Chemical propulsion has long been the standard for spaceflight, but for humans to reach Mars, we’ll need a much more powerful and efficient propulsion. Nuclear thermal propulsion (NTP) engines offer thrust as high as conventional chemical propulsion with much higher efficiency.
Mysterious radio wave pulses from deep in space have been hitting Earth for decades, but the scientists who recently discovered them have no concrete explanation for the origin of the signals.
For 35 years, the strange blasts of energy in varying levels of brightness have occurred like clockwork approximately every 20 minutes, sometimes lasting for five minute intervals. That’s what Curtin University astronomers from the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR) concluded in research published last week in the journal Nature.
The discovery of the signal, which researchers named GPMJ1839-10, has the scientists baffled. Believed to be coming from around 15,000 light years away from Earth, the signal has been occurring at intervals and for a period of time previously thought to be impossible.
SpaceX just loaded propellant into two of its Starship Super Heavy booster prototypes as part of a prelaunch test campaign.
A British aerospace startup is working on a fusion rocket it says will slash the amount of time it takes astronauts to travel to Mars and beyond — allowing humans to explore places that are currently far out of reach.
The challenge: Long-term exposure to microgravity and cosmic radiation can cause serious health issues for astronauts. That means NASA needs to keep its future Mars missions short enough that astronauts come home healthy — less than 4 years should work.
Using our current rocket propulsion technology, though, it’s going to take seven months just to get astronauts to Mars. Factor in the amount of time to get back to Earth, and nearly a third of a Mars astronaut’s mission is just going to be dedicated to the commute.
Elon Musk recently stated SpaceX made ‘well over a thousand changes’ to Starship since its debut flight.
SpaceX continues to prepare for the second orbital launch attempt of Starship despite concerns over a potential delay caused by the ongoing environmental lawsuit against the Federal Aviation Authority (FAA).
Elon Musk’s private space company, likely eager to show that preparations continue uninterrupted, has shared a number of images on Twitter of Booster 9, the Super Heavy prototype that will be used for the massive rocket’s second test flight.
NASA shares details about its Moon house and Mars module that will see astronauts spend more than a thousand days in space.
SpaceX has shared a stunning shot (above) of its next-generation Super Heavy booster on the launchpad.
The image shows the most powerful rocket in the world under a starlit sky at SpaceX’s Starbase site in Boca Chica, Texas. At the bottom of the booster, we can see some of the Super Heavy’s 33 Raptor engines that will blast the rocket to orbit.
Elon Musk leads SpaceX, the pioneering space exploration company, as it pushes the boundaries of technological innovation.
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The expectation for rapid growth helps explain the fervor of some investors for SpaceX shares, which have defied recently depressed private tech valuations. The company, valued in a secondary share sale at about $150 billion this month, has also assured investors it expects to pull in about $3 billion in operating profits this year, at least by a measure that excludes expenses tied to building rockets and satellites.
