A lot need to happen before the big liftoff.
Category: space travel – Page 298
SpaceX in the News Episode 115
Today we catch up on all the latest Starship and Super Heavy updates. Go over recent Dragon news. Talk Starlink and other upcoming missions, and finish with today’s Honorable Mention.
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“Worm” Welcome for Artemis I Rocket and Spacecraft
NASA is headed back to the Moon as part of the Artemis program – and the agency’s “worm” logo will be along for the ride on the first integrated mission of the powerful Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and Orion spacecraft. Teams at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida have applied the historic logo in bright red on visible parts of the Artemis I rocket and spacecraft.
SpaceX Boca Chica — Super Heavy Forward Dome Sleeved
The first Super Heavy prototype has entered assembly operations, with the forward barrel sleeved and the fuel stack section spotted. The LR1600/2 crane (aka Tankzilla) continued to grow, and Orbital Launch Pad construction continued with more concrete being pumped into the legs. Starships SN5 and 6 remain outside after having been moved out of the High Bay yesterday, and work continued around the site.
Video and Pictures from Mary (@BocaChicaGal). Edited by Brady Kenniston (@TheFavoritist).
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Green technology: the man-made leaf that can produce oxygen
Here at OVO we’re always keeping our eye out for the latest cutting-edge tech that might benefit the environment. That’s why we’re incredibly excited about the news that Julian Melchiorri, a design student at the Royal College of Art, has created the first man-made, biologically functional leaf. Christened ‘The Silk Leaf’, it’s the ultimate in ‘green’ technology in more ways than one.
The leaf contains chloroplasts taken from real plant cells, which are suspended in a silk protein material. When this comes into contact with carbon dioxide, water and light, it converts it into oxygen, just like a real plant.
The advantages are obvious. Melchiorri quite rightly suggests that his invention could have huge implications for space travel, providing a renewable supply of oxygen to astronauts and allowing them to undertake longer journeys than previously possible.
SpaceX — From Failures To Success👏
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SpaceX — From Failures To Success 👏
Credits/Sources: –SpaceX
#SpaceX #Rockets #Falcon9 #FalconHeavy #SpaceXSuccess #ElonMusk
U.S. DARPA tasks Gryphon with nuclear thermal propulsion system
Gryphon provides digital engineering, analytics, cyber and cloud solutions to U.S. security organizations. It was awarded a $14million DARPA task order to support the development and demonstration of an uranium-based Nuclear Thermal Propulsion (NTP) System.
The system is a part of the Demonstration Rocket for Agile Cislunar Operations (DRACO) program and will enable the U.S. military to operate spacecraft in cislunar space, Gryphon said. The cislunar space is the region outside the Earth’s atmosphere and just beyond the Moon’s orbit.
“A successfully demonstrated NTP system will provide a leap-ahead in space propulsion capability, allowing agile and rapid transit over vast distances as compared to present propulsion approaches,” said Gryphon’s Chief Engineer Dr. Tabitha Dodson.
“Gryphon is committed to providing high-end technical solutions to our nation’s most critical national security challenges,” said P.J. Braden, CEO of Gryphon. “We are proud to support DRACO and the development and demonstration of NTP, a significant technological advancement in efforts to achieve cislunar space awareness.”
Berlin, 30 September 2020. — The U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) tasked DC-based Gryphon Technologies to develop a nuclear thermal propulsion system, the firm announced yesterday.
SpaceX has busy manifest of Dragon missions
SpaceX has a busy schedule of Dragon missions carrying cargo and crew to the ISS through next year, with some use of reused spacecraft.
WASHINGTON — SpaceX is preparing for a busy schedule of Dragon missions carrying cargo and crew to the International Space Station through next year, a manifest that will make at least some use of reused spacecraft.
At a Sept. 29 NASA briefing, Benji Reed, senior director of human spaceflight programs at SpaceX, said that schedule of missions means there will be at least one Dragon spacecraft, and sometimes two, docked to the station continuously through the end of 2021 after the launch of the Crew-1 Crew Dragon mission, currently scheduled for Oct. 31.
“This really is a new era for us as a company at SpaceX, and also for commercial space in general,” he said.
Another Starship Test Tank is Pushed to the Limit and Explodes
SpaceX just passed another milestone with the SN7.1 test tank, which they tested to failure by pressurizing it until it exploded.
They say that failure can be the greatest teacher of all, and it’s easy to see why. Those who learn from their mistakes become informed as to what can go wrong, and will develop the necessary strategies to avoid making the same mistake in the future. This philosophy is also at the core of SpaceX rapid-prototyping process, where full-scale models of the Starship and its components are tested to the point of failure.
At Boca Chica, SpaceX ground crews continue to follow this process in order to get the Starship ready for orbital testing. The latest piece of hardware that was tested to failure was the SN7.1 Test Tank, which was pressurized until it exploded. This test took place a week ago (on the evening of September 23rd) shortly after the SN5 and SN6 prototypes both completed a 150 m (~500 ft) hop test.
News and footage of the pressure test were shared via Twitter by Chris Bergin, the Managing Editor of NASA Spaceflight. The test, which began shortly before 10:30 PM local time (08:30 PM PDT; 11:30 PM EDT), was recorded on-site by Mary McConnahay (@BocaChicaGal) and broadcast via live stream on the NASA Spaceflight Youtube channel.