An evening pause: This video I think is excellent for taking us into the weekend. It shows nine different Starlink launches simulataneously, illustrating in a creative way how incredibly routine and reliable SpaceX’s Falcon 9 has become.
Hat tip Steve Golson.
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.
To be launched on a Falcon 9, scheduled for January 29, 2024.
Note: Jay corrects me. He is off next week on business so no quick updates. His ham radio DX trip is February 16 to March 8, but during that time he will send us updates via Starlink.
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 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.
"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
13-year-old J.A., prepped to cheer for his favorite
local high school football team
They’re coming for you next: The parents of a 13-year-old boy, identified only as J.A., are now suing the school principal who suspended their son for two days and banned him from all future sports activities because the middle-schooler had put on black “warrior” face paint under his eyes and on his cheeks, as football players often do and as shown in the picture to the right, in order to properly cheer for his football team at a game.
The principal of his school, part of the San Diego Unified School District, claimed it was “blackface,” though he never interviewed the boy, this companions, or anyone involved before issuing his banning edicts. For example, the boy had not even known what blackface was prior to this event. Moreover, no one at the game had complained or had been offended, and in fact, one black security guard joked with the boy, saying he should have made the spikes on the side higher, covering even more of his face.
“We’re suing the principal directly, the superintendent and then the people who made the decision to rubber-stamp the principal’s ridiculous decision to suspend J.A.,” Attorney Karin Sweigart said.
According to managers at Japan’s space agency JAXA, its SLIM lunar lander successfully completed its soft landing on the Moon.
It appears SLIM’s solar cells are not producing power. The spacecraft is presently on battery power, which will only last a few hours. Engineers are presently rushing to download images, taken during descent and after landing. There is also no word yet on whether the two test rovers were successfully released and achieved their test goals.
To precisely determine if the lander achieved its goal to hit a precise landing zone less than 300 feet across will require further analysis, much of which will depend on the images presently being downloaded. At the moment the engineers believe this goal was achieved, however, based on the telemetry already received.
Thus, it appears Japan has managed a soft-landing, something that in the past few years several countries (Israel, Russia, India, United States) and private companies (SpaceIL, Ispace, Astrobotic) have failed to do. Right now Japan appears to be the third nation to succeed in this new round of lunar exploration, joining China and India (which succeeded on its second attempt).
The next lunar landing attempt will be by the American private company, Intuitive Machines. Its Nova-C lander is scheduled for launch on a Falcon 9 rocket in mid-February.
Now available in hardback and paperback as well as ebook!
From the press release: In this ground-breaking new history of early America, historian Robert Zimmerman not only exposes the lie behind The New York Times 1619 Project that falsely claims slavery is central to the history of the United States, he also provides profound lessons about the nature of human societies, lessons important for Americans today as well as for all future settlers on Mars and elsewhere in space.
“Zimmerman’s ground-breaking history provides every future generation the basic framework for establishing new societies on other worlds. We would be wise to heed what he says.” —Robert Zubrin, founder of the Mars Society.
All editions are available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and all book vendors, with the ebook priced at $5.99 before discount. All editions can also be purchased direct from the ebook publisher, ebookit, in which case you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
Autographed printed copies are also available at discount directly from the author (hardback $29.95; paperback $14.95; Shipping cost for either: $6.00). Just send an email to zimmerman @ nasw dot org.
According to telemetry data (as shown on the screen capture to the right), Japan’s SLIM lander has apparently landed on the Moon near Shioli Crater, proving its autonomous precision landing system worked as planned.
At the moment however Japan’s space agency JAXA has not yet confirmed that the landing was completely successful. After landing the announcers on the live stream repeatedly noted that though the telemetry indicated it had landed as planned, engineers had not yet confirmed that the lander was still operational. Note how the data to the right suggests the spacecraft is tilted slightly. This tilt appears to match the tilt of the surface, but it could also indicate a problem with communications.
A press conference announcing either a confirmation or a failure will begin shortly at the live stream above.
The Chinese pseudo-company Landspace successfully completed a rocket hop flight of its Zhuque-3 prototype hopper yesterday, testing vertical take-off and landing in preparation of recovering and reusing the first stage of its rockets.
The hop itself went to 350 meters and performed a small translation maneuver to the landing pad. The hope is called “ZQ-3 VTVL-1” which refers to “Vertical Takeoff – Vertical Landing”. It uses a single TQ-12 methane engine, which is also used on the current ZQ-2 rocket. The engine can throttle between 50-110% of the normal 80 tons of thrust, giving it a throttle range between 40 and 88 tons. The performed flight went on for roughly 60 seconds. The weight of the hopper is 50.3 tons.
Landpace confirmed the landing precision with 2.4 meters, with a landing speed of 0.75 meters per second, at a pitch angle of roughly 0.14 degrees, and a roll angle of 4.4 degrees. The hopper survived the hop and is already being inspected after the flight.
Video of the hop can be viewed at the link. The hopper is almost identical in concept to SpaceX’s Grasshopper test vehicle used by that company, flying with one engine of the same type used in its operational rocket.
If their test program continues as planned, Landspace hopes to begin flying reuseable stages in 2025, with that first stage capable of flying 20 times.
Of all the pseudo-companies in China, Landspace appears to be the most successful. It not only has an operational orbital rocket, Zhuque-2, that has carried satellites into orbit twice (here and here), it is very close to achieving rocket reuseability competitive with SpaceX.
Leaving Earth: Space Stations, Rival Superpowers, and the Quest for Interplanetary Travel, can be purchased as an ebook everywhere for only $3.99 (before discount) at amazon, Barnes & Noble, all ebook vendors, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit.
If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big oppressive tech companies and I get a bigger cut much sooner.
"Leaving Earth is one of the best and certainly the most comprehensive summary of our drive into space that I have ever read. It will be invaluable to future scholars because it will tell them how the next chapter of human history opened." -- Arthur C. Clarke
At about 3:50 pm (Eastern) yesterday, the lunar lander Peregrine, built by the private company Astrobotic, hit the Earth’s atmosphere above the South Pacific and burned up, according to an update from the company.
The mission is over, having failed to reach the Moon due to a ruptured propellant tank caused by a leak in an interior helium tank.
The company was successful in regaining control over the mission after the leak, activating all payloads and getting data back from them, including images and even a short movie. It was also able to communicate with it from lunar distances. It failed however in testing its landing capabilities, its primary mission.
An evening pause: Performed live 2014.
Hat tip Doug Johnson.
Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay. Note: This post is now officially an open thread. I welcome my readers to post any comments or additional links relating to any space issues, not just the links below.
They have 6 major tasks, including 4 launch missions and 2 recovery missions, with the six astronauts for those missions already chosen.
The reduction is because the construction phase of the Tiangong-3 station is now complete, and shifted into its operational phase. At the same time, China notes it can fly the Long March 7 rocket that carries Tianzhou twice within 3 months, if necessary.
They have added additional hardware to protect the engines better during return and splashdown.
Another boring congressional hearing that will change little.
After Brexit the UK lost access to some EU systems. This Viasat system can replace it.
Essentially it will be fuel truck that will bring fuel from a depot to a satellite.
Krikalev, one of Russia’s most famous astronauts, had been laid off from his job in Roscosmos, apparently due to differences with the agency’s administrator. This appointment appears to be a consolation prize.
Re-entry is expected later today.
They’re coming for you next: SpaceX today successfully launched three European astronauts (plus the company capsule commander) to ISS on an Axiom private mission, its Falcon 9 rocket lifting off from Cape Canaveral at 4:49 pm (Eastern).
The capsule, Freedom, is flying humans into space for its third time. The first stage successfully completed its fourth flight, landing back at Cape Canaveral.
The mission itself is private, but the customer is the European Space Agency, which has paid the company Axiom to bring its astronauts to ISS for a fourteen day mission. Axiom in turn hired SpaceX to provide the rocket and capsule. This flight is confirmation that Europe has accepted the concept of capitalism in space, whereby it no longer depends on governments to accomplish what it wants, but instead is a customer buying those products from the private sector.
The astronauts are expected to dock with ISS early tomorrow morning.
The 2024 launch race:
6 SpaceX
5 China
1 India
1 ULA
1 Japan
Modern academia, proudly marching with Lenin!
Yesterday I linked to a student newspaper article at the University of Alberta advocating more regulation over all space activity, focused on replacing private ownership with collective ownership while simultaneously imposing Marxist racial quotas to get rid “old white men”.
Today there was another story from academia demanding similar regulation. On January 12, 2024 there was a public panel discussion at Arizona State University (ASU), where four academics argued for the need for more government regulation of space. The description of the panel’s goals at the event’s website gives us a good hint of the goals of these academics:
Space exploration and utilization is a rapidly expanding sector, and there is growing consensus that the complex space governance system must evolve with it. Faced with this dynamic nature, in this fireside chat, with leading experts in space governance, policy law and space science, we present a clear framework for conceptualizing the space governance system as a tool for discussions on space law and policy, demystifying its structure and the actors, instruments and collaborations within it. We then consider key debates in the space policy field within this framework from a global and transdisciplinary perspective.
This is typically bad academic writing, designed to intentionally hide its meaning. One of the panelists however translated it most bluntly in this quote from article about the event:
» Read more
Click for original figure from paper.
Using data obtained from Europe’s Mars Express orbiter, scientists believe they have detected evidence of a very large and extensive deposit of buried ice in the dry Martian equatorial regions, buried within the Medusae Fossae Formation, what is thought to be the largest volcanic ash deposit on Mars.
The blue-to-orange areas inside the Medusae on the map to the right, taken from figure 5 of the paper, shows where they have detected potential buried ice, at depths ranging from one to two thousand feet below the surface. The orange areas indicate the thickest ice deposits, as much as two miles thick. From the paper’s abstract:
The MARSIS radar sounder [on Mars Express] detects echoes in Medusae Fossae Formation deposits that occur between the surface and the base which are interpreted as layers within the deposit like those found in Polar Layered Deposits of the North and South Poles. The subsurface reflectors suggest transitions between mixtures of ice-rich and ice-poor dust analogous to the multi-layered, ice-rich polar deposits.
Assuming this detection is real, this would be the largest reservoir of potential water in the dry equatorial regions found yet, comparable to another similar buried detection deep below the giant canyon Valles Marineris but much larger.
Accessing this water however will not be simple, as it is deep underground. You couldn’t just drill a well, as it is ice, not a liquid water table. It would have to mined like minerals on Earth. There are uncertainties about this conclusion as well. It is possible the detection is not water but volcanic ash or dust compacted in a way that mimics an ice detection.
