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Yahoo
05-06-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Europe stages a moon landing to learn how to photograph the real thing (photos)
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Pictures from a simulated moon landing, not designed to fool anyone into believing a fake but rather to provide a reference to make sure that we can get the best video images possible when astronauts finally do return to the moon, have been released by the European Space Agency (ESA). When Neil Armstrong clambered down the Eagle's lander to take his "one giant leap" in 1969, it was captured by a black-and-white slow-scan television (SSTV) with a resolution of a mere 320 lines and 10 frames per second. The transmission, beamed back via NASA's Deep Space Network, was sketchy, plagued by ghosts and poor contrast. The available 900 to 1,000 kiloHertz bandwidth just wasn't sufficient to transmit in color. Things improved slightly with Apollo 12, which had a wider 2 to 3 megaHertz bandwidth that permitted color footage — at least until the video camera was accidentally pointed at the sun, the solar intensity damaging its vacuum tube. Soon, NASA's Artemis crewed moon missions will be flying with high-definition and ultra-high definition color cameras with frame rates of up to 60 per second. But even though the technology has dramatically improved since 1969, there remain many challenges for successfully documenting a lunar landing on video. Bandwidth continues to be one of these challenges, as does the 1.3-second signal delay from the moon, dealing with bright sunlight starkly reflecting off the lunar surface, and moon dust that seems to be able to find its way into every nook and cranny. Therefore, taking detailed images and video footage of activities on the lunar surface and transmitting them back to Earth, all within the constraints of these challenges, is an acquired skill. We can't yet just pop to the moon to practice, so the next best thing is to simulate the environment of the moon somewhere on Earth. Indeed, this is the purpose of the LUNA facility in Cologne, Germany, which is a joint project between ESA and the German Aerospace Center (known by its German acronym DLR). The idea is to create a lunar environment that is as realistic as possible for testing robotic landers, training astronauts and practicing with equipment — including, in this case, cameras. To that end, imaging experts from the Consultative Committee for Space Data Systems (CCSDS), which features representatives from 28 countries, have convened on LUNA to practice shooting astronauts playing make-believe in a simulated lunar environment. Spending time at LUNA gave imaging expert Melanie Cowan, who is ESA's representative on the CCSDS' Motion Imagery and Applications Working Group team, "a glimpse of what it may be like on the moon," she said in a statement. "One cannot get any closer to the real thing. It was a special and challenging experience to film and photograph in this surreal environment." Indeed, so realistic was this pretend moon that Cowan and fellow imaging experts had to wear protective clothing to prevent the simulated lunar dust from being breathed in, or getting in their hair or on their clothes. Dust could be a major problem for astronauts spending any appreciable time on the surface; it is so fine that it gets everywhere, sticking to surfaces and potentially clogging up equipment. So, donned in their protective clothing reminiscent of the head-to-toe suits used in clean rooms, the imaging experts captured footage of astronauts descending from a mock lunar lander, exploring the surface and even taking a selfie — something that Neil Armstrong may have wished he'd had the opportunity to do. (There are famously few images of Armstrong on the moon, since he carried the Hasselblad camera during most of his and Buzz Aldrin's historic moonwalk.) The point behind taking the selfie was to see how much detail could be captured in the reflection on the visor of the astronaut's helmet. The resulting images and video are intended to be used as reference files for the real thing, so that astronauts and imaging technicians can better understand what camera settings to use, and how large the resulting image or video files might be when transmitted. "These efforts should help agencies and companies create a ground truth for video applications and equipment," said Falk Schiffner, who is the DLR representative in the CCSDS Motion Imagery and Applications Working Group. "The activities to refine video quality are not geared only to moon imagery, but to all space transmissions." Capturing good footage on the moon is not as easy as on Earth. For one thing, because there is no appreciable atmosphere on the moon to scatter sunlight, the contrast between areas directly illuminated by the sun and areas in black shadow can lead to over-exposed daylight areas and totally black shadowed regions. And the slow rise and setting of the sun over a two-week period from any given location results in slowly changing conditions. To replicate all of this at the LUNA facility required a lot of trial and error with camera angles and lighting. "We tried different sun simulators and techniques to replicate the lighting of the sun on the moon," said Cowan. "We investigated the effects of the shadows from the rocks and inside craters. Early tests revealed that HDR video will provide more detail in shadowed areas on the lunar surface." Related stories: — European Space Agency: Facts & information — Apollo 11: First men on the moon — NASA's Artemis program: Everything you need to know HDR stands for "high dynamic range," which can drastically improve the contrast ratio of an image, or boost its colors. Camera manufacturer Nikon has already teamed up with NASA to develop modified Nikon Z9 cameras to be used by astronauts should they land on the moon as part of the eventual Artemis 3 mission. The Nikon Z9 possesses both HDR and UHD (ultra-high definition) capabilities that will be essential for use in the strange, stark lunar landscape. Taking an 8K UHD video camera to the moon is one thing, but transmitting all that data back to Earth in a livestream (or as live as it can be with the 1.3-second delay) has limitations in the available bandwidth. In particular, footage containing lots of motion is referred to as an "encoder killer," as it bumps the data rate way up. In practice, data transmission from the moon will be compressed, just as it already is from the International Space Station, for example, but even then methods will have to be found to squeeze it all into the available bandwidth without losing too much data. Help may soon be coming thanks to ESA's Moonlight initiative, which plans to launch a constellation of five satellites into orbit around the moon. Four of these spacecraft will assist future missions with navigation, and the other will provide high-data-rate communications between the lunar surface, spacecraft in lunar orbit or traveling to the moon, and ground stations on Earth. The intent is for Moonlight to be fully operational by 2030.
Forbes
15-05-2025
- Science
- Forbes
NASA Revives Voyager 1's Dead Thrusters After 21 Years — Here's How
NASA's twin Voyager spacecraft, launched in 1977, are now traveling through interstellar space at ... More around 35,000 mph (56,000 kph). This artist's concept depicts one of the probes speeding away. NASA engineers have put backup thrusters not used since 2004 back into service on its aging Voyager 1 spacecraft — from almost 16 billion miles away. The farthest human-made object, Voyager 1, was launched in 1977 and travels at 35,000 mph (56,000 kph). It uses thrusters to keep itself oriented, pivoting so its antenna is pointed at Earth for communications to be sent and received. However, on its nearly five-decade-long journey through space, hardware has degraded to the extent that the entire mission hinges on engineers being creative. This is just the latest example of NASA trying to extend the lifetime of arguably the most famous spacecraft humanity has ever built — but can it reach its 50th birthday in 2027? According to NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the spacecraft's primary roll thrusters, which control the spacecraft's rotation, haven't been used since 2004 when their internal heaters failed. For the last 21 years, backup roll thrusters have been used. However, these are now degrading. So engineers went back to failed internal heaters and, just in case, attempted to revive a power switch that may been at fault 21 years ago. Despite the radio signal taking over 23 hours to travel from Earth to the spacecraft, the fix — a sequence of commands — worked from 16 billion miles away. 'It was such a glorious moment,' said Todd Barber, the mission's propulsion lead at JPL. 'These thrusters were considered dead. It was yet another miracle save for Voyager.' The thruster swap had to be performed in double-quick time because, on May 4, 2025, the only facility powerful enough to send commands to Voyager 1 went down for maintenance. The 230-foot-wide (70-meter-wide) antenna Deep Space Station 43 antenna in Canberra, Australia — part of NASA's Deep Space Network — will be out of action through February 2026. The restoration of its primary roll thrusters means Voyager 1 can transmit data back to Earth while DSS-43 is down. The Deep Space Network is how engineers communicate with and receive data from the space agency's 30+ robotic probes in the solar system and beyond. There are three complexes in the network, in California, Madrid in Spain and Canberra in Australia — each placed 120° from each other. California's antenna at the Goldstone Deep Space Communications Complex in the Mojave Desert near Barstow, California, was upgraded in 2020 to enable it to handle ultra-fast 'space broadband.' Antenna upgrades are essential for, among other things, NASA's plans to land astronauts on the moon and beyond. Voyager 1 is now in interstellar space in the constellation Ophiuchus, in the southern sky beneath the Summer Triangle stars, as seen from the Northern Hemisphere. Wishing you clear skies and wide eyes.
Yahoo
06-03-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
NASA's Lunar Trailblazer Is Officially Lost in Space -- but Maybe Not Forever
NASA's Lunar Trailblazer mission is in jeopardy. It launched on Feb. 27 to send a probe to the moon in search of water. But less than a week after launch, NASA lost track of the spacecraft, which may compromise the mission if NASA can't reestablish contact. The Lunar Trailblazer mission is part of NASA's SIMPLEx program, which funds low-cost, high-reward missions using smaller spacecraft. These low-cost probes are often included in the launch of larger missions, much like a carpool -- this one launched along with a SpaceX Falcon 9 launch from Florida. Read more: Intuitive Machines Aims for Moon Landing on Thursday Communications in space are a little more complex than they are here on Earth, but the general principles are the same. In short, a transmitter from the object in space sends data that is captured by a receiver on Earth and vice versa. However, performing these actions requires power, and things can get dicey when the power goes out. That's pretty much what happened with the Lunar Trailblazer. NASA reports that telemetry from the Lunar Trailblazer showed that it had begun a slow spin. This spin, NASA believes, caused the solar panels to orient themselves away from the sun, causing the satellite to revert to a low-power state. "The Lunar Trailblazer team has been working around the clock to re-establish communications with the spacecraft," said Nicky Fox, the associate administrator of the NASA Science Mission Directorate. "NASA sends up high-risk, high-reward missions like Lunar Trailblazer to do incredible science at a lower cost, and the team truly encapsulates the NASA innovative spirit -- if anyone can bring Lunar Trailblazer back, it is them." For now, NASA says the best chance it has at salvaging the Lunar Trailblazer is for it to continue spinning until it reorients itself so that the solar panels get more juice from the sun. It is also working with NASA's Deep Space Network and ground-based observatories to gather data on the lost satellite. The Lunar Trailblazer's mission is to spend six months floating to the moon, where it'll take high-resolution photos of the entire surface. The purpose of this excursion is to find water Should NASA reestablish the connection, the mission can still be saved. The connection was lost before the Lunar Traiblazer could perform the various small thruster operations necessary to reach its proper orbit to take off from Earth and fly to the moon. However, the longer the satellite remains unreachable, the more difficult it will be to complete the objective. "The team is now working to define alternative TCM (trajectory correction maneuvers) strategies that could be used after reacquiring communications and establishing normal spacecraft functionality," NASA said in a blog post. "These alternative TCM strategies may be able to place Lunar Trailblazer in lunar orbit and allow it to complete some of its science objectives." The Lunar Trailblazer's mission is meant to be a low-cost, high-reward endeavor to photograph any water on the moon's surface to better ascertain how much is there and what forms it takes. Should NASA reconnect with it and the new TCM strategies are successful, the satellite will still take about six months to reach our nearest celestial neighbor to begin taking measurements. Connection issues with objects in space are nothing new for NASA or any other space agency. Late last year, NASA had to activate a radio that Voyager 1 hadn't used in 40 years to reestablish contact with the ancient satellite. During a NASA-hosted livestream on Twitch, connection to the International Space Station was lost while astronaut Don Pettit was in mid-sentence. Sometimes, connection losses are expected. For example, the Blue Ghost mission stuck its moon landing earlier this week, and that mission will end once the equipment loses its solar power and the connection is lost. In short, connection issues are an annoying but not infrequent issue with space objects.
