SpaceX’s Starship rocket is gearing up for its most ambitious test yet, and CEO Elon Musk has shared images of the rocket stacked up.
SpaceX achieved another milestone this week as the Starship and Super Heavy prototype were stacked and fully-integrated for the first time!
Once again, things are gearing up at SpaceX’s South Texas Launch Facility, located just outside the village of Boca Chica, Texas. In recent weeks, the aerospace community has been abuzz about the rollout and Static Fire test of the Super Heavy Booster 3 (B3) prototype. This was the first time a booster was tested, which will be responsible for launching the Starship to space in the near future. Since then, things have only ramped up some more.
First, there was the announcement on Aug. 2nd that the fourth Super Heavy prototype (the BN4) received a full complement of 29 Raptor engines and grid fins. This was followed on Aug. 3rd with news that BN4 was being moved to the launch pad and that the SN20 Starship prototype received a full six Raptor engines. On Aug. 6th, the denouement came with the stacking of both prototypes together, which resulted in the tallest rocket in the history of spaceflight!
Continue reading “Starship is Stacked on the Super Heavy Booster. The Tallest Rocket Ever Built” »
New Zealand is now set to host the first launch of the Artemis Program, as Rocket Lab is now planning to launch the CAPSTONE mission from their operational launch pad at Launch Complex 1 on the Māhia Peninsula. This is the first lunar mission for Rocket Lab, currently scheduled for launch in the fourth quarter of 2021.
“Flexible isn’t a word usually used to describe lunar missions but operating two launch complexes gives us the freedom to select a site that best meets mission requirements and schedule,” said Rocket Lab CEO and Co-Founder, Peter Beck.
AIR PLASMA BREATHING via Ground Stations, in lieu of on-board energy supply: Recently, both a German team and a Chinese team have demonstrated jet engines capable of as much thrust as a traditional jet engine, but powered only by electricity. In both cases, the engine uses large amounts of energy to turn ambient atmosphere into plasma, then jetison it via magnetic nozzles. This is to be differentiated from space ion drives, which use tiny amounts of fuel, ejected at high velocities to slowly accellerate a vehicle in free space. By contrast, this new type of engine has huge amounts of fuel available to it in the form of the ambient atmosphere. Such craft could operate in any planetary atmosphere in our solar system, whether on Venus, Earth, Mars, the gas giant or ice giant planets. The only bottleneck holding this type of engine from replacing all current airplanes is the lack of a sufficiently dense on-board energy source. The most obvious enabling technology which will allow this new type of jet, which will require no fuel for its entire lifetime—since its fuel will be the atmosphere—is fusion energy. Fusion is dense enough to fit into a small package, easily mounted on an airplane. Until fusion is obtained there is one other possibility which is currently available, which is beaming energy to a flying vehicle from ground stations. An air-plasma-breathing vehicle, whether a self-standing airplane, or a partial booster phase for a rocket to low-earth-orbit, would have to follow a trajectory within direct line-of-sight of a series of ground beaming stations. A string of such stations would be akin to a land highway, a corridior within which air traffic or space-bound vehicles could travel. Such a corridior would be easy to create. Even over ocean, aircraft carriers or other nuclear vessels could transmit large amounts of energy to such vehicles. For rockets travelling to orbit, such a system would reduce reaction mass, since a portion of its fuel would not be carried by the vehicle. File: compilation of papers on beamed energy for flying vehicles:
Beam-powered propulsion, also known as directed energy propulsion, is a class of aircraft or spacecraft propulsion that uses energy beamed to the spacecraft from a remote power plant to provide energy. The beam is typically either a microwave or a laser beam and it is either pulsed or continuous. A continuous beam lends itself to thermal rockets, photonic thrusters and light sails, whereas a pulsed beam lends itself to ablative thrusters and pulse detonation engines.
The rule of thumb that is usually quoted is that it takes a megawatt of power beamed to a vehicle per kg of payload while it is being accelerated to permit it to reach low earth orbit.
Continue reading “Beamed Energy Propulsion / Beamed Laser Energy Propulsion Documents” »
Want to find your inner Matt Damon and spend a year pretending you are isolated on Mars? NASA has a job for you.
To prepare for eventually sending astronauts to Mars, NASA began taking applications Friday for four people to live for a year in Mars Dune Alpha. That’s a 1,700-square-foot Martian habitat, created by a 3D-printer, and inside a building at Johnson Space Center in Houston.
Continue reading “Want to pretend to live on Mars? For a whole year? Apply now” »
Elon Musk’s SpaceX stacked a Starship prototype rocket on top of a Super Heavy rocket booster for the first time Friday morning, giving a look at the scale of the combined nearly 400-foot-tall vehicle.
Musk, asked by CNBC what he thought of witnessing the milestone at the company’s facility in Boca Chica, Texas, responded simply.
“Dream come true,” Musk replied in a tweet.
“I will tell you, that was definitely helpful,” said Musk, appearing to be overcome by the memory of those difficult days.
“Yeah, they did,” Mr Musk replied.
Financially and maybe emotionally, the interviewer continued.
Continue reading “NASA Saved SpaceX With $1.5 Billion Contract. ‘It’s True,’ Says Elon Musk” »
The new space race drama continuous.
NASA has chosen a partner for its Artemis crewed mission to the Moon, but the other firm isn’t out of the race yet.
Giant Golden Asteroid Could Make Everyone On Earth a Billionaire.
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Out there in space, right now above our heads, is a wealth of knowledge. And in this case, we mean that literally. Believe it or not, in our very solar system, there is an asteroid that is thought to be the remnants of a planet core. And that means that all those pricey metals that we have to dig for here on Earth, are exposed, and ripe for the taking. Estimates put this giant space faring gold mine at 10000 quadrillion dollars, and who knows, if we can get up there to explore it up close, we may find that it is worth even more. What would this do to our economy? Just how rich would this make everyone on earth if it was split evenly? Are there any missions planned to get up there? Oh, we got your answers right here. In today’s video we are getting scientific, while making sure to not skimp out on the riches, so we can give you the scoop on this nearby, giant, golden asteroid. If it piques your interest, you’re not alone. None other than Elon Musk has made comments about his thoughts on mining this bad boy, and considering SpaceX will be the company that supports NASA in this quest, you better believe it’s something we should all take seriously. It would bring all new meaning to the phrase, the rich only get richer. So sit back, relax, and get ready to countdown from ten, as we fire all the thrusters and blast off into the final frontier to give you the scoop on the absurd amount of gold floating around in our solar system.
Continue reading “Elon Musk Is Mining A Golden Asteroid Worth $700 Quintillion” »
This could revolutionize the way solar panels are produced on Earth and in space. The solar panel manufacturing process also releases oxygen as a by-product, which could be used by future astronauts to create breathable environments in space.
The Luxembourg-based startup Maana Electric will soon be testing its TerraBox, a fully automated factory the size of several shipping containers that takes sand and produces solar panels. The company aims to send these small warehouse container-like boxes, capable of building solar panels using only electricity and sand as inputs, to the deserts of the Earth, in order to contribute to the fight against climate change.
If all goes according to the plans, the technology could reach the Moon, Mars, and beyond as well to help future space colonies meet their energy needs. The TerraBox fits within shipping containers, allowing the mini-factories to be transported to deserts across the globe and produce clean, renewable energy.
Continue reading “Maana Electric’s TerraBox turns sand and electricity into solar panels” »
