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Indian Space Research Organisation PSLV-C60/SPADEX Mission

By Gurbir Dated: December 30, 2024 Leave a Comment

Later today (see countdown), ISRO will launch Pits #PSLV-C60/SPADEX Mission. SPAce Docking EXperiment (SPADEX) dual spacecrafts.

The mission objective is to test in-orbit rendezvous​ and docking. Primary payloads are two separate spacecraft, each of about 200+kg, a chaser and a target. The PSLV will place them in two different orbits, and 10 days later, the chaser will adjust its orbit, approach and dock with the target. Control of the combined spacecraft, power transfer between them, and subsequent undocking procedures are also part of the mission.

In addition, ISRO continues to exploit the 4th stage as the PSLV Orbital Experiment Platform (POEM) at around 350km altitude. The POEM will host 24 experiments, 10 of which are non-governmental – academic institutions or private sector startups. The POEM and hosted payloads have a lifetime of a few months, but the SPADEX mission​ is expected to operate for two years.

See the countdown here. The launch will be streamed on Youtube live here.

For more details, the ISRO subreddit is an excellent source.

PSLV-C60: SpaDeX Mission Updates and Discussion.
byu/Ohsin inISRO

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Black Friday 2024. 50% discount code

By Gurbir Dated: November 19, 2024 Leave a Comment

This years #BlackFriday code is BlackFriday_50%_29Nov-8Dec2024 and is valid between 29th November and 8th December, inclusive.

The code is applied to the basket at checkout and only a single postage fee is applicable irrespective of the number of books purchased. Here is what you need to do. (any problems – email info@astrotalkuk.org)

1. Go to https://gurbir.co.uk/shop/

2. Select a book and add to basket

3. Select optional available formats


4. When finished – select View Basket

 5. Enter coupon code BlackFriday_50%_29Nov-8Dec2024

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International Astronautical Congress 2024 – Milan, Italy

By Gurbir Dated: October 14, 2024 Leave a Comment

The IAC2024 kicked off this morning with the “Responsible Space for Sustainability” theme. There was a bit more pomp and ceremony because the President of the Italian Republic, Sergio Mattarella, turned up. A couple of ceremonial soldiers accompanied him in colourful attire, very shiny swords and grandiose headgear.

The morning kicked off with IAF president Clay Mowry’s lively speech, in which he welcomed almost 7,000 attendees from over 100 countries. After thanking all the partners and sponsors, mentioning many individually, he made a startling announcement. A bit of space was here at the IAC.

He said that extraterrestrial material from space was making an appearance here in Milan. Samples of asteroid Benu from the US mission OSIRIS-REx, which returned last year, are on display at the NASA booth in the exhibition. In June, China’s Chang’e-6 lunar probe returned samples of moon rock from the lunar farside. The CNSA booth has a sample from that mission on display.

There are around 30 astronauts here at the IAC and two of them Samantha Cristoforetti and Luca Parmitano made it on to the stage.

Some awards were given during the ceremony. These included the IAF World Space Award for the success of Chandrayaan-3’s soft landing near the lunar south pole in 2023. ISRO Chairman accepted the award by standing in front of a picture of a large team of ISRO scientists and engineers.

Michael Gold, Executive Vice President for Civil Space and External Affairs received the “Redwire chief growth officer” award. He squeezed in lots of Star Trek references in his acceptance speech.

There was an odd “Time Capsule cam”. A camera on the stage was going to be capturing all the events, and then the footage would be sent up to space and sent to the ISS. Apparently, as a symbol that this commitment to space sustainability is not just for us here on Earth. The ISS has had full access to the internet for a very long time. If they wanted, the ISS crew could have streamed this ceremony on youtube like many others. I think I missed something!

This is the fifth time an IAC has been held in Italy and the first in Milan. 562 years ago, Leonardo De Vinci lived for two decades in Milan and made his initial designs for a flying machine there. If he is up there looking down, I can’t help but think he is looking at our progress and saying – what took you so long!

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Episode 112 – Brown Dwarfs, Dark Matter and Dark Energy

By Gurbir Dated: March 15, 2024 Leave a Comment

This episode was recorded in Tenerife with Professor Eduardo L Martín who is based at the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias. He is working on the European Space Agency’s mission, Euclid.

In time Euclid will shed light on both dark matter and dark energy. It was launched in July 2023 and arrived in its L2 orbit a month later. It has just two instruments which will produce a high-resolution 3-D map of a third of the sky, stretching back 10 billion years during its initial 6-year operational lifetime.

Professor Martín is not part of the Euclid Consortium the around 2500 scientists and engineers from more than a dozen countries who operate the Euclid Mission. He is one of the two Euclid mission Independent Legacy Scientists. Professor Martín is a specialist in substellar bodies, that is celestial bodies with a size about that of Jupiter but with around 50 times its mass. When initially theorised in the 1960s they were called Black Dwarfs but renamed in the 1970s by Jill Tarter as Brown Dwarfs.

Brown Dwarfs generate energy only through gravitational compression, not nuclear fusion. There is an overlap in surface temperature between young brown dwarfs and old very low-mass stars. Martín and his collaborators have developed spectroscopic methods to distinguish brown dwarfs from stars, in particular the Lithium test. More about this interesting role of Lithium in cosmology in Professor Martín’s book published in 2023 by the Institute of Physics, entitled “Lithium Across the Universe“. You can download several free-to-read chapters – here.

Brown Dwarfs emit mostly in the infrared not optical light as our sun. One of the two instruments on Euclid operates in the infrared and can detect these “dark ultracold objects of substellar mass“. Does Professor Martin think Euclid will find Brown Dwarfs? He told me in this recording, “that is what I put in the proposal so we had better do now”. He is supported by a postdoc Marusa Zerjal and a student Diego Martin, funded by the European Research Council.

The first images were released in November 2023. The spacecraft and its instruments are operating well and sending data. More about the Euclid mission, images released so far and a summary of the attributes of Normal Matter, Dark Matter and Dark Energy below.

Episode112 ESA’s Euclid Mission with Professor Eduardo Martin

Perhaps the most pressing question for astrophysicists is what is the cosmos made of. They have known for a long time that visible matter accounts only for the 5%, Dark Matter, 27% and Dark Energy 68%. Currently, most of the attributes of Dark Matter and Dark Energy remain a mystery. Helping to shed some answers to these questions is Euclid’s primary goal.

The visible matter is something we are surrounded by. It responds to all 4 known forces, electromagnetic, gravitation, and the strong and weak nuclear force. Dark matter is not dark, it’s invisible and is only detected through its gravitational influence on the matter we can see. Gravitational lensing is one manifestation.

Whereas gravity is a force of attraction, Dark Energy is repulsive, powering the expansion of the Universe. Its effects are observed by monitoring type 1a supernovae in distant galaxies. Some scientists consider Dark Energy as the Cosmological Constant that Einstein initially added and then removed from his General Theory of Relativity. The Cosmological Constant is now considered by some as the 5th fundamental force, after gravity, electromagnetism, and strong and weak nuclear forces.

  • Horse head Nebula. Credit ESA
  • Globular Cluster NGC6397. Credit ESA
  • Irregular Galaxy NGC6822. Credit ESA
  • Spiral galaxy IC342. Credit ESA Credit ESA
  • Perseus Cluster. Credit ESA

Summary of attributes for Normal Matter, Dark Matter and Dark Energy

AttributeNormal MatterDark MatterDark Energy
Formation TimeShortly after the Big BangLikely formed shortly after the Big BangBelieved to have originated with the expansion of the universe
LocationEverything we can see including Galaxies, stars, planets and the interstellar mediumPrimarily in galactic halos, halos around galactic clusters and permeates the universeHomogeneously distributed throughout space, associated with vacuum energy
Observational EvidenceEmission and absorption spectra, visible light, X-rays, cosmic microwave backgroundGravitational effects on visible matter, galaxy rotation curves; Dark matter inferred from galaxy cluster dynamics by Fritz Zwicky, 1933). Galaxy rotation curves suggest dark matter and the work of Vera Rubin from the 1970s.
Observation of gravitational lensing.
Acceleration of cosmic expansion, distant Type 1a supernova observations by Saul Perlmutter, Brian Schmidt, Adam Riess (1998-1999).
In time, it may turn out to be the 5th fundamental force.
Interaction with Electromagnetic ForceStrong interaction, contributes to various spectra and emissionsWeak or non-existent interactions with light and other EM wavesWeak or non-existent interactions with light and other EM waves
Interaction with Gravitational ForceExperiences gravitational attraction with other matterExperiences gravitational attraction, influencing cosmic structures. Exhibits a repulsive gravitational effect, driving cosmic expansion
Percentage Composition in the Universe~4.6% of the total mass-energy content~26.5% of the total mass-energy content~68.9% of the total mass-energy content
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