Space: The Final Frontier

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[Bluewolf]

[Bluewolf]

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China allegedly found Sanskrit manuscripts in 2015 in Tibet that had instructions about building interstellar spaceships !

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Cosmic “heartbeat” detected in fast radio burst billions of lightyears from Earth

The new FRB is the longest lasting with the clearest pattern known.

Astronomers have detected a new fast radio burst, or FRB, from a galaxy far, far away. The new FRB is currently the longest lasting with the clearest periodic pattern ever observed.

FRBs are strong pulses of electromagnetic radiation in the radio-frequency end of the spectrum. The first FRB, known as the “Lorimer burst”, was detected in 2007, but their exact astrophysical origins still remain mysteries.

Typically, fast radio bursts last a few milliseconds at most, and either go quiet or, very rarely, repeat somewhat periodically. This new signal, however, is about three seconds long – about a thousand times longer than the average FRB – and contains a clear periodic pattern similar to a heartbeat which repeats every 0.2 seconds.

Labelled FRB 20191221A, the burst’s source is in a galaxy several billion lightyears from Earth and is theorised to be a neutron star like a radio pulsar or magnetar. The finding is described in a paper published in Nature.

“There are not many things in the universe that emit strictly periodic signals,” says co-author Daniele Michilli, a postdoc in MIT’s Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research, US. “Examples that we know of in our own galaxy are radio pulsars and magnetars, which rotate and produce a beamed emission similar to a lighthouse. And we think this new signal could be a magnetar or pulsar on steroids.”

FRBs have been detected across the universe. One instrument that has recently been finding radio bursts is the interferometric radio telescope Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment, or CHIME.

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As Earth rotates, CHIME – which began observations in 2018 – has picked up radio waves emitted by hydrogen in the early universe as well as hundreds of FRBs.

Most of the bursts CHIME has found are fleeting and random in their construction. But, like a stethoscope on the universe’s rib cage, on December 21, 2019 CHIME found a cosmic pulse.

“It was unusual,” Michilli says. “Not only was it very long, lasting about three seconds, but there were periodic peaks that were remarkably precise, emitting every fraction of a second – boom, boom, boom – like a heartbeat. This is the first time the FRB signal itself is periodic.”

The team analysed the signal and found similarities with pulsars and magnetars in our own galaxy – only the pulses from FRB 20191221A are more than a million times brighter. The researchers believe this means that the FRB may have come from a neutron star which is normally much less bright, but for some unknown reason ejected a series of magnificent bursts. And CHIME was in the right place at the right time to see it.

“CHIME has now detected many FRBs with different properties,” Michilli says. “We’ve seen some that live inside clouds that are very turbulent, while others look like they’re in clean environments. From the properties of this new signal, we can say that around this source, there’s a cloud of plasma that must be extremely turbulent.”

If more bursts from FRB 201912221A can be seen in the future, it may help the researchers understand the source of the burst as well as neutron stars in general.

“This detection raises the question of what could cause this extreme signal that we’ve never seen before, and how can we use this signal to study the universe,” Michilli adds. “Future telescopes promise to discover thousands of FRBs a month, and at that point we may find many more of these periodic signals.” The team also hopes more periodic signals from the same source could be used as an astrophysical clock. The frequency of the bursts, and how they change as the source moves away from Earth, might even be used to measure the rate at which the universe is expanding.

https://cosmosmagazine.com/space/fast-radio-burst-heartbeat-long/

 

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Is a solar storm coming to destroy your smartphone this week?

Despite forecasts, the impact of solar storms is very difficult to predict.

A coronal mass ejection (CME) that emerged from our usually friendly neighbourhood star last week could cause problems close to home in the coming days.

These energy bursts are associated with solar radiation storms, which spew out charged particles from the Sun – sometimes towards Earth. Moving very quickly, these particles can cover the 150 million kilometres between their origin and our little blue sphere in the time it takes to leisurely walk around your local football field.

These high-energy particles can penetrate the atmosphere if they hit our planet’s magnetic field.

One problem linked with these solar particles visiting Earth is the potential damage they cause.

Luckily, our magnetic field protects against space rays

While humans on the ground are protected by our planet’s magnetic field shielding us from cosmic radiation, an astronaut would do well to avoid coming across solar particles – a big dose of this sun radiation would damage their DNA.

Technology and solar rays don’t mix too well, either. Solar storms have the potential to fry electronic circuitry in spacecraft, and disrupt GPS technology, cause communications blackouts and damage the computer or smartphone you’re using to read this article.

So with predictions of a solar storm hitting Earth this week, what are the chances?

“One of the big challenges is that we don’t know how to forecast,” says Dr Hannah Schunker, a solar and stellar physicist from the University of Newcastle. “We simply don’t know: one that we think will be very weak ends up being quite strong. One that we think will be enormous has very little interaction.

“Solar storms are a huge puzzle.”

Expect more solar storms over the next few years

One thing we do know is that the Sun is getting more active. Most estimates predict it will reach a “solar maximum” at some point in 2025, marking the peak of the Sun’s activity when its magnetic field changes its polarity. That means more solar storms can be expected as we approach this big flip.

“The Sun is now entering its period of maximum solar activity… and when it’s more magnetically active, this is what gives the energy to these sudden explosions on the Sun,” says Schunker.

“So we’ll have more of those explosions. And then if they happen to be directed towards the Earth, then we have a higher chance of it being a problem for us.”

Solar storms do, at least, have some benefits for us. The good news for those in need of a way to entertain the kids these school holidays is that Sun particles dancing across Earth’s magnetic field results in the polar aurorae – the northern and southern lights. So if you’re at the right latitude (in Australia, think: southern Tasmania), you should at least get a cool sky show this

week.https://cosmosmagazine.com/space/solar-storm-might-cause-trouble/

 

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Giant Lovell radio telescope at Jodrell Bank to become space light show

The UK's largest radio telescope - the Lovell telescope at Jodrell Bank in Cheshire - is being turned into a light and sound show.

For the first time since 2019, at the Bluedot festival, the giant radio telescope will take centre stage.

Images from space, including some stunning pictures from Nasa's James Webb Space Telescope will be beamed on to its 249ft (76m) dish.

"We'll use that dish as a huge film screen," said Prof Teresa Anderson.

The astrophysicist and director of the Jodrell Bank Discovery Centre explained: "We'll project on to it some of the latest data from the Sun and beautiful images of the Moon."

FULL REPORT

 

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NASA’s VIPER Prototype Motors Through Moon-like Obstacle Course

NASA’s Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover (VIPER) prototype recently endured the most realistic tests to-date of its ability to drive through the most difficult terrain during its mission to the Moon’s South Pole – all at the Simulated Lunar Operations (SLOPE) Laboratory at NASA's Glenn Research Center in Cleveland.

Credits: NASA

 

It faced the quicksand-like soil in the “sink tank,” climbed the “tilt bed,” and conquered boulders and craters. NASA’s Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover (VIPER) prototype recently endured the most realistic tests to-date of its ability to drive through the most difficult terrain during its mission to the Moon’s South Pole.

Engineers tested the latest VIPER mobility engineering test unit, known as Moon Gravitation Representative Unit 3 (MGRU3) in the Simulated Lunar Operations (SLOPE) Laboratory at NASA's Glenn Research Center in Cleveland. This MGRU3 features motor controllers specially designed for the Moon rover – a critical piece of hardware in the rover’s mobility system that controls the motors that send power the rover’s four wheels.

“Unlike most car engines, which uses a throttle and brake to speed up and slow down all four wheels, VIPER’s motor controllers make the rover wheels turn at the force and rate the drivers want, with extreme precision to allow for better performance,” said Arno Rogg, test director and rover systems engineer at NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley. “These tests allowed us to verify the performance of the rover mobility system and know it will work well on the Moon.”

The tests also helped engineers determine how well the rover will handle challenging conditions on the lunar surface.

“We wanted to see if the rover is capable of moving forward in an extreme sinkage environment, and how much slower VIPER might drive or how much additional power the rover would use because of tricky soil conditions,” said Mercedes Herreras-Martinez VIPER risk manager and mission systems engineering technical interchange lead at Ames. 

Using the latest build of the rover software, engineers also tested out the prototype’s ability to “inch-worm” – or move its wheels in a special, caterpillar-like coordinated way that helps the rover get itself unstuck. The rover prototype also demonstrated it will autonomously stop moving if it approaches a slope that is too steep for it to climb or if it were to ever lose track of where it is on the Moon.

“We’ve captured a lot of data with these tests about what happens when the rover wheels grind over a rock or slip on loose terrain, and any sensor drifts – when the rover gets slightly off-course,” said Rogg.

All the Moon-like terrain and other hazards the rover prototype encountered were methodically and deliberately placed in the SLOPE lab following recommendations of the VIPER science team. The engineering test team then carefully selected the soil simulants, hand-picked rocks, and even carefully crafted the shape and size of the craters to realistically mimic actual features at the surface of the Moon’s South Pole.

Along with testing the rover’s ability to drive over difficult terrain features, another goal was to test the rover’s performance over lunar terrain the team expects the rover to encounter most of the time. 

“Using data and imagery from previous lunar missions, we created various randomized scenes to mimic the surface terrain of the Moon, with craters and rocks of different sizes and shapes scattered over the SLOPE tilt bed,” said Kevin May, rover and mission systems engineering intern at Ames who led the terrain preparation for the test. “With help from the VIPER science team, which generated cut-out templates of crater profiles, we were able to form features out of the terrain and shape more accurate craters than ever before. By recreating realistic Moon-like environments, we can get a much better idea of how VIPER will perform on the surface.” 

https://www.nasa.gov/feature/ames/nasas-viper-prototype-motors-through-moon-like-obstacle-course

 

Edited July 27, 2022 by CaaC (John)
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[Bluewolf]

 

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Eyes to the monster slayer as we burst through a comet’s tail

This weekend cast your eyes to the skies to see the best meteor shower of the year.

This weekend, with a bit of know-how, a dark sky site and help from a handy app, you could be treated to a meteor shower which NASA considers to be the best of the year.

Typically, meteor showers are named after the constellation from which the meteors appear to originate (known as the “radiant”) — in this case, it’s Perseus, the Greek slayer of the mythical Gorgon.

But what makes it #1 on NASA’s meteor shower greatest hits list?

In one word: fireballs.

Along with plentiful beautiful, long-lasting streaks of light, the Perseids are also known for producing much larger explosions

Fireballs are produced when larger pieces of material, including those larger than a metre in size, collide with Earth’s atmosphere and explode. Occasionally, fragments of fireball-causing debris make it to the ground but typically, incoming material is compressed and heated into oblivion in the atmospheric gasses high above our heads.

Fireballs often accompany meteor showers occurring as a result of the Earth passing through the ancient debris left over from a visiting comet. In this case, the comet is 109P/Swift-Tuttle and, surprisingly, the connection between the Perseids and this comet has been known since 1865.

Comet 109P Swift-Tuttle orbits every 133 years, last visiting in 1992. So, unless you’re planning on living for a long, long time, this might be the closest you get.

The other reason the Perseid meteor shower is a sky-watching favourite is simply the sheer number of meteors. The maximum Zenith Hourly Rate (ZHR_max) for this meteor shower at its peak on 13 August is approximately 100. A ZHR_max of 100 means that if the meteor shower was directly overhead, with no light interference at the time of its peak, one could expect to see 100 meteors.

In most cases, though, the shower will not be directly overhead. In the Southern Hemisphere, the radiant will be low above the horizon if it rises at all. For instance, observers in Lima, Peru, can expect the radiant to be around 20° above the horizon due north in the hours before dawn, with viewing prospects capped at around 12 meteors per hour, while the radiant doesn’t rise above the horizon at all for observers in Adelaide, Australia where any visible meteors will appear to rise up from the northern horizon, rather than spray outwards.

The Perseids shower is overwhelmingly best viewed from the Northern Hemisphere. Viewers in London or New York might expect to see 36 meteors per hour or more if they look around two thirds of the way up above the north-eastern horizon just before dawn.

For all viewers across the globe, this year’s shower will have significant interference from the light of the Moon which is only two days past full and will wash out some of the fainter meteor streaks.

Anyone interested in locating the Perseids or other objects in the night sky might like to check out Stellarium. It’s a free, open-source planetarium application which can be used on your phone or laptop and will help you find your way in the night sky.

Some quick tips for meteor viewing:

1. Find a dark site, where you can see as much of the sky as possible
2. Take a blanket or reclining chairs — you will want to be able to relax and not have a sore neck. Leave your binoculars at home.
3. Rug up and take insect repellent (depending on where you are)
4. Let your eyes adjust to the darkness for at least 10 minutes
5. Find the radiant point, but don’t stare here. Look about 30 degrees (that’s just over the distance between your outstretched pinkie and thumb on the sky if you hold your hand out at arm’s length).
6. Relax, lie back and enjoy the show

https://cosmosmagazine.com/news/eyes-to-the-monster-slayer-perseid-meteors/

 

 

Edited August 13, 2022 by CaaC (John)

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SLS rocket with Orion spacecraft has succesfully arrived to the launch pad 39B at the Kennedy Space Center ahead of the first Artemis-I mission launch attempt.

 

We have three potential launch windows as of now:

August 29, 14:33 CET
September 2, 18:48 CET
September 5, 23:12 CET

So it's less than 12 days to go to the first launch opportunity! So excited about it; I want everything to go well so that we get to see people back to the Moon as soon as possible! 

[CaaC (John)+]

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After 45 years, the 5-billion-year legacy of the Voyager 2 probe is just beginning

Voyager 1 & 2 will shut down soon. What does it mean for humanity?

By Alice Gorman, Associate Professor in Archaeology and Space Studies, Flinders University

On August 20 1977, 45 years ago, an extraordinary spacecraft left this planet on a journey like no other. Voyager 2 was going to show us, for the first time, what the outer solar system planets looked like close-up. It was like sending a fly to New York City and asking it to report back.

Voyager 1 was launched after Voyager 2, on September 5. Attached to the flank of each Voyager was a Golden Record carrying greetings, sounds, images and music from Earth.

The spacecraft were more or less twins, but they had different trajectories and scientific instruments. While both flew by Jupiter and Saturn, Voyager 1 then sped onwards to interstellar space. Voyager 2 tarried to make the only visit ever to the ice giants, Uranus and Neptune.

The many-coloured worlds

Arriving at Uranus in 1986, Voyager 2 mapped pale blue-green clouds and a possible “dark spot”, which was later confirmed by the Hubble Space Telescope. There was an unexpected magnetic field, which dragged a corkscrew trail of particles behind the planet as it rolled in its orbit. Ten new moons were discovered, including the grey, cratered Puck, and two new coal-black rings.

Three years later Voyager 2 reached Neptune and sent home images of teal and cobalt clouds swirled by winds up to 18,000 kilometres per hour. A slate-coloured “great dark spot” indicated a storm the diameter of Earth. The largest moon, Triton, was blushed pink from methane ice and spouted geysers of frozen nitrogen.

No spacecraft has been back since.

Messages to the future

Even more than these glimpses of the far icy planets, what fascinates people about the Voyager mission is the famous Golden Records. A committee led by visionary astronomer Carl Sagan worked for over a year to assemble materials to represent planet Earth. The music garners the most attention as the “mix tape for the universe”, but it’s not the only highlight.

One of the sounds of Earth is the manufacture of stone tools, or “knapping”. This is the most durable technology humans and their ancestors have devised, in use from around 3 million years ago to the present day. For most of human existence, the sound of stone striking stone to detach a sharp-edged cutting flake was heard daily in every community. 

In one of the 116 images, a Black scientist in a lab coat bends over a microscope, tiered earrings falling gracefully from her ears. The earrings were the subject of some debate: would a future alien viewer recognise the concept of “jewellery”? It was hoped this image, together with the photomicrograph of cells dividing in image 17, would help viewers figure out that the science of microscopy was known on our planet.

People recorded messages in 55 languages. Some are ancient languages, such as Akkadian and Hittite, not heard on Earth for thousands of years. The most common words used are “greetings”, “peace” and “friend”. The Portuguese greeting, spoken by Janet Sternberg, says simply “Peace and happiness to all”.

The long farewell

Finally, in 2018, Voyager 2 joined Voyager 1 beyond the heliopause, where the solar wind is turned back by winds from interstellar space. Our galaxy is 100,000 light-years across, and Voyager 2 is now just under 18 light-hours away from Earth.

Both spacecraft send reedy signals that wend their way between the planets to the three antennas which are still listening: Tidbinbilla, Goldstone and Madrid.

Before they can truly leave, the Voyagers will have to travel through the Oort Cloud, a vast, dark sphere of icy objects surrounding the solar system, for another 20,000 years.

Slowly, Voyager 2’s systems are being shut down to eke out the power as long as possible. But sometime in the 2030s there will be none left.

Even after Voyager 2 stops transmitting, it won’t be completely dead. The half-life of the plutonium-238 in its nuclear power source is 87.7 years, while that of the the small patch of uranium-238 coating on the Golden Record is 4.5 billion years. Both elements are slowly turning into lead.

The radioactive transmutation of the elements is a kind of reverse alchemy at a cosmic time scale. This process of becoming will not end until there is nothing on Voyager 2 left to be transformed.

Cultural significance

Constant bombardment by dust particles will gradually erode the surfaces of Voyager 2, likely at a higher rate than Voyager 1 because it’s travelling through different regions of interstellar space. However, its Golden Record should be at least partially legible after 5 billion years.

The Earth portrayed on the Golden Records will probably be unrecognisable even 100 years from now. The spacecraft and the records will remain as a fragmentary archaeological record for an unknowable future.

While the Golden Records are endlessly fascinating, the true cultural significance of the Voyagers lies in their location. The spacecraft are boundary markers showing the physical extent of human engagement with the universe.

When the Voyagers cease transmission, it will be like losing a sense. Telescopes can only show us so much: there is no substitute for being there.

Who will follow in their path?

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

https://cosmosmagazine.com/australia/voyager-legacy-just-beginning/

 

 

Edited August 19, 2022 by CaaC (John)
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13 potential Moon landing sites have been identified for the Artemis-III mission. 

- Faustini Rim A
- Peak Near Shackleton
- Connecting Ridge
- Connecting Ridge Extension
- de Gerlache Rim 1
- de Gerlache Rim 2
- de Gerlache-Kocher Massif
- Haworth
- Malapert Massif
- Leibnitz Beta Plateau
- Nobile Rim 1
- Nobile Rim 2
- Amundsen Rim

[Stan]

 

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Ground-based telescope discovers the most massive star is smaller than we thought

In the theatre of the sky, a shining light shrinks as our sights get clearer.

Deep in the heart of the Tarantula Nebula – approximately 157,000 light years away from us – there lies a massive star.

Originally thought to be between 250 and 320 times larger than the mass of our own Sun, the massive star R136a1 was pushing the limit for how big stars could actually be.

But the sharpest ever images of the star have just been released, and it shows that R136a1 isn’t pushing the limit as hard as we thought – it’s a modest 196 times the size of our Sun.

Luckily for the now shrunken star, even with this lower estimate, it’s still the most massive star we know of.

“Our results show us that the most massive star we currently know is not as massive as we had previously thought,” explained NOIRLab astronomer Venu Kalari, lead author of the new study.

“This suggests that the upper limit on stellar masses may also be smaller than previously thought.”

The star is part of a large collection of stars inside the NGC 2070 star cluster, which you can see in this magical Hubble picture below.

What’s potentially most exciting about this research for ground-based astronomers is just how sharp the new images of the star cluster are. Although they might look blurry, it’s a huge jump on past optical telescopes – both ground and space.

NGC 2070 has previously been observed using Hubble (shown below) and a variety of ground-based telescopes but none of these telescopes could pick out all the individual stellar members of the cluster. This’s why R136a1 was thought to be bigger than it actually was.

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Most of the time optical space telescopes are better than those on the ground because of the atmosphere on Earth warping the ability to see far flung objects. The atmosphere is unfortunately full turbulence which distorts light.

But Gemini South Telescope’s Zorro instrument – which is based in Chile – has a better resolution than previous observations by using a technique known as “speckle imaging.” This enables ground-based telescopes to overcome much of the blurring effect of Earth’s atmosphere by taking thousands of short-exposure images of a bright object and processing the data. This approach, as well as the use of adaptive optics, can dramatically increase the resolution of ground-based telescopes, as shown by the team’s sharp new Zorro observations of R136a1.

“This result shows that given the right conditions an 8.1-meter telescope pushed to its limits can rival not only the Hubble Space Telescope when it comes to angular resolution, but also the James Webb Space Telescope,” says Ricardo Salinas, a co-author of this paper and the instrument scientist for Zorro.

“This observation pushes the boundary of what is considered possible using speckle imaging.”

Of course, because of the way this speckling image technique works we’ll need to take these results with a pinch of salt. The speckled images are reconstructed of thousands of images, as opposed to one long exposure.

But if this speckled image technique is able to work as well as it seems, it brings a whole new life into ground-based optical telescopes, and we’re excited to see what comes next. The research will appear in The Astrophysical Journal and can be read in full on preprint server arXiv.

https://cosmosmagazine.com/space/the-most-massive-star-is-smaller-than-we-thought/

 

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Aardman's Shaun the Sheep will soon make a real-life trip to the Moon

Aardman’s loveable character will boldly go where no sheep has gone before.

Going into space is an honour few people get to experience, but even fewer toy sheep get to make the journey. However, that is all about to change as one woolly astronaut prepares to step inside a spacecraft.

Shaun the Sheep (or at least a space-ready version of him) is set to be sent into space as part of the upcoming Artemis 1 launch. The first of a number of planned flights, Artemis 1 will have no human pilots on board, but Shaun will be joined by an Amazon Alexa, a Snoopy doll and even some plants.

But how did Shaun achieve his seat as the first sheep in space, has he been trained and is he safe to be inside a spacecraft? We spoke to Emily Jones, brand director at Aardman, to find out more.

The first sheep in space

Shaun managed to sneak a seat on this coveted flight thanks to his career as a movie star. “Back in 2019, Aardman and the European Space Agency had a partnership to celebrate the release of the film Shaun The Sheep: Farmageddon,” says Jones.

"During this time, we had a Shaun puppet experience a zero-gravity flight. Aardman have been in touch with the European Space Agency ever since and it has been in the planning for many years to have Shaun be part of the Artemis 1 mission!”

Unlike most flights into space, there will be no humans taking part. Instead, Shaun is one of a few toys and other gadgets to make it onboard. So why is he on the flight?

"Shaun is going to be the first European – and sheep! – to fly to and around the Moon. It’s a fantastic opportunity for a much-loved character to be part of this first mission which will eventually lead to getting people back to the Moon,” says Jones.

If, like us, you’re wondering why Shaun got the seat and not Aardman’s loveable duo of Wallace and Gromit, Jones had the answer to this too: “Wallace and Gromit have been to the Moon already in their adventure, A Grand Day Out, in which they went to see if the Moon was really made of cheese. Hopefully Shaun can learn more on his trip.”

Preparing for the mission

Going into space is not an easy trip. In fact, it requires a lot of training and preparation. Luckily, Shaun had already been through a zero-gravity flight so it wasn’t all too new to him.

Like any astronaut, he went through further training around various European Space Agencies (ESA) sites including ESTEC in the Netherlands. The ESA made sure to document his training, just to prove he wasn’t one of those celebrities who uses a stunt double.

The one other key factor to consider is whether it was safe to have Shaun in space. “To ensure he was suitable for flight, ESA also had to ensure the materials the puppet is made from were suitable. Luckily, they were – so the Shaun on board is a genuine, unmodified Aardman puppet,” says Jones.

As the Artemis launch will be using a reusable rocket, and will be planning a return trip to space, this Shaun the Sheep will be reunited with Aardman once it lands.

https://www.sciencefocus.com/space/shaun-the-sheep-will-soon-become-the-first-sheep-in-space/

 

 

Edited August 27, 2022 by CaaC (John)
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9 minutes ago, CaaC (John) said:

 

 

I swear those zero g indicators are my favourite part about spaceflight

[CaaC (John)+]

5 minutes ago, nudge said:

I swear those zero g indicators are my favourite part about spaceflight

Zippy, Etta and now Shaun The Sheep 

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13 minutes ago, CaaC (John) said:

Zippy, Etta and now Shaun The Sheep 

Nah it's all about this guy: 

[CaaC (John)+]

52 minutes ago, nudge said:

Nah it's all about this guy: 

Is Dragon Zero your favourite then?

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12 minutes ago, CaaC (John) said:

Is Dragon Zero your favourite then?

Wtf is Dragon Zero?

[CaaC (John)+]

46 minutes ago, nudge said:

Wtf is Dragon Zero?

Don't know? Googled that photo and that name came up 

 

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19 minutes ago, CaaC (John) said:

Don't know? Googled that photo and that name came up 

 

Crew Dragon is the name of the spacecraft  And Zero-G indicator is well, a zero gravity indicator