August 28, 2024 Quick space linksCourtesy 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.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon. from any other book seller, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
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.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon. from any other book seller, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
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.”