Space News and Discussions

[weatheriscool]

Blue Origin successfully launches New Shepard rocket - Reuters


Blue Origin's suborbital New Shepard rocket lifted off from Texas in its first mission since a failure last year led to a 15-month grounding.
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WASHINGTON, Dec 19 (Reuters) - Blue Origin's suborbital New Shepard rocket lifted off from Texas on Tuesday carrying research payloads, a company live stream showed, in its first mission since a failure last year led to a 15-month grounding.

New Shepard, the company's only active rocket that can carry humans and cargo on short trips to and from the brim of space, lifted off from Blue Origin's remote Van Horn, Texas launch site at 10:42 a.m. CT (1642 GMT).

It soared to space for a few minutes 66 miles (106 km) above ground before its reusable rocket booster returned back to land in tact, completing its ninth trip to space.

At peak altitude, the booster deployed 33 research experiments encapsulated in a gumdrop-shaped pod, which also softly returned to land under parachutes minutes later.

Read more: https://www.reuters.com/technology/spac ... 023-12-19/

[wjfox]

Blue Origin successfully launches New Shepard rocket - Reuters

Good stuff. When are we going to see the New Glenn, I wonder.

[weatheriscool]

NASA's Rotating Detonation Rocket Engine Aces New Test
Explosions might be a more efficient way to get around.
By Ryan Whitwam December 23, 2023
https://www.extremetech.com/science/nas ... s-new-test

NASA has its eyes set on Mars, but the agency is still developing myriad technologies that we'll need for future space exploration. Among NASA's next-gen ideas is the Rotating Detonation Rocket Engine (RDRE), a project under the Game Changing Development Program. After first testing this new form of propulsion a year ago, NASA has now conducted an even longer RDRE test fire, moving this technology one step closer to reality.

A Rotating Detonation Rocket Engine is an alternative to traditional combustion-based engines. These engines use small explosions inside the circular annular channel using the same fuel and oxidizer mixture seen in standard rocket engines. The detonations are self-sustaining after ignition and travel around the channel continuously. Simulations have shown that rotating detonation engines could increase fuel efficiency by 25%.

[wjfox]

[weatheriscool]

[weatheriscool]

NASA completes record sustained burn of revolutionary rocket engine
By David Szondy
December 28, 2023

NASA has pushed forward a revolutionary new rocket technology at its Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. Engineers at the facility fired the 3D-printed Rotating Detonation Rocket Engine (RDRE) for a record 251 seconds with 5,800 lb (2,631 kg) of thrust.

For over six decades, NASA has relied on chemical rockets to launch its vehicles into space. It works, but chemical rockets suffer from the fact that they've been operating in the neighborhood of their theoretical limit since 1942. This isn't helped by the fact that most liquid rockets are essentially unchanged in their basic design since the days of the German V2s.

To squeeze a bit more performance out of rocket engines, NASA is looking at a fundamentally different design with the RDRE.

Instead of a combustion chamber where fuel and oxygen are fed in to burn at subsonic speed, in an RDRE these are introduced into a gap between two coaxial cylinders. When this mixture is ignited, they form a closely coupled reaction and shock wave. That wave travels inside the gap at supersonic speed, generating more heat and pressure.

If this burn can be sustained, it can produce a rocket thrust that is much more efficient. In fact, NASA says that the latest test firing was powerful enough and long enough that it could meet the requirements for a lander touchdown or deep space burn required for a mission to the Moon or Mars.

However, NASA stresses that the technology is far from mature and that test firings like this one are needed to scale up the combustor for different thrust classes. If this is successful, RDREs could find work in landers, upper stage boosters, and retropropulsion to land large payloads on the surface of Mars.

https://newatlas.com/space/nasa-sustain ... et-engine/

[weatheriscool]

SpaceX launches secretive US military spacecraft on research mission
https://phys.org/news/2023-12-spacex-se ... ssion.html

In operation since 2010, the X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle was designed for the Air Force by United Launch Alliance, a joint venture between Boeing and Lockheed Martin.

SpaceX's Falcon Heavy rocket blasted back into space on Thursday night to ferry the US military's secretive X-37B drone to a research mission.

After weeks of delays, the rocket launched from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 8:07 pm Eastern Time (0107 GMT Friday) in a liftoff livestreamed on SpaceX's website.

It is unclear where exactly the uncrewed and autonomously operating spacecraft is headed on its seventh mission.

The Pentagon has released little information about the space drone and its mission, which was initially scheduled for December 7, and SpaceX only cited the Pentagon's mission code name—USSF-52—in its statement on the launch.

[caltrek]

NASA Is On a Mission to 'Touch the Sun' In Milestone Moment for Space Exploration
by Nathann Rennolds
December 31 , 2023

Introduction:

(Business Insider) NASA's Parker Solar Probe is set to pass the Sun next year in a milestone moment for space exploration.

The probe, launched on Aug 12, 2018, is due to fly past the sun at 195 km/s, or 435,000 mph on 24 December 2024, the BBC reported.

NASA describes it as a mission to ""touch the Sun" on its website, aiming to get our "first-ever sampling of a star's atmosphere."

"We are basically almost landing on a star," Nour Raouafi, a scientist on the project, told the BBC.

"This will be a monumental achievement for all humanity. This is equivalent to the Moon landing of 1969," he said.

Read more here: https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-o ... -2023-12

[weatheriscool]

First US lunar lander in over 50 years rockets toward moon with commercial deliveries

Source: ABC News/AP

January 8, 2024, 2:21 AM

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- The first U.S. lunar lander in more than 50 years rocketed toward the moon Monday, launching private companies on a space race to make deliveries for NASA and other customers. Astrobotic Technology's lander caught a ride on a brand new rocket, United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan. The Vulcan streaked through the Florida predawn sky, putting the spacecraft on a roundabout route to the moon that should culminate with an attempted landing on Feb. 23.

“So, so, so excited. We are on our way to the moon!” Astrobotic chief executive John Thornton said. The Pittsburgh company aims to be the first private business to successfully land on the moon, something only four countries have accomplished. But a Houston company also has a lander ready to fly, and could beat it to the lunar surface, taking a more direct path. “First to launch. First to land is TBD," to be determined, Thornton noted.

NASA gave the two companies millions to build and fly their own lunar landers. The space agency wants the privately owned landers to scope out the place before astronauts arrive while delivering NASA tech and science experiments as well as odds and ends for other customers. Astrobotic's contract for the Peregrine lander: $108 million.

The last time the U.S. launched a moon-landing mission was in December 1972. Apollo 17’s Gene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt became the 11th and 12th men to walk on the moon, closing out an era that has remained NASA’s pinnacle.

Read more: https://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireS ... -106186244

[raklian]

[caltrek]

Space Oddity: Uncovering the Origin of the Universe’s Rare Radio Circles
January, 2024

Introduction:

(Eurekalert) (I)t’s not every day astronomers say, “What is that?” After all, most observed astronomical phenomena are known: stars, planets, black holes and galaxies. But in 2019 the newly completed ASKAP (Australian Square Kilometer Array Pathfinder) telescope picked up something no one had ever seen before: radio wave circles so large they contained entire galaxies in their centers.

As the astrophysics community tried to determine what these circles were, they also wanted to know whythe circles were. Now a team led by University of California San Diego Professor of Astronomy and Astrophysics Alison Coil believes they may have found the answer: the circles are shells formed by outflowing galactic winds, possibly from massive exploding stars known as supernovae. Their work is published in Nature.

Coil and her collaborators have been studying massive “starburst” galaxies that can drive these ultra-fast outflowing winds. Starburst galaxies have an exceptionally high rate of star formation. When stars die and explode, they expel gas from the star and its surroundings back into interstellar space. If enough stars explode near each other at the same time, the force of these explosions can push the gas out of the galaxy itself into outflowing winds, which can travel at up to 2,000 kilometers/second.

“These galaxies are really interesting,” said Coil, who is also chair of the Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics. “They occur when two big galaxies collide. The merger pushes all the gas into a very small region, which causes an intense burst of star formation. Massive stars burn out quickly and when they die, they expel their gas as outflowing winds.”

Read more here: https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1030325

[firestar464]

Jupiter has at least three magnetosheath jets, finds Voyager 2 data study

https://phys.org/news/2024-01-jupiter-m ... yager.html

[Tadasuke]

I remember some years ago I checked that there were 10 documentaries about space shuttle catastrophes and only 1 documentary about how space shuttle works.

This says a lot about early 21st century humans and explains why progress in space travel isn't faster, better or on a larger scale than it is.

To be honest, I find explanations of inner workings of NASA's space shuttles rather boring, but I forced myself to watch it (years ago).

Good thing there are (not 100%) reusable rockets these days. SpaceX now brings many more tons of stuff to Earth's orbit than all other companies and agencies combined. This is a proof that private companies can be very innovative (relatively).

[weatheriscool]

2026 Space Tug by Impulse Space
January 17, 2024 by Brian Wang

Impulse Space has x-SpaceX founders and has $45 million of funding to develop space tugs that would move payloads to higher orbits. Founded in 2021, Impulse Space is providing agile, economical space logistics services. With a near-term focus on Low Earth Orbit (LEO), services include in-space transportation to custom orbits, in-space payload hosting and space asset repositioning services including deorbiting. Long-term, Impulse will offer services for all classes of payloads to distant destinations such as Geostationary Equatorial Orbit (GEO), the Moon, and Mars.

https://www.nextbigfuture.com/2024/01/2 ... space.html

[weatheriscool]

[firestar464]

f*ck don't tell me they will be the first to publicly complain about trans people in outer space

[Powers]

f*ck don't tell me they will be the first to publicly complain about trans people in outer space

"In space no one can hear you scream."

[weatheriscool]

China Landspace Replicates SpaceX Grasshopper Tests But 11 Years Later
January 21, 2024 by Brian Wang

The Landspace did a hop test and reached an altitude of 350 meters and flew for 60-seconds flight before landing area. The landing had an accuracy of about 2.4 meters. The test is part of the development of the stainless steel Zhuque-3 rocket first announced in November 2023. The company is aiming for the first flight of Zhuque-3 in 2025. The Zhuque-3 will be a Falcon 9 sized rocket in terms of payload. It will be a bit wider. They are copying the stainless steel of SpaceX’s larger Super Heavy Starship.

The two-stage Landspace Zhuque-3 will be 4.5 meters in diameter and have a total length of 76.6 meters. Mass at liftoff will be about 660 tons and be powered by nine Tianque-12B engines. Payload capacity to LEO will be 21,000 kilograms when expendable. It will carry up to 18,300 kg when the first stage is recovered downrange, or 12,500 kg when returning to the launch site.

https://www.nextbigfuture.com/2024/01/c ... later.html

[weatheriscool]

NASA Orders Cargo Optimized Versions of the SpaceX and Blue Origin Lunar Landers
January 22, 2024 by Brian Wang

https://www.nextbigfuture.com/2024/01/n ... nders.html

NASA tells Blue Origin and SpaceX to start detailed designing of cargo versions of their human lunar landers. NASA always had the option to get cargo versions of the lunar landers in the original contracts. NASA is now exercising those options to get cargo landers designs to an approved preliminary design review.

The actual sizes of the SpaceX and Blue Origin lunar landers are in the image below.

The preliminary design requirements include delivering 12 to 15 metric tons to the lunar surface. The cargo lunar landers will be very similar to the human crewed lunar landers.

The European Space Agency is designing Argonaut, a cargo lander that ESA is proposing to offer for future Artemis missions. Argonaut, as currently designed, would carry about two metric tons of cargo, far less than what NASA is proposing with the cargo HLS variants.

NASA selected the two companies, along with three others, in the second round of the Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program in November 2019. SpaceX offered Starship, which the company said at the time could deliver up to 100 metric tons to the lunar surface, while Blue Origin offered its original cargo version of its Blue Moon lander, capable of taking several metric tons to the moon.

[weatheriscool]

A Feasible and Affordable Interstellar Mission Capability is Coming Together
January 24, 2024 by Brian Wang

Chairman of the Breakthrough Prize Foundation and Chairman of Breakthrough Initiatives, Dr. Pete Worden, discusses the Breakthrough Starshot work on the laser propelled solar sail to Proxima Centauri.

Billionaire Yuri Milner committed $100 million for Breakthrough Starshot. They probably had about $10 million worth of contracts around the world to answer these three questions.

https://www.nextbigfuture.com/2024/01/a ... ether.html