August 25, 2023 Zimmerman/Batchelor podcast
Embedded below the fold in two parts.
To listen to all of John Batchelor’s podcasts, go here.
» Read more
Year: 2023
Jim Morrison of The Doors, as described by his father and sister
An evening pause: The interviews give a perspective that might surprise you.
Hat tip Wayne DeVette.
August 25, 2023 Quick space links
Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay.
- Sierra Space touts the installation of the rudder on Tenacity, its first Dream Chaser mini-shuttle
It also says this is the “first flight control surface” installed. As both I and Jay note, we thought this spacecraft was farther along than this.
- Roscosmos head meets with officials of the Lavochkin design bureau that built Luna-25
They are considering flying a repeat of Luna-25, as India did when Chandrayaan-2 failed.
- Next American manned launch to ISS scrubbed today, now set for early tomorrow
The Falcon 9 is scheduled for launch at 3:27 am tonight, carrying four astronauts inside SpaceX’s Endurance capsule, flying for the third time.
Reality strikes: Democrats in Democratically-controlled cities complain about the consequences of Democratic Party policies
The Democratic Party, though always failing it remains
the only party the voters in these cities can support
You get what you vote for: The utter disaster of the Marxist policies of the modern radical Democratic Party are now coming home to roost in numerous cities across America, making them all increasingly “unlivable” in ways that are savage, violent, and devastating. Crime is up, shoplifting is now a sports event, and murderers go free while local prosecutors indict ordinary citizens for simply defending themselves.
These facts are not news however. Since the 1960s Democratic Party policies have routinely done damage to the livability of American cities. What makes this collapse in civilization now even more significant however is who is noticing, as shown by three recent articles in the past week.
Let’s start with Minneapolis, where numerous videos document a formerly pleasant midwest city that has now become a hellhole.
» Read more
SpaceX completes successful 6-second static fire test of Superheavy
Screen capture during static fire test
SpaceX today successfully completed a full 5-second static fire test of all 33 Superheavy Raptor-2 engines as well as the deluge system of the launchpad at Boca Chica.
The link goes to the live stream, which is still on-going. The static fire test occurs at about 42 minutes, if you wish to see it.
According to the narrators of the live stream, Elon Musk tweeted that the static fire was a success. It certainly appeared to go for the full five seconds, and it certainly appeared more robust than the previous test. We will have to wait however for confirmation that all 33 engines fired as planned.
The company clearly appears just about ready to do an orbital test flight. Too bad the Biden administration still stands in the way. There is yet no word on when the FAA will approve a launch license, and the decision of the Justice Department yesterday to file a bogus discrimination lawsuit against SpaceX strongly suggests the White House is working hard to figure out ways to squelch this private effort by an American citizen and his company.
Hat tip to Jay, BtB’s stringer.
Flow channels on Mars
Click for original image.
Cool image time! The picture to the right, rotated, cropped, reduced, and sharpened to post here, was taken on May 13, 2023 by the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). It shows what the scientists call a “channel and depression”, though to my eye everything looks like flow channels, descending to the east.
The drop from the narrow northern channel to wider southern channel is about 200 feet, with the small crater on the left sitting about halfway between. To our Earthbound eyes, something clearly flowed downhill from that northern channel into the wider channel. What we don’t know now is what the material was that did the flowing?
Was it liquid water? Glaciers? The overview map below provides some context, though it doesn’t actually provide an answer.
» Read more
Both Vikram and Pragyan functioning as planned on the Moon
Click to see full movie.
According to tweets from India’s space agency ISRO, both the Vikram lander and the Pragyan rover are functioning as planned on the lunar surface, with the rover successfully activating its two science instruments.
The image to the right, taken by Vikram, shows the rover as it completed its roll down the ramp onto the lunar surface. This is a screen capture from a movie showing that roll down, which you can see by clicking on the picture. Since then it has moved another 26 feet from the lander.
I must add once again that Vikram did not land “on the south pole”, as too many so-called news organizations have been falsely claiming. It landed at about 69 degrees south latitude, quite a distance from that pole, in a flat region with no permanently shadowed craters. It is not specifically looking for water, though its instruments might help explain the orbital data that suggests there are areas on the surface of the Moon where hydrogen is somehow present.
If so many news outlets can’t seem to get these very basic facts about this mission correct, one must ask what else do they get wrong routinely? I don’t ask, because I always assume their information is wrong, check it constantly, and find repeatedly that they get numerous basic facts incorrect, especially when it comes to reporting on politics.
China launches remote sensing satellite using rocket from pseudo-company
The Chinese pseudo-company Galactic Energy completed another successful orbital launch today, using its Ceres-1 rocket solid-fueled rocket carrying a remote sensing satellite and lifting off from the Jiuquan spaceport in the northwest interior of China.
As with the pseudo-company’s previous launch, the state-run press made no mention of the company in its reporting, underlining the fact that it really is simply another government-controlled entity that simply adds private investment and the profit-motive to its operations.
No word on where the rocket’s lower stages crashed within China.
The leaders in the 2023 launch race:
57 SpaceX
37 China
12 Russia
7 Rocket Lab
In the national rankings, American private enterprise still leads China in successful launches 66 to 37. It also leads the entire world combined, 66 to 60, while SpaceX by itself now trails the rest of the world (excluding American companies) 57 to 60 in successful launches.
The Alan Parsons Project – Eye In The Sky
An evening pause: Performed live, with a full orchestra, 2013.
Hat tip John Jossy.
August 24, 2023 Quick space links
Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay.
- NASA administrator Bill Nelson swoons in tour of Blue Origin’s New Glenn manufacturing facility
Jay notes that “Someone mentioned that these components are the same ones from the June 14th photo.” That photo can be seen here, and it certainly looks like Blue Origin has simply rearranged the deck chairs.
- Perseverance science team touts rover’s 19th core sample
If you listen closely to the two scientists in the video, they really can only guess about much of this geology, since Perseverance does not have the same geological capabilites as Curiosity. They can make some superficial analysis of the rocks, but the more detailed work will have to wait until those core samples are returned to Earth. Curiosity however can not only drill, but it has equipment to analyze those drill samples itself, there. While Curiosity can’t do what an Earth lab would do, it does it now. With Perseverance we will have to wait a decade or more to get to the samples.
Today’s blacklisted American: Real estate company fires a mother for expressing her opinions
Janet Roberson and her family
They’re coming for you next: A California mother of three, Janet Roberson, was fired only days after she stood up at her local school board and objected to the queer curriculum the board was forcing on young children. This is what she had said:
Janet Roberson spoke at a Benicia Unified School District (BUSD) meeting on April 20, where she expressed concerns about the district’s sexual education curriculum that she said taught “gender confusion, not gender clarification” because it told 10-year-old students they could choose their own gender and receive puberty blockers. She said teaching “vulnerable children that lifetime dependence on medical care is a viable option is completely unacceptable and evil.”
“Children are being asked to identify their pronouns and this is now part of the ten-year-old curriculum,” Roberson said of the curriculum. “This forces a gender discussion beyond the scope of the state requirements and complicates an already overburdened classroom environment.”
» Read more
Big mountains everywhere inside Valles Marineris
Click for original image.
While the giant canyon Valles Marineris on Mars is known best as the biggest known canyon in the solar system — large enough to cover the continental United States several times over — that size tends to diminish the mountainous nature of its interior. Today’s cool image attempts once again (see for example these earlier posts here, here, here, here, and here) to illustrate that stupendous and mountainous nature.
The picture to the right, rotated, cropped, reduced, and sharpened to post here, was taken on May 15, 2023 by the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). The goal of the picture was to get a better view of the numerous layers of this terraced cliff wall. What I see, however from my tourist’s perspective, is a steep wall that descends almost 4,500 feet from the high to the low point in just over three miles. This is as steep if not steeper than the walls of the Grand Canyon.
» Read more
Biden’s Justice Department sues SpaceX
The corrupt and very partisan Justice Department of the Biden administration today sued SpaceX for discriminating against refugees and illegal immigrants because it restricts hiring to “U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents.”
The lawsuit states SpaceX “failed to fairly consider” and “refused to hire” the asylees and refugees who ended up applying anyway. It also alleges that SpaceX “wrongly claimed” that the US’s export control laws allowed it to only hire US citizens and lawful residents. Additionally, the DOJ claims SpaceX hired “only” US citizens and green card holders from September 2018 to September 2020.
“Our investigation found that SpaceX failed to fairly consider or hire asylees and refugees because of their citizenship status and imposed what amounted to a ban on their hire regardless of their qualification, in violation of federal law,” Kristen Clarke, the assistant attorney general of the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division, says in a statement.
Justice is demanding compensation and back pay for anyone “deterred or denied employment”, as well as civil penalties.
This suit is utter garbage and puts SpaceX between a rock and a hard place. I guarantee if SpaceX had hired any illegal or refugee who was not yet a legal citizen, Biden’s State Department would have immediately sued it for violating other laws relating to ITAR (the export control laws mentioned) which try to prevent the theft of technology by foreign powers.
The Biden administration considers Elon Musk an opponent, and since it is now moving to indict and even imprison all political opposition, it is no surprise it is beginning to use lawfare against him. As I have written repeatedly, it has almost certainly pressured the FAA to slow walk any launch license approvals for SpaceX’s Starship/Superheavy. This lawsuit today simply provides further evidence that my prediction will be right that the next orbital test flight of that rocket will be delayed months.
North Korea fails again to get a military reconnaissance satellite into orbit
According to a report in North Korea’s state run press, a launch attempt of its new rocket Chollima-1 rocket failed to reach orbit at dawn today, its payload of a classified military reconnaissance satellite falling into the ocean.
The Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) in Pyongyang reported that the National Aerospace Development Administration launched the new Chollima-1 rocket “at dawn” August 24 from the Sohae Satellite Launch Center. The first and second stages worked as planned, but “the launch failed due to an error in the emergency blasting system during the third stage flight” according to KCNA.
South Korea’s Yonhap news agency identified the satellite as Malligyong-1, a military reconnaissance satellite and reported the launch time as 3:50 am local time (2:50 pm August 23 EDT).
The flight path can be found here. An earlier attempt in May failed also, but the cause was not specified. South Korea did recover the first stage and satellite from the May failure, claiming later the satellite had “no military utility.”
I expect South Korea to once again attempt recovery operations, but because the rocket traveled farther I also expect the chances of any recovery of material to be more unlikely.
India’s Pragyan rover has successfully been deployed on the lunar surface
Click for interactive map.
According to a tweet from India’s space agency ISRO late yesterday, the Pragyan rover has successfully rolled down its ramp and is now deployed on the lunar surface.
No further updates have yet been released. According to ISRO’s mission webpage the instruments on both Vikram and Pragyan are as follows:
Lander payloads: Chandra’s Surface Thermophysical Experiment (ChaSTE) to measure the thermal conductivity and temperature; Instrument for Lunar Seismic Activity (ILSA) for measuring the seismicity around the landing site; Langmuir Probe (LP) to estimate the plasma density and its variations. A passive Laser Retroreflector Array from NASA is accommodated for lunar laser ranging studies.
Rover payloads: Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer (APXS) and Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscope (LIBS) for deriving the elemental composition in the vicinity of landing site.
Pragyan’s two spectroscopes are likely similar to instruments on Curiosity and Perseverance on Mars, and allows some good surface analysis. Without a scoop however there will be no analysis of anything below the ground, unless the rover can upend a rock using its wheels.
Rocket Lab launches a satellite reusing one rocket engine from previous flight
Rocket Lab not only successfully launched a satellite tonight (August 24 in New Zealand), its first stage used a rocket engine that had flown previously.
In addition, the first stage was designed to be reused, and was quickly recovered after it splashed down in the Pacific. The plan is to refly either this or another recovered first stage in one of the company’s upcoming launches in the coming months, making Rocket Lab the second private company in the world, after SpaceX, to reuse a first stage.
The leaders in the 2023 launch race:
57 SpaceX
36 China
12 Russia
7 Rocket Lab
In the national rankings, American private enterprise now leads China in successful launches 66 to 36. It also leads the entire world combined, 66 to 59. SpaceX by itself still trails the rest of the world (excluding American companies) 57 to 59 in successful launches.
Amy Winehouse – Back To Black
An evening pause: I admit that I was never a fan of Winehouse, but quality is still quality, even if one has different tastes.
Hat tip Doug Johnson.
August 23, 2023 Quick space links
Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay, and posted early today because Diane and I will be out having dinner with friends this evening.
- ULA’s CEO touts the completion of modifications to the upper stage of its Vulcan rocket
This stage is for that first launch, still targeting the fourth quarter of 2023, but expected by many to slip in 2024. He adds in another tweet that ULA has seven upper stages being assembled, and of the two that were completed but needed modification, one has been modified and the other will be used for ground testing.
- Comet P1 Nishimura might brighten to naked eye visibility in the next few weeks
And then again, it might not.
- Japan: North Korea gearing up for another orbital launch attempt
The window is from August 24 to August 31, and appears to be a second attempt to get orbit following the the failed orbital launch attempt from May.
- Video from Russian describing how students are designing its proposed space station
It is in Russian, but Jay was able to obtain an English translation. I could not. He says, “While they are at it, they can make a lunar lander too.” Both he and I believe this is a Potemkin village effort, and while good for educating students will lead nowhere for adding anything to Russia’s space program.
- Rocket Lab’s CEO shows off a picture of the company’s Electron production line
As Jay notes, “Blue Origin take note.”
Blacklisted 12-year-old appeals lower court decision saying he has no free speech rights
Liam Morrison, wearing the evil shirt that he wore the
second time teachers at Nichols Middle School sent
him home.
Bring a gun to a knife fight: Today’s blacklist story is a follow-up from May. At that time 12-year-old Liam Morrison had discovered that his school, Nichols Middle School in Middleborough, Massachusetts, would not allow him to wear a shirt that said “There are only two genders,” and when he tried to return to school with a shirt that instead said “There are only censored genders,” he was sent home again.
Morrison and his parents enlisted the non-profit legal firm Alliance Defending Freedom to sue for his first amendment rights, but in June Judge Indira Talwani (appointed by Barack Obama) ruled that Morrison had no right to the first amendment, that his shirt infringed other “students’ rights to be ‘secure and to be let alone’ during the school day.”
You can read her convoluted ruling here [pdf], which required her to ignore numerous previous Supreme Court rulings that have specifically protected student speech exactly like Morrison’s. Moreover, her decision is also based on the fraudulent premise that people are supposed to be protected from speech that offends them. If people have the power to silence any speech because it hurts their feelings then no free speech exists at all. We will live in a totalitarian nightmare worse than anything dreamed up by George Orwell.
» Read more
Where the Martian landscape begins to dry out
Click for original image.
Today’s cool image to the right, cropped, reduced, and sharpened to post here, provides us a glimpse at the lower mid-latitudes of Mars where the terrain is beginning to dry out as we move south. The picture was taken on April 29, 2023 by the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO), and shows what the scientists label “large linear features.”
The main north-south ridge is only about 20-25 feet high, and its meandering nature (which can be seen more clearly in the full image) suggests it is possibly an inverted channel, formed when the bed of a former canyon gets compressed by the water or ice that flows through it, and when the surrounding terrain gets eroded away that channel bed becomes a ridge.
These ridges however could also possibly be volcanic dikes, where magma had pushed up through fractures and faults to form these more resistant ridges.
» Read more