August 7, 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.
- Outpost Space touts its proposed re-entry system for orbital spacecraft
The animation shows a variation of the system ULA eventually wants to use to recover the first stage engines on its Vulcan rocket.
- ULA’s CEO touts the number of Atlas-5 stages stacked in their warehouse, waiting launch
These are simply the last Atlas-5s before the rocket is retired.
- Another relatively boring press release of an image from Europe’s Mars Expresss orbiter
I post so few images from Mars Express because Europe releases so few, and when they do, they don’t usually provide enough good information to understand what one is looking at. For example, this release never really tells us the global location of the picture, info that is crucial to understanding it. I could look it up, but the image itself is just not that interesting.
- Blue Origin touts a short 5-second video showing a test firing of the attitude thrusters on New Glenn’s first stage
It is unclear if the video shows an actual first stage, or simply a mock-up for mounting the thrusters. Blue Origin was targeting September 29th for the first New Glenn launch, but based on the present status, that’s increasinly appearing unlikely.
- Roscosmos lost 17 billion ruble in 2022 (better than predicted) and 14 billion in 2023
It blames the losses on the actions of “unfriendly” countries, which is a hoot because it was Russia’s uncalled for invasion of the Ukraine that made it a pariah. If anyone demonstrated unfriendliness, it was Russia.
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 or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. 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.
- Outpost Space touts its proposed re-entry system for orbital spacecraft
The animation shows a variation of the system ULA eventually wants to use to recover the first stage engines on its Vulcan rocket.
- ULA’s CEO touts the number of Atlas-5 stages stacked in their warehouse, waiting launch
These are simply the last Atlas-5s before the rocket is retired.
- Another relatively boring press release of an image from Europe’s Mars Expresss orbiter
I post so few images from Mars Express because Europe releases so few, and when they do, they don’t usually provide enough good information to understand what one is looking at. For example, this release never really tells us the global location of the picture, info that is crucial to understanding it. I could look it up, but the image itself is just not that interesting.
- Blue Origin touts a short 5-second video showing a test firing of the attitude thrusters on New Glenn’s first stage
It is unclear if the video shows an actual first stage, or simply a mock-up for mounting the thrusters. Blue Origin was targeting September 29th for the first New Glenn launch, but based on the present status, that’s increasinly appearing unlikely.
- Roscosmos lost 17 billion ruble in 2022 (better than predicted) and 14 billion in 2023
It blames the losses on the actions of “unfriendly” countries, which is a hoot because it was Russia’s uncalled for invasion of the Ukraine that made it a pariah. If anyone demonstrated unfriendliness, it was Russia.
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 or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. 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
Well, countries do stupid things sometimes with long term impacts that can last for centuries https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/address-to-congress-declaration-of-war-against-germany
The speech could have been written recently
In the news
https://techxplore.com/news/2024-08-newly-loop-pipe-kw-electricity.html
“A team of researchers from Nagoya University in Japan has developed a loop heat pipe (LHP) that can transport up to 10 kW of heat without the need for electricity. This heat transport capability is the largest in the world.”
New solar film
https://techxplore.com/news/2024-08-solar-energy-farms.html
Their new light-absorbing material is, for the first time, thin and flexible enough to apply to the surface of almost any building or common object. Using a pioneering technique developed in Oxford, which stacks multiple light-absorbing layers into one solar cell, they have harnessed a wider range of the light spectrum, allowing more power to be generated from the same amount of sunlight.
This ultra-thin material, using this so-called multi-junction approach, has now been independently certified to deliver over 27% energy efficiency, for the first time matching the performance of traditional, single-layer, energy-generating materials known as silicon photovoltaics. Japan’s National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), gave its certification prior to publication of the researchers’ scientific study later this year.
“During just five years experimenting with our stacking or multi-junction approach, we have raised power conversion efficiency from around 6% to over 27%, close to the limits of what single-layer photovoltaics can achieve today,” said Dr. Shuaifeng Hu, Post Doctoral Fellow at Oxford University Physics.
“We believe that, over time, this approach could enable the photovoltaic devices to achieve far greater efficiencies, exceeding 45%.”