Lifeboat Foundation

This isn’t the first time NASA has encouraged the public to add their names to objects bound for space, including those aboard Artemis I, as well the Preservation Rover and InSight on their multiple trips to Mars. In 1977, Voyager 1 and 2 both launched with gold-plated phonographic records aboard featuring 90 minutes of music, including a concerto by Bach and Chuck Berry’s “Johnny B. Goode.”

At the time of writing, over 305,000 people from nearly every nation across the world have already signed the Europa Clipper’s roster, and earthbound participants have until the end of 2023 to enter in their names. Until then, you can also tune into regular livestreams of the Europa Clipper’s construction and assembly.

An international team of explorers, led by Japan, will send a tiny robotic rover to the Martian moon of Phobos very soon.

A Japanese-led mission to Mars has just signed an agreement with German and French partners to build a rover to explore Phobos.

Continue reading “Japan, Germany and France to send rover to Martian moon Phobos” »

ALBION, MI — Apollo 17 commander Eugene Cernan was the last person to step foot on the Moon more than five decades ago. In 2025, someone new will take his place.

The NASA Artemis mission aims to land the first woman and first person of color on the Moon, as well as explore more of the lunar surface.

A pair of Albion College professors are participating in the mission’s research into the origins and evolution of the Moon, college officials said.

Being developed at NASA, the Chatbot will allow astronauts converse with their spacecraft, also allowing mission controllers to converse with AI robots.

^{Image credit: NASA}

To mark International Women in Engineering Day (INWED), prime STEM employer Northrop Grumman celebrated some of its women engineers like Sally Richardson, Jill Eskew and Erica Sandoval who are Defining Possible for the next generation, and helping put the first woman on the Moon.

Musk says the Super Heavy/Starship rocket may be ready for a second attempt to reach orbit in about six weeks.

SpaceX will need another six weeks or so to finish implementing hundreds of changes to its Super Heavy-Starship rocket and the gargantuan booster’s Texas launch pad before it will be ready for a second attempt to reach orbit, company founder Elon Musk said Saturday.

That’s assuming Federal Aviation Administration clearance to fly in the wake of the Super Heavy’s dramatic maiden launch April 20 in which the rocket blew itself up after multiple engine failures and the Starship upper stage’s failure to separate from the first stage booster.

In a Twitter Spaces discussion with author Ashlee Vance, Musk said SpaceX is implementing “well over a thousand” changes,” and “I think the probability of this next flight working, getting to orbit, is much higher than the last one. Maybe it’s like 60 percent. It depends on how well we do at stage separation.”

The European Space Agency said on Wednesday its space telescope Euclid is scheduled to launch on July 1, blasting off on a mission to shed light on the mysteries of dark matter and dark energy.

The mission will launch on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral in Florida, with the broadcast beginning at 1,430 GMT, the ESA said in a tweet.

Euclid was originally planned to ride into space on a Russian Soyuz rocket, but last year Moscow withdrew its launchers in response to sanctions over the invasion of Ukraine.

If we connect SpaceX Starships for space stations and rotate them for artificial gravity then we have to make sure they are rotationally stable.

A Space Station with three SpaceX Starships with one in the center for docking is not rotationally stable. A two SpaceX Starship system is rotationally stable. The central structure for docking that is balanced when rotating.