Author: martianjoe

NASA ADEPT Folding Heat Shield for Mars

NASA ADEPT Folding Heat Shield for Mars
(Image Credit: NASA)

The good folks at NASA have conducted the first flight test of a new foldable heat shield on September 12th, with great success. This new concept is touted as a transformative technology that will enable larger and lighter ships to perform more advanced missions, not the least of which will be both cargo and crew missions to Mars with an enhanced ability to survive the rigors of reentry using a vastly slimmed down system. Any time you can save weight on a spacecraft, that savings can be redistributed to more critical areas, namely additional cargo and scientific apparatus (and pizza ovens).

Called the Adaptive Deployable Entry and Placement Technology (ADEPT), a backronym worthy of Gary Busey, it consists of a 3D-woven carbon fibers arranged in a thick layer, formed on top of a structure which can flex and deploy the shield. This is in contrast to the traditional rigid, heavy, difficult to construct plastic shielding which has been used for decades. It’s this sort of novel and creative thinking which will allow us to accomplish more important and ambitious flight objectives, and is another great sign that key decision makers are aligned correctly to move us forward.

You can check out a video of the heat shield here!

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SpaceX – Telstar 18 VANTAGE Mission – Launching 9/10/2018 12:30AM EST

Telstar 18 VANTAGE Mission Patch
(Image Credit: SpaceX)

A quick reminder, to anyone still looking tonight, that the next SpaceX launch is still on for 12:30AM EST, after a few time shifts backwards.

This is the Telstar 18 VANTAGE mission, which you can learn more about via the official press release from SpaceX.

Be sure to tune in to the always-entertaining SpaceX webcast at least 10 minutes before the scheduled launch, for updates and commentary directly from their team!

NASA CO2 Conversion Challenge

NASA CO2 Conversion Challenge
(Image Credit: NASA)

The good folks at NASA, ever managing to be on the leading edge, have just launched a competition encouraging teams to develop a system to convert carbon dioxide into glucose. Why is this important? Well, sugar-based biomaterials are plentiful on this planet thanks to our helpful plant life. That will not be the case as we set out among the stars! Developing bioengineering methods to create base materials that will be in short supply (such as easy to metabolize sugars like glucose) from materials that are in great abundance (carbon dioxide) will be a crucial step towards facilitating our successful advancement.

This competition is broken into two phases:

  • Phase 1: Teams submit a design and description of a method to perform the stipulated conversion. Up to 5 teams will be awared $50,000 each, as will be announced in April 2019.
  • Phase 2: Actually building a working system to perform the conversion. The successful team will walk away with $750,000.

This new contest is part of NASA’s Centennial Challenges program, which was initiated in 2005, intended to directly engage the public in advanced technology development. Basically, NASA is being very observant and starting to crowd-source ideas and research, which makes a great deal of sense in our current world.

To register for the competition, check out the official website!

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Mars Dust Storm Finally Slowing

Mars Surface - Rover Tracks
(Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornell/Arizona State Univ.)

A planet-wide dust storm, which was first seen on May 30, 2018, is finally winding down on the windy red planet. NASA’s rover Opportunity, which is solar powered, has suffered a shutdown as a result of this storm – going into what amounts to hibernation to ride out the storm. However, that dormant period has been longer and more intense than originally designed to handle, so everyone is on edge waiting to see if we can get the rover back on line.

Signals are being sent to the 15 year old rover, which is tucked away in Perseverance Valley, in the hope that once the batteries are recharged even a little, the unit will initiate recovery procedures.

We’ll keep you posted on the status of this fan-favorite rover; and hopefully some readers of this site will one day visit it in a science museum with 38% the surface gravity of Earth.

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SpaceX to launch Telstar 18 VANTAGE September 9th

Telstar 18 VANTAGE
(Image Credit: Telesat)

Initially scheduled for a late-August launch, the Telstar 18 mission has been pushed back to No Earlier Than (NET) September 9th. This is a follow-up mission to the July 22nd launch of the higher-numbered Telstar 19, allowing Telesat to further expand their coverage of the Asia Pacific region.

Gunter tells us that the Telstar 18V is a communications satellite with two high throughput payloads, one in Ku-band and the other in C-band. It will be based on the SSL-1300 bus with an electrical output of approximately 14 kW. Perhaps my favorite spec is that it will have 4 × SPT-100 plasma thrusters.

As for launch details, it is anticipated that the launch will utilize the new Block 5 B1049 first stage booster, which will take off from pad LC-40 at Cape Canaveral and then land on the Autonomous Spaceport Drone Ship “Of Course I Still Love You” at a position approximately 650 km to the East.

As we get closer to this new launch time, we will continue to bring you updates and most importantly a link and a reminder of how to watch live!

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SpaceX – Pad 39a Crew Access Arm

SpaceX Crew Access Arm at Pad 39a
(Image Credit: Tom Cross)

One of the great things about having a genius-level CEO who is hell-bent on pushing mankind into the world they expected to already exist and is a massive sci-fi fan, is that the design aesthetic for everything his companies do is very consciously ‘futuristic’. And why not? It is fantastic to boldly own the fact that we really should look like the Jestons by now, instead of something from the set of 1984’s Repo Man.

A perfect example of this is the new Crew Access Arm (CAA) that SpaceX has installed on Pad 39a at Cape Canaveral. Seeing crew-based hardware going back up on this historic pad should make anyone familiar with recent history very excited, as it was from this very location that all Apollo missions to the moon, powered by the Saturn V, were launched along with many of the more recent Shuttle missions. Restoring that capability to American soil, through American inginuity is something we should all be proud of, and is something to be recognized and celebrated.

From a broader perspective – I believe firmly that the exploration and development of space will be a unifying force for a fractured world. Certainly there will be some unexpected struggles, as there always are, but I think that humans need a sense of adventure and exploration. It’s part of our makeup. We are lacking that now, and spinning our wheels with reality shows and iPhone apps, and basically circling the drain without a shared purpose. Space will be that purpose, and I feel will allow us to lift up from the state in which we find ourselves and achieve the next, better stage of our enlightened development, together as one people.

References:

  • Teslarati – SpaceX’s futuristic Crew Dragon astronaut walkway is ready for US human spaceflight revival

Mars Workshop Hosted by SpaceX

SpaceX Mars Conference
(Image Credit: Dr. Phil Metzger @DrPhiltill)

Last week, SpaceX hosted a closed-door. invitation only Mars workshop, intended to bring together an interdisciplinary team of industry leading experts to discuss the plan for the red planet. Details on this meeting are, as you would imagine, still pretty minimal, but it is encouraging that this sort of thing is starting to ramp up, and the right questions are being asked of the right people.

A recent criticism that has been lodged against SpaceX is that they are very focused and successful with solving the engineering problems required to improve rocket technology and build the pathway to Mars. However, the amount of time spent considering the human factor, and how difficult it will be to keep astronauts alive both on the journey as well as once they have arrived is far less. Challenges ranging from radiation exposure (in space and on the surface) to adequate supplies to the ‘dust problem’ to basic human interactions all need to be considered and seriously addressed. Since Musk’s companies all show a propensity for thinking of the edge cases and surprising us when we think they are missing an angle, I maintain great confidence that what needs to be considered, is well under way.

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NASA Names Commercial Spaceflight Astronauts

Commercial Crew Astronauts
(Image Source: NASA)

On August 3rd, NASA officially named the astronauts who will fly on the SpaceX and Boeing crew modules destined for the International Space Station. This is a tremendously important step, as it is allowing the US to reclaim their own access to space instead of relying on Russian launch capability as it has since 2011 when the Shuttle was officially mothballed.

On the SpaceX Crew Dragon:

  • (test flight) Col. Bob Behnken of the Air Force
  • (test flight) Doug Hurley, a retired Marine Corps colonel
  • (ISS) Mike Hopkins, Air Force colonel
  • (ISS) Victor Glover, Navy commander

On the Boeing CST-100 Starliner:

  • (test flight) Eric Boe, a former space shuttle pilot who retired from the Air Force
  • (test flight) Christopher Ferguson, a Boeing astronaut who left NASA in 2011
  • (test flight) Lt. Col. Nicole Mann of the Marine Corps
  • (ISS) Williams, a retired Navy captain
  • (ISS) Cmdr. Josh Cassada of the Navy

The test flights will be here before we know it, with uncrewed flights of the new modules scheduled for late 2018, and the first human test flights slated for mid-2019.

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SpaceX Falcon 9 Launch 1:18am Eastern, August 7th 2018

I think that Brian Shields from Orlando’s WFTV 9 said it best: “Who’s staying up tonight!”

I’m really delighted to see how excited the local news is in Florida. I like to think that after nearly a decade of downtime since the Shuttle was mothballed, and far more years than that since there was palpable excitement across the country and the world for the promise of space flight, they are delighted to see this industry returning to their area, and with real conviction!

This flight is important, because it is the first reuse of their new Block 5 model first stage booster. Specifically, this will be the second flight of booster B1046, which was first flown on May 11th 2018 for Bangabandhu-1, Bangladesh’s first communications satellite.

So – stay up, or set an alarm, for the Merah Putih mission! (press kit)

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SpaceX Merah Putih Mission Update – August 7 1:18am Eastern

SpaceX Merah Putih Mission Update - August 7 1:18am Eastern
(Image Credit: The Merah Putih spacecraft. Credit: SSL)

An update to the schedule of the new SpaceX launch – the Merah Putih mission is now scheduled for early morning of August 7th. If all stays on the new schedule, the reused Falcon 9 Block 5 booster will lift off at 1:18am Eastern and complete another important mission for the world leader in space technology!

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