August 28, 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.
- Blue Origin touts the assembly of New Glenn’s first flight first stage
The tweet does not say when this was accomplished, but considering the scheduled launch date is only a little more than six weeks away, it seems they are cutting things close indeed. It is clear they are getting close to that first launch, but it is also unclear they can meet the launch window required for their payload, two Mars orbiters.
- Rocket Lab’s CEO shows off two completed engines intended for its new Neutron rocket
The company hopes to do the rocket’s first test launch next year, and as it seems they are now producing engines quickly, that target seems realistic.
- New data precludes the existence of Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPS), one of many proposed explanations for dark matter
The experiment is not yet complete, but the data after 280 days (out of a thousand) says WIMPs don’t exist.
- NASA touts the status of its Lunar Gateway space station with a few pictures
With decidedly mixed feelings I look forward to the day that Starship docks with this boondoggle, as it will make the station look puny in comparison, despite the fact that Gateway’s cost will be far higher.
- On this day in 1962 Mariner 2 was launched to fly past Venus
This was the first planetary probe to reach another planet and send back data. Its data proved that Venus is a hellish place, with a surface temperature exceeding 800 degrees Fahrenheit.
Readers!
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your support allows 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. 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. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally 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.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four 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 or subscription:
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.
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.
- Blue Origin touts the assembly of New Glenn’s first flight first stage
The tweet does not say when this was accomplished, but considering the scheduled launch date is only a little more than six weeks away, it seems they are cutting things close indeed. It is clear they are getting close to that first launch, but it is also unclear they can meet the launch window required for their payload, two Mars orbiters.
- Rocket Lab’s CEO shows off two completed engines intended for its new Neutron rocket
The company hopes to do the rocket’s first test launch next year, and as it seems they are now producing engines quickly, that target seems realistic.
- New data precludes the existence of Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPS), one of many proposed explanations for dark matter
The experiment is not yet complete, but the data after 280 days (out of a thousand) says WIMPs don’t exist.
- NASA touts the status of its Lunar Gateway space station with a few pictures
With decidedly mixed feelings I look forward to the day that Starship docks with this boondoggle, as it will make the station look puny in comparison, despite the fact that Gateway’s cost will be far higher.
- On this day in 1962 Mariner 2 was launched to fly past Venus
This was the first planetary probe to reach another planet and send back data. Its data proved that Venus is a hellish place, with a surface temperature exceeding 800 degrees Fahrenheit.
Readers!
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your support allows 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. 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. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally 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.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four 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 or subscription:
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.
Mariner-1 Launch
“How A Tiny Mistake Destroyed America’s First Interplanetary Space Probe”
Scott Manley
https://youtu.be/0LJz-TWV3so
(12:07)
For the WIMP article, the data so far does not suggest that WIMPs don’t exist, but significantly reduces the likelihood that they do (by the metric described below). From the article:
“The researchers characterize WIMPs by their cross section — the probability that a particle will interact. The result shrinks the maximum possible cross section to about a fifth that allowed by previous results, LZ researchers report at the TeV Particle Astrophysics meeting in Chicago and at the Light Detection in Noble Elements meeting in São Paulo.
“We are making massive strides into new territory,” says physicist Chamkaur Ghag of University College London, spokesperson of LZ.
The study was performed with 280 days’ worth of data. LZ’s final results will be based on 1,000 days of data, and it’s expected to further carve away at the dark matter’s possibilities — or find evidence of it.”