targeted observations and close flybys planned of the moons Ganymede, Europa, and Io.
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- The InSight is another mission extended for two years, running through December 2022. InSight’s spacecraft and team deployed and operated its highly sensitive seismometer to expand our understanding of Mars’ crust and mantle. Searching for and identifying “Marsquakes“, the mission team collected data clearly demonstrating the robust tectonic activity of the Red Planet, and enhanced our knowledge of the planet’s atmospheric dynamics, magnetic field, and interior structure.
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- InSight’s extended mission will focus on producing a long-duration, high quality seismic dataset. Continued operation of its weather station and burial of the seismic tether using the spacecraft’s Instrument Deployment Arm , will contribute to the quality of this seismic dataset. The extended mission may continue deployment of the spacecraft’s Heat Probe and Physical Properties instrument, which remains close to the surface.
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- In a far different mission “16 Psyche” is an asteroid full of metal in the asteroid belt that could be worth $700 quintillion. NASA plans to visit 16 Psyche by 2026. Commercial mining of faraway asteroids could still be decades away and some set closer targets, like the moon.
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- 16 Psyche is an asteroid made of gold and other metals like iron and nickel. Flying somewhere between Mars and Jupiter, this amazing space rock is estimated to be worth as much as $700 quintillion, thanks to all the metals it contains.
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- Quintillion is 1 with 18 zeroes. It's such a large amount of money that if you divide it between everyone alive on Earth currently, each person would get about $93 billion. Sign me up!
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- The prospect of actually getting such a giant chunk of precious metals back to Earth is difficult and hasn't been accomplished yet even on much smaller scales. And, 16 Psyche is a truly massive space rock at over 120 miles in diameter. It is one of the largest asteroids flying in the asteroid belt.
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- NASA is planning to send a Discovery Mission to the asteroid in 2022, which will arrive there by 2026.
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- There are also other questions to consider, if it really is so full of gold and other riches, the asteroid could actually crash Earth's economy, which at $75.5 trillion is a pittance against the amount of money one could get from the asteroid.
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- 16 Psyche was actually discovered back in 1852 by the Italian astronomer Annibale de Gasparis, and named after the Greek mythological character “Psyche“.
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- Besides this giant rock in the asteroid belt, there are other mining opportunities much closer to Earth. While Psyche may be the Holy Grail of space exploration for gold, near-Earth asteroids are much better first targets for mining. Even our moon might be a better place to start such operations. It also has gold as well as platinum and other rare earth metals.
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- In other nearer goals, Deep Space Industries and Planetary Resources each plan to mine the “2011 UW158” asteroid, worth up to $5.7 trillion.
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- Lest you think this is all science fiction, Morgan Stanley projects the global space economy to be already worth $350 billion, which it thinks will grow to trillions by 2040.
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- The race is on. A “gold rush” in space.
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January 10, 2021 NASA - space projects 2971
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