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It’s great to see so many private organisations entering the space sector. Space Perspective are another and they have just completed a successful uncrewed capsule ascent to an altitude of 30km. Their Neptune-Excelsior capsule was carried by a balloon and landed in the ocean 6 hours later. It was able to maintain its cabin pressure and stability throughout the flight proving that it met the requirements for future passenger flights starting in 2025.  Space Perspective was founded in 2019 by Jane Poynter and Taber MacCallum. Their focus in the sector is space tourism and they aim to provide an accessible way for people to experience space without the need for rockets. The concept is to provide trips on board their pressurised capsules which are lifted gently to the upper atmosphere by large hydrogen filled balloons. The gentle journey is a far cry from the adrenalin fuelled rocket launches we are accustomed to seeing but still allows passengers to take in the view of the Earth from an altitude of 100,000 feet (30km.) The experience should be a comfortable and luxurious one with large windows, spacious interior and a smooth, calm experience.  A view of Earth’s atmosphere from space. Credit: NASA The concept is a fabulous one allowing access to space by anyone and especially those less inclined to attach themselves to a controlled explosion. It’s a carbon-neutral spaceflight experience and this latest test of the Neptune-Excelsior capsule is a positive step forward. The ascent began at the Marine Spaceport from the deck of MS Voyager off the coast of St Petersburg in Florida on 15 September 2024.  Apollo 11 launch using the Saturn V rocket The whole journey lasted 6 hours, and reaching an altitude of 100,000 feet took the capsule above 99% of the Earth’s atmosphere. Enroute the Neptune-Excelsior travelled high above the ocean and on completion of the ascent the module completed a controlled descent and completed a splashdown landing. The flight marks a significant milestone in space tourism opening up a space experience to all and bringing with it innovations in spaceport technology, spacecraft design and flight safety.  Enabling the flight are a number of technological advances; launch and ascent systems, environment management and thermal management. The launch system employed a new four-roller system to raise the balloon and get it airborne. It’s an approach that significantly reduces the cost of launch to high altitude, reduces the risk and the carbon footprint.  Unlike other capsules designed for space, the Neptune module has been designed for comfort and enjoyment with the largest windows ever flown.  The Development Test Flight has enabled the collection of data to inform the next phase in the programme. Teams of engineers will analyse the results and the capsule to see how the pressurisation, structure and thermal systems have handled the flight setting the stage for the first crewed flight.  Is this for everyone? Space Perspective have sold at least 1,800 tickets at a cost of $125,000 that’s compared to more conventional rocket based journeys costing anything from $250,000 and above. Alas for now, the price point still puts space travel outside the financial capability of most but it’s a great step toward driving down the cost and opening up the amazing wonders of space to everyone.  Source : Space Perspective Successfully Completes Development Flight 2 The post Space Perspective Completes a Test Flight, Sending a Balloon to 30 km appeared first on Universe Today.

The Milky Way is special because it is our home. No matter where we are on Earth we can see its arc of light overhead if the night is dark enough. But how similar is our galaxy to others? Is it an unusual spiral galaxy, or is it rather typical in the cosmos? Before we had discovered exoplanets, astronomers generally thought our solar system was rather typical. Sure, there would be differences, but the general arrangement of rocky worlds close to the Sun and cold gas giants in the outer system made sense. However when we studied planetary systems we found ours was rather unusual. Most planets orbit red dwarfs, not sun-like stars, and large gas giants often orbit close to their star. Now that we have sky surveys of galaxies throughout the Universe, we can answer the same question of the Milky way, as a recent study shows. The study is based on the Satellites Around Galactic Analogs (SAGA) Survey, which began collecting data in 2013. The goal of SAGA is to look at the small galaxies which orbit large galaxies. The team looked at 101 galaxies with masses similar to the Milky Way and found 378 satellite galaxies for them. Because of observational limits, this only covers satellites with a mass of about a million Suns or more. In this range our galaxy has four satellites. We know of many more, but most of them are below the mass cutoff. This would seem to indicate that the Milky Way is rather typical. But then the team looked at those galaxies with a large companion, like the Large Magellanic Cloud we see in the southern hemisphere. For those galaxies the number of satellites is typically much larger than four. The Milky Way has an unusually low number of satellites. One reason for this may be that the Large Magellanic Cloud entered our sphere of influence rather recently on the cosmic timeline. A second study based on the SAGA data looked at star formation in the satellite galaxies. It found that the closer a satellite is to the main galaxy the more likely it is to still be producing stars. This is similar to what we see among the Milky Way satellites. So it seems that while the Milky Way is a little unusual, it isn’t unique among galaxies of similar mass. But it will always be our special spiral galaxy. Reference: Mao, Yao-Yuan, et al. “The SAGA Survey. III. A Census of 101 Satellite Systems around Milky Way-mass Galaxies.” arXiv preprint arXiv:2404.14498 (2024). Reference: Geha, Marla, et al. “The SAGA Survey. IV. The Star Formation Properties of 101 Satellite Systems around Milky Way-mass Galaxies.” arXiv preprint arXiv:2404.14499 (2024). The post How Does the Milky Way Compare to Other Galaxies? appeared first on Universe Today.