May 2, 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.
- Vast touts the gyroscopes it is building in-house to control the orientation of its Haven-1 space station
Thse gyros will only have to function for less than a year, as Haven-1 is not intended for long term use.
- Blue Origin touts its LISTER drill that flew on Firefly’s Blue Ghost lunar lander
Released today, it says nothing about the mission itself, which occurred three months ago. Apparently Blue Origin can’t even get its PR published on time.
- Engineers continue their attempts to regain communications with Lunar Trailblazer orbiter
All contact was lost shortly after launch. They figure they have about a month left before the mission will be considered a total loss.
- On this day in 1925 Mercury astronaut Scott Carpenter was born
He was the second American to orbit the Earth.
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.
- Vast touts the gyroscopes it is building in-house to control the orientation of its Haven-1 space station
Thse gyros will only have to function for less than a year, as Haven-1 is not intended for long term use.
- Blue Origin touts its LISTER drill that flew on Firefly’s Blue Ghost lunar lander
Released today, it says nothing about the mission itself, which occurred three months ago. Apparently Blue Origin can’t even get its PR published on time.
- Engineers continue their attempts to regain communications with Lunar Trailblazer orbiter
All contact was lost shortly after launch. They figure they have about a month left before the mission will be considered a total loss.
- On this day in 1925 Mercury astronaut Scott Carpenter was born
He was the second American to orbit the Earth.
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
“He [Carpenter] flew on the last Mercury mission”
Hardly. Schirra and Cooper both flew after him.
Call Me Ishmael: You are right of course. I once again made the mistake of relying on my aging memory instead of checking. I have corrected the post.
Anton told his YouTube viewers he had to take time off because of his allergies. He then posts this about astronauts developing allergies once they are in the low gravity of space. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCciQ8wFcVoIIMi-lfu8-cjQ/community?lb=Ugkx38hWTxHy8KdF52VmCCmh8Dm-aH4I2xOu
Last year a study by NASA reported that a lot of astronauts experience developing allergies they never had before by just being in space. Nobody knows why it happens, but apparently low gravity affects our immune system so much that it goes completely out of wack by reawakening ancient viruses and changing the immune response too much. So personally I don’t think I’m ready for outer space
References: https://humanresearchroadmap.nasa.gov/Risks/risk.aspx?i=85
Steve, you are correct about immune systems being persnickety. Also wonder if the ISS is so nasty that it has developed bacteria and fungi that are triggering allergies.
Gary: Based on the Russian’s experience on Mir (which had a mold issue that required constant effort to control), I would expect after a quarter century there are similar issues on ISS.
None of this precludes spaceflight or interplanetary travel. These stations are likely far more sanitary than a typical ocean-going sailing ship from 1492 to 1800. It simply means those who go will have to once again accept some real discomfit.
Robert,
Agreed. I live in Georgia and we have extreme pollen seasons which trigger allergies. Doesn’t keep me from getting enjoying our beautiful North Georgia mountains. Just part of the deal.
You do what you can to mitigate, but your don’t let it stop you.
Ishmael – Speaking of Gordon Cooper.
When he & Pete Conrad flew Gemini V, Conrad ‘broke’ into a song one of the days during the flight. Walter Cronkite ended his nightly news with the following (roughly): “Conrad sang during their mission today. He & Cooper make a great team. Cooper can’t dance.”
Always brings a smile to me.
Anton has a video talking about a recently detected lone black hole. In the video he says the “Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope”, scheduled to launch in 2027, would detect many more of such black holes.
https://youtu.be/7sGRwYCUxhY?si=tCtfJn4r9ZN0ew-4&t=502
The wikipedia page says “… In April 2025, the second Trump administration proposed to cut funding for Roman again as part of its FY2026 budget draft. …”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nancy_Grace_Roman_Space_Telescope
Such a cut is despicable, outrageous and uncalled for!! I favor an exception in the budget cutting process in this case. Please print the money needed to speed up the launch of what appears to be an increasingly important telescope.
Speaking of astronomy…
An interesting development in the hunt for “Planet 9” (apologies to Pluto fans), picked up now by a few media outlets. Some Taiwanese astronomers think they may have actually spotted it:
ABC News story here: https://abcnews.go.com/Technology/milky-9-planets-after-astronomers-confirmed-existence/story?id=121395588
Paper here: https://arxiv.org/pdf/2504.17288
There are caveats here, of course. It is not peer reviewed yet. And even if it passes muster, more observational data is needed to confirm it, and figure out its orbit. And I have yet to hear what Mike Brown and Konstantin Batygin (the Caltech astronomers who have laid the groundwork for the hunt for Planet 9 by working out an impressive circumstantial case for it) have to say about it. But this is the first time someone has actually identified an observed candidate for this.
If this is confirmed, though….well, this would be some pretty big news.
Richard M: I saw that story and reviewed it plus the paper and was very unimpressed, which is why I did not link to it. Too many assumptions and uncertainties to take very seriously.
Hi Bob,
Well, I think it’s a rather shrewd little strategy they came up with — this thing is going to be very difficult to spot — but clearly this can only be a first step, if that. A “Eureka” cry is not justified at this juncture.
But I think the circumstantial evidence that this planet exists is fairly compelling, and it is worth investing the time to look for. — even if this attempt proves a washout. A Neptune sized planet lurking out in a wild irregular orbit in the Scattered Disc would be very big news.
Richard M: I agree that these results suggest more research should be done, but from my reporter’s perspective, they haven’t yet discovered anything worth reporting.
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/is-the-iss-too-clean-for-astronauts-health-new-study-finds-the-space-station-lacks-microbial-diversity-180986141/
Let your kids play in the dirt.