October 2, 2024 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.
- Astrobotic successfully completes ground communications tests between its Griffin lunar lander and NASA’s Deep Space Network
The launch is presently scheduled for 2025 on a Falcon Heavy rocket.
- New Horizons is now 60 times as far from the Sun as Earth, and has almost doubled Pluto’s distance from the Sun since flying past it in 2015
It is flying 300 million miles farther out each year.
- ESA touts new antenna in its own deep space network
Now all Europe has to do is launch some deep space probes.
- ISRO is hopeful its first unmanned test orbital Gangayaan mission will happen before the end of this year
This isn’t really news, as the agency has been saying this for quite some time. If anything, the story hints that the mission will likely be delayed until early next year.
- Russian prime minister claims the first 300 satellites in its own “Starlink” constellation will be launched by 2027
And if you believe him I have bridge in Brooklyn I could sell you cheap!
The support of my readers through the years has given me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Four years ago, just before the 2020 election I wrote that Joe Biden's mental health was suspect. Only in this year has the propaganda mainstream media decided to recognize that basic fact.
Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Even today NASA and Congress refuses to recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are five ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation:
5. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above. And if you buy the books through the ebookit links, I get a larger cut and I get it sooner.
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.
- Astrobotic successfully completes ground communications tests between its Griffin lunar lander and NASA’s Deep Space Network
The launch is presently scheduled for 2025 on a Falcon Heavy rocket.
- New Horizons is now 60 times as far from the Sun as Earth, and has almost doubled Pluto’s distance from the Sun since flying past it in 2015
It is flying 300 million miles farther out each year.
- ESA touts new antenna in its own deep space network
Now all Europe has to do is launch some deep space probes.
- ISRO is hopeful its first unmanned test orbital Gangayaan mission will happen before the end of this year
This isn’t really news, as the agency has been saying this for quite some time. If anything, the story hints that the mission will likely be delayed until early next year.
- Russian prime minister claims the first 300 satellites in its own “Starlink” constellation will be launched by 2027
And if you believe him I have bridge in Brooklyn I could sell you cheap!
The support of my readers through the years has given me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Four years ago, just before the 2020 election I wrote that Joe Biden's mental health was suspect. Only in this year has the propaganda mainstream media decided to recognize that basic fact.
Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Even today NASA and Congress refuses to recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are five ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation:
5. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above. And if you buy the books through the ebookit links, I get a larger cut and I get it sooner.
Minor edit in New Horizons blurb: “It is flying 300 million miles farther out each year.”
Andi: Fixed. Thanks.
Mr. Zimmerman I hear you all the time on the John Batchelor show, I like your website. is there an app I get when I contribute ? I would like to contribute
Al Armstrong
armstronglaw47@outlook.com
Albert Armstrong: First, thank you for the kind words about my work. As for donating or subscribing, the tip jar on my page (and below in this post) lists all the ways to do so, none of which require an app.
—————–
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. In the tip jar are buttons for making either a donation or a subscription using Paypal.
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above. And if you buy the books through the ebookit links, I get a larger cut and I get it sooner.
—————–
As always, I am endlessly grateful to all those who donate, since you don’t have to. Thank you all!
Phys.org has a great new article entitled:
“New design software takes a concept to a multitude of configurations.”
This was from the AIAA AVIATION FORUM AND ASCEND 2024.
The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign has a program called “deepSPACE” which generated different iterations of aircraft…rather like what UNILEVER did with “evolving” soap nozzle designs–as in a recent TED TALK.