April 14, 2022 Zimmerman/Batchelor podcast
Embedded below the fold in two parts.
To listen to all of John Batchelor’s podcasts, well worth your time, go here.
» Read more
Author: Robert Zimmerman
Designer John Galliano’s Objects of Affection
An evening pause: When I lived in New York and worked in the movie business, I met many individuals like this man: creative, passionate, artistic, and very gentle. This tour gives us a glimpse at what sparks his own unique creativity.
Hat tip Cotour.
Third SLS dress rehearsal countdown scrubbed before completion
NASA engineers today scrubbed their third attempt to complete a dress rehearsal countdown of the agency’s giant SLS rocket when a leak was detected in a hydrogen fuel line.
The team will not conduct the terminal countdown activities today as planned and will assess next steps after today’s operations.
The problem appears to be “a leak … in the tail service mast umbilical.”
It is not clear yet how much of the countdown and fueling will be completed. Because of a faulty valve in the upper stage, NASA management had already decided to eliminate fueling of the rocket’s upper stage from the rehearsal. The problem today appears to involve the core first stage’s hydrogen tanks, which are presently partly filled only about 5%. Based on their last tweet, it appears they have not drained the tank, though they apparently will not continue the rehearsal today.
UPDATE: NASA just tweeted the following:
Teams have confirmed they have satisfied the test objectives for the ICPS [upper stage] LH2 [hydrogen tank] chilldown and after gathering additional data, will work to drain propellant from the rocket. They will inspect the TSMU umbilical connection, review data, and establish a go-forward plan.
This sounds as if the agency might decide they have completed enough of the dress rehearsal to consider it complete, and will now roll the rocket back to the vehicle assembly building for further check out.
Today’s blacklisted American: Twitter blocks Libs of Tik Tok for the crime of reposting actual leftist statements
Twitter: Home for censorship.
The new dark age of silencing: Twitter yesterday suspended for twelve hours the account of “Libs of Tik Tok,” preventing the anonymous woman who runs it from continuing to post actual Tik Tok rants by leftists as well as the public school teachers who insist on promoting sexual perversion to children (but then I repeat myself).
The account was suspended for “hateful conduct,” which is a broad and vague category used by Twitter to suspend accounts that violate a policy that is equally broad and vague.
The policy says that “You may not promote violence against, threaten, or harass other people on the basis of race, ethnicity, national origin, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, religious affiliation, age, disability, or serious disease.”
So what specifically was Libs of Tik Tok’s “hateful conduct?” We do not know, since Twitter as usual did not provide any specific information. However, Libs of Tik Tok has been in the forefront of making the public especially aware of the large number of very sick and dangerous people who now teach in the public schools. And she does this with very little commentary. Instead, she simply digs about in Tik Tok and finds their own rants, and simply republishes them on Twitter. As they tend to be ugly hateful screes that actually promote the idea of perverting young children without the knowledge of their parents, no commentary is needed. They condemn themselves. More important, their own words have done much to energize parents nationwide to retake school boards and force such evil people from the schools.
If you don’t believe me just take a look at the site. Right now there are several such rants from leftist teachers, insisting that parents should have no say in what the schools teach their young children.
Of course, the leftists who run Twitter cannot have this, since they are allied with these corrupt teachers. Too much free speech reveals their agenda, and that is a threat. So yesterday Libs of Tik Tok was shut down temporarily, though you can bet this is only a shot across the bow. As Libs of Tik Tok has previous written:
» Read more
The spread of the oceans’ sea floors appears to be slowing
The uncertainty of science: Based on data covering the last 19 million years, scientists now believe that the rate in which the Earth’s ocean sea floors are spreading has been slowing steadily.
Today, spreading rates top out around 140 millimeters per year, but peaked around 200 millimeters per year just 15 million years ago in some places, according to the new study. The study was published in the AGU journal Geophysical Research Letters, which publishes high-impact, short-format reports with immediate implications spanning all Earth and space sciences.
The slowdown is a global average, the result of varying spreading rates from ridge to ridge. The study examined 18 ridges, but took a particularly close look at the eastern Pacific, home to some of the globe’s fastest spreading ridges. Because these slowed greatly, some by nearly 100 millimeters per year slower compared to 19 million years ago, they dragged down the world’s average spreading rates.
You can read the actual paper here.
To put it mildly, the conclusion here is uncertain. The difference between 140 and 200 millimeters is less than two and a half inches. A hundred millimeters is less than four inches. Such small differences over millions of years could simple be caused by random fluctuations over time. Furthermore, the scientists did not actually detect the spreading rates from millions of years ago. They instead inferred it based on the data we do have of the changes in the Earth’s magnetic field over time.
Still, this result is very intriguing indeed. More than anything, it should help geologists develop better theories to explain plate tectonics, and what drives it. At the moment no theory adequate explains it.
SpaceX goes full speed ahead on construction of Starship launchpad in Florida
Capitalism in space: Faced with regulatory delays caused by the Biden administration that are preventing further Starship launches from Boca Chica, SpaceX has accelerated construction of a new Starship launchpad at its facility in Florida.
Compared to SpaceX’s Starbase tower assembly [in Boca Chica], Florida Starship work appears to be proceeding at a similar pace. SpaceX began assembling the fourth Florida tower section about 30 days after starting the first, while Starbase took about 25 days to reach the same point. However, SpaceX does appear to be taking a slightly different approach for Pad 39A. On top of tower section assembly, SpaceX is constructing an extra four sets of the small concrete foundations and steel frames each tower section is assembled on, implying that Starship’s Florida launch tower could be almost entirely prefabricated before SpaceX begins to combine those sections.
Meanwhile, Boca Chica remains blocked. While the FAA says it will issue approval of its environment reassessment by the end of this month, SpaceX would be foolish to believe this. It has become very clear that the Biden administration has so far allowed the federal bureaucracy free rein to obstruct SpaceX. For the company to think things will suddenly change now is to be living a fantasy. It must move forward to satisfy its investors.
Worsening the situation in Texas was the decision by the Army Corps of Engineers to suspend the permit process on a request by SpaceX to expand its Boca Chica facility. It appears SpaceX failed to provide the Corps some required information, possibility because the company sees no reason now to complete this expansion if the Biden administration is going to ban Starship launches from Texas.
Faced with this political situation, Texas governor Greg Abbott yesterday claimed he is fighting the stonewalling by the Biden administration, but provide no specifics:
“What I am going to do if Biden interferes with the ability of SpaceX to launch from Boca Chica; I am going to be working every step of the way to make sure that they are going to be able to launch from Boca Chica. We heard the vision from Mr. Patel himself about what they are working on and our job is to make sure they are able to achieve their vision. And I have worked with Elon Musk very closely with regard to Tesla and the Giga factory in Austin, Texas. And we will be working with him very closely, every step of the way in Boca Chica for the future of SpaceX. We want that future and that vision to come from Boca Chica, from Brownsville, Texas.”
Allow me to translate this political blather into plain English: “I can’t or won’t do anything, but I am now going to make a superficial claim of action so my Texas constituents won’t get angry at me.”
It appears more and more that the first orbital test flight of Starship will take place in Florida, not Texas. And if so, it will be delayed for at least another six months because of this government interference.
Europe removes its science instruments from future Russian lunar missions
The Europe Space Agency (ESA) yesterday announced that because of Russia’s invasion of the Ukraine it will no longer fly any science instruments on three upcoming Russian unmanned lunar probes.
ESA will discontinue cooperative activities with Russia on Luna-25, -26 and -27. As with ExoMars, the Russian aggression against Ukraine and the resulting sanctions put in place represent a fundamental change of circumstances and make it impossible for ESA to implement the planned lunar cooperation. However, ESA’s science and technology for these missions remains of vital importance. A second flight opportunity has already been secured on board a NASA-led Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) mission for the PROSPECT lunar drill and volatile analysis package (originally planned for Luna-27). An alternative flight opportunity to test the ESA navigation camera known as PILOT-D (originally planned for Luna-25) is already being procured from a commercial service provider.
In other words, Europe is switching to the many private American companies that are developing lunar landers for NASA science instruments. It has also signed onto a Japanese lunar mission. All have payload space, and all are willing to take the cash of a new customer.
Meanwhile, this is how Dmitry Rogozin responded to this decision:
“Good riddance! One less European dame off our backs, so Russia should go far with a lighter load,”
To sum this all up, when it comes to space, the Ukraine invasion has been Russia’s loss, and everyone else’s gain. Even if the invasion were to end today, it will take at least a decade to re-establish Russia’s business ties with the west.
Unfortunately, the invasion will cost the Ukraine as well. In making the above announcement ESA officials also said that it is looking for alternatives to the Ukrainian rocket engines used in its Vega-C upper stage.
At the news conference, ESA also discussed the future of its small Vega rocket, which relies on Ukraine-built engines in its upper stage. The engines are manufactured by the Ukrainian company Yuzhmash, which is based in the tech city of Dnipro. Although Dnipro has been under heavy bombardment, there have been no official reports so far about damage to Yuzhmash. It is, however, clear that ESA doesn’t expect to continue its partnership with the company in the future. “We now have sufficient engines for 2022 and 2023,” Aschbacher said. “We are working on options for 2024 and onwards based on different technologies.”
Daniel Neuenschwander, ESA’s director of space transportation, added: “We are working on engine opportunities within Europe and outside of Europe, which are either tested or, even better, already existing and fully qualified.”
Whether ESA completely breaks off its partnership with the Ukraine however is not certain. Should the war continue to favor the Ukraine, then it could be that partnership will continue. Only time will tell. Right now, it is simply prudent for ESA to look for more stable alternatives.
Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers – Refugee
An evening pause: Hat tip Diane Zimmerman.
Frozen lava in Mars’ volcano country
Click for full image.
Cool image time! The photo to the right, cropped and reduced to post here, was taken on January 28, 2022 by the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). It shows what appears to be at first glance a relatively featureless plain with a lighter material covered by a patchwork of darker material.
Note however the lack of craters. Except for several faint depressions near the image’s center, there are none. And those depressions look like the expression of craters that have been covered by material. Is the two-toned surface here an expression of past lava flows? Or are we seeing an ice-sheeted plain, with the patches representing higher terrain above that plain?
The overview map below answers the question somewhat clearly.
» Read more
Today’s blacklisted American: Seattle’s public schools to hold “listening tours” that exclude whites
Seattle, home of the new Jim Crow!
“Segregation today, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever!” The public school system of the city of Seattle (SPS) has now scheduled a number of “listening sessions” for parents that, while designed to discuss ways to make the schools more welcoming, specifically exclude whites from the sessions, and divide the sessions by race and ethnicity.
SPS and the Seattle Council of Parent Teacher Student Association (PTSA) is hosting seven listening sessions with superintendent Dr. Brent Jones. The remote tour starts on April 19. One of the sessions is for Black families and a second for Native American families. They also recently added meetings specifically for East African and Black Immigrant Families, plus Multigenerational African American Black Families. The district and PTSA believe these race-exclusionary meetings promote equity. But they may represent illegal discrimination.
While there are sessions open to the general public, most of the sessions are segregated and discriminatory. And God forbid Seattle run a listening session just for whites! Why, that would be racism!
In a sense, this story out of Seattle is not news. I have repeatedly reported stories of Seattle government and corporate officials discriminating illegally against whites while unfairly providing their favorite minorities special privileges. Some examples:
» Read more
A tour at rocket startup Phantom Space
Creating a new rocket company is not something anyone can do. Nor is it something that even smart people can do, nonchalantly. The history of rocketry is littered with hundreds of attempts, almost all of which failed.
Jim Cantrell, pictured on the right standing next to one of the first test prototypes for a new rocket being made by his new company, Phantom Space, is one such person. In the mid-2010s Cantrell partnered with a number of others to found the company Vector, hoping to be one of the first smallsat rocket companies to launch a cheap and efficient rocket placing tiny satellites into orbit. At the time, Cantrell and Vector were racing neck and neck with Rocket Lab for the honor of being the first to do so.
While Rocket Lab succeeded in 2018, and has since completed more than twenty launches, Vector ended up on the ash heap of history, going bankrupt in 2019. The company’s failure was mostly due to problems with its rocket engine, which in turn caused one of its major investors to back out.
Cantrell however is apparently someone who does not take defeat quietly. Using what he had learned at Vector, in 2021 he started a new rocket company, Phantom Space, with a target date for its first test launch the summer of 2023.
Today Cantrell gave me a quick tour of Phantom’s operations here in Tucson.
» Read more
Webb’s coldest instrument reaches operating temperature
The engineering team announced today that the mid-infrared instrument on the James Webb Space Telescope has now cooled to its operating temperature of -447 degrees Fahrenheit, less than 7 kelvin degrees above absolute zero.
On April 7, Webb’s Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) – a joint development by NASA and ESA (European Space Agency) – reached its final operating temperature below 7 kelvins (minus 447 degrees Fahrenheit, or minus 266 degrees Celsius).
Along with Webb’s three other instruments, MIRI initially cooled off in the shade of Webb’s tennis-court-size sunshield, dropping to about 90 kelvins (minus 298 F, or minus 183 C). But dropping to less than 7 kelvins required an electrically powered cryocooler. Last week, the team passed a particularly challenging milestone called the “pinch point,” when the instrument goes from 15 kelvins (minus 433 F, or minus 258 C) to 6.4 kelvins (minus 448 F, or minus 267 C).
Before science operations can begin the instruments still need further calibration and testing. Expect the first infrared images sometime in the next month or so.