The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has delayed their plan to restart the Vikram lander and Pragyan rover until Saturday. Nilesh Desai, the Director of Space Applications Centre explained that they originally intended to restart these devices on the evening of September 22, but now they will do it on September 23 ‘due to certain reasons’.
#WATCH | Anand, Gujarat: On Chandrayaan-3, Director of Space Applications Centre, Nilesh Desai says, “…Earlier we planned to reactivate the (Pragyan) rover and (Vikram) lander on the evening of 22nd September, but due to some reasons we will now do it tomorrow on 23rd… pic.twitter.com/bvFTkXpNjZ
Desai explained that their goal was to restart the rover and lander so they could continue moving the rover across the Moon’s surface.
They initially had a plan to move the rover about 300-350 meters but they couldn’t do it as intended due to some issues. So far, the rover has only traveled 105 meters. During the previous attempt, they managed to move it for 10 days on the Moon’s surface.
The Vikram lander and Pragyan rover, which safely landed on the Moon on August 23 will be turned back on and operational again on September 23.
These devices were put to sleep earlier this month after successfully doing experiments on the Moon’s surface. The rover went to sleep on September 2 and the lander followed on September 4.
Conspiracy theorists have crawled out again confidently claiming that the world’s first private spacewalk performed yesterday was ‘fake.’ Two members of SpaceX’s Polaris Dawn mission stepped out of the Dragon spacecraft on September 12, marking the first instance of astronauts getting exposed to space in a commercial mission.
But the historic event seems indigestible to some who are nitpicking about the aspects of the spacewalk.
Commander @rookisaacman has egressed Dragon and is going through the first of three suit mobility tests that will test overall hand body control, vertical movement with Skywalker, and foot restraint pic.twitter.com/XATJQhLuIZ
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) September 12, 2024
“SpaceX Polaris Dawn Spacewalk… Sorry, but it just looks so fake, maybe it just me,” said a user on X posting images of the spacewalk.
The objective was to test the mobility of the spacesuits when they are pressurised. Mission commander Jared Isaacman and Sarah Gillis tested the suit for about ten minutes each before reentering the spacecraft.
If you wanna start another stupid conspiracy you should watch the #SpaceEx space walk right now. It looks absolutely fake the way that person is moving. The 1969 footage looks more convincing.
— LimaTwoEcho 🧃 (@The_Dutch_Don) September 12, 2024
“If you wanna start another stupid conspiracy you should watch the #SpaceEx space walk right now. It looks absolutely fake the way that person is moving. The 1969 footage looks more convincing,” wrote another user.
The focus point of the space deniers was the stiff movement of the astronauts when they floated out of the Dragon spacecraft. But this is what’s supposed to happen when the spacesuit is pressurised against the vacuum of space. The spacesuit itself becomes a spacecraft that protects the lives of astronauts.
As SpaceX CEO Elon Musk himself posted, “All that stands between you and the nothingness of deep space vacuum is that suit.”
Before astronauts step out for a spacewalk, their suits are pressurised like here on Earth to save them from going unconscious and keeping their body fluids from getting boiled. But if the spacesuits save their lives, they also limit mobility – which SpaceX wanted to see how much.
I’m not a space denier but ngl that Dragon spacewalk looked fake af #polarisdawn
— Tony (@tony_eats88) September 12, 2024
But many believe the spacewalk was fake based on the visuals. “I’m not a space denier but ngl that Dragon spacewalk looked fake af #polarisdawn (sic),” a person posted on X.
Some even brought up the Moon landings in the Apollo missions which, according to space deniers, never happened.
The Polaris Dawn – 2024
This is by far one of the g4yest, fake space videos ever created and uploaded to the internet.
“Polaris Dawn & Dragon some supposed 1,400km out above Earth. This is the furthest since the fake NASA Apollo Missions over 50 years ago now,” posted a user with a video of Dragon spacecraft in the highest Earth orbit after 1972. Another shared a video of the Polaris Dawn crew inside the Dragon spacecraft saying, “If you believe they are in space, you are 100% retarded.”
Unfortunately, this might not be the end of it but we believers hope that the historic spacewalk was the first of many.
Polaris Dawn is a five-day mission which launched on September 10 with four astronauts. Piloted by Scott Poteet, the Dragon spacecraft took two women – Gillis and Anna Menon – farthest in space. It is also the highest Earth-orbit mission ever.
NASA is no longer launching the ESCAPADE mission to Mars this year. The agency announced that it is letting go of the launch opportunity in October as Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket might not be ready to take off in its inaugural flight.
The Escape and Plasma Acceleration and Dynamics Explorers or ESCAPADE is a twin-spacecraft mission to explore the Martian atmosphere and magnetosphere. With October is not an option anymore, the next opportunity is Spring 2025.
In a statement, NASA said that the decision was made to avoid challenges and cost associated with draining fuel from the two orbiters in case the mission was delayed in October. The probes will be fuelled with hydrazine and nitrogen tetroxide to be used during the course of their mission.
NASA’s ESCAPADE (Escape and Plasma Acceleration and Dynamics Explorers) mission is now targeting a launch in 2025. ESCAPADE’s two satellites will investigate how solar wind interacts with the magnetic environment of Mars. Learn more: https://t.co/eIoFQ0BbPOpic.twitter.com/kHtbIaxOKz
— NASA (@NASA) September 6, 2024
The launch window to Mars, which significantly reduces the travel time to the red planet, opens this fall. While NASA announced it is targeting Spring of next year for ESCAPADE’s launch, the next such window does not open for another two years.
“This is an important mission for NASA, and it’s critical we have sufficient margin in our prelaunch work to ensure we are ready to fly a tight planetary window,” said Bradley Smith, NASA’s Launch Services Office director, in a statement.
We’re supportive of NASA’s decision to target the ESCAPADE mission for no earlier than spring 2025 and look forward to the flight. We plan to move up New Glenn’s second flight, originally scheduled for December, into November. New Glenn will carry Blue Ring technology and mark…
— Blue Origin (@blueorigin) September 6, 2024
Blue Origin acknowledged the delay saying, “We’re supportive of NASA’s decision to target the ESCAPADE mission for no earlier than spring 2025 and look forward to the flight.”
The Jeff Bezos-owned company is preparing the reusable New Glenn rocket for its debut mission. Named after John Glenn, the first American in space, the launch vehicle stands 320 feet tall and can carry 13 metric tons to geostationary transfer orbit and 45 metric tons to low Earth orbit. According to Blue Origin, it is aiming to reuse the first stage of the rocket 25 times.
Meanwhile, Blue Origin is now preparing to launch the Blue Ring technology. The mission has been moved up from December this year to November after ESCAPADE’s delay.
A new study has revealed that a massive landslide in Greenland, triggered by glacier melting due to climate change, caused mysterious vibrations that spread across the planet for nine consecutive days. This rare event occurred in September 2023 when a 1.2-kilometre-high mountain peak in an East Greenland fjord collapsed, creating a tsunami around 200 metres high.
The tsunami rocked the fjord, a narrow sea inlet surrounded by steep cliffs, sending seismic shocks through Earth’s crust. These unusual vibrations puzzled scientists worldwide. The event reportedly caused nearly $2,00,000 worth of damage to infrastructure at an unoccupied research station on Ella Island in eastern Greenland.
According to researchers, the landslide was caused by the melting of a glacier at the base of the mountain. As the glacier thinned, it became unable to support the rock face above, leading to the collapse. This glacier melting is largely attributed to climate change.
The international research team, which included scientists from University College London (UCL), explained the broader implications of the event. “Our findings highlight how climate change is causing cascading, hazardous feedbacks between the cryosphere, hydrosphere, and lithosphere,” the authors wrote in their study, published in Science.
Seismologist Stephen Hicks, co-author of the study from UCL, noted the unprecedented nature of the event. “When I first saw the seismic signal, I was completely baffled,” he said. “We know seismometers can record a variety of surface activities, but never before have we seen a seismic wave that lasted so long and travelled globally with such a unique oscillation pattern.”
He told CNN that the sound wasn’t what “you might expect with an earthquake, but more of a monotonous hum.”
To understand this phenomenon, the researchers used mathematical models to recreate the landslide and the fjord’s unique shape. This helped explain how the water could have continued to “sloshing” back and forth for nine days. By combining data from seismic recordings, satellite images, and field measurements, the team was able to closely match the height of the real tsunami and the slow-moving cycles of the wave.
The study involved 68 scientists from 41 research institutions, highlighting the importance of collaboration in solving such complex puzzles. Their analysis showed that the tsunami wave moved back and forth every 90 seconds, matching the seismic recordings of vibrations that traveled through the Earth’s crust.
With climate crisis worsening, researchers warned that we could see more large and destructive landslides in the future with the melting of Earth’s polar regions. Seismologist Alice Gabriel from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, a co-author of the study, stressed that “climate change is shifting what is typical on Earth, and it can set unusual events into motion.”
