That’s over double the original expected launch cost.
NASA’s Space Launch System is supposed to ferry astronauts to the Moon, but at an estimated $4.1 billion per launch, it may be doomed before it ever gets off the ground.
Category: space travel – Page 191
NASA Releases Details on how Starship Will be Part of its Return to the Moon
The path back to the moon is long and fraught with danger, both in the real, physical sense and also in the contractual, legal sense. NASA, the agency sponsoring the largest government-backed lunar program, Artemis, has already been feeling the pain on the contractual end. Legal battles have delayed the development of a critical component of the Artemis program – the Human Landing System (HLS). But now, the ball has started rolling again, and a NASA manager recently reported the progress and future vision of this vital part of the mission to the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers at a conference.
Kent Chojnacki is the manager of NASA’s Systems Engineering & Integration Office. He recently gave a presentation entitled Human Landing System. While it only ran to six content slides, he provided some more details into how the agency is arranging its work with future contractors developing the part of the Artemis program that will take astronauts down to the lunar surface.
Not only will it take astronauts down to the lunar surface, but the HLS will also serve as their home there – at least at the beginning of the Artemis program. Eventually, the astronauts will build their own homes on the lunar surface. But at least at first, it will have to be capable of carrying all the tools, equipment, and supplies needed to complete any individual Artemis mission.
NASA’s Artemis 1 moon megarocket rolls out to the launch pad today and you can watch it live
The action is scheduled to start at 5 p.m. EDT (2100 GMT).
CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida — The first mission in NASA’s Artemis moon program is set to roll out to the launch pad today (March 17).
More than 50 years after NASA landed the first humans on the moon with Apollo 11, the agency is gearing up to launch its next human lunar missions as part of the Artemis program. And the program’s first mission, Artemis 1, will take a big step toward launch today, when the mission’s rocket and spacecraft will roll out to the launch pad.
Elon Musk confirms a prediction for when humans will go to Mars
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has officially confirmed his prediction for when he thinks humans will finally land on Mars. But it might be too optimistic.
Dr. Douglas Willard — Game Changing Development Program, Space Technology Mission Directorate, NASA
Advancing Space Tech For Future Missions — Dr. Douglas Willard, Ph.D., Game Changing Development Program, Space Technology Mission Directorate, NASA
Dr. Douglas E. Willard, PhD, (https://www.nasa.gov/directorates/spacetech/game_changing_de…g-willard/) is Program Element Manager, Game Changing Development Program, Space Technology Mission Directorate, at the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).
The Game Changing Development (GCD) Program advances space technologies that may lead to entirely new approaches for the Agency’s future space missions and provide solutions to significant national needs. GCD collaborates with research and development teams to progress the most promising ideas through analytical modeling, ground-based testing and spaceflight demonstration of payloads and experiments and their efforts are focused on the mid Technology Readiness Level (TRL) range 0, generally taking technologies from initial lab concepts to a complete engineering development prototype. The Program employs a balanced approach of guided technology development efforts and competitively selected efforts from across academia, industry, NASA, and other government agencies.
GCD strives to develop the best ideas and capabilities irrespective of their source. The Program’s investment in innovative space technologies directly supports NASA’s mission to “Drive advances in science, technology, and exploration to enhance knowledge, education, innovation, economic vitality, and stewardship of Earth”. GCD’s focus on transformative space and science technologies will enable science missions and NASA’s Artemis Program. Additionally, GCD’s technology developments serve as a stimulus to the U.S. economy while providing inspiration and opportunity to our nation’s youth.
Previously, Dr. Willard was the Deputy Division Chief of the Laboratories, Development and Testing Division at the NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. He served in many leadership roles at Kennedy, including Chief Engineer for Research & Technology Development and Branch Chief of the Engineering Analysis Branch within the Engineering Directorate. He also served for many years as a research physicist in Kennedy’s Applied Physics Lab.
SpaceX rapidly stacks Starship and Super Heavy with ‘Mechazilla’
For the second time ever, SpaceX has used Starbase’s ‘Mechazilla’ tower and arms to stack a Starship upper stage on top of a Super Heavy booster.
This time around, though, SpaceX clearly learned a great deal from its second February 9th Starship stack and was able to complete the stacking process several times faster on March 15th. During the second attempt, depending on how one measures it, it took SpaceX around three and a half hours from the start of the lift to Starship fully resting on Super Heavy. With Stack #3, however, SpaceX was able to lift, translate, lower, and attach Starship to Super Heavy in just over an hour.
Oddly, SpaceX managed that feat without a claw-like device meant to grab and stabilize Super Heavy during stacking operations. For Stack #2, all three arms were fully in play. First, a pair of ‘chopsticks’ – giant arms meant to grab, lift, and even recover Starships and boosters – grabbed Ship 20, lifted it close to 100 meters (~300 ft) above the ground, rotated it over top of Super Heavy, and briefly paused. A third arm – known as the ship quick-disconnect or umbilical arm – swung in and extended its ‘claw’ to grab onto hardpoints located near the top of Super Heavy. Once the booster was secured, the ‘chopsticks’ slowly lowered Ship 20 onto Booster 4’s interstage and six clamps joined the two stages together.
Scientist May Have Found The Secret To Letting Humans BREATHE In Space With Genius Science Trick
Bacteria might be the solution to all of our space breathing issues. According to Mashable, scientists may use cyanobacteria to figure out how humans might quickly acquire oxygen in space.
Cyanobacteria convert carbon dioxide into oxygen. Cyanobacteria are found in extremely difficult settings on Earth, thus it is predicted that they would be able to live on Mars.
Some scientists have proposed transporting the bacterium to Mars to test whether it can produce oxygen for future people who could end up there. Experiments have previously demonstrated that cyanobacteria can flourish in a Martian environment.
NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei breaks record for longest US spaceflight
When NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei launched into space 11 months ago, he did not know how long he would be off the planet, let alone that he would be up there long enough to set any records.
But when the clock strikes 12:24 p.m. EDT (1624 GMT) today (March 15), Vande Hei will claim the title of the U.S. astronaut with the single longest spaceflight in history. At a mission elapsed time of 340 days, 8 hours and 42 minutes, Vande Hei will surpass the duration logged by NASA astronaut Scott Kelly on March 2, 2013.
Billionaire Space Tourism Has Become Insufferable
Last summer, at a time when the pandemic had strained many people’s finances, inflation was rising and unemployment was still high, the sight of the richest man in the world joyriding in space hit a nerve. On July 20 Amazon founder Jeff Bezos rode to the edge of space onboard a rocket built by his company Blue Origin. A few weeks earlier ProPublica had revealed that he did not pay any income taxes for two years, and in other years he paid a tax rate of just 0.98 percent. To many watching, it rang hollow when Bezos thanked Amazon’s workers, whose low-paid labor had enriched him enough to start his own rocket company, even though Amazon had quashed workers’ efforts to unionize several months before. The fact that another billionaire, Richard Branson, had also launched himself onboard his own company’s rocket just a week earlier did not help.
COVID changed many people’s willingness to shrug off the excesses of the rich. The pandemic drew an impossible-to-ignore distinction between those who can literally escape our world and the rest of us stuck on the ground confronting the ills of Earth: racism, climate change, global diseases. Even several members of Congress expressed their disapproval of Bezos. “Space travel isn’t a tax-free holiday for the wealthy,” said Representative Earl Blumenauer of Oregon. Bezos and Branson putting the spotlight on themselves as passengers served to downplay the work that hundreds of scientists and engineers at Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic had put into designing, building and testing their spacecraft. It also masked the reality that advances in private spaceflight really could eventually pay off in greater access to space for all and more opportunities for scientific research that could benefit everyone. All their flights did was give the impression that space—historically seen as a brave pursuit for the good of all humankind—has just become another playground for the 0.0000001 percent.
Blue Origin NS-20: Launch date, passenger list, flight details for Pete Davidson trip
In the long term, Bezos hopes to develop the infrastructure that could enable humanity’s biggest goals in spaceflight — similar to how Amazon used innovations like the postal service to power its dreams decades later.
Bezos envisions giant orbiting cities, located close to Earth, that could enable humanity to expand to 1 trillion humans. The cities could feature leisure and recreation, or heavy industry that avoids polluting Earth nearby.
It could all start with flights like NS-20. Here’s what you need to know.