A Space Klondike quest - Global Science n. 18 - English version

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AUGUST 2019

A Space Klondike quest The new gold rush for private companies

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days of celebration

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L’EDITORIALE

THE SPACE BUSINESS RISING

by Francesco Rea @francescorea

ecently, Elon Musk, the Tesla and SpaceX’s owner, restated his idea of bombarding the Martian poles with atomic warheads, to terraform the red planet.

Often these Elon Musk’ s mostly controversial statements are the results of some difficulties in his business. But there’s no doubt that what Elon Musk is doing and has been doing so far in the space sector has contributed to a radical changement in the scenario.

Not to rain on his parade, but the terraforming of Mars cannot be anything like the Total Recall movie one. Can you recall the story?

Aliens were planting underground nuclear warheads on Mars that, once exploded, were meant to produce atmosphere, a greenhouse effect and related life. All of it in just few minutes. Too fast and straight as rain. According to several researches, Giovanni Caprara states in his book Red Planet that a terraforming process for the red planet would need about 100,000 years of evolution to take place. I don’t believe Musk to be that patient.

But whatever the case, undecision has got its time. In a few years everything seems to be changed. In the early 2000s, Bush Junior’s idea to return to the moon with a Saturn-like launcher system has been the subject of a worldwide debate. Moon or Mars, Mars or Moon? The Hamletic question has been solved in 2017, when Americans and Russian space agencies announced that they would have go on Mars, but passing first by the Moon. Less than two years have passed since that press conference, made in Adelaide during the

«The target debate is no longer on the table, time is what really matters»

IAC, by NASA, Roscomos and Esa, and “the world got out its joint” once again and back.

Now that the target debate is no longer on the table, time is what really matters. Space has become business to its core. Public entities and private companies matched the efforts but mantained their own goals. Goals best to be put under international norms on space activities, nowadays.

In this issue of Globalscience we are trying not to give any answers, but to provide a panorama of the state of the art. The aim is to trace a framework that shall become wellknown to all of us very quickly. The Space is running, the world is running, space norms has equally to run.

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UMMARY

N.17 - AUGUST 2019

3

“The editorial”

BY FRANCESCO REA

6

“Space, a new Eldorado”

BY FULVIA CROCI

10

“The stages of Space gold rush” INFOGRAPHICS

12

«Space race 2.0»

BY GIULIA BONELLI

14

“What future for the ISS?”

BY MANUELA PROIETTI

16

“What doesn’t die”

BY MAICO MORELLINI

20

“The sleepy tardigrades that crash-landed on the Moon”

BY GIULIA BONELLI

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“Fly Me to the Moon a dream no more”

BY SIMONE COLLINI

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“The future of Space rises in the east”

BY FRANCESCO REA

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“Cosmo, 2nd generation ready to go”

BY EDITORIAL STAFF

Global Science

TESTATA GIORNALISTICA GRUPPO GLOBALIST Reg. Tribunale Roma 11.2017 del 02.02.2017 online www.asi.it - globalscience.it

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“Looking for a new home, outside, in the Universe”

BY AMEDEO BALBI

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Gianni Cipriani director

Francesco Rea

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Paola Gaviraghi

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Davide Coero Borga

editorial coordination Manuela Proietti editorial office ASI - Globalist

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Space, a new Eldorado

by Fulvia Croci @ASI_spazio

If it is true that every period in history is remembered for the race to conquer a particular resource, then the years to come could be remembered for having laid the foundations for the exploitation of resources in space, in particular, those present on the Moon and asteroids. While our satellite has already seen the presence of man since the sixties of the last century, the asteroids, celestial objects that wander in interplanetary space silent witnesses of our most remote past, have become a scientific and economic goal in quite recent times.

The exploration of our satellite has come back to the fore in recent years, thanks to projects such as the Lunar Gateway, the Cislunar station that should be built by the Americans and a group of other countries, starting from next year. The USA, is among the main supporters of the return of man to the Moon which should take place in 2024, with the Artemis 3 mission. At the moment, the necessary funds to respect this deadline – from 20 to 30 billion dollars more besides the Nasa budget already approved – seem to be scarce, questioning the Trump administration’s plans.

While the US is wavering, oppressed by cuts and a thousand bureaucratic obstacles, Japan is becoming very active in the field of lunar exploration, in particular with a project signed by Suzuki and ispace, which have joined forces in collaboration for two lunar missions planned for 2021. The objective is to build a vehicle capable of moving on the surface of the Moon and taking the first step in starting a program of commercial activities related to the exploitation of satellite resources. Subsequently, once this first phase is complete, the project involves the construction of a permanent lunar base capable of accommodating astronauts. The Japanese startup, is also part of the Nasa Commercial Lunar Payload Services program as a subcontractor to the American company Draper, which build a lunar lander that should be used by NASA for its return to the Moon.

The lunar bases or moon village, are a long-term goal to which many of the leading countries in space exploration aim. ESA is a concrete example: the European space agency is collaborating with Azimut Space to check if it is possible to make regulatory bricks, capable of storing heat to be used when the infrastructures enveloped by the icy lunar night, which can last up to 16 days.

The bricks made with the lunar regolith, would allow to captu-

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«Asteroids are rich in precious elements»

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re and conserve solar energy during the day, just like the solar panels do on Earth, and to maintain the base and the infrastructures heated when it gets dark. Furthermore, the use of locally available materials would represent a highly sustainable development alternative, given that the regulatory system could also be used in the future for the construction of tools and instruments for human habitats. However, it doesn’t end there. If one day man will live on the Moon, he’ll need water, abundant in the form of ice in different areas of our satellite.

Water be necessary not only for the survival of the settlers but can also used in the production of propellant, which feeds the shuttles to Mars or other destinations in the Solar System.

In short, the Moon is one of the

«The exploitation of the Moon must be sustainable»

leading candidates for the construction of permanent habitats for humans, which on the other hand, increasingly needs resources – fuel, metals and gas in the first place – to complete such projects.

Our planet is exhausting many of the resources necessary for many fundamental activities, and the scientific community has set in motion to look for feasible alternatives.

How much would it cost to extract fuel and minerals from our satellite? The Space Economy Evolution Lab of the Bocconi University of Milan organized, last March, a seminar ‘Mining the Moon for profit: a case study in space resource utilization’ to try to answer this question. From the debate, it emerged that, at present, it would not be very convenient to extract minerals and fuel and bring them to Earth, even if companies like Zodiac Exploration Services believe they can reduce the costs of ‘extraction – up to 35 percent – by installing an orbiting harpoon 100 kilometers from the lunar surface. The production of fuel on-site, to be exploited for the interplanetary journeys of the future, would allow savings compared to what would be produced by producing it on Earth and subsequently bringing it into space. However, the Moon is not the only place considered by the scientific and industrial community for future mining activities.

This was clearly understood by Nasa, which intends to explore the asteroid Psyche 16 in the coming years, among the ten most massive bodies in the central belt between Mars and Jupiter. Psyche, composed mainly of nickel and iron, as the Earth’s core, and its study could reveal important information on the dawning of the Solar System. The industrial community looks at it with equal interest, due to the 700 quintillion dollars of precious metals, including gold and platinum, which would appear to contain within it.

An exciting mission from different points of view, therefore, but for whose success it is necessary to wait a little longer, between 25 and 50 years, experts say, to have dedicated facilities available.

Meanwhile, exploratory probes such as the American Osiris-Rex and the Japanese Haybusa2 are working hard to find out the composition and origin of two different types of asteroids, waiting for future programs.

As mentioned above, asteroids are particularly rich in precious elements, and even in this case, all that remains is to find the most efficient way to extract them. A small European country, Lu-

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The new gold rush will no longer see the Earth’s resources but focus on the ability to exploit those of the Moon and asteroids.

xembourg, is already thinking concretely about the future of the sector, becoming one of the most competitive competitors in the space sector. Luxembourg, already a leader in the mining and mining industry of steel wanted to diversify its economy by approving a law that allows private companies to appropriate any resources from space.

An undoubtedly ambitious move that was immediately welcomed with great favor by industries around the world. Planetary Resources is one of these: the American company has received a loan of 26 million dollars from Luxembourg to finance the development of technologies for mining from asteroids. Thanks to the funds received, the company plans to launch its Arkyd 6 satellite in 2020, able to detect the presence of water on asteroids. In the future – we have to wait for at

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least 30 to 50 years – the company expects to be able to build unique structures and to send robot drills to the surface of asteroids to collect the precious elements.

While industry and space agencies are deploying all their resources to ensure that the exploration of celestial bodies becomes possible and safe, the situation is quite different from a legal and regulatory standpoint. The fundamental pact that defines the heritage space of all humanity, namely the Treaty on Extra-atmospheric Space, forbids the nearly one hundred states that have ratified it, to colonize the celestial bodies or use them for military purposes. The agreement is now taking on an increasingly important value due to the growing interest in asteroid mining, which was not conceivable in 1967, when the treaty was drafted. Exploiting the resources of asteroids means opening up to new markets, with significant political and economical, but also legal implications. Moreover, for this, the international space law may not be ready yet.

Even if the real possibility of exploiting the asteroids still seems very distant, the community of states must begin to work on the regulation of this matter, to guarantee the right balance and to safeguard these celestial bodies, so unique and precious. There are still many conditions that must fulfill to move from projects to exploit space resources to concrete activities. Furthermore, there is a practical economic limit: it is challenging to ask investors to bet today on assets that could bear fruit in 50 or 60 years. It is right, however, that if we talk about it from the legal point of view, because reaching international agreements on these aspects would be useful to avoid conflicts and conflicting interpretations of the basic principles of space law.

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OST The Outer Space Treaty, founding document of international space law, in article 1 states that “the exploration and use of outer space... shall be the province of all mankind”.«».

JAPAN Japan is getting very active in the field of lunar exploration in particular with a project signed

by Suzuki and ispace. The goal is to build a vehicle that can travel on the surface of the Moon and to initiate a program of commercial activities related to the exploitation of our satellite resources.

ENERGY The European Space Agency is cooperating with Azimut Space to verify if it would be possible to realize lunar regolith bricks capable of capturing and conserving solar energy, just as solar panels behave on Earth, to support a base and its infrastructure in the heat when it gets dark.

EXPLOITATION Companies such as Zodiac Exploration Services believe they can reduce costs of lunar extraction (up to 35 percent) by installing an orbiting harpoon 100 kilometers away from the lunar surface.

KLONDIKE 2.0 Asteroid Psyche 16 could reveal important information about the beginning of our Solar System.

The industrial community is looking at it with a different interest, due to the 700 quintillion dollars of precious metals, including gold and platinum, which would appear to be contained within it.

The stages of Space gold rush

by Editorial Staff @ASI_spazio

This infographic concerns space programs, propedeutic financial projects and first examples of a new gold rush. The decision to place an asteroid at the core of human exploration and to solicit investment from private operators in the cargo and human launcher sector towards the ISS, is changing paradigms of space exploration.

Asteroids become more than just a place of scientific research but a potential mining site for very rare elements on Earth. With regard to new launchers, their entrepreneurs come to terms with the necessary investments and provide new solutions for access to space to a potential market that awaits them. Less than ten years have passed and the Space sector has undergone an actual revolution. It’s the Space Economy.

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BENNU The US exploratory probe Osiris-Rex is working hard to investigate the composition and origin of the asteroid 101955 Bennu.

INVESTMENTS An American company, Planetary Resources, has received a loan of $ 26 million from Luxembourg to fund the development of technologies to extract minerals from asteroids.

RYUGU The same is being done by the Japanese Hayabusa 2 probe with asteroid 162173 Ryugu, looking forward to a possible future of exploitation programs.

TOURISM SpaceX, the company founded by Elon Musk, will send a space traveler (Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa) around the Moon aboard the new Big Falcon Rocket rocket.

ISRAEL Israel’s SpaceIL received a donation of $ 100 million for the lander Beresheet from businessmen and partnered with Israel Aerospace Industries, which announced themselves a partnership with german OHB to offer a transport service for commercial payloads to the Moon.

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THE OPINION OF SIMONETTA DI PIPPO

«SPACE RACE 2.0»

by Giulia Bonelli @giulia_bonelli

We are witnessing a new space race. What are the rules of the game and how are they changing? The interview with Simonetta Di Pippo, Director of the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA).

Is it legally correct to say that space belongs to everyone?

The Outer Space Treaty (OST), the founding document of international space law, states that “The exploration and use of outer space… shall be the province of all mankind.” (Art.1). Art.2 also clarifies that “Outer space ... is not subject to national appropriation”. We at UNOOSA consider space as a global common; we use it as a guiding principle in promoting the peaceful use of space and ensuring that the benefits of space activities are made available to everyone, everywhere.

Is the Treaty enough to regulate the space race 2.0?

The OST guides all the activities conducted in outer space. “States…shall bear international responsibility for national activities in outer space… whether such activities are carried on by governmental agencies or by non-governmental entities” (Art. VI). This implies that despite the proliferation of new public and private actors, the OST maintains its validity and applicability intact. The Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (COPUOS) and its legal subcommittee have the role of providing the negotiating platform for Member States in terms of international space law.

The role of COPUOS and of UNOOSA as the UN office dedicated to bringing the benefits of space to the whole of humanity is therefore crucial in this historical period and in a sector that is increasingly characterised by rapid innovation and a continuous push forward.

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SocietĂ private sono interessate a sfruttare le risorse naturali su Luna e asteroidi.

Crediti: Ispace.

Do we need new laws for the future utilization of space resources?

The OST has been excellent at guiding to the behaviour of the various actors over the past 60 years.

But space exploration is entering a new phase, and it is necessary to ensure that the regulatory framework is in line with a development that seems ready to grow exponentially. Member States have been debating issues related to the use of resources in space within COPUOS for some time now. If those resources can actually bring benefits to Earth, it is necessary to ensure that the benefits are made available to all. This is an interesting and complex subject, but it shows that without space we can no longer think of sustainable development on a global scale. And to do this we must be able to preserve access to space and its use for future generations, which is the heart of the mandate of UNOOSA. How? Two concrete examples are the register of launched objects and the guidelines for space debris mitigation by COPUOS. After their approval in 2007, we also launched initiatives to raise the level of awareness among all those working on the subject. In June 2019 COPUOS approved guidelines for the long-term sustainability of space activities, also in relation to debris. In addition, the UN is recognized as having an extremely important role in the space sector, as Member States value multilateralism and international cooperation. We will bring outer space in every corner of the planet, helping new players to have a responsible space access. This is our recipe for preserving space in the years to come.

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n the beginning was Jurij Gagarin, the first who pose the eyes on the blue planet, beating up Alan Shepard to the punch for just two weeks.

Then it was the turn of the conquest of the Moon, which had as protagonists the United States, the first and only to have touched the lunar soil.

Like any process of evolution, even the human conquest of space is marked by phases.

1981 marked the beginning of the era of Space Shuttle, the semi-reusable American transport system whose contribution was fundamental to kick-start the age in which we find ourselves today: that of the International Space Station project. Created by and managed in collaboration with five partners - USA, Russia , Europe, Canada and Japan - the ISS has marked a fundamental step: for the first time the humankind has inhabited Space without a break. Since 2000 the last domicile of our species has thus moved beyond the Earth.

Today we are entering a complex period of transition that will lead to a new space era. In the present there is the ISS that is about to retire. In the future there is the ambitious Nasa program called Artemis, whose aim is to bring man back to the moon, this time to stay.

The year of the passing of the baton is set for 2024. According to the current timelines, in 2024 the outpost of humanity flies 400 km high will fold up because of lack of funding. In the same year 400,000 km away from Earth, a woman, the first, will set foot on the moon.

One chapter ends and another starts. Said like this, it makes sense. But those who follow space issues know well that predictions about timing

CRUCIAL THE EXTENSION TO 2028 AND PRIVATE CAPSULES

WHAT FUTURE FOR THE ISS?

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by Manuela Proietti @unamanus

are hardly respected. Then there are some fundamental aspects that must be taken into consideration.

The most important for the future of exploration is to preserve the knowledge acquired so far.

The risk of losing the continuity of human presence in space, even

just for a few months, would nullify much of the work carried out over the years, both in the field of scientific and medical experimentation, as well as in the technological field.

Then there is the economic aspect: the human conquest of the low orbit is an achievement that in the era of the Space Economy can bear rich fruit. It is therefore clear that to extend the operational life of the ISS to at least 2028, or better yet to 2030, it a topic in

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discussion in all 5 space agencies, despite the high costs of maintaining the infrastructure, which for NASA are between 3 and 4 billions of dollars a year.

The extension is mainly demanded by private companies interested in the commercial exploitation of the ISS, which without a guarantee of operation up to 2028 could, given the tight deadlines, renounce to be actors in the process of industrialization of the low orbit. An objective advocated by NASA ad-

The first ISS component was launched in 1998, with the first long-term residents arriving on 2 November 2000.

ministrator Jim Bridenstine also to lead the agency towards the lunar program: ÂŤWe have a mandate to commercialize low Earth orbit, to industrialize low Earth orbit, to the point where NASA becomes a customer rather than the owner and operatorÂť.

In a call launched on June 21 NASA has invited private companies to submit proposals to make the ISS a commercial destination.

The agency would provide access to the outpost through the Node-2

for the docking of cargo vehicles and crew capsules, actually opening the station to space tourism as well as to the exploitation of scientific research for commercial purposes. With some limits: for example, the stay of a space tourist can be up to 30 days, at a cost of 35 thousand dollars per day, excluding the round-trip tickets.

Another crucial node for the near future of the ISS, commercial and non-commercial, is the launch of SpaceX and Boeing private capsules, currently scheduled for May and December 2020 respectively.

If SpaceX were to slip after October, when the last US astronauts assigned to the Soyuz will return to Earth, NASA will be forced to buy new, expensive seats on the Russian capsule. Unless the US will give up their presence in Earth low orbit.

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his space is dedicated to science fiction literature. In this issue we present a story by the writer Maico Morellini, whose Italian translation is edited by Sarah Jane Webb.

SCIENCE FICTION CHRONICLES

WHAT DOESN’T DIE

by Maico Morellini @MaicoMorellini

The air screeched as the red-hot metal condensed it into a long white scratch that traced the sky above the great swamp.

“Is that my objective?” asked a metallic voice, resonating strong yet hesitant through the relay of the flying vehicle and soaring into space.

“Yes, Ariel,” came the answer, loud and clear, “but don’t let it fool you. The real swamp starts beyond that point over there.” The spacecraft’s sensors updated their readings. A golden-yellow cloak, photons and pixels, shrouded the planet’s surface, marking where the clouds began.

“Roger.”

Ariel plunged into a layer of vapours so dark and dense that most of the sunlight was absorbed and only a minimal amount of radiation filtered through to the ground; the craft’s retro-rockets shrieked as corrosive molecules escaped the swamp and struck.

“It... hurts,” she protested.

“No it doesn’t.” Muffled by the thick fumes enveloping the probe’s hull, the voice reassured Ariel. “You survived the most extreme conditions out in space. Nothing can harm you here. Not the way you think. And anyway, I’m here.”

“You’re not here.”

“But I know this place better than anyone: you must trust me, Ariel.”

The craft continued to slow down until her oblong oval form pierced the marsh. Emitting an obscene gurgling sound, the sludgy surface tried to oppose resistance, then surrendered.

“What is this place?” asked Ariel. “Why am I here? You say I’ve travelled through Space, but I can’t remember doing that.”

With a hiss, the base of the probe unfurled one petal at a time like a large metal flower. Finally, her rocket boosters died in an all-engulfing cloud of blue condensation.

“You did, Ariel. Except you couldn’t know. Like many other

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things you don’t know.” A burst of static: the swamp’s venoms were trying to attack the inside of the craft, disturbing communications. “Don’t worry, they can’t do anything to you,” the voice continued soothingly.

“There’s nothing here that can hurt you,” it went on. “You’re on a dead planet. There’s water, and there are storms,” as if in confirmation, distant thunder reverberated in the air, “there are seasons, and the temperature is not low enough to prevent life forms – at least, it’s not as low as in other places you’ve visited.”

“I don’t remember them.”

“You can’t. I’ve arranged for you to be unable to remember.

What you were before is no longer important. You have a new mission now.”

Silence.

Steel feelers slithered beyond the craft’s raised bulwarks.

One by one they reached the marshy waters.

“This world is ravaged by poisons,” continued the voice.

“The great swamp on which you landed extends for thousands of miles. No less lethal than the mantle of clouds you came through, its invisible vapours saturate the atmosphere and corrode non-enduring metals. There’s no life, only poisons and vapours. In its ultimate essence, the swamp itself prevents protein aggregation, suffocating the spark that’s needed to change this whole planet. I can’t permit this. We can’t permit this. You know, now, what must be done.”

A second ring of petals unfurled, liberating the central body of the craft. Wafting inside, miasmas attempted to assault the probe’s lustrous belly, but found nothing to cling to, no structural weaknesses, no openings to seep into.

“Others came before you. Their sacrifice was not in vain,” the voice resumed. “Now we know how to defend ourselves.

And the pain you feel is a small tribute to that sacrifice.”

“Did they die?” asked Ariel. True, she was in pain, yet somehow she knew no real harm would come of her discomfort.

“They’re back,” continued the voice, enigmatically.

The air around Ariel rang with a pervasive buzz, followed by a series of muffled plops, to which the swamp responded with liquid smacking sounds. The probe had shot a dozen yard-wide bullets into its black depths.

Reaching out in all directions, the craft’s tentacles intercepted the projectiles she had just expelled and started to communicate with the miniscule creatures contained within them.

“What do you feel, Ariel? Use what you know, the things I taught you, and tell me what you sense. What’s going on around you? What do you see around you?”

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The probe extended her feelers towards the putrid water. Making contact with the swamp repelled her, yet she felt drawn to that feast of sensations.

“The water is less poisonous,” started Ariel, hesitatingly. “Yes. Less poisonous than the last time you analysed it.” She continued to process the data.

“The strains of bacteria you liberated during the previous mission have done their duty,” explained the voice, making sense of the numbers that Ariel was collecting. “They died, of course. Nothing could survive here. But before the swamp defeated them, they left a small bequest: the tiny biochemical heritage you’re deciphering this very moment.”

“Less ammonia,” observed Ariel; “a higher pH value; increased vapour pressure. This way, gases will form more slowly. The air will become purer.” The probe was drawing from knowledge she didn’t know she had. Or did she?

“Exactly,” came the voice’s satisfied comment. “You see, just as those who came before you sacrificed themselves to enable you to do your duty, the bacteria died so that this new generation could live a few moments longer.”

The recently-expelled capsules started to melt, releasing new strains of microorganisms into the marsh.

Ariel knew what to do, she was there for that reason: irradiating all around her with fingers of light, she touched the deadly sludge, catalysing the bacteria’s activity, and using the ovules’ liquified shells to shield the tiny warrior life forms, as they promptly carried out orders imparted through their genetic programming.

With strength and determination, they started to fight.

“Life will find a way, Ariel. It’s just a matter of time.

And it’s thanks to you. And to your sisters.”

The tentacles withdrew; the petals folded in, one by one.

“And my sisters?” asked Ariel. New urgency animated her: urgency dictated by her need to understand the how and the why.

“Go home. Go home and you’ll see.”

The reactors roared to life, freeing the craft of the flaccid grip of swamp and gravity. Once again the probe soared above the toxic mantle. It was then that Ariel saw them: one, ten, a hundred. A thousand probes.

“My sisters,” whispered Ariel, as pale needles embroidered the dead planet’s sky with thin threads of azure.

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«You have a new mission now»

“Ariel, you and your sisters travelled through outer space,” explained the voice, while the probe continued to ascend. “You explored hundreds of planets, learning, collecting and acquiring information. You carried out the tasks for which you were created.

But while you traversed the Cosmos, the Earth fell ill, wounded by our creators in ways you can’t even imagine. First pollution, then climate changes. Each time Man tried to make amends, he triggered even worse calamities. The poisonous swamp you were fighting is the terminal stage of an ineradicable cancer, testifying to an endless series of mistakes. Until now.”

Ariel emerged from the planet’s atmosphere: orbiting before her was the great International Space Station.

The latest and most advanced version of the old ISS, built and committed to Space before the ultimate catastrophe hit Earth.

“I summoned you,” continued the Station. “You, the daughters of Man, returned. And I never gave up.

Never. But I was alone, I needed your strength, your purity: just as the greatness of Earth was achieved through the will of many men, my will and yours together will repair this broken world. That’s why I called you back: having learned from you, from your travels, I then taught you how to resurrect a doomed planet, I gave you a mission. I explained how to bring Earth back to life.”

“Earth,” murmured Ariel. That name, powerful and forgotten, had not lost its strength.

“Earth will be restored to life,” declared the Station.

“In place of the great swamp, it will have oceans and continents once more. We will make this happen. We, the daughters of Earth, never gave up. We, the daughters of Earth, will heal this fatally wounded planet.

And we’ll do it for our fathers.”

Maico Morellini, born in 1977, lives in Reggio Emilia. His first novel Il Re Nero wins the Urania 2010 award. In 2016 he publishes for Mondandori La terza memoria. His latest story Fatum was released in July on the Millemondi Urania Strani Mondi.

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The sleepy tardigrades that crash-landed on the Moon

by Giulia Bonelli @giulia_bonelli

Our satellite might host the first lunar inhabitants. This was one of the oddest summer space news, but rather than mysterious aliens, the beings in question were sent to the moon from Earth. The special load consisted of a few thousand tardigrades, little animals less than a millimeter long, colloquially known as water bears or moss piglets. These water-dwelling eight-legged microorganisms can survive for years without food or water. But how did they get to the moon? To answer, we need to go back a few months ago.

On February 21, Israel’s privately funded Beresheet spacecraft was launched aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. It aimed at being the first private vehicle landing on the moon. The spacecraft, built by the Israeli company SpaceIL, after a long journey and a series of adjustment manoeuvres successfully entered lunar orbit on April 4. But as it approached the lunar surface on April 11, a computer glitch caused the spacecraft’s main engine to malfunction. Shortly afterwards, Beresheet crash-landed on the moon.

What is less known is that there was a very special load aboard the Israeli spacecraft. A non-profit company called the Arch Mission Foundation (AMF), which aims to develop a kind of backup of human works in space, provided Beresheet with a “lunar library”. This was a DVDlike disc containing a digital archive of nearly every English Wikipedia page, along with thousands of international novels and various language and grammar texts. And before packing the archive, AMF team added to their lunar library a layer of epoxy resin, where they inserted blood samples, human DNA and a few thousands dehydrated tardigrades.

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Tardigrades, also known as water bears, are microscopic animals that can survive for years without food or water.

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After the failure of the Beresheet mission, the AMF experts tried to understand whether the cargo survived the crash or not. They simulated the dynamics of the accident, and the answer seemed to be positive: the lunar library might be almost intact on the lunar surface.

Philippe Reekie, an astrobiologist at the University of Edinburgh, said tardigrades may well have survived the crash landing. «Tardigrades have been tested to survive hypervelocity impacts», he said. «But, and very importantly, they are only very resilient to many extremes when they are in what is called a “tun” state. It is essentially a way for them to release their internal water, become very dry and hard, kind of like a plant seed. So, if the tardigrades aboard the Israeli spacecraft were in a tun state, then they likely survived the crash landing. If not, then they most certainly died».

He added that tardigrades dehydrate when they sense any threat to their survival. «This can be no water, no food, too hot, too cold, high/ low pressure», he said. «However, for them to go into this tun state, they must have enough time to recognise the threat. A sudden extreme introduction will kill them, which is why metabolising (non-tun state) tardigrades will have died if they crashed on the moon».

As far as we know, the AMF dehydrated tardigrades should be in this tun state allowing them to survive, even though certain aspects of the mission are still a mystery. The very presence of this biological cargo on Beresheet was unknown until the beginning of August. The official announcement dates back to a tweet published by the AMF account, which reads: «Vault 23 has been revealed. The Lunar Library contains many secrets». The reference is to one of the components - called vaults - of the disk sent to the Moon. The number 23 would be the one dedicated to tardigrades: from that moment on, the news of the first potential lunar inhabitants became public knowledge.

This does not mean, though, a kind of colonization of our satellite, as some have suggested. «Tardigrades could not live (metabolise) on the Moon», Reekie said. «If in a tun state, then they could exist there for some time before radiation or the vacuum environment would kill them for good. To my knowledge, the oldest tardigrade to exist in a tun state is around 100 years, however the evidence for this is controversial. Tardigrades can certainly exist for around 10 years with no food, water or energy, but this is on Earth, not on the moon. On the moon, I think they could survive for some time, maybe a few years».

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MUSIC AND SPACE

FLY ME TO THE MOON A DREAM NO MORE

by Simone Collini @ASI_spazio

Up there, about 384 thousand kilometres away, Apollo 11 has landed. Down here, radio and TV around the world continue the live broadcast. More than six hours pass between the landing and the moment when the door opens, an astronaut whose name and surname are now known comes out and sets foot on the Moon.

Those hours must be filled. And what do they invent at the BBC? They call a rock band that started to make itself known in the underground environment a couple of years before with an album opened on the A-side by a song entitled “Astronomy Domine” and on the B-side by the song “Interstellar Overdrive”. The name of these four British guys is Pink Floyd. They do not make themselves pray. They arrive at the radio studios with their instruments, take a look at the people sitting beyond the glass: experts in aerospace engineering, aviation, astrophysics. When the professors stop talking to microphones, a sound engineer points his finger at the guitars. And Pink Floyd starts playing live.

Five minutes of hypnotic instrumental and rare sampled voices. It is not an unforgettable piece. And in fact, it has not been included in any official album. Nor does it have an official title. Some call him “Moonhead”, others “Trip on Mars”. But that day, BBC’s managers saw right, because the combination of music and space exploration, especially between Rock and Moon, has since then produced tracks sketched at the top of the charts and albums passed into history. Just look at the concert season of this summer which marks the fiftieth anniversary of the landing, to remember it.

Nick Mason, just to stay with Pink Floyd (he is the drummer) one day though: it’s a shame that people only know us for the production following “The Dark Side of the Moon” (just to stay on topic). So he set up a musical group to redo the late 60s, early 70s songs.

And how does this band open the concerts? Precisely with that furious pursuit of distorted electric guitars called “Interstellar Overdrive”. And then? While in the cinemas recently passed the biographical film on Elton John, not by chance called “Rocketman”, Thom Yorke came out of that “spaceship blocking the sky” (“Dark

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«The combination of music and space exploration»

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Decks”) that perhaps has become for him Radiohead and he carries around his (last creature) “Soul”. Meanwhile, the Muse excite people in every stadium with “Starlight”, a song written 13 years ago when these three guys almost despaired of finding a gap in the music market for their music and “black holes” engulfed their “hopes and expectations”.

Black holes populated a large number of songs even before they could be seen in photos. Although, unfortunately, two great singers fell into one of them prematurely. Like Chris Cornell, frontman of the Soundgarden who was screaming heartbreaking at the sky “black hole sun, won’t you come”. Or like David Bowie, the cosmic man par excellence, kaleidoscopic and elusive.

Or, more simply, “The man who fell on Earth”, who introduced us to the “Space Oddity”, given voice to the “Spiders from Mars”, embodied “Ziggy Stardust” and then has flown away on a “Dark Star”.

Since man first walked on the Moon, the union of music and interstellar space has definitely strengthened.

It wasn’t missing before, sure. “Fly Me to the Moon”, brought to success by Frank Sinatra in ‘64, was even written in ‘54. But after ‘69 it was all another music.

“Fly Me to the Moon”, after that July of 50 years ago, was no longer an impossible dream. Science and art could go hand in hand, reality and science fiction recognized themselves as one thing and the music celebrated the wedding with renewed vigour, year after year, even when NASA interrupted the Apollo missions. Do you think this is exaggerated? Try to imagine this scene: a guitarist like Brian May (Queen), the unforgettable voice of Genesis Peter Gabriel, a musician and producer like Brian Eno and other guitarists, rubbing shoulders with astronauts who took part in expeditions to the Moon, including that “Buzz” Aldrin known to have been the second man to have stepped onto the lunar surface, and various Nobel prizes. Science fiction?

Not exactly. It happened at the “Starmus” Festival conceived by the Armenian-Spanish astrophysicist Garik Israelian. Obviously, certain distances are smaller than we imagine.

Full Moon in the darkness of the night sky.

Credits: Gregory H. Revera from Madison, Alabama.

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La locandina di The Wandering Earth, la pellicola cinese diretta da Frant Gwo nel 2019.

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everal annual rankings are published every year. They come in all types: music, movies, video games, social media and so on... and indeed, science is not excluded.

What you do or what you enjoy and support, is currently being monitored.

Recently, the ranking of world’s best universities has come out. In Italy, Sapienza University still stands out, even though being beyond the hundredth place. It’s not somethign we should be too proud of, but so it is . In such a specific sector as aerospace engineering, Italy has gained an honorable second place, with two universities among the top ten in the world and among the top three in Europe.

The point is: in Europe only an engineering university was ranked above the Federico II of Naples or La Sapienza of Rome. In fact, following Netherlands Delft University of Technology there are two Italian Universities. But it becomes even more interesting to analyze the rest of the universities that excel in this specific sector: USA and China, China and USA. To recap: US and China, China and USA, then Netherland (but with only one case in the first ten) and then Italy twice, Naples and Rome.

Actually the ranking demonstrates that the space rises at East. Not only the Sun. Infact only Europe and United States are facing the advance of the Eastern States in the Space sector.

Let’s start from China: a chinese rover drives on the dark side of our satellite. It’s the first time on that side, but the Chinese rovers have a certain familiarity with the lunar soil. In anticipation of the expected announcement of the first tyconaut on lunar soil, we should point out the activities relating Tiangong 3, the new Chinese space station, that could be realized with italian industrial and technological contribuition.

If we talk about China we cannot help but looking at Japan. The Land of the Rising Sun, as it is usually known, has confirmed the international alliance for the ISS on the new Artemis programme. In the meantime, Japan has shown off ambitious investigations regarding deep space, which today concern asteroids. Hayabusa 2 is close to achieving its successes on asteroid Ryugu: it has already collected samples destined to return to our planet, confirming that in the close future asteroids will become the new terrestrial mining installations.

THE ADVANCE OF THE EASTERN STATES

THE FUTURE OF SPACE RISES IN THE EAST

by Francesco Rea @francescorea

«China...

Japan, India, Israel»

China, Japan... India. Chandrayaan 2. The Indian probe, once it has entered the orbit of the Moon, will ensure that India, in addition to becoming the fourth country to ever put a spacecraft on our satellite, will be the first to have its vehicle placed on the South Pole of this celestial body. Chandrayaan 2 will complete what was expected from Chandrayaan 1.

But in the East there is also Israel. Middle East more precisely.

The Beresheet mission has been not very successful, even with the tardigrades, but it represents an innovative example. Because it was mainly financed by private investments. 50 years after the moon landing, the theme of space is no longer a matter of pride but of interest.

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Cosmo: 2nd generation ready to go

by Editorial Staff @ASI_spazio

«The first satellite will be launched in November»

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The launch of the first satellite of the Second Generation Cosmo Skymed constellation will take place next November. The launch site will be Kourou, in French Guiana with a Soyuz launch vehicle.

The development of the Second Generation Cosmo Skymed represents an authentic generational leap in terms of technology, performance and operational system life. In fact, it provides new application possibilities, with particular reference to risk management and damage assessment within the context of natural and man-made disasters.

The second generation satellites will join the satellites from the first Cosmo Skymed system that, produced for a dual purpose, constitutes an Italian technological excellence and is acknowledged as one of the most innovative programs worldwide within the field of Earth observation. Funded by the Italian Space Agency and the Italian Ministers of Defence, Education, University and Scientific Research, Cosmo Skymed can count on four radar satellites capable of operating under any atmospheric and visibility condition and with an extremely high revisitation frequency.

The program foresees the participation of the main aerospace companies, assisted by a significant number of Small and Medium Enterprises. Thales Alenia Space Italia (a joint venture consisting of Thales (67%) and Leonardo (33%)) is the Prime Contractor, responsible for the entire system, including both the space and earth segments.

The industrial value and its capacity of system management in both the space and earth segments, has enabled Thales Alenia Space to obtain work orders in various parts of the world, as it recently happened in Korea, with Korea Aerospace Industries LTD and with Hanwha Systems Corporation, LTD for the joint development of a 4-radar satellite constellation for High Resolution Earth Observation, within the context of the “425 Project” Korea Project of the South Korea Defence Development Agency.

Thales Alenia Space will provide Payload SAR (Synthetic Aperture Radar) components alongside platform parts (for the Control Momentum Gyro and sensors) deriving from the HE-R1000 (High Efficiency Radar) platform, belonging to the Thales Alenia Space family including both radar and optical satellites. This makes it possible to ensure reduced revisitation times in the area of interest as well as full operation under any atmospheric and visibility condition.

One of the future aims is to maintain the cutting-edge characteristics of the strategic infrastructure of Cosmo Skymed with a third generation of the system, of paramount importance in order to improve the efficiency and capacity of the constellation in fundamental sectors relating to safety and Earth protection.

WE BRING A NEW DIMENSION TO YOUR HORIZONS

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ESA is preparing for the launch of the first in a series of three exoplanet missions designed to tackle different aspects of the evolving field of exoplanet science.

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c cording to a famous quote attributed to space pioneer Konstantin Tsiolkovsky: «Earth is the cradle of humanity, but one cannot live in a cradle forever». Sounds inspiring, right?

But what are the real prospects for humanity to actually leave the cradle and colonize the universe?

Until a couple decades ago, we knew of no other place, besides Earth, where humans could settle. Our solar system is a barren place and – although there may be some possibility that microbial life exists under the sterile surface of Mars, or in the liquid oceans inside the icy moons of Jupiter and Saturn – the other planets orbiting the Sun are definitely no place for humans. There have been fanciful speculations of terraforming Mars to make it more similar to Earth, but any long-term plan to do so would have to face immense technical difficulties, not to mention astronomical costs. Recently, billionaire and space entrepreneur Elon Musk has bluntly suggested that we nuke Mars’ polar caps to release CO2 in the atmosphere, generating enough greenhouse effect to warm the planet. Not only the “plan” sounds reckless, it would also not produce the desired effect, according to planetologists (there is simply not enough CO2 on Mars to do the trick). In fact, according to our best scientific knowledge, Mars terraforming would be downright impossible with current technology.

Then, in the space of twenty years, Earth-like worlds in the universe became plentiful. We entered the exoplanetary revolution, with tens and then hundreds of new planets orbiting other stars being discovered each year.

We now know more than 4000 such exoplanets, and a sizeable fraction of them is made of rocky worlds the size of Earth, at the right distance from their stars to have, at least hypothetically, the right conditions for liquid water flowing on their surface. Have we found a second Earth, out there? Not yet, actually. But we astronomers think it is just a matter of time. According to statistical estimates, there may be billions of planets similar to Earth in our

MORE THAN 4000 EXOPLANETS KNOWN

LOOKING FOR A NEW HOME, OUTSIDE, IN THE UNIVERSE

by Amedeo Balbi @amedeo_balbi

«Earth-like worlds in the universe became plentiful»

galaxy. Some of them may be found by future observations, such as those that will be performed by the Cheops satellite, a space mission from ESA that will launch next November.

We are hunting for habitable worlds – planets that meet the right conditions to host life as we know it: liquid water, a suitable atmosphere, the right chemical combination. If we are as lucky as we are smart, in the not so distant future our instruments might even find some telltale trace that life is present on some planet around a remote star in our galaxy.

Then what?

Once we will know that there are other habitable worlds in the universe, does it mean that

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we will finally be ready to leave the cradle? In fact, chances are slim. Consider this. Our fastest space vehicles travel at around 60000 km/h with respect to the Sun. Sounds like a lot: but the Voyager probes, that traveled at that speed for more than forty years, have just barely passed the boundary of our solar system.

They are the farthest object built by humanity: but if they were traveling in the direction of the closest star to our Sun, Proxima Centauri, it would take 70000 years for them to reach it. And all the other stars in our galaxy are much farther away. Traveling to another habitable planets in a human lifetime is totally unfeasible with current technology, especially if we have to send a crewed spaceship.

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ÂŤThen, why are we doing this?Âť

Then, why are we doing this? Why are we bothering to look for other places in the universe where life might be possible? Because we want to know. We want to know if life is just a fluke accident, or is abundant in the universe. We want to know if we are alone. In short, we want to know what is our place in the universe.

One thing we know already, however. And that is that there is no plan B. Our Earth is not only our cradle, but it is also the only house we have and, most likely, the only one we will ever have. It is important to keep this in mind, while we keep looking for other habitable worlds in the universe.

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