Not again. :-(

Dress rehearsal for NASA’s deep-space rocket cut short by mere seconds.

...With the SLS standing upright on its launchpad in Kennedy Space Center in Florida, NASA engineers and flight controllers filled the vehicle with its ultra-cold propellants on Monday, just as they would on a launch day. With all the SLS tanks full, the flight team counted down to a simulated liftoff time, with the plan to stop the countdown at roughly T-minus 9 seconds. Instead, the team stopped the countdown short at T-minus 29 seconds due to a hydrogen leak. NASA says it was able to complete most of its objectives for the test, primarily loading the vehicle with propellant — but that there are still a handful they weren’t able to get to with the premature cutoff.....

Will they ever get the bugs worked out?

Cheers.

The Mars Express spacecraft is finally getting a Windows 98 upgrade.

...“We faced a number of challenges to improve the performance of MARSIS,” explains Carlo Nenna, a software engineer at Enginium who is helping ESA with the upgrade. “Not least because the MARSIS software was originally designed over 20 years ago, using a development environment based on Microsoft Windows 98!”...

Well 98SE was the peak of that line before the MEss happened. ;-)

Cheers.

After piles of money and many set backs is it ready?

NASA’s Artemis Era Could Officially Begin in Just 6 Weeks.

...Earlier today, on what is the 53rd anniversary of the Apollo 11 Moon landing, NASA officials provided new details about the timing of this much-anticipated launch. Jim Free, NASA’s associate administrator, Exploration Systems Development Mission Directorate, said “we have placeholders on the range for August 29, September 2 and September 5.” Weather permitting, of course. Free said the dates are “not an agency commitment” and that a flight readiness review, to be conducted one week prior, will be needed for such a commitment. “But these are the dates that the team is working to,” he added....

Cheers.

Moon Pits With Balmy Temperatures Could Shelter Future Explorers.

Data from a NASA probe suggests lunar pits have comfortable temperatures due to their shadowy overhangs, which keep them cool during the day and prevent heat from escaping at night.

Hard to believe now, but the seemingly inert surface of the Moon was once rife with volcanic activity. Today, we see evidence of this in the form of pits that litter the lunar surface. We’ve been privy to these pits for nearly 15 years, but recent research indicates that the temperatures within them could be far cooler—and arguably more comfortable—than the surrounding surface.

Data gathered by NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter place the interior of the pits at a relatively consistent 63 degrees Fahrenheit (17.2 degrees Celsius) throughout the lunar day/night cycle. If confirmed, this would make them ripe targets for exploration and human habitation....

...According to NASA, the surface of the Moon can reach highs of 260 degrees Fahrenheit (126.7 degrees Celsius) and lows of -280 degrees Fahrenheit (-173.3 degrees Celsius). But these overhangs, it appears, shade the pits during the day while preventing heat from escaping at night, leading to a consistently balmy temperature around 63 degrees Fahrenheit (17.2 degrees Celsius)....

Cheers.

Is 1 big problem solved?

Future Astronauts May Breathe Easier in Space Thanks to Magnets.

Breathe easy, astronauts: Scientists just paved the way for a technique to produce breathable oxygen on the International Space Station (ISS) using magnets—a potentially much cheaper strategy than the technologies currently used. The goal isn’t simply to cut the costs of supporting astronauts in space right now, but to make the entire endeavor of human space travel more accessible down the road.

Oxygen is manufactured on the ISS through a process called water electrolysis, where electricity from solar panels splits water into a mixture of hydrogen gas and oxygen gas. The issue with separating oxygen out from water in microgravity is not, counterintuitively, gravity—Georgia Tech fluid dynamicist Álvaro Romero-Calvo told The Daily Beast that the downward pull of gravity on the ISS compared to objects on Earth only differs by 10 percent. Rather, the difficulty lies in the buoyancy produced by the state of constant free fall.

“If you’re trying to drink a Coca Cola in space, for instance, all the bubbles of [carbon dioxide] inside the drink will remain there—it will essentially generate a foam layer that cannot be separated,” Romero-Calvo said. “When we try to get the gases out of liquids [in space], we need to use other processes.”

The current solution relies on a series of pumps and a centrifuge to spin the mixture at high speeds. But these contraptions are difficult to repair, massive, and voluminous. The weight and space of these units prevent them from being incorporated or transported with smaller satellites that might weigh five pounds or less, Romero-Calvo said....

Cheers.

Er...

"Álvaro Romero-Calvo told The Daily Beast that the downward pull of gravity on the ISS compared to objects on Earth only differs by 10 percent. Rather, the difficulty lies in the buoyancy produced by the state of constant free fall."

... that "downward pull" is negated by being in orbit. There is no measurable difference between it and being in deep space, ie microgravity. This equivalence principle is a critical and much-proven part of General Relativity.

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Er...

"Álvaro Romero-Calvo told The Daily Beast that the downward pull of gravity on the ISS compared to objects on Earth only differs by 10 percent. Rather, the difficulty lies in the buoyancy produced by the state of constant free fall."

... that "downward pull" is negated by being in orbit. There is no measurable difference between it and being in deep space, ie microgravity. This equivalence principle is a critical and much-proven part of General Relativity.

Well that's The Daily Beast for you, but the original article (that is linked to in that 1) didn't explain the current process used these days which is why I used it instead. ;-)

Well that's The Daily Beast for you...

Lol yes I wouldn't count them as a premier source for science journalism. :^)

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Well that's The Daily Beast for you...

Lol yes I wouldn't count them as a premier source for science journalism. :^)

And let it not be said that I only read stuff from the left. :-D

Cheers.

NASA’s Juno Mission Reveals Jupiter’s Complex Colors

NASA’s Juno spacecraft observed the complex colors and structure of Jupiter’s clouds as it completed its 43rd close flyby of the giant planet on July 5, 2022.

Citizen scientist Björn Jónsson created these two images using raw data from the JunoCam instrument aboard the spacecraft. At the time the raw image was taken, Juno was about 3,300 miles (5,300 kilometers) above Jupiter’s cloud tops, at a latitude of about 50 degrees. North is up. At that moment, the spacecraft was traveling at about 130,000 mph (209,000 kilometers per hour) relative to the planet.

Well that didn't go to plan, but at least the safety features worked.

Blue Origin’s uncrewed capsule safely escapes after midflight anomaly.

Cheers.

NASA tries for a 1st.

NASA Recovers Inflatable Heat Shield From Pacific Ocean After Orbital Test.

After launching an inflatable heat shield experiment to space on Thursday, NASA has now recovered the device after its splashdown in the Pacific Ocean. The space agency is seeking to learn whether this kind of heat shield can protect precious payloads from the high temperatures of atmospheric reentry.

NASA’s Low-Earth Orbit Flight Test of an Inflatable Decelerator (LOFTID) took off onboard an Atlas 5 rocket at 4:49 a.m. ET on Thursday from the Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. The flying saucer may not look like much, but this $93 million device could play a crucial role in sending future missions to Mars, Venus, and Titan...

But whether it actually works is still to be worked out.

Cheers.

Europe's Juice mission successfully launches for decade-long journey to Jupiter's icy moons.

A European spacecraft is on a decade-long quest to explore Jupiter and three of its icy moons that could hold buried oceans.

The journey began with a perfect morning lift-off by Europe's Ariane rocket from French Guiana on the coast of South America.

However, there were some tense minutes later as controllers awaited signals from the spacecraft.

When contact finally was confirmed, close to an hour into the flight, Mission Control in Germany declared: "The spacecraft is alive!"

It will take the robotic explorer, dubbed Juice, eight years to reach Jupiter, where it will scope out not only the solar system's biggest planet but also the moons Europa, Callisto and Ganymede.

The three, ice-encrusted moons are believed to harbour underground oceans, where sea life could exist.

Then, in perhaps the most impressive feat of all, Juice will attempt to go into orbit around Ganymede. No spacecraft has ever orbited a moon other than our own.....

Cheers.

The mini robot Ingenuity has flown 50 missions on Mars reaching a top altitude of 15 meters. Its data are transmitted to the Pereverance lander craft which sends them to the Earth in California to Caltech which has designed and built Ingenuity, which was planned for 5 flights

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1 of the biggest problems of long space flights for humans is closer to a solution.

NASA says system can recycle 98% of astronauts' urine, sweat into drinking water.

The idea of recycling urine to make clean drinking water might make those with even the strongest stomachs a little queasy, but NASA has managed to do just that.

The federal agency announced astronauts aboard the International Space Station have been able to recover 98% of the water that crews take into space with them by recycling everything from urine to sweat.

As NASA prepares for longer missions, including to the moon and potentially beyond, engineers have been working on how to make sure astronauts have basic needs met without resupply missions, including how to recycle food, air and water.

This also helps ensure each crew member has an average of one gallon of water they need per day to drink, use in food preparation and for hygienic purposes, including brushing teeth.....

Cheers.

The Euclid Space telescope `built by the European Space Agency has been launched from Cape Canaveral aboard a Falcon 9 rocket built by SpaceX. Its main mission is to search for dark matter and dark energy. The rocket first stage has returned to Earth on a barge in the Atlantic Ocean,
Tullio

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Back to an earlier Time:


Scientists see early universe in slow-motion for first time
wrote:

Scientists have observed the early universe running "five times slower" for the first time.

Researchers observed data from quasars ... to measure time near the beginning of the universe...

... it confirms again we live in an expanding universe...

... "Looking back to a time when the universe was just over a billion years old, we see time appearing to flow five times slower [soon after the Big Bang].

"If you were there, in this infant universe, one second would seem like one second - but from our position, more than 12 billion years into the future, that early time appears to drag."...

... it confirms the expectation of Albert Einstein's general theory of relativity, which means we should observe the distant universe running much slower than the present day...

Your tick-tock is all relative...

Keep searchin'!
Martin

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See new freedom: Mageia Linux
Take a look for yourself: Linux Format
The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3)

I hope that this partnership works out better than the Boeing 1 has.

NASA picks Lockheed Martin to develop nuclear rocket.

NASA and the US military said Wednesday they had selected defense contractor Lockheed Martin to develop a nuclear powered rocket, with a view to using the technology for missions to Mars.

The Demonstration Rocket for Agile Cislunar Operations (DRACO) program may launch as soon as 2027, officials said on a call.

Nuclear thermal propulsion (NTP) systems could cut journey times, increase fuel efficiency, and require less propellant, meaning future spacecraft could carry larger payloads than today's best chemical rockets.

NTP works by pumping a liquid propellant, in DRACO's case cryogenic hydrogen, through a reactor core, where uranium atoms split apart through fission.

The process super heats the propellant, converting it into a gas and funneling it through a nozzle to produce thrust......

Cheers.

Voyager 2 is incommunicado!!!


NASA mistakenly severs communication to Voyager 2
wrote:

NASA revealed on Friday that its venerable Voyager 2 probe is currently incommunicado, because the space agency pointed its antenna in the wrong direction.

By the time the news was released, the antenna on the spacecraft had been pointing two degrees away from the Earth for over a week.

This left it without the ability to receive commands or transmit data to antennae operated by the Deep Space Network (DSN)...

... That puts the radio beam about 41.9 light minutes off to one side of Earth, or about 47 million miles off.

Hopefully we won't need to launch a rescue mission out to the orbit of Jupiter to relay some new commands!!...


Keep searchin'!
Martin


ps: NASA is hoping that auto-recovery programming on the probe will start a search for Earth again...

---

See new freedom: Mageia Linux
Take a look for yourself: Linux Format
The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3)

Further details from:

Voyager 2: Nasa loses contact with record-breaking probe after sending wrong command
wrote:

Nasa has lost contact with its Voyager 2 probe billions of miles away from Earth after sending it the wrong command, the space agency has revealed.

Last month, the spacecraft - exploring space since 1977 - tilted its antenna to point two degrees away from Earth after the mistake was made.

As a result, the probe has stopped receiving commands or sending data...

... However, there is hope for the probe, nearly 46 years into its mission.

The space agency said on Monday its huge dish in Australia's capital, Canberra, was trying to detect any stray signals from Voyager 2. It takes more than 18 hours for a signal to reach Earth from so far away. The antenna will also bombard Voyager 2's area with the correct command, in the hope it makes contact with the probe...

... Otherwise, Voyager 2 is programmed to reset its orientation multiple times each year to keep its antenna pointing at Earth. The next reset is due on 15 October...

Hopefully, not too much maneuvering fuel will be lost from the jiggles...

Keep searchin',
Martin

---

See new freedom: Mageia Linux
Take a look for yourself: Linux Format
The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3)