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Category: space travel – Page 279

Article from Universetoday. Interesting read.

When human beings start living in space for extended periods of time they will need to be as self-sufficient as possible. The same holds true for settlements built on the Moon, on Mars, and other bodies in the Solar System. To avoid being entirely dependent on resupply missions from Earth (which is costly and time-consuming) the inhabitants will need to harvest resources locally – aka. In-Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU).

This means they’ll have to procure their own sources of water, building materials, and grow their own food. While the ISS has allowed for all kinds of experiments involving hydroponics in space, little has been done to see how soil fares in microgravity (or lower gravity). To address this, Morgan Irons – Chief Science Officer of the Virginia-based startup Deep Space Ecology (DSE) – recently sent her #id=8305″] Soil Health in Space experiment to the ISS.

The experiment, Determination of Gravitational Effects on Soil Stability for Controlled Environment Agriculture, was sponsored through Morgan’s fellowship with the Norfolk Institute – which provided grant funding from numerous companies (including DSE). An agreement between Norfolk Institute and Rhodium Scientific, LLC (an official space-flight implementation partner of the ISS U.S. National Laboratory) provided access to the NASA launch opportunities and the ISS.

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Since the last manned landing in 1972, no humans have been back to the Moon. Now, NASA plans to change all that with Artemis, which aims to land the next man and the first woman on the lunar surface by 2024.

The Artemis program will take place in stages, from testing the spacecraft that will carry astronauts to the Moon to building Gateway, a space station in lunar orbit to serve as a midway point for long-term missions. Future astronauts will explore regions of the Moon humans have never visited, including its south pole, where water ice hides in shadowed craters.

In this episode of Infinity & Beyond, host Abigail Bollenbach takes you through the next space race to the Moon, Mars, and beyond.

Stay up-to-date on the latest space and astronomy news at https://astronomy.com/news. And make sure to follow us on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/AstronomyMagazine), Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/astronomy.magazine/), and Twitter (https://twitter.com/AstronomyMag).

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“For services provided on Mars, or in transit to Mars via Starship or other colonisation spacecraft, the parties recognise Mars as a free planet and that no Earth-based government has authority or sovereignty over Martian activities,” the governing law section states.

“Accordingly, disputes will be settled through self-governing principles, established in good faith, at the time of Martian settlement.”

Space systems engineer Erwan Beauvois said SpaceX’s position was reminiscent of a declaration put forward by the Earthlight Foundation, a non-profit organisation committed to preparing for the expansion of humanity beyond Earth.

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« Today we announced the first in a series of upcoming commitments from our international partners to support our Artemis plans. NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) have signed an agreement committing our space agencies to building the Gateway together. As our outpost in lunar orbit, the Gateway is critical for sustainable exploration of the Moon as well as testing systems and operations for future missions to Mars.

With this Memorandum of Understanding, ESA will provide an additional habitation element, enhanced lunar communications, and a refueling capability to the Gateway later this decade. They will also provide two more European service modules for future Orion spacecraft.

We are honored by this agreement with ESA and, again, it is one of several to come with our international partners. Exploration requires more than hardware though – and that is why this commitment with ESA includes opportunities for European astronauts to fly with NASA astronauts on future Artemis missions to the Gateway. »

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SpaceX is preparing an upgraded cargo Dragon capsule for NASA’s next resupply mission to the International Space Station (ISS). It will be SpaceX’s 21st cargo mission under the agency’s second Commercial Resupply Services contract to deliver equipment and supplies needed to perform science research at the orbiting laboratory.

SpaceX has completed 20 cargo Dragon missions to and from the space station. The company has delivered over 95,000 pounds of supplies and returned 75,000 pounds. “Cargo resupply from U.S. companies ensures a national capability to deliver critical science research to the space station, significantly increasing NASA’s ability to conduct new investigations at the only laboratory in space,” the agency wrote in a press release.

The mission will be the first resupply mission that will utilize SpaceX’s upgraded version of the cargo Dragon capsule, that is capable of carrying 50% more payload mass. This week NASA announced it targets to conduct the mission no earlier than December. A Falcon 9 rocket carrying Dragon will liftoff from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

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#NASA has selected Intuitive Machines to deliver the #polar Resources #IceMining Experiment (PRIME-1) #drill, combined with a mass spectrometer, to the #Moon by December 2022.

The ice drilling #mission is the Houston-based company’s second Moon contract award under NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative.

#space #spaceexploration #spaceindustry #newspace #spaceeconomy #spacetechnology #spacesector #Spacemining

NASA has tapped the Houston-based company Intuitive Machines to land an ice-mining drill on the south pole of the moon in 2022.

Under the deal, NASA will pay Intuitive Machines $47 million to deliver the space agency’s Polar Resources Ice Mining Experiment (PRIME-1) to the moon’s south pole. It is the first-ever mission designed to harvest water ice from inside the moon, NASA officials said. Moon ice is a resource NASA hopes to exploit under its Artemis program, which aims to return astronauts to the moon in 2024.

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Following the first-ever triple Raptor Static Fire test, Starship SN8 is pushing through the pre-launch milestones. The nosecone has since been installed – resulting in the first full Starship stack since MK1 – allowing for a second Static Fire test this coming week. The second Static Fire test will involve propellant being fed from the Header Tank system.

SN8 passed through the first major objective in impressive fashion, progressing in a staggered manner with a preburner attempt aborted, followed by a preburner test involving at least two of the Raptors.

The following night saw another preburner test, which clearly involved all three Raptors per the visuals, allowing SpaceX to push toward the Static Fire attempt.

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