Art Garfunkel – All I Know
An evening pause: Performed live 1996.
Author: Robert Zimmerman
April 9, 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.
Note also that your host today is under the weather, so no culture/political column. I’m posting the quick links early also so I can hit the sack.
- Vast’s Haven-1 announces its Haven-1 commercial space station will use Starlink for internet communications
Vast hopes to launch this first station module by August 2025, using a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. Two manned missions are supposedly already scheduled to follow.
- Video of Angara launch abort early today
The abort was caused by “a center core oxidizer tank pressurization system anomaly,” according to Roscosmos head Yuri Borisov. You can hear some sound burst at T-2:43, but there is nothing visible, so the sound could simply be some expected venting. They are going to try again tomorrow.
- Astrobotic’s own mini-rover, CubeRover, is now going to fly on the company’s Griffin lunar lander
To me, this suggests they have unsold payload space. They might as well fly this rover to demonstrate its capabilities.
- On this day 55 years ago NASA introduced the seven astronauts it had selected for its Mercury manned space program
They were Alan Shepard, Gus Grissom, Gordon Cooper, Wally Schirra, Deke Slayton, John Glenn, and Scott Carpenter.
The foot of a Martian glacier
Click for original image.
Cool image time! The picture to the right, cropped, reduced, and enhanced to post here, was taken on February 18, 2024 by the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). It shows what the scientists label as the “terminus of possible glacier-like feature.” That feature is at the lower left, at the point where glacier-like material appears to be flowing out of the channel from the northeast but then ending in an area of rough fingers.
That this looks exactly like a glacier does not guarantee that it is one, which is why the scientists insert the word “possible.” Nonetheless, the geology resembles that of a glacier, from the parallel lines along its length as well as its existence inside this channel. The location is also at 49 degrees south latitude, well within the mid-latitude strips on Mars where scientists believe many such glaciers exist.
The overview map below adds further weight to this conclusion. It also suggests that there are even more glaciers on Mars than research up to now has suggested.
» Read more
ULA completes last Delta-4 Heavy launch
Delta-4 Heavy on its last launch
ULA today successfully completed the last Delta-4 launch, the Delta-4 Heavy version — the most powerful — lifting off from Cape Canaveral and placing a National Reconnaissance Office surveillance satellite into orbit.
From this point on ULA will rely on its new Vulcan-Centaur and Atlas-5 rockets, though production of the Atlas-5 has ceased. When the remaining Atlas-5s are flown, the Vulcan-Centaur in its many iterations will become the company’s mainstay rocket. All this might change depending on who buys ULA. If Blue Origin buys the company, the mix will be more complex, as that company is developing its own New Glenn rocket.
This was ULA’s second launch in 2024, so there is no change to the leader board in the 2024 launch race:
36 SpaceX
14 China
5 Russia
4 Rocket Lab
American private enterprise now leads the rest of the world combined 42 to 25, while SpaceX by itself leads the rest of the world, including other American companies, 36 to 31.
Turkey to join China’s lunar base program
Turkey yesterday announced that it is applying to join China’s program to build a lunar base on the Moon, dubbed the International Lunar Research Station (ILRS), becoming the ninth nation in that partnership.
Those nations are Azerbaijan, Belarus, Egypt, Pakistan, Russia, South Africa, Thailand, Turkey, and Venezuela. In addition, another nine academic organizations of one kind or another have signed on.
Interestingly, Turkey’s government apparently decided to partner with China after it flew its own astronaut on Axiom’s AX-3 mission to ISS in January, flying in a SpaceX Dragon capsule launched by SpaceX’s Falcon 9. Previously it had also signed a deal with Sierra Space to participate in both its Dream Chaser and Orbital Reef station.
This new agreement suggests the present instability of international politics has forced it to go to its very powerful neighbors. Or maybe Turkey is signing on with everyone, attempting to burn the candle at both ends.
New startup to launch a new design for inflatable modules
A new startup, dubbed Max Space, is presently building a test inflatable module it hopes to fly on a SpaceX launch in 2025, testing its new design for inflatable modules that it says is safer and more easily scalable.
Max Space is taking a different technical approach to earlier systems that used a bi-directional “basket weave” fabric structure. “When you start making fibers go in two different directions, 90 degrees apart, the result is you don’t know how much load is going in one direction or the other,” said Maxim de Jong, co-founder and chief technology officer of Max Space, whose past work included development of [Bigelow’s private] Genesis 1 and 2 [orbital modules]. That requires additional material to ensure sufficient margins of safety and also makes it difficult to scale up designs to larger volumes. “Every scale-up is a point design and has to be revalidated,” he said.
Max Space is pursuing a technology called an ultra-high-performance vessel created by de Jong that distributes loads in one direction, a design that he credited to a “totally accidental discovery” while working on other concepts. That reduces the uncertainty in safety margins, which has been demonstrated in tests where modules burst at pressures within 10% of predicted levels. “The predictability is great and the scalability is great,” he said.
According to the company, this design will allow it to quickly build modules with as much as a thousand cubic meters volume, matching ISS in a single module, and able to launch on a single Falcon 9.
The company is not planning its own station. Instead, it simply wishes to be a provider of modules to the other American space stations, four of which are presently being built. It also is offering its modules as potential fuel depots as well as in-orbit storage faciliites.
ESA awards Thales Alenia contract to build Mars lander for Franklin rover
The drainage patterns at the Franklin rover
landing site
Click for paper [pdf].
The European Space Agency (ESA) today awarded the Italian company Thales Alenia a €522 million contract to build the entry, descent, and landing module for ESA’s Franklin rover, now scheduled for launch in 2028.
Under this contract, Thales Alenia Space will lead the definition of the Entry, Descent and Landing Module and maintenance activities for the transfer module (carrier) and the rover, including upgrades and replacement of time-sensitive elements. A full audit and tests will be carried out on the rover to ensure its readiness for the new mission. In addition, replacement of some payload elements is planned, such as integration of the new Enfys infrared spectrometer. The batteries and tanks will be replaced on the carrier module as well as potential adjustments to align with the updated trajectories to Mars. New developments on the descent module and landing pad are also required, because the European avionics part of the descent module will be reused.
This contract was necessary because the project was initially a partnership with Russia, whereby Russia provided this lander as well as the launch services. That partnership was severed after Russia invaded the Ukraine, which caused this mission to Mars to be delayed four to six years.
NASA then chipped in $30 million to help pay for launch out of Cape Canaveral, though no launch company has been announced. I suspect both ESA and NASA wish to wait before making a deal, considering how launch costs are dropping. At present it is impossible to predict the landscape of that market in 2028.
Primal Space – The Longest Eclipse Ever
An evening pause: Using a Concorde jet in 1973 to chase the shadow for 74 minutes.
Hat tip Wayne Devette.
April 8, 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.
- Sierra Space developing heat shield system designed to return small payloads from space
They are doing drop tests now. The goal is to place orbital supplies in orbit that can be delivered precisely on command to soldiers on the ground.
- Chinese factory set to begin producing 1,000 satellites yearly
The satellites are likely intended to compete with Starlink.
- China building a launchpad at its Jinquan spaceport in northwest China for pseudo-commerical companies
Related tweet here. The obvious goal is to isolate the commercial rockets from the military ones, while maintaining a tight control over the pseudo-companies. The commercial pads being built in two places in China will be where they are required to launch from, and if they don’t do as told launch access will be denied.
What are Israel’s strategic military goals with its latest pull back from Gaza?
Even the Arabs recognize these facts.
Courtesy of Doug Ross.
Over the weekend numerous news reports announced that Israel had suddenly pulled almost all its troops out of the Gaza strip, apparently abandoning its plan to finish off the last four battalions of Hamas that were hiding out in the southern town of Rafah.
Despite denials by Israel’s military and the Netanyahu government, on the surface it appeared Israel had bowed to pressure from the Biden administration to cancel its invasion of Rafah and instead break off its military offense against Hamas.
I suspect things are much more complicated, and could instead be — as some Israel officials claimed — a tactical maneuver intended to make that military invasion of Rafah more effective while reducing the large number of civilian deaths anticipated because of the more than a million Gazan refugees that have been crammed into that southern city.
The nature of the withdrawal reveals much about its goal:
» Read more
A whirlpool half-hidden by dust
Click for original image.
Cool image time! The picture to the right, reduced and sharpened to post here, was taken by the Hubble Space Telescope and shows us a magnificent spiral galaxy about 100 million light years away that also has very active nucleus at its center as well as many star-forming regions (in blue) in its outer arms.
That we do not see the same blue spiral arms on the right side of the photo is not because they are lacking, but because a very large stream of dust blocks our view.
This dark nebula is part of the Chamaeleon star-forming region, itself located only around 500 light-years from us, in a nearby part of the Milky Way galaxy. The dark clouds in the Chamaeleon region occupy a large area of the southern sky, covering their namesake constellation but also encroaching on nearby constellations, like Apus. The cloud is well-studied for its treasury of young stars, particularly the cloud Cha I, which has been imaged by Hubble and also by the … James Webb Space Telescope.
Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter snaps a smeared image of South Korea’s Danuri lunar obiter
Click for original image.
Cool image time! On March 5 to March 6, 2024, the orbits of NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) and South Korea’s Danuri orbiter had three close approaches, during which LRO had a chance to snap pictures of Danuri as it zipped by in the opposite direction.
The first image is to the right, cropped but expanded to post here.
The flight paths of the two vehicles were nearly parallel but in opposite directions, resulting in extreme relative velocity. The LROC NAC exposure time was very short, only 0.338 milliseconds. But still, Danuri was smeared by a factor greater than 10x in the downtrack direction.
…On the first opportunity, LRO was slewed 43 degrees to capture Danuri from a distance of 5.0 kilometers
Of the three pictures taken, this one appears the best. In all three cases, the fast relative speed was too fast for the camera shutter, so that Danuri’s image was smeared as you see.
Today’s eclipse
Map by Michael Zeiler (GreatAmericanEclipse.com). Click for original.
Today a solar eclipse will cross some of the most populated areas of Mexixo, the United States, and Canada, as shown on the map to the right.
We shall not see such an event in North America again until 2046, and that will only cover a small part of the Pacific northwest. If you have never seen such an event, get your eclipse glasses (essential if you don’t want to go blind), take some time off of work, and go see it today. This link from Sky & Telescope covers about everything you need to know.
The experience is very hard to describe, though I tried when Diane and I traveled to South Bend, Idaho, in 2017 to experience that eclipse. As I wrote,
Totality was amazing. I was amazed by two things. First, how quiet it became. There were about hundred people scattered about the hotel lawn, with dogs and kids playing around. The hotel manager’s husband set up speakers for music and to make announcements, but when totality arrived he played nothing. People stopped talking. A hush fell over everything. Moreover, I think we somehow imagine a subconscious roar from the full sun. Covered as it was, with its soft corona gleaming gently around it, it suddenly seemed still.
Secondly, the amazing unlikeliness of the Moon being at just the right distance and size to periodically cause this event seemed almost miraculous. Watching it happen drove this point home to me. And since eclipses themselves have been a critical event in the intellectual development of humanity, helping to drive learning and our understanding of the universe, it truly makes me wonder at the majesty of it. I do not believe in any particular religion or their rituals (though I consider the Bible, the Old Testament especially, to be a very good manual for creating a good life and society), but I do not deny the existence of a higher power. Something made this place, and set it up in this wonderous way. Today’s eclipse only served to demonstrate this fact to me again.
I am sure your impressions will be unique to you.
SpaceX launches 11 commercial payloads
SpaceX today successfully launched 11 commercial payloads into orbit, as the first of what it calls its Bandwagon series, designed to provide launch ssatellites to medium inclination Earth orbits. The Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from Cape Canaveral, its first stage completing its fourteenth flight, landing back at Cape Canaveral.
The leaders in the 2024 launch race:
36 SpaceX
14 China
5 Russia
4 Rocket Lab
American private enterprise now leads the rest of the world combined 41 to 25, while SpaceX by itself leads the rest of the world, including other American companies, 36 to 30.
Musk provides update to his Boca Chica crew
The candidate landing zone on Mars for Starship
Elon Musk yesterday gave a 44-minute update on Starship/Superheavy to his team in Boca Chica, outlining what he now expects in the next two years as well as in the next two decades.
You can watch his presentation here. Musk began by once again describing his fundamental goal behind the company, to make the human race multi-planetary, for its own survival, and that Mars is at this time the best choice for doing so. He then provided some details about the on-going development of Starship/Superheavy:
- SpaceX will be ready to launch 4th test flight in early May
- There is an 80-90% chance they will attempt a tower landing of Superheavy, caught by its chopstick arms, by the end of this year
- Starship will require at least two precision ocean landings before they attempt a tower landing
- To provide tower redundancy for these test landings, by next year they will have 2 towers at Boca Chica, 2 at Cape Canaveral, with Cape Canaveral operational by next year
- In 2024 they hope to build 6 Superheavys and Starships for test flights
- By 2025 they plan to test full refueling of Starship in orbit
- The third iteration of Starship/Superheavy will be capable of placing 200 tons in orbit
- That third iteration will cost less to launch than Falcon 1, $2-3 million
- To make a base on Mars self-sufficient quickly, he anticipates sending large fleets of Starships every two years, everytime the flight window to Mars opens.
- The preferred landing sites will be in the low mid-latitudes, 30-40 degrees, with elevations two kilometers below the Martian “sea level”, to take advantage of a thick atmosphere.
- If all goes as planned, Musk expects SpaceX to establish a Mars colony in about two decades
That next-to-last bullet point fits perfectly with the region north of Amazonis Planitia, as shown on the map above, where SpaceX has requested numerous images from the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). It is two kilometers below the “sea level” of Mars. It is at a latitude either on or close to 40 degrees north latitude. It is a region that orbital data says has lots of very near-surface ice. And it is flat, making those first landings relatively safe.
Argentina demands right to inspect Chinese antenna facility
The Argentina government of Javier Milei is now demanding the right to inspect a Chinese antenna facility that was established in Argentina in 2014 and began operating in 2017 under a 50-year-lease.
Under the agreement between the two nations, 10% “of the resources in the base must be utilized by Argentina.” However, China has been operating the facility unsupervised from the beginning. Likely built to support China’s space program, manned and planetary, U.S. officials have also suggested it is being used for military purposes, a possibility that cannot be dismissed since all of China’s space program falls under the supervision of the People’s Liberation Army.
Milei apparently wants a hand in its operation, or at least a much clearer idea of what it is doing. It is very possible he will even shut it down if he is not satisfied with the answers he gets.
SpaceX launches 22 Starlink satellites, with 6 capable of direct-to-cell service
The beat goes on: SpaceX tonight launched another 22 Starlink satellites, six of which were capable of direct-to-cell service. The Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from Vandenberg, with its first stage completing its sixth flight, landing on a drone ship in the Pacific.
The leaders in the 2024 launch race:
35 SpaceX
14 China
5 Russia
4 Rocket Lab
American private enterprise now leads the rest of the world combined 40 to 25, while SpaceX by itself leads the rest of the world, including other American companies, 35 to 30.
Varda quickly raises $90 million after completing its first orbital manufacturing mission
As expect, Varda announced yesterday that it raised $90 million in investment capital following the publication of the results of its first orbital manufacturing mission, where its returnable capsule was used to produce test pharmaceuticals in space that cannot be made on Earth.
Varda announced April 5 it raised a Series B round led by venture firm Caffeinated Capital, with participation from Lux Capital, General Catalyst, Founders Fund and Khosla Ventures. The company has raised $145 million to date. The funding round comes on the heels of the successful conclusion of its first demonstration mission, W-1, on Feb. 21 when the company’s capsule landed at the Utah Test and Training Range. The capsule had been part of a spacecraft launched in June 2023 to test the ability to produce pharmaceuticals in microgravity.
The new funding will allow Varda to scale up production of spacecraft that take advantage of microgravity to produce pharmaceuticals that are not possible or cost-effective to make on the ground.
The company already has a second returnable capsule scheduled for launch this summer on a Rocket Lab Electron rocket.
Soyuz capsule safely brings three astronauts back from ISS
A Soyuz capsule today safely landed in Kazakhstan, returning three astronauts (one American and two Russians) back from ISS after a six month mission.
April 5, 2024 Zimmerman appearance on the CJN Speaks podcast
The Cut Jib Newsletter podcast, produced by JJ Sefton of the Cut Jib Newsletter blog and CBD (a regular contributor to the Ace of Spades website), graciously recorded an hour-long interview with me yesterday. That podcast is available here and here. I have also embedded it below.
The main topic was the three-part essay I wrote last week, attempting to predict the many crazy and anti-American tactics we can expect from the Democratic Party in the coming months, before and after the election. We went into this at length, and both Sefton and CBD added some points that I had missed, which was very illuminating.
We also spent some time talking about space stuff, but because it is a political blog most of that discussion revolved around the politics that is presently helping or hampering the development of a new American space industry, independent of government control.
Listen to it all. I think you find it worthwhile. And note, when I discuss my book, Conscious Choice, there was one moment where I was going to illustrate an additional reason the book is worth reading, but then my mind went blank. I can tell you now that this point was how Conscious Choice puts the lie to the Marxist 1619 project that claims falsely that American was built solely on the backs of slaves. I tell the real story, and it says very much the opposite, that America was built on freedom, and the slave states of the South only acted to hinder its development into the wealthiest, freest, and most successful nation on Earth, in all history. More important, that success was for all its people, not just those in charge.