June 20, 2025 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.
- As planned, Psyche has resumed engine firing, using a back-up propellant line
The spacecraft is still targeting an arrival at the metal asteroid Psyche in August 2029.
- ESA touts the shipment of the first stage of its Themis grasshopper demonstrator
ESA touted its completion three days ago, and now is bragging how it is now ready to shipped by truck. Meanwhile, this test vehicle is only three years late, and even if its short test hops are successful it will still leave Europe years away from having a reusable rocket.
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.
- As planned, Psyche has resumed engine firing, using a back-up propellant line
The spacecraft is still targeting an arrival at the metal asteroid Psyche in August 2029.
- ESA touts the shipment of the first stage of its Themis grasshopper demonstrator
ESA touted its completion three days ago, and now is bragging how it is now ready to shipped by truck. Meanwhile, this test vehicle is only three years late, and even if its short test hops are successful it will still leave Europe years away from having a reusable rocket.
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
I am very pleased Psyche is still on target… I own a few metallic meteorites, they are amazing to hold in hand and the melt pattern very clearly shows the direction of entry into our atmosphere. It will be amazing to see a “parent” body up close… I doubt it will be shiny, but will almost certainly be very different from the rubble piles we have visited so far.
On a side note, this proves the need for redundancy on space missions. It is not widely spoken about, but the ESA Huygens lander on Titan only had 2 separate channels to return data, one of which failed. With no redundancy we actually lost half of the images and scientific data. Fortunately NASA builds things a little more robust.
Lee-
Have a “stony nickel-iron, pallasite,” from the Atacama Desert. Recovered in 1922. About an 8-gram specimen. Very nice. Triangular shaped polished 1/4 inch thick ‘slice.’
And an “olivine-bronzite chondrite,” recovered in 1978 from Mexico, from an airburst; marble-sized, black, looks like puffed up lava.
Breaking News:
The United States struck multiple Iranian nuclear facilities…..
Mag-lev closer?
https://phys.org/news/2025-06-permanent-magnet-configurations-outperform-classical.html
On steel
https://techxplore.com/news/2025-06-machine-resistant-steel-durability-confidentiality.html
wayne noted some “Breaking News: The United States struck multiple Iranian nuclear facilities…..”
Would these be the peaceful power plants that Iran has been making in order to use the uranium they are enriching? I keep not hearing Iran talk about these power plants and how far along they are. Iran has plenty of uranium for them, so why aren’t the power plants ready for their fuel rods?
They saw what bunker busters did in Iraq and went deeper….developed great concrete.
Edward-
It was a mostly peaceful bomb-program.
Hello Edward,
Well, in fairness, the plant at Bushehr seems peaceful. It’s not suited to enriching uranium anyway, as I understand it. That and the fact that it has hundreds of Russian technicians helping operate it is why the Israelis and the US left Bushehr off their target lists. I think it accounts for 3% of Iranian energy needs.
But if the Iranians had stuck their nuclear ambitions to just Bushehr, we wouldn’t be where we are now.
Enriching uranium is an electrically intensive process. Our WW2 era Oak-Ridge Y-12 separation facility consumed almost 30% of all electric produced by the Tennessee Valley Authority.