&ldquo;It&rsquo;s an important step on a very long road,&rdquo; says Adrian Glauser, a senior scientist at the Institute for Particle Physics and Astrophysics at ETH Zurich. In late March, he and Sascha Quanz, a professor of astrophysics at ETH Zurich and head of the Exoplanets and Habitability Group, learned that the Swiss government will contribute nearly three million euros to support the NICE project as part of PRODEX (PROgramme de D&eacute;veloppement d&rsquo;EXp&eacute;riences scientifiques), a European Space Agency (ESA) programme. This funding will enable ETH researchers to develop important technological foundations that are indispensable to realising the ambitious LIFE space mission.<h2>The hunt for traces of life</h2>The LIFE (Large Interferometer for Exoplanets) initiative is aimed at undertaking a more detailed study of Earth-like exoplanets &ndash; planets that are similar to Earth in size and temperature but orbit other stars. It will focus particularly on planetary systems within a distance of up to 65 light years from our solar system. The plan is to position five smaller satellites at L2, the Lagrange point that is home to the James Webb Space Telescope. Together, these satellites will form a large telescope that will act as an interferometer to pick up the exoplanets&rsquo; infrared thermal radiation. The spectrum of the light can then be used to deduce the composition of those exoplanets and their atmospheres. &ldquo;Our goal is to detect chemical compounds in the light spectrum that hint at life on these exoplanets. Earth&rsquo;s atmosphere, for example, contains oxygen and methane produced by biological activity,&rdquo; explains Quanz, who leads the LIFE initiative.ESA has made the mission a high priority &ndash; LIFE is considered a candidate for a future major ESA science mission. However, today&rsquo;s futuristic images showing how the five satellites will operate in space must not obscure the fact that the project relies on a major feat of technology and that many questions remain unanswered. One key question, for instance, is whether the measurements can even be carried out in the way the researchers have in mind.<h2>Precision measurement instruments</h2>The main problem in exoplanet research is that the much brighter light from the host star makes it difficult to detect the faint light its exoplanets reflect or emit. &ldquo;The instruments have to be able to see the light of a firefly that&rsquo;s next to a lighthouse 4,000 kilometres away,&rdquo; Glauser says, explaining the demands on the measuring instruments.Since it isn&rsquo;t possible to mechanically block out the host star when using the LIFE telescope, the researchers plan to use what is known as nulling interferometry to eliminate this source of interference. For this, the light that the individual satellites pick up from the host star is phase shifted combined in a way that it effectively cancels it out. The light from the exoplanet, on the other hand, which hits the satellites coming from a slightly different angle from the plane of the sky, is not cancelled out by this superposition. This makes it possible to see the faint objects next to the bright star &ndash; which is the first step towards detecting any clues of chemical compounds in their atmospheres.<h2>Technology suitable for space</h2>Planetary researchers have already demonstrated in earlier experiments that nulling interferometry generally works in the infrared range. The question now is whether this measurement principle can also be used for faint Earth-like planets. &ldquo;To ensure that ambient heat doesn&rsquo;t interfere with the already weak infrared signals, we have to carry out the measurements under the extremely cold conditions that prevail at Lagrange point L2,&rdquo; Glauser explains.In NICE, the Nulling Interferometer Cryogenic Experiment, the measurement apparatus is placed in a so-called cryostat that is cooled to a temperature of &minus;260&deg;C. Here, too, there are a few fundamental questions that need to be answered: How can the instrument in the cryostat be adjusted to nanometre precision from the outside for optimum suppression of the simulated starlight? And what materials are suitable for this? &ldquo;We&rsquo;ll be working on this project with industry partners who have experience with space technologies,&rdquo; Glauser says. &ldquo;Our goal with this experiment is to develop a measurement method that can then later also be used in space.&rdquo; This brings the realisation of the LIFE mission and the search for life beyond Earth a big step closer.

The LIFE mission’s five satellites are connected to form a large space telescope. (Illustration: ETH Zurich / Life Initiative)

With a constellation of five satellites, the international LIFE initiative led by ETH Zurich hopes to one day detect traces of life on exoplanets. A laboratory experiment in the Department of Physics is now set to demonstrate the planned measurement method.

A key experiment for the LIFE space mission

COWVR, at center, and TEMPEST, not shown, were installed aboard the International Space Station in late 2021 and since then have provided valuable weather data to forecasters tracking tropical cyclones. The two instruments are part of the U.S. Space Force STP-H8 demonstration mission. Credit: NASA

In this episode, we talk about a new satellite system from NASA that leverages technologies used in other missions to accomplish the same performance that has been delivered by heritage satellites but smaller and less complex while also being a fraction of the cost.

Podcast: Eye of The Storm: NASA's New Weather & Tropical Storm Tracking Sensors

The German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum f&uuml;r Luft- und Raumfahrt; DLR) is currently working with <a href="https://www.uarx.com/" target="_blank" title="External link UARX Space">UARX</a> Space to develop a specialised spacecraft that will transport multiple satellites to different desired orbits after separation from the launch vehicle. DLR is providing a radio platform called Generic Software Defined Radio (GSDR), which is used to communicate with the ground station. GSDR is a multifunctional radio system that allows multiple applications to performed in different frequency bands. The hardware does not have to be adapted to the application-specific requirements, as is usually the case, but can be reconfigured via software and commands while in orbit.<h2>Planned mission in 2024</h2>In commercial spaceflight, one launch vehicle typically delivers several satellites into the same fixed target orbit to save costs. As a result, certain users must wait a long time for a launch vehicle that will fly to their target orbit or face the prohibitive cost of booking a rocket for their sole use. The Orbit Solutions to Simplify Injection and Exploration (<a href="https://www.uarx.com/projects/ossie.php" target="_blank" title="External link OSSIE">OSSIE</a>) orbit transfer vehicle from UARX Space is being developed with the aim of carrying satellites deployed in space to their desired target orbit, regardless of the initial deployment orbit of the launch vehicle. This places considerable demands on communication between the spacecraft and the ground segment, as the radio communication distance varies greatly throughout the mission.The GSDR, developed by DLR, will be used as the communication subsystem, as this innovative radio platform is ideally suited to OSSIE&#39;s needs and can respond flexibly to the varying communication requirements. &quot;After more than five years of development and extensive testing, our GSDR has now reached a technology readiness level (TRL) of 7. The next step is to demonstrate the system in orbit. We are delighted that our system will contribute to UARX&#39;s mission and help us harness OSSIE&#39;s full potential,&quot; says Jan Budroweit, Project Manager at DLR.OSSIE is a cost-effective Orbital Transfer Vehicle (OTV) designed to deploy customer payloads that require transport to specific orbits. To accomplish a controlled deployment, the vehicle is commanded to conduct precise manoeuvres that change its orbital parameters. During these manoeuvres, constant communication with the ground segment is often very important. OSSIE is also capable of carrying orbital demonstrators that allow customers to test their hardware without being deployed into orbit. During such a flight, the payload receives all required services, such as power and communications, from the OSSIE platform.UARX Space already has customers for OSSIE&#39;s demonstration mission, which is planned for mid-2024, and during which the capabilities of the spacecraft will be validated in preparation for more complex missions. &quot;Counting on the support of DLR to handle such complex communication scenarios is essential to ensure we can offer the best quality of service to our customers,&quot; says Andr&eacute;s Villa, CTO at UARX Space.<img src="https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/wevolver-project-images/froala%2F1676889026224-ossie-laboratory.jpg" style="width: 766px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib">Lab&shy;o&shy;ra&shy;to&shy;ry test&shy;ing of Gener&shy;ic Soft&shy;ware De&shy;fined Ra&shy;dio (GS&shy;DR) at the DLR site in Bre&shy;men. Credit: &copy; DLR. All rights reserved&nbsp;<h2>A modular, reusable radio system</h2>GSDR is designed to be easy to reuse and adapt from mission to mission. Its advanced technology enables high-performance data processing and extreme flexibility for rapid development and reconfiguration. Mission-specific features are primarily implemented through software customisation.GSDR can operate in different frequency bands without any need to adapt the hardware. This allows various applications &ndash; including communication between the ground station and the spacecraft and the reception of aircraft signals &ndash; to be implemented within a single system. This saves space and weight, which in turn reduces costs, particularly for space missions. Due to its compact design and low power consumption, the platform is especially well suited to operation with small satellites. Ensuring reliability under space conditions was a priority during the development of the GSDR. The system has been specifically designed and extensively tested to handle the effects of radiation and guarantee a high level of reliability and operational availability. The GSDR currently has a TRL of 7, so it is certified with respect to critical environmental influences such as thermal and mechanical factors and electromagnetic compatibility (EMC).

The OSSIE space­craft from UARX Space fea­tur­ing DLR ra­dio tech­nol­o­gy. Credit: DLR (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0)

The German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt; DLR) is currently working with UARX Space to develop a specialised spacecraft that will transport multiple satellites to different desired orbits after separation from the launch vehicle.

The future of small satellite transfer orbits

In this episode, we talk about how a group of researchers at the University of Michigan have gained a thrust output 10x greater than what was thought to be possible by challenging preconceived limitations and how their breakthrough could hold the key for deep space travel.&nbsp;<iframe height="200px" width="100%" frameborder="no" scrolling="no" seamless="" src="https://player.simplecast.com/7186eb06-8962-46c9-b8e9-52a754f7cdb3?dark=false" class="fr-draggable" data-lf-form-tracking-inspected-kn9eq4roawkarlvp="true" data-lf-yt-playback-inspected-kn9eq4roawkarlvp="true" data-lf-vimeo-playback-inspected-kn9eq4roawkarlvp="true"></iframe><hr><h3 id="isPasted">EPISODE NOTES</h3>(2:20) - <a href="https://www.wevolver.com/article/plasma-thrusters-used-on-satellites-could-be-much-more-powerful" target="_blank">Ultra-efficient Plasma Thrusters For Deep Space Travel</a><hr>As always, you can find these and other interesting &amp; impactful engineering articles on Wevolver.com.To learn more about this show, please visit our&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wevolver.com/profile/the.next.byte" target="_blank">shows page</a>. By following the page, you will get automatic updates by email when a new show is published. Be sure to give us a follow and review on&nbsp;<a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/nl/podcast/the-next-byte/id1548255861?l=en" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Apple</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://open.spotify.com/show/6lPPsRtegnivsRUEsQ09R7?si=IPMiah7xT_apJtPjqvXMlA" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Spotify</a>, and most of your favorite podcast platforms!

The glow of the plasma from the H9 MUSCLE Hall thruster during a test with krypton propellant. PHOTO: Plasmadynamic and Electric Propulsion Laboratory. 

In this episode, we talk about how a group of researchers at the University of Michigan have gained a thrust output 10x greater than what was thought to be possible by challenging preconceived limitations and how their breakthrough could hold the key for deep space travel.

Podcast: From Blastoff to Beyond: Ion Thrusters Pushing the Limits of Space Travel

This article was discussed in our&nbsp;<a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.wevolver.com/profile/the.next.byte&source=gmail&ust=1672821999265000&usg=AOvVaw3lLKdHdEN0YvCEsaHI7hx9" href="https://www.wevolver.com/profile/the.next.byte" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Next Byte podcast</a>.&nbsp;<iframe height="200px" width="100%" frameborder="no" scrolling="no" seamless="" src="https://player.simplecast.com/7186eb06-8962-46c9-b8e9-52a754f7cdb3?dark=false" class="fr-draggable" data-gtm-yt-inspected-7="true" data-lf-form-tracking-inspected-kn9eq4roawkarlvp="true" data-lf-yt-playback-inspected-kn9eq4roawkarlvp="true" data-lf-vimeo-playback-inspected-kn9eq4roawkarlvp="true"></iframe> The full article will continue below.<hr>It was believed that Hall thrusters, an efficient kind of electric propulsion widely used in orbit, need to be large to produce a lot of thrust. Now, a new study from the University of Michigan suggests that smaller Hall thrusters can generate much more thrust&mdash;potentially making them candidates for interplanetary missions. &nbsp;<iframe width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/jM_wcsTQxek?&wmode=opaque&rel=0&enablejsapi=1&origin=https://www.wevolver.com" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="" class="fr-draggable" data-lf-form-tracking-inspected-kn9eq4roawkarlvp="true" data-lf-yt-playback-inspected-kn9eq4roawkarlvp="true" data-lf-vimeo-playback-inspected-kn9eq4roawkarlvp="true" data-gtm-yt-inspected-7="true" id="636557646" title="Advances in Thruster Technology Lead the Way to Mars"></iframe>&ldquo;People had previously thought that you could only push a certain amount of current through a thruster area, which in turn translates directly into how much force or thrust you can generate per unit area,&rdquo; said <a href="https://aero.engin.umich.edu/people/jorns-benjamin/" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">Benjamin Jorns</a>, U-M associate professor of aerospace engineering who led the new Hall thruster study to be presented at the <a href="https://www.aiaa.org/SciTech" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">AIAA SciTech Forum</a> in National Harbor, Maryland, today.His team challenged this limit by running a 9 kilowatt Hall thruster up to 45 kilowatts, maintaining roughly 80% of its nominal efficiency. This increased the amount of force generated per unit area by almost a factor of 10.Whether we call it a plasma thruster or an ion drive, electric propulsion is our best bet for interplanetary travel&mdash;but science is at a crossroads. While Hall thrusters are a well-proven technology, an alternative concept, known as a magnetoplasmadynamic thruster, promises to pack much more power into smaller engines. However, they are yet unproven in many ways, including lifetime.<img src="https://images.wevolver.com/eyJidWNrZXQiOiJ3ZXZvbHZlci1wcm9qZWN0LWltYWdlcyIsImtleSI6ImZyb2FsYS8xNjc0ODI4MDcxNDAzLTUyNjQ1NDUzODI5XzM2NGYwMjQ4N2Jfay0xMDI0eDY1NS5qcGciLCJlZGl0cyI6eyJyZXNpemUiOnsid2lkdGgiOjk1MCwiZml0IjoiY292ZXIifX19" style="width: 766px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib">The team at the PEPL lab poses for a photo near the new Hall thruster. Leanne Su, lead author of the study, kneels with a print of the mission patch. From left in the back: Christopher Sercel, Thomas Marks, Madison Allen, Parker Roberts, Will Hurley, Benjamin Jorns (U-M associate professor of aerospace engineering and senior author of the study) and and Tate Gill. PHOTO: Marcin Szczepanski/Michigan Engineering&nbsp;Hall thrusters were believed to be unable to compete because of the way they operate. The propellant, typically a noble gas like xenon, moves through a cylindrical channel where it is accelerated by a powerful electric field. It generates thrust in the forward direction as it departs out the back. But before the propellant can be accelerated, it needs to lose some electrons to give it a positive charge.Electrons accelerated by a magnetic field to run in a ring around that channel&mdash;described as a &ldquo;buzz saw&rdquo; by Jorns&mdash;knock electrons off the propellant atoms and turn them into positively charged ions. However, calculations suggested that if a Hall thruster tried to drive more propellant through the engine, the electrons whizzing in a ring would get knocked out of the formation, breaking down that &ldquo;buzz saw&rdquo; function.&nbsp;&ldquo;It&rsquo;s like trying to bite off more than you can chew,&rdquo; Jorns said. &ldquo;The buzz saw can&rsquo;t work its way through that much material.&rdquo;In addition, the engine would get extremely hot. Jorns&rsquo; team put these beliefs to the test.&nbsp;&ldquo;We named our thruster the H9 MUSCLE because essentially, we took the H9 thruster and made a muscle car out of it by turning it up to 11&mdash;really up to a hundred, if we&rsquo;re going by accurate scaling,&rdquo; said Leanne Su, a doctoral student in aerospace engineering who will present the study.They tackled the heat problem by cooling it with water, which let them see how big a problem the buzz saw breakdown was going to be. Turns out, it wasn&rsquo;t much trouble. Running with xenon, the conventional propellant, the H9 MUSCLE ran up to 37.5 kilowatts, with an overall efficiency of about 49%, not far off the 62% efficiency at its design power of 9 kilowatts.&nbsp;<img src="https://images.wevolver.com/eyJidWNrZXQiOiJ3ZXZvbHZlci1wcm9qZWN0LWltYWdlcyIsImtleSI6ImZyb2FsYS8xNjc0ODI4MDk2MDA3LXBsYXNtYS10aHJ1c3RlcnMtdXNlZC53ZWJwIiwiZWRpdHMiOnsicmVzaXplIjp7IndpZHRoIjo5NTAsImZpdCI6ImNvdmVyIn19fQ==" style="width: 766px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib">The glow of the plasma from the H9 MUSCLE Hall thruster during a test with krypton propellant. PHOTO: Plasmadynamic and Electric Propulsion Laboratory.&nbsp;Running with krypton, a lighter gas, they maxed out their power supply at 45 kilowatts. At an overall efficiency of 51%, they achieved their maximum thrust of about 1.8 Newtons, on par with the much larger 100-kilowatt-class X3 Hall thruster.&nbsp;&ldquo;This is kind of a crazy result because typically, krypton performs a lot worse than xenon on Hall thrusters. So it&rsquo;s very cool and an interesting path forward to see that we can actually improve krypton&rsquo;s performance relative to xenon by increasing the thruster current density,&rdquo; Su said.Nested Hall thrusters like the X3&mdash;also developed in part by U-M&mdash;have been explored for interplanetary cargo transport, but they are much larger and heavier, making it difficult for them to transport humans. Now, ordinary Hall thrusters are back on the table for crewed journeys.Jorns says that the cooling problem would need a space-worthy solution if Hall thrusters are to run at these high powers. Still, he is optimistic that individual thrusters could run at 100 to 200 kilowatts, arranged into arrays that provide a megawatt&rsquo;s worth of thrust. This could enable crewed missions to reach Mars even on the far side of the sun, traveling a distance of 250 million miles.<img src="https://images.wevolver.com/eyJidWNrZXQiOiJ3ZXZvbHZlci1wcm9qZWN0LWltYWdlcyIsImtleSI6ImZyb2FsYS8xNjc0ODI4MTE1NTA3LTUyNjQ1NjczOTgzXzBiNTcxNTU4ZGFfay0xMDI0eDY4My5qcGciLCJlZGl0cyI6eyJyZXNpemUiOnsid2lkdGgiOjk1MCwiZml0IjoiY292ZXIifX19" style="width: 766px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib">Ph.D student Will Hurley leaves the chamber where the new Hall plasma thruster is tested at the PEPL lab. PHOTO: Marcin Szczepanski/Michigan Engineering&nbsp;The team hopes to pursue the cooling problem as well as challenges in developing both Hall thrusters and magnetoplasmadynamic thrusters on Earth, where few facilities can test Mars-mission-level thrusters. The amount of propellant exhausting from the thruster comes too fast for the vacuum pumps to keep the conditions inside the testing chamber space-like.The research was supported in part by the Joint Advanced Propulsion Institute.

It was believed that running more propellant through a Hall thruster would wreck its efficiency, but new experiments suggest they might power a crewed mission to Mars.

Plasma thrusters used on satellites could be much more powerful

In this episode, we talk about a microsatellite from MIT that is testing autonomous flight while in Earth&#39;s orbit. This technology could help improve the agility and robustness of future satellite missions.&nbsp;<iframe height="200px" width="100%" frameborder="no" scrolling="no" seamless="" src="https://player.simplecast.com/aaa85b2e-2890-4d4e-9a19-fb7d81fd42b6?dark=false" class="fr-draggable" data-lf-form-tracking-inspected-kn9eq4roawkarlvp="true" data-lf-yt-playback-inspected-kn9eq4roawkarlvp="true" data-lf-vimeo-playback-inspected-kn9eq4roawkarlvp="true"></iframe><hr>This podcast is sponsored by <a href="https://www.durolabs.co/?utm_source=Wevolver&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=the_next_byte" id="isPasted" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Duro</a>. &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;<img src="https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/wevolver-project-images/froala%2F1672193846860-eyJidWNrZXQiOiJ3ZXZvbHZlci1wcm9qZWN0LWltYWdlcyIsImtleSI6ImZyb2FsYS8xNjY1NDI0NjIyNDYwLVVudGl0bGVkIGRlc2lnbi5wbmciLCJlZGl0cyI6eyJyZXNpemUiOnsid2lkdGgiOjk1MCwiZml0IjoiY292ZXIifX19.webp" style="width: 300px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib"><hr><h3 id="isPasted">EPISODE NOTES</h3>(5:10) - <a href="https://www.wevolver.com/article/tiny-satellite-tests-autonomy-in-space" target="_blank">Tiny satellite tests autonomy in space</a><hr>This episode was brought to you by Duro, the PLM platform behind some of Farbod &amp; Daniel&rsquo;s favorite hardware products!Click <a href="https://www.durolabs.co/?utm_source=Wevolver&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=the_next_byte" target="_blank">here</a> to learn more about Duro and <a href="https://www.durolabs.co/blog/former-spacex-engineer-breaks-down-the-code-to-successful-hardware-engineering/?utm_source=Wevolver&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=TheNextByte" target="_blank">here</a> to check out the article written by Duro&rsquo;s co-founder, Kellan O&#39;Connor, on his early experience at SpaceX and how that helped him crack the code to successful hardware engineering.&nbsp;<hr>As always, you can find these and other interesting &amp; impactful engineering articles on Wevolver.com.To learn more about this show, please visit our <a href="https://www.wevolver.com/profile/the.next.byte" target="_blank">shows page</a>. By following the page, you will get automatic updates by email when a new show is published. Be sure to give us a follow and review on <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/nl/podcast/the-next-byte/id1548255861?l=en" target="_blank">Apple</a>, <a href="https://open.spotify.com/show/6lPPsRtegnivsRUEsQ09R7?si=IPMiah7xT_apJtPjqvXMlA" target="_blank">Spotify</a>, and most of your favorite podcast platforms!

The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched in May 2022 carried multiple missions, including Lincoln Laboratory’s Agile MicroSat. Photo courtesy of SpaceX

In this episode, we talk about a microsatellite from MIT that is testing autonomous flight while in Earth's orbit. This technology could help improve the agility and robustness of future satellite missions.

Podcast: Self-Flying Satellite's Successful Space Mission

Bion Space, a team of ITMO students, became one of the finalists in the Stratosphere Satellite research and engineering program. Their project became a part of a research probe sent into the stratosphere on November 19 to analyze the way lower gravity can affect the biomimetic process of bone-like tissue formation. In the future, this data can be taken into account when designing space stations. Read on to learn more about the project.&nbsp;We are so used to gravity that we barely notice it, however, it plays an important role in the way our bodies work &ndash; ultimately, every system in our body, from our blood vessels to our bones and inner ear, depends on gravity. That&rsquo;s why being without it, in weightlessness, for extended periods of time can be <a href="https://link.springer.com/referenceworkentry/10.1007/978-3-319-12191-8_126" target="_blank">damaging</a> to the body: the muscles become weaker, the heart gets less active (causing a decreased oxygen flow to the brain), and the bones grow more fragile, increasing the risks of traumas and osteoporosis.In order to find out how lower gravity can affect the formation of bone tissue, researchers from ITMO University used specially selected reaction-diffusion systems. Within the <a href="https://www.stratosputnik.ru/#rec479426180" target="_blank">Stratosphere Satellite</a> research program, they sent to space several test tubes with hydroxylapatite, a mineral that is a key component in skeletal bones and teeth. During the flight, patterns of the material formed within the test tubes.<blockquote>&ldquo;It all started with a project we developed within the Smart Materials course: we had to come up with a material that would allow single-cell organisms to survive in space. Having completed the project, we thought, &ldquo;What if we could actually do this experimentally?&rdquo; I assembled a team and we spent a month analyzing related articles before we realized that a bunch of similar experiments had already been conducted. But the idea was too good to part with it, so I suggested a similar experiment at a conference I attended. Space engineers from the Bauman Moscow State Technical University got interested, so we decided to apply for the Stratosphere Satellite project,&rdquo; says Daudi Dauddin, the head of the project and a student at ITMO&rsquo;s ChemBio Cluster.</blockquote><img src="https://images.wevolver.com/eyJidWNrZXQiOiJ3ZXZvbHZlci1wcm9qZWN0LWltYWdlcyIsImtleSI6ImZyb2FsYS8xNjY5ODg5NjU1MzA3LTEyOTI5MDAuanBnIiwiZWRpdHMiOnsicmVzaXplIjp7IndpZHRoIjo5NTAsImZpdCI6ImNvdmVyIn19fQ==" style="width: 766px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib">Left: Daudi Dauddin with the aerostat carrying the participants&#39; CubeSats. Right: the research team: front &ndash; Daudi Dauddin; back, left to right: Ramil Gaynutdinov, German Yandalin, Azamat Nuraev, and Roman Arduvanov. Photo courtesy of the team&nbsp;Apart from Daudi Dauddin, the team includes Daniil Silin, an infochemistry student at ITMO, who is responsible for the chemical aspect of the project, and is supervised by Ekaterina Skorb, the head of the university&rsquo;s Infochemistry Center, and Svetlana Ulasevich, an associate professor at the center and the head of the biomimetic materials group. German Yangalin, a student at the Bauman Moscow State Technical University, and Ramil Gaynutdinov, a student at the Moscow Aviation Institute, were responsible for assembling the team&rsquo;s CubeSat, the satellite with experimental samples inside, while students of the Bashkortostan Quantorium Azamat Nuraev and Roman Arduvanov developed the experimental software.<h2 dir="ltr">The experiment in detail</h2>To be able to identify the specifics of bone tissue formation in low gravity, the researchers analyzed the periodic precipitation of hydroxylapatite not only in the stratosphere but also in the lab on Earth in room and low temperatures. Having first prepared a hydrogel based on agar and sodium phosphate, the researchers then added calcium chloride to the system right before the launch, repeating the same steps in the ground-based lab.This reaction results in Liesegang rings, concentric circles of hydroxylapatite precipitation. You could have seen such patterns in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agate" target="_blank">agate</a> or <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jasper" target="_blank">jasper</a> rock formations, where they too are the result of periodic precipitation. This reaction is often used in physics and chemistry, as well as in decorative art. In Earth&rsquo;s gravity, such rings typically form in gelatin and collagen media, and the process of their crystallization in the stratosphere is currently analyzed by the researchers.In order to obtain the sample, researchers attached one of the tubes with the substance to the CubeSat, supplied with a camera and an abundance of sensors, that were transmitting the probe&rsquo;s location, surrounding temperature and radiation, as well as other parameters to the lab during the flight. Moreover, the CubeSat had a special compartment for more test tubes that was developed and 3D printed by German Yangalin.&nbsp;CubeSats submitted by all participants were attached to an aerostat, an aircraft lifted by buoyant gas (similar to a hot air balloon). As the aerostat lifts higher and the surrounding atmospheric pressure decreases, the balloon keeps expanding until it bursts (in this case, it happened at an altitude of about 25 kilometers), lowering down to Earth on a stabilizing system. The flight lasted three hours and the aerostat launched by the team was swept 90 kilometers from the starting location. After it was located thanks to its GPS sensor, it was delivered to the researchers for further analysis.Having compared the acquired samples, the students discovered a substantial difference between the crystallization of Liesegang rings in normal and lower gravity. According to the current hypothesis, the stratospheric samples might contain <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turing_pattern" target="_blank">Turing patterns</a>, which form as a result of a reaction-diffusion mechanism.<img src="https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/wevolver-project-images/froala%2F1669890028001-1292901.jpg" style="width: 766px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib">The research satellite at the altitude of 10 km. Photo courtesy of Stratonavtika company&nbsp;<h2 dir="ltr" id="isPasted">What next</h2>Now, the researchers from ITMO&rsquo;s Infochemistry Center will need to analyze the procured samples, identifying the structure&rsquo;s diversity coefficient, as well as its phase and crystal composition. These tests will help determine whether Turing patterns have actually formed in the samples sent to the stratosphere. At the same time, the researchers will analyze the samples that remained on Earth.As a result of this experiment, the scientists will be able to tell how various conditions in the stratosphere, namely, radiation, atmospheric pressure, and temperature, affect the formation of hydroxylapatite patterns. Thanks to this data, the researchers will be able to explain the process of bone tissue formation in lower gravity, which can be taken into account in development of future space stations. The project will culminate in a scientific publication that will describe the experiment and acquired results.Stratosphere Satellite is a national program that aims to interest young people in design, engineering, and aerospace research, as well as equip them with experience in these fields. The team with ITMO students became one of the ten finalists, whose projects were launched into the stratosphere. Each team received a special kit with parts of their CubeSat, which the participants assembled and programmed on their own.<hr>Translated by <a href="https://news.itmo.ru/en/profile/51/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Catherine Zavodova</a> and originally published by <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://news.itmo.ru/en/&source=gmail&ust=1669792023195000&usg=AOvVaw2nipuSP2aMh5iCSQ0BjMPU" href="https://news.itmo.ru/en/" target="_blank">ITMO.NEWS</a>

The research satellite at the altitude of 25 km. Photo courtesy of Stratonavtika company

Bion Space became one of the finalists in the Stratosphere Satellite research and engineering program. Their project became a part of a research probe sent into the stratosphere on November 19 to analyze the way lower gravity can affect the biomimetic process of bone-like tissue formation.

Students Launch Stratosphere Satellite to Analyze Bone Tissue Formation in Low Gravity

In this episode, we talk about how a method leveraging ground data and satellite imagery can help prevent wetland losses. &nbsp;<iframe height="200px" width="100%" frameborder="no" scrolling="no" seamless="" src="https://player.simplecast.com/a470d96e-2d6f-42ab-9aff-e52672c3e85a?dark=false" class="fr-draggable" data-lf-form-tracking-inspected-kn9eq4roawkarlvp="true" data-lf-yt-playback-inspected-kn9eq4roawkarlvp="true" data-lf-vimeo-playback-inspected-kn9eq4roawkarlvp="true"></iframe><hr>This podcast is sponsored by <a href="https://www2.mouser.com/" id="isPasted" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Mouser Electronics</a>. &nbsp;&nbsp;<img src="https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/wevolver-project-images/froala%2F1669714706413-Mouser-sponsor-1-a.jpg" style="width: 766px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib"><hr><h3 id="isPasted">EPISODE NOTES</h3>(2:42) -&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wevolver.com/article/satellites-help-scientists-track-dramatic-wetlands-loss-in-louisiana" target="_blank">Satellites Help Scientists Track Dramatic Wetlands Loss in Louisiana</a>This episode was brought to you by Mouser, our favorite place to get electronic components for any project. Click <a href="https://resources.mouser.com/space/communications-in-space-a-deep-subject" target="_blank">HERE</a> to learn more about the intricacies of deep space communication!<hr>As always, you can find these and other interesting &amp; impactful engineering articles on Wevolver.com.To learn more about this show, please visit our<a href="https://www.wevolver.com/profile/the.next.byte" target="_blank">&nbsp;shows page</a>. By following the page, you will get automatic updates by email when a new show is published. Be sure to give us a follow and review on<a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/nl/podcast/the-next-byte/id1548255861?l=en" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">&nbsp;Apple&nbsp;</a>podcasts,<a href="https://open.spotify.com/show/6lPPsRtegnivsRUEsQ09R7?si=IPMiah7xT_apJtPjqvXMlA" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">&nbsp;Spotify</a>, and most of your favorite podcast platforms!

The researchers mapped land change in coastal Louisiana from 1984 to 2020. Basins that failed to build new soil, such as Terrebonne and Barataria, experienced the most land loss – more than 180 square miles (466 square kilometers). Credit: Jensen et al. Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences

In this episode, we talk about how a method leveraging ground data and satellite imagery can help prevent wetland losses. 

Podcast: Fighting Wetland Loss From Outer Space

This article was discussed in our <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.wevolver.com/profile/the.next.byte&source=gmail&ust=1669765825866000&usg=AOvVaw0adN1ijmCNIvr_GfjyI5jV" href="https://www.wevolver.com/profile/the.next.byte" id="isPasted" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Next Byte podcast</a>.&nbsp;<iframe height="200px" width="100%" frameborder="no" scrolling="no" seamless="" src="https://player.simplecast.com/a470d96e-2d6f-42ab-9aff-e52672c3e85a?dark=false" class="fr-draggable" data-lf-form-tracking-inspected-kn9eq4roawkarlvp="true" data-lf-yt-playback-inspected-kn9eq4roawkarlvp="true" data-lf-vimeo-playback-inspected-kn9eq4roawkarlvp="true"></iframe>The full article will continue below.<hr>From Lake Pontchartrain to the Texas border, Louisiana has lost enough wetlands since the mid-1950s to cover the entire state of Rhode Island. Using a first-of-its kind model, NASA-funded researchers quantified those wetlands losses at nearly 21 square miles (54 square kilometers) per year since the early 1980s.In the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1029/2022JG006794" target="_blank">new study</a>, scientists used the NASA/USGS <a href="https://landsat.gsfc.nasa.gov/" target="_blank">Landsat</a> satellite record to track shoreline changes across Louisiana from 1984 to 2020. Some of those wetlands were submerged by rising seas; others were disrupted by oil and gas infrastructure and hurricanes. But the primary driver of losses was coastal and river engineering, which can have positive or negative effects depending on how it is implemented.Centimeter by centimeter, wetlands are built by the slow accumulation &ndash; accretion &ndash; of mineral sediment and organic material carried by rivers and streams. Accretion makes new soil and counters erosion, the sinking of land, and the rise of sea level.Human intervention and engineering often hold back or divert the flow of sediments that naturally accrete to build and replenish wetlands. For instance, reinforced levees and thousands of miles of canals and excavated banks have isolated many wetlands from the Mississippi River and the network of streams that course through its delta like veins and capillaries. In a few cases, engineering projects have added sediment to delta areas and built new land.<a data-caption="The researchers mapped land change in coastal Louisiana from 1984 to 2020. Basins that failed to build new soil, such as Terrebonne and Barataria, experienced the most land loss – more than 180 square miles (466 square kilometers). Credit: Jensen et al. Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences" data-fancybox="" data-src="https://d2pn8kiwq2w21t.cloudfront.net/original_images/e1-wetlands_land_loss_map.jpeg" href="https://d2pn8kiwq2w21t.cloudfront.net/original_images/e1-wetlands_land_loss_map.jpeg" target="_blank"></a><div data-v-47d42ddc=""><a data-caption='The researchers mapped land change in coastal Louisiana from 1984 to 2020. Basins that failed to build new soil, such as Terrebonne and Barataria, experienced the most land loss – more than 180 square miles (466 square kilometers). Credit: Jensen et al. Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences' data-fancybox="" data-src="https://d2pn8kiwq2w21t.cloudfront.net/original_images/e1-wetlands_land_loss_map.jpeg" href="https://d2pn8kiwq2w21t.cloudfront.net/original_images/e1-wetlands_land_loss_map.jpeg" target="_blank"><img src="https://images.wevolver.com/eyJidWNrZXQiOiJ3ZXZvbHZlci1wcm9qZWN0LWltYWdlcyIsImtleSI6ImZyb2FsYS8xNjY4MTM4NTc4OTIwLWUxLXdldGxhbmRzX2xhbmRfbG9zc19tYXAud2lkdGgtMTMyMC5qcGciLCJlZGl0cyI6eyJyZXNpemUiOnsid2lkdGgiOjk1MCwiZml0IjoiY292ZXIifX19" style="width: 766px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib">The researchers mapped land change in coastal Louisiana from 1984 to 2020. Basins that failed to build new soil, such as Terrebonne and Barataria, experienced the most land loss &ndash; more than 180 square miles (466 square kilometers). Credit: Jensen et al. Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences</a></div>By analyzing Landsat imagery with tools from cloud computing, the researchers developed a remote sensing model that focused on accretion or the lack of it. Basins that failed to build new soil, such as Terrebonne and Barataria, experienced the most land loss over the study period &ndash; more than 180 square miles (466 square kilometers). Other areas gained ground, including 33.6 square miles (87 square kilometers) of new land in the <a href="https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/world-of-change/WaxLake" target="_blank">Atchafalaya Basin</a> and 43 square miles (112 square kilometers) in the area known as the &ldquo;Bird&rsquo;s Foot Delta&rdquo; at the mouth of the Mississippi River.&ldquo;The Louisiana coastal system is highly engineered,&rdquo; said Daniel Jensen, lead author and postdoctoral researcher at NASA&rsquo;s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. &ldquo;But the fact that ground has been gained in some places indicates that, with enough restoration efforts to reintroduce fresh water supply and sediment, we could see some wetland recovery in the future.&rdquo;Understanding wetland dieback and recovery is critically important because the Mississippi River Delta, like many of the world&rsquo;s deltas, drives local and national economies through farming, fisheries, tourism, and shipping. &ldquo;For the 350 million people who live and farm on deltas around the world, coastal wetlands provide a key link in the food chain,&rdquo; said JPL&rsquo;s Marc Simard, principal investigator of NASA&rsquo;s <a href="https://deltax.jpl.nasa.gov/" target="_blank">Delta-X</a> mission and co-author of the paper.<a data-caption="A map of soil accretion in coastal Louisiana showing higher buildup in parts of Atchafalaya and the “Bird’s Foot Delta,” where the Mississippi River system deposits mineral-rich sediment during flood periods. Credit: Jensen et al. Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences" data-fancybox="" data-src="https://d2pn8kiwq2w21t.cloudfront.net/original_images/e2-Wetlands_accretion_map.jpeg" href="https://d2pn8kiwq2w21t.cloudfront.net/original_images/e2-Wetlands_accretion_map.jpeg" target="_blank"></a><div data-v-47d42ddc=""><a data-caption='A map of soil accretion in coastal Louisiana showing higher buildup in parts of Atchafalaya and the “Bird’s Foot Delta,” where the Mississippi River system deposits mineral-rich sediment during flood periods. Credit: Jensen et al. Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences' data-fancybox="" data-src="https://d2pn8kiwq2w21t.cloudfront.net/original_images/e2-Wetlands_accretion_map.jpeg" href="https://d2pn8kiwq2w21t.cloudfront.net/original_images/e2-Wetlands_accretion_map.jpeg" target="_blank"><img src="https://images.wevolver.com/eyJidWNrZXQiOiJ3ZXZvbHZlci1wcm9qZWN0LWltYWdlcyIsImtleSI6ImZyb2FsYS8xNjY4MTM4NjIxNjUzLWUyLVdldGxhbmRzX2FjY3JldGlvbl9tYXAud2lkdGgtMTMyMC5qcGciLCJlZGl0cyI6eyJyZXNpemUiOnsid2lkdGgiOjk1MCwiZml0IjoiY292ZXIifX19" style="width: 766px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib">A map of soil accretion in coastal Louisiana showing higher buildup in parts of Atchafalaya and the &ldquo;Bird&rsquo;s Foot Delta,&rdquo; where the Mississippi River system deposits mineral-rich sediment during flood periods. Credit: Jensen et al. Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences</a></div> In several airborne and field campaigns since 2016, the Delta-X research team has been studying the Mississippi River Delta, the seventh largest on Earth, using airborne sensing and field measurements of water, vegetation, and sediment changes in the face of rising sea level. The Landsat analysis builds on this airborne mission. Delta-X is part of NASA&rsquo;s Earth Venture Suborbital (EVS) program, managed at NASA&rsquo;s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia.The new model by Jensen and colleagues is the first to directly estimate soil accretion rates in coastal wetlands using satellite data. Working with ground-based accretion records from Louisiana&rsquo;s Coastwide Reference Monitoring System, the scientists were able to estimate amounts of mineral sediment from water pixels in the Landsat imagery and organic material from the land pixels.The researchers said their approach could be applied beyond Louisiana because wetland loss and resiliency is a <a href="https://landsat.gsfc.nasa.gov/article/landsat-reveals-dramatic-loss-of-global-wetlands-over-past-two-decades/" target="_blank">global phenomenon</a>. From the <a href="https://landsat.gsfc.nasa.gov/article/where-the-wetlands-are/" target="_blank">Great Lakes</a> to the Nile Delta, the Amazon to Siberia, wetlands are found on every continent except Antarctica. And they are declining in most places. Wetlands were recently called some of the &ldquo;most vulnerable, most threatened, most valuable, and most diverse&rdquo; ecosystems on the planet, according to an international<a href="https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/9781119536789.ch5" target="_blank">&nbsp;analysis</a> co-authored by NASA researchers.

A satellite image of the Mississippi River Delta with land shown in bright green and water shown in dark blue. Credit: NASA Earth Observatory image by Michael Taylor and Adam Voiland, using Landsat data from the U.S. Geological Survey