How Humans Can Reinvent Themselves to Live on Other Worlds

Let’s face it: Space is a hostile environment for humans. Even on Mars, settlers might have a hard time coping with potentially lethal levels of radiation, scarce resources and reduced gravity. In “Mickey 17” — a new sci-fi movie from Bong Joon Ho, the South Korean filmmaker who made his mark with “Parasite” — an expendable space traveler named Mickey (Robert Pattinson) is exposed over and over again to deadly risks. And every time he’s killed, the lab’s 3D printer just churns out another copy of Mickey.

The Athena Lunar Lander Also Fell Over on its Side

The Athena Lunar Lander Also Fell Over on its Side

Rotating Black Holes are Packed with Energy. Here's How to Unlock It

Rotating Black Holes are Packed with Energy. Here's How to Unlock It

Blue Ghost is on the Moon and Ready to Watch an Eclipse

The Moon's getting to be a popular place. Firefly's Blue Ghost touched down on March 2nd in Mare Crisium. It's the first privately built lander to land safely and begin its mission. The little spacecraft set down safely in an upright, stable position and sent back an "I'm here" signal right away.

This Drifting Super Jupiter Has a Surprisingly Complex Atmosphere

The dividing line between gas giant planets and failed stars is blurry at best. The isolated planetary-mass object SIMP J013656.5+093347.3 could be either one. The distinction is largely semantic. However we choose to label and define it, the object displays a surprisingly complex atmosphere for an isolated object without any stellar energy input.

Astronauts Could Replace Their Own Mitochrondria To Treat Radiation Sickness

Skeptics love to bring up one particular topic regarding long-term human space exploration - radiation. So far, all of the research completed on it has been relatively limited and has shown nothing but harmful effects. Long-term exposure has been linked to an increase in cancer, cataracts, or even, in some extreme cases, acute radiation poisoning, an immediate life-threatening condition. NASA is aware of the problem and recently supported a new post-doc from MIT named Robert Hinshaw via the Institute for Advanced Concepts (NIAC) program. Dr. HHinshaw'sjob over the next year will be to study the effectiveness of an extreme type of mitochondria replacement therapy to treat the long- and short-term risks of radiation exposure in space.

Dark Matter Doesn't Decay, Whatever It Is

Dark Matter Doesn't Decay, Whatever It Is

And Then There Were Three: NASA Shuts Down More Voyager 2 Science Instruments

In an effort to conserve Voyager 2's dwindling energy and extend the spacecraft's mission, NASA has shut down another of its instruments. They did it with the Plasma Spectrometer in October 2024, and it won't be the last. In March, Voyager 2's Low-Energy Charged Particle instrument will be powered down.

What does this mean for the durable spacecraft?

"If we don’t turn off an instrument on each Voyager now, they would probably have only a few more months of power before we would need to declare end of mission." - Suzanne Dodd, Voyager Project Manager, JPL

Things have changed a lot since the pair of Voyager spacecraft were launched in 1977. Our planet is hotter, the human population has ballooned, and Battlestar Galactica came and went—twice.

Voyager 1 and 2 have surprised us all with their longevity. When they were launched, their planned mission length was a mere five years. Now, almost 50 years after their launch date, they've both reached interstellar space, a remarkable achievement.

This image shows Voyager 2 blasting off on a Titan-Centaur rocket from Cape Canaveral on August 20th, 1977. Image Credit: NASA

Though both spacecraft have proven to be durable, nothing lasts forever, not even plutonium. When they were launched, they both carried about 13.5 kg of plutonium-238 in their Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generators (RTGs). RTGs generate electricity by running the heat from the decaying plutonium through a thermocouple. However, as the plutonium decays, its power output is reduced. That necessitates lowering the spacecraft's power demands.

That's where NASA is at with both Voyagers. They've had to sequentially shut down systems that are no longer providing much scientific benefit. Fortunately, some of the spacecraft's instruments were aimed at planetary science and are less critical in interstellar space.

"The Voyagers have been deep space rock stars since launch, and we want to keep it that way as long as possible," said Suzanne Dodd, Voyager project manager at JPL. "But electrical power is running low. If we don’t turn off an instrument on each Voyager now, they would probably have only a few more months of power before we would need to declare end of mission."

Each Voyager spacecraft carries the same payload of 10 science instruments. NASA has shut down different instruments on each one at different times to achieve the best science outcomes.

In October 2024, NASA turned off Voyager 2's Plasma Spectrometer. On March 24th, NASA will shut down Voyager 2's Low-Energy Charged Particle Instrument (LECP), leaving it with only three active instruments: the Triaxial Fluxgate Magnetometer (MAG), the Cosmic Ray Subsystem (CRS), and the Plasma Wave Subsystem (PWS).

Those three instruments still allow Voyager 2 to gather valuable scientific data.

Voyager 2 captured this image of Jupiter and Io when it was 24 million km away. Image Credit: NASA/JPL

Voyager 2's MAG instrument measured the magnetic fields of Uranus and Neptune and how the solar wind interacted with their magnetospheres. It also played a vital role in determining exactly when Voyager 2 crossed the heliopause into interstellar space. Now that the spacecraft is in interstellar space, MAG is measuring the strength of interstellar magnetic fields and how they interact with the Sun's magnetic fields.

The CRS instrument helped scientists measure energetic particles inside the magnetospheres of the outer planets. It also provided irreplaceable data on the composition, energy, and distribution of cosmic rays. By measuring cosmic ray nuclei, it helped scientists understand how these rays are accelerated and propagated. By measuring cosmic ray flux in interstellar space, the CRS revealed some of the details about the ISM.

The PWS measured the density of electrons near the Solar System's planets. Early in the Voyager missions, the instrument detected lightning storms on Jupiter and other giant planets, a significant development in understanding these planets. In interstellar space, it's measuring the density of the interstellar plasma. Its measurements are critical to understanding the interstellar medium (ISM).

Throughout its mission, the LECP instrument has told scientists about the energy of charged particles and the dynamics of the Sun's solar wind. It has also shown how some particles can leak out of the heliosphere into interstellar space. As Voyager 2 continues its journey into interstellar space, the LECP will tell us more about the heliopause and how particles behave differently in the heliosphere and interstellar space.

"Every minute of every day, the Voyagers explore a region where no spacecraft has gone before." - Linda Spilker, Voyager project scientist at JPL

The LECP instrument will be shut down later this month, reducing Voyager 2 to only three instruments. Nothing illustrates Voyager's longevity and robustness more than the LECP. It's only being shut down because of energy constraints, not because of degraded performance.

Voyager 2 uses a stepped motor to rotate the instrument 360 degrees and provides a 15.7-watt pulse every 192 seconds. During development and testing, the motor was tested to 500,000 steps. That was enough to see it through until the spacecraft encountered Saturn in August 1980. However, the motor will have completed more than 8.5 million steps by the time it's deactivated later this month.

Like other facets of the Voyager program, the LECP has lasted so long that its principal investigator, Stamatios Krimigis, is now 86 years old and has retired into an honorary position. He's now Emeritus Head of the Space Exploration Sector of the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL). Maybe both the man and the instrument will fully retire at the same time.

Voyager 1 and 2 are our first interstellar probes, though they were never intended to be. Everything they're showing us about interstellar space is bonus knowledge. Many of the people behind the program are gone now, but both spacecraft live on. There's a poignancy to that that goes beyond science, charged particles, and the details of the interstellar medium. They're humanity's first unintentional envoys into interstellar space and are starting to outlast their creators.

"The Voyager spacecraft have far surpassed their original mission to study the outer planets." - Patrick Koehn, Voyager Program Scientist

This graphic from 2019 shows the locations of both Voyage probes in relationship with the heliosphere. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Johns Hopkins APL

However, the Voyagers are scientific missions, and they're still stubbornly fulfilling those missions.

"The Voyager spacecraft have far surpassed their original mission to study the outer planets," said Patrick Koehn, Voyager program scientist at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "Every bit of additional data we have gathered since then is not only valuable bonus science for heliophysics but also a testament to the exemplary engineering that has gone into the Voyagers — starting nearly 50 years ago and continuing to this day."

NASA is determined to milk the Voyager spacecraft for as much data as possible. Once Voyager 2's LECP is turned off later this month, both Voyagers should be able to operate for another year before another instrument will need to go dark. For Voyager 1, this means it will lose its LECP. Voyager 2's CRS will be shut off in 2026.

NASA engineers say that their power conservation program should let both spacecraft operate into the 2030s, albeit with a single instrument each. However, they have been operating in deep space for almost 50 years, and it's not a benign environment. It's only rational to expect some other problems to crop up.

It's easy to gloss over the success of the Voyager program now that space missions launch every month, powerful rovers explore Mars, and high-resolution cameras deliver a steady stream of yummy images to our hungry browsers. It's also easy to forget that they've both travelled more than 20 billion km. In fact, when Voyager 2 sends us a signal, it takes 19.5 hours to reach us. For Voyager 1, the signal travel time is even greater: 23.5 hours. Those signal travel times will only grow as the spacecraft continue their journeys. And every kilometre of their journeys is a new frontier for humanity.

"Every minute of every day, the Voyagers explore a region where no spacecraft has gone before," said Linda Spilker, Voyager project scientist at JPL. "That also means every day could be our last. But that day could also bring another interstellar revelation. So, we’re pulling out all the stops, doing what we can to make sure Voyagers 1 and 2 continue their trailblazing for the maximum time possible."

• Press Release: NASA Turns Off 2 Voyager Science Instruments to Extend Mission

• Press Release: 40 Years Ago: Voyager 2 Explores Jupiter

• Published Research: Whistlers observed by Voyager 1: Detection of lightning on Jupiter

Lucy Sees its Next Target: Asteroid Donaldjohanson

NASA's asteroid-studying spacecraft Lucy captured an image of its next flyby target, the asteroid Donaldjohanson. On April 20th, the spacecraft will pass within 960 km of the small, main belt asteroid. It will keep imaging it for the next two months as part of its optical navigation program.

Donaldjohanson is an unwieldy name for an asteroid, but it's fitting. Donald Johanson is an American paleoanthropologist who discovered an important australopithecine skeleton in Ethiopia's Afar Triangle in 1974. The female hominin skeleton showed that bipedal walking developed before larger brain sizes, an important discovery in human evolution. She was named Lucy.

NASA named their asteroid-studying mission Lucy because it also seeks to uncover clues about our origins. Instead of ancient skeletal remains, Lucy will study asteroids, which are like fossils of planet formation.

During its 12-year mission, Lucy will visit eight asteroids. Two are in the main belt, and six are Jupiter trojans. Asteroid Donaldjohanson is a main-belt, carbonaceous C-type asteroid—the most common variety—about 4 km in diameter and is Lucy's first target. It's not one of the mission's primary scientific targets. Instead, the flyby will give Lucy mission personnel an opportunity to test and calibrate the spacecraft's navigation system and instruments.

This image depicts the two areas where most of the asteroids in the Solar System are found: the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter and the Trojans, two groups of asteroids moving ahead of and following Jupiter in its orbit around the Sun. Image Credit: NASA

The animation below blinks between images captured by Lucy on Feb. 20th and 22nd. It shows the perceived motion of Donaldjohanson relative to the background stars as the spacecraft rapidly approaches the asteroid.

via GIPHY

The flyby is like a practice run before Lucy visits the Jupiter trojans. These asteroids are clusters of rock and ice that never coalesced into planets when the Solar System formed. These are the "fossils of planet formation," the most well-preserved evidence from the days of Solar System formation.

Currently, Donaldjohanson is 70 million km away and will remain a tiny point of light for weeks. Only on the day of the encounter will the spacecraft's cameras capture any detail on the asteroid's surface. In the images above, the dim asteroid still stands out from the dimmer stars of the constellation Sextans. Lucy's high-resolution L'LORRI instrument, the Long Lucy LOng Range Reconnaissance Imager, captured the images.

Lucy is following a unique flight pattern. It's essentially a long figure-eight.

Illustration of the Lucy spacecraft's orbit around Jupiter, which will allow it to study its Trojan population. Though the image lists 6 flybys, the spacecraft will visit 8 asteroids. One of the listed ones is a binary, and the spacecraft already encountered the asteroid Dinkinesh. Image Credit: SwRI

Even this early in its mission, Lucy has delivered some surprising results. In November 2023, it flew past asteroid 152830 Dinkinesh. The flyby was intended as a test for the spacecraft's braking system, but instead, it revealed that Dinkinesh has a small satellite. Closer observations showed that the satellite is actually a contact binary, which means it's composed of two connected bodies. This was a valuable insight into asteroids.

These two images from Lucy show the asteroid Dinkinesh and its satellite Selam. The first image (L) shows Selam just coming into view behind Dinkinesh. The second image (R) reveals that Selam is actually two objects, a contact binary. Image Credits: By NASA/Goddard/SwRI/Johns Hopkins APL/NOIRLab - Public Domain, https://ift.tt/fzc18R4

There are surprising discoveries in every mission, and Lucy is no exception. As it makes its way through its list of targets, it will almost certainly show us some surprises.

The Trojans are difficult to study from a distance. They're a long way away. Scientists aren't certain how many there are; there may be as many Trojans as there are main-belt asteroids. The Trojans exhibit a wide variety of compositions and characteristics, which could indicate that they came from different parts of the Solar System. By studying the Trojans in all their diversity, Lucy will hopefully help scientists reconstruct their origins and how they were captured by Jupiter.

The Solar System has a long history and we've only just become a part of it. Some of the clues to our origins are out there among the battered rocks of the asteroid belt and the Jupiter Trojans. Lucy will give us our best look at the Trojans. Who knows what it might reveal?

Press Release: NASA's Lucy Spacecraft Takes Its 1st Images of Asteroid Donaldjohanson

Press Release: NASA Lucy Images Reveal Asteroid Dinkinesh to be Surprisingly Complex

ASU Institute of Human Origins: Lucy's Story

For the Sake of Astronaut Health, Should we Make the ISS Dirtier?

There are several well-documented health risks that come from spending extended periods in microgravity, including muscle atrophy, bone density loss, and changes to organ function and health. In addition, astronauts have reported symptoms of immune dysfunction, including skin rashes and other inflammatory conditions. According to a new study, these issues could be due to the extremely sterile environment inside spacecraft and the International Space Station (ISS). Their results suggest that more microbes could help improve human health in space.

The study was led by Rodolfo A. Salido and Haoqi Nina Zhao, a bioengineer and an environmental analytical chemist at the University of California San Diego (UCSD), respectively. They were joined by researchers from multiple UCSD programs and centers, the University of Denver, the Chiba University-UC San Diego Center for Mucosal Immunology Allergy and Vaccines (cMAV), Space Research Within Reach, the Baylor College Center for Space Medicine, the Blue Marble Space Institute of Science (BMSIS), the Biotechnology and Planetary Protection Group at NASA JPL, and the Astronaut Office at NASA Johnson.

The study was a collaborative effort with astronauts aboard the ISS, who swabbed 803 different surfaces – 100 times that of previous surveys – to get a census of microbes aboard the station. The researchers identified which bacterial species and chemicals were present in each sample and created three-dimensional maps to illustrate where each of them was found and how they might be interacting. Their results indicate that the ISS has a much lower diversity of microbes compared to human-built environments on Earth.

NASA astronaut Catherine (Cady) Coleman, Expedition 26 flight engineer, is pictured with a stowage container and its contents in the Harmony node of the International Space Station. Credit: NASA

Overall, the team found that chemicals from cleaning products and disinfectants were ubiquitously throughout the station and that astronauts mostly introduce microbes aboard the ISS through shed human skin cells. They also found that different modules hosted different microbial communities and chemical signatures based on the module’s use. For example, dining and food preparation areas contained more food-related microbes, whereas the ISS’s space toilet contained more urine- and fecal matter-related microbes and bioproducts of metabolism (metabolites).

“We noticed that the abundance of disinfectant on the surface of the International Space Station is highly correlated with the microbiome diversity at different locations on the space station,” said Zhao in a Cell Press release. These results suggest that more microbes from Earth could help improve astronaut health. Said Salido:

“Future built environments, including space stations, could benefit from intentionally fostering diverse microbial communities that better mimic the natural microbial exposures experienced on Earth, rather than relying on highly sanitized spaces. If we really want life to thrive outside Earth, we can’t just take a small branch of the tree of life and launch it into space and hope that it will work out. We need to start thinking about what other beneficial companions we should be sending with these astronauts to help them develop ecosystems that will be sustainable and beneficial for all.” 

The team found that microbial communities were less diverse aboard the ISS than most places on Earth, except where urban, industrialized, and isolated environments (i.e., hospitals) were concerned. They further found that ISS surfaces lacked free-living environmental microbes usually found in soil and water. Similar to the well-documented benefits gardening has for the human immune system, the researchers conclude that incorporating these microbes and their substrates into the ISS could improve astronaut health without sacrificing hygiene.

Astronauts on the International Space Station experience an orbital reboost. Credit: NASA/ESA

“There’s a big difference between exposure to healthy soil from gardening versus stewing in our own filth, which is kind of what happens if we’re in a strictly enclosed environment with no ongoing input of those healthy sources of microbes from the outside,” said co-author Robin Knight, a computational microbiologist and professor at UCSD and leader of the Knight Lab.

Looking to the future, the researchers hope to refine their analyses to detect potentially pathogenic microbes and how environmental metabolites could be used as indicators for astronaut health. The team claims that these methods could also help improve the health of people living and working in similarly sterile environments on Earth.

This research was supported by the National Institute of Health (NIH), the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, UCSD, the Center for the Advancement of Science in Space (CASIS), and the ISS National Laboratory. The paper detailing their findings, “The International Space Station has a unique and extreme microbial and chemical environment driven by use patterns,” was published on February 27th in the journal Cell.

Further Reading: EurekAlert!

The post For the Sake of Astronaut Health, Should we Make the ISS Dirtier? appeared first on Universe Today.

Good News! The Subaru Telescope Confirms that Asteroid 2024 YR4 Will Not Hit Earth.

On December 27th, 2024, the Chilean station of the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS) detected 2024 YR₄. This Near-Earth Asteroid (NEA) belongs to the Apollo group, which orbits the Sun with a period of approximately four years. For most of its orbit, 2024 YR4 orbits far from Earth, but sometimes, it crosses Earth’s orbit. The asteroid was spotted shortly after it made a close approach to Earth on Christmas Day 2024 and is now moving away. Additional observations determined it had a 1% probability of hitting Earth when it makes its next close pass in December 2032.

This led the International Asteroid Warning Network (IAWN) – overseen by the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA) – to issue the first-ever official impact risk notification for 2024 YR₄. The possibility of an impact also prompted several major telescopes to gather additional data on the asteroid. This included the Subaru Telescope at the Mauna Kea Observatory in Hawaii, which captured images of the asteroid on February 20th, 2025. Thanks to the updated positional data from these observations, astronomers have refined the asteroid’s orbit and determined that it will not hit Earth.

This is not the first time the odds of the asteroid hitting Earth have been reevaluated. Throughout February, refined measurements of the asteroid altered the estimated likelihood multiple times, first to 2.3% and then to 3.1%, before dropping significantly to 0.28%. Thanks to the observations of the Subaru Telescope, which were conducted at the request of the JAXA Planetary Defense Team and in response to the IAWN’s call for improved orbital tracking, the chance of impact has been downgraded to 0.004%.

Monte Carlo modeling of 2024 YR4’s swath of possible locations as of February 23rd, 2025 – 0.004% probability of impact. Credit: iawn.net

The updated estimate was calculated by NASA’s Center for NEO Studies (CNEOS), the ESA’s Near-Earth Objects Coordination Centre (NEOCC), and the NEO Dynamic Site (NEODyS). The Subaru observations were conducted using the telescope’s Hyper Suprime-Cam (HSC), a wide-field prime-focus camera that captured images of 2024 YR₄ as it grew dimmer. The observations have since been forwarded to the Minor Planet Center (MPC) of the International Astronomical Union (IAU). Dr. Tsuyoshi Terai of the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ), who led the observations, explained:

“Although 2024 YR₄ appeared relatively bright at the time of its discovery, it has been steadily fading as it moves away from the Earth. By late February, observations would have been extremely challenging without a large telescope. This mission was successfully accomplished thanks to the Subaru Telescope’s powerful light-gathering capability and HSC’s high imaging performance.”

Based on these latest observations, the IAWN reports that 2020 YR₄ will “pass at a distance beyond the geosynchronous satellites and possibly beyond the Moon.” They also indicate that there is no significant potential that the asteroid will impact Earth in the next century. The IAWN also states that it will continue to track 2024 YR4 through early April. At this point, it will be too faint to image and won’t be observable from Earth again until 2028.

Further Reading: NAOJ

The post Good News! The Subaru Telescope Confirms that Asteroid 2024 YR4 Will Not Hit Earth. appeared first on Universe Today.