Tag: engineering

Investigation into upper stage failure during Ariane-6’s first launch completed

8:38 am

The Ariane-6 rocket investigation team, including people from the European Space Agency (ESA), CNES (France’s space agency), ArianeGroup (which built and owns the rocket), and Arianespace (which presently manages the rocket), has identified the issue that caused the rocket’s upper stage failure during the rocket’s first launch in July.

In a 16 September update, the Task Force announced that the investigation had identified a single temperature measurement that “exceeded a predefined limit” as the root cause of the anomaly. The tripped limit caused the software to trigger a shutdown of the APU which ensured the rocket’s Vinci upper stage engine could not be restarted for the final burn.

In order to remedy this issue and ensure a similar shutdown does not occur in the future, the ignition preparation sequence, specifically the APU chill-down sequence, has been changed. The updated flight software is already being tested as teams prepare for the rocket’s first commercial flight which is set to take place before the end of the year.

Because of that incorrect temperature, the upper stage did not do its final burn, thereby stranding the stage and two demonstration return capsules in the wrong orbit. This prevented the test return of both capsules, as well as the test planned de-orbit of the stage over the ocean.

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Two Russian astronauts mark one year in orbit

11:38 am

Russian astronauts Oleg Kononenko and Nikolay Chub today marked the one year anniversary of their launch in 2023, thus marking another Russian yearlong mission in space.

The two cosmonauts were sent to the orbit aboard the Soyuz MS-24 manned spacecraft, which blasted off from the Baikonur space launch center on September 15, 2023. The third crew member on board was NASA astronaut Loral O’Hara, who returned to the Earth on April 6, 2024. Kononenko and Chub, as well as NASA astronaut Tracy Dyson, will travel back aboard the Soyuz MS-25 spacecraft, whose departure is scheduled for September 23.

Their return next week will not mark a record for the longest flight in space. That belongs to Valeri Polykov, who occupied the Soviet-built Mir space station in the mid-1990s for one year, two months, and two weeks in the mid-nineties, or 438 days. The second longest flight was by Sergey Avdeev, 380 days on Mir in 1998-1999, with the third longest flight by Sergey Prokopyev, Dmitry Petelin, and Franco Rubio, 371 days in 2022-2023.

When Kononenko and Chub return on September 23rd, their flight will 373 days long, passing the 2022-2023 mission.

Note that only one American is on this list. A few have flown almost a year, but only Rubio has made it, and that was forced on him unplanned because of problems with the Soyuz capsule that brought him into orbit. He was forced to stay up an extra six months and come down on the next Soyuz.

The reason for this lack of long American flights is entirely NASA’s fault. It has consistently resisted doing such long missions, even holding the Russians back during the first two decades of ISS’s operation. The Russians no longer follow NASA’s timidity, and have been doing more such missions, because such missions will be the only way to gather the necessary medical data needed for future missions to Mars.

Meanwhile, NASA hesitates, and sometimes touts eleven-month missions (such as Scott Kelly’s) as year-long missions, a blatant lie that our propaganda press repeats mindlessly. I fully expect the first planned year-long American mission will be done privately, outside of our government, once Starship begins flying regularly.

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Iran completes third orbital launch in 2024

10:17 am

Iran's spaceports

According to Iran’s state-run press and now confirmed by independent sources, Iran yesterday completed its third orbital launch in 2024, its new solid-fueled three stage Qaem-100 rocket lifting off on its second launch from Iran’s interior Semnan spaceport. No word on where the rocket’s lower stages crashed.

The payload was an engineering test satellite, which according to the Iranian press is operating as planned.

At the moment Iran appears to aggressively accelerating its civilian space program. It now has two functioning rockets, the Simorgh rocket, which placed three satellites in orbit in January, and the Qaem-100, its first launch taking place also in January. The country is also building a coastal spaceport near the town of Chabahar, as shown on the map to the right. Moreover, this third launch is the most the country has ever achieved in a single year. Until 2024, Iran had never launched more than once in any year.

And while these rockets and satellites do not appear to be military in nature, the technology development will certainly result in advances in Iran’s missile capabilities. The Qaem-100’s solid-fueled design is exactly what most ballistic missiles use, since it allows the missile to be stored fueled for long periods.

The leader board in the 2024 launch race remains unchanged.

91 SpaceX
38 China
10 Rocket Lab
10 Russia

American private enterprise still leads the rest of the world combined in successful launches 106 to 59, while SpaceX by itself leads the entire world, including American companies, 91 to 74.

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Resilience splashes down safely, ending Polaris Dawn commercial manned orbital mission

12:48 am

SpaceX’s Resilience capsule has just splashed down safely in the Gulf of Mexico, ending the five-day Polaris Dawn private manned orbital mission, commanded by billionaire and jet pilot Jared Isaacman.

As of posting the capsule is still in the water with divers and boats on the way.

This completes the first mission in Isaacman’s planned three mission Polaris program. It was a complete success, doing a great deal of medical research on the effects of high orbit radiation on the human body as well as the first private spacewalk using SpaceX’s first EVA spacesuits. For Isaacman’s next mission he has already proposed doing a Hubble repair mission. NASA has had mixed feelings about this idea, but after this success it will be interesting if that attitude changes.

I must comment that the coverage by SpaceX employees on this mission was somewhat annoying. For the first time, they spent a lot of time giggling and focusing on PR and how “cool” and “incredible” and “wonderful” everything was, from amusing new decals in the capsule to the spacewalk to Sarah Gillis’ violin performance.

All of this was as great as they kept saying, which is why they didn’t need to say it, over and over and over and over and over again. It would have been better if they had done what SpaceX has generally done on previous broadcasts and missions, focused on describing the technical aspects and then staying silent otherwise. Gushing like this is more like a NASA or Blue Origin broadcast, and does not do SpaceX credit.

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Perservance looks back from on high

10:25 am

Perservance's view looking back down Neretva Vallis
Click for original image.

Cool image time! The picture above, cropped to post here, was taken on September 9, 2024 by the left navigation camera on the Mars rover Perseverance, looking east and back along the route from which the rover had come.

The view is somewhat more spectacular than most Perseverance images because the rover took it during its on-going climb up unto the rim of Jezero Crater, as shown by the overview map below. The blue dot marks Perseverance’s present position, while the yellow lines indicate the area covered by the picture above, taken several days earlier.

The haze in the picture also suggests that the local dust storm first noted in late August might be clearing somewhat. This isn’t certain, however, as the previous picture was using the rover’s high resolution camera to look at distant hills (thus more obscured), while the picture above was taken by the left navigation camera looking more widely and at nearer objects.

Overview map
Click for interactive map.

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Intuitive Machines targeting January 2025 for launch of its next lunar lander

9:37 am

The landers either at or targeting the Moon's south pole
The landers either at or targeting the Moon’s south pole

The company Intuitive Machines is now aiming to launch its second Nova-C lunar lander, dubbed Athena, during a January 1-5, 2025 launch window.

The landing site is indicated on the map to the right, on the rim of Shackleton crater and almost on top of the south pole. While Chang’e-7 is targeting the same crater rim, it is not scheduled for launch until 2026.

The lander will not only include a drill for studying the surface below it, it will release a small secondary payload, the Micro-Nova Hopper, which will hopefully hop down into the permanently shadowed craters nearby.

The launch will also carry a lunar orbiter, dubbed Lunar Trailblazar, which will not only do spectroscopy of the lunar surface, looking for water, it will also be used as a communications relay satellite with Athena. That orbiter, designed to demonstrate the ability to build a smallsat at low cost, was previously threatened with cancellation because its builder, Lockheed Martin, went way over budget.

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New gravity map of Mars released

9:09 am

New global map of Mars gravity field
Click for original image.
Using both seismological data compiled over four years by the InSight Mars lander as well tiny changes in the orbits of Martian satellites, scientists have now created a global gravity map of the red planet, indicating the regions below the surface that are either low or high density.

That map is above, annotated by me to indicate some of Mars’ major surface features.

The density map shows that the northern polar features are approximately 300-400 kg/m3 denser than their surroundings. However, the study also revealed new insights into the structures underlying the huge volcanic region of Tharsis Rise, which includes the colossal volcano, Olympus Mons.

Although volcanoes are very dense, the Tharsis area is much higher than the average surface of Mars, and is ringed by a region of comparatively weak gravity. This gravity anomaly is hard to explain by looking at differences in the martian crust and upper mantle alone. The study by Dr Root and his team suggests that a light mass around 1750 kilometres across and at a depth of 1100 kilometres is giving the entire Tharsis region a boost upwards. This could be explained by huge plume of lava, deep within the martian interior, travelling up towards the surface.

I once again note that the largest impact basin on Mars, Hellas Basin, sits almost exactly on the planet’s far side from Tharsis, and appears to have a light density. This contrast once again makes me wonder if the origin of that impact and the Tharsis Bulge are linked.

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Boeing employees reject deal of union and company and go on strike

8:47 am

In another blow to the company, Boeing’s employees have gone on strike after overwhelming voting to reject a new deal their union officials had negotiated with the company that had called for a 25% salary increase across the board.

Members of the International Association of Machinists District 751, which represents about 33,000 Boeing workers in Washington state, walked off the job when their contract expired at midnight on Thursday night. Almost 95 per cent rejected the deal endorsed by their bargaining team on Sunday and 96 per cent voted to strike, easily exceeding the two-thirds majority needed to trigger a walkout.

Many of the union’s members expressed anger on social media, criticising the deal and accusing IAM leaders of settling for too little. Many had been ready to strike, partly fuelled by residual anger from a 2014 deal that eliminated defined-benefit pensions.

Boeing on Thursday said it was ready to renegotiate a deal to halt a crippling strike.

Right now Boeing’s credit rating is “one notch above junk” and if the strike isn’t settled quickly that rating could drop more. It will also prevent the company from taking any action to recover from its numerous problems that are limiting sales of its airplanes and its military and space products.

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SpaceX launches 21 more Starlink satellites

8:39 am

SpaceX last evening successfully placed another 21 Starlink satellites into orbit, its Falcon 9 rocket lifting off from Vandenberg in California.

The first stage completed its eighteenth flight, landing on a drone ship in the Pacific.

The leaders in the 2024 launch race:

91 SpaceX
38 China
10 Rocket Lab
10 Russia

American private enterprise now leads the rest of the world combined in successful launches 106 to 58, while SpaceX by itself leads the entire world, including American companies, 91 to 73.

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A fluted mesa on Mars

1:27 pm

A fluted mesa on Mars
Click for original image.

Cool image time! The picture to the right, cropped, reduced, and sharpened to post here, was taken on July 9, 2024 by the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). It shows what the science team labels a “silica-rich mound”, as indicated by the bright streaks on all the high ridge points.

The flat-topped mesa on the right drops about 200 feet to the valley floor. The rims of that depression to the west rise about 50+ feet higher, while mesa nose in the upper left rising another 50+ feet more.

Was the depression caused by an impact? If so, the landscape has changed radically since that impact occurred, with most of the surrounding terrain eroded away. The two flat-topped mesas hint at the ancient surface when that impact occurred.

A wider view however raises questions about this impact theory.
» Read more

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Scientists re-create on Earth the sublimation of Mars’s winter mantle of dry ice

11:32 am

Spiders created on Earth
Click for original image.

Scientists have successfully re-created on Earth the process on Mars that creates the unique “spider” formations seen in the the Martian south pole region, produced when the winter mantle of dry ice begins to sublimate away into a gas.

The study confirms several formation processes described by what’s called the Kieffer model: Sunlight heats the soil when it shines through transparent slabs of carbon dioxide ice that built up on the Martian surface each winter. Being darker than the ice above it, the soil absorbs the heat and causes the ice closest to it to turn directly into carbon dioxide gas — without turning to liquid first — in a process called sublimation (the same process that sends clouds of “smoke” billowing up from dry ice). As the gas builds in pressure, the Martian ice cracks, allowing the gas to escape. As it seeps upward, the gas takes with it a stream of dark dust and sand from the soil that lands on the surface of the ice.

At the south pole, the ground below the mantle is stable enough that each winter the trapped CO2 gas follows the same path to the same points where the dry ice cracks, slowly creating “tributaries” that combine to form the spider formations.

The picture to the right, cropped, reduced, and sharpened to post here, comes from figure 9 of the paper [pdf]. It shows the lab-created spiders formed by this simulated process, thereby confirming this hypothesis about how the spiders form.

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Italian rocket company Avio outlines its future rocket plans

11:07 am

Link here. The plans include steady upgrades to its Vega-C rocket, including replacing the upper stage engine presently provided by a Ukrainian company with an engine built by Avio itself.

The bigger development will be a more powerful rocket, the Vega-E, to replace the Vega-C in 2027.

This version of the rocket will retain the first and second stages of the Vega C+ rocket and substitute the third and fourth stages for a single liquid fuel stage powered by the company’s new M10 methalox rocket engine.

The company is also hoping to begin test flights in 2026 of a Grasshopper-type small-scale demonstration rocket leading to the development of a reusable two-stage rocket that would eventually replace Vega-E.

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