December 10, 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.
- Chinese pseudo-company Space Epoch successfully completes 20-second static fire test of its stainless steel Yuanxingzhe-1 rocket
It uses methane-fuel engines, and intends to land the first stage vertically after launch.
- China’s Long March 5B to launch the first 10 satellites in the Chinese SatNet megaconstellation
According to tweet, the core stage will not reach orbit, which means it will drop into the ocean instead of crashing uncontrolled somewhere else on Earth.
- Vast touts video showing the shield design it is using on its Haven-1 space module
The video shows a test where the shield blocked 6mm projectile moving at 6.5 kilometers per second.
- On this day in 1999 Europe’s XMM space telescope was launched
The article outlines some of the space telescope’s discoveries in the past 25 years.
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.
- Chinese pseudo-company Space Epoch successfully completes 20-second static fire test of its stainless steel Yuanxingzhe-1 rocket
It uses methane-fuel engines, and intends to land the first stage vertically after launch.
- China’s Long March 5B to launch the first 10 satellites in the Chinese SatNet megaconstellation
According to tweet, the core stage will not reach orbit, which means it will drop into the ocean instead of crashing uncontrolled somewhere else on Earth.
- Vast touts video showing the shield design it is using on its Haven-1 space module
The video shows a test where the shield blocked 6mm projectile moving at 6.5 kilometers per second.
- On this day in 1999 Europe’s XMM space telescope was launched
The article outlines some of the space telescope’s discoveries in the past 25 years.
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.
Interesting, the vessel used to recover the Gaganyaan capsule is the INS Jalashwa (Sanskrit/Hindi: Hippopotamus) is an amphibious transport dock, formerly the USS Trenton,
Fahrenheit 451 (1966)
“Montag Watches His Own Death on TV”
https://youtu.be/boBYhbT_WH4
(1:37)
“They can’t keep the viewers waiting much longer, the Show must go on…”
I find things such as this very confusing: “the shield blocked 6mm projectile moving at 6.5 kilometers per second.”
6.5 k/s _seems_ fast, but is it? It looks (via two seconds of searching) as if 9mm bullet velocity is between 900 and 1200 feet/sec. A foot is 0.0003048 kilometers. Clearly they did more than point a 6mm pistol at it and pull the trigger. That makes it seem fast. Orbital speed obviously varies, but LEO seems to be (equally fast search) around 29,000 km/h, which is about 8 km/sec. 6.5 seems both fast and reasonable (the odds of a “head-on” collision in orbit would seem to be small).
6mm is important for “will it penetrate?”, but what’s the mass? A 6mm diameter hollow plastic sphere is very different from a metric ton tungsten rod with a 6mm tip. Is there anything “interesting” about 6mm? Too small to see on radar? Arbitrarily chosen because of how the test rack works?
Not penetrating is obviously better than penetrating, but what makes this test meaningful/interesting? (
A rhetorical question, but if anyone knows, that would be awesome.)
Mark Sizer,
I once did some testing with the Ames Vertical Gun Range, and that was an experience and education. We were seeking knowledge as to the damage that might occur to our X-ray telescope’s apertures, which we wanted covered with a form of window. We were seeking materials that would not shatter if struck by a micrometeoroid but would just have a small hole (and could withstand the acoustics within a rocket fairing, but that is another story and another test facility), and NASA’s Ames Research Center was the place we did the test.
https://www.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/range_factsheet_i.pdf
“6.5 k/s _seems_ fast, but is it?”
Not really. As you noted, low Earth orbital speed is just about 8 km/s, so an object in an orbit just 60° different would have a closing speed of 8 km/s, too. If it comes from outside Earth orbit, it would be at least 40% faster than orbital speed. Things travel fast in space, so collisions can be catastrophic. That is what the shield is for — it is the one that gets perforated by the disintegrating projectile so that the inner hull (pressure vessel) is only struck by much smaller and much slower debris or gas from the initial collision.
“6mm is important for “will it penetrate?”, but what’s the mass?”
The energy to be dissipated is only linearly proportional to the mass, but it is proportional to the square of the speed, which is clearly the important parameter for this test.