Space News and Discussions

[weatheriscool]

New NASA Missions Will Study Venus, a World Overlooked for Decades

One of the spacecraft will probe the hellish planet’s clouds, which could potentially help settle the debate over whether they are habitable by floating microbes.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/02/scie ... 175be38b67

By Kenneth Chang
June 2, 2021, 3:49 p.m. ET

NASA is finally going back to Venus, for the first time in more than three decades. And a second time too.

On Wednesday, Bill Nelson, the NASA administrator, announced the agency’s latest choices for robotic planetary missions, both expected to head to Venus in coming years: DAVINCI+ and VERITAS.

[weatheriscool]

NASA Delays James Webb Space Telescope Launch Again
https://www.extremetech.com/extreme/323 ... unch-again
By Ryan Whitwam on June 2, 2021 at 1:31 pm

NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope is expected to expand the bounds of human knowledge, allowing us to investigate the most distant, and therefore oldest, objects in the universe. So far, all it’s done is cost a lot of money and get delayed. Well, prepare for more of the same. NASA has confirmed that the telescope will not hit its planned October 31st launch. However, the delay might only be a few weeks this time.

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has been in development for more than 20 years, but it took a few years for the plan to take shape. NASA made changes to the design in the early 2000s, which pushed the expected 2007 launch date back to 2009, and then 2010, and then 2011. You can probably see where this is going. It’s 2021 and NASA still isn’t sure exactly when this telescope will launch.

WTF? It would have been better to build another kepler with better camera's and shit. A plus. This james webb thing is a disgrace!!!! We could have had 3 or 4 keplers for the price of this thing.

[wjfox]

New NASA Missions Will Study Venus, a World Overlooked for Decades

One of the spacecraft will probe the hellish planet’s clouds, which could potentially help settle the debate over whether they are habitable by floating microbes.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/02/scie ... 175be38b67

By Kenneth Chang
June 2, 2021, 3:49 p.m. ET

NASA is finally going back to Venus, for the first time in more than three decades. And a second time too.

On Wednesday, Bill Nelson, the NASA administrator, announced the agency’s latest choices for robotic planetary missions, both expected to head to Venus in coming years: DAVINCI+ and VERITAS.

[weatheriscool]

NASA’s Mars Lander Cleaned Sand Off Its Solar Panels Using More Sand
https://www.extremetech.com/extreme/323 ... -more-sand
By Ryan Whitwam on June 3, 2021 at 4:23 pm

NASA’s InSight lander has been on the red planet since 2018, and it relies on solar panels for power, unlike the nuclear-powered Perseverance rover. That means there’s the potential for dust build-up on the solar panels, which is becoming an issue as the planet descends into another frigid winter. Luckily, engineers at JPL devised an ingenious way to get the sand off the solar panels. All it took was more sand.

InSight got its mission extension in early 2021, shortly before the team decided to give up on the burrowing HP3 heat probe that stubbornly refused to burrow. However, the SEIS instrument has exceeded expectations as the first seismometer on another planet. The team has been working to wrap up InSight’s science operations for the season. The robot was designed to go quiet during the long Martian winter to save power for its heater and communication gear. Maybe there’s a little wiggle room, though?

[weatheriscool]

SpaceX launches tiny critters, solar panels to space station
https://phys.org/news/2021-06-spacex-ti ... anels.html
by Marcia Dunn

SpaceX launched thousands of tiny sea creatures to the International Space Station on Thursday, along with a plaque-fighting toothpaste experiment and powerful solar panels.

The 7,300-pound (3,300-kilogram) shipment—which also includes fresh lemons, onions, avocados and cherry tomatoes for the station's seven astronauts—should arrive Saturday.

SpaceX's Falcon rocket blasted into the hazy afternoon sky from Kennedy Space Center. The first-stage booster was new for a change, landing on an offshore platform several minutes after liftoff so it can be recycled for a NASA astronaut flight this fall.

[weatheriscool]

One SpaceX Raptor Engine Every Two Days
June 2, 2021 by Brian Wang

Elon Musk says that Raptor engine production has reached one every two days. This is a runrate of 180 per year. The previous Merlin engines had reached a production rate of 400 engines per year. SpaceX will likely at least double Raptor engine production to the old Merlin engine level in 2022.

SpaceX needs 29 Raptor engines for a full Super Heavy Booster and seven engines for a fully loaded Starship. SpaceX current Raptor engine production levels are enough for five fully populated Super Heavy Boosters and five fully loaded Starships.

SpaceX likely needs about 100 Raptor engines to complete the testing phase for Super Heavy and Starship. SpaceX should have two Super Heavy Starships ready for long term usage at the end of this year. Two Super Heavy Starships flying once every two weeks would be able to match the launch rate of the Falcon 9 fleet but with four times the payload.

https://www.nextbigfuture.com/2021/06/o ... -days.html

[weatheriscool]

NASA's Juno to get a close look at Jupiter's moon Ganymede
https://phys.org/news/2021-06-nasa-juno ... ymede.html
by NASA

The first of the gas-giant orbiter's back-to-back flybys will provide a close encounter with the massive moon after over 20 years.

On Monday, June 7, at 1:35 p.m. EDT (10:35 a.m. PDT), NASA's Juno spacecraft will come within 645 miles (1,038 kilometers) of the surface of Jupiter's largest moon, Ganymede. The flyby will be the closest a spacecraft has come to the solar system's largest natural satellite since NASA's Galileo spacecraft made its penultimate close approach back on May 20, 2000. Along with striking imagery, the solar-powered spacecraft's flyby will yield insights into the moon's composition, ionosphere, magnetosphere, and ice shell. Juno's measurements of the radiation environment near the moon will also benefit future missions to the Jovian system.

Ganymede is bigger than the planet Mercury and is the only moon in the solar system with its own magnetosphere—a bubble-shaped region of charged particles surrounding the celestial body.

"Juno carries a suite of sensitive instruments capable of seeing Ganymede in ways never before possible," said Juno Principal Investigator Scott Bolton of the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio. "By flying so close, we will bring the exploration of Ganymede into the 21st century, both complementing future missions with our unique sensors and helping prepare for the next generation of missions to the Jovian system—NASA's Europa Clipper and ESA's [European Space Agency's] JUpiter ICy moons Explorer [JUICE] mission."

[Time_Traveller]

Axiom Space purchases three Crew Dragon missions

June 3, 2021

WASHINGTON — Axiom Space has signed a contract with SpaceX for three additional Crew Dragon missions, enough to meet its projections for private astronaut missions to the International Space Station through at least 2023.

Axiom, which already has a deal with SpaceX for the Ax-1 mission to the ISS launching in early 2022, said June 2 the new contract covers the projected Ax-2, 3 and 4 missions to the station. All will use Crew Dragon spacecraft launched on Falcon 9 rockets.

The companies did not disclose the terms of the agreement, including whether Axiom Space negotiated a lower price through a block buy. Axiom spokesman Beau Holder told SpaceNews that the biggest benefit of the agreement was ensuring access to the Crew Dragon for its future missions.

“It secures a vehicle that is flight-proven and ready to support the crewed launch cadence Axiom is planning: approximately every six or seven months leading up to near the launch of the first Axiom module to ISS,” he said. “Expanding this partnership between two key industry leaders cements the commercialization of low Earth orbit.”

Axiom finalized an agreement with NASA for the Ax-1 mission May 10. That Crew Dragon mission, scheduled for launch in early 2022, will be commanded by former NASA astronaut Michael López-Alegría with three customers: Larry Connor, Mark Pathy and Eytan Stibbe.

https://spacenews.com/axiom-space-purch ... -missions/

[weatheriscool]

A catalyst that destroys perchlorate in water could clean Martian soil
https://phys.org/news/2021-06-catalyst- ... -soil.html
by Holly Ober, University of California - Riverside

Ateam led by UC Riverside engineers has developed a catalyst to remove a dangerous chemical from water on Earth that could also make Martian soil safer for agriculture and help produce oxygen for human Mars explorers.

Perchlorate, a negative ion consisting of one chlorine atom bonded to four oxygen atoms, occurs naturally in some soils on Earth, and is especially abundant in Martian soil. As a powerful oxidizer, perchlorate is also manufactured and used in solid rocket fuel, fireworks, munitions, airbag initiators for vehicles, matches and signal flares. It is a byproduct in some disinfectants and herbicides.

Because of its ubiquity in both soil and industrial goods, perchlorate is a common water contaminant that causes certain thyroid disorders. Perchlorate bioaccumulates in plant tissues and a large amount of perchlorate found in Martian soil could make food grown there unsafe to eat, limiting the potential for human settlements on Mars. Perchlorate in Martian dust could also be hazardous to explorers. Current methods of removing perchlorate from water require either harsh conditions or a multistep enzymatic process to lower the oxidation state of the chlorine element into the harmless chloride ion.

[Yuli Ban]

New NASA Missions Will Study Venus, a World Overlooked for Decades

One of the spacecraft will probe the hellish planet’s clouds, which could potentially help settle the debate over whether they are habitable by floating microbes.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/02/scie ... 175be38b67

By Kenneth Chang
June 2, 2021, 3:49 p.m. ET

NASA is finally going back to Venus, for the first time in more than three decades. And a second time too.

On Wednesday, Bill Nelson, the NASA administrator, announced the agency’s latest choices for robotic planetary missions, both expected to head to Venus in coming years: DAVINCI+ and VERITAS.

Thank Christ! We really do need to investigate this planet further.

[Yuli Ban]

NASA Delays James Webb Space Telescope Launch Again
https://www.extremetech.com/extreme/323 ... unch-again
By Ryan Whitwam on June 2, 2021 at 1:31 pm

NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope is expected to expand the bounds of human knowledge, allowing us to investigate the most distant, and therefore oldest, objects in the universe. So far, all it’s done is cost a lot of money and get delayed. Well, prepare for more of the same. NASA has confirmed that the telescope will not hit its planned October 31st launch. However, the delay might only be a few weeks this time.

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has been in development for more than 20 years, but it took a few years for the plan to take shape. NASA made changes to the design in the early 2000s, which pushed the expected 2007 launch date back to 2009, and then 2010, and then 2011. You can probably see where this is going. It’s 2021 and NASA still isn’t sure exactly when this telescope will launch.

WTF? It would have been better to build another kepler with better camera's and shit. A plus. This james webb thing is a disgrace!!!! We could have had 3 or 4 keplers for the price of this thing.

Just watch. When this thing actually does launch, the rocket's going to explode.

[Edward Muniz]

https://www.universetoday.com/151339/ne ... ore-151339
By Matt Williams
June 4, 2021

[wjfox]

Old study from 10 years ago, looking at the economic feasibility of space colonisation and mining:

http://spacearchitect.org/pubs/IAC-11-E5.1.8.pdf

Quote: "The key to resources from space is getting the cost per kilogram to orbit under $500."

[Time_Traveller]

SpaceChain to test On-orbit Ethereum Multisignature Transaction Services on ISS

Jun 04, 2021

SpaceChain has announced that its blockchain-enabled payload has been launched into space from NASA's Kennedy Space Center aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, and will be subsequently installed at the International Space Station (ISS).

The mission, made possible by Nanoracks and its Space Act agreement with NASA, marks SpaceChain's fourth blockchain payload launch into space and the first demonstration of Ethereum technology integration into its hardware on ISS. Nexus Inc. (Nexus) will be the first SpaceChain customer to have direct access to this service.

Nexus is a deep-tech founded, digital asset management firm that focuses its operations on the development and execution of financial technology, as well as blockchain and Internet of things (IoT) solutions for online platforms and institutions across the globe. The company has offices in key cities spanning Melbourne, Dubai, Kuala Lumpur, and Singapore.

https://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Spac ... S_999.html

[Time_Traveller]

US Air Force announces Fourth Vanguard Program

Jun 06, 2021

The Department of the Air Force announced June 4 the designation of Rocket Cargo as the fourth Vanguard program as part of its transformational science and technology portfolio identified in the DAF 2030 Science and Technology strategy for the next decade. Additionally, the U.S. Space Force was designated as the lead service for Rocket Cargo Vanguard, marking the service's first such program.

Under the Rocket Cargo Vanguard, the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) will lead a science and technology effort to determine the viability and utility of using large commercial rockets for Department of Defense global logistics, potentially expanding the portfolio of capabilities the USSF presents to combatant commanders. The Space and Missile Systems Center will serve as the Program Executive Officer.

AFRL will research and develop the unique aspects needed to leverage the new commercial capability for the DoD logistics mission. This includes the ability to land a rocket on a wide range of non-traditional materials and surfaces, including at remote sites.

https://www.spacewar.com/reports/US_Air ... m_999.html

[weatheriscool]

GMRT measures the atomic hydrogen gas mass in galaxies 9 billion years ago
https://phys.org/news/2021-06-gmrt-atom ... -mass.html
by Tata Institute of Fundamental Research

A team of astronomers from the National Centre for Radio Astrophysics (NCRA-TIFR) in Pune, and the Raman Research Institute (RRI), in Bangalore, has used the Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (GMRT) to measure the atomic hydrogen gas content of galaxies 9 billion years ago, in the young universe. This is the earliest epoch in the universe for which there is a measurement of the atomic hydrogen content of galaxies. The new result is a crucial confirmation of the group's earlier result, where they had measured the atomic hydrogen content of galaxies 8 billion years ago, and pushes our understanding of galaxies to even earlier in the universe. The new research is published in the 2 June 2021 issue of The Astrophysical Journal Letters.

[Time_Traveller]

Russia to U.S.: Lift sanctions on space sector or we'll exit space station

2 hrs ago

MOSCOW (Reuters) - The head of Russia's space agency on Monday suggested Moscow would withdraw from the International Space Station in 2025 unless Washington lifted sanctions on the space sector that were hampering Russian satellite launches.

Dmitry Rogozin, the head of Roscosmos, was addressing parliamentarians ahead of a summit in Geneva later this month between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his U.S. counterpart Joe Biden.

Rogozin said Moscow was struggling to launch some of its satellites because of U.S. sanctions which meant Russia could not import certain microchip sets needed for its space programme.

"We have more than enough rockets but nothing to launch them with," Rogozin said, in a rare admission by a senior Russian official that Western sanctions are seriously impeding the development of a given industry.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/ru ... NjUV?pfr=1

[Time_Traveller]

A new water treatment technology could also help Mars explorers

Jun 06, 2021

A team led by UC Riverside engineers has developed a catalyst to remove a dangerous chemical from water on Earth that could also make Martian soil safer for agriculture and help produce oxygen for human Mars explorers.

Perchlorate, a negative ion consisting of one chlorine atom bonded to four oxygen atoms, occurs naturally in some soils on Earth, and is especially abundant in Martian soil. As a powerful oxidizer, perchlorate is also manufactured and used in solid rocket fuel, fireworks, munitions, airbag initiators for vehicles, matches and signal flares. It is a byproduct in some disinfectants and herbicides.

Because of its ubiquity in both soil and industrial goods, perchlorate is a common water contaminant that causes certain thyroid disorders. Perchlorate bioaccumulates in plant tissues and a large amount of perchlorate found in Martian soil could make food grown there unsafe to eat, limiting the potential for human settlements on Mars.

Perchlorate in Martian dust could also be hazardous to explorers. Current methods of removing perchlorate from water require either harsh conditions or a multistep enzymatic process to lower the oxidation state of the chlorine element into the harmless chloride ion.

Doctoral student Changxu Ren and Jinyong Liu, an assistant professor of chemical and environmental engineering at UC Riverside's Marlan and Rosemary Bourns College of Engineering, took inspiration from nature to reduce perchlorate in water at ambient pressure and temperature in one simple step.

https://www.marsdaily.com/reports/A_new ... s_999.html

[Time_Traveller]

Jeff Bezos to go into space on first crewed flight of New Shepard rocket

Mon 7 Jun 2021

Jeff Bezos will no longer be the richest person on Earth on 20 July because the Amazon founder will be blasting off into space on the first crewed flight of his New Shepard rocket ship.

Joining Bezos on the flight will be his younger brother, Mark, a former advertising executive and volunteer firefighter. The third member of the crew is being decided by a charity auction, with the seat currently priced at $2.8m (£2m) five days ahead of the deadline for bids.

“You see the Earth from space, it changes you,” Jeff Bezos said in a video announcing his plan. “It changes your relationship with this planet, with humanity. It’s one Earth. I want to go on this flight because it’s the thing I’ve wanted to do all my life. It’s an adventure. It’s a big deal for me.”
Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin plans space sightseeing jaunt for July

“I wasn’t even expecting him to say that he was going on the first flight,” Mark Bezos added. “And then when he asked me to go along, I was just awestruck. What a remarkable opportunity, not only to have this adventure, but to be able to do it with my best friend.”

The flight will take just minutes from start to finish, with three minutes of weightlessness as the crewed capsule brushes over an altitude of 100km, known as the Kármán line, the formal beginning for space. The booster rocket will land autonomously seven minutes after liftoff, and the crew capsule will float to earth on parachutes three minutes after that, with a planned touchdown in the West Texas desert.

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/ ... ard-rocket

[weatheriscool]

SpaceX Super Heavy Doubles the Power of the Saturn V
June 5, 2021 by Brian Wang

The SpaceX Super Heavy booster that will fly to orbit should be completed within weeks. This first booster will have 29 Raptor engines and each engine will have 225 tons of thrust. The regular Super Heavy boosters will have 32 Raptor engines for 7200 tons of thrust. The Saturn V that flew men to the moon had 3580 tons of thrust.

https://www.nextbigfuture.com/2021/06/s ... urn-v.html