April 12th, 2023
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At T-minus 00:00:00 “Excitement Guaranteed” The first flight test of a fully integrated, fully reusable SpaceX Starship and Super Heavy rocket is close at hand. This voyage is on tap to help “inform and improve” the probability of success in the future of this transportation system designed to carry both crew and cargo to Earth […]
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NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover at Gale Crater is now performing Sol 3797 duties. Scott VanBommel, a planetary scientist at Washington University, reports that the rover spent much of the last week completing a software upgrade while the science team met virtually to synthesize and discuss results. “That upgrade has been completed successfully,” VanBommel adds, […]
The Astronaut’s Guide to Leaving the Planet: Everything You Need to Know, from Training to Re-entry by Terry Virts; Workman Publishing Company (2023); 176 pages; Softcover: $14.99. When it comes to tips on departing the Earth, consider getting advice from a person that has been up there. That’s the case with author Terry Virts, a […]
The number of artificial objects in space is growing rapidly, driven primarily by an increasing quantity of satellites in low Earth orbit. Given that fact, a research paper points out that satellite technology can have a range of environmental impacts on Earth, not only from the effects of rocket launches and satellite de-orbiting […]
Vertical landing tests of a launch vehicle at sea and on land are verifying key technologies needed for space returning boosters and hardware. CAS Space is a Beijing-based rocket company owned by the Chinese Academy of Sciences. The Chinese group has conducted their tests in Haiyang, a county-level city in Yantai City, east China’s Shandong […]
“Would you like to…carry moonbeams home in a jar…and be better off than you are?” Those words come from the Oscar-winning 1944 film Going My Way – but could be linked to a 21st century Moon base. A fresh idea that’s beaming with promise is Moonbeam-Beamed Lunar Power. Research into the concept has been backed […]
“NASA is building a first-of-its-kind biocontainment lab to study samples from Mars — and possibly prevent a Martian plague” – From Freethink on YouTube: “NASA is gearing up for the next phase of its mission to Mars that is decades in the making. The mission aims to answer two main questions: Did life ever […]
“An exciting discovery for Perseverance,” says Mars Guy. For the first time in over four months, NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover has collected another rock sample intended for return to Earth. “But the process was different this time, in ways that show there’s something unexpected about this rock.” Go to video at: https://youtu.be/itngpJjgATU […]
The NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) program has awarded six concepts to help shape air and space travel decades in the future. Each of the six fellows will receive up to $600,000 over two years to develop their concepts. Introducing the new round of Phase II awards that funded these six researchers: The Nyx Mission […]
While space travel by private citizens is still evolving and making headlines, it seems likely commercial space travel by off-the-street astronauts could conceivably become more routine in the years ahead. A new RAND report focuses on how and when the spaceflight industry should be regulated at a federal level. Voluntary standards related to commercial spaceflight […]
