Burton Cummings and many others – No Time
An evening pause: Ringo Starr provides the introductions.
Hat tip Alec Gimarc.
Year: 2025
April 7, 2025 Quick space links
Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay. This post is also an open thread. I welcome my readers to post any comments or additional links relating to any space issues, even if unrelated to the links below.
- Propaganda press story using only anonymous sources says Musk and SpaceX violated security reporting rules
Could be true, but the leftist source and the lack of confirmed named sources makes me skeptical. And even if true I suspect the story is overblown for political anti-Musk reasons.
- Long detailed interview with NASA’s Voyager project scientist
No new information but as Jay notes, “A good read.”
- Sierra Space to manage on ISS Honda’s test of a “regenerative fuel cell system [to] continuously produce oxygen, hydrogen, and electricity.”
The equipment will be flown to and from ISS on Sierra’s Tenacity Dream Chaser mini-shuttle.
- Next Soyuz crew to launch to ISS at 1:47 am (Eastern) April 8, 2025 from Kazakhstan
The mission includes two Russians and one American.
- Fifty years ago a botched launch stranded two Russians near the Chinese border
Because of a failure of the first stage the Soyuz capsule never reached orbit, landing on a mountain slope 119 miles downrange from launch. This still ranks as the longest manned suborbital flight.
The mighty scale of Mars’ geology
Click for original image.
Today’s cool image is just one more example out of hundreds I have posted in the past decade of the difficult-to-imagine gigantic scale of the Martian landscape.
The picture to the right, rotated, cropped, reduced, and sharpened to post here, was taken on March 1, 2025 by the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). The image title is simple, “Steep Slopes of Olympus Mons Caldera,” and tells us that this cliff face, about 1,300 feet high, is part of the caldera that resides on top of Mars’ largest volcano, Olympus Mons.
The parallel cracks on the plateau above the cliff tell us that the cliff face is slowly separating outward from that plateau, and that at some point in the future the entire wall will collapse downward.
Sounds impressive and big, eh? What the picture doesn’t make clear however is how truly tiny this cliff is in the context of the entire mountain.
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Soil bacterium from Earth can both make and repair bricks made from Moon-materials
Researchers in India have now discovered that the same soil bacterium from Earth they used to manufacture bricks made from Moon-materials can also act to repair cracks in those bricks.
A few years ago, researchers at the Department of Mechanical Engineering (ME), IISc developed a technique that uses a soil bacterium called Sporosarcina pasteurii to build bricks out of lunar and Martian soil simulants. The bacterium converts urea and calcium into calcium carbonate crystals that, along with guar gum, glue the soil particles together to create brick-like materials. This process is an eco-friendly and low-cost alternative to using cement.
… In a new study, they created different types of artificial defects in sintered bricks and poured a slurry made from S. pasteurii, guar gum, and lunar soil simulant into them. Over a few days, the slurry penetrated into the defects and the bacterium produced calcium carbonate, which filled them up. The bacterium also produced biopolymers which acted as adhesives that strongly bound the soil particles together with the residual brick structure, thereby recovering much of the brick’s lost strength. This process can stave off the need to replace damaged bricks with new ones, extending the lifespan of built structures.
These results are encouraging but not necessarily for space exploration. This research can likely be applied with great profit here on Earth to repair damaged materials already in place.
As for using it in space or on the Moon, great uncertainties remain, such is whether the bacteria could even survive or function in a different gravity environment. The team hopes to test this on one of India’s planned Gangayaan manned missions.
British MP proposes his government’s vast bureaucratic skills be given the power to regulate all space
“We’re here to help you!” George Freeman, a British MP who was also its minister for science, research, technology and innovation under two previous Tory governments, has now proposed that Great Britain’s great skill at bureaucracy (which has done a great job bankrupting both rocket companies and spaceports) be given the job as the world’s regulatory cop.
Freeman said as space minister he had focused on UK leadership in space regulation, insurance and finance; convening the industry partnership with the UK space sector and Lloyds of London to create the Earth∞Space Sustainability Initiative (ESSI), which aims to set global standards for the sector, and securing the backing of Canada, Japan and Switzerland through the global summit at the Royal Society. “The idea of my space debris regulation and the creation of the Earth Space Sustainability Initiative was very simple,” he said.
… But it isn’t only in the field of satellite technology where regulation will be important. From crewed missions to Mars to the prospect of lunar mining and even creating data centres on the moon, the opportunities space offers are myriad. Regulations around space debris, Freeman said, could act as a gateway to rules in other areas.
“It can gradually evolve,” the MP explained. “You could imagine, say, on space traffic control, that you wouldn’t get permission to launch from aviation authorities unless you’ve got a licence to operate. Licence to operate says you must be compliant with basic standards.
This concluding quote at the link, written by the reliably naive pro-government leftist British outlet The Guardian, says it all:
Freeman added the UK is well placed to lead on such matters. “Space needs a global regulatory alliance led by and headquartered in a trusted nation. You need a country that’s got a long and distinguished history as a trusted partner, a long, 300-year role as a regulator of choice, that believes in and is respected internationally for its legal system and is connected to financial market and international courts and jurisdiction,” he said.
“This is a huge opportunity for the UK. We should seize it.”
The UK red tape this blowhard admires so much — and likely helped create — caused Virgin Orbit to go bankrupt while it waited for months to get a launch license. It has also practically destroyed the business at two UK spaceports because the paperwork makes launching there so burdensome. Rocket companies are going elsewhere for this reason.
The worst thing we could do is give Freeman and the bankrupt regulatory culture he helped create the power to establish similar regulations for the rest of the world. The entire newly-born space industry that is bursting out everywhere would choke to death almost immediately.
Fram2: The first X-ray image taken in space
Click for original.
During the commercial and private Fram2 flight last week, the crew used equipment developed by two commercial companies, MinXray in Chicago and KA Imaging in Canada, to take the first X-ray images of a human being.
The picture to the right shows the hand of one of the crew, with a ring on one finger. From the press release:
Chicago-based MinXray is contributing its IMPACT system, a compact, battery-powered X-ray generator designed for use in remote environments, including space. Its rechargeable lithium-ion battery eliminates the need for external power sources, making it an ideal solution for microgravity applications.
KA Imaging’s Reveal 35C X-ray Detector was selected for this mission due to its cutting-edge SpectralDR technology. The Reveal 35C provides dual-energy subtraction imaging in a single exposure, generating three distinct images: soft tissue, bone, and a traditional digital radiograph.
Apparently the two companies have combined their resources to develop a fully portable X-ray machine small enough to be transported in a capsule, and partnered with the Fram2 team to test it in weightlessness for the first time. With refinements a larger machine could be sold and installed in space stations for both medical research as well as simple doctoring.
Because weightlessness causes the loss of bone density in the weight-bearing bones, such technology has long been critically necessary in orbit for studying and possible mitigating that problem. That after decades NASA failed to get it built and installed in ISS, yet a private mission made it happen, illustrates once again the advantages of a free and competitive private sector in space. NASA’s complex rules for getting experiments on ISS frequently acts to block some experiments. The lack of those rules on private missions allows for things to happen quickly.
SpaceX launches another 28 Starlink satellites
SpaceX today successfully placed 28 more Starlink satellites into orbit, its Falcon 9 rocket lifting off from Cape Canaveral.
The first stage completed its 19th flight, landing on a droneship in the Atlantic.
The leaders in the 2025 launch race:
39 SpaceX
18 China
5 Rocket Lab
4 Russia
SpaceX now leads the rest of the world in successful launches, 39 to 31.
Space Force awards SpaceX, ULA, and Blue Origin $13.7 billion in launch contracts
The Space Force yesterday awarded a combined $13.7 billion in launch contracts to SpaceX, ULA, and Blue Origin, covering military launches through 2032.
The contracts, announced April 4 by the U.S. Space Force’s Space Systems Command, are part of the National Security Space Launch (NSSL) Phase 3 Lane 2 procurement, a cornerstone initiative designed to bolster the Pentagon’s access to space for its most sensitive and risk-averse missions.
SpaceX emerged as the leading contractor, securing $5.9 billion in anticipated awards, followed by ULA at nearly $5.4 billion and Blue Origin at nearly $2.4 billion. The three companies are expected to collectively perform 54 launches under the agreement between fiscal years 2025 and 2029.
Based on the contracts, SpaceX will do 28 launches, ULA 19, and Blue Origin 7. Since these launches include many military payloads that must go on “risk-adverse” rockets, the distribution of launches makes sense. While SpaceX’s rockets (Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy) are well proven to be reliable, both ULA and Blue Origin launch with new rockets, Vulcan and New Glenn respectively, that have barely yet left the factory. Vulcan has done only two launches, with the second having technical issues (supposedly resolved). Blue Origin has done only one successful launch, though it failed to land the first stage as planned.
The distribution however serves the needs of both the military and the American rocket industry. It gives the Pentagon redundancy, multiple launch providers. And it gives America the same, three competing rocket companies striving for business and profit.
The result is going to be a very vibrant American space effort, doing a lot of things having nothing to do with the Pentagon.
April 4, 2025 Zimmerman/Batchelor podcast
Embedded below the fold in two parts.
To listen to all of John Batchelor’s podcasts, go here.
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Cody Townsend – Best ski line of the year
An evening pause: And how will you spend your weekend? I hope in as interesting a manner.
Hat tip Judd Clark.
April 4, 2025 Quick space links
Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay. This post is also an open thread. I welcome my readers to post any comments or additional links relating to any space issues, even if unrelated to the links below.
- Thales Alenia completes primary structure of the HALO (Habitation and Logistics Outpost) module for NASA’s Lunar Gateway space station
The tweet, not from Thales Alenia, specifically notes the debate on whether Gateway “has any meaningful purpose.” That this is even mentioned suggests the political winds are building against it.
- Astra claims to have raised $80 million in private investment funds
The company founder, Chris Kemp, says they will use the funds to get back into the launch game. We shall see.
- Spanish rocket startup PLD signs another launch contract, with the European orbital tug company D-Orbit
All the company now has to do is to launch.
- Perseverance spots dust devils
Some nice visuals, but nothing particularly new.
- On this day in 1983 the space shuttle Challenger launched on its first flight
The mission placed in orbit NASA’s first dedicated satellite for manned orbital communications, Tracking and Data Relay Satellite-1 (TDRS-1)
Another “What the heck?!” image on Mars
Click for original image.
Cool image time! The picture to the right, cropped, reduced, and sharpened to post here, was taken on March 2, 2025 by the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO).
The scientists label this “Monitoring Irregular Terrains in Western Arabia Terra.” I label it more bluntly as another one of MRO’s “What the heck?!” images. For all I know, this is nothing more than a discarded Vincent Van Gogh painting, thrown out because even he couldn’t figure out what he was painting.
The best guess I can make, just from the picture alone, is that some of the dark spots are vents from which the white stuff vented at some point, either as small lava or mud volcanoes. As the location is close to the equator, near surface ice is almost certainly not a factor in what we see.
In any case there is no way to reasonably decipher this picture, just by looking at the picture. It is necessary to take a wider view.
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