Space station's new door swings open to welcome commercial travellers

This image provided by NASA shows American astronauts Jeffrey Williams (l.) and Kate Rubins taking a spacewalk to hook up a docking port outside the International Space Station on Friday.

Astronauts created a back door for the International Space Station (ISS) on Friday, which will someday enable commercial space shuttles to dock.

During a spacewalk on Friday, NASA's Commander Jeff Williams and Flight Engineer Kate Rubins installed the first of two docking adapters where crews riding with Boeing and SpaceX will soon disembark.

The newly named "international docking adapter's" installation marks another step forward in commercial space travel, where steadily advancing technology in the last two years has opened up real potential for life both here and in the skies.

It's really good we have an international standard now that anybody can build against and come dock to the station or to anything that has the same standard," David Clemen, Boeing's development director for the space station, said in a NASA press release.

The dock uses unprecedented open-source technology so anyone can build to it. This design strategy hints at how space travel will operate as it enters a new era of commercial development.

"A new interface standard out in the public domain for anyone to build to that standard will stimulate competition and stimulate technology," NASA program manager Shaun Kelley said in an interview on NASA TV. "We're entering a commercial sector now. Any company in the world, any country in the world, can build to that standard and be sure that they can be compatible with us."

The adapter precedes NASA's shift from transporting ISS-bound astronauts via Russian Soyuz rockets, as it has done since 2012, to a new model of using US commercial shuttles. Switching to US companies Boeing and SpaceX frees NASA from an expensive transportation plan with Russia thatcosts taxpayers $70 million per ride. Set for 2018, the plan suggests how soon commercial space travel could become a reality.

"Never before in the history of human spaceflight has there been so much going on all at once," said John Elbon, the vice president and general manager for space exploration at Boeing, during a 2015 briefing on NASA's commercial crew program.

Space travel operations are already speeding up back on terra firma. One sign of the uptick is the packed 2016 schedule for Cape Canaveral, where private companies, the military, ISS cargo loads, and NASA operations are jostling for time on the launch pad. Private space companies such as SpaceX and United Launch Alliance planned more than 30 launches from Florida alone in 2016, nearly double the 2015 schedule. 

"The last time we saw 30-plus launches would have been back in the 1960s," Dale Ketcham of the Space Florida economic development agency told Reuters.

The advance is not without complications. Some space observers on the international scene expressed dismay after Congress passed a bill in late 2015 to regulate space mining, betting that travel and exploration will soon fall under the purview of US companies, not just governments. Some said the law violates the universalist spirit of the 1967 Outer Space Treaty and needs further discussion, wrote Jeff Foust for the Space Review. 

"Asteroid mining is cool. Everyone thinks it's cool. But is it legal?" asked Jim Dunstan, founder of the Mobius Legal Group, during a May panel on the issue. "These are the tough scenarios that we’ve really got to work through as we talk about policy," he said, according to Space Review. 

But technology's rapid advance will bring those "tough scenarios" to the forefront quickly in the coming years. For example, after many failed attempts, companies are learning to reuse rockets in a cost-effective manner, as the Christian Science Monitor's Pete Spotts previously reported:

NASA's space shuttle program was an initial attempt at developing a fleet of reusable vehicles for human spaceflight, as well as for launching and servicing satellites. But over its 30-year history, it never delivered on its architects’ initial promises.     

Initial estimates suggested that each flight would cost as little as $9 million and the cost of carrying cargo would be $118 per pound. By the end of the program, each flight cost about $1.5 billion, and cargo cost about $10,000 per pound.

Now, privately-owned aerospace companies owned by wealthy visionaries are taking up the challenge, free of Wall Street demands for quick returns on investment or of the intense scrutiny of annual federal budget cycles.

As technology makes space exploration appear more practical, some also see the economic potential that Star Trek's iconic "final frontier" could offer to our already-mapped planet. Moon Express, an entrant in the Google Lunar XPRIZE competition, expresses the commercial aim of many companies seeking to explore the moon's natural resources to facilitate deeper space travel. 

"We believe it's critical for humanity to become a multi-world species and that our sister world, the Moon, is an eighth continent holding vast resources than can help us enrich and secure our future," writes Moon Express on the prize website.

Has a New, Fifth Force of Nature Been Found?

Galaxies such as this spiral, known as NGC 6814, are held together by mysterious dark matter.

There may be a fifth force of nature, a new study suggests.

"If true, it's revolutionary," study lead author Jonathan Feng, a professor of physics and astronomy at the University of California, Irvine, said in a statement.

"For decades, we've known of four fundamental forces: gravitation, electromagnetism, and the strong and weak nuclear forces," Feng added. "If confirmed by further experiments, this discovery of a possible fifth force would completely change our understanding of the universe, with consequences for the unification of forces and dark matter." [8 Baffling Astronomy Mysteries]

Feng and his colleagues analyzed data gathered recently by experimental nuclear physicists at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, who were trying to find "dark photons" — hypothetical indicators of mysterious dark matter. Dark matter is thought to make up about 85 percent of all matter in the universe, but it neither absorbs nor emits light, so it's impossible to detect directly. (Scientists have inferred its existence from its gravitational effects on "normal" matter.)

The Hungarians detected tantalizing evidence of a previously unknown particle just 30 times heavier than an electron — a result they published early this year.

"The experimentalists weren’t able to claim that it was a new force," Feng said. "They simply saw an excess of events that indicated a new particle, but it was not clear to them whether it was a matter particle or a force-carrying particle."

The new work by Feng and his team suggests that the Hungarians found not a "dark photon" but rather a "protophobic X boson" — a strange particle whose existence could indicate a fifth force of nature. The known electromagnetic force acts on protons and electrons, but this newfound particle apparently interacts only with electrons and neutrons, and then only at very short distances, researchers said.

"There’s no other boson that we've observed that has this same characteristic," co-author Timothy Tait, also a professor of physics and astronomy at UC-Irvine, said in the same statement. "Sometimes we also just call it the 'X boson,' where 'X' means unknown."

The potential fifth force may be linked to the electromagnetic and strong and weak nuclear forces, as "manifestations of one grander, more fundamental force," Feng said.

It's also possible that the universe of "normal" matter and forces has a parallel "dark" sector, with its own matter and forces, Feng added.

"It’s possible that these two sectors talk to each other and interact with one another through somewhat veiled but fundamental interactions," Feng said. "This dark-sector force may manifest itself as this protophobic force we're seeing as a result of the Hungarian experiment. In a broader sense, it fits in with our original research to understand the nature of dark matter."

While such speculation is intriguing, the researchers stressed that their interpretations are preliminary, and that further study and experiments are needed. Indeed, particles supposedly observed in accelerators sometimes turn out to be statistical flukes.

The good news is that many scientists should be able to do the required follow-up work, Feng said.

"Because the new particle is so light, there are many experimental groups working in small labs around the world that can follow up the initial claims, now that they know where to look," he said.

The new paper has been published in the journal Physical Review Letters. You can read a copy for free at the online preprint site ArXiv.org:http://arxiv.org/abs/1608.03591

Venus-like exoplanet might have oxygen atmosphere, but not life

This artist's conception shows the rocky exoplanet GJ 1132b, located 39 light-years from Earth. New research shows that it might possess a thin, oxygen atmosphere - but no life due to its extreme heat. Credit: CfA/Dana Berry/Skyworks Digita

The distant planet GJ 1132b intrigued astronomers when it was discovered last year. Located just 39 light-years from Earth, it might have an atmosphere despite being baked to a temperature of around 450 degrees Fahrenheit. But would that atmosphere be thick and soupy or thin and wispy? New research suggests the latter is much more likely.

Harvard astronomer Laura Schaefer (Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, or CfA) and her colleagues examined the question of what would happen to GJ 1132b over time if it began with a steamy, water-rich atmosphere.

Orbiting so close to its star, at a distance of just 1.4 million miles, the planet is flooded with ultraviolet or UV light. UV light breaks apart water molecules into hydrogen and oxygen, both of which then can be lost into space. However, since hydrogen is lighter it escapes more readily, while oxygen lingers behind.

"On cooler planets, oxygen could be a sign of alien life and habitability. But on a hot planet like GJ 1132b, it's a sign of the exact opposite - a planet that's being baked and sterilized," said Schaefer.

Since water vapor is a greenhouse gas, the planet would have a strong greenhouse effect, amplifying the star's already intense heat. As a result, its surface could stay molten for millions of years.

A "magma ocean" would interact with the atmosphere, absorbing some of the oxygen, but how much? Only about one-tenth, according to the model created by Schaefer and her colleagues. Most of the remaining 90 percent of leftover oxygen streams off into space, however some might linger.

"This planet might be the first time we detect oxygen on a rocky planet outside the solar system," said co-author Robin Wordsworth (Harvard Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences).

If any oxygen does still cling to GJ 1132b, next-generation telescopes like the Giant Magellan Telescope and James Webb Space Telescope may be able to detect and analyze it.

The magma ocean-atmosphere model could help scientists solve the puzzle of how Venus evolved over time. Venus probably began with Earthlike amounts of water, which would have been broken apart by sunlight. Yet it shows few signs of lingering oxygen. The missing oxygen problem continues to baffle astronomers.

Schaefer predicts that their model also will provide insights into other, similar exoplanets. For example, the system TRAPPIST-1 contains three planets that may lie in the habitable zone. Since they are cooler than GJ 1132b, they have a better chance of retaining an atmosphere.

Mars-Like Environment Lies Deep Beneath Earth's Surface

Walls of the Boulby Mine boast salty honeycomb-like hexagonal patterns that are similar to those that rovers like Curiosity have observed on Mars

While NASA discusses how to one day send humans to Mars, a group of scientists has delved more than a half-mile (1.1 kilometers) beneath the Earth's surface to study nearby environments that resemble those of the Red Planet. 

For the last four years, astrobiologists with Mars Analogues for Space Exploration (MASE), a program that is funded by the European Science Foundation, have been studying the underground environment of England's Boulby Mine — a place that appears to bear some similarities to Mars.

The new work, which includes analyzing salty features on the walls of the mine, will help scientists understand where to look for life on the Red Planet and how to explore the Martian environment when humans eventually get there, Charles Cockell, scientific coordinator of the MASE program, told Space.com.

Signs of an ancient sea

The Boulby Mine is a very large underground system that stretches for more than 621 miles (1,000 kilometers) out under the North Sea. The walls of the mine are coated in salty honeycomb-like hexagonal patterns that are believed to have formed 250 million years ago, after a giant inland sea (the Zechstein Sea) dried up. Similar evidence of a long-gone ocean has been found in other places on Earth, including Death Valley. 

The prominent hexagonal features found on the walls of the mine resemble those that rovers like Curiosity have observed on Mars. This is the first time that Cockell and his team have collected samples of the salty features. 

On Mars, areas of salt have also been observed and they have similar sorts of features," said Cockell, who is also a professor of astrobiology at the University of Edinburgh. "So, this is indicative of large salt deposits on Mars that have dried out."

When seawater dries up, it leaves behind an oxygen-deprived environment in which only microorganisms tolerant of high-salt conditions can live, Cockell explained. 

"We're interested in trying to isolate novel microbes from extreme environmentsand then use them to understand the limits of life in anaerobic, oxygen-free conditions," said Cockell. "Going into deep, subsurface [environments] is a good place to look for these kinds of deep-dwelling microbes."

The MASE researchers have collected multiple samples from deep inside the mine and will be analyzing the samples for signatures of life over the course of the next two or three months. The six-member team consisted of researchers from the Spanish Center for Astrobiology and the University of Edinburgh. While the MASE team was cultivating salty rock samples, a team of researchers from the University of Leicester was also in the mine developing new instruments fordetecting minerals on Mars.

"The main thing is they [Mars and the Boulby Mine] are similar environments, and what we are really trying to do is understand as much as we can about Mars by looking at these types of environments on Earth," Cockell said. "[The Boulby Mine] is one of the best environments we have to do these kinds of comparisons."

China Launches Pioneering 'Hack-Proof' Quantum-Communications Satellite

China launched the first-ever quantum-communication satellite, known as QUESS, atop a Long March-2D rocket from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center on Aug. 15, 2016 (Aug. 15 local time)

China launched the first-ever quantum satellite Monday (Aug. 15) in an effort to help develop an unhackable communications system.

The nation's Quantum Experiments at Space Scale (QUESS) spacecraft lifted off atop a Long March-2D rocket from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in the Gobi Desert Monday at 1:40 p.m. EDT (1740 GMT; 1:40 a.m. local time Tuesday, Aug. 16), according to media reports.

"In its two-year mission, QUESS is designed to establish 'hack-proof' quantum communications by transmitting uncrackable keys from space to the ground, and provide insights into the strangest phenomenon in quantum physics — quantum entanglement," China's state-run Xinhua news agency reported.

"Entangled" particles are intimately and curiously linked to each other; even if they're separated by billions of miles of space; a change in one somehow affects the others.

QUESS will send messages to ground stations using entangled photons, Xinhua reported. Such a system is theoretically impossible to hack. In addition, any attempts to eavesdrop would be picked up via an induced change in the photons' state.

Many nations are working to make quantum communication a reality, but China is the first to launch a satellite dedicated to developing the technology.

The 1,320-lb. (600 kilograms) QUESS satellite is designed to circle Earth at an altitude of about 310 miles (500 kilometers), completing one lap every 90 minutes, Xinhua reported.

QUESS will also test out "quantum teleportation," beaming precise information about the states of particles from the satellite to a ground station in Tibet, according to the news agency.

The satellite is nicknamed "Micius," after a Chinese scientist who conducted groundbreaking optical experiments in the 5th century B.C.

"Just like [NASA's] Galileo [Jupiter probe] and Kepler [space] telescope, we used the name of a famous scholar for our first quantum satellite," said QUESS project chief scientist Pan Jianwei, according to Xinhua. "We hope this will promote and boost confidence in Chinese culture."

Mysterious Supernovas Explode Twice, Giving Birth to Powerful Magnets

This artist's illustration of a supernova shows a shell of material being expelled from the dying star, as well as a burst of bright light.

 A mysterious kind of supernova that appears to explode twice may be giving birth to some of the most powerful magnets in the universe, a new study finds. 

Supernovas are explosions that occur when certain types of stars run out of fuel and "die." These outbursts can briefly outshine all of the millions of other stars in their galaxies. 

Recently, scientists detected a very rare class of supernova, known as superluminous supernovas. These star explosions are up to 100 times brighter than other supernovas. The superluminous variety account for less than a thousandth of all supernovas, and only about 30 examples have been studied well.

"They are extremely bright and can be seen for up to a year but are incredibly rare, so [they] are difficult to find and measure," said study lead author Mathew Smith, an astrophysicist at the University of Southampton in England. "We don't yet know the physical origin of these cosmic explosions that can be seen out to the beginning of the universe; that's the main focus of current and future searches."

Mysteriously, previous research suggested that some superluminous supernovas appear to explode twice. Before their main explosions, each of these supernovas experience a spike in brightness that lasts a few days.

Now, Smith and his colleagues have analyzed such a "double-peaked" superluminous supernova from almost the moment it occurred, shedding light on its origins. In their new paper, they said most superluminous supernovas may actually be double-peaked.

This graph shows the change in the apparent brightness of a superluminous supernova detected by the Dark Energy
Survey. The graph shows an initial bump in brightness, followed by a major spike that represents the main supernova explosion.

The researchers discovered this superluminous supernova, named DES14X3taz, in 2014 by examining data from the Dark Energy Survey. DES14X3taz is located about 6.4 billion light-years from Earth.

Using the Gran Telescopio Canarias, a telescope in Spain's Canary Islands, the team of astronomers carried out follow-up observations shortly after DES14X3taz was first detected. This helped the researchers to see how the supernova's temperature evolved over time.

The researchers saw that after the initial spike of brightness, the object rapidly cooled off. Another, more powerful burst of brightness followed.

The initial spike of brightness likely coincided with the dying star's ejection of a huge bubble of material into outer space. The star's mass was about 200 times that of the sun, and the mass of the bubble of expelled material was about equivalent to the sun's, the researchers estimated. This bubble of expelled material cooled rapidly as it grew, they said.

Following the initial spike in brightness, this supernova gave birth to a magnetar, the researchers said. Magnetars are among the most powerful magnets in the universe. They are a kind of neutron star, which is the leftover core of material in a dead massive star. To reach this conclusion about the magnetar birth, the researchers compared the data with several physical models of supernovas. 

The explosion created by the magnetar's formation heated up the bubble expelled by the first explosion, leading to the second, more powerful burst of brightness, the researchers found. 

However, the researchers said that their most surprising discovery was "not that the supernova had a double peak, but that there's significant evidence that most superluminous supernovae do, too," Smith told Space.com.

Previous research of past superluminous supernovas suggested "these astrophysical objects are all highly similar, and thus presumably, one explosion mechanism can explain them all," Smith said. 

The research team's analysis of other superluminous supernovas does indeed suggest that double peaks "may be intrinsic to all superluminous supernovae," Smith said. 

"The hunt is now on to find these events early and really tie down what causes them," Smith said. "Fingers crossed we find some more."

The scientists detailed their findings online July 26 in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.

NASA chooses six companies to develop deep space habitat prototypes

These partners have approximately 24 months to develop ground prototypes that will be safe for humans to live on a journey to Mars.

NASA is looking to expand into commercial development of space. The space agency is doing so by partnering with a number of companies and industry experts to design ground prototypes and concepts for deep space habitats.

                                                                             Concept image of the interior of a deep space habitat. Photo courtesy of NASA.

Through partnerships enabled by the Next Space Technologies for Exploration Partnerships-2 (NextSTEP-2) Broad Agency Announcement, Appendix A, NASA and industry partners will develop habitation systems that will be safe for humans to live on a journey to Mars.

“NASA is on an ambitious expansion of human spaceflight, including the Journey to Mars, and we’re utilizing the innovation, skill and knowledge of both the government and private sectors,” said Jason Crusan, director of NASA’s Advanced Exploration Systems. “The next human exploration capabilities needed beyond the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and Orion capsule are deep space, long duration habitation and in-space propulsion. We are now adding focus and specifics on the deep space habitats where humans will live and work independently for months or years at a time, without cargo supply deliveries from Earth.”

Six companies were selected to develop these habitat concepts: Bigelow Aerospace of Las Vegas; Boeing of Pasadena, Texas; Lockheed Martin of Denver; Orbital ATK of Dulles, Virginia; Sierra Nevada Corporation’s Space Systems of Louisville, Colorado; and NanoRacks of Webster, Texas.

These partners have approximately 24 months to develop ground prototypes for the deep space habitats. The primary purpose of the prototypes will be to support integrated systems testing, human factors and operations testing and to help define overall system functionality.

These are important activities as they help define the design standards, common interfaces, and requirements while reducing risks for the final flight systems that will come after this phase.

NASA has estimated the combined total of all the contract awards, covering work in 2016 and 2017, will be approximately $65 million, with additional efforts and funding continuing into 2018. Selected partners are required to contribute at least 30 percent of the cost of the overall proposed effort.

This round of NextSTEP selections are part of a phased approach that will catalyze commercial investment in low-Earth orbit and lead to an operational deep space habitation capability for missions in the area of space near the moon, which will serve as the proving ground for Mars during the 2020s.