NASA Appeals To The Public To Design A Shade For Space
Imagine being out in a field and staring into the sky, making out the shapes of clouds. It’s not something you’d be able to do for long as the sun’s glare will make you squint, and you’ll potentially start seeing stars.
In a loosely similar vein, NASA has been searching for Earth-like planets via telescopes on the ground. However, the light emitted from stars makes it difficult for researchers to form accurate observations.
From Earth, astronomers scour the vast darkness of space for signs of the extremely rare exoplanets, indicated by light. The planets’ own glows are “influenced by surface minerals, oceans, continents, weather, vegetation, and the gases that make up [their] atmosphere,” says the space agency. These illuminations, unfortunately, often clash with the glare of stars.
Using starshades, scientists would be able to cloak a star with a dark shadow so it doesn’t interfere with the natural light of the planets, giving observers a clearer view.
NASA is now hoping to build a preliminary, shaded planet-finder—called the Hybrid Observatory for Earth-like Exoplanets (HOEE)—that combines a ground-based telescope with a space-based starshade to “block glare from stars when observing planets outside our solar system,” and it is turning to the public for ideas.
Budding cosmic designers should take note to come up with a starshade that’s portable enough to travel by rocket. The concept would be launched in Earth orbit before unfolding in space to 330 feet in diameter.
The shade should also have “the lowest possible mass” to make space for chemical thrusters, which will keep the equipment aligned. Further, a compact design will enable it to adjust to other angles and bring visibility to other targets.
At the same time, this lightweight starshade must use “as little fuel as possible,” says NASA.
The Ultralight Starshade Structural Design Challenge, as the challenge is called, is being administered by open-source 3D-printing platform GrabCAD and will accept ideas until August 22, 2022. The top five designs will share a prize of US$7,000.
“The hybrid observatory might help us answer some of the most pressing questions about extraterrestrial life,” describes Dr John Mather, senior astrophysicist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, and senior project scientist for the James Webb Space Telescope.
Dr Mather continues: “Observing many systems would help answer the question of why configurations like our own are rare and why none is quite like home. It is truly exciting that the public can be part of this revolutionary effort. I can’t wait to see what ideas they bring to the table.”
