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Archive for the ‘space travel’ category: Page 301

Feb 5, 2020

Rocket Lab readies parachute tests for its rocket recovery and reuse program

Posted by in category: space travel

Rocket Lab is proceeding as planned with its efforts to recover and reuse spent rocket boosters from its Electron launch vehicle, and has completed its first prototype parachute for use in the recovery process. Rocket lab CEO Peter Beck announced last year that it would be aiming for reusability with the first stage of its rocket, using a system that includes the booster re-entering Earth’s atmosphere, then deploying a parachute to slow its descent so that it can be caught mid-air by a helicopter and returned to land.

Already, Rocket Lab has made good progress on its plan, with two tests under its belt of the guided re-entry par tof the process, including a launch in early December 2019, and one just last week. Now, Beck said on Twitter that the company is ready to move on to stage two, which is developing the parachute system that will deploy once the rocket has completed re-entry, to slow its rate of descent. Rocket Lab’s first parachute prototype is ready, Beck says, and the company will start testing it using low-altitude drops, as well as testing the capture process, beginning next week.

Stage 1 reusability: –Get through the “wall”✅. – – Now let’s slow it down. Rocket Lab’s first prototype chute is complete. The Low altitude drop and capture test program begins next week. pic.twitter.com/SBvqxoFABg

Feb 4, 2020

SpaceX requests permission to fly new Starship rocket on 12-mile-high test flight

Posted by in category: space travel

SpaceX is already planning the next big test flight of its future Starship rocket out of southern Texas. As early as mid-March, the company is hoping to fly a test version of the vehicle to a super high altitude and then land it upright on solid ground, proving the rocket can be reused and potentially touch down on other worlds.

The upcoming test is detailed in new paperwork SpaceX filed with the Federal Communications Commission, which provides licensing to aerospace companies that are hoping to fly their vehicles to space. Specifically, the FCC allocates which radio frequencies companies can use to communicate with their vehicles during flight.

Continue reading “SpaceX requests permission to fly new Starship rocket on 12-mile-high test flight” »

Feb 4, 2020

Greener fuels to propel rocket launches into space

Posted by in categories: 3D printing, space travel

3D printed catalysts and new propellant types are making rockets more environmentally-friendly.

Feb 4, 2020

Inside the Lab That’s Turning Moon Water Into Rocket Fuel

Posted by in categories: robotics/AI, space travel, sustainability

The moon’s water could serve as a precious resource for deep space exploration, but how do we actually turn it into rocket fuel?
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To be a space miner, there are a few things you might need: the sun, some lunar soil, a pretty powerful mirror, and the perfect angle.

Continue reading “Inside the Lab That’s Turning Moon Water Into Rocket Fuel” »

Feb 3, 2020

Intergalactic explorers’ handbook

Posted by in category: space travel

Tushna Commissariat reviews The Space Race: the Journey to the Moon and Beyond by Sarah Cruddas.

Feb 2, 2020

How Big Would a Generation Ship Need to be to Keep a Crew of 500 Alive for the Journey to Another Star?

Posted by in category: space travel

There’s no two-ways about it, the Universe is an extremely big place! And thanks to the limitations placed upon us by Special Relativity, traveling to even the closest star systems could take millennia. As we addressed in a previous article, the estimated travel time to the nearest star system (Alpha Centauri) could take anywhere from 19,000 to 81,000 years using conventional methods.

For this reason, many theorists have recommended that humanity should rely on generation ships to spread the seed of humanity among the stars. Naturally, such a project presents many challenges, not the least of which is how large a spacecraft would need to be to sustain a multi-generational crew. In a new study, a team of international scientists addressed this very question and determined that a lot of interior space would be needed!

Feb 2, 2020

GRAIL: NASA’s Mission to Study the Gravity of the Moon

Posted by in category: space travel

During their yearlong mission in 2012, NASA’s twin GRAIL spacecraft made the most detailed gravitational map of the moon ever created.

Feb 2, 2020

The Ice Giant Spacecraft of Our Dreams

Posted by in categories: innovation, space travel

Scientists imagined some innovative technologies that could enhance a future mission to Uranus or Neptune.

Jan 30, 2020

Another shot at bringing a SpaceX rocket plant to San Pedro is in the works

Posted by in category: space travel

Talks center around quickly erecting a SpaceX plant across the channel from what will be San Pedro’s new waterfront development opening in 2021.

Jan 30, 2020

Inside SpinLaunch, the Space Industry’s Best Kept Secret

Posted by in category: space travel

The company is building a massive centrifuge to accelerate rockets and send them screaming into space.