CARinfo3D – The rotary or Wankel engine
An evening pause: Some engineering to start your weekend.
Hat tip Judd Clark.
Author: Robert Zimmerman
May 16, 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.
- Scientists claim tree ring data shows impact of biggest solar storm ever in 12,350 BC
I have three words: The uncertainty of science.
- Ispace reports Resilience lunar lander is in good shape in lunar orbit, preparing for June 5, 2025 landing
You can see a Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter image of the landing zone here.
- China’s intended manned capsule for its lunar missions, dubbed Mengzhou, is about to undergo launch abort tests
The tweet really provides no real info.
- Japan’s MMX spacecraft for bringing back samples from the Martian moon Phobos undergoing ground thermal vacuum tests
Due to problems with Japan’s H3 rocket, its launch was delayed from August ’25 to December ’26.
Astronomers detect evidence of numerous protoplanetary disks in three molecular clouds near the galactic center
Using the ground-based ALMA telescope in Chile, astronomers have detected evidence of the existence of numerous protoplanetary disks in three molecular clouds near the galactic center.
The findings suggest that over three hundred such systems may already be forming within just these three CMZ clouds [Central Molecular Zone]. “It is exciting that we are detecting possible candidates for protoplanetary disks in the Galactic Centre. The conditions there are very different from our neighbourhood, and this may give us a chance to study planet formation in this extreme environment,” said Professor Peter Schilke at the University of Cologne.
You can read the paper here.
These results once again suggest that the formation of stars, solar systems, and planets is more ubiquitous than ever expected, that they can all form in very extreme and hostile environments, of which the center of the Milky Way is one of the most hostile.
And if planets can form here, they can likely form everywhere else. This increases the likelihood of many planets throughout the galaxy capable of supporting the development of life.
FAA issues revised launch window and flight restrictions for future Starship test flights
Due to the breakup of Starship over the Atlantic during its last two test flights, the FAA today issued [pdf] revised launch window and flight plan restrictions for future flights, in an attempt to placate somewhat the concerns of the United Kingdom.
The map to the right, taken from the FAA assessment, shows in red the area where air traffic is impacted by the next Starship/Superheavy launch, now tentatively planned for next week. Note how the path threads a line avoiding almost all land masses, thus limiting the worst impact to just the Bahamas, the Turks & Caicos Islands. Though the launch will effect 175 flights and require one airport on these islands to close during the launch window, to minimize the impact the FAA has required that the launch window be scheduled outside peak travel periods.
At the same time, the FAA after discussions with the governments on these islands has approved this flight plan, noting that “no significant impacts would occur” due to the ninth flight.
The agency has not yet actually issued the launch license, but it will almost certainly do so in time for SpaceX’s planned launch date. Since the advent of the Trump administration the FAA has no longer been slow walking these approvals in order to retype the results of SpaceX’s investigation. Instead, as soon as SpaceX states it has satisfactorily completed its investigation, the FAA has accepted that declaration and issued a launch license. Expect the same this time as well.
Kazakhstan denies rumors that Russia plans to abandon Baikonur
In response to reports in its local press that Russia was going to pull out of the Baikonur spaceport in the next three years, two decades before its lease expires in 2050, the Kazakhstan government yesterday issued a denial.
Local media in Kazakhstan have reported that Russia could exit the lease between 2026 and 2028 as it pulls back from international space cooperation, including a planned withdrawal from the International Space Station (ISS) as early as 2028.
“The question of early termination of the lease, or transfer of the city of Baikonur to the full control of the Kazakh side, is not being considered at this time,” Kazakhstan’s Aerospace Committee told AFP.
There rumors however could have real merit. Once ISS is retired, the Russians will have little reason to use Baikonur. It is almost certain it will not have launched its own replacement station by then, and Baikonur’s high latitude location will make its use with any other station difficult if not impossible. Moreover, the effort to switch to its Angara rocket favors launches from the Vostochny and Plesetsk spaceports, both of which have launchpads built for that rocket.
Finally, Russia has not had the cash to upgrade the launchpads at Baikonur, so much so that it has often been late paying Kazakhstan its annual $115 million rental fee, delays which at one point caused Kazakhstan to seize the launchpad Russia was upgrading for its proposed new Soyuz-5 rocket.
In fact, Russia might not be able to afford Baikonur at all, based on its present finances and the cost of its stupid war in the Ukraine.
We shall not get clarity on this story for at least a year or so, but stay tuned. Nothing is certain.
Premature fairing release cancels first launch of Gilmour’s Eris rocket
The Australian rocket startup has canceled any attempt to launch its Eris rocket during its present launch window as a result of the premature fairing release that occurred during the countdown yesterday.
Last night, during final checks, an unexpected issue triggered the rocket’s payload fairing. No fuel was loaded, no one was hurt, and early inspections show no damage to the rocket or pad.
While investigating the cause of this incident, the company will ship and install a replacement fairing from its factory. A new launch date will be announced after these actions are completed. Expect a delay of at least two months, likely more.
SpaceX launches 26 Starlink satellites
SpaceX this morning successfully placed another 26 Starlink satellites into orbit, its Falcon 9 rocket lifting off from Vandenberg in California.
The first stage completed its second flight, landing on a drone ship in the Pacific, and doing so only 39 days after its first flight.
The leaders in the 2025 launch race:
59 SpaceX
26 China
5 Rocket Lab
5 Russia
SpaceX now leads the rest of the world in successful launches, 59 to 43.
Barcelona Guitar Trio – Entre dos Aguas
An evening pause: Very Spanish.
Hat tip Mike Nelson.
May 15, 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.
- Chinese pseudo-company Landspace scrubs third launch of its Zhuque-2 rocket for “technical reasons”
This rocket was the first to reach orbit using methane fuel, in 2023. For the second launch in November 2024 it upgraded the fueling system to copy SpaceX’s methods. The company says it will launch this year its larger Zhuque-3, designed to have the first stage return vertically, but based on the launch pace of Zhuque-2, I have doubts.
- On this day in 1963 Gordon Cooper flew on the final Mercury mission
He orbited the Earth 22 times.
Curiosity looks uphill at boxwork and future travels
Click for original image.
Click for interactive map.
Cool image time! The panorama above, taken on May 14, 2025 by the left navigation camera on the Mars rover Curiosity, takes a look uphill at the canyon that the rover is now entering.
The overview map to the right gives the context. The blue dot marks the rover’s location when the picture was taken, and the yellow lines indicate approximately the view of the panorama above. If you look closely at the ground at the base of the cliff on the right, you can see the boxwork ridges indicated on the overview map.
The red dotted line marks the original planned route of the rover. The science team abandoned that plan several months ago in order to get to the boxwork geology as quickly as possible. It expects to reach that boxwork sometime in the next month or so.
Based on the proposed route posted in September 2023, after the scientists have completed their observations of the boxwork the rover will continue uphill within this canyon, bearing east as it parallels that 100-foot-high cliff seen on the horizon. The green dotted line indicates roughly that future route.
NASA: Perseverance observed the first visible-light aurora in March 2024
According to a NASA/JPL press release today, Perseverance successfully observed the first visible-light aurora on another world when in March 2024 it photographed a faint aurora overhead, caused by a strong solar flare.
The images at the link are quite unexciting, so much so that I don’t see a reason to include it here. The aurora observed is barely noticeable. Moreover, this is not really a new discovery. Previous observations in the ultraviolet had determined that Mars does have a weak aurora. That in rare circumstances a strong solar event can have it also appear in visible wavelengths is hardly news.
Normally I would have considered this story unimportant enough to list merely as a quick link at the end of the day, but I post it now because of how the mainstream propaganda press has latched onto it as if it is a big deal. The New York Times, the Washington Post, and the Associated Press all posted stories, giving it far more play than it deserves.
My impression from all these articles is that their reporters know almost nothing about Mars and the research that is going on there, and were easily bamboozled by the press people at NASA and JPL to report this relatively minor story loudly. They no longer have anyone who covers science and space on a regular basis and thus understand the larger context, so therefore their coverage is often shaped entirely by the public relations departments at NASA.
More proof that in today’s internet world, if you want good information the last place you should go is the old dinosaur press.
Gilmour scrubs launch attempt today
The Australian rocket startup Gilmour Space has scrubbed its first attempt to launch its Eris rocket from its own Bowen spaceport on the eastern coast of Australia.
Our team identified an issue in the ground support system during overnight checks. We’re now in an extended hold to work through it. Our next target is the Friday morning launch window.
The company has a two week launch window extending through the end of the month. If it can’t launch in that window then it will try again in the second half of June, assuming the bureaucracy of the Australian Space Agency issues a revised licence. It took that government three years to issue this license, so assuming it will work quickly to issue a revision is a dangerous thing.
The company is not providing a live stream of the launch, though it has said it will release a full video after the fact.
Norway signs the Artemis Accords
Norway today became the 55th nation to sign the Artemis Accords, the second nation to do so since Donald Trump assumed the presidency.
The full list of nations now part of this American space alliance: Angola, Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Austria, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Belgium, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Iceland, India, Israel, Italy, Japan, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Nigeria, Norway, Panama, Peru, Poland, Romania, Rwanda, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand, the United Kingdom, the United Arab Emirates, the Ukraine, the United States and Uruguay.
Unlike previous announcements, the only official public announcement (so far) was from the State Department. NASA has not yet issued its own statement. Also, and maybe far more important, unlike the previous announcement in April when Bangladesh signed, the text of the announcement made no mention of the Outer Space Treaty, as had been routinely stated during the Biden administration.
When Trump in his first term had created the Artemis Accords, the goal had been to create an American alliance of nations that supported private property and capitalism, which could also become strong enough to either get around the Outer Space Treaty’s restrictions on these concepts, or work to revise that treaty entirely to allow nations to establish such laws on other worlds. During Biden’s term that goal was abandoned. NASA announcements of new signatories would always state bluntly the exact opposite, that the accords were designed to support the Outer Space Treaty, using this language:
The Artemis Accords are grounded in the Outer Space Treaty and other agreements including the Registration Convention, the Rescue and Return Agreement, as well as best practices and norms of responsible behavior that NASA and its partners have supported, including the public release of scientific data.
Today’s State Department announcement makes no mention of the Outer Space Treaty at all, instead placing the focus on the accords’ principles of private enterprise.
With an alliance now of 55 nations (which is also likely to grow), the present Trump administration is well positioned to force some action on changing or eliminating the Outer Space Treaty’s limitations on private property and the ownership of territory on other worlds. Obviously this is not the most important item on Trump’s plate, but it does need to be addressed if Americans (and everyone else) are to have the freedom to establish colonies on other planets, protected by the same laws that protect Americans on Earth.
Hopefully the subtle language change seen today in this State Department press announcement is a signal that the Trump administration intends to do so.
UPDATE: It appears that NASA still wants this alliance to uphold the Outer Space Treaty. Late today it released its own press release announcing Norway’s signing, and included the boilerplate that I quote above that it began using during the Biden administration.
I wonder when (or if) Marco Rubio or any of the higher ups in the Trump administration (including Trump) will ever take an interest in this issue. So far it does not appear they have.
Axiom’s next commercial manned flight to ISS delayed at least one week
NASA and Axiom have delayed the launch of the company’s fourth commercial manned flight to ISS by at least a week, from May 29 to June 8, at the earliest.
The NASA press announcement was decidedly vague about the reason:
After reviewing the International Space Station flight schedule, NASA and its partners are shifting launch opportunities for several upcoming missions. The schedule adjustments provide more time to finalize mission plans, spacecraft readiness, and logistics.
This report speculates that SpaceX might have had additional issues getting its brand new manned Dragon capsule ready on time, without out any clear evidence. The capsule has taken longer to build than originally predicted, but giving SpaceX one extra week seems insufficient if the capsule had some outstanding technical issues.
More likely it is exactly as NASA states, the delay is to accommodate the complex coming and going of vehicles to ISS.
The mission will launch one Axiom command pilot and three passengers, government astronauts from India, Poland, and Hungary.
This new manned Dragon, as yet unnamed, will bring SpaceX’s fleet of manned capsules to five, assuming it does not retire one of the older capsules. The company will thus have the largest manned spacecraft fleet ever, exceeding NASA’s four shuttle fleet that existed in the 1990s.
May 14, 2025 Zimmerman/Batchelor podcast
Embedded below the fold in two parts.
To listen to all of John Batchelor’s podcasts, go here.
» Read more
Kabardinka Ensemble – Dance of the Black Sea Circassians
An evening pause: From the webpage:
A collection of various Circassian dance figures and influenced by the Western Adyghe tribes Ubykh, Natukhay and Shapsug who once used to populate the Black Sea coasts of the Northwest Caucasus for thousands of years with their Abkhazian cousins before they were completely exiled from the region by Russian Empire in 1864.
The solo dances are especially hypnotic. There are also many elements that resemble Irish dance.
Hat tip Judd Clark.
May 14, 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.
- New rocket startup HStar Space proposes its own heavy-lift reusable rocket
It wants to launch from French Guiana, Wallops, and Australia. This is a very new company, so our expectations should at this point be very skeptical.
- Firefly touts its composite dome for the tanks on its
Alpha rocketplanned medium launch rocket as well as its first stage for Northrop Grumman’s Antares rocket.
Corrected as per my reader Dick Eagleson below. Thank you.
- The New Horizons team notes that the spacecraft continues to detect “high dust impact rates” as it flies outward beyond Pluto in the Kuiper belt
This was first reported in Feburary 2024, but the continuing high impact rate suggests the Kuiper Belt has more in it than predicted.
- On this day in 1973 the last Saturn 5 rocket launched, carrying the first American space station, Skylab, into orbit
Three crews in 1973 occupied the station, for 28, 59, and 84 days respectively. The first mission however had to do major improvised repairs to make the next two missions possible, because during launch a heat shield on the hull ripped off, destroying one solar panel and preventing a second from deploying. Astronauts on that first mission, led by Apollo astronaut Pete Conrad, had to install a new umbrella shield to control the station’s internal temperature, and during a spacewalk released the remaining solar panel. More details in Leaving Earth.
Engineers reactivate thrusters on Voyager-1 that have been out of commission since 2004
The routes the Voyager spacecraft have
taken since launch. Not to scale.
Because of an anticipated pause in communications due to upgrade work on the antennas of NASA’s Deep Space Network — used to communicate with interplanetary missions — the engineers operating the two Voyager spacecraft that are now in interstellar space after almost a half century of travel have improvised a repair that reactivated thrusters on Voyager-1 that were deemed inoperable in 2004.
Since then the spacecraft had been dependent solely on its backup thrusters. The engineers wanted the spacecraft to have two sets of thrusters again in case something went wrong during that pause in communications, running from May 2025 to February 2026.
The repair required getting two heaters switched back on, and carried with it the risk of an explosion that would destroy Voyager-1. The command to reactivate the heaters was sent on March 20, 2025, and two days later (after the command traveled at the speed of light for 23 hours to reach Voyager-1 and then 23 hours to return) the spacecraft signaled that all was well and that the heaters and thrusters were now working again.
Both Voyagers are expected to run out of power sometime in the next two years. The goal now is try to make both last at least until 2027, so that they will mark a full half century of operation since their launch in 1977.
SpaceX committing millions to develop the town of Starbase at Boca Chica
Even though the newly minted town of Starbase at Boca Chica is essentially a “company town,” with almost all its residents employees of SpaceX, the company is not treating the town in a traditional company town manner, which in the past meant the company used its monopoly control to the detriment of its employees.
Instead, it appears SpaceX is committing millions to develop the town of Starbase at Boca Chica into a very classy place to live.
The newly minted Starbase, Texas will soon have a $22 million community center, according to online records from the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation. The community center is being designed by a Pennsylvania design firm called AE7, and will be located at 41028 Quicksilver Ave. immediately north of a bend in the Rio Grande. It will include a 20,000-square-foot building and pool, with construction aiming to start in June and be completed by June 2026, according to the TDLR records.
…Earlier this year, Starbase officials registered several other community projects with state regulators, including a $20 million school “housing children from infancy to grade 12,” whose construction was set to get underway in April. Other projects include a 2,555-square-foot medical clinic, a $2 million multifamily construction featuring a 111,745-square-foot “new parking garage and multifamily” development at 52163 Memes St.
SpaceX is also building a $100 million office building for its operations. It has also filed plans to create a $13.5 million recreation center and sushi restaurant. Another plan to build a $15 million retail plaza was proposed earlier, but has remained stalled.
Under the leadership of Elon Musk (“the new Hitler” according to the brainless Democratic Party and its media propagandists), the employees of SpaceX at Starbase will be living in an up-to-date modern and very upper middle class environment, comparable to the best suburban communities found anywhere in the United States.
Astronomers observe cloud changes above the northern polar lakes of Titan
Click for full resolution image.
Using data from both ground- and space-based telescopes, astronomers have now observed clouds rising in the thick atmosphere of the Saturn moon Titan.
The team observed Titan in November 2022 and July 2023 using both Keck Observatory and the James Webb Space Telescope. Those observations not only showed clouds in the mid and high northern latitudes on Titan — the hemisphere where it is currently summer — but also showed those clouds apparently rising to higher altitudes over time. While previous studies have observed cloud convection at southern latitudes, this is the first time evidence for such convection has been seen in the north. This is significant because most of Titan’s lakes and seas are located in its northern hemisphere and evaporation from lakes is a major potential methane source. Their total area is similar to that of the Great Lakes in North America.
The image to the right shows these methane clouds, indicated by the arrows, as seen by Webb on July 11, 2023 and then three days later by Keck. The clouds appear to have shifted downward during these observations.
The data suggests we are seeing one small aspect of Titan’s atmospheric methane cycle, where the liquid methane in the lakes evaporates to form clouds, which later than condense to rain back down. Though superficially similar to the water cycle here on Earth, the details suggest it will be very different on Titan.