Earlier this week I watched as my beloved Minnesota Twins once again flamed out in the first round of the MLB playoffs to a Yankees team that overmatched them by a fair margin. But while baseball will always be foremost in my sports hierarchy, I am always glad to turn my attentions to football, and this is where the inspiration for today’s topic originates. Some years ago, I was searching for some music on the internet and came across a collection called “Selections from Autumn Thunder: 40 Years of NFL Films Music.” Even if you are not a football fan, I imagine most of you would recognize some of the music, as well as the trademark style of NFL Films (slow-motion, baritone narration, relentless optimism) simply because of how often they have been adapted for wider use in pop culture, primarily advertising. After downloading a few of the more interesting tracks, I began thinking of how I might be able to get them into Space Week somehow, and the IREL, that is the International Robotic Explorers League, was born.

Download some of the tracks from “Selections from Autumn Thunder: 40 Years of NFL Films Music” or just listen to the previews and imagine that John Facenda is narrating this story.

Consisting of the many and varied robotic spacecraft exploring our Solar System and parts beyond, the IREL soldiers on tirelessly, often in obscurity and in conditions that would make even the most hardy of human beings question their resolve, all to provide us with the data necessary to enhance our understanding of the Universe. They may only be robots, but they give every ounce of circuitry in the service of completing their missions, in many cases going above and beyond the call of duty to return useful measurements long after their designed operational lifetimes. Join me now as we take a look around the league.

The Martian rover team of Spirit and Opportunity continues to study the surface of the red planet’s equatorial region, though well into their sixth years of operation, they are beginning to show their age. Opportunity recently finished an in-depth study of a meteorite named Shelter Island and is on route to its next target. It has now logged over ten miles of total driving and remains in good health. Spirit, unfortunately, has had a rougher go of it. Earlier this year one of its wheels became stuck in the Martian soil, and it has yet to be dislodged. Engineers have been hard at work testing a number of different strategies with a twin rover back on Earth, but nothing has worked yet. Also, due to the vagaries of Martian weather and the buildup of dust on the solar panels, Spirit’s power reserves are much less than its counterpart halfway around the world. Can they both hold on until their replacement, the Mars Science Laboratory, arrives in 2012? Stranger things have happened.

Moving outward to Saturn, we find Cassini now into the second year of its “Equinox” extended mission, so named due to the fact that one of Saturn’s two equinoxes occurred a couple of months ago. At these two points during its almost 30-year orbit, the tilt of Saturn is such that its rings are invisible for a brief time to earthbound observers. Speaking of rings, did you hear we found a new one? (More on that later.) In addition to continuing observation of the planet itself, its two favorite flyby targets are the moons Titan and Enceladus. With its rivers and lakes (of methane), vast deserts, mountains and volcanoes (of ice), the surface of Titan continues to fascinate. Recent observations of rain and other atmospheric phenomena reinforce how similar to our own world Titan is, yet also make clear the differences.

The icy moon Enceladus is now thought to have, like Jupiter’s Europa, a globe-spanning subsurface ocean of indeterminate depth, and several flybys are planned to collect further evidence of what is now only hinted at. Finally, one of the less heralded instruments on Cassini, the Ion and Neutral Camera, recently helped us to completely rethink our image of the heliosphere, the region of space carved out by the Sun’s solar wind. Previously, it was thought to be egg-shaped: as the Sun traveled around the center of the galaxy the leading edge would be the rounded egg bottom, and the trailing edge being the tapering cone. Thanks to the Cassini data, the heliosphere is now thought to be an actual sphere.

Now what’s that about a new ring of Saturn? That is only the most recent discovery of the Spitzer Space Telescope, an infrared telescope that, along with the Hubble, is part of NASA’s Great Observatories program. More of a doughnut than a ring, this new feature is immense but diffuse, with most of the material being supplied by the moon Phoebe. Since it began service in 2003, Spitzer has also studied countless star forming regions in our galaxy, looking for the telltale disks that are the precursor to what may become a planetary system. Supernova remnants have also been a favorite target, as seeing them in infrared gives us more clues about the elements created during those cataclysmic events.

These are just some of the standouts of the IREL, a group that includes Kepler, Dawn, Mercury MESSENGER, New Horizons, SOHO, and the ageless Voyagers. While we only have enough time to check up on a few of them, you can rest assured that they will continue to make fascinating discoveries that further our knowledge of the great dark beyond.

Thank you, and good night.

Links:
Mars Exploration Rovers
Cassini Equinox Mission
Spitzer Space Telescope
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory where you can keep track of all the latest IREL action.

Norman Barrett Wiik as a current graduate student in public policy, a board member for Camp Quest of Minnesota and Camp Quest Inc., and a lifelong enthusiast of space exploration.

Over the nine previous years of Space Week, there are more than a few instances in which I have addressed the same topic more than once, usually because recent developments or new information warrant another look at it, and today’s topic of space debris falls squarely in that category. Think back for a moment to the popular 2008 animated feature Wall-E. In it we see the Earth depicted as a deserted wasteland, filled to overcapacity with the mostly useless junk left behind by the former human inhabitants, who have now fled to the stars in vast spaceships where their consumptive ways continue unabated. In this bleak scenario, not only is the Earth’s surface choked with humanity’s detritus, but its orbital space as well. We see this first in the opening zoom-in shot and again when the title character stows away on the robotic reconnaissance ship as it leaves Earth to report back to its human masters. In the film, this cloud of debris is navigated with minimal difficulty and is used for comic effect (including a satellite looking an awful lot like Sputnik, now long since fallen to Earth), but in real life, the journey would be perilous beyond measure.

Space debris of the man-made variety has been around ever since the first rocket launches in the late 1950s, but it was not until the end of the Cold War that the major space-faring nations began to see the growing number of leftover objects still in orbit from previous space missions as a concern. Types of debris range from entire derelict satellites to spent rocket booster stages to square-inch-sized flecks of paint that have fallen off spacecraft by the millions, but regardless of size, any piece of debris carries the risk of colliding with something we would prefer remained intact, such as a working satellite or the International Space Station.

In the early years of space exploration, there were no protocols against generating debris mainly because the odds of a potential collision were very low. Since the one main thing about space is that there is just so much of it, it can be difficult to envision how it could all be filled up. But while space is vast, the fact is that some space is better than other space, especially when it comes to objects like communication satellites or for conducting certain types of scientific observations. For example, the geostationary orbit, which is the altitude where a satellite will orbit at the exact same speed as the Earth itself (thus appearing stationary to an observer on the ground) has long been well-populated. The five Lagrangian points (areas of stable gravitational influence) of the Earth-Moon or Earth-Sun systems are also potentially valuable and the privilege to occupy them may generate fierce competition as space activity continues to increase.

This growing crowd of objects, especially in high-demand orbits, is one factor that enhances the risk of debris-creating collisions. Another factor comes from a basic feature of orbital physics that stipulates that, except in the case of the Lagrangian points mentioned above, for an object to remain in a stable orbit for any useful length of time, it must be periodically boosted to counteract the effect of Earth’s gravity. This orbital maintenance requires an onboard, therefore finite, store of fuel that will eventually be exhausted. Since weight is money when a space launch is concerned (currently the average is several thousand dollars per pound), there is an incentive to push this fuel store down to the minimum that is necessary to keep the object’s orbit from decaying during its planned operational lifetime. That incentive creates two distinct sources of risk: one is that the amount of fuel available to make emergency course corrections, such as ones needed to avoid a collision, is minimal; the other is that once the fuel is exhausted and the object is no longer operational, it becomes a potential risk to objects that are, especially if the launching nation or company did not take steps to de-orbit it prior to that point.

While responsible space-faring nations are making de-orbit plans a standard feature of launches today, there are hundreds, possibly thousands of derelict objects still around from the time before this need was recognized. These factors combine to create a recipe for eventual chaos in the orbital arena, which if left unchecked, could render wide regions of Earth’s orbital space effectively unusable for decades or even centuries. For while debris generated from objects in low Earth orbit (usually defined as orbits 1,250 miles or less from the Earth’s surface), such as an astronaut’s lost toolbox from a recent shuttle EVA, will fall back to Earth in the space of a few months or years, the orbital decay of debris from higher altitudes may take up to thousands of years depending on its size, speed, and initial orbit. The problem will thus not clear up on its own anytime soon.

Furthermore, there exists the possibility of what is known as a Kessler Syndrome cascade (named for the NASA scientist who first described it in 1978). The dynamics are similar to those of a nuclear chain reaction: once enough material exists, the debris created by any initial collision will go on to trigger a cascade of further collisions that create even more debris. The process continues until there is a cloud of debris around the Earth so thick that it becomes virtually impossible to launch any new satellite without it being chewed to pieces by existing debris in relatively short order and in turn providing fodder for yet more collisions.

The prospect of the orbital space around Earth becoming filled with hazardous debris is thus no longer simply a remote science fiction scenario but has the potential to become reality in relatively short order. Indeed, on February 10th, 2009, the first known collision between two intact satellites took place in orbit above Siberia, an event which nearly doubled the amount of known space debris and created perhaps thousands of small, but still dangerous, objects that are too difficult to track. Later that month, there were two incidents that occurred within a week of each other in which the crew of the International Space Station had to take refuge in anticipation of a possible collision with a golf-ball-size or smaller object. Thankfully, neither potential collision actually took place, but those two close calls and the satellite collision have put the danger of space debris in stark relief.

While individual nations and groups such as the European Union have developed protocols for cutting down on the creation of new space debris, there is currently no comprehensive international framework or set of rules to manage the Earth’s critical orbital space. Some steps have been made in this direction by the UN Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (COPUOS), but nothing concrete has been established. In my opinion, it will have to be an international body that sets up and enforces any new orbital management system, and I look to the model of the international unions that emerged in the 19th century to solve previous coordination issues between national governments as well as private businesses. One of them, the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) already manages some aspects of the geostationary orbit, but its mandate is limited to issues dealing with the use of various spectrum resources and does not address the physical issues that crowding creates.

Thus I think we need a new international union, free of the control of any other government, to manage the allocation of orbits and deal with the problem of space debris. This union should have the authority to charge rents for the use of high-demand orbits, impose fines on nations or companies that violate regulations (intentional destruction of satellites, such as China’s action in late 2007, would certainly be prohibited), and require collision insurance for any object launched into space for reasons similar to the reasons why most US states require all drivers to have auto insurance.

Of course, even any new regulatory regime will not be able to completely stop the creation of new space debris, as accidents will happen and some people will try to circumvent the system. Nor will it deal much with the debris that is already there. One policy, already in use, is requiring satellites to be moved to a designated “graveyard orbit” once they have reached the end of their useful lifetime. This takes them out of the way of working satellites and puts them high enough up that they will not pose a danger anytime soon. While some other nifty technical solutions have been proposed, such as pointing lasers at debris to make them fall to Earth faster, they all fail the cost effectiveness test by requiring expensive new architecture for their support. Depending on how soon we can get a new international union or other regulatory framework in place, such technical fixes may become necessary, but for now we still have some breathing room, and making sure no new debris is created should be our top priority.

Links
IMDB page for Wall-E
The Kessler Syndrome
UN COPUOS
Recent news articles on space debris:
The Economist: Flying blind
Space.com: Space Junk Around Earth on the Rise, Experts Say
ABC News: Space Junk Threatens Atlantis’ Hubble Repair Mission

Question: What other animated production features an Earth surrounded by a cloud of debris, and actually deals (somewhat) realistically with the danger it poses? (Major geek points if you know this one.)

Norman Barrett Wiik as a current graduate student in public policy, a board member for Camp Quest of Minnesota and Camp Quest Inc., and a lifelong enthusiast of space exploration.

Greetings, everyone.

So after watching what will surely go down as one of the most epic games in Twins, and even all of baseball, history, it seems a little anticlimactic to sit down and write about the 200-mile high club, but what the hey, it’s for science.

Late in July, my wife and I welcomed our first child, Liam Oran, into the world.  He is a happy and healthy 10 weeks old now, and his presence prompted my wife to suggest today’s topic when I was soliciting suggestions a few weeks ago.  While contemplating the idea of sex in space may invite more than its share of muffled laughter or red faces, for anyone who believes that the future of the human species depends on our ability to colonize outer space and other planets, it is serious business.  Not only are there the challenges of the mechanics surrounding the deed itself, but also challenges dealing with physiology, pregnancy and fetal development, marriage and family dynamics, and basic human well-being.  In short, it is unrealistic to ignore this subject if we ever wish to live anywhere other than the Earth.

Though there have been many explorations of these challenges in science fiction, to this point there is very little in the way of factual evidence to cite when it comes to actual space missions.  With a few notable (and expensive) exceptions, everyone who has ever gone into space has done so under the auspices of a government-funded program, and in this and other countries, there still exists a sizable portion of taxpayers who would find that sort of “research” unsettling or immoral.  Thus there is little actual data regarding sex in space among humans, only a lot of rumor and speculation.

However, given certain basic physical laws (for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction), one can see how there could be quite a few hurdles to overcome in order to engage in the horizontal (or vertical, or diagonal, or any other directional orientation really) mambo in space without the participants flying off every which way in short order.  Amenities such as hand or footholds, belts, sleeping bags, or something called a “2suit” (invented by science fiction author Vanna Bonta) could mitigate some of this, but it would still take a good deal of practice and acclimation to microgravity in order to do it without risk of injury.  Hopefully once space tourism kicks into gear, and people start going into space for recreational purposes, we will have a bit more to go on than gossip and fertile imaginations.

When it comes to the subject of reproduction in space, there is somewhat more hard data, but all of it involves various animal species, with the only mammals being rats.  Unfortunately, early results are not encouraging.  While the mechanical difficulties of mating can be overcome, and fertilization can occur, baby rats born in space have all exhibited a lack of ability to orient themselves, something that is almost certainly due to the microgravity environment.  Also, it was found that male rats who had been in space who then returned to Earth and mated with females who hadn’t had babies with a wide range of birth defects.  Finally, given the well known physiological effects of long durations in space, such as loss of bone mass, the atrophying of various muscles, and the risks associated with exposure to radiation, it is likely that any children born in space would have a difficult time ever visiting Earth.

These effects could also have consequences for fertility, although anecdotal evidence suggests that due to changes in blood-flow patterns in space, the men could leave their Viagra at home.  In any case, we are very far from where we need to be in order to ensure that a fetus conceived in space could also develop and be delivered there as safely as one can on Earth.

In addition to the physical and biological aspects of sex in space, any discussion of the subject in a human context must include psychological considerations.  Currently NASA has plans on the drawing board to send humans back to the moon and later to Mars for missions of relatively long durations (several months to a few years), and while some have suggested that the role that sexuality will play in such missions can be mitigated by using crews consisting either of a single gender or of married couples, it is clear that any workable mission plan will need to address this explicitly and thoroughly.

Fortunately we already have a few test cases of instances where groups of 8–12 people have been confined to relatively small areas for time periods similar to the missions being planned.  Scientists wintering in Antarctica comprise one group of cases.  There is also the infamous Biosphere 2 experiment from the early 1990s.  Finally, a group called the Mars Society has for several years been running experiments at four Mars Analogue Research Stations, which simulate as far as possible the conditions actual Martian explorers will face.  What have we found from all of this?  Basically, it can be done.  While there will undoubtedly be friction and conflict, sexual or otherwise, among any small group isolated for a long period of time, with good training in communication skills and anger management, as well as developing the ability to keep oneself entertained, any future moon or Mars crew should be able to avoid killing each other.

In my brief foray into the topic of sex in space, I found that the little we know is vastly exceeded by what we do not know, and there appear to be many fruitful paths of research that could help fill the gap.  Whether or not they will actually be pursued is anyone’s guess, but I hope we are nearing the start of the era when getting it on in zero-g is discussed openly and seriously.  Lastly, I suggest that you all check out an episode from season 3 of the History Channel series “The Universe” entitled “Sex in Space”, which provided a lot of interesting material for this article.

Links:
History Channel series “The Universe”: (individual episodes can be downloaded from iTunes)
Mars Analogue Research Stations
Biosphere 2

Question: While having an all-female crew for a long duration mission is not a silver bullet for avoiding sexual expression, from what other standpoint might such a decision make sense?

Norman Barrett Wiik as a current graduate student in public policy, a board member for Camp Quest of Minnesota and Camp Quest Inc., and a lifelong enthusiast of space exploration.