Lifeboat Foundation

[TIME SUBJECT TO CHANGE] This is the third fully integrated full stack test flight of Starship and the mighty Super Heavy booster, the largest and most powerful rocket to ever fly. It produces over twice as much thrust as the Saturn V that took humans to the moon.

The goal of the test is to get further along than IFT-2 in November, 2023, which didn’t see either the ship or the booster make it to reentry. If all goes well, Starship will re-enter in the Indian Ocean about 65 minutes after it lifts off from Starbase, TX, on a suborbital trajectory.

Continue reading “[4K] Watch SpaceX launch Starship, LIVE up close and personal!” »

SpaceX is targeting Thursday for the third flight of Starship. The license from the FAA was acquired. The flight will feature several upgrades to Booster and Ship, as well as a modification of the flight path to the Indian Ocean, instead of Hawaii. In space, SpaceX plans to demonstrate the payload dispenser door, and the capability to relight a Raptor in Space. Additionally, SpaceX wants to demonstrate the capability of in-space cryogenic propellant transfer.

The mission will attempt a soft splashdown of Booster 10 in the Gulf of Mexico, and a splashdown of Ship 28 in the Indian Ocean.

Continue reading “SpaceX Launches Third Starship Flight Test” »

Elon Musk’s SpaceX is teaming up with Larry Ellison’s Oracle to help farms plan and predict their agricultural output using an AI tool.

Larry Ellison said on Oracle’s earnings call on Monday that it’s collaborating with Musk and SpaceX to create the AI-powered mapping application for governments. The tool creates a map of a country’s farms and shows what each of them is growing.

The Oracle executive chairman said the tool could help farms assess the steps needed to increase their output, and whether fields had enough water and nitrogen.

SpaceX will launch Starship early Thursday after receiving the green light from U.S. regulators.

It was an amazing learning opportunity.

Do we have enough fuel to get to our destination? This is probably one of the first questions that comes to mind whenever your family gets ready to embark on a road trip. If the trip is long, you will need to visit gas stations along your route to refuel during your travel.

NASA is grappling with similar issues as it gets ready to embark on a sustainable mission back to the moon and plans future missions to Mars. But while your car’s fuel is gasoline, which can be safely and indefinitely stored as a liquid in the car’s gas tank, spacecraft fuels are volatile cryogenic liquid propellants that must be maintained at extremely low temperatures and guarded from environmental heat leaks into the spacecraft’s propellant tank.

And while there is already an established network of commercial gas stations in place to make refueling your car a cinch, there are no cryogenic refueling stations or depots at the moon or on the way to Mars.

The third orbital test flight of the 400-foot-tall megarocket could launch at around 8 a.m. EDT.

NASA’s Europa Clipper, aiming to lift off for Jupiter’s icy moon in October, will carry names, poetry and other symbols of humanity’s search for life beyond Earth.

A new computer model mimics Moon dust so well that it could lead to smoother and safer Lunar robot teleoperations. The tool, developed by researchers at the University of Bristol and based at the Bristol Robotics Laboratory, could be used to train astronauts ahead of Lunar missions. Working with their industry partner, Thales Alenia Space in the UK, who has specific interest in creating working robotic systems for space applications, the team investigated a virtual version of regolith, another name for Moon dust.

Lunar regolith is of particular interest for the upcoming Lunar exploration missions planned over the next decade. From it, scientists can potentially extract valuable resources such as oxygen, rocket fuel or construction materials, to support a long-term presence on the Moon. To collect regolith, remotely operated robots emerge as a practical choice due to their lower risks and costs compared to human spaceflight.

However, operating robots over these large distances introduces large delays into the system, which make them more difficult to control. Now that the team know this simulation behaves similarly to reality, they can use it to mirror operating a robot on the Moon. This approach allows operators to control the robot without delays, providing a smoother and more efficient experience.